The Snow Queen by Ryaninthesky
Plot: An adaptation of “The Snow Queen,” in which Regina and Emma travel through fairy tale lands in search of a missing Henry.
Length: 36,000 words
“Don’t think you that listening to the fantasies of a ten year old boy and reading a few pages in a book puts you in a position to judge me, Ms. Swan. You don’t know anything.” Though she never looked at her, Emma could feel the energy rolling off of the mayor in waves. For a moment, she could truly see the evil queen who held the fate of a world in her grasp. But she knows stories, too, knows how things get twisted and perverted in the telling and re-telling. Emma doesn’t know much about this messed up fairy tale, but the one thing she does know is that Regina loves Henry more than anyone and anything else in either world. Until she finds out the truth of things for herself, she will hold on to that.
Regina is pouring all of her pent-up anger into a forced march through the trees, and Emma has to run to keep up with her.
It’s just before nightfall when they climb over a small hill and stumble upon a village. Grey smoke curls upward into the dying sun above thatched roofs and it looks like every picturesque town Emma’s seen in every storybook ever. She almost laughs to herself, somewhere between relief and disbelief, but Regina’s leaving her behind. They haven’t spoken since Emma brought up the curse, and Regina suddenly breaks the silence.
“There’s got to be an inn around here somewhere. Just keep quiet and follow me. Villages like this don’t get many visitors so we’ll draw attention whatever we do, but I don’t want any more than is necessary.”
Every Dog Has Its Day by unicyclehippo
Plot: Emma gets drugged with a love potion that also turns her into a puppy, who is really fascinated with Regina.
Length: 47,000 words
“Oh my god,” Henry said again as he watched Emma. He had stopped scrubbing at his face and instead gaped. “Mom,” he muttered, tugging on her sleeve. “Mom, I think she’s…” He trailed away and they both watched as Emma continued to explore, very happily sniffing at every single thing in the vicinity. She frightened a moth from its resting place and their mouths dropped further open as Emma’s face contorted into a strange mix of aggression and delight and she snapped at the flying creature, jumping after it and growling.
“She’s a dog,” Henry said finally.
“Yes,” Regina said, as quietly as her son had. “Yes she is.”
And even though Henry had been the one to say it, he still grabbed a stick, waved it around a bit to get Emma’s attention, and flung it. She sprinted after it and, a long, tense moment of anticipation later, Emma returned. The stick was in her mouth, she was grinning widely around it, and she was trotting towards Henry incredibly happily.
“Yep,” he said. “She’s a dog.”
Honey, I Shrunk the Saviour by rickmntic
Plot: Emma gets shrunk down to a five-inch sheriff and Regina is forced to protect her and help her find at antidote.
Length: 40,000 words
There was a time when Regina could hardly wait to wake up and explore her curse, blooming in the form of Storybrooke. The excitement soon faded away, sooner than she could have anticipated. Now the mornings had reached a point where they literally threw light on everything that was wrong with her life. Resentment came naturally and today felt no different. Except with the added bonus of her head threatening to split open. All night she had been plagued with erratic dreams, blurs of red and gold, dolls and wax figurines. As sleep tapered, awareness seeped through.
She was not on her bed.
She was not comfortable.
And she was definitely not in a good mood.
The sleepy witch moved but groaned at the sensation. Tired brown eyes peeped opened.
‘Oh yes.’
The graceful events of the previous day flooded her mind. Regina closed her eyes and tried to stand up but her body ached, rejecting any change from its current position on the floor. Too tired to make a real effort, she magicked herself to her bedroom. Magic truly was her only friend.
The Raven’s Swan by inkheart9459
Plot: Harry Potter AU!
Length: 25,000 words
Emma’s robes flowed behind her as she walked through the halls. She felt as nervous as she had all those years ago on her first day here. She supposed it was her first day all over again in another way, her first day as a professor. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Honestly, she had never pictured herself here over seventeen years ago when she had roamed these halls as a first year student. She hadn’t pictured herself anywhere really, especially not with a decent paying job, let alone something so prestigious as a professorship at Hogwarts. She wasn’t quite sure how she had managed, really. She’d always had a flare for Defense Against the Dark Arts and somehow it had resulted in her being here.
The man she was replacing was the first one to take the post after the curse on the position had managed to be lifted. Professor Graham had been her favorite professor, so much so that even though she was getting his job, she was sad to see him go. He had been a friend during some of her more lonely years at Hogwarts and an advisor and mentor when she’d finally found her niche. The memory of him clapping her on the back a few days prior and joking that she was his deputy back in the day and that she would be a fine teacher still brought butterflies to her stomach.
But tonight was the start of term feast and she wasn’t quite sure Professor Graham was right anymore. Sure, she had a reputation for being quite the badass and good at what she did, but what did that matter to a group of kids? It hadn’t to her at the beginning of her Hogwarts career, fresh out of the foster care system. And what did she know about teaching? Her reputation might hold her out for a little while, but if she didn’t back it up she was doomed.
Worries ran through her mind continuously as she made her way up from her quarters near the Hufflepuff dormitory. The area brought her a slight amount of comfort, it was her home for seven years, she had a lot of good memories there. But still her insecurities plagued her mind.
“I can feel the nervousness wafting off you,” Mary Margret said, popping up beside her randomly as she seemed to love to do. “Don’t worry, nothing bad is going to happen, I’d have had a vision about it.”
Transgressions of the Heart by Sapphire Smoke
Plot: Emma feels like the woman she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.
Length: 214,000 words
“For Christ’s sake, Emma, I’m not blaming you!” Regina exclaimed, taking a sharp left around the next corner that caused Emma to slam into the passenger side door. Perhaps they should have worn seatbelts, but it would have wasted precious time. As Emma tried to resituate herself, Regina continued, “If this is anyone’s fault, it’s mine!”
“Damn right it’s your—!” But Emma cut herself off, her face noticeably paling as she looked behind them. The cloud was catching up to them rather quickly and now houses a handful of streets back from them were being enveloped in its wake. “Fuck, drive!” she screamed, causing Regina to press harder on the gas pedal in an instant.
They got to the school within minutes and before Regina slammed on the brakes she instinctively held her hand out in front of Emma, acting as a quasi-seatbelt so that the woman didn’t end up slamming into the dashboard. They scrambled out of the car as soon as they were able, but they both knew it was going to be too late. The cloud was descending on them now, just a block away from changing everything, and Regina stood frozen in the middle of the street, unable to do anything else but stare at it as drew nearer.
“Regina!” Emma shrieked, knowing there really was nothing they could do at this point. It would envelop them within moments, and so the blonde seemed to react on instinct, pulling Regina into her arms in a protective gesture.
Suddenly, everything went dark.
The Secret’s in the Telling by pyrophoric
Plot: 263,000 words
Length: Post-curse, Emma and Regina fall so very much in love.
It is the sixth of October.
A typical Saturday in sleepy Storybrooke, Maine; a day that should’ve been insignificant in the greater scheme of things. But it isn’t. Far from it, actually.
Today is no ordinary day, but nobody will realize just how important the sixth of October is until it is too late. A year down the road, people will begin to see it in a different light. And they will come to appreciate the blessing, the sacrifice, the devotion that would forever change a broken woman’s life. They will know, but will not fully comprehend, the essence of one soul’s sacrifice in order to save another.
No one will, until it’s too late.
It is the sixth of October. A pivotal moment in Storybrooke’s history and the turning point in Regina Mills’ life.
And it all began with a spell, a Sheriff, and a thief.
Letters from War by hunnyfresh
Plot: Emma and Regina become pen pals while Emma is a soldier in reserve at Fort Benning.
Length: 221,000 words
“It would do wonders for your image, Madam Mayor.” Sidney followed Regina around the mayoral office with a few printed out documents and waved them all in her face.
She huffed and glared at him when the papers nearly caused a paper cut to the six-month old Henry strapped to her hip. “Watch where you’re waving those,” she hissed.
Sidney ducked his head obediently, his cheeks heating up under the brunette’s steely glare. “My apologies.” Despite his embarrassment, the small incident did nothing to draw him away from his track. “But just think about the headlines: Storybrooke’s Mayor Supports the Troops. It doesn’t hurt to have a few allies in the military, Regina, even if it is just a soldier.”
Regina sighed and positioned Henry more securely into the space of her left arm before retrieving the papers from Sidney. “You do realize I adopted Henry only a few months ago. I am already juggling this town and motherhood. I do not have time to take in some stranger.”
“You’re not housing them. You’ll only be pen pals, Madam Mayor. It builds morale in the army for homesick soldiers,” Sidney reassured. After reading the Mayor’s hesitant expression, he quickly added, “you’re not enlisting into the war.”
“Obviously.” She leaned her head against Henry’s when the boy pushed his own under hers to get a look at just what held Mommy’s attention. Regina instinctively placed a kiss on top of his thin light brown hair, soothing the imminent fussing that was surely on its way from the child. When she glanced back up at Sidney after examining the paper, she glared at the reporter and motioned her eyes to the door. Without another word, he scurried out of her office and shut the door behind him.
Regina turned and sat at her desk, nestling Henry into her lap as she read over the information of the soldier who would be her pen pal. “I guess we’ll be making a new friend, Henry. Do you like that?”
The boy gurgled happily, reaching out to grab any and all objects in his path before his mother could react. The move was futile for Regina was ever cautious and pushed away all her work to clear the space in front of her son. She kissed his temple as she read the soldier’s name.
Private Emma Swan.
Reset by CurvyPragmatist
Plot: After the curse, Regina resigns herself to the fact that she’ll never have her happy ending.
Length: 117,000 words
“What’s she doing these days anyway?” Ruby asked.
“I don’t know,” Emma admitted, “she’s not been the Mayor since the curse broke, she’s been consulting with Archie on things since he took over though. But that’s not full time.. I don’t know what she does all day.”
“A family house without a family is a lonely place,” Granny sighed.
When the two younger women looked up at her she added, “not that the Evil Queen deserves any less, it’s just an observation. She has a lot of time to think about things, maybe she’s gone mad?”
“She must be to be giving Henry up,” Ruby nodded firmly.
“I need to talk to her,” Emma said as she put the teacup back in the tray.
“I’ll have another read of this contract, I’ll see if I can see anything buried in the fine print,” Granny smiled.
“Thanks,” Emma nodded to the older woman and then to Ruby as she left the office.
Who Needs Shelter by deemn
Plot: After season two, the community in Storybrooke is just fine pretending everything is okay.
Length: 46,000 words
Emma’s dozing on the couch in the living room by the time Regina comes in the with Tupperware of leftovers and a mug of coffee. “I’m sorry my call woke you,” she murmurs, puts the coffee directly in Emma’s hand and leaves the Tupperware on the end table. “I thought he’d tell you the truth, at least—”
“No, no, it was the right call, I’m glad you called,” Emma says quickly, sitting up to take a sip. “God—this is—you’re sure you don’t want to run a coffee shop?”
Regina cocks an eyebrow, settles into the armchair by the doorway. “Serving the peasantry en masse? Miss Swan.”
Emma grins, winks at her. “How bout just for the Sheriff’s station?”
“Serving the peasantry in close quarters? Miss Swan.” But she smiles back, tucks her feet under her and savors the moment of not needing to put on a show. “If you’d moved with your parents, you could have stopped here before work regularly.”
“Weren’t you the one who pointed out that being over thirty and living with my fairytale parents was possibly the worst option when it came to establishing my independence?”
She chuckles, tugs her sweater’s sleeves down from her elbows and wraps her fingers in the cuffs. “I said nothing about your independence. I was concerned about Henry’s.”
The Monomythical Adventures of Regina Mills and Emma Swan
Plot: A series of four AU stories set in season 2 that are so deliciously in character you won’t even believe it.
Length: 340,000 words
There were few things as irritating as destiny. It seemed to always rear its fickle little head in the face of simpering lovers and starry eyed warriors. And it seemed to enjoy nothing more than smiling at Regina before crushing everything about her.
Destiny took her lover away. Destiny took her son away. Destiny had her walking back home cold and alone in order to form a plan to rescue a woman she despised.
Emma Swan was her destiny apparently. The mewling child had grown into a striking woman with her mother’s eyes, her father’s hair and fortunately none of the traits of either of her grandfathers.
They’d waged war over a long season in Storybrooke were the days grew cold and the leaves fell from the trees for the first time in twenty eight years. And Emma won. Henry made his choice.
And then Swan had to go and be…good. She had to protect Regina over and over again and throw herself in harms way for their son. Regina couldn’t have done that. She wouldn’t have.
That was a mark of the weak. Showing kindness and grace to your enemy? It led to crushed hearts in the stable hay.
Adventures With Cora Mills by WitchyLove14
Plot: Crackfic in which Cora is the biggest Swan Queen shipper ever.
Length: 134,000 words
“Cora… you listened to these songs?” Snow asked surprised. James was still stunned to silence, and Emma had her mouth open in disbelief.
“Go Nana!” Henry called happily from the back, making Cora smile
“Yes, I may or may not have stolen Emma’s ipod briefly… which I have to say dear, having a playlist entitled, ‘Songs to fuck Regina to’ is not tasteful.”
Regina swerved the car at her mother’s words.
“Ew gross.” Henry piped up.
Emma didn’t even bother to cover his ears; her mouth was flapping with an attempt to respond, to no avail.
“YOU HAVE A PLAYLIST?!” Regina yelled from the front.
“Emma!” Snow yelled disapprovingly before turning and facing her daughter.
“I did not need to know that.” James said.
“I know you and my daughter enjoy the occasional romp, but would it hurt to make love to her?” Cora asked unashamed from the front.
