Apparently, I'm on a roll. Can't stop, won't stop. Here's the next story in the Fairy Tales & Happy Endings series. Short and sweet. :)
Title: Storytime
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Pairing: Emma x Regina, Henry
Rating: G
Summary: Sometimes, Emma reads Henry his favorite fairy tales.
Disclaimer: I don't own a thing. I'm merely borrowing these characters and other things for entertainment purposes only.
A/N: I'm not sure if I'm completely happy with how this turned out, but the idea kept nagging at me and wouldn't let me sleep, so here it is. Enjoy. :)
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Sometimes, Emma reads Henry his favorite fairy tales.
Most often, she comes over to house on Friday nights, eats dinner with Henry and Regina, and when they're done, she and Henry head upstairs with the book. Regina never joins them, insists that Emma and Henry use this time to bond, which came as a shock to Henry at first, but eventually he became accustomed to it. It became their routine.
Emma gets Henry all tucked in, then sits beside him on the bed, getting comfortable and letting Henry snuggle up close. She opens the book in her lap, and Henry selects a story for hear to read. Tonight, it's Hansel and Gretel. Emma makes sure Henry is ready before she begins.
"Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel."
Henry leans his head against Emma's shoulder, to get a better look at the books illustrations, and Emma wraps an arm around him.
Henry reads the next lines. "He had little to bite and to break, and once when great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure even daily bread. Now when he thought over this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his anxiety, he groaned and said to his wife: "What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for ourselves?"
"I'll tell you what, husband," answered the woman, "early to-morrow morning we will take the children out into the forest to where it is the thickest; there we will light a fire for them, and give each of them one more piece of bread, and then we will go to our work and leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be rid of them."
"That woman is really horrible," Henry says, crinkling his little nose in disgust.
Emma simply smiles down at him, and goes on reading.
Henry never falls asleep during storytime, no matter how tired he is. He fights to keep his eyes open until the story is finished, until Emma closes the book and declares it so. Only then does Henry snuggle into his blankets and close his eyes, with Emma there by his side, stroking his hair. He falls asleep quickly, dreams of fantastic things--fairy tale characters and distant lands and magic.
Emma looks up to find Regina standing in the doorway, off to the side, barely visible but she's there. Always. She smiles warmly at Emma, at her son--their son, she reminds herself of the technicality. It's been difficult letting Emma in, letting her get to know Henry, but she's trying and making progress.
And as much as she hates to admit it, Regina loves storytime as much as Henry and Emma do, if not more.