True Love, School Dances and Parents
Emma notices that Maia is hiding something from her, and it's pretty big. Set in the same universe as In The Moment We're Lost and Found but can be read alone.
“Maia,” Emma called from the kitchen, the fridge door half open as she studied the brightly coloured calendar they had stuck onto it, appointments and events written on in Killian’s writing. “Isn’t your school dance on Friday?”
“Hm?” Maia asked, looking up from where she reclined on the couch and removing one headphone. Emma sighed, remembering Henry being in an almost identical position. Her kids may have a twenty year gap, but it seemed that teenagers were teenagers no matter what decade you were in. “Sorry Mom, what were you saying?”
“Your school dance,” Emma repeated, crossing over to the couch. Maia shifted her legs, allowing her mother to sit next to her. “It’s this Friday. I mean do you have a dress?”
“Oh, that.” Maia wound the cord of her headphones around her fingers. “I don’t know if I’m going.”
“You’re not going?” Emma echoed. “Maia you were so excited when you first brought that flyer home. It’s your first high school dance, you wouldn’t stop talking about it. Now suddenly you don’t want to go?”
“School dances are lame,” she sighed.
“Language,” Emma chided, but there was still warmth in her voice. “What’s so lame about them, I would have killed to go to a school dance when I was your age.”
“It’s stupid,” she said. “Just dancing in a dumb high school gym with teachers watching to songs no-one has listened to in decades.” Emma shook her head. She could read people and she could read her daughter better than almost anyone. This wasn’t just thinking the idea of a dance was stupid. There was something Maia wasn’t telling her. She could practically see it sitting on her chest, pressing down in her and restricting her.
“Hello, my loves,” Killian sang as he came in. “Swan, the store was out of the crunchy peanut butter, so I picked up the smooth instead.” He stopped when he saw the scene in his living room, his daughter almost scowling on the couch while his wife was next to her, searching for an answer. She almost looked like she was interrogating a criminal down at the station. “What’s going on?”
“Maia suddenly decided that she doesn’t want to go to her school dance,” Emma explained.
“Really? Maia, I thought you were excited for your dance,” he said, frowning slightly at her.
“Well I was, and now I’m not,” she said sharply. “Can we please drop it now?”
“I’d ask you to watch your tone, young lady,” Killian told her. Maia rolled her eyes. “Or watch your attitude altogether.”
“Why the hell should it matter whether or not I want to go to some stupid dance?” she asked.
“Hey, watch your language,” Emma said, more force behind her words. “It matters because I know there’s something you’re not telling me.”
“God can you two just get off my back already?” Maia snapped. “You two love the dance so much, go yourselves!”
Before either of her parents could react, Maia poofed herself up to her room.
Later, after a long rant from Emma followed by a back massage from Killian, Emma worked up the nerve to go up to Maia’s room. Maia used magic to open the door and Emma winced, feeling hostility before she even entered the room. When Emma walked in she saw Maia curled on her bed, facing the wall, making out the faint sound of her crying, which did not work well for her strict parent demeanour.
“Maia, we have talked about this. Don’t you ever use magic to just leave a conversation you don’t want to be in, got it?” Maia gave a nod but didn’t turn around. “Look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Maia sat up and turned to face Emma. Her eyes were red and a few dried tears were on her face.
“Mom I’m sorry,” she sobbed, wiping her nose with her sleeve. “I am.”
“I know, baby,” Emma sighed, sitting next to her on the bed. “I can tell when people are lying. Now why don’t you tell me what’s really upsetting you?”
“I can’t,” she mumbled. “You wouldn’t get it.”
“You realise I once had to stab your dad in the gut with a huge sword, right?” Maia chuckled. “You can tell me.”
“It’s….. it’s you and Dad,” she admitted. “And Grandma and Grandpa, and Henry and Ella. It’s Aunt Anna and Uncle Kristoff, it’s Aunt Ella and Uncle Thomas.”
“Okay, I’m not following, kid,” she said. “Can you elaborate please?”
“I was raised on all these great fairytale romances,” she explained. “And every one of them, most of them, end up with the guy and the girl living happily ever after. The only ones that don’t are Aunt Red and Aunt Dorothy and Robin and Alice.”
Emma felt the realisation hit her square in the chest. How could she not have noticed? Fourteen years, raising her, talking to her, loving her and she never worked it out. Did Maia just hide it well or was Emma so blind? What kind of mother was she?
“Maia,” she said softly. “Maia are you….”
“I think I want my happy ending….” Maia took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut. Emma grabbed her hand and linked her fingers with her daughter’s.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s fine.”
“I think I want my happy ending to be with a girl,” she admitted, opening her eyes sheepishly.
Emma could see the weight it took off Maia. It was like someone had a rope tied tightly around her chest and now she was finally free. She pulled her into a tight hug, running her hand over and over her curls. She remembered when Maia was a toddler and her mother had commented that with hair like hers, Maia would be turning all the boy’s heads. She held her closer, listening to the soft, quick breaths of her daughter.
“Sweetie, I am so sorry that I couldn’t have made it easier for you,” she whispered.
“It’s okay, you couldn’t have known,” Maia replied. “I’m just glad I told you.”
“Yeah.” Emma broke the hug but slung an arm around her instead, letting Maia rest her head on her shoulder. She ran her finger down Maia’s red cheek and along her chin. “Hey, you know what?”
“What?”
“Did I ever tell you who my first kiss was?” Maia shook her head against Emma’s shoulder. “My friend Lily.”
“No way!” Maia gasped, turning to look at Emma. “You like girls?”
“Yep,” Emma laughed. “I mean I’ve always liked girls. And even though I married your dad and I love him, I had some relationships with girls. Do you think if I had told you it would have made all this easier?”
“I don’t know,” Maia answered. “Maybe? But at the same time, it’s not like you had to tell me.”
“I know, kid,” she said before kissing her head. “So about the dance….”
“It’s just, everyone in my class was talking about asking boys, and asking me which boy I was going to dance with. And then I thought being there, ending up dancing with a boy and watching……” Maia bit her tongue. Emma’s eyebrows nearly shot through the ceiling when she put two and two together.
“Watching……” she teased.
“Mom, even if it was a boy I would not tell you who I’m crushing on, if I am crushing on anyone at all,” she said.
“Okay,” she said. “But the idea of not being able to ask…. This girl to the dance, it hurt?”
“Yea,” she sighed. “A lot.”
“I get you, baby,” Emma said. Emma nuzzled into Maia’s wild curls
“Mom? Should we tell Dad?” Maia asked.
“Only if you want to,” she said.
“I do.”
They went into the kitchen hand in hand, Maia drawing on her mother’s strength. Killian was sitting at the kitchen table flipping through a novel when they came in. He looked up as they entered, still slightly unsure of Maia.
“She’s curbed the attitude,” Emma said, squeezing her shoulders. At that Killian managed to relax, managing a smile at his kid.
“Dad I have to tell you something,” Maia said. He frowned, confused and a tad nervous.
“What is it, darling?” he asked. Maia swallowed the lump in her throat and took a deep breath.
“I’m a lesbian,” she confessed hurriedly, her nails digging into Emma’s palm,. There was no confusion or shock on his face, perhaps he just managed to hide it well. Instead he smiled, moved over and wrapped Maia in a hug. She buried her face in his shirt, letting the fabric soak up the tears that leaked out. “So, you’re okay with it?”
“I’d be a sorry excuse for a parent if I wasn’t,” he chuckled. “And it would be rather hypocritical, given I have had my fair share of experiences with men.”
“Seriously?” she laughed as she pulled away. “Both of you are bi?”
“In the terminology of this realm, I prefer pansexual,” he said, his eyes twinkling.
“Is being not-straight genetic?” Maia asked, wrinkling her nose. “I mean is Henry bi too?” Emma laughed and put her arm around her, kissing her temple lightly.
“I’m just glad you’re finally open with us, kid,” she said. “And now that you are, you still have to make a decision about that dance.”
“Mom!” Maia laughed, rolling her eyes. “Seriously?” She thought it over, thinking about watching the girl she liked dancing with a boy. But she also thought about the fun she’d miss out on if she didn’t go. “I want to go.”
“That’s great, love,” Killian said. “We’ll pick you out a really special dress.”
“Actually,” Maia said, deciding to take another chance. “Maybe I could go in a suit?”
“You got it, kid,” Emma chuckled. “Tomorrow after work, you, me and your dad can go out and we’ll get the sharpest looking suit money can buy.”
“I love you guys,” Maia said, not caring how sappy she may have sounded. Emma kissed her head again, rubbing her nose against the soft ginger curls.
“We love you too, my darling,” Killian said.
