For Day One of OQ on Holidays uses prompt 26 Regina teaches Roland to Swim
Regina loved water as child, loved swimming in the lake, those odd times Cora would let her. But the lake had been one of her and Daniels spots, a place they could sneak off to and trade lazy kisses and affection without worrying about getting caught. They took long walks along the sand, swam together, snuggled up on a blanket and forgot the world. It was a place where everything fell away and they could just be Regina and Daniel, two kids in love, not a (barely) royal and the stable boy.
After Daniel died she hated beaches, they reminded her too much of simpler times and lost love. Her hatred of them only grew every time she was forced to take a family beach trip with her husband and Snow. In a cruel twist of fate, the beach trip was one of the only trips where Regina wasn't left alone in the castle, even though it was the one she most wanted to avoid.
When she cast the curse it created a two beautiful lakes in Storybrooke the harbor, which had a public beach and then a smaller further away lake with a few cabins. While the curse was intact the beaches were rarely used.
When Henry was four Regina took him to the local pool and taught him how to swim. She took an excessive amount of pictures of how cute he looked with his little life jacket on, smiling proudly as he swam about. One of them still sits on her desk at work, much to Henry's embarrassment.
Just like Regina had once done, Henry loved water and Regina was determined not to be her like her mother, not to deny Henry the experience of swimming in a lake because of her own demons. So for Henry's fifth birthday they went to the beach for the first time and with her son she fell in love with it all over again.
Summer beach trips became a regular occurrence in the Mills household, right up until Henry realized she was the Evil Queen and stopped wanting to hang out with his mom. Then life had kept them busy for a while, things only slowing down after they returned from Camelot in September.
Robin, Regina, Henry and Roland had stayed together in as a family Camelot and so when they returned to no ones surprise Robin and Roland moved into the mansion.
One day, in the late fall, Roland came to Regina's office after school. For the first he noticed the picture of Henry swimming.
"Regina, what's that?"
She smiles as she takes in what Roland's looking at "That's from when Henry learned how to swim."
"What's swimming?" Roland asked his brow furrowing oh so cutely. And she takes a second to figure out how to explain it to him.
"Have you ever played in a lake or river before Roland?"
His face falls and then he tells her sadly "No Daddy wouldn't let me cause I was too little."
And that makes sense, life jackets and flotation devices weren't something that existed in the Enchanted Forest so swimming was riskier.
"Well," she says leaning down so she's at his eye level and whispering like she's sharing a big secret, "I think your big enough now."
"REALLY?" Roland squeals vibrating from excitement, causing Regina to remind him,
"Inside voice please."
Roland stops squirming and smiles at her, flashing those dimples, "Sorry Regina."
She can't help but beam back at him as she tells him "It's okay."
"But how will I learn?"
"Well I'll teach you."
"But…" Roland's voice trails off and he looks down.
"What's wrong sweetheart do you not to want me to?" She thinks maybe this is something he wants to share with his dad.
"Isn't that something Mamma's do and I don't have a Mamma."
Regina's heartbreaks a but as she tells him, "Well honey you still have a Mamma, she's just not here, but she loves you very much. And it doesn't have to be a mamma, I want to teach you, if that's okay with you."
"What if I want you to be my Mamma too?"
Regina's eyes fill with tears, which Roland takes the wrong way his face falling, and she is quick to reassure him "Sweetheart, I'd love to, why don't you call me mom and then we can still call your mamma, mamma."
"Okay," he says shyly, "Mom."
That weekend she takes Roland to the pool. Robin is skeptical of the life jacket, but is content to sit back and watch as Regina teaches Roland how to swim.
She gets Roland in it which turns out to be quite the chore because he's so excited and doesn't want to sit still. Then they walk into the shallow end of the pool. When Roland gets used to the water temperature she scoops him up into her arms and brings them out so she's waist deep. Roland gives Robin an enthusiastic wave that she's pretty sure gets caught on camera, but Robin's camera skills leave much to be desired.
She lowers Roland into the water, he's still hanging onto her arms and she's supporting him but his feet are in the water. She tells him to try kicking his feet and ends up with a foot to the stomach because she didn't specify which direction.
She winces and Roland says apologetically, "Sorry Mom."
Her heart melts every time he calls her that and she tells him sweetly "It's okay sweetheart, just try and push your legs out behind you and then kick that way."
When he gets the hang of kicking she slowly lets go of him, and explains that swimming also uses arms. She encourages him to let go of her, and then shows him how to paddle with his arms, even though its a bit awkward while wearing a life jacket.
Roland cries out gleefully, "Look Daddy, I'm swimmin."
"I can see that, good job Roland."
Regina backs away (just two small steps) and encourages Roland to swim into her arms. It takes him a while, mainly because he keeps trying to swim in a standing up position rather than laying onto his stomach.
Roland gives her a huge excited grin when he makes it to her and tells her, "I love swimmin."
And so, family trips to the pool become a regular occurrence. Robin wants to go to the beach, preferring to swim outdoors, and Regina agrees that lake swimming is better, but it's November and far too cold for that. Robin swears its good for you but relents when she shows him her research about the greater probability of becoming sick after swimming in cold water. And so they agree to take Roland to the beach once it warms in the spring.
But then Victoria Robyn Mills-Locksley is born in March and the lake plan gets put on hold, just for a little bit, until they get used to having a baby around.
The first week of June they surprise Roland and Henry with a one week beach vacation. They go out to the smaller lake, still technically in Storybrooke, but an hour drive away, staying in one of the cabins on the lake.