Title: Just Like Her
Wordcount: 614 words.
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Regina/Cora, references to Regina/Daniel.
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended; sadly, I don't own these characters or Once Upon a Time.
Author's Note: Written for onceuponaland's Bingo challenge on livejournal. Prompt: "Regina/Cora- this means war".
Inspired by the song "Just Like You" by Three Days Grace.
And as always, thank you SinginPrincess for the beta! :)
"But I don't want to marry the king!"
No matter how hard Regina tried to explain it, her mother refused to listen.
Cora sighed as she helped her daughter with the wedding dress.
"You're still thinking about him, aren't you?"
"I loved him, mother. I don't love the King!"
Cora snorted.
"Darling, who said anything about love?"
Regina swallowed the lump in her throat and said nothing.
.:.
Young Lady Regina was nothing like her mother. She was miserable, her only wish was to escape her life; she wanted freedom and happiness.
Regina never knew what happiness was until she first met Daniel, the stable boy, hired by her father. Daniel was everything she had ever dreamed of; he was a handsome, smart young man who loved horses just as much as she did. For Regina, horses represented freedom. They symbolized the life she might never have.
The first time she looked into Daniel's eyes, she knew he'd be her way out. But the only thing that stood between Regina and her happy ending was her mother.
Regina knew Cora would never accept Daniel as her lover. Her mother would never understand the meaning of true love. She had always told her that love is weakness. Power, she said, is their one and only strength.
Throughout her life, Cora controlled her daughter's life. In Cora's eyes, whatever she did, she did it because she loved Regina and wanted nothing but the best for her. She never once thought that she was raising her daughter in a miserable environment. She deluded herself into believing her little girl was truly happy. Or at least would be, if she listened.
Unable to escape her current state of life, Regina kept her relationship with Daniel a secret. Even though she was still bound to life under her mother's control, Daniel's presence made it much easier to bear.
.:.
One day, Regina's biggest fear came true. Cora found out about her affair with Daniel and decided to put an end to it.
Regina felt like her whole world collapse within seconds. Once again, her freedom was torn from her grasp, and she was forced to marry the King.
Regina always knew she was nothing like her mother. She wasn't strong enough to stand against her in order to pursue her own freedom.
The truth was that Regina could be just like her mother. It was a side in her that no one had ever seen before, but deep inside, Regina knew it existed within her.
And she was terrified of it.
Terrified of what would happen if she ever let the darkness take over her soul. She was terrified she was going to love and enjoy it.
But now, she decided, she had already suffered enough. Regina couldn't let it happen again; she wouldn't let her mother take away her freedom this time.
Her mother would never stand in her way again.
Regina knew now, this means war; a war that only one could survive.
.:.
And then it happened. What Regina feared most.
She used magic for the first time in her life. And the worst part- she actually loved it.
At this point, she knew her mother got one thing right: Power is strength.
"Let me guide you."
"And I won't become like her?"
"That, dearie, is entirely up to you."
Regina remembered that conversation as if it was only yesterday.
That day, she had sworn to herself to never let the evil take over her. She promised that she would never become her mother.
There was one thing she didn't know back then;
One day, this was going to happen.
One day, she would become exactly like her mother.