Mal, Regina and Robin have all had their fair share of trials and tribulations but after what seems like a lifetime, they have finally found their family. A combination of Day 1 (PDA) and Day 2 (Family).
A/N Unfortunately I can't commit to the whole week of DOQ but I'm going to dip in and out, because I'm awkward like that.
I am not very good at jumping straight into something so there is a bit of a build up before we get to the actual DOQ but I hope you enjoy the elements of Mal's backstory, DQ, OQ and separately before we get onto the fearsome but loving trio. Oh and lets go with the fact that Mal meets Lily earlier than she does in the show- if A&E can ignore the timeline then so can I. This is also my first time writing Dragon Queen and Dragon Outlaw Queen so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I have also only written smut once before, and whilst what I have written is amature it adds a bit of spice. Unbeta'd and I don't own OUAT, ABC do.
TW for a discussion about Rape.
Anyway yes onto the fic- Backstory PDA and Family
Mal had never had a family. Not one that she'd ever known anyway. She had often wondered who they were, where they were. If they loved her and couldn't provide from her? Or if she was just a mistake, discarded before more shame could be brought on her parents? They were answers that haunted her existence. She had grown up, in what this world she supposed would be called orphanages, they were more like prisons. You were stripped of your identity, you had no family to call your own, and your story was blank. You were a number. Your life stripped down to what? A cell. A task. A number of days. You were fed, the bare minimum, and expected to work, mining the minerals from dawn until dusk. If you did not meet your target you were left down there at night. The only glimmer of light was that the children were all in the same boat, there was a degree of solidarity. You did not snitch, if someone was ill you would share your meagre rations. No matter how hopeless you felt there would always be a spark in your eye. Surviving was the only form of resistance, but it was better than letting them win.
She was in these institutions until she was ten, when her powers first overwhelmed her. She had been working for the past forty-eight hours, Exhaustion and anger eating her up. She didn't know what was happening, just felt a literal fire in her heart, a burning rage consume her.
She had been kicked out then. Young and petrified. Rumple had found her then. The imp was unpredictable and always spoke in riddles, but by now Mal had become used to surviving the weird. He told her she was a dragon and she had laughed. A Dragon? The last laugh was in her, and as difficult as the Dark One was he taught her a lot.
It wasn't until a young princess; wide eyed and full of misplaced hope turned up at her now crumbling castle, that she thought that, maybe this was her chance. Her chance at something more than this cursed life of misery. The belief, had relit the spark, she was a fighter, a badass dragon. She wasn't going to let life consume her anymore.
Of course it never does work out like that, Regina left and the love was replaced with rage. The optimism she saw in the young girl turned to bitterness and a desire to revenge. The Evil Queen didn't scare her though. She knew what hid behind the tight fitted dresses.
Her chance at family came when Lily was born. Lily was not planned, a result of a night where Mal had drank a bit too much and the sexual frustration had been too hard to resist. Still Mal was determined to love her, to be her mother, to give her everything she'd never had. She failed. She always did. Her daughter, capable of unknown darkness, alone in another world. Doomed to ask the same questions she had asked herself for so many years.
/
Twenty-eight years. It had been twenty-eight years. Her baby was no longer an infant, she was a young woman. A young woman who had faced the challenges of the world, hardships, battled internal darkness without the love of a parent.
She feared she would never get Lily back, and it wasn't easy, not in those early days. Both were trying to gage the other. There was too much to discuss, things that needed to be said, but the time passed. They found their place together. Two badass dragon bitches.
/
Regina had always thought family was about a series of expectations. She blamed her mother for that. Her childhood was spent shuffled between tutors of literature and economics, learning the names of royalty. She would have elocution lessons. Present herself in a certain way for one day she would be Queen.
Her father loved her, but it wasn't enough. His love meant that he would dip his head, close his eyes. Blind to the injustice. The passive avoidance making him just as guilty. She didn't blame him, didn't hate him, She loved her papa but she wished for more.
/
Henry had taught her that family was about the struggles to make things work. It was the undeniable love for someone else. It was the push you needed to get up in the morning. It was the smile on her face.
/
Robin had created his own family- The Merry Men were a crazy bunch of outcasts, people that for some reason didn't fit, or refused to fit in. Yet they were some of the kindest people he knew. They would be there without question, to laugh, to cry, to give space and time.
/
Regina and Mal's relationship had been, turbulent. As a young princess she was infatuated with her, the sorceress was irresistible. She was fierce but loving. A loyalty, a desire that was infectious. It hadn't worked. It could never work.
She supposed then they had been enemies. There was no hatred, not really, jealousy tinged with disappointment maybe, but not hatred.
So when Mal had returned, back from the dead (Regina probably shouldn't have locked her up and allowed the saviour to kill her) moments after Robin's departure she didn't know what to feel. She was hurting, and Mal knew. Mal had always known. She was reluctant at first, felt awful for cheating on Robin, even though he was now happily living with Marian. It was a couple of months when they had shared a few drinks. Spilling their sordid life stories over a whiskey or several. They had found that the connection, had not wavered in the thirteen years, two lonely broken souls had comforted one another again. The comforting touch on a shoulder, a friendly hug would, over the course of the night turn into something more heated more passionate. Two friends, lovers reigniting a flame. Both had a good night, one of the best in a long time, the morning hangover would not be so fun. As loathe as they were to admit it they were older than they once were.
/
The debacle that was discovering that Marian was Zelena, and that she was pregnant sent Regina into a searing rage.
Her soulmate had been raped by her own sister as some sick twisted, entirely fucked up way to get back at her.
Meanwhile in Storybrooke she had been lamenting and fucking Mal. Well wasn't she just girlfriend of the year.
It was Robin that found her, in a secluded corner of Central Park, and Regina was hit with a new wave of guilt. Robin was the one that had been raped and here she was feeling sorry for herself.
"Regina"
She refused to look, couldn't look into his eyes, too afraid of what she was going to see"
"Regina, look at me please."
She found she could not deny him.
"Regina, we're both still trying to process what happened, and that's going to take a lot of time, but we can't change anything, and pretending it like it never happened, that's not going to achieve anything. We have to go with what we know. I love you, in these past few months I have tried to live the life I should, a life of honour, as husband and wife, or rather the person I believed to be my wife and it wasn't the same. " he looked up at Regina, finding some kind of comfort in her expression.
"I didn't love her because my heart no longer belonged to her. It belonged to you. I thought she was still alive, and whilst I didn't want to be with her anymore, it would be unfair to both of us. I wanted her to be happy, find her own soulmate in the world. I mourned her all those years ago, had learned to live with the ache in my heart. Now I have to deal with it again. I think that's what angers me the most, the fact that that witch could manipulate me like that. Live a lie, so complex, to deceive and manipulate, it can be nothing but malicious. She took the memory of my wife, the love I will always feel for her, and used it for vengeful sex. I was nothing more than a pawn in her fucking game. Day in Day out she would act so sweet, trying to fit in. Trying to understand everything. It was all a lie. I didn't even realise it was a lie. Who can't tell the difference between an imposter and their own wife. That monster betrayed her, but so did I. I do not know what to trust. If I can even trust myself. If I'm just a fool? It will take me some time to try and figure everything out, I can never forget this feeling of resentment, betrayal. The only other thing I know is that that child is mine, and regardless of the circumstances of its conception, I will fight for that child. If I have to, I will do it alone, but I want to do it, as we shall do everything from now on together." It was an emotive speech, and Regina smiled, placing her head on his shoulders
She looked up at him then, squeezing his hand. "Robin look at me, please"
Robin slowly turned his face towards hers- taking deep breaths, trying to calm down. "There is nothing that I can say that will make this go away, that will turn back the clock. Nothing that will make the pain any easier to deal with. I will tell you this though, It is not your fault. You believed that woman to be your wife, you said yourself she was trying to understand a world she was not familiar with, you believed her to be dead, you harboured feelings for me. It wasn't going to be the same. You aren't a fool. You didn't betray your wife. I know whatever the future holds will be hard, but I want to be there for you. I want to do this together"
He didn't say anything just buried his head in the crook of her neck, seeking a familiar comfort
She memorised his face, knowing that what she was about to say could break him, could leave him hating her. Both. That was unimaginable but she couldn't lie to him.
"Robin there is something else I need to tell you something and please just let me finish before you ask anything okay?"
Robin looked puzzled and anxious- "Regina, what is it, what's wrong, is Henry okay? What's happening in Storybrooke?"
Regina sighed; she was going to lose him, seconds after finding him again. "Henry is fine, wonderful in fact. It's me, I'm alright. It's just after you left I….I didn't handle it very well, you came into my life and for the first time I thought that maybe a villain could get a happy ending that maybe Henry would be able to have a father figure, that perhaps I would have a family, and I knew that it was foolish, that you had Henry, and Marian was your wife, that I wouldn't compete with her. That it was unfair for me to even think that it was a fight, or that you were some sort of prize, so I just didn't cope. I locked myself in my office, wouldn't speak to anyone. I didn't know what to say. Of course it being Storybrooke and the Queens of Darkness turn up (Cruella, Ursula and Maleficent), insistent on getting a happy ending for the villains. I have a history with Mal, old friends turned lovers, turned enemies. She always understood me though, in a way few else could. One night we shared a few drinks and our life stories, things got heated, you were gone I didn't think I would see you again. I just wanted to feel something other than pain.
"We're friends, but it was getting more serious between us, I love you though. Once we get back to Storybrooke I will tell Mal that whatever was blossoming between us is over"
She searched his eyes for something, anything to tell her how she would feel.
"Thank you for telling me Regina, but why don't we just wait until we get to Storybrooke, today has been an intense day and I think we both need a rest. Know this; what you just told me doesn't change how I feel about you."
/
The entire return trip Regina was nervous, petrified, she had no idea what was going to happen, how Mal or Robin would react to each other.
/
Robin hadn't been shocked that Regina had found comfort in someone else, slightly jealous yes of course, but not shocked or hurt. Her heart was something she kept so well guarded, so if someone managed to view it, claim it, they were honoured.
He would admit to being curious as to what this Mal would look like.
/
Mal was waiting for Regina at Granny's, she was anxious- Regina had rang her saying she needed to talk, Mal already knew that they had found Robin, the man that had claimed Regina's heart. She knew that whatever they had was about to end. She expected to be sad, to hate this Robin, but she could never hate someone that made Regina's eyes dance.
/
Regina entered Granny's and her and Mal awkwardly hugged each other, breaking the embrace when they heard the bell, signalling Robin's arrival.
/
Robin assumed the blonde was Mal, and he had to bite the laugh that threatened to escape his mouth, she was so like Regina, the pantsuits that perfectly accentuated her curves, a smile that was rare but bright, and eyes that had seen unimaginable pain, but shone with fierce determination. The hug was awkward, and he really hoped it wasn't on his account.
/
"Mal… " Regina began.
"I know little one. This can't happen anymore. Don't apologise. We have both come too far to apologise when life grants us a chance at happiness"
/
It took a week before Robin suggested it. Regina was happy yes, but he could tell she was still thinking of Mal and truth being told he had thought of her too.
"Regina, my love, you still love Mal, don't you?"
Regina wanted to scream. How could he ask that? What was she supposed to answer? "I don't know what you want me to tell you"
"Truth always the Truth"
"Yes," it was barely more than a whisper.
"This is going to sound strange but what if we could come to an arrangement where we would all be in a relationship?"
"We're not Mormons" Regina couldn't help but shout.
Robin laughed; Regina always had the best timing.
"What would that mean though? How would it work?"
"I don't know, or even if it will work, but would you be willing to try?" he replied.
/
Regina spoke to Mal and despite the initial shock she agreed.
/
The three found on that they got along splendidly- all of them had a dry humour which helped to dissipate any initial awkwardness. They would go on walks under the moonlight; they didn't want anyone to see them…not yet.
Mal would come around for tea, it was on one of these occasions, when the friendly flirtatious banter progressed into something more. Robin was cooking; something which Mal in particular found attractive about him, and Mal and Regina had been regaling stories of their younger years. The exploration of bodies, kisses being trailed down each other's spines, bringing each other to their peaks, before the sweet release. Robin was turned on, and they knew it. Smirking Mal turned to Regina and asked "Are you still a bad girl Regina?"
With a smug laugh she replied "The worst" before both of them went to tease Robin mercilessly, turning the oven off- dinner could wait. Mal kissed Robin deeply, and Robin couldn't help but respond, the kiss intensifying causing Mal to moan into it. Regina meanwhile had moved to his tightening cock, taking it in her hands. Robin wouldn't last much longer.
/
It was three weeks after that um frolicking and the trio were finding it increasingly hard to keep it from people, Henry already knew. Deciding to inform Regina casually one morning that there was someone's shirt in the laundry that wasn't hers or Robins, but Mal's. Similarly Lily knew, had asked her mom why she wouldn't come home sometimes.
That night none of them could be bothered to cook so they made their way to Granny's hand in hand.
Leroy sent them a questioning glance; well it was no longer a secret now. Maybe Regina should text Snow, it would be around the town in half the time if they both knew. Mal had only heard stories about the dwarf but if he wanted a show, she pulled Regina closer towards her and kissed her. Robin would never tire of seeing them kiss, but there was no way he was being left out. Regina it seems knew him too well, and turned to kiss him; he didn't have the self-constraint of the ladies, and begged for more. Regina refused but whispered- later.
It was only then they realised people was staring. This was Storybrooke surely the people had witnessed stranger things than three people in love.
/
Two years later and things had finally settled down, Regina, Mal and Robin were three lost souls, three outcasts who hadn't asked for much, they knew they would get by, but fate had brought them together.
The Mansion had never been so full- Henry, now seventeen was in his senior year, he was currently looking at colleges. Regina was cursing the fact that she hadn't included one in her town plan. Lily worked in Boston, she was a lawyer in Kathryn's firm, but made regular trips back home to see the family. Roland was seven and still had the cutest dimples in existence- Mal had practically melted when she first met him, Regina and Robin was indignant because they weren't the cool ones. Dragons are the best, everyone knows that Roland had exclaimed. Eleanor or Elle had lived with them since birth- Zelena would take her alternate weekends, the situation was still something that Regina had not fully comes to terms with but the three of them knew how important it was to know where you came from.
They were led down under the apple tree, the silence comforting, all three of them smiling. Finally understanding what Family meant. Family was not something that you could define; it wasn't two parents, two kids and a picket fence. Family was the feeling of just being free to be you. The network of people without whom you could not imagine your life without. The people who were there without you needing to ask.
For so long Mal had wondered how does a moment last forever? How can happiness endure? The answer was family.
Well that marks the end of the longest piece of fanfiction I have ever written! I hope you enjoyed it. Remember this is my first DQ/DOQ so any and all comments would be greatly appreciated.
Also if any of you lovely souls would be interested in another project I am currently writing- it will mainly be OQ but will have aspects of DQ please let me know- I can offer you nothing but my eternal gratitude (sorry sbuk and life has bankrupted me)