Henry sat on his bed, legs crossed Indian-style and head resting on his fist. He stared down at the page of his book in front of him and reread the words several times. The words were printed in the same black font as the rest of the book, and resided on the page parallel to a full color illustration. Beautiful attention to detail had been taken on the art, and he noticed the emotion so realistically captured in the faces of those present. Each and every face was unique in its portrayal of the grief that resided over the crowd. But no face stood out as much as that of his mother.

His adopted mother, to be precise.

Regina Mills, former mayor of Storybrooke and evil queen of the Enchanted Forest, was depicted in the most vulnerable state of her's in the entire book, her brown eyes red and lower lip pursed mid-quiver. Henry felt intense empathy as he looked down at it, down at his mother on the day of her true love's funeral.

Robin Hood had died six months back, after the return from the Underworld with the rest of his family. He'd been killed trying to protect Regina, and his soul was banished to oblivion. He left behind his son, his band of men, and, most relevantly to Henry, his love.

Henry closed the book, realizing that he'd been staring at it for over half an hour. He rubbed at his eyes and hopped off the bed, changing into his pajamas and going to brush his teeth. The young brunet crawled into his bed at ten o'clock, right as his mom walked inside.

His birth mom, that is.

Emma Swan looked exhausted, and she practically collapsed onto the couch after stripping her signature red leather jacket off. Henry watched her from his bed, curious.

"Long day?" He called out, causing Emma to jolt. She looked over towards her son's bed, face revealing her surprise.

"Henry, I thought you were staying with Regina tonight?" She asked, straightening up to try and conceal her fatigue. Henry shook his head with a lopsided grin.

"That's tomorrow night, remember?"

Emma groaned, putting her face in her palms, "well if I'd known you were going to be here, I wouldn't have been out so late!" She sighed and stood up, trudging to her son's bed and crouching down next to him, "I'm sorry, kiddo."

Henry shook his head, "don't worry about it, I had some writing to catch up on."

Emma smiled, "what new stories came through today, then?"

The young boy opened his book from the back, flipping back about four pages to the newest tale. A full-color illustration of two brunet girls holding hands in front of a looming tower spanned the right page, while the left side was covered in small black script.

"Oh hey!" Emma visibly brightened, "it's Ruby and Dorothy!" She turned the book to face her and began reading in earnest. Her hazel eyes scanned the pages, a delighted smile growing on her mouth as she went along. As she finished, she let out a relieved chuckle. "I'm glad they're still doing well...I haven't heard from Ruby since we were in the...Underworld." As she spoke the final word, Emma seemed to darken. It was just a flicker of a change, but Henry noticed it. He frowned, closing the book. The blonde woman looked up at her son, giving a half-smile and squeezing his hand. "Try to get some sleep, kid. It's a school day tomorrow."

Henry rolled his eyes but conceded, saying goodnight and watching his birth mother walk away. As she turned the corner, Henry sat up in his bed and grabbed his flashlight. He turned in his book to the story after the one on Robin Hood's death. It was another tale of ultimate demise, and paralleled the other in an extremely unfortunate way. It, too, contained a vivid imagery of the event that had taken place. It, too, portrayed a person in mourning. And it, too, was telling a story of Henry's mom losing her true love. The only difference in this story, was that instead of dying as mortals are destined to die, his mother's true love was ripped away by a fateful misunderstanding.

Captain Killian Jones, the true love of Emma Swan, was whisked back to the afterlife after one week back on the surface. Although Zeus had generously allowed the Captain a bit more time with his loved ones, ultimately, death is a finite thing that even gods cannot fully orchestrate.

Emma had been crushed. She and Regina had found solace in each other—both having lost the love of their lives in the same narrow frame of time—and actually seemed to recover from the heartbreak. The death of a loved one is never a wound that can fully heal, but both Emma and Regina seemed to be dealing with their grief as well as one could be expected to. Sure they still had moments where it seemed to be overwhelming, but that was when the other stepped in and made it better.

Henry bit his lip, and ran his fingers over the glossy image. His brows were knit, and his mind was reeling just as it had been with the story of his other mom's loss. He loved his mom's a great deal, and wanted them to be happy more than anything in the world. It only there was a way to give them both the happy endings they deserved...

Hearing footsteps, Henry quickly stowed the book away and turned off his flashlight. He plummeted to his pillow and closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep. There was a creak, the trickle of liquid being poured into a cup, the sound of the refrigerator door closing, and then the footsteps began to walk away.

Just as he thought he was in the clear, the sound of his mom's voice carried into his nook, "keep the flashlight off and get some sleep, Stephen King. Your book will still be there in the morning!"

"Goodnight, mom," Henry called back, snickering.

And he kept the light off, as instructed. But the thoughts lingered in his mind all night long...

Thanks for reading!

The next chapter should definitely have some Regina/Emma interactions, and maybe even a 'moment'! Also, if there was a bit too much angst in this for anybody, worry not! The deaths of Robin and Killian needed to be addressed, but now that that's out of the way, it can get cute :)

Oh, and in case it was unclear, Killian got taken back to the afterlife by Zeus after a week of being back.

See you in the next chapter! Reviews are always appreciated, especially if you'd like me to improve on anything :)