Happy belated Halloween! I plan on updating this fanfic very often until it's finished because I can't wait to try out some prompts I have saved. I have another DragonQueen Modern AU in the works, so I'm so excited to write for it. Please send feedback, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy.
"Why is there a tent?" Mal asked.
"Didn't we tell Ruby we were going to be back late? It's only 5:15. I thought we could have a bit of fun before we left..." Mal suddenly felt more self-conscious than ever. She didn't believe she deserves a date as wonderful as this, not to mention how her body has changed to accommodate the child and how she thought Regina would react. They haven't been able to have their 'alone time' since a few weeks after getting pregnant and Mal's health became a priority.
Regina climbed off the horse, then helped Mal off. "Hey, are you okay?" Mal faked a smile beautifully.
"I'm fine, darling."
"No, you aren't. Please tell me."
"It's nothing. Let's just enjoy ourselves." She grinned and pulled Regina to the blankets, spreading them out over the grass so they could see the sunset clearly while they ate. Regina shook herself and decided to ask about it later.
Mal pulled out the food from the Granny's bag and set it out around them. Regina grabbed her garden salad and ate.
"Onion rings?" Mal asked. In front of Regina was her own bag of onion rings.
"It's a special treat." Mal smiled.
"You don't have to wait more than 5 months to eat your 'special treats,' you know." Regina frowned.
"They're unhealthy."
"Yes, but I'd say a special treat every six or eight weeks is fine, but must you really wait so long?" Mal asked. Regina shook her head.
"I don't care. This is just fine." Mal bowed her head in acceptance.
"Whatever the Queen wishes." She smirked at Regina and took a bite out of her wrap. They both turned to watch the sunset as Regina scooted closer to Mal.
"I love you. Nothing will change that, I will still want you. Especially with the pregnancy belly."
"Really?"
"Of course. It makes you look sexy." Mal smiled peacefully and averted eye contact. "I love you. I want you for the rest of my life." She bit her lip and looked into her girlfriend's chocolatey eyes.
"My mother always told me the opposite. That I'd be lucky if I found someone who wanted to stick around. That's the last thing she said to me before I left my childhood home. That's...what was bothering me." Regina sobered. Mal hasn't opened up to her like this; she needed to encourage her that it's okay. She rubbed Mal's back.
"She was a drunk. She spent her paycheck on expensive clothes instead of rent and pretended to love me when my friends visited. For my Christmas play in first grade, she made me wear a dress made of scraps of fabric, ribbons, even the couch upholstery sewn together by her sister. She wore a 200 dollar leopard-print jacket to that same event. My class called me 'patches' for a year." Regina didn't offer any words of consolidation, just listened as Mal went on.
"She offered me a shot of her heroine when I was four years old. I wasn't even potty-trained by then. In fact, I wasn't potty-trained until I was almost out of kindergarten when my teacher had enough and decided to potty-train me herself.
I hope she got arrested, convicted, and rotted in jail until she died of infection. A slow and painful death is what she deserves."
"If it helps any, I would've beaten the shit out of her if she was still around." Mal grinned and nuzzled Regina's neck with her nose affectionately; she told Regina it was something dragons do, according to Lily.
"It helps. Thank you for listening."
"Thank you for getting out of there as soon as you could. I can't imagine where you'd be now."
"I can't either. Surely not with Lily." Regina pulled Mal to sit between her legs and situated her onion rings beside her legs. "I'm still paranoid I'm not doing this whole 'parenting' thing right. I'm just trying to do whatever my mother wouldn't do for me."
"Take it from me, you're doing amazing at raising Lily. Raising a child is a big responsibility and there is no doubt from anyone that you're doing great. Lily is growing up with a mom that loves her."
"And a...sort-of stepmom that loves her too?"
"Of course I love her, but...I'm not really her stepmom."
"Well, I didn't know what to refer to you as." They both laughed.
"Yes. I suppose it's quite complicated."
"As long as Lily has you, who cares if it's complicated?"
"Good point." Regina lied back on the blanket and stroked Mal's hair as she looked up at the sky, raising her arm straight above her head to slowly trace the strokes of pink and purple in the sunset with her pinky finger. Mal laid her head over her stomach and listened to her girlfriend's steady breathing.
"Well, I'm finished eating," Regina muttered distractedly.
"Me too." Mal moved her hand to sit on Regina's knee as she readjusted her head on Regina's belly.
"Are you ready for dessert?" Regina asked.
"Dessert? Really?"
"You can't have a good meal without dessert."
"But...you already bought dinner. Why are you buying dessert too?"
"I didn't buy it, I made it." Mal tensed. "They're only cookies. It only took me an hour to make them."
"I still could've helped with something or bought dinner."
"No. This was my date to take you on. When you take me out, you can buy everything and make me feel bad." They both laughed.
"Fine. I'll buy you the most expensive thing I can find."
"Don't do that," Regina laughed. She ran her hand up and down the length of Mal's arm while she distractedly kept sweeping her hand in the air to mimic the clouds shapes. She noted how Mal seemed so peaceful.
"Isn't the sky beautiful?" Regina asked. Mal made a hum of agreement. Regina took a deep breath and exhaled. The cool air smelled like pine trees and Mal's perfume; Regina's favourite perfume of hers with a scent she can't describe. It felt like they were relaxing in an alternate dimension where nobody existed but them. They could do anything they wanted.
"This date gave me the serotonin boost I needed," Mal sighed. "I've never felt so happy in a long time."
"When was the last time you felt this happy?" She inquired.
"The kids I was living with and I were out late at night. I think I was 16. It must've been somewhere around three in the morning and we stole a grocery cart to ride around in. We wheeled it down a hill and screamed and laughed and nobody heard us. One of us found an abandoned stereo on the sidewalk so we took it and blasted Rolling Stones while we were riding in the cart. That was the night I had my first kiss." Regina closed her eyes and imagined a teenaged Mal screaming the lyrics of a classic rock song in the night while riding in a shopping cart. She grinned. The Mal she imagined seemed so carefree and lively.
"That sounds like fun," she breathed.
"Just ask your question," Mal sighed. Regina laughed.
"You know me too well. Who was your first kiss?"
"Her name was Briar. She lived next door to me. She had just gotten out of the foster system and was looking for a job when I introduced her to my group of friends at the time. My friends were all younger than me and lived on the street like me, but they were all like my chosen brothers and sisters. A few months after that night, Briar had gotten into some shit and somehow, she met a really rich man that offered her fancy clothes, a nice bed to sleep in, and a fuck-ton of money, as long as she married him and 'fulfilled his needs'. She became his trophy wife and I never saw her since."
"That...wow."
"That's the life of a homeless child," she sighed. "That's night with the grocery cart is basically every bit of my past told in a single story."
"Tell me more about it. I want to know everything, as long as you're comfortable with it."
"Of course. Well, you know how I said my friends were all younger than me? The oldest of my friends was fifteen, and the youngest was seven."
"Seven? A seven-year old was living on the streets of New York?"
"Yes. His name was Brett. He was a tiny thing too. His parents were in a car accident that same year we took him in and the police never found him. A few days after the accident, one of my friends found him looking for food in a dumpster behind a restaurant. We took him in and tried our best to keep him properly fed. He came before any of the rest of us. We were his guard dogs and he had us wrapped around his finger. I miss him." Regina smiled.
"He sounds wonderful. They sound wonderful. I wish I could meet them."
"I don't know where they are now. Before I left, Brett passed away and one girl went to juvie for stealing a few watches for her boyfriend." Regina's face fell further.
"That's...horrible." Mal looked down at her hands and nodded.
"Brett died quickly. He was surrounded by us all, his family. We missed him and it took a toll on us all. We suddenly didn't have this young child that we protected and raised ourselves. I'm glad that my past is far behind me but on the bad days, I miss my brothers and sisters." Regina put her hand on Mal's belly and rubbed soothingly, to calm both herself and Mal.
"How did–" Regina cleared her throat. "How did Brett die?"
"A nearby prep school liked to party around the city a lot. One night, they stumbled upon us, our 'group' got into a fight with theirs, and they took it quite harshly. The next night, they came by with their parents' hunting rifles and shot at us. They missed everyone but Brett. I still remember the shooter's name: James Spencer." Mal could hear Regina sniffle harshly behind her.
"That's...oh my god." Mal put her hand on the one Regina laid on her belly. Nobody spoke, but it was peaceful after the heavy conversation.
"Would you like some dessert, my sweet?" Mal asked.
"I can grab it."
"No. I'm going." Mal got up and smirked at a Regina over her shoulder. Regina enjoyed the view of Mal bending over to grab the cookies from her bag and shamelessly ogled her backside. Mal turned around and walked back, catching the expression on Regina's face. She sat back down behind Regina and offered a cookie to her.
"After dessert, my love, we'll have our fun." Regina huffed and took a bite out of her cookie.
"If you insist." Mal laughed and pressed her forehead to Regina's temple.
"You're hair smells amazing," she whispered. Regina rolled her eyes and laughed. They both ate their cookies in silence, snuggled up against each other as the air grew chillier.
"Why don't we go check out that tent now?" Mal hugged Regina around the waist.
"I'd love to," she whispered. Regina stood up and offered a hand to Mal, helping off the ground. When she was standing, Regina put her arm under the backs of Mal's knees and her other arm on her back and lifted her off the ground.
"Gina! What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Mal rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "If you're gonna be like that, I should take down the tent and just take you home..."
"No. Don't do that." Regina chuckled.
"Fine." She walked through the open flap of the tent and laid Mal down on the mattress in the middle. "Do you like it?"
The tent's wall was decorated with glow sticks and Christmas lights. The mattress in the middle of the space was set with silk sheets and a thick duvet. A pot of melted chocolate was sitting next to the bed. The tent's skylight was open, the screen keeping bugs out but letting in the sight of the darkening sky and the stars beginning to show.
"I thought candles would be too dangerous to keep inside the tent so I decorated with non-flammable materials." Mal smiled and took in the room.
"You did wonderful."
"I've always wanted to try food play with you, but if you don't want to, I packed a container of strawberries for—"
"Definitely food play." Regina grinned, her smile even brighter with the multicoloured lights.