Regina
After Regina saved the human princess, she returned back home with a big smile on her face. As soon as she was back in her under the sea castle, her sister was quick to corner her. She didn't often get along with her, they fought more often than not.
"Who's the boy?" She flipped her long red hair.
"What boy?" Regina blushed.
"Obviously there's a boy. You've got that look." Zelena had more experience with romance than Regina did. Zelena had a couple of boyfriends in the past. Regina secretly envied her sister. Zelena had beautiful red hair, pretty blue eyes, and a deep emerald green fin.
"There's no boy."
Zelena blocked Regina from entering their room. Her arms spread across the doorway and a smirk on her lips.
"Is it a girl?"
Regina blushed deeper in response. She didn't want to lie.
"Get out of the way," Regina mumbled. She pulled Zelena from the doorway and pushed her sister aside before quickly swimming through to her bed.
"Don't tell mother," Zelena remarked, resting in her clamshell bed. "That it's a girl, I mean."
"Enough Zelena. I don't want to talk to you," Regina turned over in her own clamshell bed, pulling her seaweed knit pillow over her head.
"She might even disown you as the favorite daughter," Zelena continued despite Regina's protest. "What if I told her?"
"Don't," Regina hissed. Zelena simply smirked.
The night after she saved the human princess, Regina snuck from the castle while Zelena slept and swam to her grotto. The only place she felt safe was in her cave. She had all sorts of collections, human relics. She had a statue of a golden apple, jewelry from the shore, and countless other little items. Her most prized possession? A statue of a princess, she looked an awful lot like her princess from the shore. Regina had found it in a ship wreck, it reminded her of what she longed for. To be human. To have a soul.
Her mother always told her mermaids didn't have souls, that Regina would never be anything more. She tried to squash her daughter's dreams of the shore from a young age, but Regina never lost that hope. Though Zelena was older, her mother, Queen Cora, had named Regina in line for her throne. Regina did not want to take over from her mother, in fact, she wanted to be as far from her mother as she could.
The sound of falling trinkets brought Regina from her thoughts. She spun quickly and her jaw slacked when she saw her mother.
"Regina," she began, horrifyingly calm. Regina's heart thundered.
"Mother-"
"Regina I thought we ended this," her mother continued. "I thought you were done with this fascination with humans. Humans are pointless, irritable creatures."
"No, they're not," Regina attempted to interrupt. She earned herself a dangerous look from her mother.
"Humans are disgusting and below us. We rid the world of their kind. Or do you not remember our purpose? You are going to do what I say and follow my orders. Do you understand me, Regina?"
"I hate you," Regina whispered. She glared at her mother with her arms crossed, and to her horror, her mother lifted her black as a night trident.
"Hate me all you would like, I am still your mother and I know what is best for you." Regina's heart broke as her mother took her magic and obliterated the princess statue behind her. Her chest hurt, her voice came out in sobs, and her mother didn't care at all.
Without another word, Regina shoved past her mother. She swam into the open dark sea, not paying attention to where exactly she was going, she needed to getaway. Her heart was broken.
Regina finally came to a stop at a shipwreck. She sat against the ruins and sobbed into her hands. She didn't want this life.
"Dearie, what is the matter?" A voice spoke behind her. She turned to see a man with green scales for skin, eyes like none she had seen before, he appeared human in physique but his hands and feet were webbed. He had a large spiral shell necklace hanging around his neck.
"Nothing," the mermaid princess muttered. She was hesitant of the man, she didn't trust people easily, her mother was to blame for that.
"Oh but it isn't nothing," he chuckled. "This is about a girl, is it not?"
"How did you know? Who are you?" Regina squinted skeptically.
"I know many things. My name is Rumpelstiltskin, and I can give you what you want," the scaled man grinned. "Human legs."
"You can make me human?" Regina's eyes widened. "With magic?"
"Well, of course, I can."
"What do I need to do in return?" Regina knew better than to assume that he would give her human legs with no intention of something for himself.
"Here's the deal dearie. If you so desire, I will give you human legs for 3 days. If by the end of the 3rd day your princess has not kissed you, your body will be returned to the sea. The only price is your voice."
Regina hesitated a moment, the way he phrased it seemed odd but she didn't think much of it.
"She just has to kiss me by sunset on the third day?" Regina questioned.
"That's right," he grinned wider.
"All you need is my voice?"
"Correct." He conjured up a scroll and pen before her. "All you have to do is sign here."
"I'll do it." Regina took the pen and signed her name away on the form, thinking of this as her escape from her mother's control and toward the life she desired.