DISCLAIMER:: do not own ouat or any of its characters. just borrowing for purpose of creative expression. no profit obtained.
A/N:: thank you for the positive response to the first chapter. I hope you enjoy the second just as much. it may answer a few of your questions. enjoy and review. let me know what you think.
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Chapter 2
Red watched as the sparkling clear liquid melted seamlessly into the pool of pink liquid in the bowl, sinking into it without a trace. The liquid seemed to twinkle in the lights strung up over head, but she dismissed it as being the expensive stuff.
Belle was giggling behind her, her hand coming up to hide her laughing.
Regina cleared her throat loudly, nearly causing Red to drop the flask into the punch bowl. She bit her lip and looked up just as the flask emptied the last of its contents into the bowl, her guilt written all over her young face. But Regina wasn't angry. She smiled gratefully, reaching for two of the empty cups from the top of the tower. She reached for the ladle. "Maybe this will actually help Miss Swan relax a little." She filled one cup before setting it down and filling the other. As a sudden thought hit her, her eyes flashed up to regard the two giggling women in front of her. "My son does not touch a drop of whatever is in that bowl, am I understood?" Her tone left little room for her not to be understood.
Red and Belle sobered up from the giggle fit and both nodded somberly. "No punch for Henry. Got it." Red saluted.
Regina picked up her two cups and turned on her heel without another word.
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Rumpelstiltskin's lip curled up as a child, covered in melted chocolate, ran past him at the height of a sugar high, wailing like a banshee. A moment later his frazzled mother traced the same path he'd just run, her arms wiggling in front of her as she chased after him. This party was getting old fast; they're was only so much mixing with the public- a public he had purposely avoided for the majority of the last three decades- he could take and he was coming dangerously close to his limit.
He looked around the assembled crowd in the square, searching for the familiar brunette. He spotted her off to one side, not too far from the refreshment table, smiling and talking animatedly with that dog she had insisted on befriending. She had his coat wrapped tightly around her. He sipped from his glass of punch as he contemplated the black wool coat he'd worn to the event. There was something tugging at the back of his mind, something he felt he was forgetting about the coat.
The potion! It hit him like a smack in the face. He'd left the flask with the potion in the inner pocket. He wasn't too worried about Belle finding it. She would just assume it was his private stash of scotch and think nothing more of it. But if that mangy dog sniffed it out, he had little doubt she'd try and talk Belle into having a sip. The last thing he needed was a eleven year old girlfriend on his hands. He had to get that coat back from her, and quick.
He tossed his empty cup in the nearest rubbish bin and then moved through the crowd towards the two young women.
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Regina passed the cup to Emma, who accepted it with a small smile. "Miss Lucas spiked the bowl. I thought you could use a little liquid courage."
Emma nodded and took a grateful sip. She could barely taste the bitterness that usually accompanied alcohol, rather the punch had a unique flavour she'd never quite tasted before. It tingled across her tongue and prickled pleasantly down her throat. "What's this spiked with?" She stared down into the pink liquid in her cup before taking another sip without waiting for Regina's answer.
Regina shrugged, sipping her own drink. "I don't know. It was from a flask Miss Lucas had, probably some cheap vodka." Whatever it was, she couldn't even taste it. But she did feel the warmth that accompanied a pleasant buzz.
Emma shrugged too as she downed the last of her glass. "Whatever it is, I like it. I want more." She gripped Regina's hand and pulled her back in the direction of the punch bowl.
Regina let herself be dragged by one hand, her free one still holding her cup to her lips. She had to admit that the punch itself had exquisite flavour; she highly doubted she could attribute the excellent taste to the alcohol. She could use another cup herself.
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"Belle!"
The young librarian turned to regard the man pushing through the crowd. "Rumpel."
Red raised an eyebrow. "Dude, where's the fire?" The man looked slightly frantic.
He reached into his own coat, searching the inner pocket. He pulled out the flask with a flourish, relief washing across his features and worry seeping from him. The flask was right where he'd hidden it, and it was... empty! He shook the metal container, the telltale slosh of liquid contents absent. He stared at it in horror before his eyes looked, not to his girlfriend, but to her troublemaking companion. "You drank it all?" He had no idea what kind of effects that size of a dose would do to one individual. It was meant to be drunk over time, not all at once.
Red rolled her eyes. "Chill. We used it to spike the punch. I'll replace the booze."
"You... WHAT?!"
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"Can we go home yet?" Emma clasped her hands together in front of her, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout.
Regina tried to disguise how pleased she was that Emma considered her house 'home'. It truly was remarkable how things had changed so drastically in such a short time. It had taken twenty eight years to refine and shape this small town into the well-oiled machine it had been and in a minimal fraction of that time, Emma Swan had whirled into her life and uprooted everything she'd worked so hard to carefully build, like knocking down the first domino after she had just finally gotten them all set up into the picture she wanted. But she couldn't find any of that initial resentment in herself anymore. Not only had Emma turned her world on its head, she'd turned her heart inside out. "Come now, Miss Swan, don't you want to wait for your surprise?"
Emma shook her head. "If we're being honest, not really. I'm hungry and my feet hurt."
Regina rolled her eyes. "Between Henry and yourself, sometimes I can't tell which one is the child, you or him."
Emma grinned. This was a sure sign she was going to get what she wanted.
"I'll go find your mother and tell her to wrap things up."
Emma raised her arms over her head in victory and leaned in to give Regina a peck on the cheek. "Thank you!"
Regina walked away to go find Snow before she made a mistake and did something embarrassing like share her feelings. But the moment she was out of sight, the crowd blocking her from the blonde's view, she put a hand to her cheek where Emma's lips had touched her and smiled to herself.
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She found Snow standing off to the side at the base of the makeshift stage, looking out on all she had done as if she were God surveying what he'd created at the beginning of the world. A dreamy smile was on her fair face and there was still a small part of Regina that still wanted to slap the expression off her when she saw it. But they had made their peace, as much of one as would ever exist between them after their long history. She came to a halt beside the woman in her lavender party dress, holding a red cup almost empty in one hand. The pixie-haired brunette emitted a little hiccup. "It's lovely, isn't it?"
Regina pursed her lips. "Yes, very charming dear. Your daughter, however, has been begging me to whisk her away from here and I am running out of excuses. So, if you would move things along..."
The dreamy expression fell away from Snow's serene face and she turned suddenly sober attention on Regina. "No, she can't leave yet! What about the cake?"
"Well I suggest you hurry things along dear, or else Miss Swan may see herself home, whether I accompany her or not."
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Rumpelstiltskin looked around. Everywhere he saw people clutching at red cups filled with punch. There was no way, without checking each and every cup, to know who had consumed the potion or not. All save maybe a couple people in the crowd had consumed punch, but there had to be some among them who had gotten their drinks before the punch was contaminated. He just hoped that was true for the majority of them.
"What was in that flask?" Belle had her sweet innocent face turned up towards him, watching him as he surveyed the crowd.
He sighed. He didn't want to tell her that he'd searched for a magical solution to his problems yet again. He was supposed to be improving, not using his magic so often. But she would know the truth soon enough anyway. "A potion."
Belle's eyes grew wide as his words sunk in. Magic. Of course that would be what it was. She tried not to let her disappointment show. "What does it do?"
"It will cut the age of whoever consumes it by half."
"You're telling me that anyone who drank the punch is going to suddenly become younger?"
"Only those who drank it after the potion was poured in." He nodded, looking at Belle apologetically.
Belle took a deep breath. She needed to keep a clear head about this if she had any hope of helping Rumpelstiltskin correct it. "Is it permanent?"
He shook his head. "One has to take the potion regularly, like a dose of medication for the effect to last."
"So how long will it last?" She glanced around the crowd, checking faces to see if anyone was looking suddenly more spry than they'd previously been. Everyone looked the same as usual to her.
Rumpelstiltskin looked at the woman beside him. "There's no way to know for sure. It depends on how much of the potion they consumed."
Belle nodded. "Well let's hope no one consumed more than one glass."
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"This stuff is so good! I'll have to ask Snow for the recipe." Emma downed the rest of her sixth glass.
"Slow down dear." Regina knew she really couldn't talk as she sipped at her fourth glass.
Emma ignored her, already eyeing the small amount of pink punch that still rested in the very bottom of the almost empty crystal bowl not too far off. There was enough for one more glass. She was trying to judge if she could take in anymore liquid when the sharp rap of someone tapping on a microphone drew her attention to the stage, where Snow was standing yet again. "Oh dear Jesus, not another one." She buried her face against Regina's shoulder, dreading the long speech she was sure was about to ensue.
Regina shrugged her shoulder to urge the blonde's attention back up.
"Thank you all for coming tonight." Snow smiled out at the gathered crowd. "You all made this Founder's Day truly special and it wouldn't have been possible without the support of the community. Now, today's celebration is not just about Founder's Day, but it's also about celebrating a very important occasion." She put a hand over her eyes to block out the glare from the lights and let her gaze sweep the crowd. "Emma, where are you?"
Emma paled. She was happily sloshed, but not quite sloshed enough to not realise the inevitable conclusion of all this. She had never been comfortable with being on display. She ducked behind Regina, using the brunette's body to block herself from her mother's probing search of the crowd.
Just as Snow's gaze swept in their direction, Regina stepped to the side, revealing the blonde.
Snow smiled widely. "There you are! Come up here!"
Emma shook her head frantically. "I'm good." She held up a hand in a quick wave of acknowledgment and then focused all her energy on trying to disappear into thin air.
"Come on up here honey. Everyone, give it up for my daughter, Sheriff Emma Swan!"
Cheers went up around the crowd as Snow waved her up to the stage. Reluctantly she began to move towards the wooden stage, shooting a glare at the woman behind her, a look that distinctly said 'traitor'. She climbed the few steps at the side of the stage, joining her mother in the middle. She gave the still-cheering crowd a small wave before trying to walk back off.
Snow grabbed the arm of her retreating daughter and held her in place. "Thirty years ago today, Charming and I received the greatest blessing in our lives. Emma was born."
Emma was morbidly appalled by the whole situation. She had never wanted to disappear so much in her entire life. What was that public speaking trick again? Imagine everyone naked? Or was it in their underwear? Looking out over the crowd, the first face she noticed was Leroy's, and she quickly ruled out either of those options. And then her eyes found Regina's and something in the intense brown gaze calmed her. She just needed to breathe. This would be over soon.
She didn't notice everyone was singing Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs until she saw her father rolling an enormous two tier cake across the stage toward them. She tried to manage a smile as the cake stopped before her and Snow urged her to make a wish and blow out the two big candles, a 3 and a 0, stuck into the top of the upper tier. She scrolled through several possible wishes before settling on one, a wish she'd been wishing since that first night on the Jolly Roger heading to Neverland when she crawled into Regina's bunk and the older woman hadn't complained as she'd expected her to, but had held her tightly instead, letting her release all her tears into the crook of her neck. She wished Regina would get her happy ending, and that maybe that happy ending might be her.
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Almost everyone had called it a night. Snow and Charming still lingered, pulling down decorations. Red was helping them. Henry was curled up asleep on the stage, his head resting on his bunched up coat as he waited for his grandparents to take him back to their house. A few other stragglers lingered, including Belle, picking up discarded red cups that littered the square.
She tossed the latest handful into the nearest rubbish bin and approached the stoic man standing off to the sidelines waiting for her. "Nobody seemed to be effected by the potion. Maybe it didn't work; perhaps something in the punch counteracted the effects."
Rumpelstiltskin shook his head. He could already feel the magic taking hold in his own body. "It takes time. In the morning, when everyone wakes up, whoever drank that punch won't remember half of their lives."