Although it's not true, Henry feels like he has always known he was adopted. He supposes there was a time when he didn't know, when the knowledge was as foreign as the happiness other people have (not him, never him). But much like his desire to escape to a faraway land, he feels like it has always been apart of him.
When he is five he dreams and hopes and wishes that his real parents come and take him away. They pull up to the driveway in a shiny red car (it's his favorite color) and pound on the front door until his mother (the women who doesn't love him) answers. They demand their son back and Regina doesn't put up a fight. After all, he is their son, and in his five-year-old mind, not even the all-powerful Regina can change that.
They see him at the top of the stairs (Regina has mysteriously disappeared) and scream his name and he runs towards them. He stumbles on the way down (he always stumbles) and his parents meet him halfway and there are hugs and tearful 'I love yous' and they are warm and make him feel safe and loved. It is nothing like when Regina hugs him, she is always cold and hard and somehow not there. Henry cannot help but think it feels like the handshake Mr. Glass (who always smells like oranges, he hates oranges) asks for every time Henry sees him. There is no comfort or love in her hugs and sometimes he squeezes her hard, trying to make her angry (to make her feel something), but nothing ever changes and he is left feeling as lost and unloved as ever.
His parents take him to McDonald's (his mother never lets him get fast food) and it is just as good as the commercials. Afterwards they ride off into the sunset in that shiny red car and live happily ever after. He never asks why they gave him up and they never tell.
As he gets older the fantasies change and evolve. For the longest time he pretends he is a wizard, just like Harry Potter and when he turns eleven years old and does not get his letter, the disappointment is so great that he runs off to his castle as soon as finds the mailbox empty. He spends hours kicking it and throwing stones and screaming 'why' and 'it's not fair' but it doesn't make him feel any better and the castle doesn't answer. After his anger is spent he collapses on the ground and tries he hardest not to cry (big boys don't cry). He can only hold off the tears for so long and they claw at his throat, desperate to get out, making him gasp for air. He feels like a dying fish on land and eventually sobs rack his small body and his tears make puddles in the ground. It starts to rain, making the puddles bigger and he is cold and wet and shivering but he doesn't care.
It doesn't fail to escape his notice that his later dreams (wishes) no longer involve tearful reunions. Mostly he is angry and instead he yells, unleashing all of his hate and anger (at them, at Regina, at himself). He screams 'how could you' and 'it wasn't fair' and 'why couldn't you love me' (that is all he ever really wants to know). Sometimes they answer and sometimes they don't, but at the end he is always left with a burning emptiness that makes his chest tight and the world around him sharper, the hard glint (evil) in Regina 's eyes somehow more painful (he didn't think that was possible).
Eventually, when he is older and angrier (but not wiser) he decides he doesn't care (liar, he will always care). He leaves Storybrooke (hell) and days of begging and hitching and star-filled nights blend together, until the calendar doesn't mean anything anymore. For some reason he ends up in Boston, even though it brings the burning sensation back into his chest. He wanders the city and learns to live with the tightness, never quite sure what he is looking for (he never finds it).