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"Please, Mom?" Henry wheedled for the tenth time since Regina had picked him up from his therapy session. His voice had by now turned into a full-out whine.
"As I have said the past nine times you asked: absolutely not," Regina retorted as she put the car into park in the driveway. "I won't have a dog chewing or doing its business on my carpet." Sliding out of the Mercedes, she made a mental note to ask the Cricket to keep Pongo out of the office during Henry's sessions for now on.
"Then what about a cat?" Henry asked, changing tactics as he pulled his backpack onto his shoulders and followed his mother into the house.
Regina sighed, shrugging out of her coat and moving to hang it up in the foyer closet. "And have it scratch all the furniture? I think not, Henry."
Henry's shoulders were slumped slightly in dejection by the time she turned back to him, his expression sullen. He took after her in that he never accepted defeat particularly well.
"When you're a bit older, honey, I'll see about getting you a horse," Regina said in an attempt at consolation, placing a hand on her son's shoulder. "Would you like that?" She couldn't imagine the idea not having its appeal; horses were superior animals by far.
Henry, however, seemed determined to sulk, only shrugging off her hand and saying, "I guess."
Dismissing it as a funk he would be out of by dinner, Regina only straightened up and nodded towards the stairs. "Go get started on your homework."
Henry made his way upstairs without another word, his steps heavy as an angry child's were inclined to be.
Months later, after Emma Swan had entered their lives and turned everything upside down, Regina wondered if maybe she should have gotten him that puppy after all.