Lapse in Time
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to the television series OnceUponaTime.
Pairing: Regina Mills / Emma Swan. (Swan Queen / Remma)
Genres: Family / Romance.
Rating: K+
Summary: It's late or rather very early but in either case Henry shouldn't be awake.
Author's Note:A little Remma family fic featuring Henry.
It's late or rather very early but in either case Henry shouldn't be awake.
Henry didn't know why as there was no specific reason but he had woken up and had been unable to fall back asleep again. Staring at his ceiling entertained him for so long and while he could have simply pulled out a book to read he knew that if his mother saw the light leak from beneath his bedroom door he would get in trouble for not getting a proper night's rest. So he decided to make a risky move: leave his bedroom.
It was a simple venture down to the kitchen in search of something to eat or drink but as he had slid his feet across the floor as quietly as he could manage, Henry had heard something on the first level of the house. With such a powerful imagination he could come up with thousands of causes for the unknown noises but the desire to know became too much for the young boy so he had silently made his way down the stairs.
From the staircase Henry had a perfect view of the living room opposite him, which was lit rather warmly for the hour. It seemed curious to him but Henry's confusion was soon cleared once he saw two people shuffle into the living room. They were his parents and while it wasn't at all surprising to see his mothers around the house it was strange to see them at this hour and so privately.
Henry's mother was a reserved woman, strict and elegant, intimidating to many, and very difficult to read. His mom, however, played the opposite. She was much more open, firm but so very gentle, a force to be reckoned with but only if provoked. Sometimes Henry wondered how they had fallen in love and he knows it really is love because his mom looks at his mother with the same kind of eyes she looks at him with and because she fights back against his mother but always defends her even when Henry doesn't think his mother deserves it.
His mother was trickier to read with her cold disposition and rash outbursts. Most of the time Henry doesn't believe feels real love but then he remembers the sound of her voice when she's as close to afraid as he's ever seen her and the desperate look in her eyes when she's searching for him or his mom. He thinks about the way her hands squeeze his shoulder, rub his shoulder blade, hold his hand and he doubts himself. "She only pretends to love me," he said to his mom once and while he believed it at the time he figures he might be wrong now.
From his place on the staircase Henry could see both his parents, his mother with her hand outstretched and his mom leaning in a little too close. Their hands clasped and his mother stepped forward, invading his mom's "personal space" without hesitation. His mother had always done things like that; unable to see beyond what she wanted to do at any given time. It usually bothered Henry because it felt like she was overstepping boundaries and while his mom may have felt that way sometimes it was clear that she hadn't that time.
It was strange without music but Henry could see that they were dancing. Their feet moved across the carpet, their bodies swayed, and their hands never let go. Henry felt as if he were doing just what his mother always did; invade. He had invaded whatever had been happening in the living room, he had been inspecting the scene playing out before him just as his mother did with people's expression and his mom with their actions. He had drunk the moment in; his two parents, two very different people who shouldn't have been together but were anyway.
Once his mother had spun around, taking his mom with her, she had lifted her head from his mom's hair and had her eyes wide open. Immediately their eyes locked and Henry braced himself for the inevitable command to return to bed that never came. He relaxed his features slowly as he saw his mother's lips curl upwards. She was smiling. Of course Henry knew that his mother did every so often, more so since his mom had come into the picture, but that didn't mean that it was a common occurrence though she may have begged to differ.
With her lips to his mom's ear, Henry's mother had whispered something with the smile still playing on her lips. Then she had taken her hand from his mom's, dropped it to her own side, while her other hand remained on his mom's hip.
"Henry just what are you doing awake at this hour?"
His mother still had the smile on her face despite her question, encouraging Henry to speak up. Feeling brave the young boy picked himself up from the step and lent over the handrail.
"I couldn't sleep."
Henry watched as his parents looked to each other, speaking without words in that weird way that sometimes he and his mom could do but not as well as his parents obviously could. He wondered what they were saying.
"Well then maybe a snack?" His mother suggested with her hand resting on his mom's hip. "Then we can all head off to bed, yes? It is rather late."
Despite the awe of seeing his mother in such an unfamiliar position, one without walls that kept people at arm's length and her trademark threatening gleam in her eye, Henry kept his eyes on his mom. His mom who had been leaning into his mother with her eyes on her and her expression calm, Henry believed that she was a very pretty person but the most pretty at that time with her hip under his mother's hand and her head tilted in his mother's direction.
While Henry hadn't known much about family neither did his parents when he sat in the kitchen between his parents he figured that maybe family wasn't something that could easily be explained and instead it was something difficult to understand. Except for moments like seeing his parents dancing in the living room or sitting with both of them the kitchen table after three in the morning, which were very easy moments to understand.
Those were moments that made Henry think that family was worth everything people promised it was no matter everything else that happened in between.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading!