Not Your Ordinary Princess
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: Just a short little one-shot. There isn't much of a plot here, either. Emma has a new T-shirt and August really likes it. Established August/Emma.
Sorry for the unusually great number of mistakes; my spell checker went crazy on me and refused to help. :S
August gave a grateful smile to Red as she refilled his empty cup with fresh coffee.
"Waiting for your princess, Pinocchio?" she asked with a wide smile that was filled with gentle affection towards the man. It took August a while to get used to the young woman's almost motherly attitude, she assumed after her memories of her real life had returned, towards him. Of course, he was only a little boy at the time she'd last seen him. It must be confusing for her, too.
At first he had a hard time deciding which one he found the more disconcerting: Ruby's shamless flirting or Red's warm affection.
August returned the smile shaking his head a little at the inside joke. In their close circle of friends nobody called or referred to Emma as princess unless it was some kind of endearment or just a little joke.
Shortly after the curse had been broken, Emma got fed up with everybody calling her by her title and bowing to her every turn they laid eyes on her. She and August had many a talk about her feelings regarding the matter and when it became clear that Emma was genuinly disturbed by all the attention being a princess entailed, August bought her a present.
It was a T-shirt with Not your ordinary princess printed on the front with big letters. Emma loved it and the next thing August knew was Emma walking around in another tee with Princess Leia on the front holding a gun. The text on the tee said: Don't call me princess!
It was hilarious but did little to stop others from calling her princess. Shortly after that Emma decided not to give a shit anymore and showed up in the diner in a bright magenta T-shirt that said: Yes! I'm a fucking princess.
After that moment everybody knew better than to press the issue any farther except for the fun of it.
"Yeah… She's supposed to meet me here for a late brunch," August explained recalling his wife of three months running out in the early morning to tend to some urgent business, but not before murmuring into his ear to meet her at the diner around 10. At least that was what he thought she'd said – he'd been practically still asleep when Emma closed the door behind her.
"Well, it's already passed ten so she'll be here any minute. Want me to bring something to eat?" Red inquired referring to Emma as August had already devoured his omlette.
"Yeah…" August opened his mouth to answer but it was the both of them who finished his sentence. "A chocolate croissant."
They shared an amused grin at Emma's obsession with Granny's chocolate croissant.
"You got it," Red nodded before turning on her heels.
"Make it two," August called after her and shook his head smiling as the woman waved without turning back. Of course, she'd have made it two without him telling so because her little puppet liked his chocolate croissant just as much as his princess.
Red was fast like the wind and before August could put his cup down after taking a sip, she was back with two still steaming croissants. Man, Granny's the best, August thought as the scent of the frashly baked pastry reached his nostrils.
"Thanks," he smiled.
"No problem," Red beamed. "Enjoy your breakfast, pumpkin," she winked before leaving again.
August rolled his eyes in exaspareation over the brunette's antics and, leaning back in his seat, he watched her as she proceeded to take the orders of Grumpy sitting by the counter, all the while flirting with Jiminy who was seated only a couple of seats away. When he caught himself staring, he shrugged and turned back to his coffee.
That woman was genuinly confusing him.
Not long after that the bell over the entrance door chimmed and before August could turn around to check the identity of the newcomer, he could hear Red's gasp.
When he finally turned around, he chuckled as he caught sight of Emma coming towards his desk wearing a T-shirt he hadn't seen before. Sometimes he really wondered where the hell she was getting those tees from.
His amusement was short-lived, though, because after scanning the text on the front, he quickly found himself dumbstruck.
She couldn't really be serious... or could she?
Usually there was a reason behind her parading in town in one of her "Princess T-shirts" as they came to call them.
At first, of course, she wore them because she hated the fact that the whole town was treating her like a princess.
Then she started making good use of her title and whenever she didn't feel like justifying her actions or answering questions mostly beginning by "why", she ususally retorted with her new favorite line: I'm the Princess, that's why.
She owned at least a dozen of T-shirts with that line.
She could be a royal pain in the ass at times.
Then there was her independent, kickass attitude. She usually wore T-shirts with texts like this princess saves herself or your princess is out fighting drangons when some dumbass guy in town pissed her off with his endless courtesies and stupid comments that were sure meant to be considerate and polite but sounded obsolete and ridiculous, not to mention overbearing.
And of course there were days when she just wanted to have some fun. Once she waltzed into the town meeting with all the princes, princesses and dignitaries, wearing an ugly blue tee with Disney's Snow White printed on the front. There was a fifteen-minute-long delay in starting the meeting as Snow White, after reading it's hard to be a princess started laughing so hard that they couldn't begin the session.
And there was that Halloween fiasco when Snow practically ordered everybody - with special mentioning of her daughter - to dress up for the party the town had organized. Surprisingly enough, Emma was quite easy to persuade to attend the party in a proper attire. It finally turned out, though, that under "proper attire" Emma meant her usual working clothes. August knew that her mother and Henry hand spent weeks to get her costume ready for the occassion - she was supposed to be Super Mario's Princes - but when Emma emerged from their bedroom wearing a pair of dark trousers, a simple sweater and a defiant look, he knew better than to force her into wearing a frilly pink dress. When they got to the party and she got questioning looks, she simply took off her sweater and, with a satisfied smirk, she showed off yet another T-shirt with a sign that said: I don't need a costume because I am a princess.
Frankly, he was surprised that for their wedding she had actually showed up in a white dress and not some ugly colored tee with a witty remark, like Game Over with Super Mario and his Princess printed over it.
His favorite T-shirt, however, was the one he'd got to tear off of her right after seeing it. It happened a couple of days after he'd bought her her first T-shirt. They'd been together for weeks by then but they were yet to sleep together. Emma was ready, he knew that and, hell, he'd wanted her ever since he laid eyes on her for the first time. But he stood his ground and when Emma asked him about it, he told her with all seriousness that he was determined to treat her like a real princess… which of course meant no sleeping together before the wedding. It was bullshit, of course. He was teasing her but it was half the fun – to make her pin for him. Three days after declaring his intentions to keep their relationship chaste till it got official, he found Emma in his bedroom – well, in his bed actually – wearing only a pair of panties and a tee that read: So not a princess. There was nothing chaste about that night.
He caught himself grinning at the memory but reality quickly set in when he became aware of the stunned silence that settled on the diner since Emma entered.
August watched as Emma stopped by the counter to ask something from Red and found himself grinning like an idiot as Emma, seemingly unaware of the effect her T-shirt had on everyone in the diner, flashed him a brilliant smile as she continued on her way toward him.
When he first saw her, he thought that she was just messing around in that T-shirt, having some fun, but after seeing her expression he concluded that the Princess was dead serious. With that thought, he shot to his feet with a huge grin that turned into happy laughter as he started to close the distance between them.
And with the last couple of steps, she was in his arms and, to the others' utter astonishment, he swept his wife into his arms and whirled her around. Then placing her on the floor again, he kissed her then grinned again as he stared at her chest where on the T-shirt that had quickly become his new favorite, with bright pink letters he could read: This princess is pregnant.
The End
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