She regrets this, she thinks as she cuts another bit of sellotape off and smoothing it across the wrapping paper, trapping Robin's fingers in the process.
She doesn't regret wrapping the presents, just the fact that she's doing it on Christmas Eve.
Regina had planned to wrap them earlier, wanted to wrap them earlier but what with villains, curses, and more villains they're just hadn't been time. Hadn't been time to do anything.
Yet, with this new villain timely beaten, everyone seemed to just be content to settle down and not do anything for what was left of the year, and thank god it was in time for Christmas, too.
Celebrations have been rare in Storybrooke since the first curse was broken. Once the place started to strangely attract every villain that ever existed, celebrations became few and far between.
But this year, a certain cute, dimpled-face, little boy had been talking about it since Henry told him about it, and had finally came to Robin to ask if they could "see Christmas". Of course Robin, being mostly uneducated in the celebration himself, hadn't had a clue what Roland was talking about had told him to go ask her, and so Roland had ran off to find Regina.
At first, she wanted to say no. It didn't seem right, with the villain and all the destruction they'd caused, yet Roland kept looking at her with his little dimples and puppy eyes and...she is a weak person it seems. So, Regina gave in, telling him yes but they had to defeat the villain first and well, it seems like nobody gets in the way of Roland and his Christmas Day as the boy instantly ran out of the kitchen telling Henry that he needed to use his author powers and destroy the villain leaving Regina to only laugh to herself.
She thinks of that day and she turns the box (whatever it is they bought for whoever) around, taping another side. This is for Roland, Roland's first real Christmas, this is for him.
"How many more have we got to wrap?" she hears Robin ask and her eyes, as heavy as they are feeling right now, move over to the sofa where, thankfully, there aren't that many left.
"Four." she says, pushing the present towards the tree, and moving her numb legs from beneath her.
"If you want, I can wrap them." Robin offers, reaching over to pull another box, Henry's new game console, towards him.
Regina just chuckles as she picks up the wrapping paper and lays it on the floor, placing the box in the middle, saying; "After the mess you made of the other one, no thanks. You can stick to the job you have.'' She smiles at him, grabbing his hand and placing it on the wrapping paper to keep it in place as she grabs the sellotape and cuts it again.
After a few minutes of silence between them (except for the sound of the tape ripping apart) Robin speaks again.
"What time is it?"
Regina clicks her button on her phone next to her and isn't surprise by what it reads. "Only...half four," and Robin groans, bringing yet another present towards him.
"This is for Roland." Regina says, saying aloud what she'd been repeating to herself for the past two hours. "At least Roland finally went down."
"Yeah," Robin agrees, growing quiet once more.
Roland had been ecstatic at the thought of Santa Claus coming to their house and delivering the presents. He'd begged Regina to let him stay up and see him, made quite a fuss of it, coming downstairs every ten minutes, asking if he'd been. That's how they'd started the wrapping up presents late, the fear (Well, Regina's fear) of Roland coming back down and finding them being the ones to bring the presents (she already had to explain why she was buying wrapping paper if "Santa brings the presents already wrapped") and she didn't think she could explain herself out of this one. So they waited. Robin not understanding why, but he waited anyway until they were sure Roland was asleep (only truly made certain after Regina said that Santa wouldn't come unless Roland was sleeping)
They're down to their last present twenty minutes later, Robin asking if she wanted more coffee as Regina began setting out "Reindeer food" for Rudolph (because the other reindeers obviously didn't need food)
"Anything else we need to do?" Robin asks as he hands Regina her coffee.
"Just the footprints.'' she says, accepting the cup.
"Why do we need footprints?"
Regina shrugs, taking a sip of her coffee. "It's something I did with Henry when he was little. I'd make footprints leading from the door all the way to the presents under the tree. I don't know why, I guess it added more to the magic. Henry always loved it anyway."
She smiles at the memory of a four-year-old Henry running downstairs and his eyes lighting up when he saw the "snowy" print tail running through the hall and into the living room. His happy cries of Santa's been here! Santa's been here! Mommy, Santa's really been here!
"So how do we do it?" Robin asks, setting his cup aside.
"I'll grab the boot and you grab the washing powder."
…:...:...:...:...:
Regina didn't realise how much she missed this. Being jumped on in the mornings. The feel of an excited little person crawling all over you, begging for you to wake up. It has her smiling (Robin groaning) before her eyes are even open. And when she does open them, her heart bursts to find Roland atop of her, eyes bright and excited as he whispers
Did Santa come?
Regina sits up, brings Roland onto her lap and whispers into his ear, Why don't you go downstairs and look. And in an instant Roland is jumping off them, scrambling off the bed and running downstairs.
She making her way down the stairs herself when she hears his little scream of Santa came! Santa came and I've got presents! Mama, Santa came!
She's on the bottom step when she freezes at her words. A panic gripping at her, ripping her out of this happy picture she found herself in. He called her "Mama". She looks towards Robin, anxiety swirling all around her at his reaction. It's been years since Marian died. As much as Robin (and herself) would really like to admit it, Roland knows more of her than his actual mother, it's only logical that he'd accidentally call her "Mama", but she still can't help but be worried for what he's going to say.
But he's smiling at her, and all worries and doubts and anxieties leave her just as Henry makes his way out of his bedroom and downstairs, his first words to her being, "Did you get me my console?" Regina gives him a distant yeah, still reeling off Roland's title for her, and Robin's reaction (yet, why did she expect anything different?) but Henry seems happy with the response and walks off to unwrap the most important thing in his life right now, apparently.
"I knew he'd mistake you as his mother eventually." Robin tells her, taking her hand and giving it a little squeeze. "If it was by mistake."
Regina frowns. "You think it wasn't?"
Robin shrugs and looks into the living room, and Regina follows his gaze, watches as Henry helps rip off the wrapping paper (seriously, why do people spend hours wrapping up presents just for it to get destroyed a few hours later?)
"He views you as his mother. Which you, kind of are now. I accepted that a long time ago."
His hand weaves into his hair as he presses a kiss to her lips and Regina realises that they are still standing on the bottom step, so she pulls away and says; "Well then, should we go watch our children unwrap their presents? We did keep saying this day was for them, or Roland at least, we should at least be there to watch him unwrap his presents. Besides, I want coffee and I'm not going to get it if we stand here all morning."
She pulls them off the step then and Robin laughs, saying something along the lines of her being addicted to the drink with Regina replying that each year her New Year's resolution is to stop drinking coffee which she nevers sticks to.
A few minutes later, she snuggled on the couch, with her said coffee, her heart still warm from Roland's laughter, and happiness, and new title he's unknowing (or knowing, according to Robin) gave her.