Present day
"What?" Regina hissed narrowing her eyes.
"Prince James was killed your majesty," the young man told her, "he had just won a battle against the giant of Numb and was celebrating, when the beast, in its final breath, drew his spear through the Prince's middle," he detailed, "I was there."
Regina's eyes had gone wide with the man's tale.
This cannot not be.
"I have been kept from coming sooner by my duties," he stated, "But as soon as I was able to get away I rode here to inform you, your majesty."
"And why haven't I been formally informed of this?" Regina's head was abuzz, James could not be dead, she would have known, his kingdom would have been in mourning; she would have been invited to a service of some kind, as it was customary.
"The King has locked himself inside his castle in his grief; he won't have anybody in, your majesty."
"Well, we will just see about that." Regina spat. "Leave."
She waved her hand, some gold coins appeared out of the think air and hit the man who crouched to pick them up, Regina sneered and banged the door in his face.
One more thing to add to her never-ending list of problems.
There was something sneaky about this business, about the King closing his doors on the event of the loss of his son; a King that Regina knew was bent on following at tradition. Something was off.
When she reopened the door to her chamber, her southern scout had long gone. She commanded the soldier who guarded the corridor to find Locksley and tell him to come to her at once.
She would go to the southern kingdom and see what was behind all this. After all, she was in charge right now and as a ruler she could come and go as she pleased. Everything had changed so much; not ten days ago, she was a prisoner in her own room, confined because of a mere statement she had made in a private diary.
She wanted to clear this odd story. The reason? Maybe because she was quite high on power and thought she had the right to do so, therefore she would. Maybe it was because during these past six months she had started nurturing feelings for the cocky prince. Started to think of him a friend. She had shown him probably the lightest part about her, the little that was left of it, her irony and her humor, her acid tongue which produced remarks that would steal roars of laughter from the Prince, his humor always keeping up.
She had not thought about the whole affair as anything romantic; true, they were lovers, but it had always been much more about the physical pleasure. The release each one was giving the other, anything other than sentimental. Regina could not bring herself to feel romantic inclinations towards any man, let alone 'Prince Charming'. The mere thought of it made her laugh.
Plus he did not know her, not really; he knew a part of her, the less terrifying one. Regina doubted anybody could ever accept all of her and come to love her as she was; hot headed, murderous, mercurial, impulsive and half-insane with several voices haunting her head.
The Prince would have ran to the hills if he had ever caught a glimpse of the true Regina.
There was a firm knock on the door and Regina knew only too well to whom that knock belonged, having had that hand work wonders on her body. She crossed the bedroom and swung open the door to find the thief on the other side, a smirk on his lips.
So infuriating.
"Good morning, your majesty" he said, hands in his pockets, Regina huffed, turned on her heel and walked inside the room without so much as a word to him. He followed her inside, closing the door behind him.
"I do not see why it is a good morning," Regina groaned, not really looking at him as she went to retrieve a pair of earrings from her dresser.
"Well-" he replied, Regina could see through the mirror that he was leaning against one of the posts of her bed, arms crossed, smug smile still gracing those lips, "-if you have called me up here at this hour, I can safely say it will be a good morning for you once I've finished my job."
Regina had to laugh, such a cocky man he was. Although being fucked by the outlaw had become one of Regina's favorite activities, he was also to have other uses for her.
"I wouldn't get too excited if I were you," Regina quipped, whilst she secured the large emerald earing, she looked back at him and noticed the outline of his erection was visible through the fabric of his trousers. "Although such a request in the face of the savage kind of person I'm dealing with is clearly useless."
He frowned at her statement, uncrossing his arms. "What do you want me to do then?"
"I'm going to the southern kingdom of King George's, I want you to oversee the arrangements for the journey, select a few man fit for the ride-"
But Regina's orders were interrupted by the voice she had grown to loathe more and more with each passing day.
"Your majesty!" His face appeared again on the central mirror of her dresser.
"What is it?" Regina hissed turning to face the mirror, she could see the outlaw draw his back from the bedpost, frowning.
"I think you should see this-" the mirror said and his image faded away to show the view from one of the mirrors in the dark one's castle, more specifically one that faced his spinning wheel.
Rumple was there spinning his useless straw into gold, more gold than he could ever spend, more gold than he ever needed, Regina wondered – not for the first time – why he did it.
The girl, Belle, walked into the room and Rumple looked up startled to see her.
"Back so soon?" He said, trying to not sound surprised.
"Admit it; you're happy that I'm back." She beamed. She looked gleeful, hopeful.
Just perfect
The girl sat on a stool near the spinning wheel as Rumple replied; "I'm not unhappy." in a tone Regina had never heard; light and playful, devout of any malice.
The girl looked down at her hands, then looked at Rumple, gathering her courage as she told him, "I did not intend to come back," she said, her voice was low and timid.
"Then why have you?" Rumple scrunched his features.
The girl looked right inside Rumple's twisted eyes and slowly her face approached his. He seemed to be too shocked to move. When her mouth was mere inches from his he leaned closer and the gap between them was closed.
They kissed. It was a tender, tentative, close-mouthed kiss. Much to Regina's delight, his complexion started to change color, get even rosier. The girl drew back and smiled at him, a beautiful, truthful love filled smile, Rumple looked confused and dizzy, his skin changing color, Regina was about to burst.
"It's working!" the girl beamed, she held his face with her hands.
"What?" Rumple moaned, his hand making its way to his temple, "What's going on?"
"Every curse can be broken," she quoted, happily. "Kiss me again."
She leaned to give him another kiss, the human tone of flesh having almost completely returned to his features.
"What?" Rumple was regaining his green color and conscious.
"Who told you that?" His voice had grown angry.
"She said that if it was true love's kiss you'd be free from your curse!" the girl smiled at him, love, so much love filling her eyes.
"She?" Rumple was even angrier now "Who is 'she'?"
He rose from his stool and looked straight at the mirror the genie was using to reflect the images, he stalked to it and pointed his finger towards the reflective surface.
"You!" he roared "This was you! You turned her against me!"
"What's going on?" the girl had risen from her seat and walked in his direction.
Rumple still had his glare fixed on Regina, she felt her cheeks burn, and her heart beat fast and hard in her chest. "You think you can make me weak?"
"Who are you talking to?" the girl insisted.
"The Queen-" he lifted his finger in that unnerving movement he always did "- your little friend, the Queen!"
"Yes!" Belle looked confused but still had a small smile playing on her lips, "She said, true love's kiss can break any curse and it worked." She started to walk towards him
Rumple quickly drew away from her as fast as he could.
"You have been working for her all along haven't you?" he roared back at her. "You never cared for me."
"No!" she insisted "It worked, it means it's true love, it means I lov-"
"It means nothing!" he screamed at her. "It means you were working for the Queen in order to defeat me! Of course."
"No, of course not! I just want to help you-" the girl begged, Regina could almost feel bad for her "-because I love-"
"DON'T SAY THAT!" he roared, his colorful power sparkling from his fingers as his fist hit the wooden table hard making a thunderous noise. "It's a lie," he said through clenched teeth.
The girl was brave and insisted closing the distance between them. "Why won't you believe me?"
He grabbed her by the biceps and shook her as he roared; "BECAUSE NO ONE COULD EVER LOVE ME!"
He pushed her back and the girl nearly fell, tripping over her own feet.
Tears started streaming from the girl's eyes "That's not true, you know it's not, otherwise the kiss would not have worked."
She cleared the tears from her cheeks; she dared to approach Rumple and stand in his personal space, facing him.
"Get out," he said through clenched teeth.
"You know I speak the truth," she replied her eyes narrowing.
"I never want to see your face again." Rumple looked at her with cold eyes, his voice gone low.
The girl was hurt by his words but stood her ground and said in a confident voice that surprised Regina. "You are just too scared to lose your powers."
She neared her face to his, their noses nearly touching.
"Coward."
She turned on her heels and ran out of the doors.
Rumple remained static, frozen on the spot as he watched the girl run away.
Regina had been holding her breath as she watched the scene play out, now everything was still and it looked like Rumple was not moving from that spot anytime soon. Only she was wrong; suddenly, he turned around and grabbed a golden candlestick, throwing it out the window, making an awful noise and a mess at the carpet. He faced the mirror once more - he knew Regina was watching - and slammed his foot on the reflective surface, breaking the glass and making the image of his distressed self disappear from Regina's mirror.
As the image died out, the hovering head reappeared on her mirror.
"Be gone!" Regina said instantly as she saw he was about to say something and his image disappeared.
Well… that did not go according to plan.
However, that kiss confirmed something to Regina, something she had been secretly hoping was not true; the girl loved him, all of him, just as he was. A jealousy she did not want to feel invaded her chest.
"That was the Dark One, wasn't it?" the outlaw - who had come to stand a few feet away from her to watch the scene – inquired.
"Yes," Regina replied in a breath.
"Well, the girl does have some balls to kiss him like that," the outlaw pointed out, trying to ease the heavy atmosphere.
"That she does" Regina said still looking at her reflection in the mirror, "I will probably have to do something about that," she said quietly to herself.
There was a silence that was broken by the outlaw cleaning his throat.
"So, do you want me to-?"
"No." Regina cut him off. "I have changed my mind."
She turned to face him, "I will journey my own way."
Without so much as another word Regina poofed herself from her chambers and found herself in the warm, familiar chambers of Prince James, a journey that would have taken her at least a whole day, over in a second.
She took in her surroundings; the room looked exactly the same except the lack of one charming Prince. It was dimly lit but for a few rays of sun that managed to pass through the windows.
Regina walked around grabbing her long skirts.
She had opted for a seemly less regal outfit in her rushed spell to get dressed. The pitch-black sleeveless corset had served as a top, held her middle tight and covered her breasts nicely, giving them a good lift. It was embroidered with many kinds of precious stones starting with brilliant black at the brim, changing to greys in the middle and finishing at the top with stones which were lighter, transparent white. Her skirts, for once, were not tight but rather quite flowing and did not restrain her movements as the majority of her clothes did. Her hair was down and tossed to the side; Regina had not had the time to think about it.
Regina inspected the unmade bed and could not help but smile, James' crumpled nightshirt mixed between the sheets. Regina reached out for it. It was still warm!
That bed had been slept in during the night.
He was alive.
Of course he was. The idea of him being dead was ridiculous, that boy must have been sent to her as a prank of some kind. Maybe James himself, it had been a month after all, maybe that was his way of telling her he was dying to see her.
Regina tossed the shirt back on his bed and started heading for the door, resolute in finding him and giving him a piece of her mind for playing pranks on her.
She stopped midway on her path towards the door, eyes wide.
And then what?
What would happen after they barked teasing words at each other?
Regina knew the answer, but a strange, cold sensation filled her stomach at the thought of it. It was not anticipation, it was not good, it was…
The door leading to the hallway swung open snapping Regina out of her musings, Regina's head shot in its direction and her eyes found the man she had been looking for, his expression startled.
Regina smirked at his choice of garments – a towel, wrapped low about his hips.
He opened his mouth and closed it twice whilst Regina started at him, an eyebrow lifted, her head slightly tilted to the side.
Tired of his silence, Regina broke it. "So you think it's funny?"
"I - " was all the Prince was able to utter, his hair still wet, he looked good. But-
"Was it you or that unnerving father of yours who sent that boy to my castle?" Regina snapped, she was very rarely a patient woman and today was not one of those days.
The Prince blinked twice, still speechless, one hand firmly holding onto his towel, the other dangling about his side. His mouth was hanging slightly open and his eyes started to travel about her figure, marveling at the tight curves her corset enhanced.
Regina was not in the mood for games so with a wave for her hand she used her magic to bang the door shut. The Prince gave a small startled jump and looked back at the closed door.
"Oh-" Regina said in a light voice "-I think I forgot to mention about my magic." She laughed when his face turned back to hers, his eyes wide.
"Oops" she teased.
He continued to stare, getting on Regina's last nerve.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" she shook her head "Never mind that. Tell me why you sent that scout with that ridiculous message to my castle."
She took several paces in his direction. "Did you want me confess to you that I was worried? That I cared?" Her expression was tight but her tone was light, she did care, she was worried, but she would be damned if she would ever confess to it.
"Were you?" he finally spoke, his voice was odd.
"Oh, it speaks!" She mused. "Did I care?" She pretended to think, "Well I never really believed it; your little prank did not work."
The Prince looked truly embarrassed and out of sorts when he murmured, "I'm sorry?"
"Ah James-" she huffed getting closer to him, she noticed he took two steps back "- if you wanted to see me, certainly you could have come up with a better message. Things are a far cry from what they once were dear, now that Leopold is gone."
"King Leopold?" he questioned.
"Yes! My dear late husband, who else?" Regina frowned, what was he trying to achieve with this?
"You're the Queen?" His eyes were wide.
"Has somebody knocked you over the head with a heavy instrument James?"
"I am-" he tried, he looked so out of sorts, so confused, it was endearing and irritating, and hot since his eyes raked her breasts, which were almost bursting from her corset with her every heavy breath. Again, it enticed her.
Regina stopped three mere feet from him and inspected his form. His skin was a little bit wet, a single hand still holding onto the towel whilst the other made its way to his hair, showcasing that strong bicep he had.
I had forgotten how attractive he was, but something is not right.
Regina pushed the thought away.
"Never mind that." She sighed, "I'm here now, that's what you wanted, right?" she looked him dead in the eye and without a second to lose grabbed the towel and tore it from his body.
His reaction was the very last thing she expected him to do; he let out a surprised yelp and immediately covered his member with his hands, which drew a hearty laugh from Regina.
"What on earth is wrong with you, James?" she said with the smile from her laughs still on her lips. "It's nothing I have not seen before dear."
"You have?" he looked puzzled.
"What game is it that you are playing, James?" Regina started growing irritated once more "I would think you would remember you had that up my ass on more than one occasion."
"What?" he whispered, Regina could see his cheeks grow a shade of red and closed the space between their bodies and looked deep inside his eyes.
They were the same tone of light blue she remembered and yet were a completely different set altogether. Those eyes told her a different story, a story she had not seen reflected upon them all the numerous times she had looked upon them. They held kindness and fear and something else Regina had not seen in a very long time; innocence.
She jerked her body back a little bit at the revelation his eyes told her.
This was not James.
Although he looked just like him, it was not James, not by a long shot.
Regina's free hand – the other one still held his towel – went instinctively to the impostor's throat, choking him as she demanded through clenched teeth; "Who are you?"
His hands had decided to stop hiding his modesty to try and extract her hands from his throat. She quickly dropped one whilst the other clutched his cheeks, her eyes were wide.
"I know you are not the Prince." She whispered, dangerously low. "No need in pretending that you are. Tell me what this is about! Where is he?" Her voice had risen.
"Dead," he managed to say through her firm grip, she let go of his face immediately at the revelation and took two steps back.
"How?" it was a mere whisper.
"He was killed by an adversary he thought already dead while he celebrated the victory." The man who bore James' face explained in earnest.
"So the messenger was telling the truth -" Regina said more to herself. "Who are you then? Is that some sort of glamour spell?" her eyes snapped back at his.
"No." he said simply "I'm the Prince's twin brother."
Regina's eyes went wide, "Oh! That would explain a lot." she eyed him suspiciously, "If-" she lifted a single finger and took a dangerous step towards him, "-James had a twin brother." her hand was ready to find home in his neck once more for trying to deceive her but he spoke before had the chance to act.
"He never knew." The man spoke, his tone was so sincere that it made Regina hesitate. She opened her mouth but no reply came out, this situation was rather unsettling, he carried on, "I myself only learned the truth but a couple of days ago." He spoke most earnestly but stood there awkwardly, not a stitch of clothing covering his modesty, Regina could only guess he was not accustomed to the opposite sex seeing him in such a way.
"The truth?" she finally found her voice, but this time it was a bit lighter, she found herself believing him and wanting to know what had come to pass.
"Yes well-" he rotated his shoulders back one time and looked down at the towel, which was still being held on Regina's mighty grip.
She gave him back the towel upon instinct feeling odd about this whole exchange, somehow it did not seem right to look at him like that anymore, even though she had seen James naked time and time again. But this was not James, not by a long shot and he - whoever he was - did not want her to look at him. Regina was brought back for a moment to her first year of being married, of how she had felt on her wedding night, of how she had felt every night after that. No one deserved to feel that way.
"James was adopted by the King." he explained, "I remained with my family in our farm."
"If you were twins-" she tilted her head a little to the side, "Why didn't the King take you in as well?"
"That was not part of the deal." he said simply and Regina was intrigued by this young man.
"Deal? What deal?" she inquired.
"I probably should not have mentioned that." he grew a little pink and took a deep breath through his nose.
Regina knew this was none of her business but she was far too curious to let the subject go. Plus, she despised King George, anything that she could learn that could be used against him would be more than welcome.
"You can tell me," Regina tried and convince him, "Your brother trusted me completely." she lied.
"Were you close to my brother then?" he asked, his eyes gleamed with something different.
"I would say that was pretty obvious since I tore out your towel." Regina gave him, and added a small smirk.
Let us see if this brother is easy to fool as well.
He gave her a nervous laugh, unlike anything James had ever produced, "My parents-" he started, "-had to make a deal with a foul creature."
Deal, foul creature - he must be talking about Rumpelstiltskin.
"They had nothing else to offer him when he came to collect." his brow creased as he told the tale, "The creature said that the debt would be erased if my mother gave one child away."
"And so she chose your brother? James?" Regina found herself asking, intrigued by this unlikely story.
He sighed and closed his eyes, "Yes,"
There was a moment of silence in which Regina regarded the young man with interest, she still found it rather impossible that someone who was the spitting image of James was so very little like him. Sure, he had the handsome jaw and the piercing blue eyes, but he did not navigate them as James once had, always in his favor, his lips always curling in a wicked grin.
When the silence grew awkward Regina cleaned her throat, thinking to herself what on earth was she still doing there, "So, do you like your new life as a royal?" she found herself asking.
"Meaning no offence your majesty," he replied, "But no."
Regina huffed and gave him, "Well, we have that in common."
When his eyes widened a little, Regina immediately regretted having said that. What was she thinking?
"What?" he half whispered, looking as if he had heard her wrong.
"What I meant to say-" she started, hoping to heavens she did not blush and thanking her lucky stars the room was dimly lit, "Your brother wasn't very keen in the formalities of court either."
"Oh," he looked down for a moment, then back at her and added with a sincerity that shocked her, "I wish I had known him."
It was at that moment that Regina's penny finally dropped; she breathed in a large gulp of breath and sighed.
James was indeed dead.
And although they had not shared a large amount of tender sentiment, Regina could not help but feel saddened by the loss. Her face settled in a grave expression as she looked down at the floor.
To Regina's utter surprise, the young man broke the silence, "I'm sorry then -" he said simply and she looked up at his words, confused, he added,"- for your loss."
Those simple words had rended her completely speechless, the way he treated her was so different she felt dizzy. It was quite clear that he did not know of what had come to pass in her Kingdom over the last couple of weeks, he did not know what Queen Regina was willing to do, what the Evil Queen was capable of.
She found herself asking him in a rather cold manner, "What's your name?"
"David."
"Well David," she tossed his name, trying to sound indifferent, she had to get out of that place, "I trust you won't breathe a word of what just happened to anybody, is that clear?" her voice was low and dangerous.
"Yes, of cour-" but Regina had entangled herself far too much in this situation, so she commanded her magic to take her back to her bedchambers. She had to admit it was quite entertaining seeing him stop mid-sentence and gape as a cloud of purple smoke enveloped her frame and made her disappear.
Regina felt her head was going to explode.
A twin brother?
Dead?
A cold dread took residence on the pit of her stomach as she sat on the edge of her made bed, clutching her middle subconsciously, a frown wrinkling her forehead.
She had to laugh at the memory of the stunned twin brother when she pulled his towel. She should have known then that that was not James. But laughing made her head ache even more. Thinking of this twin, David, made her confused.
Regina needed a drink. Or maybe twenty…
…
He was there in bed with her, doing what they did best together. He was on top of her thrusting his member inside her with force, making her feel that nice sting, that smug smirk on the corner of his lips as she cried out for more.
He was alive.
Of course, he was alive.
Regina was glad he was alive.
But out of the blue his face started to change, his eyes remained blue but the depths were not the same, they held something dark, evil. His hair grew a few shades darker and Regina watched in awe how his chin, his cheeks, his whole face morphed. The sting was gone, but it gave place to a zapping sensation she was sure was so much better than the previous feeling.
That man, his touch was unmatched, it made her feel whole with very passing thrust driving her insane with desire. It felt so good, it felt too good.
She felt whole-
Regina woke up in the same clothes as she was wearing the day before, or partially so. She had managed to loosen her bindings on her tight corset during the night, after the sweet wine had made its way to her head, making her dizzy and sleepy.
She looked out of the window and noticed the sun shining bright outside.
Had she slept the whole morning?
When Regina moved from her spot on the bed she instantly felt a shiver at the memory of the previous night's dream.
The thief.
The image of James was somehow morphed into the outlaw's and Regina did not feel like rationalizing much about it – she was actually afraid to do so – so she quickly rose from her bed and went for the door, grabbing the first robe she could find.
She did not want to think about the implications of dreaming so much about that man but she sure could have him make her dreams come true right now.
Regina poked her head outside her chambers and the guard almost fainted when she yelled; "You! Get Locksley in here immediately."
He turned to face her, bowing his head and replied.
"But your majesty-" he said gravely, "-Locksley left the Castle yesterday."