A/N- hi again! You must be finding this very odd, but I had to do it. Zelena is one of my favorite characters, in fact, after Regina and Emma she and Robin are the ones I love most, and I was very disappointed by the way her arch ended. So, to put my heart at ease I decided to put on paper my headcanon for her, and this is what came out of it. It's set after the episode Kansas (3x20) and it goes slightly AU because the season finale doesn't happen, obviously, and the pairings change. Now, why I paired Zelena and Robin? First of all, as I said, they are my faves after Regina and Emma; second of all, Bex and Sean's friendship is the cutest most awesome thing in the world and I ship it, so there you go. This will be split in four or five parts, depending on my muse, each chapter containing a conversation that represents what I think would be suitable for Zelena's arch, what I wanted to see. Please keep in mind that this is my version of things and it is entirely fiction; also english is not my first language so you'll probably find lots of mistakes and I apologize in advance for that. I hope someone read it and like it! xoxo

A/N- about the story/chapters title: as usual it's a song reference. The title of the story it's the name of the song (Elastic Heart by Sia feat The Weeknd and Diplo. You'll find it at the Catching Fire soundtrack; I recommend listening to the whole album, it's pretty amazing), and the titles of the chapters are lines from the lyrics.

YOU DID NOT BREAK ME

It's been a couple of weeks since Zelena was defeated and locked up in jail. Everything is smooth in Storybrooke; no more impending dooms or vengeful villains, not even a complaint about disturbance in the neighborhood. The town was sleepy as it had been with the first curse, and everybody was pretty satisfied with it.

Except a certain young boy. Not that he was unhappy with the quietude of the town, and the fact that no more astray relatives had appeared out of nowhere to try to kill his family. But that possibility had him sulking more often than not. The thought of having to be wary with his own family disturbed him too much.

And his mind kept coming back to Zelena. Aunt Zelena. He had an aunt. His mother actually had a last blood relative alive. Obviously she wasn't blood related to him, but that didn't matter in the least. He had an aunt, and she was alive, and he wanted her to be a part of his life. He wanted his family together, his whole family. He wanted a cool aunt to whom he could go to when his mothers were being obnoxious. He wanted one more seat occupied at the table in the family dinners. He deserved that, and his mom deserved that. She had no family other than him, but now she did and he wanted her to enjoy that.

Regina had offered Zelena a second chance, but the woman refused. Henry knew she only did it because she was too stubborn and proud (must be the Mills blood), but there's no way she actually outright rejected the idea of finally having a family. She just needed a little push.

And that's why he was so quiet these days; he was putting together Operation Green.

Now, sitting with his mothers at a booth in Granny's enjoying their breakfast (the three of them always meet there to had breakfast together when Emma was dropping him off to spend the weekends with Regina), the boy clears his throat and ease his nerves to kickoff his plan.

"Can I ask you guys something?"

"I think you already had too many pancakes, kid" says Emma with an amused smile. She loves to tease him about his passion for Granny's pancakes.

"It's not that. I…" he doesn't give in to the game, too focused on the big task on hand right now. "I want to visit Zelena in jail"

"What?!" both of his mothers exclaim at the same time, with the same wide eyes.

"Why on the planet would you want that?" Emma adds with a disbelieving look.

"I wanna talk to her" the boy merely shrugs.

"About what, sweetheart?" Regina asks with an edge to her tone.

"I don't know, everything. I wanna know her" he says with resolution.

"Why?" Emma asks half surprise, half angry.

"She's my aunt" he simple replies.

"Technically you're not related to her at all", Emma tries to crush his argument.

"Because they don't share blood?" Regina asks turning to Emma with an annoyed glare. "So Henry is not my son?"

Emma sighs; of course she would go there. "That's not what I said. And it's two very different situations"

"I still wanna visit her", Henry cuts in, both to stop an unnecessary argument and to be more categorical with his resolve.

"That's not gonna happen", Emma says putting her foot down.

So Henry goes for the low blow; he didn't want to do this, but he needed to. Turning to Regina he lets out a soft "Mom, please?"

"Don't go do your puppy eyes to her, I've already vetoed", Emma says irritated, knowing too well his game.

Regina ignores her and asks her son with curiosity, "Why is it so important to you that you talk to her?"

"I don't wanna lose her without even knowing her", he answers with a concerned frown of someone who had experienced already too many loss for such young age.

With this, Regina looks at Emma with watery eyes. Emma sighs. She understands him, but that doesn't make it okay to let him visit the psycho in jail.

And Regina knows how Emma is uncomfortable with this, so she tries again to make Henry back down. "Sweetheart, you do remember that she was the one responsible for your father's death, right?"

"Yeah, and that's one of the things I wanna talk to her about" he simply says.

He seems so calm, so sure, and his mothers are taken aback by this. Seems like he gave that a lot of thought, he really wants this.

"Henry, she's dangerous", Emma tries again with a soft tone.

"I know, but she's powerless now and in jail, she's not gonna do anything to me", he argues.

"You can't know that"

"Mom, please? She's family. Not to you, but she's my family", he says back with aggravation. "I don't know what's gonna happen to her now, so please let me know her before it's too late? Please?"

The hint of desperations on his voice makes his mothers give in. Phase one, complete.

It's been two weeks, three days and fourteen hours since Zelena was defeated and locked up in jail. She knew that because the only thing that was left for her was to count the time of her confinement. Regina brought some books for her to read but it's not like she was just accept the gifts. Though with each passing day she knew she would give in, she was way too bored to ignore it any longer. She really should be building another wicked plan, but she just does not have the strength to do that. So she would just spend her days observing the town from the tiny window of her cell, dreaming about living again.

That was what she was doing when she heard a throat clearing somewhere at the Sheriff Station. She turns her head towards the sound just to find a young boy staring at her, hesitance in his eyes but a sheepish smile on his lips.

"Hi" says Henry tentatively.

Zelena stares back at him for several minutes, trying to figure out what was that all about. Coming up with nothing she decides to ask. "What are you doing here?"

"Visiting you" the boy answers. He's obvious nervous about talking to her, she can see him fidgeting with his hands; but there's a confidence on his smile that intrigues her.

She sits straight in her cot and arches an eyebrow. "Did you mothers send you?"

Interpreting her gesture as receptive to the conversation, the boy relaxes a little. "God no, they don't want me anywhere near the station with you here" he says with a little laugh. "I had to put my best puppy eyes to convince them to let me come here"

Her eyebrows shot even higher. "You are here willingly?"

He grabs a chair and places in front of her cell so they're facing one another. "Yep" he answers simply.

She sends him an incredulous look. "Why?"

"I wanted to talk to you, to get to know you" he shrugs.

She can't hide her curiosity. "Why would you want to know me?"

"Because you're family", he says matter-of-factly.

There's a long pause. Zelena is way too taken aback to react, so she just stares at him in silence for several minutes again. Sensing his growing discomfort, she decides to reply without showing her cards.

"Technically we're not related to each other at all" she comments, expressionless.

He just rolls his eyes amused by how she sounded just like his blonde mother.

"Regina is my mother, you are her sister ergo you are my aunt", he starts explaining. "Family it's not just about blood, it's about having people that care about you and you care about them. You can choose your family" at this Zelena makes a face that looked a lot like understanding but also hurt. It was gone as quick as it appeared, but he was way too observant to let it slip. "But I guess you already know that" he adds knowingly.

She snorts at this. "Why would you think that?"

"That face you made. You had a family before, didn't you? A family you chose?" he asks and she averts her gaze, telling too much just with this. "Who are they?"

"No one" she says without looking back at him.

"What happened?" he insists.

"None of your business", she bites back immediately, a growing angry look on her face.

"If you don't wanna talk about it now, it's cool" he says shrugging. "Just know that you have that option again. Me, my mom and everyone else, we all can be your family now if you want to"

She scoffs. "What makes you think that I care? That I would consider choosing to be in this family?"

"No one wants to be alone" he says looking deeply in her eyes.

There's another long pause. She wants to look away again because she knows she's telling too much with her eyes right now, but she can't tear her eyes from his soft gaze, so understanding, so judgment free, so innocent.

"You're wasting your time. They'll never accept me", she says with a tone that was meant to be firm, but the cracking in her voice didn't help.

"They will" he simply says back.

She adopts an incredulous look. "Because they accepted your mother? It's not the same thing"

"I know, but I also know they will accept you because they are good and forgiving", he explains.

"You're wrong"

"I'm not. And even if the rest don't accept you, my mom does. And I do. You won't be alone anyways" he says with confidence.

She's growing very uncomfortable with his sweet words and attitude. So she goes for a low blow. "Why would you do that? I practically killed your father", and it works as she sees him flinching. She smirks at her small victory.

He then sighs, and stays silent for a few minutes, thinking.

"Did you know that Rumplestiltskin killed his wife when my dad was a child?" he finally asks.

Zelena finds the question odd, but nods anyway, she did know that.

"And did you know that my dad forgave him for that?"

At this she doesn't react. Not because she is surprised by the fact, but because she's surprised that Henry's openly talking about it. How old is this kid again?

He doesn't wait for her to react though. "I choose to consider this my dad's legacy. To learn this from him, learn how to forgive things and open your heart to love your family despite the past", he explains. "I didn't know my dad until last year, and I spent little time with him, but I know he was a good guy. He also made mistakes, and my mom forgave him for that too, but in his heart he was a good guy. And I think he wouldn't want me to hate you for the rest of my life, that's not what good guys do"

He is making a very strong point there. And there's the certainty in his voice, his firm posture. He's way more smart and sensitive than she would give him credit for. And that makes her ease her tone with him though the words are still meant to drive him away. "You two may be good guys, Henry, but I'm not. I don't regret what I did to your father"

"Maybe not now, but one day you will" he says with a shy smile. "And one day we'll be having picnic at the park and you'll turn to me, grab my shoulder and look me in the eyes saying 'Henry, I regret what I did to your father and I am really sorry' and then I'll answer 'I know and I forgive you' and we'll hug and you're gonna ask me if I want another toast. It's gonna be a fun day"

She can't help but chuckle at his daydream. "You really have a powerful imagination"

He laughs too. "I really do. But I'm almost never wrong" he gives her a knowing smile.

She sighs. "You cannot seriously believe that this is going to happen, that I will actually be a reformed villain"

He just nods with excitement. "You'll be more than that, you'll be one of the good guys. You'll be a hero"

"Why on earth you think that?"

"Because that's what we are in my family", he says matter-of-factly.

She can't help the eye-roll. "Well, that's your proof that we are not family", she stops for a split second, and then adds in a lower tone "I'm not like that, I'm wicked".

"If I learned anything about my family is that evil - or wicked, whatever - isn't born, it's made", and that catches her attention. It was the exact same thing Regina said when she offered her sister a second chance. Henry continues, "Just because you did bad things that doesn't mean that you're a bad person. Villains are usually misunderstood or unloved or even manipulated. Not all of them are bad by choice. And they can always choose to be good. My mom did, my grandpa did. You can do it too"

"You are wrong, Henry", she says again but this time she wasn't so sure.

"I'm not. I know that good it's in there, inside you. You just have to reach it"

She hesitates, and then admits in a whisper, "I don't know how".

"We will help you, my mom and I" he says gleefully, noticing that it was working, she was giving in. "It's not gonna be easy and it'll take some time, but we'll be always with you. We can do this together, as a family, and you'll see that it's worth it"

She can tell that he's trying really hard to show her that the side of light is really worth it, which is very strange considering what he has seen in his own family, who his relatives are.

"You don't sound like a child who was raised by the Evil Queen" she can't help the comment.

"Because I'm not. I was raised by Regina Mills, and she's a great mom" he says with certainty. "She's is a great person, and you can be too" he's not gonna give up.

Zelena hesitates again. She doesn't want to be contaminated by his hope, she just wants to sulk with her miserable life and die alone. But those stupid innocent green eyes.

She averts her gaze, feeling a little overwhelmed. "What if I fail? What if I can't handle it? What if I don't make it to the part where it's all worth it?"

"You will. You're strong and stubborn, you can handle it and you won't give up". As she refuses to meet his eyes, he calls "Hey, aunt Zelena?"

Aunt Zelena. This breaks her. She looks at him.

"I believe in you", it's all he says. And it's enough.

She feels her eyes burning with unshed tears, but she tries to hold them. "Why is it so important to you that I redeem myself, Henry?" she asks in a whisper; she already gave in, but she needs to know this.

He shrugs. "I'm tired of my family wanting to kill each other. I grew up with only my mother around and then I found out that I have the most awesome badass family ever and I just want them to be united, you know? I just wanna have a happy holiday with my whole family there and the biggest problem that'll appear it's who spilled apple juice in the kitchen floor. And I think that deep down that's all everyone wants it too", he says trying to make it like it's not a big deal but the rambling already told too much.

There's a log silence again, neither of them really sure of what to say next.

As if on cue, Emma enters the Station. She promised him that she wouldn't intervene but he was inside for too long now and she was worried. "Henry, is everything okay here?" she asks with a concerned frown.

"Yeah, it's all cool. We were just finishing here" he says. He knew he had gotten Zelena to consider his offering, and now she needed time to process the whole thing by herself. "I gotta go now", he adds looking at his aunt, "Think about it, okay?"

She just nods.

He then gets up and follow his mother to the hall. When arriving at the corner of the corridor, a hesitant voice echoes through the Station.

"Henry?"

Mother and son looks back at the woman in the cell.

"Thank you", she says with a cracking voice and a tear striking down her cheek.

The boy just smiles happily at her.

"See ya, aunt Zelena!"

tbc