A/N - Swan Queen Week, Day Three: Arranged Marriage AU. I think this one got a bit out of track too but oh well, I really had fun writing it too (so much that it came out way longer than necessary). I forgot to say this on the previous fics for SQW but all the mistakes in them and on this one are mine and I apologize. The title of this one was taken from the song Broken Record by Shakira (huge thanks to my Wifey for pointing out to me how SQ this song is); if you don't know this song go check it out now, you won't regret it. I hope y'all read this and like it! xoxo
I DON'T NEED TO KEEP LOOKING, YOU ARE THE ONE
"Emma, I screwed up," Regina's voice comes through the phone; she's seems slightly panicked.
Emma frowns at this. "That's a first," she answers with no sarcasm. It really is a first.
In all the years they've been friends Regina Mills never screwed up before; in fact she was always fixing Emma's screw-ups. Including when she showed up broken and pregnant on the other woman's doorsteps. Regina not only took her in but helped her take care of her son; she was like a second mom to the kid, to the point of choosing his name herself (Henry, the name of a Prince. And Regina's father. Emma liked anyway). She owed Regina everything, to be honest.
"Yes, well, surprise!" Regina bites back, her nerves kicking in.
Emma rolls her eyes more amused than annoyed. "What did you do?"
"I bumped into Robin earlier," the woman says and Emma purses her lips at this. Robin. Regina's ex. Emma hated him; he and Regina got engaged but a week before the wedding he changed his mind. Regina was so heartbroken, it was a mess. It's been a little over a year now, and Regina moved on but Emma would never forgive him for hurting her best friend. Oblivious to Emma's irritation, Regina adds, "it was quite awkward. He wasn't alone."
"You mean he has a girlfriend?" Emma asks keenly, wanting to figure out if that bothered Regina.
"He has a fiancé," the other says but Emma can't quite read her tone.
"That bastard!" Emma wants to say so much more colorful things but she's in front of the cashier in the grocery store, and there are two 4-years-olds with their dad behind her in line.
"No, Emma, I'm happy for him," Regina says in her polite voice. Emma knows she uses this tone when something is bothering her but she thinks it's silly to admit. "Looks like this time he's going through with it. Wouldn't surprise me though, she seemed really lovely. Marian is her name, I think. Isn't a sweet name, Marian? It suits her. She's really beautiful, and nice. He would be a fool not marrying her."
"He was a fool not marrying you," Emma cuts her off while getting her groceries and walking to her car. "And you have every right to hate him, and her too."
"But I don't," Regina replies in a firm tone, probably trying to convince herself. "I moved on, he moved on. All is well."
Emma sighs. Okay, let her be. "If all is well, why did you say you screwed up?"
"Oh, yes, there's that," she admits that panicked tone again. "So, they're having a dinner party to celebrate their engagement. And they invited me."
"What? Did they drink water from the toilet?" Emma asks hopping in her beloved beat up yellow bug and putting the groceries aside in the passenger seat.
"I think they wanted to show there were no hard feelings, that it's all in the past," the woman says sounding very tired.
"Bullshit, but whatever," Emma starts the car and turns on the heat, deciding to wait for the phone call to be over before driving. "You said no, I assume."
Regina hesitated at this. "Well, you see, I also wanted to show that everything is fine and it's all in the past," she starts sheepishly.
Emma shakes her head. "You said yes," it wasn't a question.
"I had to!" Regina exclaims defensively.
"Well, you did screw up," Emma muses. "If you don't show up now you're gonna look weak."
"I know," the other says with gritted teeth. "But that's not the screwed up part."
"It gets worse? What the hell did you do?"
"I told them I'm married."
There's a pregnant pause and heavy silence in the line for a few moments.
"What?" an incredulous Emma asks.
"I panicked, okay?" Regina says frantic. "They asked me if they should save two seats, if I would bring anyone with me, if I was seeing someone, and I just kept staring at the large diamond in her finger, which btw is way larger than that ruby stone he gave me, and I panicked! I told them they should save a seat because I would take someone, and I was showing my left hand which still has that steel ring Henry gave me yesterday."
"And they bought it?"
"I don't know, someone came to them telling they had to go. Then Robin asked if I still use my old email and I said yes, and he said he would email me the info about the date and place for the dinner and then they just left," she explains in one breath. "It all happened too fast, Emma, I'm still dizzy," well, that much is clear.
"Well, you can relax now. You clearly aren't going so," Emma tries to calm the other woman.
"But I have to go!" Regina yells on the phone. "Otherwise I'll look weak, you said yourself!"
"There's no easy way to say this but, Regina, your fake husband doesn't exist," Emma teases sarcastically.
"I know, I know, I told you I screwed up," she sighs dejectedly. "But I can't not go. And I can't go alone either. You know I can't, Emma."
Yes because you're too proud and stubborn. "Yeah, I know. We're gonna figure this out."
"How?"
"Together, like we always do," Emma says in a lighter tone.
And then a thought crossed both of their heads.
"Emma, I…" Regina starts, but she caves. "Nothing, never mind."
"No, wait," Emma was going through with it. "Did you happen to identify your fake spouse with a gender? Did you tell them it was a husband?"
"No," the woman answers hesitantly. "I didn't have time to say anything about the subject."
"Well, I could be your spouse."
"What? Emma, we have a real situation here," Regina tries to dismiss.
"And I'm presenting a real solution," Emma presses. "Think about it. Your spouse has to be someone who knows you; your quirks, your tastes, your story. Has to be someone with whom you're close and comfortable. Has to be someone loyal to carry your lies with pride and that won't leave you hanging for any reason. That's me!" she builds her case pretty solidly. "And the cherry on top is that you can say your relationship with him was so traumatizing you gave up on men and became a lesbian."
To this Regina actually laughed. "That's all very sweet but they won't buy it, Emma. Robin knows you, he knows you're my best friend. We can't convince him that we got married."
"I think we can; it would be awesome actually. He would be so pissed, he hates me," she argues already picturing Robin's outraged face and loving it.
"He doesn't hate you."
"I threw all his shit on the street and set it on fire when you two broke up," Emma replies calmly. She's not sorry at all about it. "He really hates me."
"Well, what you did wasn't very nice," Regina scolds but Emma knows she's internally cracking up.
"Says the woman who laughed scandalously for twenty minutes straight when I told her about it."
"Ah, good times," the woman says with a nostalgic tone.
"Look, it's just an idea. You know I would do anything to help you," Emma still hasn't given up. "And I think we can pull off this kind of arranged marriage thing. I mean, remember that Science Fair on Henry's school where he introduced us as his 'mommies' and we spent the whole day pretending we were a divorced lesbian couple? We convinced all the other parents, and we had so much fun!"
Regina smiles at this; they did have so much fun. As they always do. It's just so easy to be happy with Emma, she's the best person Regina ever found, and she's so lucky to have her as her friend. "What would I do without you, Emma Swan?"
A shit-eating grin takes Emma's features. "Lots of things, but you wouldn't have as much fun as you do with me," Regina's laughter filled her ears; such gorgeous sound. "Look, I'm driving home now with the groceries. Just think about this and we talk when you get home, okay?"
Regina did think about it and they did talk. It didn't take long to decide, though; desperate times call for desperate measures. They built a timeline and organized a story to tell of how their relationship had evolved, how they got married and etcetera. It wasn't as hard as they thought, and they were having fun already.
"Wait!" Regina exclaims when they finish reviewing their story. "The rings! We don't have wedding rings!"
"We do," Emma reassures her. "You still have the steel ring Henry got you, right? We can say you're using it for now while your real wedding band it's being adjusted or something. And you can use that really fancy ring with the emerald on it that your mother got you for your last birthday and pretend it's the engagement ring. We can even make a reference to my eyes or something."
Regina thought about it; yes, she could work with that. "What about you?"
"I have this," Emma says holding her necklace with the circle pendant.
Regina remembered that pendant, and remembered the story behind it. Emma was a in the system when she was younger, she lived in a lot of foster homes for a very long time, most of them were okay, but some of them were really bad. Emma never felt like she belonged anywhere and she didn't hold on to many memories from her past, except one.
When she was fourteen she lived in a foster home that really felt like home; it was only one foster parent, a widow called Ingrid, and Emma describes her as something really close to an angel. She and this woman really connected, and Ingrid almost adopted Emma. But she couldn't because one tragic night she got involved in a car accident and died. Emma was so heartbroken; can you imagine a fourteen year old that already went through so many horrible things losing the only family she ever had? Emma said she didn't last long in the system after that; she run away two years later. But before coming back to the orphanage right after Ingrid died she managed to steal the woman's wedding band from her stuff, as something to remind her that there's still good people out in the world, and since then she's been using it on her necklace. It holds so much meaning to the woman Regina felt bad about using it in a silly scheme.
"No, Emma, I can't let you use it for such shallow reason; it makes me feel dirty, like I'm violating a good thing."
"Nonsense, Gina. There's nothing shallow about helping my best friend, no one's violating anything," Emma says back. "Besides, Ingrid would offer it herself if she was here; she was very fond of pranking people."
"I don't think she would've liked the idea of you pretending to be married to me as a 'prank'," Regina retorts.
"Well, maybe the whole pretending to be married thing would've bothered her if it was with anyone else, but with you? I doubt it. She would've loved you, I told you that already," and she did; all the times Emma talks about Ingrid she says that the woman would have loved Regina, that they were alike in so many ways and they would've been best friends. It warmed her heart knowing that Emma thought the only person she had ever considered family would have approved Regina; it made it her feel worthy of Emma's friendship.
"Are you sure, Emma? I can find another ring, we can do another way," she tries one last time.
"I am, and this discussion is over," Emma says with finality but wearing her ever present warm smile.
When the day came, Regina almost caved. Emma didn't let her though, "I bought a fucking new dress for this, we have to go now" she would argue. So Regina calmed down and they got ready for the hot date.
Turns out Emma's new dress for the occasion was really worth it all of this. It was red, a color Regina always thought it worked well on her pale skin, and with no straps, which made her chest look very nice. It wasn't long so Emma's toned legs were in display, which was also a nice sight, and she wore discrete heels. Her long blonde hair was in a side-braid and her make-up was light, basically just mascara and eyeliner making her bright green eyes look more intense.
Regina opted for black heels and black dress; she always thought black was her color. It was longer than Emma's and it had thick straps, not revealing too much skin in the front, though Regina's back was all in display when she turned around. That plus how tight the dress was paid a nice compliment to her booty, which was her body's best feature. On her face she chose to apply heavier make-up, to look fiercer, and the red lipstick was a must, making her full lips more interesting. She decided to let her shoulder-length brown hair down for more effect.
When they finished getting ready, they stopped in front of the big mirror in Regina's room to look at the ensemble.
Emma let out a whistle. "Fuck," she said offering her arm to Regina, who took it. "We really are a powerful couple."
The brunette fully laughed and guided her date out of the room. "Let's go, wifey."
Twenty minutes later they entered the saloon where the dinner party was happening. They arrived a bit late though (Regina said it would have more effect), everyone was already in their seats and engaged in animated conversations.
"Should we sit or go talk to the star couple?" Emma asks. This night was about Regina, she would do whatever the woman wanted and however she wanted.
Regina stays silent for a few moments, contemplating what should be their course of action. Then her gaze locks in something past Emma and the blonde turns to see Robin and Marian standing a few feet away.
"Let's talk to them," she grabs Emma's arm and walks towards the couple.
"Hey! You made it!" Marian greets when they come closer. She seems genuinely nice; Emma gets it how Regina could be conflicted about hating and liking her at the same time.
"Sorry we run a bit late, babysitting problems," Regina says and it's a lie, but Emma goes along because tonight she calls the shots. "Henry's regular babysitter couldn't make it so we had to juggle things a little but it all worked out."
"How is Henry?" Robin asks politely, but he's frowning a little, trying hard to figure out what Emma is doing here.
"He's wonderful," Emma answers also politely but she can't fake it as good as he did. And then she says nothing else because she doesn't want to talk about her son with this guy.
"Good, that's good," he says only.
Sensing the discomfort, Regina takes the lead again. "I think some introductions are in order, right? Marian, this is Emma. Emma, Marian."
"It's nice to meet you, Emma," Marian says smiling while extending her hand.
"Likewise," the blonde says shaking her hand.
"You two already know each other," Regina gestures between Emma and Robin, and they exchange stiff smiles.
"So, your husband couldn't make it?" Robin asks turning to Regina; there's no mocking in his tone, he's just unthreatening curious, and that annoys the living shit out of Emma.
"No, because I don't have a husband," first truth of the night, yay. "What I have is my lovely wife, and she's right here," she says taking Emma's hand and squeezing, her chin held high.
"Hi," Emma says with a smile, both amused and challenging.
They all stay silent for what it seems like forever.
"Con… gratu… lations," Marian says at last, still holding a smile but her eyes doing a poor job in hiding her shock.
"Thanks, we are really happy," Emma says defiantly, pulling an arm around Regina's waist for effect. She prays Regina don't stiff or their cover will be blown, and lucky her she doesn't; if anything the brunette seems to lean in the embrace.
"That's wonderful, truly," Marian adds apparently recovering from the initial shock. "We're really happy for you two."
"Thank you, that's very nice of you," Regina says unaffected. Emma could see she was already having fun with this whole façade.
A woman approachs Marian then and Emma can make out the words "kitchen" and "situation", before they both excuse themselves for a moment leaving Robin behind alone with his ex-fiancé and her currently – and fake – wife.
After a few awkward seconds Regina blurts, "Surprise!" to Robin.
He then laughs. The women exchange a quick glance before staring at his display of amusement.
"Well, I wish I could say I'm surprised but I'm not," he says still chuckling.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma asks defensively.
"Despite of what you think I'm not an idiot," he says looking at Emma. "I deep down I knew this would happen," he adds gesturing towards them.
"What are you saying?" Regina questions genuinely confused; was he talking about the scheme or…
"You two becoming a couple," he says like it's so obvious. "That was bound to happen."
Both women stay silent for a moment. Was this real? He really bought it so easily?
"Was it that obvious?" Regina asks sporting a little smile, trying to extract information without showing how positively shocked she was that he believed them.
He chuckles at this. "Yes," he regards them for a moment before explaining himself. "When you are with someone, committed to someone, you make them your priority. They always come first, no matter what. Your world revolves around them and all you do is for them, to make them happy," he then looks at Regina with soft eyes. "I was never your priority, Regina. She was. Emma and Henry, they were; they always came first."
"For two months the four of us lived together in the same apartment because you couldn't separate from them," Robin laughs at the memories. "I remember in our first date you said that if we moved things further I shouldn't never ever ask you to choose between me and your best friend and when I asked why you said that I might not like the answer. Back then I found it funny, witty you know, but I thought I could make you come around, that I could be your number one. The thing is I didn't succeed at it; up until that last week before our wedding I was pretty sure that I wasn't your number one. I wasn't even your number two."
"That was one of the reasons I broke up with you. I just couldn't get over that nagging voice in my head saying that someday soon rather than later you would wake up and be like 'shit, I shouldn't have married you'. I never felt like I was your family, Regina; they were, Emma and Henry. The little prince and his two mommies, it's infuriatingly adorable actually," he smiles fondly at this. He really seems unbothered by the whole thing. "Oh, and there's the looks, of course."
"What looks?" Regina and Emma ask at the same time.
He rolls his eyes. "The constant eye-sex? Come on, let's not pretend it's not obvious," he says with a smirk.
Both women are furiously blushing now and they didn't even know why, it's not like he was saying something that is true… right?
"I am so sorry, there's been a crisis in the kitchen and I had to deal with it. But it's all good now and dinner will be served shortly," Marian comes back rambling. Then she looks at the two flustered women and his smirking fiancé. "Is everything good here?"
"Marvelous," Robin answers promptly. "I was just congratulating them, and saying how happy I am they have each other."
Marian looks at the other couple; apart from the shy manners they seem friendly towards Robin's words which she'll take as a good sign. "Great then; let's dinner!"
"I told you we could pull it off," Emma comments smugly later when they get home from the dinner party. It all went really well, better than they ever expected. People not only believed they were a married couple but also complimented how great they were together. They ended up being the star couple, shining more than the one hosting the whole thing.
"I still don't know how but we did it," Regina says smiling satisfied.
"Just luck, I guess," Emma says back shrugging.
The thing is Regina actually did know how they did it, and Emma knew it had nothing to do with luck. All of those things Robin said, they were true, and they hold so much meaning. Neither Emma nor Regina mentioned anything about it, but they both felt like something changed, like some light was turned on in their lives; they were both seeing clearer now. But they had no idea how to express it all.
"Well, it was fun and very intense, we should get some sleep now," Regina says rather abruptly, as if trying to avoid any awkward conversations.
"Yeah, sure," Emma agrees; best thing is to just let it slide and leave it behind, she thinks as she watches Regina walk towards her room.
Or maybe not. "No, wait," the blonde calls when Regina is about to close the door. She stalks towards the brunette with some new found confidence.
"What is it?" Regina asks wary when Emma is close to her; way too close actually.
"I have to know," it's all the blonde says before pulling her into a kiss.
She almost regrets it as soon as their lips touch; Regina instantly stiffs and Emma wonders if she just made the biggest mistake of her life. But a second later Regina's hand finder her hair and she's kissing her back tentatively, and that's all Emma needs to wrap her arms around the other's waist and melt into the kiss.
A few moments later they part for air. "We are so screwed," Emma comments between labored breaths.
"Definitely," Regina agrees putting her forehead against Emma's.
"You can still turn away and pretend this never happened," the blonde gives her a way out; she desperately wants Regina to not take it but she gives it anyway because she already owes her so much and really doesn't want to mess up what they had.
"Not a chance in hell," Regina says with finality diving for another kiss.
So much for pretending.
the end