Merry Christmas, Oncers! (Although being a Oncer doesn't seem like much of a merry thing since that Winter Finale!)
This story was written for my awesome friend, onceuponacriminalmind. We met on Tumblr through nice!Anon and our love of Once and Seinfeld jokes, and now I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't message her like every day!
I tried (and I think I succeeded!) to get everything into this story that will make her flail with feels. So be prepared for serious Regina love. :D Merry Christmas, dearie! Love you!
To the followers of Memories Keep You Near, I deeply apologize for the delay. New job, life, and currently a concussion have set it back, but I promise I haven't dropped it and it will be updated really soon! Sorry again, and thanks for sticking with me!
This should be about a 4-parter. Happy Holidays, readers! Hope you have a fantastic one!
She sat in the dark, a glass of wine in her hand, listening to the distant voices of the carolers singing The First Noel. Off-key if you asked her.
But all her lights were off, not even the tree was lit, so the carolers would not stop at her house. As if they would either way. No, the merry cheer-spreaders of Storybrooke would avoid her house like the plague, as they did every year.
And that was just fine with her. She didn't want any of their forced smiles and patronizing "Merry Christmases" while their eyes betrayed their utter loathing.
Regina hated this time of year.
From what she knew of different worlds, traditions and holidays varied from land to land. Sometimes there were similarities; what was Halloween in the Land Without Magic was Fall Harvest in the Enchanted Forest. Things like Thanksgiving and Easter didn't exist there at all.
But Christmas was one thing that every world that Regina knew of had in common. Even the traditions and methods of celebrating were strikingly similar.
And, as in the current world, Christmas in the Enchanted Forest was every child's favorite time of year. But even as a girl the blasted holiday held nothing but bitter memories for her.
Well, there were some memories…
Regina shook her head and downed her wine, immediately pouring another over-full glass. No, she didn't want any of those memories. She was quite content wallowing in misery.
Despite the fact that, during the curse, the inhabitants of Storybrooke lived almost the exact same day over and over, seasons still changed and Christmas still came. And for the first eighteen years Regina ignored it completely. She didn't put up a tree, not even a little fake one. And on Christmas day she stayed home and got drunk and invited Graham over for a "visit."
But then something changed her mind about the day. Henry changed her mind.
From his very first year with her, regardless of her feelings about celebrating, Regina couldn't allow her son to be deprived of what most children cherished, and for a short period of time Regina loved Christmas. She loved picking a tree with her little boy, and teaching him how to decorate it. She loved making her special Christmas cookies with him and helping him to write to Santa Claus. She loved seeing the way his face lit up brighter than any Christmas light on that morning when he ran down the stairs to see the presents left for him.
But that was gone, once again. This was the second Christmas since Emma Swan came to town, and the second Christmas Regina spent alone without her baby boy.
Well, last Christmas Henry was home with her, and she decorated and bought him presents and made him cookies but he rejected it all, choosing instead to sulk in his bedroom because she wouldn't allow him to see her.
And now Henry wasn't with her at all. He was with his biological mother, his father, his grandparents, and having a wonderful time.
The worst part was Regina couldn't even blame him. For the first time in his little life he was having the holiday with the closest thing to a nuclear family he would ever have. He had a mom and dad who, while their own relationship was rocky, loved him immensely and the world's greatest grandparents. And tomorrow he would have dinner with them and his extended family of dwarfs and wolves and even his other grandfather, if Belle has her way…which she always does.
And, to be fair, Regina was in fact invited tomorrow. But she knew her presence would do nothing but agitate everyone, and that was only amusing after so long.
But still, even though she understood, it didn't stop the ache in her black hole of a heart that it was Christmas, and Henry wasn't there.
She wanted to kick and scream. She wanted to punish someone. She wanted someone else to hurt as much as her.
"I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me…"
Regina cringed and the sudden, loud wailing of what was supposed to be a quiet song right outside her door. They actually came to her house?! Imbeciles! She took another gulp of her wine and attempted to shut them out, but it was impossible. They were horrid!
"I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams!"
She couldn't take it anymore, and they were starting up with We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Not even a saint could just sit there and take such an assault.
Regina delighted in the startled gasps and the simultaneous steps back of the carolers on her lawn when she threw open the door using magic.
She took just a moment to see who was stupid enough to come to her door. Unsurprisingly it was that mermaid, Ariel in the front, probably the only singer on key, with her Eric beside her. There was also Archie, who looked nervous, Ruby, who looked ready to bolt, Belle, who only smiled angelically, and a handful of random citizens she didn't bother to remember the names of.
"Merry Christmas," she gritted out from between her teeth. "My what…interesting voices you all have."
"Guys, let's go," Ruby hissed, yanking on Belle's sleeve.
"Thank you!" Ariel called obliviously, though at least Eric knew enough to appear wary. "Merry Christmas, Regina! Do you have any requests?"
Regina smirked and sauntered down her porch steps. "Why, indeed I do!"
Ruby was already retreating. "Guys…"
"Regina," Belle said warningly, backing away as well. "Now, Ariel only wanted to include you…"
"What's your request?" Ariel asked eagerly. "I've learned almost all of them! Aren't these Christmas songs just wonderful?"
Regina flexed her fingers and flashed a grin that was more of a snarl. "How about…Silent Night?"
Before Ariel could open her mouth to respond, Regina flung out her arms and the ground beneath the carolers' feet rippled and lurched. From in front of Regina's feet, the grass rolled up to form a six-foot-tall tidal wave of earth. It surged underneath the carolers, flinging them into the air and throwing them roughly out into the street.
None of them were seriously hurt. Regina wasn't an idiot, Belle was with them after all and harming that girl again was a fight with Rumple she was in no mood to have. But they surely wouldn't feel much like singing anymore with skinned knees and hands and sore rumps.
Regina threw back her head and laughed at their bewildered and frightened expressions. "Now stay off my lawn!" she yelled. "What's that word? Oh yes…humbug!"
Belle rolled her eyes in reassignment and helped a livid Ruby to her feet, who in turned helped Archie. Regina's eyes glimmered in pleasure, but before she could turn and return to her dark home, she caught Ariel's eyes.
She truly had nothing against the mermaid. If it weren't for her, they never would have gotten Henry home. But despite the fact that Regina had kept her word and enchanted Ariel's bracelet so that she could control her legs, the girl needed to know that Regina wasn't someone you can try to fix. Even Belle knew that.
So she swallowed the regret boiling like acid in her stomach and turned away from the mermaid's wide, hurt eyes and stomped into her house.
No doubt the group would run and tell the others what she did. Henry would take one look at Ariel's face and know how needlessly cruel Regina had been. Belle would tattle to her love, and by morning she'd had an enraged Dark One, a few fed-up Charmings, and a very disappointed Henry on her doorstep. Henry might convince Rumple not to cause bodily harm, but he would likely tell her that he had given up on her.
Then maybe finally she could stop trying. Stop trying to be someone she wasn't.
A good person.
She snatched up her glass of wine and chugged it down, refilled it, and drank all of that as well. Only then, with her head spinning and feeling gloriously numb, she threw the glass as hard as she could at the mantle, relishing in the crash.
She dragged herself upstairs, a real effort as drunk as she was, and threw herself on top of her bed, boots and all.
She looked forward to closing her eyes and embracing oblivion but the damn room was cold, regardless of the alcohol warming her, and it was windy. She must have left the window open.
Regina rolled over, reaching for a blanket. So what if she caught pneumonia, who would care? She was nearly asleep when a voice startled her nearly to death.
"Hello, Regina."
She rolled over again, succeeding in falling off the bed this time, and sat up quickly, regretting it when it made her head spin more.
"My, darling, how very dignified."
There was somebody sitting in Regina's chair by the fireplace, but the room was too dark to see. Yet she knew that voice.
"Who's there?" Regina demanded, angered that someone actually had the nerve to break into her house.
The figure perched in her chair flicked her wrist and a fire sprang to life in the fireplace.
"Maleficent?" Regina gasped, barely believing her eyes. "But you…you're…"
"Dead?" Maleficent asked mockingly, arching an eyebrow. "Come, Regina, you know better than that! I have at least five lives left after this one. I'm still regenerating, of course, but I decided to come pay you a visit anyway."
"Why?" Regina asked. She knew full-well that Maleficent traded one of her own dragon-eggs for a spell that would make her, not immortal, but terribly hard to kill, so long as her death took place while she was in dragon form. But it took years to regenerate herself from a pile of ash back into a sorceress, and Emma had only slain her about six months ago.
That tiresome Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose thought her beloved prince had dispatched of Maleficent for good, only to have her daughter, Aurora, succumb to the same sleeping curse nineteen years later, mere weeks before the curse hit.
"And to what do I do pleasure?" Regina asked, frowning when she realized she'd misspoken the phrase.
Maleficent chuckled. "Oh this is rich, look at you! You're pathetic! Wallowing in self-pity…you're worse than the goodie-goodies you profess to hate! If only I had one of those…what are they called? Cameras?"
"Could you just go away, Mal?" Regina asked tiredly. "I realize that you're only a figment of my drunken imagination, but you're giving me a headache."
Maleficent stood up and ran her fingers along the mantel, tracing over the pictures of Henry. "I'll go, but first I must deliver a message."
"And what's that?"
She turned to Regina again, smirking in that cocky way of hers. "You're going to have visitors, Regina."
"More?" Regina whined.
"Three to be exact. Three spirits will visit tonight, the first…oh…any minute now. And I hope you listen to them, for your sake."
Regina climbed back into bed and glared at her. "Yadda, yadda, yadda. And what do you care about my sake?"
For a moment Maleficent's face softened. "Well, you are my only friend."
Regina moaned and weakly threw a pillow at the apparition. "Please go away."
"Very, well, I'll go. But you're still going to be visited by three spirits, so be ready. The first will come at the top of the hour. Good luck, old friend."
Regina cracked her eyes open warily, but the fire was gone, as if never lit, and so was Maleficent.
"No more red wine before bed," she mumbled into her pillow, closing her eyes and letting sleep overcome her at last.