This is my entry for Swan Queen Week Summer 2014 Day 7 Accidental Marriage. I hope you guys read and enjoy and review if so inclined.
Regina walked back up the sidewalk, flicking through the mail she had received. She carefully separated the bills from the junk mail. How junk mail had become a thing in a town that was completely isolated from everything else, she would never know. Surely she didn't intend for such annoyances to exist. She stopped and scowled at a letter, it had the town's official seal in the return address corner. Regina didn't remember sending anything to herself.
She opened the door and headed for her study, dropping the junk in the trash on her way. Regina sat down in her desk chair and reached for her letter opener. She quickly slit open the envelope and pulled out the contents. Her eyes widened to ten times their normal size as she read what was in her hands.
She threw down the papers like they were on fire. How could this be? She had absolutely no memories of authorizing such a thing. It had to be Emma's fault. Her name was on the piece of paper too. Maybe it was just some sort of stupid joke that the woman was playing on her. Their relationship had improved enough that maybe Emma thought they were at the point of harmless pranks.
Regina scrabbled around for her phone and quickly dialed Emma's number. The next second she held her phone up to her ear. It rang and rang but still Emma didn't pick up. Regina's leg started to bounce. She needed to figure this out.
"Hello?" Emma's voice was irritated, startling Regina out of the slight panic she'd descended into.
"Emma."
"Yeah, Regina, duh. What the hell did you need me so badly for before noon on a Saturday?"
"You have a worse sleeping schedule than a teenager."
Emma made a disgusted noise. "I'm going back to sleep now."
"No Emma, wait!"
"What?"
"Can you explain to me why in the world I'm holding our marriage certificate signed by the Blue Fairy herself?"
"Wait, what? Are you serious right now?"
"Why would I joke about something like this? You're the one prone to immature jokes, not me."
She could practically hear the eye roll in Emma's voice. "Yeah, whatever Regina."
"So you know nothing about this? It isn't some joke of yours?"
"No, pretty sure I could find a better joke than fake marrying you to me."
"Well who else would play such a joke on us?"
"I could think of a few people, mainly Ruby, but if that's legit Mother Superior's signature on that thing I'm not so sure. She's more of a stickler for the rules than you are."
"So what you're saying is that we're really married." Regina felt like laughing and crying at the same time. This was utterly ridiculous.
"I don't know. Let me put some pants on and I'll come over there and look at it. I've seen more than a few marriage certificates in my time, I know how to spot a fake."
"Fine, but do I even want to know why you know what a fake marriage certificate looks like?"
"Nah, probably not."
"Be here as soon as possible then."
"Got it." Emma hung up and Regina was left staring at the offending little piece of paper while she waited.
Emma barged into her study fifteen minutes later. She walked over and snatched the piece of paper out from under Regina's nose and held it up to the light. She brought it down again after scowling at it for a few minutes. The blonde clicked on Regina's desk lamp and held it under the bright light, squinting at it some more. She picked at the seal for a few seconds.
Another few seconds and she stood up. "It's legit."
"Are you positive?"
Emma nodded. "Everything that needs to be there is, usually one thing is missed or botched. But this one has to be real. Plus I've seen Mother Superior's signature and I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it looks like. Not that that isn't easy to fake, but that combined with the legitness of the certificate itself, well, I'm pretty sure we're now married."
Regina just stared at Emma for a very long moment. "How exactly did we get married? I don't exactly remember walking into the court house with you, or even worse standing before that twit of a fairy and saying our vows. I don't remember ever being proposed to, or having gone on a date, nor do I remember a political alliance being struck. So how exactly do we have this?" She gestured at the paper, lip curled.
"You got me. I'm as clueless as you are on this. It's not exactly like we've gone out and gotten drunk together any time, like, ever. So that option is off the table. And the most we've done is have family dinner with Henry. So, dunno."
"Well then, if you know nothing, and I know nothing, and you're sure that that is the Blue idiot's signature, then why don't we go see someone who might know something?"
"Can't hurt." Emma shrugged. "Lead the way, your majesty."
Regina stood and swept past Emma, grabbing her car keys on the way out.
The convent hadn't changed much since the curse had broken other than the fact that it always seemed to glitter in the sun now from the latent fairy dust residue. Regina climbed from her Benz, Emma doing the same.
"You think Mother Superior is in her office?"
"There'll be no need to look for her, dear. She'll find us." Regina set off for the front door of the convent.
"What do you even mean?" Emma asked, catching up with Regina.
Regina didn't reply, thinking that showing, rather than telling would be better in this instance. She threw open the door and Blue was already standing there, smiling daggers at Regina.
"Regina, what brings you here today?" she asked in a fakely sweet voice.
She held up the marriage certificate. "I'd like to know just what in the world this is?"
"Well, Regina, I'm quite surprised you don't know what that is."
Regina's eyes narrowed but before she lit into the woman Emma stepped in front of her, shielding the other woman from her wrath.
"Look, Mother Superior, we're pretty clued in on what a marriage certificate is, but what we don't understand is why we have one. Regina and I didn't exactly agree to get married. We were hoping since you signed it you might know something more."
She nodded. "Of course, Emma. Why don't we step into my office? It will be easier to explain there."
She turned and expected them to follow. If Regina wasn't so damn curious about what the hell was happening she might have had half a mind to just leave and not allow the glorified bug to have the satisfaction of having a Queen follow behind her. Instead she huffed audibly and followed. As soon as this was over with she was going to find some loop hole in the town charter so she could tax the insipid idiots to hell and back.
Blue led them to her office, gesturing to the chairs in front of her desk before shuffling around on her bookshelf for a minute. She pulled out a rather dusty tome and let it thump to the hardwood surface. Mother Superior turned to the back and flicked through a few pages before settling down in her own chair. She pushed the book towards them.
Emma and Regina leaned forward and peered at the page. It didn't seem to be quite as yellowed as some of the previous ones. Regina scowled and looked for what the other woman could possibly want them to see. She froze when she found her name near the top of the page. A thin blue line was extending from her name and continued down the page until the line disappeared into Emma's name at the very bottom of the page.
"The fairies keep a record of all children born with magic in the kingdom in case fairy assistance and teaching is required. Call it a preventative measure, if you will. Most children either find their own tutors in time, or their magic is weak enough that it doesn't matter. However, there is an odd child every now and again whose magic is too strong and there is no one available to teach them to control it. Fairies of course then step in and graciously help the child and teach them the right ways of magic."
"You mean brain wash them to believe that all magic ever is, is butterflies and rainbows, and even then shouldn't be used." Regina glared at her.
"Our teaching practices are none of your concern, though I think your life might have much better for them."
Regina felt magic tingling in her fingertips. If she had been taught by the winged idiots she would have continued being Leopold's Queen until she died, suffering under his attentions for years. Then she would have been pushed aside in favor of Snow White. And there wouldn't have been a damn thing she could have done about it except make a few flowers bloom. She tried to control her powers at the fury that such images brought, but she was having a very hard time. This was the insipid little bitch that she had wished upon a blue star for years and years as a child for help, but did she ever come? Of course not, God help the child in a family that had been shunned by the fairies. They obviously should have to suffer for their relatives sins.
A hand landed on top of hers and her magic calmed instantly. She looked up to see Emma looking at her, concerned. Regina took a deep breath and nodded, drawing her hand back.
"Why are you showing us this?" Emma asked when she was sure Regina was going to be ok.
"Because this book not only keeps track of magical users, but their true loves as well. True love, as you know, Emma, will produce a magical child. A magical child from someone who was already born a magic user will be extremely powerful."
"And that's what the blue line represents?" Regina asked.
Blue nodded. "You two have been a very strange case. This line hasn't always been there. In fact, it's only started appearing since the wraith incident over two years ago and it's gotten darker with time. We're not quite sure what it means, but when you returned Emma's magic, Regina, the line completely solidified."
"And that's what prompted you to send out a marriage certificate?" Emma asked, face scrunched.
"Of course. The two of you are true loves. It's only a matter of time before it happens anyway. It's a tradition back in the Enchanted Forest for the start of a marriage between two true loves to begin when they first meet, not on their actual wedding day. That's when their connection completely manifests. That's what makes this such an odd coincidence, it took over two years for you two to connect."
Emma looked at Regina. "She's kidding right, you guys don't really consider people married before their married, right?"
Regina shook her head. "No she's right. When it's discovered that a couple is a true love couple their marriage is literally considered to start on the day they met. Of course, usually by the time they're discovered as a true love couple they're already madly in love, but apparently that's not always the case." Regina's stomach was churning. Fairy magic might be useless for most things, but about true love it was never wrong.
"That's fucked up." Emma looked up at the Blue fairy. "Sorry."
Regina looked down at the book. "Blue, were their other people listed as our true loves before the line started forming between us?" Thoughts of pixie dust and lion tattoos crossed her mind.
Blue nodded. "Yes, there were. The man that Green is so adamantly trying to pair you with was your true love before this happened."
"Wait, what, like how is any of this possible? I thought that you had one true love and that was like it. How the hell did this change?" Emma flinched again. "Sorry."
"We're not sure. A group of us has been researching for a while now, but there's been no real results."
"Alright. So. In the eyes of the Enchanted Forest, we're married. But this isn't the Enchanted Forest. So, again, why the marriage certificate?" Emma ran her hand through her hair, frustrated. "I'm not exactly fond of the whole idea of us being shepherded into this without any choice on our parts."
Regina nodded along. She had never wanted to get married again, not after Leopold. There were too many bad memories there.
"Because while this might not be the Enchanted Forest geographically, we are from there and still follow those laws."
Emma groaned. "God, ok, someone really needs to talk to you guys about that preconception. I'm really damn tired of neighbors feuding over goats and offering their daughters as payment. This is the United States whether you guys like it or not and we sort of have to follow the law here, and that law states that two people actually have to consent to get married."
Blue shrugged. "Whether you want it or not, you both are true loves, your magic is entwined, you are two parts of one whole, you will end up together no matter how you fight it."
"That's bullshit." Emma stood up. "Come on, Regina. I really don't think that we're going to find out any more information here. Thanks for your time, Mother Superior, but I have to go organize a divorce." Emma grabbed Regina's hand interlacing their fingers subconsciously.
"That won't work either," the Blue fairy called after them, but Emma was already long out of ear shot.
"What the hell do you mean we can't file for divorce if we're a true love couple? And what the hell on this certificate even tells you that we are, anyway?" Emma looked like she was about three seconds from banging her head off the counter.
Regina stepped forward, more equipped for such legal negotiations. "Miranda, if this is an Enchanted Forest law you're upholding, we're not in the Enchanted Forest anymore. Divorce in this country is legal for anyone who seeks it, even true love couples."
The blonde haired woman behind the counter just shrugged. "I know, Mayor Mills, but I'm just doing what I was told. When Snow was Mayor she reinstated a lot of the old laws, including all the ones dealing with true love."
Regina groaned, of course she did. And of course Snow didn't tell her when she had come crawling to her on her knees begging for her to take over running the town again because she was so over her head. Running a kingdom in the Enchanted Forest had required much less paperwork and Snow had no idea how to do any of it. It had been one of the most satisfying days in Regina's life.
"Alright, well, laws can be repealed. All I have to do is write a proposal and the council has to vote it in and everything will be back to normal," Regina thought out loud.
Emma really did start to bang her head off the wall now. "Except the council is—"
"Almost all people who are fond of the old ways," Regina finished for her. "I have no idea why, those idiots were peasants. Their life couldn't have been that great in abject poverty." Regina took a deep breath and faced Miranda again. "So, there's nothing we can do?"
She shook her head. "Not right now again, you're literally bound by the law to stay together."
"Well then, thank you, Miranda, for your help."
Regina turned and walked to the stairs that led up to the second floor of Town Hall. She needed a glass of cider to help digest this. Emma followed behind her silently. Regina let them in and went straight over to the drink cart and fixed them both a drink. Emma took hers gratefully and sank down onto one of the sofas in the room.
"I hate this," Emma said, petulantly.
Regina sank down beside her. "I know, dear, I'm not exactly fond of this situation myself, either."
"How the hell do they think that it's ok to just force two people to be together, true love or not. It's fucked up, especially for us. It's not exactly like we've gotten to choose a lot of stuff in life. Everything has just been Gold fucking with us and our lives. I thought that he got what he wanted that would finally be over, but of fucking course not."
"I know, dear." Regina sipped her cider, relishing the burn.
"Not that it is a repulsive idea, falling in love with you, but I just wish I'd got to do it, instead of being told to do it. I'm so sick of being told what I have to do."
"We don't have to do anything, Emma."
"But didn't you hear Mother Superior? Basically we're going to fall in love anyway."
Regina looked over at Emma. "Please, like you've ever done anything that you haven't wanted to do. Otherwise you would have gone out of town after that car accident in that hideous vehicle of your. I told you it was what you had to do, you didn't listen."
"I almost did, then Henry ate that damn turnover, and well, here we are." Emma downed her cider like a shot. She slammed the glass down on one of the end tables and curled into herself. "I'm just tired of feeling like someone's puppet. I don't want to be a savior. I never have, and yet, well, you know."
"I never wanted to be an Evil Queen, and look how that ended up. That doesn't mean we don't have choices within our larger destiny."
"What are you even saying?" Emma set her chin on her knee.
"Are you in love with me now?"
"No, I really don't understand how that even happened."
"I have a theory it sprung out of combining our magic so many times, but that's beside the point at the moment. If you're not in love with me, you don't have to be with me. A little piece of paper means nothing. None of what anyone else says means anything. In this, it is literally our choice. Love isn't between everyone, it's only between two people. If we fall in love, we're doing it on our own terms. And if we don't, well, True Love might not be as powerful as it claims to be."
Emma bit her lip. "Ok."
"Good." Regina reached over and grabbed Emma's cider glass and walked back over to her decanter. "Now call your parents and tell them that they can take Henry for the evening. I don't know about you, but I feel like I need to have more than a few drinks to help digest the information we've just been handed."
"Hell. Yes." Emma picked up the phone and dialed her parents, accepting a full glass from Regina and relaxing for the first time all day. She thanked God that Regina actually got her most of the time. And maybe it could work just because she did, who knew.
When Emma realized two years later that she really truly was head over heels in love with the other woman and that she hadn't been back to her new apartment in nearly a week, well, she couldn't say she was surprised. She just pulled Regina in for another kiss while Henry audibly gagged from the other end of the sofa, smiling for all she was worth. Destiny was a bitch to them, but maybe being accidentally in love wasn't so bad after all.