Rose Belikova + Regina Mills + Dimitri Belikov
With mentiona of Xavier & Ivan
PG-13 | Complete
The smile that had appeared on Rose’s face as she’d realized that this version of Regina knew her hadn’t really faded since. Rose’s memories of Lawrence might have come to her in the form of dreams. They might not be as prominent as her memories of Breck, but they were strong enough for her to feel the absence of the former Evil Queen in her life and to have been disappointed when the last version of her hadn’t even known her at all. Having someone show up with those shared memories was a good feeling after so many who’d had no freaking clue.
She watched her son and husband play from the blanket they’d laid out. Ivan was too young to do any real running yet, but he was mobile enough that he and Dimitri could “chase” each other around the park, even if it required Dimitri to not move at his top speed.
Rose’s smile just grew as she saw the purple smoke that signaled the arrival of her friend. “Man, you’re slow,” she teased, even though it had only been moments since they had made these plans to meet in the park.
They’d been out for a walk when Xavier had seen the shiny coin on the ground. And as was the norm for him lately he had refused to budge until she picked it up for him. Regina wanted to avoid another public meltdown so she gave in to his request. Only she should have known it wasn’t a simply coin.
Regina’s initial response to waking in Atlantis was to panic. That is until she rolled onto her side and saw her son smiling at her. Her next response was to groan as her head felt like it was going to explode. It took her another moment to come to the realization that she had memories of an entire lifetime that she didn’t recall living. But also it felt like she had lived through them. The memory update that she had received in Lawrence all those years ago had nothing on the one that she had just received.
It took much longer to get to and through her intake appointment than she would ever care to admit. And Rose and Robin would undoubtedly be the only two who she’d ever reveal that to. Regina was quite pleased that it didn’t take long for her little sister to check in. And she was even more pleased to learn that she wouldn’t have to travel too far. So, with her son on her hip, she attempted to poof herself to Rose’s location. With each failed attempt her son let out a slight giggle. When they finally disappeared and then reappeared, Xavier, was getting restless. He much preferred to be on his own two feet. And his restlessness only grew once he set his eyes on Rose and heard her speak.
“I apologize but your niece isn’t fond of mommy using magic,” Regina replied to Rose’s teasing and set her squirming son down. The moment his feet touched the ground she watched as he took off running towards his favorite aunt. While at the same time repeating, “Ro,” over and over again.
Rose was beaming as she lifted the toddler into her arms. He looked a little older than he had in her last memories of New Orleans, but that didn’t stop her from giving him a big hug. “I missed you, little monkey,” she said, holding him closer for a moment before relaxing her hold just a little. Rose and Xavier might not be related by blood, but he was her nephew in every way that mattered. Those dreams had been vivid enough for her to remember the feeling of holding this little boy as clearly as she’d felt the memories from her real life.
Shifting Xavier to one hip, she reached out to give Regina that was a little more awkward given that fact that she was holding onto a toddler and Regina’s belly was kind of huge, but it was no less warm or heartfelt. In that other world, Regina had become some weird combination of sister and mother-figure to Rose. She’d been the one who had really helped pull her back from the darkness and despair that had all but engulfed her after her restoration in the world and Rose was more grateful for that than she would ever be able to express, whether those things had happened to a different version of her or not.
Dimitri had finally caught up to Ivan (he’d not been trying too hard to outrun him after all) and picked him up, swinging him into the air.. As he turned around, he saw Regina appear and Ivan said ‘Ooooo.” Dimitri didn’t blame him, it was pretty impressive. “Let’s go see what’s going on,” he said and walked over to where Rose and Regina were along with Xavier.
“Well I caught him even though it wasn’t easy,” Dimitri laughed and smiled at Rose. He had heard Rose speak of Regina and he couldn’t imagine who else this could be that appeared out of purple smoke.
Though her enlarged belly made their hug awkward, Regina, was pleased to know that nothing had changed. Rose’s hugs were as warm and heartfelt as they always had been. And she was even more pleased to see how content her son was in his favorite aunts arms.
When she heard a voice from behind her she pulled away and turned to see that it was Dimitri. And in his arms was an adorable little boy. A little boy that she knew was the other surprise that Rose had in store for her.
“At least you are able to catch him,” Regina said and then as she reached over to tickle her son’s ankle she added, “this one is a little too quick for me these days.”
Rose’s smile only grew when her husband and son approached and she laughed easily at both Dimitri and Regina’s comments.
“Ivan definitely has our speed,” she said, “but it helps that he gets tired faster than we do. Plus I think he actually lets us catch him after a while. He thinks it’s a fun game.” As she paused, Rose realized introductions needed to be made.
“Dimitri,” she said, smiling, “This is Regina. Regina, this is Ivan.” She paused again. If she had come by her flair from the dramatic honestly, Regina had only influenced that aspect of her personality to grown. “Our son,” she added after that slightly dramatic pause.
Dimitri suppressed a smile at Rose’s dramatics. It was very much….Rose. “Hello Regina,” he said. “It’s nice to meet you. Rose has told me about you.” He had a feeling that there were things that he still didn’t know but that was okay, the important thing was that they had their family here. “Ivan can you say hello?” he said to his son who was suddenly playing shy. Ivan wasn’t shy in the least, he was like his mother in that respect but he also had a flair for the dramatic. Finally he grinned at Rose and Xavier and said said. “Lo!”
A beaming smile appeared on Regina’s face as Rose spoke about the little boy. It was clear that he was her entire world. Much like Xavier was to her. A genuine laugh filled the air around them when Rose dramatically revealed that the little boy was their son. She had suspected as much from the comment her little sister had made on the network regarding Dimitri babysitting the boys.
“And here I thought he was your cat” Regina said once she had gotten her laughter under control. And it would have remained under control had Ivan not decided to reveal just how much like his mother he was. “Well, hello there,” she replied, the beaming smile on her face fading away and revealing the one that she reserved for small children. “I’m so pleased to meet you, Ivan.”
And with a quick turn of her head towards Ivan’s father she added, “You as well, Dimitri. We’ve met before but I have found that each version of a person is different in some ways. So, it is like I am meeting you for the first time again.”
Rose rolled her eyes at Regina’s comment and laughter, but grinned at her son’s dramatics. He really was her kid. Gesturing to the blanket, she suggested they should all sit down. Xavier and Ivan could play - Rose and Dimitri had the reflexes to catch them if they wandered too far - while the adults talked.
“Rose told me that there had been a few versions of me in her life but I like to think that I’m the best one,” he grinned. “I assure you that I love Rose and Ivan very much and I do my best to make sure they stay out of trouble but that’s not easy.” Dimiri had a feeling that Regina was probably wondering about him if she had met some of the other versions of him. Especially if she had met the Strigoi version and he wanted to assure her that that was not him.
Following Rose’s suggestion that they sit down she agreed and proceeded to lower herself down as gracefully as possible. She had learned the hard way that trying to do so quickly meant that she would tip over as if she was a teapot to be poured. Her boys had been less than forgiving when that had happened. And she swore that Roland was humming his best rendition of “I’m a little teapot” for the next couple of days.
Once she was seated, Regina addressed Dimitri’s comments. “You very well might be the best. And I have no doubt that you love Rose and Ivan but it’ll take time before I actually believe that you do.”
“And on that last part. I know all too well how difficult that can be as she is trouble with a capital T,” she added with a smirk and a finger pointed in Rose’s direction.
“You’re obviously talking about some other Rose.” She managed a look of innocence for about half a second before it turned into something more like a smirk. It was true that she’d matured a lot over the last several years, but even she had to admit she had a tendency to attract trouble, even without strigoi around.
Dimitri laughed. “She can be trouble but I wouldn’t have her any other way,” he said. Rose had challenged him in many ways since they met, not all of them easy to deal with, but it was all part of loving her and he wouldn’t change that for the world.
“She wouldn’t be our Rose if she wasn’t causing stress lines or gray hair,” Regina said in response once she’d stopped laughing. And not a moment later she added, “I have a brilliant idea. We should compare stories of all the trouble that we’ve seen our darling little Rose get into. What do you think?”
Rose just rolled her eyes and shook her head, knowing she’d never be able to stop them even if she wanted to.