Author's note: I know it's completely out of context and I should really update my other story, but this idea just wouldn't leave my head lol. This is set in s3/s4. If anybody likes this, please let me know, and if you didn't like it, let me know as well lol I can take it.
Declaimer: I don't own anything, like for real lol.
Regina was having the worst day ever! To be honest, she was having a rough week, to say the least. She was used to not having Henry with her, as much as it hurt her to even think about it, he was living more at the Charming's loft than with her. At the end of the day, she just wanted her little prince happy, so she took what she could without pushing him to much. But, even though she was dealing with the loneliness of living alone, and with how much she missed her son, this week had been especially hard for her. It was the Friday after Mother's Day.
With how little time she had been spending with Henry lately, she hadn't expected to spend the entire day with him, but she had hoped to have lunch with him, or something. She had prepared herself for like a month, mentally reminding herself that Henry needed both of his mothers in his life, and that it wouldn't be fair to just take him with her for the whole day. Even THAT had been extremely difficult for her. Her mind kept drifting to the one year she had celebrated Mother's Day, the one year when Henry wasn't too little to realize it was a holiday, and the one year before he found out he was adopted and started to pull away from her. That day had been perfect, Henry had made her the most special present she had ever gotten. It was a beautiful card, full of glitter, that she framed to put on top of her desk at work. Henry had given her the card first thing in the morning, and then they had spent the whole day together, at the beach and at the park, and having a very unhealthy dinner at Grannys.
Last Sunday, she had woken up, gotten ready, and then she waited a little because she knew she was always up before Henry. When she was about to pick up the phone and call him, her phone rang, but not with a call, just a text from her little prince. But her smiled had dropped when she read what it said "Hey, Happy Mother's Day. I'm spending the day with Emma today, I'll call you in a few days." That had been enough for her to just turn around, and without even taking her shoes off, climbed into bed again for the rest of the day.
So that's the reason Regina was sitting in Grannys, looking at the cup of coffee she had in front of her, just being miserable, because almost a week later, her son hadn't even called her again. In that moment Henry, Emma and Snow walked in, and after spotting her they went straight to her table. Regina greeted them with a small smile, not really paying attention to Emma and Snow, just hoping that Henry would at least look her in the eye. Then Ruby walked up to their table to ask for their order "Hey guys, are you ready to order?" and when she looked at Emma she said, "I see you liked your present" she chuckled softly "How did you know this is my present?" asked Emma while pointing at her sweater; "Henry came by after he bought it, asking what I thought about it, that's all." Hearing the conversation Regina just froze, the only thing that she wanted from her son was a meaningful hug, or something to show her that he acknowledged her as a mother, but she still couldn't quite shake the jealousy off when she heard that Emma had gotten an actual present when all she had gotten was a text message. The only thing the queen could do was just shifted her eyes from Emma to Henry, while trying to process the entire situation. But before she could wrap her mind around it, Ruby continued talking, "So Henry, what did you get for Regina?" the waiter asked with a smile. All eyes went to him and he looked really nervous all of the sadden "Well… I…" he stuttered; but before he said what Regina knew he would say, and before she completely lost it in front of everybody, the queen stood up "I better get going" she said in a tight voice "I have a lot of work to do" and before anyone could answer her she ran out of the diner, and went straight to her car.
She lost the battle against her tears on the way to her office, she just couldn't keep them in anymore. She had known the minute that she saw Emma that her son would never love her as much as he loved the blonde savior, and for the best part of a year he had actually said it to her face. But lately, with how good their relationship had been, she had let herself believe that he loved her too. She couldn't believe she had been so stupid! She should had known better than to let herself hope. When she arrived at her office, she went straight in, sat in her desk and grabbed the frame that had her card in it. While she was staring at it, Snow walked in.
- "Snow, what can I do for you?" Regina said, trying to act like nothing was wrong and discreetly putting the frame away.
-"You know exactly why I'm here, you can drop the act with me"
-"If you are here because you think I will do something stupid or evil, then you can leave now with a clean conscience"
-"We are way past that Regina, I just wanted you to know that what happened was not what you are thinking. I mean, if you think about it, it's not really fair that Henry has to buy 2 things for Mother's Day when he doesn't have an income in the first place" Snow tried to break the ice a little, trying to help her grandson a bit.
-"You and I both know I don't care about presents. But I DO care about what this all means… but don't worry, I've known for a while that he loves Emma more than he will ever love me, and I usually handle it better, it's just when it is so 'in my face' that it gets harder. I apologize, I will try to do better next time." Regina said with tears in her eyes, but looking down at her papers trying to say things as clinically as she could.
-"That's not true at all" Snow said, reaching for the queen's hand "you know Henry loves you" but before she could keep going, she was cut off. "I'm ok Snow. But I do have a lot of work, please leave." And with that dismissal, Snow had no other option but to leave.
At the end of that day Regina was glad to be back home, she just wanted to take a bath, cry a little bit more (if she had any tears left in her), and go to bed after a glass of wine. When she was about to prepare her bath, she heard someone downstairs. "Hey mom!" Henry said while he climbed the stairs. Regina left the bathroom to meet him in the hallway "Hey honey, how are you?" she said trying to act as normal as she could, but Henry knows her better than anyone else, and saw right through her act "Mom, let me explain…" she shook her head "No no, you don't have anything to explain, did you have dinner?" and basically ran downstairs. Henry followed her "No, I didn't, but mom listen, Snow told me what you said today" Regina couldn't believe her ears "Really? Why did I expect her to keep her mouth shut?" she mumbled to herself. He grabbed her arm gently "Mom! Listen, she only told me because she knew what was really going on, and she didn't want you to keep on having those thoughts" Regina finally looked him in the eyes, "Henry is ok, don't worry about me, I'm fine" he looked like he was about to cry at this point "I just can't believe you think that" Regina drop what she was doing and went to hold his hand "Honey…" "No mom, listen, the reason why I haven't called you or arranged for us to meet is because I wasn't done with your present yet" at that Regina looked puzzled and Henry took off his backpack and took out his book, and handed it to her "Happy Mother's Day mom" he said softly. Regina didn't understand "You are giving me your book? Henry this means too much to you, I can't take it" he shook his head, with a soft smile "No mom, this is not my book. What kind of present would that be?" they laughed a bit "this is YOUR book, I made this for you". She finally took the book and opened it. In that moment, tears just started to run down her face. Instead of the familiar first page of the storybook, there was a different page that showed a picture of Henry and herself. She remembered that picture, she took it on the first day Henry was home. Underneath it read "This is the story about a Queen, and how she saved her Little Prince…" Regina couldn't believe it, she started to look through the entire book and it was filled with pictures of them through the years, telling their story and showing how happy they had always been. "I wanted to make you something, that's why it took me too long to finished. I was kind of embarrassed I didn't make it on time, that's why I've been avoiding you lately. But I really wanted to show you how much you mean to me, and I wanted you to know how grateful I am for everything you've done for me. Because even though Emma is 'the savior' it was YOU that saved ME in the first place " Henry looked down, but his mother reached for his chin as she usually does "I'm speechless little prince, really, I just can't believe you did this for me, this is the best present I've ever gotten, it's perfect!" she smiled at him, and tried to joke a bit "and I'm a queen, so I know about good gifts" at that Henry chuckled a little bit, but then she looked her in the eyes and a serious looked crossed his young face "I can't believe that YOU can't believe that I would do this for you… honestly mom, I know I said terrible things in the past but I hoped you knew that I never really meant any of those things." His hand went through his hair, in frustration "if you really think that I don't love you as much as Emma, then I failed you as a son" Regina looked down at first but then said, "You have not failed at anything, if someone here failed, is me" "No mom you didn't! I tried to push you away for years! Thinking that I was just part of your plot, but you never failed me. You always told me how much you love me, and no matter how much I was hurting you, you were always there for me. I was blind and shocked with the whole curse thing, and I was so overwhelmed that I forgot how we used to be!" he looked down as if he were ashamed "You are the person that I love the most, in this entire world mom. And as much as I love Emma, she will never be able to replace your place in my heart. You mean everything to me!" Regina couldn't believe her ears, she smiled through her tears "Oh honey! You mean everything to me too! I will always love you more than anything, I don't want you to ever doubt that again!" with that Regina hugged her little boy, and they held on tight to one another. They still had a lot to talk about, and their relationship was far from perfect. But no mother-son relationship is. They were going to be just fine.
Henry looked up at her and smiling said "I love you momma", Regina smiled back "I love you too baby boy".