Four Protection

by Erin Griffin

Fandom: Once Upon A Time

Pairing: (Pairing suggests only two people. Isnt that weird?) Katheryn/Regina/Ruby, Henry

Summary: There was always a bit of a power struggle over who would be the big spoon or the little spoon...

A/N: This is my first OT3 story! (Where is my toaster oven? I really need one.) This is written for madameshocking because she write pretty as fuck fics just about every day and i felt she deserved some love back with some her favorite ladies.

There was always a bit of a power struggle over who would be the big spoon or the little spoon. Regina didn't want to be the little spoon because she didn't want to feel like she was being coddled. Katheryn supsected it was because no one had in such a long time. Ruby didn't want to be the little spoon because she claimed it was like a second skin that made her too hot. No one wanted to argue against that. Even in as big as a bed as theirs, there was little room to really argue over it. Ruby and Regina tried to do the alpha female thing, whereas Katheryn either watched with grand eyerolls in their direction or with bored, half lidded eyelids as she drifted off to sleep the best she could. Mostly though, she just wanted to stay out of the way.

The thing about Ruby and Regina was that they both wanted to be the protector, Regina having been so for Storybrook for as long as any of them could remember, and Ruby more recently ever since she had found that heart in the forest, and later Katheryn near Gran's. Katheryn shuddered to think of that time. Ruby was a sweetheart, but she protected what was hers with a fierceness that could scare anyone, while Regina already scared everyone and protected the few things that were hers.

Katheryn loved that about them both, though. She never thought that after her divorce from David she would fall in love with a woman let alone two, and it wasn't as if Regina and Ruby were even looking for a third. It just... happened. Regina wasn't even sure she wanted to be with Ruby for the longest time because of Henry and what that would do to him, not to mention her position in the town. Ruby was young, and though she'd loved Regina, she couldn't wait for the woman to make up her mind. The problem had been later on, once they had kind-of-sort-of-not-really broken up, that they both had their eyes on Katheryn, and all the blonde could think on that was it had been an interesting month in her life. She couldn't remember when they stopped competing for her time and affections and started wooing her together, but she had been won over, and the three of them were... amazing together. Katheryn found she was the nuetralizer in the the butting of heads that happened between the two protectors, especially since the main thing they had in common was that it was Henry and her they wanted to protect the most.

Listening to the sounds in the bed, Katheryn could hear, rather than see the solution to the problem that had come, surprisingly, from Henry. "Why not face the other way? No one is holding Ruby or Mom, and you both are holding Kat," he'd said after a squabble during movie night. He had a strange look on his face, as if the three of them should have figured that out for themselves, but the twelve year old shrugged when Ruby and Regina looked at him where he lay at the foot of the bed. Henry was still there at the foot of the bed hours later, the menu of the movie the four of them were watching repeating itself on low. If katheryn didn't have an arm under hers and across her chest, as well as another over her hip, she would have gotten up to turn the TV off. Instead, she reached her toe as far as she could and poked Henry with it, waking the preteen. "What?" he asked irritably.

"Can you turn off the TV?" Kathryn asked. The boy did as asked and seemed hesitant. "Come on," she said after a few seconds. Henry slowly, carefully climbed back into bed with his blanket around him, and Katheryn carefully moved her legs so that the back of her knees touched Regina's shins. Henry filled the gap where Katheryn's legs were, and then settled himself so that he used the blonde's calves as a pillow.

"Don't kick me, kay?" he said softly.

"No promises," Katheryn replied. There was a small grunt from the boy and then it was silent. She could only guess that Henry was already asleep again. The blonde did her best to keep her feet still as she moved her uper body forward. Ruby moved her hand upward so that it touched Regina's forarm. The oldest woman slept on. Katheryn smiled in the darkness. It was a strange sort of family that had been built with the four of them, but it was a family none the less, and she, too would protect them with her last breath.