Title: To the Moon and Back
Summary: It took another couple of minutes but eventually the kid dropped his bombshell. "You know, Mom, it's not cloudy out tonight." And in one inward-groan-inducing second, Emma got it. "Let me guess. There's also a meteor shower tonight, right?" An excited grin formed on his lips as he nodded. "So can we go out and watch it?"
Spoilers: None, really. Set mid-season 2.
Rating/Warning: K+, for language, mostly. Family fluff with a side of hurt/comfort, I'm sure, as per usual.
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC.
Author's Note: The latest in my series of Family Things the Charmings Never Got to Do, So They're Doing Them Now. As always, you don't have to have read the others to read this one. Title comes from the Savage Garden song of the same name, for no real reason other than dude, Savage Garden. Feedback makes my little day! Enjoy. :)

Emma Swan had never been so happy to plop down on a sofa in her entire life. She even kicked her feet up and rested them on the coffee table, studiously ignoring her mother's disapproving frown from over at the kitchen sink where she and David were finishing up the dinner dishes. If ever a day called for being able to put one's feet on the furniture, it was this one.

It hadn't been a bad day, exactly, just a long one. The morning had been filled with nothing but piles and piles of paperwork and Emma's afternoon was spent dealing with what she'd not-so-affectionately dubbed "curse-break-related craziness." Fairy tale characters had some of the weirdest problems imaginable. Emma should know; she'd spent her entire afternoon attempting to help sort them out.

She leaned her head back against the sofa and let the cushions envelop her tired muscles. She'd just closed her eyes when she heard her son say, "So, Mom, you know what I've never done before?"

Oh boy. That was certainly a loaded question. She almost hesitantly blinked her eyes open and sure enough, Henry was standing beside the couch with a hopeful expression on his little face. "Let me guess," she said, deciding to go for a joke. "You've never seen an elephant walking down Main Street."

Henry chuckled as he plopped down on the sofa next to her. "Well, I've never done that, either, but I was thinking of something else."

Any other day, she would have tossed out another sarcastic guess but she didn't have the energy for it tonight. "All right, I give. What have you never done before?"

"I've never watched a meteor shower."

Of all the things she'd expected to come out of Henry's mouth, that was nowhere on the list. "Really now?"

"Uh huh, and I've always wanted to. I've tried a couple of times but it was too cloudy and I couldn't see a single regular star, never mind any shooting ones."

"Wow. That really su – er ..." She trailed off, catching Snow's wince at her impending use of somewhat strong language. "Stinks," she amended. "That really stinks, Henry." She frowned, finding the wording awkward. Sucks would have flowed better.

The awkward wording apparently didn't bother Henry; he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it really does." Then he inched closer to her, clearly trying to decide how thick to lay it on. He must have decided to go whole hog because within seconds, he was completely cuddled up to her.

Well, he certainly wanted something, and Emma somehow got the impression that whatever he was working his way up to asking her was going to shatter her plan of sitting on the sofa for a while and then going to bed early.

They just sat together for a moment or two before Henry spoke again. "Have you ever seen a meteor shower?"

"Just once," she said, softening slightly at the memory. "I was really little so I don't remember much about it, just that there were so many shooting stars I couldn't keep track of them all." She'd been about six, if she remembered correctly. It was during one of the hottest nights of summer, and she and one of her foster brothers had snuck outside for an hour or so to watch the shooting stars. That was back when things like shooting stars were still filled with magic and promise.

Henry nodded and once again let the conversation drop. Where on earth was this going? Though a large part of her wanted to tell him to just drop the bombshell she was sure was coming, Emma decided to rein in her impatience and wait him out.

Which was pretty much torture, by the way. Emma's impatience liked roaming free.

It took another couple of minutes but eventually the kid dropped his bombshell. "You know, Mom, it's not cloudy out tonight."

And in one inward-groan-inducing second, Emma got it. "Let me guess. There's also a meteor shower tonight, right?"

An excited grin formed on his lips as he nodded. "So can we go out and watch it?"

A swift glance at her parents told her that they were up for it; they both had encouraging smiles on their faces. Well, there went her nice, relaxing evening. "I suppose we can go out for a little while before bedtime."

Henry's excited grin turned into a nervous little smile, which made Emma's breath catch in her throat. Uh oh. She was clearly not going to be thrilled with whatever he said next. "Okay, but see, here's the thing. Meteor showers around here are the best really early in the morning. Like, three in the morning early."

Emma gaped at her son. Once the kid was asleep, getting him up in the middle of the night typically required either some kind of parade through their shared bedroom or one of his coded missions to accomplish. Setting an alarm for three in the morning was not going to suffice. The only wait Henry was going to be awake at three in the morning was if he never went to sleep in the first place.

Emma's dream of having a nice, relaxing evening and going to bed early burst and drifted away. "You want to pull an all-nighter?"

"No, not an all-nighter," Henry amended quickly. "More like a really-really-late-er."

David attempted to swallow his snicker but Emma still heard it. She shot him an unamused glare, silently telling him not to encourage Henry's sneaky ways. "Henry, I–"

"Oh, Mom, please? It'll be fun! We can make ice cream sundaes and watch movies and play games and stuff like that while we wait, and then we can go out and watch the meteor shower! It's Friday so we can sleep in tomorrow. Please?"

Emma glanced over at her parents for help only to find them both smiling expectantly at her. She didn't like the fact that they didn't seem at all thrown by Henry's request and … oh, wait, hold on a second. Were they in on this? They were, weren't they? Henry must have brought it up to them first, and they must have told him it was okay with them if it was okay with her.

She didn't mind the meteor shower, she really didn't. It was the three in the morning part that was tripping her up. And, to be honest, the idea of doing family activities while staying up until three in the morning was kind of making her nervous, too. She wasn't used to family activities – though she'd been getting better at them since her parents and son had been pretty much foisting them on her – and she had little to no experience with slumber parties.

Just as she was about to tell Henry she wasn't sure that an all-nighter was a good idea, she caught the tiny little pout that was his warmup to the dreaded Puppy Dog Eyes. Sweet mother of God, he was going to kill her with those things someday. Even if she could say no to Stage One and Stage Two, she'd never make it past Stage Three.

Figuring she might as well surrender to it now, she heaved a sigh. "All right, yeah, we can watch the meteor shower."

"Yes!" Henry cried as he threw his arms around her in a hug. "Thank you! This is going to be so much fun, Mom, I promise."

A soft smile curled on her lips as she hugged him back. Even though a slumber party was the last thing she wanted to participate in after the day she'd had, she had to admit that his excitement was the slightest bit contagious. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Henry pulled out of her embrace after a long moment and then pushed himself to his feet. "I'm going to find some movies for us to watch and maybe some games we can play. I know, I know, no bingo. Then we can figure out what we want to do first."

Then again, maybe it would. Games and movies for the next, what, nine hours, and then a trip outside? Ugh.

He was out of the room and heading for the stairs before Emma could even say a single word. She sighed again, leaning her head back against the sofa. What the hell had she gotten herself into?

She lifted her head when she heard her mother's soft giggle. Her parents had apparently finished the dishes because they were now approaching the sofa, amused grins on their faces. She narrowed her eyes at the both of them. "You two were in on this from the jump, weren't you?"

"Guilty," David admitted while Snow nodded not at all sheepishly.

"He'd been babbling about the meteor shower since he got off the school bus," Snow added. "I'm actually surprised he managed to make it all the way through dinner before asking you."

Well, if her parents had convinced her son to ask her if he could stay up until who knew when, then she wasn't going to be the only one staying up with the kid. "I hope you realize that you're both pulling an all-nighter tonight, too."

The calm expressions on their faces indicated that they had fully expected this turn of events, which Emma didn't think was entirely fair. She'd gotten the rug pulled out from her under tonight; her parents should have, too. "Not all-nighter," David teased. "Really-really-late-er."

Emma shot him an unimpressed glare, which made the both of them swallow snickers. "Oh, sure, laugh it up," she said, arching an eyebrow at them. "We'll see how funny this all is at one-thirty in the morning when we're all exhausted."

"Henry was right," David teased, nudging his wife's shoulder while grinning at his daughter. "This is going to be fun."

Emma just rolled her eyes.