Author's Note: This one is dedicated to my best friend in all the lands. She is the sun on rainy days. Happy belated birthday to you, and although you have the original hand-written version of this, enjoy its digi-format ;).
Family Christmas.
There aren't many times in his life when David wished for a magic ability, however, when Snow decides she wants to host a family Christmas lunch, their first one as a whole family, does David wish for the gift of foresight.
"It's a good thing we don't have Thanksgiving in our land, because that dinner would suck."
He's pretty sure that this Christmas thing won't suck, but he's still hesitant to agree on its success. He keeps his opinion to himself though, even when Snow announces that it'll be a three course affair, complete with dessert.
The idea for a family get together had come about when Snow was considering baby Neal's family relations, and who she wanted as active parts of his life. Emma and Henry were givens, but Snow had surprised David by announcing that she wanted to have Regina as their son's Godmother, and wouldn't take any answer from him aside from "yes, dear."
So shortly after his naming ceremony, Regina was cornered by Snow and acquiesced to the role, the new mother a force of nature not even the Queen dared reckon with.
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When it comes to the actual pre-Christmas lunch, Emma and Henry are all for it, Regina grudgingly complies, but Snow knows that her once-Stepmother simply isn't used to a welcoming family environment with her, especially since they've all spent several years of their lives trying to kill each other. Cora notwithstanding.
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The morning of their family lunch sees Snow fussing about the kitchen, cooking frantically whilst trying to keep as quiet as she can, so as not to wake her two month old son, sleeping in his bassinet in the living room. David is with Emma, picking up the Christmas tree from Marco's workshop, and Henry is with Regina, searching upstairs in the spare room cupboards for the glass baubles and delicate ornaments that decorate the tree.
Henry descends the stairs with a box, overflowing with tinsel, red and green baubles and the gold star that will decorate the top of the tree, as soon as David and Emma get back. Regina descends next, she too holding a handful of boxes as she carefully steps down. Her stockinged feet slip ever so slightly on the wood, her usual heels abandoned by the door so as not to wake Neal.
Snow is red faced and huffing as she stirs a pot of soup, whilst she pulls a tray of roast vegetables from the oven to turn and can't help but groan when the clanking metal of the tray startles Neal from his slumber.
He wails, frustrated that he's been disturbed. Snow nearly drops everything right then and there and declares the pre-Christmas lunch a bust and that they should all just go to Granny's Diner and never bother with the kitchen ever again. But Regina picks her son up and the mewling cry settles, Snow nearly sobs in relief, and nearly does so again when Henry takes over the stirring of the soup that is to be their entrée course.
As Snow turns over the roast pumpkin pieces, and the parsnips, she hears Regina humming a lullaby to Neal as she rocks the infant while walking around the living and dining rooms, trying to convince the boy to sleep again. The melody has Snow pausing, the song sounding so familiar, but she cannot place it.
Suddenly she remembers, as a young girl, she caught the fever, her father away on a treaty meeting, leaving his new, young wife to babysit a girl who was only eight years her junior. Snow had taken to bed, ill, scaring Johanna with the likeness of the loss of Eva only a few years prior. Regina had come to her chambers, a bowl of hot water and cloths in hand, had shooed away Johanna and the other nurse maids, and had tended to Snow by herself for three days until the fever broke. Snow remembers whilst she was trying to sleep, the face of the woman who was her new mother was warped, the face so pretty when it smiled was contorted in an ugly grimace, conflict raging behind the eyes. Snow knows now that what she saw probably wasn't a delusion at all, but she can still hear the soft melody of Regina's lullaby, encouraging her to rest, to regain her strength in sleep.
Tears threaten to gather in her eyes, but Snow blinks them away as she puts the tray of newly turned vegetables back in the oven to finish cooking. She takes the wooden spoon from her grandson's hand and turns the heat down on the stove, letting the liquid simmer instead of boil.
Neal is rocked back to sleep by his Godmother and Snow can see how much Regina loves the little boy, even from across the room. His little fists reach up to her face in a sleepy yawn, and come to rest beside his cheeks, his face tucked in towards her. The scene makes Snow smile.
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Henry has dedicated himself to sorting out the Christmas decorations on the floor of the living room, following his adopted mother's advice and dumping the contents of the boxes in front of him and going from there. Snow checks the timer on the oven, and then fills up the kettle, her phone buzzing with a text from David, telling her that they were finally on their way home.
Regina settles on the couch, still holding Neal who squirmed and wailed in protest when she tried to place him back in his bassinet.
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Hot chocolates are the go for the afternoon following lunch, the cinnamon shaker being put to good use, with almost everyone (except Regina and David) giving their milk froth a healthy coating of the spice.
Emma and David eventually have the tree upright in the living room. Henry's exceptional organisation skills has the tinsel organised by colour and length, the baubles separated into plastic and glass and by colour, the figurines for the all-important nativity scene are on the coffee table, replacing the vase of flowers. One of the figurines, a sheep, has a broken leg, but Emma helps Henry glue it back on before they, as a family decorate the tree.
Neal wakes shortly after the tinsel is wrapped around the tree, demanding to be fed, else suffer the consequences, Snow excusing herself and sitting in the recliner to feed him. David disappears upstairs, convinced there's another box of decorations to be found, even when Henry and Regina earnestly tell him that they searched the spare room thoroughly.
Emma smirks when she sees how short Regina is without heels, unable to reach the branch she was aiming to put a willow decoration on. Henry is next to his adopted mother, nearly overtaking her in height now he's in his teens. Though Killian and Robin are well on their way to being a part of the family, Emma thinks it's nice, just the six of them together as a family, even though there's so much pain and misery in their combined pasts.
Snow stands when Neal finishes his feed, bobbing gently in the attempt to burp him before the air upsets his tummy. Snow is taller than Regina, Emma notices, and takes the willow decoration out of her hand and places it easily on the high branch before placing the still-clean burp cloth on Regina's shoulder and her son in her arms.
David has come downstairs, no box in hand, clearly resigned to the fact that his grandson and step-mother-in-law (such ridiculous family links they have) were right.
Snow and David finish off the tree, sneaking kisses behind the greenery as they help each other wrap the lights around the tree. Henry excuses himself to go upstairs and get his Gameboy, now that the fun part is done and all that's left is the lights, which his grandparents have well in hand. Emma clears up the kitchen, cheating a little when she asks Regina to help her use magic on the plates and dishes. Regina tells her once more that magic relies on emotions, that light magic harnesses gratefulness, appreciation and above all, love to work. Though Regina's magic is now light, she is hesitant to use it herself and leaves Emma to her own devices in the kitchen. Emma makes a mental note to ask her why she now avoids magic later, but she hazards a guess that using light magic after using the dark for so long must bring some form of pain, like a magical purge of some sort.
Regina has Neal on his play mat, the soft toys in the shape of jungle animals around his head. He twists and turns to keep them in view, is enraptured when the stripy zebra that Regina knitted for him is brought close to his face. She makes kissing noises when its knitted nose touches his cheeks. He grins a toothless smile at his Godmother, squirming when she tickles his belly.
Snow and David finish the tree with the large gold star for the top, and David turns the lights on, the control box set to "twinkle". They kiss once more, deeply, and turn to look at their family, Emma is using her magic to scrub the roasting pan clean of oily residue, Henry is flickering his interest between a new Avengers comic and his Gameboy and Regina is sitting on the floor a few feet away blowing raspberries and tickling Neal as he wriggles and smiles.
It should feel anti-climatic, but Snow sighs in relief, Thanksgiving would probably have sucked, but it's almost Christmas and she's more thankful for family now, more than she ever realised.
David still wishes he had the gift of foresight, so he would have known everything would be fine and how wonderful it would feel to be surrounded by his family and have everything, for once, go peacefully.
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