"What does she eat?"
"Can we pet her?"
"Does she fly?"
Regina rubs the back of Mal's scaly neck where she hides her head in Regina's hair. She's been getting so good at walking on a leash, without scrambling up Regina's body to hide behind her hair, but they passed the school while kindergarten was letting out, and a horde of small children surrounds them.
"You may pet her if you're gentle. She's very shy."
"Mayor Mills, how did you get a dragon?"
"Can I have a dragon?"
"She's visiting me for awhile," Regina explains, kneeling down so the children can stroke Mal's tail. Mal skitters, trying to burrow more into her hair, but she mutters soft things and Mal settles. "Dragons are very rare, perhaps you should ask your parents for a more common pet."
"She's so warm."
"Dragons are made of fire," Regina explains. She stands back up once each child has had a chance to touch Mal's little tail. "So that makes her warm, and she loves fire.. Would you like to see?"
They bounce with excitement, and Regina makes them all promise to wait quietly on the sidewalk while she takes a few steps back. She has complete control over her fireball, of course, but she doesn't want them to get the idea that fire is to be trifled with. She calls the fire into her right hand and Mal immediately emerges from her hair. Her inquisitive eyes follow the fire from Regina's shoulder and she scrambles down her arm. Regina's had to wear her thickest shirts, but the weather's turning and Mal's been somewhat careful with her claws. She wraps her tiny paws around Regina's elbow and watches the fire like it's the most beautiful thing in existence.
"You can do it," Regina murmurs. "You're safe."
Mal spits a tiny jet of flame in response to the fireball and her audience giggles and claps. For once, she doesn't hide immediately but watches them from a position of safety on top of Regina's shoulders. She wishes the children a safe trip home and continues onward to Granny's.
The adults are less enamored with Mal's position on her shoulders, but only mildly less. All the smiles remind her of when Henry was a baby and everyone had to comment on how cute he was. (of course, he was). Like Henry, Mal doesn't understand the attention, and crawls into Regina's lap, under the table, when she sits down. She strokes her lazily with her left hand, and waits for Granny.
Granny sets down the toast first, along with Regina's coffee.
Mal smells it and her little head peers around the edge of the table.
"There you are," Granny coos. "How's the rest of her doing?"
"Henry wrote that he, Emma and David are through most of the labyrinth. Apparently Maleficent has regained more of her personality as time passes. She's a more opinionated guide now, but he seemed positive." Regina wraps one hand around her coffee. Henry's letters drift upwards into her fireplace at regular intervals, but it's not the same as seeing him. She misses him intensely, Emma too, and she knows Snow's sometimes just at her wits end taking care of Neal without David. She can't say she misses Mal, because she's here, but she still misses her.
Regina sets the plate of toast that Mal's so interested in on the booth beside her and Mal scampers to it, pouncing happily. She'll get crumbs everywhere, again, but it was easy enough to clean up last time, and Granny tolerated the mess.
Snow arrives late and slides into the booth, Neal in her arms. He reaches for the flatware on the table and starts banging a spoon.
"Sorry."
"It's Saturday," Regina reminds her. "I've no schedule to keep to."
"And she has her toast already?" Snow asks, peering over the table.
Regina lifts one of the pieces of dark toast and holds it up. Mal stares at it, then leaps, pawing at it until she gets it. Little Neal's eyes go wide and he stares, open mouthed. He'd love to stick Mal's tail into his drooling little mouth, like everything else, but Mal's afraid of him. (like everything else).
It's an odd little lunch, Snow passes Neal over when Regina's finished her food because she's barely made a dent in her sandwich. Little Neal settles into her lap and Mal gives her the dirtiest of looks and sulks back to the corner of the seat. He waves a stuffed toy in her direction and the glare deepens.
"Be nice," Regina murmurs, shifting Neal to her other side. Mal continued to glare and advanced, slowly. He wave his teething toy at her and burbles. She tilts her head, studying him as if he too were toast, then burbles back.
He squeals, delighted that she's made a noise, and she retreats, because he's loud. Yet he flings his arms around and his toy rattles and then she's back, staring at him because as much as she fears noise and motion, she can't look away.
"Regina?" Snow interrupts her staring.
"Mal wants to play with him."
"She won't hurt him, right?"
Regina nods, keeping her eyes on the little dragon. "She's only hurt me once."
"Oh?"
"She nibbled before she realized that I don't have scales to protect me."
Mal twitches her tail and Neal reaches for it, forgetting all about his chew toy. She's thinner than him, longer, but probably lighter. They could even be close to the same age because hatchlings age slowly. She flicks it out of his way and he slips from Regina's lap, trying to crawl towards her. She shifts him back across her lap but Mal scrambles after him, then they sit on her legs together, staring at each other in wonder. Mal's bright green eyes absorb him and he reaches for her with clumsy hands.
"Gentle," Regina reminds them both. "Be gentle."
Mal rubs her head against him, crooning in her chest. It's almost a purr, but it's her happy noise and little Neal adores it, he hugs her tight and then they're a ball of limbs in her lap but they're happy. Neal giggles and Mal's little rumbling of joy continues and Snow stares at her, and them, then back at Regina.
"Is she always like this?"
"This is her happy noise," Regina explains, shifting them around so no one hits their head on the table. "At least, I think so. There's a chirp too, but that might be more of a question."
"I didn't think-" Snow pauses, resting her fork. "I guess I didn't think she'd be so human." She started to eat again, then stopped, studying Regina. "Does she make you miss Henry, when he was that small?"
"Henry never set the curtains in my office on fire."
Mal bats at Henry's toy, making it rattle. Neal bats it in her general direction and they continue to stare on Regina's lap. Two warm weights, both equally likely to ruin what she's wearing.
"Well, you're good at putting things out."
"Doesn't mean I wanted to demonstrate that."
Neal pulls her tail a little too hard and Mal squeaks and retreats.
Snow gets up, circling the booth and leans down next to Mal. "Did he scare you?"
Mal stares at her, ready to flee, but without retreat. She studies Snow, sniffing her hand. She has no memory of what happened before, no knowledge of their history. Rubbing her hand once against Snow's wrist, Mal retreats back, climbing Regina's shoulder to sit in her hair.
Handing back Neal, Regina shakes her head at her companion. "Same time tomorrow?"
"Yes, please."
Regina pays and Mal made less of a mess with her toast then she did last time. She could head home but there's work she could do, even though it's a Saturday, so she takes Mal to the office. The little dragon refuses to relinquish Regina's shoulders, even when she sits down and starts to work. Staring at the papers and trying to keep her shoulders level aches, and eventually it bores Mal before Regina has to remove her.
Mal climbs down to the desk, nearly tumbling. Regina places her arm between Mal and the paperwork and lets her roam the desk. Her feet make little skittering sounds on the hard wood. Mal attacks a paperweight, and the box that people put papers in (Regina's started putting them in her desk, so Mal can't reach them.). She circles the desk, learning the layout before she returns, laying her head on Regina's arm. She sits there silently for a moment, then that little crooning noise starts in her chest and Regina looks up.
"Yes?"
Mal chirps in response, lifting her head. Regina strokes her little eye ridges and the little nubs that will be her horns.
"I know this is boring."
Mal purrs, and she'd never admit it is a purr, but Regina's known cats and she knows what that sound is.
"When I'm done we can go home and you can play in the fireplace while we wait for Henry's letter."
Nudging her, Mal rubs her head against Regina's upper arm. Maybe she senses the change in Regina's voice.
"I know that look," she says, even though there's no way Mal understands her. Dragons don't learn to speak for several years. "I miss him, and you, as strange as that is. I know you're here, but you're not you."
Mal climbs her arm, rubbing her head against Regina's chin, and purring more loudly.
Scooping Mal into her arms, she sits back, rocking her. "I know. You'll be back. You won't remember any of this and you'll get annoyed when I try to rub your head." Mal chirps and nips at Regina's fingers. She holds two of them in her little jaws, without gnawing, and Regina rubs her chin with her free hand. "But you are cute."