Creating Stories
by Erin Griffin
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Pairing: Swan Queen (Future Fic)
Summary: Emma and Regina tell their younger son their story as they explore what happily ever after truly means.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Spoilers: Up to mid-season two just to be safe, but pretty much alone from there.
I got feels okay?!
Emma awoke at the pressure on her back. She could feel herself being pushed forward forcefully. Then came the now familiar whimpers in the night. Emma quickly reached forward to turn on the light, and squinted against it. "Regina," she said, knowing that wouldn't be enough to wake her. Emma brought her index and middle finger of her left hand to her lips to kiss them. When her hand drew away from her lips there was a small white orb of magic there, which she placed upon Regina's lips. The woman beside her went still and then moment later, Regina's eyes fluttered open. When her eyes found Emma's both women smiled somewhat shyly at each other. "Bad dream," Emma said.
"Yeah." Regina slowly sat up, putting her hands to her face. She took in a deep breath and sighed loudly. "Thanks for the wake up. If you hadn't come to get me from it, I…"
Emma sat up as well, leaning her back against the headboard and watched her wife. "Do you need me to get you anything?" she asked after more silence.
"No. Thank you. I just need a moment, and then we'll get some sleep."
Emma nodded, and shifted so that the blanket was further up on her chest, covering up where the opened red flannel shirt didn't. She slowly did up the buttons,and was prepared to just be there for Regina, but there was then a knock on the door. Since Henry had been training to be a knight in the other realm with his grandparents, that left only their second son Daniel. "Come in," Emma called, and a small boy of four came into the room. He had dark hair and twinkling eyes, which he was rubbing at the moment.
"Daniel," Regina said affectionately, as the boy came to her side of the bed as he always did. Daniel always knew when his mother was feeling emotions deeply, which was the magical connection between birth mother and son. "You okay?"
"Is mommy okay?" he countered, putting a hand on her head as she brought the boy to her chest.
"Mom's okay. Momma woke her up."
"Momma do the magic?"
"Yes, kiddo," Emma said rubbing the boy's back, "I did the magic."
"Did you tell her the story?"
"No, I haven't told her the story."
"You should tell her the story," the little boy said sleepily. "Do the magic…?" he suggested.
Emma smiled, and then threw the blankets off of her, feeling the breeze on her bare legs. She went to the dresser and took out a pair of pajama bottoms, which she hurriedly put on over the boxer briefs she wore. Then she went to the window, where the dream catcher was and went to the foot of the bed. "Once upon a time, there was a young girl." Emma waved her hand over the dream catcher and within, images of Regina as a teenager appeared. "All of her life this girl had all everything decided for her: Which horse she got, who her friends were if any were even allowed at all, what she studied and when, who she got to marry, even her own destiny. The young woman wanted to be free, but she couldn't when other people were making these decisions for her. And so she did some bad things for freedom. She created a new world in which to live."
"But to create a world out of anger and revenge used up quite a lot of magic, and magic comes with a price, my love," Regina added in, looking from the boy to the dream catcher as the images showed her past. "She didn't realize that her curse was even already planned, and she was just the battery to charge it up with magic. She brought everyone into another world, and all but a few lost their memory as they came through, but a baby."
"The baby grew up, not knowing what the woman had done. She grew up not knowing that her destiny had also been planned, not only by her parents, but the prophecy they feared, and so she grew up without knowing them, until her world was manipulated until she returned." The images in the dream catcher showed the first meeting with Henry and then Regina.
"These two women fought over your brother, each representing two sides of right and wrong, but they both loved Henry. They learned to put their differences aside in order to save Henry, which they did many times. They then learned from each other, with each other, and grew to love each other the more adventures they went on together. They began to save each other. People came into their lives claiming to be each woman's One True Love until one day they went against their planned destinies and created their own. Magic created from their love broke every curse, and created another little boy."
"And they lived on," Regina ended.
"Happily ever after?"
"I am just happy that they live on, together," Emma said. She waved her hand over the final image of Emma and Regina's wedding day two years prior, and then she hung the dream catcher by the window where it had been.
Regina looked up at Emma's face as the woman came back to bed, a tear coming to her eye. "Happily ever after comes one day at a time," she told the little boy, kissing his head while her eyes remained on Emma. Emma smiled at this. Then, instead of going around the bed to get to her side, she crawled on top of Regina's legs and straddled them long enough to kiss the boy on top of his head.
"Yep, each day at a time. But until then, we must sleep, so back to bed with you, little one," Emma said. She rolled over to her side of the bed and watched as Regina whispered her love into the boy's ear and then Daniel left the room, closing the door with a harsher than desired thud. They could hear his own door open down the hall, and Emma smiled at the echoing thud there too.
Regina turned towards Emma, but she remained silent. Emma waited for a moment, before she leaned forward and kissed Regina. "I love when you tell our stories," Regina said.
"I love that we're still creating stories to tell," Emma responded. Regina scooted closer to Emma, resting her head on the blonde's chest. Emma was just barely able to reach out for the lamp's chord to turn it off before she ran her fingers through Regina's hair and the two of them went back to sleep.