Emma was walking through the village when a carriage pulled up on the road and out stepped the queen, and behind her, princess Regina. Emma stopped to kneel before their royal highness's when she made eye contact with the princess. She felt something instantly, like a feeling that there was something between them but she didn't know what. "Heh em. Hear he, hear he, the queen has an important announcement to make." The royal ambassador yelled so all the square could hear "Yes, my lovely daughter, princess Regina, will be getting married in 2 months time, joining our kingdom with prince Leopold's." Princess Regina walked over to Emma. "You may stand," said the princess.
Emma stood. "I have heard that you have a talent. That you make the most beautiful gowns in all our kingdom." She continued. Emma stayed silent, not knowing how to respond to such a compliment from the princess herself. Just then a girl in a red hood came up behind Emma answering the princess's question, "yes your highness that's most certainly true." It was Emma's best friend, Ruby. "That's wonderful, I would love it if you were to make my wedding dress, would you?" The princess asked. "She would be honoured to." Ruby answered for her once again seeing that her friend was still speechless. "Thank you" said the princess.
Ruby nudged her friend silently telling her to answer for herself now. "It will be my pleasure to do such a favoure for you my princess." Emma and Ruby bowed once more as the princess got into her carriage once again along with the queen and they rode away.
Emma and Ruby watched as the carriage continued down the road until it was out of sight, then they ran to the shop where Emma worked. Mary-Margaret was hemming a pair of mens trousers when the two squealing girls came in. "What's gotten you two so excited?" She asked the girls curiously. "Oh nothing, just the princess herself, requesting my talent to make her wedding dress!" Emma said trying to calm herself in front of her mother but failing at the end of her statement. "That's amazing sweety, I'm so happy something this big is happening for you." She said pausing her hemming to offer them something to drink.
"Ruby are you going to stay the night to help Emma make sketches as usual?" Mary-Margaret asked picking up the trousers again. "If Emma wants my help on this one.." Ruby replied looking towards her friend who was grabbing pencils and sketch pads. "Of course Ruby, this dress needs to be perfect for the princess." Emma said bolting up the stairs to her room leaving the door open awaiting ruby to follow.
Emma and Ruby spent the whole week in Emma's room planning the dress. Only leaving to go down to the pantry for food and water. Drawing out a thousand sketches and deciding which ones would show off the princess's beautiful features best. Finding the perfect material, which should be the most comfortable for her royal highness, and which shade of white would suit her most.
They finally decided that they needed the princess herself to know her opinion, after all she was the bride who would be wearing it. As Emma went outside for the first time in a week she ran into someone on her way out. Before she knew what was happening she was on the ground beside someone, masked by a hood. The other person wasn't moving, as Emma turned the person over she saw it was the princess.
Emma gasped and brought the unconscious princess inside. She layed her down on the not so comfy couch they had in their living room and got a cold cloth to put over the princess's forehead.
She began to awaken when she felt the cold of the ice cloth on her forehead. As she opened her eyes she saw Emma and her breath hitched in her stomach. It was the same feeling as Emma had had earlier, and more butterflies in her stomach fluttered as Emma touched her, but Regina thought in was just the results of the fall.
"I'm sorry I ran into you your majesty, I'm terribly sorry I-" Emma started but was cut off by Regina, "there's no need for an apology dear, it was equally my fault." Once again Emma was speechless by the princess's words, and her friend was no longer there to speak for her now because she went home to sleep. Regina sat up looking for more words to say, seeing as how the blonde wasn't very good at making conversation with her.
"I was on my way over here to see if there had been any progress on my wedding dress." Regina stated. "Right, actually I was on my way out the door to the palace to show you the possible designs when I ran into you," Emma trailed off. "May i see the sketches?" "Of course." Emma stood and gestured for the princess to get up and follow her. She lead them up to Emma's room which was filled with paper all over the desk and floor. "Wow it looks like you were really busy.. are these all wedding dresses?" Regina asked making sure not to step on any of the sketches. "Yea, wedding dresses are my favourite to design.. the hardest to make, but they're always fun anyway."
Emma began picking up the papers and stacking them neatly on the desk so they could walk through her room to sit on the bed. The princess began picking them up also, slowly analyzing each one as they made their way over to the bed. Regina had a stack that she was looking through, sorting out which ones she liked and didn't like into two separate piles on the bed and Emma continued cleaning, embarrassed from the state of her room the princess was seeing.
Once Emma was done cleaning up a bit she sat down on the bed beside Regina. "These are the ones i like, these ones not so much." Regina clarified the piles pointing to each one. Emma saw how there were very few in the dislike pile and giggled seeing the other pile being much larger. "I think you might want to slim down your options a bit more, after all you will only be wearing one on the night of your wedding." Emma elbowed the princess playfully and Regina giggled. Emma smiled hearing the princess, happy that she was able to make her laugh so easily. "All of them are so beautiful; I don't know how I'm ever going to choose." Regina said, her tone starting to sadden. Emma noticed the quick change in Regina's mood and tried to make her happy again. "I'm sure you'll pick the perfect one." Emma said offering a gentle smile, but Regina's expression didn't change as she kept sorting through the dresses.
There was a long silence as they sat there, Emma just trying to think of what to say and Regina still going through the endless amount of sketches. "Have you thought about which material will be used?" Regina asked suddenly breaking the silence. Emma took a moment to respond, "um.. yea but it depends for each dress, which material would be more comfortable." "It's nice that your thinking of my comfort.. my mother wouldn't care, only that it looked pretty.." Regina trailed off deepening the sadness in her eyes, Emma really didn't like seeing that look in the princess's eyes. "Your mother doesn't matter though, it will be your day, and hell if you want to go in a riding uniform you should do what you want. It is supposed to be a happy day for you and your beloved, not your mother." Emma retorted.
This made Regina smile for a moment before the sadness hit her eyes again. "It won't be a happy day anyhow.. Leopold, he.." Regina trailed off unsure of how to word her feelings. "You don't love him do you?" Emma asked reading the princess's thoughts. "No i don't. It's an arranged marriage, because our kingdom is falling.." Regina started to trail off. "I know how you feel, arranged marriages are never any good." Emma stated. "What would you know about arranged marriage?" Regina snapped. Emma was confused at the sudden change of Regina's tone. "I bet you've never felt what love feels like, and it doesn't look like your in an arranged marriage now so you would know anything about how I feel." Regina sounded furious but she was only using anger to mask the sadness she knew the blonde could see earlier.
"Your right I know nothing of the sort, but it doesn't mean I can't empathize and feel bad for you in your situation.. I'm sorry.." Emma didn't really know why she was apologizing, but she felt bad and thought it might make Regina open up. "No don't be, I should apologize to you. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that.. its just a difficult subject to talk about and I often hide my true emotions with anger, so I'm sorry, Emma." Regina said setting down the last sketch in the like pile, looking at Emma with teary eyes.
Emma embraced Regina in a sudden hug, the princess was confused and stiff at first but relaxed into the blond's embrace after a few moments, feeling oddly safe in the her arms. Emma felt the same feeling touching Regina as she felt when they had first made eye contact. The princess got, more butterflies as Emma rubbed slow comforting circles on her back. Just then the door swung open, and the two jumped apart as if they were caught in a guilty act. Regina looked away as the girl in the red hood from the other week bowed, "princess, your so kind for coming by. Have you looked through your dress options yet?"
"Yes she has Ruby, she had just finished sorting through them." Emma said handing ruby the 'dislike' pile of sketches. Ruby looked at the other pile on the bed noticing it was much larger. "Are these the ones she likes?" Ruby asked. "Oh no dear, those are the ones I don't like." Regina stated. "Wow... there is still a lot to choose from.." Ruby said looking over to the like pile once again.
"You can just throw those ones in the drawer Ruby." Emma said gesturing to a desk on the other side of the room. As Ruby turned her back to them Regina grabbed Emma's hand giving it a light squeeze, once again feeling sparks shoot through her. "I should probably be getting back to the palace before my mother notices my absence." Regina said as she let go of Emma's hand and stood up.
Ruby closed the drawer and turned back to face them. "Does your mother not know your here?" Ruby asked. "No she doesn't like me spending much time in the village." Regina replied. Seeing the sadness growing in the princess's eyes again, Emma stood up and stepped towards the princess. "Ruby you should look through the dresses that the princess likes, while I walk her back to the palace bridge." Emma said never breaking eye contact with the princess watching as the sadness faded out of the princess's chocolaty brown eyes.