A/N: Lots of questions about the universe I'm using - the short answer is, everything you need to know for the story is included in the story. However, the short answer is also a bit mean, and I will give you one more thing: In this world, Emma isn't related to FTL at all.
BREAK
Regina sat elegantly on the couch, her blankets folded by her side. She was used to having servants, but neatness had been drummed into her since birth and she wanted to make a good impression today. She had nothing in this world, no rank, no wealth. She didn't even know how their society worked. She was wearing borrowed clothes, she was surviving on Emma's generosity alone.
Her tutor, Rumpelstiltskin, had told her in her first lesson three years ago that everything came with a price. Regina wondered what the price of Emma's kindness would be. Even if Emma thought she was not asking for anything (and she had seemed genuine enough the previous evening) there would still be a price to pay. Regina knew, no matter what, she would pay it dearly when she finally returned home.
And she had to go home. Didn't she? She couldn't stay here. There was barely enough room for the Swans, let alone for her. And she was useless. She could not provide food or income, she was useless with the child, she struggled with using the bathroom! No, as Emma had said yesterday, they would research how to send her home, and then she would go.
"Dina?"
A bleary eyed toddler interrupted her thoughts.
"Good morning, Henry."
Henry toddled over to the main part of the room, looking sleepily through his toys. Regina eyed him worriedly. What if he needed something? Where was Emma?
"Where is your mother, Henry?"
Henry didn't answer. Regina thought he had heard and understood, though. She had no idea how developed children's minds were at this age. Henry tugged at the wedding dress, which was now draped over the back of a dining chair.
"Pincess dess," he said.
"Actually, it is a wedding dress. I am not a princess, though I was to marry and become Queen."
Henry looked at her, brow furrowed. Then he just smiled. "Pincess Dina," he told her. Regina sighed.
"You are quite the insistent young man. Very well. I can be Princess Dina to you. I suppose it does no harm, though in my land those pretending to be of royal birth were… Were in a great deal of trouble."
Henry listened intently, then pottered to the bookcase, pulling out several large books before finding the one he was looking for. He hurried over to Regina with it.
"Pincess book!" he told her excitedly. Regina took the book and tried not to panic as Henry clambered onto the couch and then onto her lap.
"Weed!"
Regina gave herself a shake for being so slow. She opened the book. On the first page was a large picture of a young woman in a dress very similar to hers, only it was blue.
"Pincess!" Henry said, pointing. "Nuther Pincess."
"Another Princess. Which Princess is this?"
"Cindawella," Henry explained, as if she was stupid. Regina squinted at the words as Henry demanded that she "Weed!"
Regina held the book at different distances, finally finding an angle she could manage. She was interested that the language here was the same as in her world, but she had no time to think on it. Henry was becoming desperate.
Once upon a time there lived a beautiful girl named Ella…
Emma stood in her bedroom doorway, listening. Regina's reading was surprisingly stilted, but soothing nonetheless. Emma decided to shower while her charges were both so happily occupied; sure enough, she was clean and out of the bathroom before the end of the story, and they were both happy in each other's company.
Emma dressed quickly in black jeans and her nicest cream sweater, then found a towel and some clothes that would fit Regina. She donated her sports bra, deciding its sizing was a little more flexible, more leggings (since they were stretchy and all Emma's regular pants were tight even on her own tiny ass), a black tank top, and a red hoodie. After a moment, she switched the sweater she was wearing for the hoodie. She had a feeling Regina cared about pretty clothes a lot more than she did.
"More!" Henry demanded when the story was over. Regina struggled with her response, but Emma came to her rescue.
"Princess Dina needs to shower, kid. You play by yourself for a minute, then I'll come make you breakfast, yeah?"
"Okay," Henry said.
"Hey, kid, what do you say to Regina for reading to you?"
Henry smiled at Regina and she thought her heart might just melt. "Thank you," Henry said clearly.
"You are very welcome, dear," Regina said, standing stiffly. Emma passed her the pile of clothes.
"I think this'll fit. Follow me…"
Emma led the way to the bathroom.
"So, you can just have a bath if you want, but I thought you might like to know how to use the shower."
Regina set the clothes down on the lid of the toilet.
"What is a shower?" she asked formally. Emma grinned.
"Awesome. That's what it is. And you can even… Ya know what, you just figure that out on your own if you're inspired. Sure didn't take me long."
Regina sensed the innuendo, but had no idea what Emma was talking about. Emma pointed to a snake like pipe that was hooked to the wall and ended in something round with lots of holes in it.
"So, you turn on the taps, like with the washbasin, usually I do that first, and then you flick this lever here-"
Regina screamed as the magic lever made it rain inside. Warm, heavy rain. Emma cackled.
"I knew you'd like it. So what you do is, stand under there and wash yourself. I'm afraid I don't have a spare loofah-"
Regina raised a questioning eyebrow until Emma held up a puffy pink thing.
"You wash with it," Emma explained, giving a strange demonstration. She threw the loofah in the basin, blushing. "Uh, anyway, so you can just use your hands, there's soap and shampoo and stuff, use whatever you want, and then there's a towel. Oh, and do you want music?"
"How on earth would you have music?"
Emma pointed at a sea-horse shaped object stuck to the wall - yet more magic. "Press the buttons on that. See what happens. The red one turns it on and off. Any more questions?"
Regina reached out tentatively and held her hand under the shower spray.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "It's nice."
"Told you. Don't forget to pull the curtain and keep it inside the bath, otherwise you'll soak the floor."
Emma left Regina to it, then went to find Henry. She changed his smelly diaper and dressed him in the bedroom. The weather was just changing; it was the end of September and today seemed cold rather than warm, so she went for a onesie under his dungarees.
"What d'you want for breakfast, kid?"
"Choccy!"
"Uh huh, no way," Emma said to her giggling son. "How about Weetabix?"
"An' apple?"
"Sure thing. Weetabix and apple sounds yummy."
Emma sat him in his high chair while she prepared the food. She made some for herself too; she'd gotten pretty used to eating the same as him, it was easier.
Henry attacked his Weetabix, splashing milk all over himself and the chair. Emma watched with a smile. She'd clean him up later.
Regina emerged from the bathroom looking damp and invigorated. She held out the clothes and damp towel to Emma.
"Not your servant today, Princess," Emma said, but she winked and Regina smiled nervously. "I'll show you where to put them."
Emma led the way to the bedroom. Regina looked around it curiously. It wasn't large, but it had space for a double bed, a large crib, and a closet. Regina was pleased to note both beds were made. Emma pointed to a basket.
"Laundry goes in there. We'll probably do some tonight. The laundry room's in the basement, Henry loves it, although it's a pain with no elevator."
Regina dropped everything in the basket. Emma fished out the towel and gave it back to her.
"This, you can hang up and use again."
"Use again?" Regina said, wrinkling up her nose.
"You were clean, it's only wet, not dirty," Emma pointed out. "Plus, it would have to dry before going in the basket anyway, or it'd get mouldy."
Regina logged this information. At home, used towels disappeared with the servants.
"You can hang it up here," Emma said, moving a small towel with fish on it to drape over the bedpost to free up a hook for Regina.
"Breakfast? I'm gonna make coffee, then we'll go out, check out the library, get you some clothes and stuff."
"What is coffee?"
"You gotta be kidding me… Okay, I don't even know if you'll like it, but coffee is the best thing in the world," Emma said, heading back into the main room. "It's a hot drink."
"Like tea?"
"Well, kind of, except tea is like dishwater compared with coffee."
"DINA!" a very milky Henry announced. Emma grabbed some wet wipes to clean him up.
"You need anything else?"
"Water please."
"Good boy, your manners are awesome. I knew I paid that day care for something." Emma filled a sippy cup with water and handed it to Henry.
Regina stood, trying to be imposing, in the middle of the room. She felt in the way, out of place… She was already far too fond of this little family, but they were happy and complete without her. She did not belong here.
She felt Emma press a mug of something warm and delicious-smelling into her hands.
"Coffee," Emma said. "You're miles away, what's up? Homesick, huh?"
"Something like that," Regina said sadly. Emma ushered her to the table. Henry was on the floor again, making a little car zoom around with exaggerated sound effects. He ran it over Regina's foot; she jumped and spilled her coffee. Only a few drops, and only on the table, but she felt awful. She had not spilled anything since she was a small child; clumsiness had been severely punished.
"I am so sorry, Miss Swan. Let me-" but Emma was already on the job with a wet wipe. She smiled encouragingly.
"Don't worry, kid spills stuff all the time. And it was his fault, wasn't it, Henry? No running people over, little man. Not cool."
"Genty?" Henry asked Regina. Emma rolled her eyes.
"He means gently, and his question is, can he gently drive that little car over your body?"
"I, uhm, I suppose so?" Regina said, sounding terrified.
"You can say no, he won't mind."
"No, I mean, I do not mind if he does. It just seems… In my world," Regina giggled as Henry carefully guided the car up her leg, "children do not play like this with adults."
"Seen and not heard, that kind of thing?"
"Yes. I am not sure how things work in poorer families, but certainly, in my own childhood, I would not have dared speak to my mother's guests, let alone play or read with them."
"I'm not sure I could stop Henry interacting with people if I wanted to. He screams at strangers, but once he's decided he knows someone, he's all over them. Like now."
Emma chuckled as the car made its way all over Regina's body. Regina sipped her coffee experimentally. It was wonderful, like nothing she'd ever tasted. She hummed in appreciation. She turned down food when Emma offered it, so Emma suggested they learn about the TV.
"Tomorrow's Sunday but I have to work. If you're still around, it'd be good for you to know your way round the apartment, so you can entertain yourself all day. Or, I guess, you can come into work with me. I work in a shopping mall so there'd be stuff for you to do, but I wouldn't be able to help you with anything or talk to you, except on my breaks, so it might be a bit much. We can check it out today if you like, so you can make an informed decision."
"Thank you. It is very kind of you to show me everything. You do not have to do it; I am sure I will manage."
"Maybe, but why should you have to?" Emma smiled. "If I can help you, I will. I want to."
But, why? The question was on the tip of Regina's tongue.
"Okay, so, TV." Emma picked up the remote and showed it to Regina. "To turn it on, you press this button."
Regina watched, fascinated, as Emma pressed the button on the large black wand and it caused one side of a large box in the corner to light up with-
"Wait, are there people inside there?" Regina asked. She went closer, examining the box.
"No people. Just pictures. The best shows are like… Plays, you know?"
"I have only once been to the theatre, but I know the concept."
"Okay, cool, so you press this button to look at the menu, and you can pick shows, by the name, or it shows you a description. Or, you can press the numbers, those are Henry's and my favourite channels."
Emma handed Regina the remote, very entertained by her regal guest's investigation of the settings.
"What are all the other buttons?" Regina asked.
"I don't even know," Emma admitted. "But once Henry pressed some and I had to get Nick from upstairs to come fix it, there are all kinds of weird settings."
"I shall avoid them, then," Regina decided. "These plays, they continue constantly? It must be hard on the actors."
"Nah, they film 'em months in advance, and most stuff we get is years old."
"So how does it get to the box?"
Regina was still walking all around the TV, not entirely convinced there weren't tiny people trapped inside it.
"They, like, break the picture up into tiny signals at the TV station, then they send the signals through the air and we catch them in a dish that's on the wall outside, then the dish plugs into the TV and the TV turns the signals back into a picture."
Emma's understanding of TV came almost entirely from Charlie and the Chocolate factory, but she kept that part quiet. Regina accepted the explanation, reasoning that Emma was unlikely to understand her explanations of her world's magic, either.
"So, d'you wanna head out?"
They piled into the car, Regina in the backseat again, Emma pointing out various landmarks that they passed and Henry babbling cheerfully about the trip.
"He loves everything right now, like, being in the car, going to the mall, walking, talking, looking at the floor. He's so curious, so much smarter than me."
Regina smiled. She liked hearing Emma talk about her son. She was certain her mother had never talked about her in that way.
Emma tried to minimise her waffling. She'd never really had anyone to enthuse about Henry with before; her neighbours were friendly enough but none of them were friends, and while his social worker was great, her interest in them was purely professional.
It was going to be a weird day, Emma was sure of that. But Regina, in her borrowed clothes and poorly fitting uggs (the only shoes Emma had with any kind of size leeway), felt like the best thing that had ever happened to Emma and Henry. That was stupid, Emma knew. She couldn't belong with them, she didn't even belong in their world. Even without all the White Kingdom stuff, someone like Regina couldn't be happy with the likes of the Swans… Could she? She was used to riches and luxury, not Weetabix and sleeping on the couch.
She couldn't stay. There was no point daydreaming about it. Emma had to be firm with herself. She had a bit of money saved, she'd been thinking about Christmas, but that was months away and they might as well spend it on Regina. She needed it, she needed help. Emma wondered if she was really being selfish. Maybe this was a bizarre way for her to fix the wrongs of the past. No one had helped her, but she could help Regina. In the end, Emma decided it wasn't. It was simpler than that - Regina was just… awesome.
She was giggling, right now. Emma could see her in the mirror, she was giggling, still queenly, but giggling at something Henry had said. She didn't have a clue how to look after herself, but she was strong and resilient and smart. She was picking up on language and mannerisms, she wasn't freaking out over all the crazy "magic" she was seeing. Emma imagined her coming from a medieval type era in her world. She'd said it was a bit like the world of Henry's Cinderella fairytale. Emma had even started thinking of where she came from as "Fairytale Land".
"Book!" Henry was saying - he was listing everything he was going to buy at the mall.
"What kind of book?"
Henry thought about it. "Pincess book!"
"But you already have a Princess book!"
Emma noted that while Regina maintained her detached, hard tone in all their conversations, with Henry she had a completely different voice. She was sweet and kind. She thought back to them reading, then had a brainwave.
"Regina?" she asked.
"Miss Swan?"
"In your world, do you use glasses to read?"
"Of course not!" Regina seemed affronted. "Reading glasses are for academics, only. A woman having them would be utterly inappropriate."
"Gotcha… But in this world, everyone has them. Everyone who needs them. Even the Queen of England, I think. And I dunno, I heard you reading with Henry earlier, and I don't mean to offend you, you don't need to give me that glare, but I think you might be far sighted, and we can probably pick up some reading glasses for you at the pharmacy."
Regina was unsure how to react. It had to be some kind of trick, Emma was looking for her weaknesses.
"Will they not be costly?"
Emma pulled into the mall parking lot. "Getting your eyes properly tested would be, but these you can get for a couple bucks. They won't be good quality, but they might make things easier. You can get pretty ones, maybe you can even take them back with you, just to use in private."
Regina thought of all the books she had soldiered through, all the splitting headaches, all the chastisements from her tutors and her mother when she failed to complete assignments quickly enough. The idea that this could be fixed with a quick market purchase seemed too good to be true.
"I suppose it would not hurt to try them," she said, refusing to get her hopes up.
Emma grabbed the giant baby bag and hoisted Henry onto her hip.
"Shoes first?" she suggested.
Regina followed mother and son into the mall, and resisted the urge to run right out again. It was huge and bright and noisy and the floor was made of some kind of ridiculously over polished stone that was far too slippery. Crowds of people moved around and everything about them was bewildering, their clothing, their accents, their behaviour. They had to be peasants, nobility would never behave like this. But they all had so much, they were bartering…
Regina supposed it was not unlike a market, just vastly larger and louder and scarier in every way.
"Oh, crap, you're terrified," Emma gasped, reaching out and grabbing Regina's hand without really thinking about it. She blushed when she realised what she'd done, but to her surprise, Regina didn't pull away.
"It's so… big."
"That's what she said," Emma mumbled.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, nothing, bad joke. I'll tell you when Henry's not listening. Are you gonna be okay? We can just go… Ooh, we could go to the park. They have a petting zoo, no horses, but maybe a donkey. We might go there later anyway if the little man's not too sleepy."
"I… I really cannot take your money," Regina said worriedly. Everything here was so shiny, it all seemed very expensive. Some of the stores sold clothes even finer than what she was fitted with at the palace, though the styles were bizarre. "You have a child to support, I-"
"Hey, Regina? I dunno how it works in your weird-ass kingdom, but here in Boston, when someone offers you a gift, the polite thing to do is take it."
Regina frowned. She was not used to being wrongfooted over manners.
"Here, tell you what. Fifty bucks. That's less than a day's wages, I'll make it all back tomorrow when I work."
"Bucks? Like, deer?"
Emma laughed. "It's what we call our money. It's paper."
"Right."
"Right, you'll take it?"
Regina sighed. "May I…" she trailed off awkwardly.
"Go on," Emma encouraged.
"May I carry the bag?"
Emma laughed loudly. "Please do! Thank you. But if you get tired let me know. I'm more than used to carting it around."
Some cheap ankle boots, pharmacy glasses, and some very low priced but well fitting outfits later, Regina was almost enjoying herself. They fed Henry some snacks while they sat on the side of a fountain, then, by popular demand, headed to the park.
Regina loved her new shoes, her glasses, her clothes that didn't feel like a prison. And Emma loved watching Regina love them. Emma couldn't tell who loved the donkey more, Henry or Regina, but it was a great success, and when sleepy Henry raised his arms for Regina to hold him, she lifted him as if she'd been there all his life.
"You're stunning when you smile," Emma breathed. "I mean, you're always stunning, and it's not like you never smile, but you're so… You're peaceful."
"Your son is quite the pacifier, it would seem," Regina said, eyeing Henry fondly as he snoozed and drooled on her shoulder.
Emma shifted from foot to foot, feeling very young and naive - a feeling she was not used to.
"Regina?" she asked quietly.
"What is up, Miss Swan?"
Emma chuckled at the formalisation of her slang. "I, uh… This fairytale land that you're from. It's not really… It's not really a fairytale at all, is it?"
Regina pursed her lips. Emma watched, then continued speaking.
"I… I believe you, that you weren't running from your wedding. But you weren't thrilled about it either, were you? The king, is he… Well, what's he like?"
Regina stroked Henry's hair. "I know very little about him, truth be told. His reputation is excellent, he is kind and good, and a great ruler."
"Oh, God, is he ugly?"
Regina laughed. "In his day, I am told he was quite handsome. But I am to be his second wife. He is 63 years old."
"What the fuck?" Emma didn't voice the curse in case Henry was still awake, but she could feel her face turning red with anger.
"It is not uncommon."
"Regina, he's more than three times your age! And you'd have to… Oh my God," Emma whispered.
"I… Well, as you said, I was not thrilled about the wedding."
"What was the rest of your life like?"
Regina thought about it. "Lonely."
Emma got the feeling there was a lot behind the single word answer. Regina noticed.
"But, not at all bad. I am to be Queen, I have a palace, servants, all the clothes and jewels I could ever want, and my mother and father are there. The Princess, too. A ten year old girl."
Regina didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed when Emma bought her cover up. Emma tried not to seem disappointed that Regina had so much to go home for.
"So you have to go back," Emma stated.
"Yes," Regina agreed. "I have to go back."
Emma convinced herself that the mournfulness she detected in Regina's tone was nothing more than wishful thinking.
BREAK
A/N: Thank you so much for the response so far. Please keep reviewing!