A/N: This was inspired by a tweet, I really have no idea what it's become though - a bit of chaos; maybe some humour and a kind of jealous Emma Swan. I hope you enjoy 😊
...SQ...
It doesn't take long for Emma to begin to notice the increasing levels of blondes in town. Well mostly blonde anyway. Some of the townsfolk, who've decided to change their hair colour for whatever reason, really should've made an appointment at the hair salon rather than attempted it themselves. But hey Emma isn't one to judge.
It's not until a few days later when she's at Granny's that she understands why this is happening.
"Hey Ruby, could I get a—" Emma cuts herself off, freezing in place as she looks up noticing Ruby for the first time today.
She's now a redhead. Well almost, in some places on her head at least. Her dye job has definitely gone wrong.
Emma plops down onto the stool at the bar and bursts out laughing. "I—what did you do?" she manages between bouts of laughter.
Ruby hits her on the arm playfully, "Stop laughing Em!"
"Please don't tell me you've become a part of this crazy blonde trend too?" she asks after calming down.
"I was just trying to impress—" Ruby stops as the bell over the diner door dings and she glances over. She turns a bright shade of red, ducks her head and quickly hides beneath the counter. Well that's new. What in the world?
Emma raises an eyebrow, "Impress who? Ruby?"
"I can't let her see me like this," Ruby squeaks from beneath the counter.
"Who can't you—" Emma stops, turning towards the door and her eyes widen as everything clicks into place all at once.
Maleficent. And her entourage, including Regina. They're friends. Whatever, it doesn't bother Emma.
And yes fine she feels herself blush and wants to hide at the sight of Regina, but that's beside the point.
Maleficent struts into the diner in a fancy suit, ruby red lips and perfectly coifed blonde hair, her little group follow closely behind. She leads them to a table in the corner and Emma watches as the mostly blonde patrons of the diner swoon with each step she takes.
Of course.
Maleficent had appeared in town a few days back, just before everyone started to go crazy with dying their hair. And it makes sense people would want to look like her, I mean who wouldn't want to look like that?
Emma grits her teeth. She's not jealous thank you very much. No, not at all. She has blonde hair too and she can make a suit work if she really tries, why should she be jealous right? Except her eyes land on Regina and watch the way she watches Mal and damn it—okay so maybe Emma's a little bit jealous.
A group of almost blondes sitting at a table close to the bar whisper and giggle between themselves as they eye Mal's table, Emma rolls her eyes and grumbles before looking back over.
She watches as the sunlight filters in through the window and glints off of Regina's features highlighting them in a soft glow, feels a smile pull at her lips and almost falls out of her chair when Regina looks up and makes eye contact, watching her intently. Emma gulps, pushes down the urge to go talk to her—not in front of Mal—offers a crooked toothy grin and rushes out of there, almost falling out of the diner in her haste.
Dammit.
...SQ...
Emma rolls over and groans at the blaring device on her bedside table, in hindsight it probably wasn't the brightest idea staying up till 4am playing Candy Crush on her phone. She moves over to turn it off for the umpteenth time today when she notices the slew of missed calls and texts from her family and random townsfolk, each more alarming than the next.
Mom: emma sweetie wake up
Mom: we have new guests in town
Dad: troll attack at clock tower!
Dad: ur mom thinks they might be friendly
Leroy: TROLLS
Henry: ma there's a troll attack!
Henry: where r u?
Henry: nvm mom and mal are handling it
She jumps up in a panic, toppling off of the bed and bumping her hip in the process – that's going to leave a bruise. Grabbing the closest pieces of clothing she can find, she shoves them on over her tank top and underwear and poofs to the clock tower.
When she gets there she finds there are no trolls in sight and the townsfolk are cheering for their new 'saviour' it seems. She watches as Mal waves off the cries of applaud from the army of blonde—or rather, attempted blonde—surrounding her. Emma's eyes widen as she notices amongst them Belle, Aurora, Anna, Mother Superior!? She groans, dragging a hand over her face. They're practically drooling and falling to Mal's feet at this point and Emma feels a bit embarrassed. It freaks her out a little bit if she's honest and more than once in the last few days she's contemplated dying her hair darker so as not to be lumped in with the riff raff.
Regina's standing beside Mal; she makes eye contact with Emma before frowning and making her way through the crowd. "Where were you?" she asks, frantically giving Emma a once over, "You're not hurt are you?"
And Emma feels herself swoon at the worried brown eyes looking up at her. She can't help but smile softly at Regina, loving being the focus of her attention.
"Why are you smiling? Did you hit your head?" Regina asks threading her fingers through Emma's golden locks and feeling around her scalp. Emma hums in delight revelling in the feel of nimble fingers pressing gently.
"I'm okay Regina," Emma reassures, taking a hold of Regina's hands and squeezing. Regina squeezes back before nodding and smiling and Emma feels herself drown in the warmth of her eyes.
"Regina, are you coming?" and that's all it takes for the bubble to pop. Maleficent and co. stand some distance away. She watches them, signature smirk on her lips, "Feel free to bring the saviour along too if you wish," she drawls.
And okay fine, Mal isn't too bad, Emma thinks.
Regina looks at her expectantly then, "We're headed to Granny's for a late breakfast, would you like to join?"
Emma's stomach grumbles at that exact moment, making the decision for her—although let's be real she would have said yes anyway. "I'd love t—" she's cut off when her phone rings. It's the station. An emergency call. "Maybe some other time," she sighs, not missing the disappointed look on Regina's face before it's quickly masked.
...SQ...
Emma finds herself at the store not ten minutes later. She grumbles to herself, unhappy she missed breakfast but more so that she missed breakfast with Regina. She exhales deeply and steps inside, ready to handle whatever it is.
Whatever it was she expected to handle, she was definitely not ready for this.
It seems there's been a disagreement between two customers. Well that's a bit of an understatement. The entire cosmetics aisle has been destroyed, products littering the floor, some spilling over the edge of the shelves.
"They were fighting over this," Sneezy says from behind her. She turns around to see him holding up a box of blonde hair dye. "It was the last one," he offers by way of explanation, before looking between the two women standing on either side of him, shaking his head and leaving to tend to the other customers in the store.
And Emma's left facing a random townswoman sporting a black eye and bruised lip, and beside her... Ashley Boyd?
"Ashley? Wha—you're already blonde!"
"It's not the right blonde though," Ashley answers, folding her arms defensively and grumbling. "Not golden enough," she adds on quietly, eyeing Emma's hair and scowling.
And, well.
Emma is beyond confused. Was that a compliment or an insult?
It takes her all of an hour to fill in the paperwork after arresting the random townswoman and freaking Cinderella for fighting over a box of blonde hair dye. And Emma wonders, as she reads over the document, if it's possible for her life to get any weirder than this.
...SQ...
Regina and the gang are nowhere to be seen by the time she gets to Granny's at lunchtime, but Emma has no time to mope because her stomach is rumbling loudly once again. She sits down at the bar and orders a grilled cheese with fries and a milkshake.
Granny brings out the food shortly and Emma wonders where Ruby is today. "She ran out earlier," Granny answers, rolling her eyes, "Disappeared before I could even ask." Mal was here earlier, it makes sense. Emma sighs a deep sigh in response, feels as if someone is watching her and turns to find various blonde patrons eyeing her as they all whisper to each other. As soon as they notice her looking their expressions change to a mixture of scowls and frowns.
Well then.
She's just about to ask if there's a problem but gets distracted by the mouth-watering smell of her meal; shakes her head, turns back around and digs in.
David rings just as she's downing the last drops of her milkshake, calling her home stating it's an emergency and she heads there immediately, preparing herself and wondering what could possibly be the issue now.
And once again Emma was certainly not prepared for this.
'This' being an almost bald Snow White sitting on the kitchen table rocking back and forth, the little hair she had falling out rapidly.
"Mom!?" Emma screeches, "What the hell happened?"
"She was bleaching her hair and fell asleep," David offers rubbing his wife's back in an attempt to comfort her.
"Why were you trying to bleach your—mom you too!?" when Snow stays quiet she adds on, "This feels like a betrayal of the highest order."
"You're being dramatic sweetie. Regina—"
"You don't even like Mal do you?—wait, what? What about Regina?"
"I—nothing honey," Snow says turning red. Emma's eyes widen at that, but before she can ask anything else, Ruby comes bursting through the door.
"Oh Snow," she says, voice laden in pity.
Snow starts crying, "I just wanted to impress her Ruby."
"I know. Me too honey, me too," Ruby replies helping Snow over to the sofa and embracing her.
Emma is left even more confused now and she can feel the vein in her forehead begin to throb very painfully.
She wants to scream.
"Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on!?"
Emma eyes dart around the room but no one speaks for a while. She's just about to ask again when Regina poofs into the loft, followed by Mal. "Here Snow, drink this," Regina says handing over a small vial of turquoise liquid. "It will help with the..." she trails off gesturing to the top of Snow's head.
"My saviour," Snow coos smiling up at Regina, batting her eyelashes and downing the potion. What in the—Emma looks over at Ruby who is currently eyeing Regina fondly and attempting to hide her hair. She thinks back on the event at the clock tower, tries to make sense of everything in her head.
And suddenly it all clicks into place.
Mal wasn't waving off the cheers of thanks from the townsfolk. She was gesturing for them to step back and away from... Regina.
"It's you," Emma breathes in realisation. "Everyone is fawning over you. But... then why the blonde hair? What does that have to do with anything?"
"I should think it obvious by now dear saviour," Mal says smirking; giving Emma a once over. Emma blinks having no idea what she's talking about.
Snow sighs then, looking down at the floor, "We just... wanted to impress Regina," she says sheepishly.
"Okay I get that mom. But that doesn't explain the blonde hair?"
"Well it's clear Regina has a type," Ruby offers still ducking behind Snow, lest Regina see her.
"Oh right, you mean because of Mal..." Emma mumbles.
"And you," Regina adds absentmindedly.
Emma's head shoots up then, "What?"
Mal chuckles shaking her head, "Regina dear, perhaps now is finally the right time to talk to the saviour."
"I—" Regina sighs, looks up at Emma from where she's kneeling beside Snow, "Emma can we talk?" she asks before standing up.
And Emma nods her head dumbly, unable to say anything because if what she thinks is happening right now is actually happening; she fears she might just have a heart attack and die.
Regina steps closer and gently takes her by the hand, leading her out into the hallway.
"So you like my hair?" Emma blurts out because she honestly has no idea what else to say.
"Well I..." Regina looks up at her, warm brown eyes crinkle at the edges as she chuckles softly and shakes her head in fond amusement. Emma loves that sound and finds herself smiling too, even as her heart thunders within her chest. "You're an idiot Emma Swan. I like more than just your hair," Regina says before threading her fingers through Emma's locks and pulling her forward into a kiss. "I like all of you," she breathes against Emma's lips as she moves back.
Emma feels her lips tingle; it takes her a minute to make sense of what's happening, "Yeah?" she whispers.
Regina nods, "It seems the townsfolk managed to come to that conclusion before I did."
"And that's why they..."
"I guess so. But while it's possible for them to change their appearance, no one can replace you Emma. You're, I don't know, unique—"
"Or maybe even special?" Emma adds feeling slightly emboldened, smirking at Regina.
Regina chuckles, slapping Emma on the chest playfully, "Idiot," she says.
"Yours?"
"Mine."
...SQ...
Thank you for reading and there'll be lots more fics (and art on Ao3) to come 😁