This is a Secret Santa gift for likedevils over on tumblr who requested a Swan Queen body swap. In truth I was really struggling with how to go about the story line, but I finally settled on short, sweet, and (hopefully) a little humorous. Unbetaed, so I apologize for any mistakes. Happy belated holidays!
I don't own Once. Some Christmas wishes just aren't meant to be.
It was 8:05 p.m. on Christmas Eve and Regina was staring out the widow at a front yard that was still decidedly snowless. Henry had gone to bed already, claiming that the earlier he got to sleep, the earlier he could wake up the next morning and Regina knew she'd be lucky to get to sleep until seven.
"What are you looking at?" Emma's lips brushed against Regina's ear lobe as she wrapped her arms around the brunette's waist. Regina leaned into the embrace easily, resting her head against Emma's shoulder, but still keeping her eyes on the clear night sky outside.
"The yard," she replied.
"What about the yard?"
"I can see the grass."
"What's wrong with the grass?" Emma asked.
"I can see it."
Emma let go of Regina and moved so that she was standing next to the brunette and looking out the window too. There was nothing strange about the yard and Emma was more than a little confused. "You're going to have be a little bit more specific here."
"It was supposed to snow this year," Regina replied. "There should be snow on the ground for Christmas morning, but there's not a single cloud in the sky."
"This is because it's not snowing?" Emma giggled. "What does that matter? It's Christmas. You're supposed to be happy. Snow or no snow, it's still the most wonderful time of the year."
"I know that, but it just doesn't feel like Christmas without snow."
"Don't worry, she's coming over tomorrow before the party and you can tell her that yourself."
It took Regina a moment to get the joke, but once she did she just rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath. "You know what I meant."
Emma was still smiling at her own joke, but she asked, "Why is it so important that it snows for Christmas?"
"I don't know. It just is," Regina replied. She turned away from the window and walked into the living room. "I have to go get the presents anyway. "Help me?"
"As you wish," Emma said, following the brunette into her office where they had stashed most of the presents over the course of the last few weeks. Regina handed Emma a stack of brightly-wrapped boxes, but when the blonde turned to go back out to the living room, she hit the corner of one of the boxes on the edge of the mantelpiece. There was a loud thump and when Emma turned around, there was a book on the floor.
"Go put those under the tree," Regina said. "I'll pick this up." She bent down to grab the book as Emma retreated to the living room. It had opened to a random page, yellowed with age and covered in elvish script. Regina didn't recognize the spell at first, but she scanned the page and picked out a few words here and there. Weather, clouds, snow. She examined it closer and realized that is was a spell to change the weather. It was a spell to make it snow.
By the time Emma got back into the room, Regina already had her coat and shoes on and the book tucked under her arm.
"What are you doing?" Emma asked.
"I was just going to…" Regina wracked her brain to come up with some response, but her mind failed to provide one in time. Besides, she knew that Emma would be able to see through any lie she tried to tell, so she sucked in a breath and told the truth.
"I'm going to use magic to make a white Christmas."
"Why?" Emma asked.
"Why not?" Regina countered.
"No, I mean why are you so dead set on making it snow for Christmas? It's not that big of a deal."
"Because I want everything to be perfect for Henry."
"It'll still be perfect if it's not snowing out."
Regina didn't even bother to respond. Instead, she just shouldered past Emma and walked towards the front door. Just as she grabbed the handle, she felt Emma wrap a hand around her upper arm and she turned back around.
"Are you seriously going to go messing around with magic right now? It's Christmas Eve."
"I won't be long," Regina said. She started to walk away, but Emma kept her grip, not tight, but strong enough to let Regina know that she wasn't going to get away that easy.
"You're thinking of trying to change the weather by yourself for no other reason than to make it snow on Christmas?" Emma asked.
"Yes," Regina asserted. "And you can't stop me either, so just let me go."
"Oh, I wasn't trying to stop you." Emma suddenly seemed to realize that she was still holding Regina's arm and she dropped it before going to the closet to grab her jacket.
"You weren't?"
"Of course not. Once you get your mind set on something, nothing can stop you from doing it, but you're not going to do it alone."
"I'm not?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No. I'm coming with you." Emma slipped on one boot and then looked up at Regina, flipping her blonde hair out of her eyes so that she could actually see. The brunette was still looking at her like she couldn't quite believe what she had heard and once Emma had her other boot on, she stood up and kissed Regina quickly on the lips.
"You said it yourself the other day, I'm getting better at magic and I helped you move the freakin' moon before. I think together we can handle a little bit of snow," Emma whispered.
"Alright," Regina replied. "Follow me."
The two women walked out into the front yard and Emma conjured a small ball of light in the palm of her hand so that Regina could read the page in her spell book. She started to chant words in a language that Emma didn't understand, but it sounded vaguely like the elvish tongue from the Lord of the Rings. Not that she would ever dare point that out to Regina, but it made her smile a little.
"Okay," Regina said, shutting the book and tucking it under her arm. "The next part is the same way we made the eclipse in Neverland. Just focus on making it snow and we should be able to make it happen."
"You got it."
Emma extinguished the light in her palm and moved to stand next to Regina. The brunette gave a small nod and they both raised their hands towards the sky and focused.
It took less than a minute for the clouds to start rolling into view, obscuring the moon and blocking out the stars. Another moment and the wind started to pick up. It rustled the leaves in the trees, blew Emma's hair back from her face, and knocked a few stray pine needles off of the wreath hanging on the front door.
It was almost comical how easily the chill breeze carried the thin green needles, twisting and turning in the winter air, until they landed perfectly on Regina's nose.
Before Emma even realized that anything had happened, Regina sneezed. There was a huge burst of purple and white magic and both women were thrown backwards.
"What the hell just happened?"
"I have no idea."
"I heard a sneeze and then there was light and I hit the ground and why does my voice sound so much like yours?"
There was a long pause and then Regina's bell-like laughter rang out in the night.
Regina slowly picked herself up off of the ground, still not entirely conscious of what was happening. She could hear herself laughing, but she wasn't laughing. She put a hand to her throat for a moment to be sure, but it definitely wasn't her. She reached a hand up to run her fingers through her hair and found that there was a lot more hair than she remembered. And it was blonde. Even in her disoriented state, Regina was entirely sure she wasn't a blonde.
She looked down at her hands. And then at the clothes she was wearing. And then at her own body on the front walkway practically doubled over with laughter.
"What the hell is going on?" Regina asked. She was more than a little surprised when Emma's voice came out of her mouth.
"I wish I could say I was more freaked out by this than I am," Emma said around her laughter. "But I think when you sneezed, you messed up the spell, and now we're in each other's bodies."
Regina felt her-well, Emma's-cheeks flush and crossed her arms over her-Emma's-chest. "What on earth do you find so funny about this situation?" she demanded. "This is hardly a laughing matter."
"It's pretty funny," Emma replied. It was disconcerting for Regina to hear her own voice talking back to her, but she shook her head and tried to ignore it.
"I mean, sure I've made innuendos and stuff, but I'm literally inside you right now and that's pretty funny," Emma continued.
"I suppose, but it loses its punch when you've been inside me before, dear." Regina couldn't quite help the wince as the term of endearment slipped out it Emma's voice. It just sounded so very wrong and all Regina wanted was to get back in her own body where things didn't feel so very awkward.
"Plus, I'm not the one who messed up the magic this time, so yay for that," Emma said, completely ignoring Regina's previous statement. She seemed strangely at ease with the situation and Regina was partly envious of her ability to adapt so quickly, but mostly annoyed that Emma didn't seem to be taking this seriously. So she voiced her concern.
"Why are you alright with this? Aren't you at least a little bit concerned about this?"
"Well, if you messed up the magic, can't you just fix it and change us back?" Emma asked. She furrowed Regina's elegant brows and looked questioningly at her own body.
"No," Regina said. "I can't. Whatever happened, I have no idea how to fix it or even if it can be fixed. I don't know what to do."
She practically collapsed onto the ground, hugging her-no, not hers, Emma's-knees to her chest and pressing her face into them. All she had wanted to do was give her son the perfect Christmas for his first year back in Storybrooke, but she had only managed to mess it up and now she was stuck in a body that was not her own and she was not at all happy about it.
Almost as soon as she sat down, the wind picked up again and snowflakes soft as dandelion fluff started to drift down from the sky. Instantly, Emma started laughing again. Regina picked her head up and glared at her girlfriend.
"What are you laughing about now?"
"At least it's snowing like you wanted, right? Any means necessary I guess."
"Glad to know this is a joke to you," Regina snapped.
"Hey," Emma said, sobering instantly. "We've done the impossible together on multiple occasions. I'm sure we can fix this, alright. Just calm down. Why are you getting so worked up about this?" She moved to kneel down on the grass next to Regina and ran a hand across her back.
"I just wanted this to be a nice Christmas," Regina said, her voice slightly muffled as she had gone back to pressing her face against her knees. "This is the first Christmas since Henry was nine that he's actually wanted to be here with me and I just wanted to make sure it was perfect, but I messed it up."
"Aw, no, come on," Emma said. "Look, Henry's going to want to be here with you no matter what and something like this might be a little bit surprising to say the least, but he'll get it and move on if he has to, but it's not going to come to that."
"It's not, is it?" Regina challenged.
"No it's not. I'm not going to let it. I will stay up all night if I have to, but you have dozens of books, hell, probably hundreds between here and your vault. One of them has to have some kind of cure and I'm not going to rest until we find it."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Very. Besides, I think I can feel the stick up your ass and I really want my own body back."
"Very funny," Regina said as she stood up and brushed the freshly-fallen snowflakes off of herself. Emma's pep talk seemed to have done just the trick as she nodded, more to herself than to Emma, and headed inside the mansion. "Let's get to work," she called over her shoulder. Emma obediently followed.
It was just after ten o'clock at night. Emma and Regina had been going through spell book after spell book for over an hour and still nothing had turned up, but they were determined to find the answer. Regina had made it very clear that under no circumstances were they leaving the house if they didn't find a way to get back in their own bodies, and that included going to Granny's Christmas party tomorrow.
Emma definitely agreed. It was one thing for Henry to witness this, but completely another for Hook or Elsa or, God forbid, Emma's parents. They both knew neither of them would be able to keep up the charade for long, especially since Emma couldn't seem to stop herself from cracking jokes every couple of minutes. Most of them were about Regina's height.
"I mean, I knew you were shorter than me, but I never realized how much."
"Is this why you cursed my mother? She was taller than you?"
"How do you even reach the top shelves?"
"Emma, I am about three seconds away from incinerating you," Regina growled. "Please just look through the books and be quiet for a few minutes."
Emma rolled her eyes, but obediently grabbed the next book off of her stack. Regina had given her all the books written in English, but in most of them it was still almost impossible to understand what she was reading.
Regina, meanwhile, was combing through the elvish books, but she wasn't having any better luck. She rubbed at her eyes for a moment and then stopped dead when she felt something move behind her eyelids.
"Emma?" she called nervously.
"Yeah?" Emma replied without looking up from the book on her lap.
"What's wrong with your eyes?"
Emma shut the book and looked up to see Regina sitting at her desk with her eyes closed and one hand frozen inches from her eyelid. It was a little strange to see her own face like that, but the expression was so very Regina that it wasn't alarming.
"What do you mean what's wrong with my eyes?"
"I mean, I rubbed your eyes and something moved and now everything's out of focus. What is wrong with your eyes?"
Emma bit her lip and quirked an eyebrow, but then it dawned on her and she couldn't help the bubble of laughter that came out of her mouth. "Relax, Regina, it's my contact lenses. Just blink a few times and it'll settle again."
Regina did as she was told and sure enough the world slid back into focus. Emma was still giggling in her chair and Regina glared at her. That just made Emma laugh harder as it was just so very wrong to see herself glaring like that.
"It's not funny," Regina snapped.
"Just a little bit," Emma replied.
There was a pause were Regina looked back down at her book, but then the corners of her mouth tipped up in a slight grin. And then she was giggling. And then, after a very long moment, she was laughing too and for a moment, it didn't feel so wrong. It felt almost normal and for a minute, they forgot everything that was going around them.
Then the spell book fell off of Emma's lap and brought them both back to reality.
Regina cleared her throat and Emma leaned down to grab the book and they both went back to their searching.
It was quarter past midnight when Emma looked at the clock. "Hey," she said "It's Christmas."
"Oh?" Regina looked up from her book and checked the time. "So it is. Merry Christmas, Emma."
"Merry Christmas," Emma replied. She paused and then finished with, "I love you. Even if you're in my body."
"I love you too," Regina said, meeting Emma's-her-eyes and smiling softly.
By three in the morning, both women were practically running solely on caffeine and the pile of useless books was growing while the unread ones were growing fewer by the minute.
"Look, maybe there's just not an answer in here," Emma said, closing the book she was looking at and running a hand through her-not hers, Regina's-hair. "Maybe this is one of those things that'll just wear off after a while or something or maybe we can just go talk to Gold or the fairies or something later."
"No," Regina snapped. "No, it's got to be in here somewhere and I am not going to rest until I find it. I refuse to spend anymore time than is absolutely necessary in any body besides my own.
"Regina, I have had two coffees already, but apparently your body has a ridiculously high tolerance level for caffeine which, side note, we should really talk about later."
"I don't have a caffeine addiction if that's what you're implying," Regina interjected.
"Whatever. Just saying, if I open another book, I think your eyes might go crossed or something. Let's just call it quits for tonight and finish looking in the morning."
"It's already morning," Regina retorted. "Let's at least finish off these last few piles and then we can go to bed."
Emma rolled her eyes and huffed, but nevertheless grabbed the next book off of the stack and opened it up.
It was almost five o'clock in the morning. Emma had passed out long ago and she was now slumped over the arm of the sofa with her head hanging down in a position that would definitely leave Regina with a sore neck. The books she had been reading had slipped off her lap at some point and were laying in a heap on the floor. She was completely asleep.
At least she was until Regina leapt up from her desk with an excited cry. "Emma!" she called, running over to the couch and shaking her girlfriend's arm. "Emma, wake up, I found it!"
"Huh? What? What's going on?" Emma asked, blinking her eyes open slowly and squinting in confusion at seeing her own face inches from, well, her face.
"I found a spell that can undo the effects of previous spells and it's simple enough. I think I found a way to fix everything."
"Really? Yay, Alright, score one for us. Let's do this thing." Emma yawned and pushed herself up into a sitting position so that she was more comfortable.
Regina grabbed the open spell book off of her desk, flipped to the correct page, and then grabbed the hand that would soon belong to her again. Then suddenly the hand pulled away.
"Wait a second, are you sure you've got this?" Emma asked teasingly. "I mean, the last time you told me a spell was easy, you switched our bodies. Who knows what this one could do?"
"Oh, just give me your hand," Regina snapped with a roll of her eyes. She grabbed Emma's hand again and started to read the spell, the elvish words dripping out of her mouth like honey. There was a bright flash of light that mimicked the one from earlier and Emma and Regina's hands were forced apart as they both fell backwards.
Once the light disappeared, there was a long hesitant moment where nothing happened. Then Regina slowly lifted a hand that she recognized as her own to her face. She rubbed at her eyes and didn't feel the contacts moving. She had a crick in her neck from Emma's sleeping position, but her hair, her face, her body, all of it was hers and it felt so good to be back where she belonged again.
"Oh, this is nice," Emma said. She was marveling at her own hands like she had just discovered them for the first time. "This is really nice." She grabbed a chunk of her hair and pressed it to her face. "Oh, I missed you," she mumbled.
"We did it," Regina breathed.
"Yeah."
There was a moment of silence and then Emma spoke again.
"So was your snow really worth it?"
"Of course," Regina replied haughtily. "I knew what I was doing."
"Of course you did. And I have one more question."
"Ask away."
"How in the hell did the kid sleep through this?"
It was six o'clock in the morning on Christmas day. The sun was rising over the front lawn and the early light sparkled on the layer of snow over the grass. Emma couldn't help but laugh softly to herself as she ran her fingers through Regina's soft hair.
"What are you laughing at?" the brunette mumbled, already half asleep in Emma's lap.
"Nothing," Emma replied quietly. "Merry Christmas, Regina. I love you, especially when you're in your own body."
"Merry Christmas." Regina snuggled a little deeper into the blonde's lap and sighed contentedly. "I love you too."
There was a thumping noise upstairs and then footsteps hurrying down the stairs. Henry's voice reverberated around the house. "Mom, Ma, it's Christmas! Are you guys already up?"
"In here, kid," Emma called. Then she tapped Regina lightly on the shoulder. "Ready?" she whispered.
"As I'll ever be," Regina replied. She slowly straightened up, rubbing the heels of her hands against her eyes as she yawned. "Merry Christmas," she said. "Let's make some coffee."