She was sitting on the tiny balcony of the Storybrooke city hall. She felt absolutely ridiculous.

The gown she was wearing in no way fit the surroundings of the tiny balcony or even the quiet little town. It was one of the dresses that Snow had made for her in 'Enchanted Forest Fashion'. It was not an ugly dress, but Snow seemed to enjoy covering up as much of her daughter as possible. That aside, the regal, light purple dress looked completely out of place on the gloomy balcony. It was made for princesses in castles, not for the savior in a cursed town.

Snow seemed oblivious as ever to her moping daughter, waving enthusiastically at the crowd of people below them. Though crowd was a big word for it: the custom of pledging loyalty had originated from the time that hundreds and hundreds of people would live around the court and people would come from the furthest reaches of the land to see their king and queen. In the little town of Storybrooke, the whole affair had lost much of its appeal. The speech was the same every week, and Emma wondered if she could recite by now, having heard the speech a dozen times already. Since listening to her parents saying the same thing over and over again seemed, to Emma, like a waste of time for anyone, she wasn't surprised that there were barely six people waving back. Most of them seemed more interested in her than in her parents, probably out to catch a glimpse of the famous 'savior'. Emma groaned and tried to smile when Snow started her ridiculous speech for the umpteenth time this month.

"I could call you subjects, but you are not my subjects. You are not the people living in my land, you are my land. And as I have sworn to serve this land, I have sworn to serve you. To be righteous, to be fair, to be honest, to be the queen you all deserve."

Emma groaned inwardly at the speech. It might have been inspiring the first time around, but now it was already getting painfully clichéd. Then again, that seemed to be the thing with her parents. If she heard one more 'I will always find you' ….

Well sometimes she understood why Regina turned evil.

Suddenly she got distracted from the rather long and tedious speech as someone joined the crowd. If she hadn't recognized the woman, she could have known from the way the small crowd parted at her behest. Regina Mills was looking her signature combination of smug, annoyed and regal. She sat down, crossed her legs and began listening intently to Snow, probably laughing at her inwardly too.

Well Emma would, at least.

"I will strive to defend our land like I defend my family, for you are my family. I will keep the land and myself fertile-"

That line still made Emma gag. 'Fertile' no doubt ranked high in her list of 'words she would never want to be called'. She caught sight of Regina and even though the trained politician hardly moved a muscle, Emma recognized the slight snort that Regina gave at Snow portraying herself as a broodmare. Sometimes she wondered if Regina had changed the ridiculous speech when Snow became queen to ridicule the woman.

Snow however, seemed to love the idea of being fertile and smiled broadly at first Charming, then at Emma. Emma forced herself to smile back and swallow the gag that followed.

"Me and my husband, we are here to serve you. We are here because every day you put faith in us. Because every time you plow the field, you trust in your king and queen maybe thousands of miles away from you. Every time you mount your horse to go to battle, you believe in your king and queen far away from your battlefield-"

Emma took another glance at Regina and noticed that the woman was mouthing the words along with her mother. Emma couldn't blame her: she probably had to hear the exact same words countless times while sitting next to the king. Briefly the image of the young, unhappy Regina sitting on the balcony trying to look happy flashed through her mind. Emma hated the customs, but at least she'd be free of it after the show was over and could go on with her life. Regina had to live this, this fake life, for years upon years upon years.

"You believe in us. And I think you believe me when I say this: My daughter Emma is a gorgeous, smart, kind-hearted, loving woman-"

Emma's ears peaked up, not only because she was mentioned by name, but also because this was different from the usual speech. Snow was obsessed with getting the speech the exact right way every time, so for her to completely divulge from the customary speech was unusual to say the least. Emma turned her head to throw a glare at her mother. Whatever it was, she hadn't been consulted about it. If she was going to inherit the throne or something she figured she should be the first to know. She didn't care if it was a custom, she had her limits.

"-And that is why the person that I will grant her hand to, has to be someone of equal grace, someone that can challenge my daughter, that can relate to her in a way that I will never be able to. Someone who can make my daughter happy in a way that I can't. This is why I am happy to announce that my daughter, Emma Swan, has found that person in the most unlikely of places: I am happy to announce the engagement between Emma Swan and Regina Mills."

Emma's mouth fell open at her mother's words. She hadn't expected anything like that to come out of her mother's mouth. She had expected Snow to be angry at her, not cheer on the engagement as the first cheerleader. She had expected speeches about true love and possibly even a show of homophobia.
She had been afraid of those things, which was exactly why she hadn't told her yet.

Snow looked equally shocked at the first that had just come out her mouth. She slapped her hand in front of her mouth as if she could stop more words from coming out. She stood up, found herself trapped between her husband and her daughter and sat down again. Emma tore her gaze away from her mother and searched in the crowd for Regina. When their eyes met, Regina smirked and stood up from the chair. She blew a kiss at Emma and before she turned and walked away, mouthed something at Emma.

"You're welcome dear." Snow said.

I had a blast with this one, hope you liked it too. And yes, I enjoy making fun of Snow as much as Regina does.