Somebody That I Used To Know (Pt. II)
Title: Somebody That I Used To Know (Pt. II)
Author: mae_marvelous
Rating: Teen
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Characters: Queen Regina, Henry Sr.
Summary: "You don't care about anyone's happiness but your own!" Henry practically spat at her, as Regina reluctantly entered their cottage.
Notes: This drabble is part of an AU, based-on-prompts, series of fics for Once Upon a Time, but more specifically the character of Regina Mills/Evil Queen Regina and the journey to find her own happy ending.
“You don’t care about anyone’s happiness but your own!” Henry practically spat at her, as Regina reluctantly entered their cottage.
She watched as her father picked up her small mirror and chucked it down to the dirt ground. Her expression turned to horror when the glass shattered across the floor, bits and pieces of it everywhere. It had been a present from James, although she had claimed it was bought when she sold her favourite hairbrush.
“Daddy, I don’t understand…” Regina began, before being cut off.
“You’re just like your mother: conniving and manipulative. All you care about is yourself.” He snapped, his speech blurring, and his eyes wild.
She frowned then, unsure where her demur father had disappeared to. Although Regina was used to coming home to find him reeking of whiskey with patches of vomit on the floor or his clothes, this was a different side to him. Having never seen him this angry or vocal for that matter, she didn’t know how to respond. Even when her mother was still living with them, he had never even raised his voice when her words became cruel or her tongue wasn’t the only thing lashing out.
“I saw you with him!” He hollered, his voice booming in the small room.
And then she put together the pieces.
“Daddy…” She began, the words not quite able to form through her tightly pursed lips.
The walls she built up around herself were slowly falling apart, as she tried to remain aloof. Her mother’s voice was ringing in her ears and she felt like a failure on almost all the levels imaginable. Keeping her expression as neutral as possible, she shook her head, wanting to deny everything. She couldn’t stand the way he looked at her, as though he was seeing her through his wife’s eyes. She felt her world turn unsteady, unsure of her feelings or her thoughts when he spoke again.
“He’s been promised to a princess… you must know that. Why do you think he was even in our village?”
“Snow White…?” She whispered, more a question that she didn’t want an answer for.
“Of course Snow White. Don’t be so simple-minded.” He declared with his voice rough. “And there you are trying to place house with a boy that just wanted something on the side.” He accused, looking at her with nothing other than shame.
“It’s not… It’s not like that.” She stammered, cursing herself for feeling so damn much.
Then with a hard slam of their door, he left into the evening haze, most likely to get a few drinks at the local inn. She slowly crumbled to the floor, clutching her dress for something to hold onto. She felt foolish to have been so weak and so trusting of someone that didn’t deserve it. Although part of her wished that James didn’t know that he had been promised, she couldn’t help but feel like she had been used. She couldn’t help but feel like she had been childish and foolish and that she needed to regain her composure if she was going to achieve her dreams of living as a queen.
Her one hand slid up to her lips then, outlining the small scar that plagued her - taunted her even after all these years. It was the one feature that she both wished would disappear and couldn’t stand the thought of parting with. Despite her hatred of the imperfection, it was the best reminder that she had. It had been a parting gift from her mother before she disappeared into the night. It was her mother’s final straw and the only visible scar she ever left on her child.
Regina stood up then, wiping any tears that threatened to fall down her face. With a quick glance at the glass embedded in her dress, she began to pick out the pieces. As she worked, she vowed that she was going to learn to control her emotions better and that she was going to live up to her name. She was no longer going to frolic in the fields with a boy prince who liked to play knight when no one was watching. And she certainly wasn’t going to give him her heart again… No, this time she was going to be the one in control.
--
Then just when she believed that her father couldn’t upset her any more, he knocked on the door with two of the king’s men on either side of him. Henry had been at the local inn, bragging that his beautiful daughter could thread straw into gold when one of the king’s men overheard him. That man had sent the king a letter, and the widower king immediately asked to see this magic young woman.
Regina gathered her wits quickly, before asking the men to allow her to change her clothes. Therefore with careful deliberation she chose a purple gown that used to belong to her mother. It was the only article of clothing that she chose to keep instead of sell, and now it was going to be the perfect outfit. Although Regina had no idea what would happen to her when she wasn’t able to produce the gold, she knew that she would think of something.
--
“What I said… had I known that King Leopold would have…” Henry said offhand, as they neared the pathway to the castle, his breath still reeking of cheap booze in the small carriage.
“You wait and see… I’ll be a Queen when this is all through.” She replied coolly, dismissing him and his guilt that he seemed to wear as a cloak.
She chanced a glance at the two soldiers escorting them to the castle, glad to see that neither was paying too close of attention to the words leaving their lips. She felt both relieved at the privacy and anger that her lack of a station meant that they didn’t care what she had to say. She was sick of being seen as the miller’s daughter in a world of princes, princesses, kings, and queens.
“I just want to apologize. I don’t want our last…” He began with a pained expression. “I mean… I don’t want to say goodbye like this.”
“Then don’t. No one is forcing you to be here.” She snapped, her wicked temper gleaming through her dark brown eyes. “I don’t need a valet.”
“I’m your father.” He said before the carriage suddenly stopped, as they crossed the final threshold and came face to face with the entrance of the castle.
She quickly accepted a hand to emerge from the carriage, glancing around with a bright smile to find that she had an audience. She outstretched her arms then, signalling for father to embrace her. She knew they didn’t have much time left and soon she would be brought into the castle to prove her ability to spin straw into gold. For a moment she debated telling the king that her father had made a mistake, but she knew it would cost her father his life. Plus there was a chance that she could lose hers, and she didn’t want to be the young miller’s girl without a mother or a father. She didn’t think she could live with that sort of attached stigma.
“You’re only my father until your whiskey makes you forget who I am.” She hissed into his ear, before she recoiled from his hug. She smirked when she saw how her comment had stung him, glad to see that he was still the same man that she had grown up with. He was a coward with little to say and no real drive, and she was nothing like him.
“Goodbye, Regina.” He said simply, as his daughter curtseyed to the King with a playful smile.