Day Four of EC Week! The Missing Year. Sort of just went where it wanted to go. Hope you enjoy it!
He had lost track of how long he had been wandering down this river. He was just enjoying the sound of it amongst the silence and the cool evening air. He knew he probably shouldn't be out there alone with a wicked green witch and her flock of flying monkeys hunting them all down but he needed to get away for a little while. It seemed he wasn't the only one thinking such.
He paused by the pair of shoes on the river bank. A pair of tall heels that truly only one woman would wear out here. Sure enough, when he looked to the river, Regina stood near the centre of it so the cool water flowed around the middle of her thighs. Aside from her shoes, she was still fully dressed. Her royal blue velvet gown still clung to her figure and the tiny diamonds and sapphires around the corseted waist glinted softly in the fading evening light. Her long wavy hair had been pulled over one shoulder and while he contemplated joining her, he watched her toss small pebbles back in to the water from her palm.
Eventually he too pulled off his boots and unsteadily made his way over the shifting river rocks beneath his feet and stopped beside her. She had spared him only a curious and then mildly irritated glance over her shoulder when his feet first splashed the water. After that she had gone back to tossing her small and smooth pebbles. Once he found balance on two sturdy rocks he took a deep breath and slowly let it out, enjoying the sensation it gave his lungs. Then he didn't say a word. She only tolerated him for a couple minutes or so before her quiet voice was heard.
"What do you want, Charming?" She questioned tiredly in a defeated voice as her tossed pebble hit the water with a gentle plunk.
"Nothing."
"Is 'nothing' code word for 'I was sent out to find you and bring you back to the castle'," she pressed in slight irritation but he shook his head beside her and watched her next pebble fly through the air.
"No."
"Then why are you here?"
"I just wanted to get out for a bit. Stretch my legs, breathe the fresh air, that sort of thing."
"You are a long walk from the palace."
"I could say the same for you," he stated plainly and she didn't say anything in reply. So they fell to silence again. "I miss Emma," he confessed quietly and stared at the moving water.
Regina turned her head just enough to focus on him out of the corner of her eye. He didn't look back at her though. His tired and glazed eyes stayed focused ahead of him at the water. It wasn't hard to recognize the look of misery on his face. It was, after all, the only thing she saw in the mirror since they arrived. So as a truce and an invitation to stay, she offered him her handful of small round pebbles.
At the movement in the corner of his eye, he turned his head and looked down. Then he smiled just a little and held his hand open next to hers as she poured the stones in to his hand. He shook them in his palm and after carefully selecting one, he threw it. It was oddly therapeutic. So he continued.
"I miss Henry," she told him gently after his fourth stone sunk in to the river.
"Parenting sucks sometimes."
She couldn't help but smile just a little at his choice of words but it soon fell to a frown as she nodded her head, "indeed."
"I'm sorry," he told her after throwing a few more stones.
"For what?"
"Being an ass in Storybrooke when it came to Henry spending time with you."
"Well...you were the least insulting."
"Dare I ask who the most was?" He chuckled lightly and saw her smirk just a little out of the corner of his eye.
"Your wife."
"Can you blame her?"
"No. I hadn't exactly set a good motherly example with her," she admitted and he hummed as he tossed another pebble. With simple magic, she lifted more from the riverbed and he smiled and refilled his hand.
"Why are you out here? Just Henry?"
"Mostly. Also a little distressed there's been no talk of getting back to that world..."
"Well you sort of shot that horse in the face when you assured us there would be no returning," he frowned and she nodded and tried to smile but quickly failed.
"I know."
"...Is there a way back?"
"No. But that's never really stopped you hopefuls before," she smiled a little at him but she knew it was filled with pain and sorrow for he frowned at her and stopped tossing his pebbles.
"We will get back to them, Regina," he promised with enough tender conviction to bring tears to her eyes and cause her to furrow her brow. "There may not be talk of it yet but soon enough you'll be begging us to shut up about it," he assured with a soft smile and her held breath shot out as a quiet and miserable laugh as she turned her neck straight and her tears dropped down her cheeks.
The laughter only lasted a few seconds before her heartache commandeered it and it turned in to soft sobs that tore at his heart. So he dropped his handful of smooth pebbles in to the river and tentatively placed that hand on her shaking shoulder. When she leaned in to it he took it as permission and stepped right up to her and gently pulled her in to a hug that she eagerly returned. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she rose on her toes and he buried his face in to her soft hair as he hugged her around her shoulders and lower back.
Her body was chilled against his and it made him worry about how long she had been standing in this river for. But he didn't question it. He simply hugged her tighter as she cried softly in to his neck and shoulder. "We will see them again, Regina," he told her softly but that time it was more for himself.
"I don't believe you," she breathed softly as she took fistfuls of his jacket.
"It wouldn't be right if you did," he teased gently in to her hair and she laughed a little once more before the pair of them fell in to a pleasant silence and listened to the cool water moving past their thighs while being lulled by the feeling of the other breathing against them.