Here's an entry for OQ Month, sorry this update has taken so long! Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
"You're the Evil Queen?" the boy who had quickly captured her attention repeated. "Really? But everyone always makes fun of me for still believing fairy tales are real. According to them, you shouldn't exist."
She nodded slowly, fearing his reaction. "I don't know what fairy tales are, but yes, I am the Evil Queen."
To her surprise, he didn't recoil, or run away screaming. Instead, he cocked his head to the side and asked, "You don't know what fairy tales are? You are one!"
"Am I?" she asked. It didn't really answer her question, but it did give her something else to ponder. Curious, she inquired, "How are you not afraid of me?" Every single one of the villagers in her kingdom, and even her black knights, were so terrified of her that they barely dared to speak a single word to her, How was it that this young boy, who due to his age and apparent prior knowledge of her should be scared senseless of the very idea of her, was instead engaging her in conversations like she was an ordinary person?
He shrugged. "It's easy. I always knew there had to be more to your story. No one is all evil." His eyes lit up. "Was I right?"
She nodded. Although she refused to get into the details of her turbulent past- he may be old enough for them, but she wasn't sure they wouldn't scare him to the point of running away from her- she would happily admit that much. Maybe if she set the record straight, together, she and the astute boy would be able to- No. There was not even the slightest chance that she would be able to earn redemption here. Nor did she want to. All she wanted was her revenge on Snow White. How was that one simple thing so complicated that it was proving to be impossible?
She was distracted from her irritating inner monologue when the boy beside her whooped for joy. Clearly, the darkness in her past was no deterrent for him. "Did you really try to rip out Snow White's heart? How did you become evil? What potion did you use to poison the apple? Can you tell me, Your Majesty?"
His questions, half of which she didn't understand, seemed endless. She didn't mean to open this line of questioning, but now that she had, she needed answers of her own. "I prefer Regina. You haven't told me your name, how am I supposed to tell you all of that? I don't even understand half of those questions."
"Oh, sorry!" the boy before her apologized quickly. He held out his hand. "I'm Henry."
She stared at his hand, not knowing what he wanted her to do. Sensing her confusion (or just reading her expression correctly), the boy kindly taught her, "You're supposed to shake it."
Strange custom… but, as she had to frequently remind herself, she wasn't in the Enchanted Forest anymore, so she had to blend in. She took his hand, which seemed so small compared to her own, in hers, marveling all the while that this surreal moment was happening. Surely, he should be running away from her, terrified… right?
She hesitantly took his hand in hers and shook it. "Please don't call me Your Majesty," she pleaded, shuddering at the memories that title brought up, the man who had also held that title and terrorized her. Yes, the position had served her well, but it also reminded her of a man who still haunted her nightmares on a regular basis. She couldn't bear the thought of her former husband, and trying to fit that vile man and this sweet, insightful boy in her head at the same time was an impossible task that she didn't even want to attempt. "My name is Regina."
"Hi Regina!" he greeted her cheerfully as he shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you!"
"It's nice to meet you too," she replied, echoing his sentiment. She meant it, too. She wasn't used to interacting with someone so innocent (in fact, she still wondered why someone so pure was even talking to her), and she was convinced that nothing good would come of their blossoming friendship. Surely, the fact that this boy was quickly worming his way into her heart would mean nothing good for him at some point. Which meant that she had to stop all of this before it went any further… right?
Apparently some of what she was thinking was written on her face, because the boy squeezed her hand. "It's okay to be scared. I'm not going to hurt you."
She laughed and admitted, "I'm not worried about you hurting me at all. I'm only worried that I'll hurt you."
"You won't hurt me!" he replied, so confident in his statement, the sentiment that filled her making her stomach churn and tie itself in knots regardless of his reassurance. If only he knew… "We're friends, aren't we?"
"I… I've never had a friend before," she admitted. And to her dismay, she realized just how true that was. Their family estate hadn't been close to any others in the area, either in distance or as acquaintances. Cora Mills certainly never deemed any of the children nearby good enough for her daughter to associate with. As a result, Mal was the closest thing she had ever had to a friend… and they had certainly crossed the line between friendship and something more enough times that she doubted she could even apply that word to the dragon at all. And Daniel… like she and Mal, they had fallen in love so quickly that their friendship had barely lasted any amount of time at all.
He cocked his head to the side. "Really?"
"Really," she told him with a small smile. "So I might not be very good at it, especially at first."
He shook his head. "You're a great friend so far!"
"So far," she pointed out. "Who knows what will happen later. Bad things always happen to people who try to be my friend."
"You can try to scare me all you want, I know everything will be okay!" he said confidently.
She raised her eyebrows. "We'll see about that." Suddenly remembering, she asked, "What happened to your friend? Roland, right?"
The look on his face at her words was heartbreaking. Clearly, he had a story to tell. "We got separated. I told him to wait for me while I went to find us some food, but when I got back, he was gone, and I don't know where he is, and it was too late, so I was too tired to look, and…"
With each word he spoke, his voice became more and more high-pitched, and he began to hyperventilate. Her heart poured out to him and she reached out a soothing hand to lay it on his shoulder. "Shhh, it'll be all right," she whispered, praying that her words would come true. She hardly dared to believe it, but she wanted his happiness more than she had wanted anything (except Snow White's demise, of course) in a long time.
She wanted to use her magic to make something to make him feel better, but every time she tried, nothing happened. Then she remembered where she was and wished she could put a curse on this land. Why did she have to end up in the one realm that didn't have magic right when she actually wanted to use it to help someone? It had been so long since the days when she had once wanted to be kind to Snow White that even the idea of helping someone, no matter how old or young they were, was so foreign that she needed a moment to identify it. Somehow, this boy had wormed his way into her heart in ways she had never expected, and she had no idea how he had done it. Was it his innocence? His desire to help someone other than himself, something she herself hadn't wanted to do (other than her father, of course) in such a long time?
He shook his head adamantly. "No it won't! I promised his mom I would look after him, and now he's gone, and I don't know where he went, and-"
"Shh," she whispered, both her hand and heart reaching out to him. To her never-ending surprise, he welcomed her touch, allowing her to wrap her arm around him. How in all the realms did he manage to trust her, even knowing what he somehow did about her story? Was it his innocence? His youth? Were they the same thing? No matter what it was, he was foolish to trust her, to side with her on anything- hadn't history proven that? She wouldn't want anything like what had happened to Daniel to happen to anyone else who dared to get close to her, especially to someone as young as Henry.
For a second, she was lost in the memory, her love's heart in the palm of her mother's hand. Now, years later, she cursed herself for her naivete. What had she expected? Her mother didn't have a heart, for crying out loud. There was no room for love in her, so she couldn't be sympathetic to anyone's cause, least of all her own daughter's. "Do you have places where you usually meet? Looking in those places might help us find him." She didn't know much about tracking someone without a locator spell, but that was as good a place to start as any, right?
Henry was silent for a second, then began to recite, "The playground, the park, Emma's…" His eyes lit up in what she hoped was sudden realization. "Emma's! Maybe he got hungry and went there!"
"All right, let's go look, then," Regina encouraged. "You know how to get there, right?" she verified.
He nodded. "Of course!"
He jumped up and started to go toward the door, then looked over at Graham. "Is he coming too?"
Regina sighed and looked over at Graham, considering. She had known exactly what she was doing when she bound him to her, making him never leave her side and not giving him a choice in the matter. But being trapped in this new realm had come with its own unforeseen challenges, not least of which was the boy standing in front of her. She didn't want him to be in tow wherever she and Henry went, but she didn't want him running off to do who knows what, either. It was a predicament that she had never thought she'd find herself in- after all, hadn't she thought this through back in the Enchanted Forest? Keep him by her side at (almost) all times, remind him just how powerful she was, and get him to bow to her will and hunt Snow White so he could bring her heart back to her?
It had been a good plan in theory, but now, coming to the Land without Magic was complicating the situation. She had become attached to Henry more quickly than she ever thought possible, so she didn't want Graham tagging along everywhere they went. However, she also didn't want him running to whatever authorities lurked in this land. After all, if she had to guess, keeping someone prisoner was a punishable offense, and in her own realm, a jail cell would be no match for her magical abilities, but here? She wasn't like that thief Robin Hood, who had been a thorn in Sheriff Nottingham's side for longer than she could remember. She knew that trying to break out of a jail cell without her magic would be beyond her abilities.
So what to do, then? She had to come up with a solution that helped Henry feel safe around her (even though the word "safe" and her name in the same sentence was still such a foreign concept to her). But how to do that without dropping the persona that she needed to maintain for her kingdom's sake? Granted, she had despised her role in the kingdom for longer than she could remember, had spent countless hours wondering why her mother had forced her own ambitions on her, but she did enjoy that no one had control over her life anymore. She had had more than enough of that with her mother, had dreaded the possibility of her returning from Wonderland.
After a few moments of thought, she just shook her head. She'd figure it out later. For now, all she knew was that she wanted to protect Henry. She chuckled darkly at the thought of what the Dark One or the Queens of Darkness (especially Mal) would say if they knew what she was thinking at that very moment. Rumple (and her mother, come to think of it) would tell her that her heart would get her into trouble one day, that love was weakness. Mal would have unwavering faith in her, that she was the Evil Queen through and through. Ursula… Truthfully, she didn't quite know what Ursula would think, but she would goad her, push her into revealing who she truly was. Cruella would call her soft, and like Ursula, push her to reveal who she really was. She could just picture it now: the two of them encouraging all four of them to be in some kind of dangerous situation, maybe make the four of them stand in the middle of a path when they knew a carriage was going by.
Regina?" Henry asked, cocking his head to the side.
It was only in that moment that she realized that she hadn't answered him. Finally, she said, "He'll get some food for us to have for the rest of the day." There. That would keep him away from her and Henry, but ensure that he was still doing something for her at the same time.
The huntsman's eyes were daggers when he looked at her, and she knew that he hadn't forgiven her for taking his heart and binding him to do her, making him follow her every command. She knew that he also had a weakness for the child with them though, which was proven when he simply nodded with no argument.
Good. Maybe having the huntsman do her bidding wouldn't be as cumbersome as she thought after all, as long as whatever she asked also benefited Henry. As he started to walk away, she jumped up from where she and Henry had been sitting on the stable floor and walked over to him. Once they were far enough away that Henry wouldn't be able to hear them, she hissed, "And don't even think about running away, or telling anyone about our little arrangement. That stays between you and me, no one else."
He nodded curtly and went on his way. Turning her attention back to Henry, she said, "Shall we?"
(********)
Robin decided to explore the house where they had found shelter for the night before they tried to find Henry. He took one moment to glance back at Roland, but knew the little boy would be all right for just a little while. Robin would make his wanderings quick to make sure of it.
Walking to the next room on feet that had long ago learned the art of remaining silent, Robin beheld all manner of strange contraptions. There was a basin with a long curved structure on top of it. When Robin pulled what appeared to be a lever, he was amazed when water came out.
Turning his attention to the other items in the room, he saw something with knobs on top and a handle, which he was able to pull down to reveal racks stacked on top of each other. He turned some of the knobs and saw a red light begin to glow on one of the circular patches on top of the device. Waving his hand over it, he felt heat, and his eyes lit up. If only he and the Merry Men had one of these in Sherwood Forest! They would never have to light a fire and risk revealing themselves to any predators, human or otherwise.
"Are you cooking breakfast?" a high-pitched voice asked behind him.
Robin turned to find Roland standing in the doorway. "I'm going to try," he answered tentatively, admitting, "I've never used one of these before."
Roland frowned. "Me either. Mama always went to Emma's for everything. She's really nice."
Robin knelt so he could look his young friend in the eye. "Do you think you know how to get there?"
Slowly, Roland nodded. "I think so, if you can get us back to where we met."
Robin confirmed that he could with a nod and stood, taking Roland's hand in his. Together they walked out of the house and went back to the place in the forest where they had first met. From there, Roland began leading him in a different direction, quickly making his way through the trees, assuring Robin, "We'll be there soon!"
(********)
Taking her hand in his, Henry led Regina out of the stables and around to the front of the white farmhouse that shared the same plot of land. She wondered what the people inside were thinking, if they wondered who she and the huntsman were, what they were doing there. She had no intention of finding out, of interacting with more people than she had to in this strange land where her magic was failing her at every attempt to wield it.
"How far is Emma's?" she asked. Her unwilling servant may have found her a change of clothes, but he had not bothered to find her a different pair of shoes. Typical man, she supposed. Men never cared about their footwear, whereas women, herself included, cared about making a statement with every aspect of their appearance. The clothes she had been given the night before, for example, were a far cry from the attire she customarily wore in the Enchanted Forest. She was dressed in some kind of short dress that only fell to her hips and pants that were blue and felt different, rougher, than the riding pants she had worn when she rode Rocinante, but no less comfortable. The high heels on her ebony shoes would be no match for traversing a great distance.
"It's not far at all!" Henry assured her.
That smile of his and his bright hazel eyes made her melt so much that she found that she didn't care. As long as she was with Henry, she would tolerate any discomfort that she endured, no matter how severe.
A half hour later, she was taking back her words. The straps of her heels were digging into the insides of her feet, and the balls of her feet hurt from the strain that had been given to them by being burdened with carrying her entire weight for too long. "Are we there yet?" she panted, gasping for air, the hot sun overhead a stark contrast to the brisk winter months she had been experiencing back in the Enchanted Forest.
"Yeah, it's right there!" Henry said, pointing to a structure ahead of them. A white building stood before them, customers coming in and out signifying to Regina that they could find good food there.
She was hesitant to enter, but Henry, seeming to sense her nervousness, squeezed her hand, which he still had clasped in his. "Don't worry, it'll be okay," he promised. "Emma's nice. She makes the best food, and she always lets us help make all the desserts, and even lick the spoon when we're done!"
"Does she?" Regina asked, fighting to hold back a grin. She could picture it: Henry with batter and flour all over his face, hands, and clothes, a matronly woman by his side with a towel trying in vain to clean up the mess he had made, an even younger boy with a matching disheveled appearance by his side.
"Yeah!" Henry said. "My favorite is her chocolate chip cookies! She does them homemade, not from a package like you can get at the store. We make the batter from scratch and everything!"
"That we do," a woman with hair that seemed to capture the sunlight that was so long it fell to her pants confirmed as she walked up to them. Focusing her razor-sharp gaze on Regina, she asked, "Who's your new friend, Henry?"
"This is Regina!" Henry informed her excitedly. "She's the E-"
"I'm just passing through," Regina cut in quickly. Who knew what this woman would say if she knew that a boy who was frequently left in her care was fraternizing with the likes of the Evil Queen? If Henry was to be believed, some version of her story had been spread far and wide in this land, and she didn't want the woman in front of them to forbid Henry from seeing her again. Yes she had just met the boy, yes, nothing good happened to those she cared about, but she had fallen head over heels in love with this boy nevertheless, and already couldn't bear the thought of not seeing him again. What that meant once she figured out a way to return to her kingdom, she didn't know, but she did know that she didn't want to lose a single second of their time together. "I'm Regina."
Once again that gaze was so piercing that Regina had a feeling that if Emma lived in the Enchanted Forest, she would be able to tell when anyone was lying. "Sheriff Emma Swan, but you can just call me Emma. Everyone does, including this one," she informed her, ruffling Henry's hair.
To Regina's dismay, her next question was, "Where's Roland? You two are usually thick as thieves."
Henry and Regina glanced at each other, both frowning and sighing. "He's not here with you?" Henry asked.
Emma shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. "What have I told you, Henry?"
"If I couldn't take care of Roland, you'd make us both stay with you," Henry mumbled.
Already protective of this boy and the little boy that she hadn't even met yet, Regina stared the other woman down, letting her face the full wrath of the Evil Queen. "You let him be unsupervised with an even younger child? Why didn't you make them stay with you?"
Emma glanced at Henry, then whispered in her ear, "Because I didn't want my roommate bringing men home and giving impressionable young minds ideas that shouldn't be in their heads for a long time yet. None of that is any of your concern though, so I suggest you mind your own business."
When she pulled away, Henry glanced between them curiously. Regina had no intention of telling him what was said, however- after all, as Emma had said, Henry was much too young to have that information.
"Enough of this, I need to get to work," Emma huffed. "What can I get you?"
"I… don't know," Regina slowly admitted, looking at the paper in front of her.
"Well, while you figure that out, I'll go to the customers who know what they want," Emma said.
Once she had walked away, Regina perused the list of food that was offered at Emma's establishment. None of it was familiar to her, not the drinks or the variety of food offered, so finally she admitted to her dining companion, "I've never had any of this in the Enchanted Forest. What do you recommend?"
His eyes widened in surprise. "You haven't?"
When she shook her head, he was off, telling her about all of the "tasty" food on the menu. There were waffles (an orange, bready square that was best with some things called butter and syrup), French toast (bread dipped in a mixture with eggs, again with the butter and syrup things that she still didn't understand exactly what they were), something called an omelette (eggs wrapped around meat and cheese and sometimes veggies, she was informed), pancakes (a floury cake with fruit or chocolate inside) and breakfast sandwiches (bread around various fillings).
"So which do you think you want?" Henry asked right when Granny appeared at their table for the second time.
Regina glanced down at the menu with new eyes, thankful that her father had ensured that she learned how to read when she was young. She looked at the list of different types of french toast offered, not finding the one she most wanted- so it was time to ask. "I'd like french toast, but with apples instead of strawberries."
Emma crossed her arms. "This is a restaurant, not a palace kitchen. If Your Majesty wants something that's not on the menu, go find somewhere that does. I like serving Henry's friends, but I don't want to start doing this and make it a habit for anyone to just walk in here and order dishes that aren't on the menu. If you want apples, they're in the donuts, as you can plainly see on the menu."
Closing the menu, Regina said, "Very well, then. Apple donuts it is." The use of her title made her nervous. Once Emma had left them alone again, she asked Henry, "She knows who I am? This was a bad idea." If Emma knew who she was and as much about her story as Henry did, as an adult in Henry's life, surely she wouldn't allow him to be around her for much longer. It was better to sever ties now, spare them both the heartache of becoming even closer and being separated.
She stood to leave, but Henry said in a rush, "I think she just meant that you were being picky, like a queen. I'm sure she doesn't know who you are, you don't look like the Evil Queen in the movie."
"Oh?" Regina questioned, her eyebrows raising to her hairline. "And what does the Evil Queen look like? And what exactly is a movie?"
"It's people recorded as they act out a story. Snow White is an animated one of those," Henry attempted to explain. At her look of confusion, he clarified, "It's like a play, but you can watch it anytime you want instead of waiting for them to perform one at a theater."
She smirked and laughed. "I can get people to act out a play for me anytime I want. I am the Queen, after all." Her face fell as she muttered, "Not that anyone would want to."
Clearly, her dining companion had heard her final words, because he asked, "Do people not want to perform plays for you because you're the Evil Queen?"
She was spared from answering him by the chiming of the bell above the door into the tavern. She turned around and saw a man and a little boy who only came up to just past the man's knees enter. There was something about the man that seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She returned her attention to Henry. Whatever unnerved her about this man, she would figure it out later.
(********)
Robin entered the "diner" that to him seemed exactly like a tavern and stopped dead in his tracks.
There she was: the Evil Queen. He hadn't quite expected to find her so soon, but he supposed that fate had a funny way of working out in his favor sometimes. She must have gotten her hands on clothes from this realm, just as he had, and he paused for a moment, wondering how he should proceed. On the one hand, acting like he didn't know her would allow him to work from within to figure out where Graham was, given that he wasn't sitting at the table with them. However, there was also his code to consider- and it was strictly against his code to lie, even if it was to help a friend.
In the time he had taken to consider his next move, Roland had inexplicably rushed over to the Queen, and Robin was immediately concerned, wanting him to be out of harm's way. Then he noticed the boy sitting with the Evil Queen, and he lifted his head to the sky, wondering how and why life had turned out the way it did. He had to be truthful to uphold his code of honor, but considering the way Roland was talking to the boy with the Queen, he would have to do so carefully. He didn't want the little boy to be disappointed in his actions, young and impressionable as he was. So the minute he and the Queen were alone, he would let her know exactly who he was and demand to know where Graham was. But until then, he would be the picture of civility, even if it killed him to do so.
"Milady," he greeted her as he approached the table where they were all sitting, the boys sitting next to each other across from her, talking animatedly about something about this realm that was over his head. "I don't believe we've met. Robin Locksley."
"Regina Mills," she answered in kind, holding out her hand.
He stared at it for a minute, too disgusted at the idea of touching the despicable woman's hand to do anything else. Then he realized that this must be a custom of this land that she had discovered in their short time there, and he reluctantly placed his hand in hers. Unlike his own, her hand was soft and delicate in his rough, calloused grasp. If he hadn't already known everything about her, he would have been able to deduce that she had lived in the lap of luxury her entire life, a life that had clearly been drastically different from his own.
He ended the handshake as quickly as he could and reluctantly sat down next to her, the only seat available at the table. He had noticed how different this town was to anywhere in Sherwood Forest or the Enchanted Forest on his way here- lampposts, stores that were taller than almost any building he had ever seen, hard roads instead of the well-worn paths he was used to- but those differences were magnified here, with all sorts of things he wasn't used to surrounding them, visual and sensory reminders of where they were.
Thankfully, their young companions kept up a riveting conversation throughout their meal. At one point, Roland said he had to use the bathroom (whatever that was), and the Queen suggested that Henry go with him, which Robin was grateful for. He didn't want any young ears around for this.
Once they were out of earshot, he hissed, "Don't think I don't know what you're doing."
There was a flash of fear in her eyes (good), but all she did was smirk. "And what, exactly, am I doing?"
"Getting everyone to believe you're just an ordinary woman, when I know you are in fact the most evil woman in all the realms."
Her eyes widened in realization. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the infamous thief. Tell me, how did you get to the Land Without Magic?"
"That's none of your concern," he said, unwilling to reveal that he had followed them through the portal. "What you should be worried about is what I'm going to do now that I'm here. Graham won't be in your clutches for much longer."
She laughed. "And how exactly do you think you'll free him? There's no magic here, dear, so he's stuck the way he is."
Part of him breathed a sigh of relief. Good. Then she wouldn't be able to cast yet another spell on him to make sure he never remembered his friends. But then she shouldn't have been able to- "How is he still under your control then?"
She smirked. "Even if I knew how things worked in this land, why would I tell you?"
He realized in that moment that he had leaned forward at some point in their conversation so they were almost nose-to-nose, but now he leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. "No matter what, I'll figure out a way to free him."
She smirked. "You think you have what it takes to go up against the Evil Queen? Then let the games begin, thief. Let the games begin."
At that precise moment, the boys reappeared. It was decided that they would stay with Robin in the abandoned house he and Roland had discovered the night before, but before that, the boys wanted to go to the park.
After hours of both Henry and Roland showing Robin and the Evil Queen the adventures they liked to have at the park, it was time for them to part ways. "Aren't you coming with us, Regina?" Henry asked when Regina turned to leave.
"I don't think that's the best idea, you boys will have more fun without me," she said, Robin very much relieved that she had turned him down before he had to do it.
"No, Gina, come with us! Please?" Roland pleaded, hands clasped in front of him. Clearly, the Queen had already put him under her spell. Why was it that that happened to everyone he knew? He knew who she really was, so she would have no chance of bewitching him.
She sighed, looking from one boy to the other, then to Robin, her eyebrows raised. "Well? What do you think?"
He should keep his new friends close and his enemies closer. "Lead the way, Your Majesty." He didn't know what would happen next, but no matter what, if she was close by, he would find a way to free Graham… Somehow.