A/N: I am working on A Succubus in Storybrooke & Saving the Savior. I just had to get my Christmas fluff fic in before the deadline, so this fic got top priority for a little while. Yes, I said fluff. This story also contains mild angst, but it is a fluff fic overall (you'll see when you get to the ending).
"Mommy, can I go outside?" A six-year-old Regina asked impatiently while her mother, Cora, pinned up the young girl's hair and smoothed her blue satin, miniature ball gown.
"No, dear. You'll ruin your pretty dress," Cora gave her daughter an insincere smile. She knew that her little girl thought she would rather be outside playing than dancing at a holiday ball, but that when she was older and had her pick of kingdoms to rule, Regina would be thankful for her mother's strictness.
"But Mommy…" Regina hated wearing dresses for precisely this reason. She was never free to roam the grounds or play with the horses because she daren't ruin her 'pretty dress.'
Her patience for her daughter's insubordination was quickly waning. Cora interrupted, "No, buts. Your father spoils you too much."
The young girl was clearly trying to fight back tears at the mention of her father's kindness. She could do this; she could stand up to her mother. She knew it was important, but she didn't know why. She stood up at her full height and stated resolutely, "I don't want to go to the ball."
"Life isn't about what you want, dear. You're going to go to the ball wearing this pretty dress and pray that a prince with a large and powerful kingdom notices you. Your father and I won't be around forever," Cora gritted her teeth together, having finished perfecting her daughter's appearance. She'd invited nobility from all of the neighboring kingdoms for the occasion. She wasn't going to let her daughter's insolence spoil her plans for her.
Not wanting to think about her father not being there for her, Regina ranted, "I don't need a prince. When I grow up, I'm going to have my own castle, and Daddy is going to live with me because he loves me."
"I've about had it with your smart mouth, young lady," Cora held her daughter high in the air. She'd found it to be the most effective form of discipline as her daughter had an irrational fear of heights. "You WILL go to the ball, and you WILL dance with any prince who asks you. Love is completely irrelevant."
Regina whimpered, desperately trying to not look down, "I'm sorry, Mommy. I'll be good." She schooled her features so that her mother could not see the anger and hatred boiling inside her. All of those lessons in court etiquette had some usefulness after all.
Satisfied her daughter had learned her lesson, Cora let her daughter fall to the floor—not quite hard enough that she might break an ankle and not be able to go to the ball, but with enough force that her displeasure was readily apparent. Cora turned to the door before making a grand exit, "See that you are. You have ten minutes to compose yourself, and then I expect you to be downstairs with a smile on your face."
As her mother left the room, Regina wished for the thousandth time that a fairy godmother would whisk her away from her life. She knew it wasn't going to happen, but she wished for it anyway. Even at the tender age of six, she realized that fairies didn't care about girls like her, who talked back to their mothers and didn't want to marry princes. She was all alone, and if no one would help her, she would help herself—when she was old enough. She picked up the hem of her dress and trudged down the stairs. Someday, she would be free.
When the holly fell one more time, Regina let out a barrage of curses before remembering that Henry was right in the next room. She'd decided that she would be putting up the Christmas decorations herself this year as a bonding experience for herself and Henry, but now she was thinking she should have just let Sydney take care of it as usual and saved herself the trouble. Regina called out, "Henry, do you have the popcorn ready yet?"
Henry emerged from the kitchen with several popped bags of microwave popcorn and some string. His job was to decorate the tree while his mom decorated the rest of the room for the upcoming Christmas party. What his mom didn't know was that while the popcorn was popping, he'd hung a bit of mistletoe above the door to the kitchen—climbing on the counter wasn't exactly allowed, but he felt it was worth the possibility of getting caught. Even though the town had their memories back and Emma and Snow had made it back through the portal from the Enchanted Forest, Snow and Charming still weren't back together, Red hadn't found her true love, and Abigail had yet to find Frederick. Henry had thought everything would go back to the way it was supposed to be when the curse broke, but he was finding that it wasn't as simple as he had first thought. He looked up at his mother, who was standing on a step ladder trying to pretend she enjoyed the holiday when he knew full well she hated it—he hadn't been born yesterday so to speak. He finally answered her, "Yes, mom. Hey, can Emma watch me while you guys have the party?"
"Actually, I already asked Ruby if she could watch you. Emma's going to be at the party, Henry. She's the Sheriff," Regina answered. If all went well, this party would be the first step to getting her old job back as Mayor, and much as it pained her, she had to show everyone she could get along with the daughter of her nemesis for the sake of Storybrooke and for Henry if she wanted to have a shot at being elected again.
"You called her Emma!" Henry smiled. Surely this was a sign Regina was starting to trust his birth mother? He was beginning to think they would be on a last name basis for all eternity.
Regina looked over at her son. His smile was infectious. She grinned at him, "Why, yes, I believe I did."
"What about Mary Margaret? Will she be at the party or can she watch me?" Henry asked. It wasn't that he didn't like Ruby so much as he was constantly trying to test how much his mother had changed from the Evil Queen she used to be. He was just thankful he didn't have to go to the party himself; it sounded like it was going to be really stuffy and boring from how his mother had described it.
Regina rolled her eyes, "Yes, Mary Margaret will be there singing with her blue birds. I admit I wasn't too fond of the idea, but Emma insisted. I believe you get your stubbornness from her."
"I'm glad. Family should be together at the holidays," Henry said with his eyes twinkling. His family was definitely the most interesting out of anyone his age that he knew what with his one mom being the former Evil Queen, his other mom being the Savior, and his grandparents being Snow White and Prince Charming.
Regina started, "Yes, well…"
"Mom, what was Christmas like when you were little? You never talk about your parents," Henry observed. All he knew about Cora was that Regina seemed scared of her in much the same way he had been scared of Regina for such a long time. He had put up a front for Emma's sake, but underneath it all, he was scared that the only mother he had known had done some unspeakable things like cursing people and stealing hearts.
Regina was a bit taken aback, "Well, there were holiday balls with dancing, and my mother loved to show me off. I didn't like them though because I wanted to be out adventuring and riding the horses, so she and I butted heads a lot, and you don't really want to hear about all of this, do you?"
Henry nodded silently. He wanted to hear every clue as to how his mother became the Evil Queen.
"I used to wish that a fairy godmother would take me away to a place where my mother couldn't destroy everything I love," Regina said softly. "But that's the thing about wishes—they only come true if you make them happen."
Emma lay in her bunk bed, staring at the wall. Her five foster siblings were already fast asleep. It was Christmas Eve, but no one who entered her current foster home would have any idea that tonight was different than any other night. Her foster parents had said that they couldn't afford a tree with all the mouths they had to feed. Emma knew better. She had learned a lot about people in her six years, and she knew that her foster parents were squandering county money on her foster father's drinking habit.
Emma closed her eyes, thinking of her last Christmas. The family she had lived with back then had used the county money for a small tree and even a few presents. She had woken up Christmas morning to find a pair of brand new jeans without any holes, a pink T-shirt with the word 'Princess' written on the front, and a simple gold-plated necklace. The gifts weren't much compared to what her classmates received, but they were hers, and that meant a lot. She'd cried when her social worker came to take her from that home because she had loved that particular family so much. Now, she was older and more experienced and didn't cry when she went from home to home to home. She had learned not to get attached to anyone because that had saved her from constantly hurting inside.
It was even easier not to get attached when the homes she lived in were awful. Emma knew she wouldn't miss this family at all when her social worker finally came for her. Beer bottles lined the living room and overflowed the recycling bin. Her foster father was a mean drunk, and while his wife got the brunt of his anger, the kids were also targets. Not a day went by that she didn't think of asking her social worker to take her away early, even back to the orphanage. She stayed strong though for the sake of the younger kids who were stuck in the same boat. She told them stories of her old foster home and of the fantastical places she read about in books. She loved fairy tales because they always had a happy ending, and she just knew that someday she would get her own happy ending if only she wished hard enough.
Emma's eyes flew open, and her body tensed as she heard the outside door slam shut and shouting from the floor below her. She could hear her foster mother's muffled tears and screams for him to stop. She clutched her pillow tighter as she heard loud footsteps on the stairs. She saw the three-year-old in the bed beside her wake up with the same fear in her eyes. At that moment, she made a decision. She wasn't going to be scared anymore. She would face him head on, no matter the consequences.
The Christmas party was well underway by the time Emma arrived with Mary Margaret. The bright red of her dress beautifully accentuated her dirty blonde hair, and the neckline left little to the imagination. The slit up the side exposed the toned curves of her legs, stopping just short of revealing anything indecent. Emma wasn't planning on flirting with anyone; she just felt like shaking things up a bit, and Storybrooke had never really seen her dressed to the hilt before. Quite frankly, having been stuck in the same pair of jeans for so long in the Enchanted Forest also had a bit to do with her change in attire. Still, she wasn't quite expecting the stunned silence as she walked into the room.
She found the former mayor's living room had been transformed with lots of decorations and a large Christmas tree in the corner. Where it normally looked cold and distant, the room now looked warm, bright, cheerful and inviting. Even Regina herself seemed to be at ease, wearing….was that….no it couldn't be….was that her pale blue, button up shirt?
Her eyes subconsciously raking over the blonde's body, Regina began walking toward Emma. Upon reaching the other woman, she held out her hand in greeting, "Sheriff Swan, so glad you could make it."
"Me, miss a party? With electric lighting and indoor plumbing?" Emma teased before continuing, "Thank you for inviting us."
Regina then looked over at Mary Margaret, realizing she held a casserole dish in her hands, "The pleasure is mine. Come, let me show you both to the kitchen."
"Regina, I didn't know you liked the holidays," Emma tried to make small talk. She still wasn't quite used to the truce that the two of them held for Henry's sake and was expecting a snarky comment from the former mayor. When none came, she grew quiet.
Regina took the casserole dish from Mary Margaret and set it down on the counter. She found an appropriate serving spoon, took off the lid, and stuck the spoon inside the dish that she now recognized as a potato casserole before finally answering Emma, "I don't. Henry on the other hand loves the holidays, and he thought I needed a bit of holiday cheer."
"Every year that we've been stuck in Storybrooke, Regina has held a Christmas party for everyone she deemed of importance here. I'm a little curious though why I was suddenly invited this year," Mary Margaret asked a little suspiciously as Snow's strong personality shone through.
Decades old bitterness tinged Regina's voice as she responded, "A person can change."
"Not without powerful motivation," Mary Margaret shook her head. She had tried countless times in the Enchanted Forest to get Regina to change to no avail. She had a hard time believing the sudden turnaround.
Unable to stay silent while the two fought, Emma stated the obvious, "I insisted that she invite you."
"Emma," Mary Margaret looked at her in wonder. Her daughter seemed full of surprises.
"Besides, wouldn't you say Henry is a powerful motivator?" Emma confronted her mother. Emma pondered why she always seemed to feel the need to defend Regina and shook off the thought as quickly as it had come.
"Are you saying I wasn't?" Mary Margaret's voice suddenly sounded very young. Growing up all she had wanted was Regina's approval, but that was long ago, in what felt like another lifetime.
Regina looked over at her, "That was different. I chose to adopt Henry. I didn't choose to be your stepmother. Besides, we haven't been related for decades. That relationship dissolved when we buried your father."
Emma pretended to cough, "Henry, what are you doing awake? Hi, Rubes."
Ruby answered for him, "Your son has a very good sense of smell. He woke up insisting that there was home cooked food down here that he absolutely had to have."
"Emma!" Henry fell into Emma's arms, enveloping her in a bear hug. "Mom said you'd be here."
"Where else would I be? I have to keep an eye on your mother after all for Operation Cobra," Emma winked at him. Operation Cobra had technically been completed when the curse was broken, but if they weren't careful, a new curse might surface.
"You're wearing a dress?" Henry asked, not having seen this side of his birth mother before.
Emma laughed, "You know me, I love to surprise people."
"Henry, let me make you a plate so that you can head up to bed," Regina offered.
"That sounds great, mom! Except of course for the bed part," Henry grinned. He wasn't used to his two mothers getting along, but he was definitely enjoying the change.
Emma moved to the kitchen door to survey the guests, "Regina, come over here and look at this."
"Look at what?" Regina asked as she positioned herself next to Emma, gazing out at the party.
"All these people know who you really are and all the things you've done, and they still came to celebrate Christmas with you. How can you possibly hate this?" Emma asked out of idle curiosity.
Ruby suddenly squealed, "Emma, look up!"
Emma looked up, her face growing slightly pale as she realized to what Ruby was referring, "Who put that there?"
Henry shuffled his feet, "Um, well…."
Regina followed Emma's gaze, "Henry Mills, I am seeing a lack of video games and an early bedtime in your future."
"But mom, it's just mistletoe," Henry argued.
Mary Margaret stared in horror, "Mistletoe that you are standing under. With my daughter."
Ruby scoffed, "Don't listen to her. Just kiss. It's like a law or something; you have to kiss when you are under the mistletoe with someone."
Emma looked in Regina's eyes for both permission and courage, "We don't have to do this."
The blush covering Regina's face began to subside. She looked at Emma with a sudden clarity. This was why she hadn't wanted to marry a prince from the time she was a little girl. This was her happy ending. Emma was her freedom. She put her hand up to Emma's cheek, "Oh, but Ms. Swan, I'm afraid we do."
What happened next was a blur. Their lips met, gently touching and exploring each other amidst catcalls, applause and cries of horror, but Emma heard nothing but pure silence. The wish she hadn't known she had made had just come true. Because of the courage she had learned long ago, she had been granted her strongest desire—to not be alone.
Henry looked at his two mothers, his plan having gone better than even he had expected. He ran to them and held both of them as tightly as he could. Thanks to the magic of Christmas, they would be a real family. He smiled broadly at Regina, "See, mom, I told you. Good always wins."