New fic: #1 Mom, OUAT, Emma/Regina, G
Title: #1 Mom
Author: chilly_flame
Pairing: Swan Queen with a side of Henry
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Rating: G-ish
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything related to ABC/Disney’s Once Upon a Time
Summary: based on the prompt by delightfullyambiguous: Henry cooks Regina breakfast in bed, but he really should have cooked for two...
It was Mother’s Day. Despite his total belief that his mom was the Evil Queen and deserved a fate worse than death, it was his obligation to make her breakfast once a year. He’d promised Miss Blanchard that he was going to follow through, even though he’d complained loudly at the request when they were at school on Friday.
Therefore, at seven in the morning, he’d woken up and decided that whether she wanted them or not, his mom was getting chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. He was sure she would hate them, but who cared? She never appreciated anything he did these days, so it didn’t matter.
He went outside and pulled an apple from her tree to serve too, figuring it would placate her if she refused to eat the pancakes. He also brewed some coffee, and even poured himself a little, adding it to a glass of hot milk. He’d come around to the taste of it a couple of months ago after sneaking some of hers. He couldn’t figure out why she didn’t use milk, but decided it was because she was so evil that she didn’t need to lighten the brew.
Although he had eyed the wild daisies that grew in the backyard, he did not pick them when he got the apple. But once he’d mixed the instant pancake batter, he felt guilty for being so deliberately mean and went back outside to cut a few. He found a vase, filled it with water and dropped the blooms into it. He put the vase on the side of the wooden tray along with a couple of napkins and a big container of syrup.
He also included a handmade card with a heart on it that read, “Happy Mother’s Day.” The heart was shaped more like a real heart than the usual kid-drawn heart; he thought she might appreciate the realism.
Once the pancakes were done, he flipped a bunch of them onto a plate and added the sliced apple.
He stared at the completed tray and thought it was way nicer than what she ought to get for Mother’s Day. But at least this would keep the peace. And he had bigger plans for Emma, though he might not get to deliver his present till later this week. They weren’t scheduled to see each other till Tuesday, but he’d made a big card and gotten her a mug with the words “#1 Mom” on it. It made him feel a little funny buying it for her from the drug store, especially when the cashier had given him a strange look when he’d wrapped it up.
Maybe the cashier would ask his mom later how she’d liked the mug. What would she say? What would she think?
He shook his head. The cashier would never talk to his mom other than to tell her how much she owed him. He’d be safe.
He picked up the tray and balanced it carefully. It was heavier than it looked, especially as he climbed up the stairs. He couldn’t get into his mom’s bedroom without putting the tray down, so he did so before opening the door. He didn’t look inside before getting the tray and hoisting it up again, easing it into the room and placing it on the bed.
Only then did he notice that his mom wasn’t alone.
Emma was there too. She was laying behind his mom, an arm around her waist, in her usual tank top and a pair of boxer shorts. His mom was also wearing a tank top and shorts, which Henry had never, ever seen her wear. The sheets were kicked to the foot of the bed, and the window was wide open.
Neither of them moved until Henry said, “What?”
Emma just snorted and tightened her grip on his mom, who said, “Mm.”
“Hello!” Henry finally said, holding onto the tray in case someone flailed and knocked it over.
It’s a good thing he did, because when Emma’s eyes opened, she was up and out of the bed like a shot. “Henry! Hi! Oh my god, hi. Good morning. I was just here, um, because your mom was, um, having trouble with… Um. The toilet. Uh, oh god.”
His mom, on the other hand, didn’t look upset at all when she saw him. “Hello, dear. What’s this?”
Henry frowned. “It’s Mother’s Day. I made you breakfast.”
Emma’s eyes stayed panicked, but his mom just sat up and smiled. “Henry, that is so thoughtful. Come here,” she said, and almost against his will, he did. She hugged him and kissed his cheek, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Emma. She remained frozen across the room.
“Um. Maybe I should, uh, take off?” she squeaked.
His mom finally looked over at Emma and smirked. She turned to him and said, “Henry, we should have told you before, but Miss Swan and I are… dating.” She got a look on her face similar to when she ate something that tasted bad. “That is, we’re seeing one another. I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I suppose we could’ve handled it better. I apologize, dear.”
Henry glanced over at Emma, who looked as stunned as he felt. “What?” Emma asked.
“Well, what did you want me to say? That you were helping me fix my toilet while you were asleep?” She chuckled at her own joke. “Henry, are you all right?”
Henry just looked back and forth between them two of them until he just said, “I guess?”
Emma exhaled so loudly it drew Henry’s attention. “Sorry, kid,” she said. “I didn’t mean for you to find out like this.”
All Henry could think was, The White Knight is dating the Evil Queen. The White Knight is dating the Evil Queen. What the heck did that mean? Was the Knight in danger? Or was the Knight supposed to save the Queen? Or was there something that he didn’t know at all, something the book didn’t talk about?
“What did you make? Pancakes?” his mom asked. “With an apple, and coffee.” She sipped it, and sighed in pleasure. “It’s delicious. And the flowers are very pretty.” She looked almost shy when she said the words. It made him kind of glad he’d gone all out.
“Are those blueberries?” Emma asked, still standing across the room.
“Chocolate chips,” Henry replied.
“All right!” Emma cheered, returning to the bedside to sit next to his mom. “I want some, for sure.”
“Should I, um, get a second plate?” he asked.
They both looked up at him with matching startled expressions. Emma tried not to move her head when she looked in his mom’s direction, but his mom just smiled. “That would be nice. Bring one for yourself, too.”
So Henry ran down the stairs and got two more plates, filled them with pancakes, and poured more coffee. When he got back upstairs, Emma and his mom were arguing over the fork. Emma won.
The weirdest part of the whole thing was that when Emma pulled the tray onto the middle of the bed, and they all sat around it, Henry felt… good. Really good. Like it was right for Emma to be here, even if she was the savior and his mom was the villain. He laughed when they laughed, and his stomach got warm when his mom gave Emma the last bite of pancake. And when they looked at each other, it seemed like they liked each other, and he kind of liked that too.
It was a strange morning, especially when his Mom opened his card. She got a little teary, and hugged him so tight it hurt.
“I have a card for you too, Emma,” he said, wondering if he should give it to her now. As much as he wanted her to have it, he also didn’t want to make his mom feel bad.
Emma looked over at Regina and shrugged. “That’s cool,” she said.
Henry scrambled off the bed and ran to his room. When he looked at the card, hand drawn on a big piece of posterboard, he frowned. It just felt… wrong. In that instant, he changed his mind, and pulled construction paper off the bookshelf. With the crayons on his desk, he drew a regular heart, not quite like the one he’d given his mom, and wrote, “Happy Mother’s Day” on it so the two cards matched. It didn’t take him long, and even though he had the #1 Mom mug stashed in his dresser, he decided not to give it to her.
Maybe next year.
He ran back to his mom’s room, where the two of them were talking quietly. His mom was holding Emma’s hand and smiling in a way he’d never seen before.
She didn’t look much like an Evil Queen.
In that second, it was like everything he knew about this world and the fairytale world was falling down around his ears. He just stood there and watched them until Emma caught him staring. “Hey, kid,” she said, and their hands didn’t separate when he crawled onto the bed.
“Here you go,” he said, handing it to her.
She opened it, and watched both his moms smile at it. Emma traced the red heart with her fingertip, and her mouth twisted up. “Thanks, Henry.” She looked up at him. “I never had one of these before.”
He watched their hands squeeze together, and he lifted his shoulders. “You’re welcome.”
“Come ‘ere, kid,” Emma said, and he smiled as he moved toward her open arms. His mom’s hand landed on his shoulder and rubbed it for a second.
When he pulled away, he looked down at his fingers. “I can, um, take the plates down and do the dishes. It’s part of my Mother’s Day gift, okay?”
“Sure, dear, thank you.” His mom’s face was bright; her eyes were a pretty brown in the morning light. She hadn’t looked this nice in a while. Their breakfast was the first time she hadn’t yelled at him or complained about something he did in months.
“Maybe you want to throw a ball around today, kid?” Emma asked. “I’ve got a pretty good arm, you know, and you’ve got a big back yard to play in.”
Henry looked at his mom, who didn’t frown, so he said, “Sure!”
“Then I’ll meet you downstairs in a bit, okay?”
Henry nodded. “Okay.” He piled the dishes and cups and picked up the tray. A moment after he got to the stairs, he heard the door close.
He rinsed the dishes and put everything in the dishwasher, sneaking chocolate chips and sips of coffee as he worked. When he climbed up the steps to get dressed, he heard laughter coming from his mom’s bedroom.
In his own room, he pulled a baseball shirt down from his closet. He didn’t stop smiling as he put it on.