Author's note: I know Henry has been mean here, but the relationship has to get worst in order to get better. Al least in my world lol. Still don't own anything.
Herny didn't know how long he sat sobbing by the door. But after a while he heard people entering the building so he stood up, cleaned his face and went inside. Once inside he went to the room he shared with Emma, and hid his birthday's presents. Once he finally made it downstairs, he was greeted by Snow, Charming and Emma. None of them remember the importance of the day, but still knowing that his mother had remembered was enough for him.
That night, when the usual text message came from Regina, it was not only the normal 'goodnight, love you' text, but yet another happy birthday wish: 'Sweet dreams my baby boy, I hope you liked your presents. Happy birthday little prince, remember that you are loved. Love you to the moon and back, Mom'. When he read the text, he couldn't help the smile that came across his face and this time he finally replied with a simple 'Thank you', not ready yet to let go of the rest of his anger, but it was a start.
The next day, Emma and Snow made their way into Granny's for breakfast. When the old wolf came close to them to take their orders, she casually asked about the day before. The mother-daughter duo didn't quite understand the question, so they just shrugged and answered politely. Granny noticed something was weird, but chose to drop the subject for the moment.
When Regina arrived at Granny's for her breakfast, she sat at her usual spot and was immediately approached by the older woman. "I take it by the hint of a smile on your face, that something happened with that boy of yours" Regina gave her a full smile while nodding and said "Indeed. He replied to my text last night!" the queen was a bit embarrassed with her excitement "He said thank you, I know it's not much, but that's a something, right?" Granny seeing the hope in the younger woman's eyes agreed "Yes child, it's a start. You should be proud of the progress, and celebrate it, in fact, breakfast is on me today". Regina smiled up at her, and started eating, and for the first time in a long time, Granny saw her doing it so with pleasure, so she walked away to attend to her other customers.
After a while of eavesdropping on the conversation between the princess and her daughter, Granny confirmed what she had suspected in their first conversation that morning. Those two had forgotten Henry's birthday! She was outraged with the news. Not only did they take the kid away from his mother, they couldn't be bothered to remember the one day a year he was supposed to be celebrated the most? She knew for a fact Regina had remember, she had seen her buying groceries two days before, getting everything she needed for his present. She understood where they were coming from, and that they were good people, even forgiving the queen's life had been a great gesture on their behalf. But it still bothered the old wolf to see the monarch hurt the way she did, that kid was her whole world, she lived and breathed for him. It was upsetting to see him pull away, but more so, to see him go willingly into the arms of a woman who had given him up and that, apparently, couldn't remember the day he was born.
As much as Granny would have liked to see Emma and Snow be scolded by Regina, she knew that she was too protective of Henry, and she was afraid it would backfire and cause more problems between the mayor and her son. That's why she spent the entire morning doing her best to prevent Regina from finding out about what had happened the day before. She was almost successful, but she never thought that she would need to stop the queen herself from approaching them.
Regina walked with confidence and with her head held high. It was enough that she was basically going to beg the savior and Snow freaking White to see her own son, she was not about to look defeated while doing it too. "Hello" she said with a calm voice, way to calm comparing it to the craziness inside her mind. "I was just wondering how everything went yesterday, and I wanted to see if it was ok for me to take Henry for a couple of hours this afternoon to celebrate with him too" the two women just stared at Regina, with a little apprehension in their eyes, but finally Emma was the one to speak "Hi, Regina… E-Everything was normal yesterday… I don't know why people keep asking that" the confusion mixed with amusement was clear in the blonde's tone. "I don't know if you taking Henry is a good idea… I mean, the kid is just starting to get used to his new normal…" Regina didn't even hear the last part, she was stuck on the whole, 'yesterday was normal' idea. "Normal? Excuse me? You are telling me that you didn't do anything special for Henrys birthday?" the queen was more than a little upset. Emma's eyes grew bigger that they had ever before. "It was his birthday?! I totally forgot about it" Snow was as surprised as her daughter and spoke for the first time "I can believe we forgot it, it's not every day a kid turns 10" Regina almost lost it "ELEVEN! He turned eleven! And you are the people that are taking care of my son? You took him away from me, just to keep on treating him like any other kid you know, like he is no more special to you than all your other students?!" at that point Granny grabbed the queen by the arm and pulled her away, not because of what she may do to them, but because she could see her tearing up and she knew she would hate to cry in front of them, to lead her to the office in the back.
When they were alone, Regina looked at Granny and with angry tears running down her face whispered "They didn't remember. He is everything to me, they took him, and it's like they don't care!" the older woman saw how much this was hurting the queen, so she just held her in her arms "I know child, I know… everything will work out in time, you just got to keep fighting the good fight"
Out in the restaurant, Emma was feeling like the worst mother in the world, and couldn't help the small voice in her mind telling her that she wasn't really a mother. How could she forget her son's birthday? It completely slipped her mind. The looked on her face showed her inner struggle, so much so that Snow grabbed her hand in a soothing manner. In that moment, Henry walked in. "Hi Emma!" came the happy voice of the little boy, but seeing the looks on their faces he immediately got worried "what happened?" Snow was at a loss for words, so Emma explained "Regina was just here, and we had a disagreement…" she was feeling particularly inadequate as a mother, and was more than angry at herself, but beacuse she couldn't take that Regina had proven herself worthier of Herny she said, "and she lost it, started yelling at me, honestly if Granny hadn't taken her out I don't know what would had happened" it wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't really a lie. Although she knew Regina was not going to hurt her physically and she knew what she was doing was wrong, but she couldn't help it. Henry's face fell, he was heartbroken, just yesterday he was planning on visiting his mother more, but now she went and did something like this. It never even crossed his mind that Emma could be lying.
At that exact moment, Regina and Granny walked out the back, and he couldn't stop the words that started to come out of his mouth, "LEAVE US ALONE! Can't you see that WE are a family and that you don't belong with anyone? Just because I texted you 2 little words, doesn't mean I forgive you. I can't believe you would treat my MOTHER that way. You are pathetic, following us like a lost puppy! Why don't you make us all a favor and lock yourself in that vault of yours? You are not wanted in this town, and it would make everyone's life here easier!" Regina had stopped in her tracks the moment he started to speak, and by the end of it she was sobbing uncontrollably . When he was done, Henry looked at Regina's eyes and saw the devastation in her face and felt incredibly guilty and at the same time was still angry with her. But before he could do something about it, before he could even think of what to do, she looked down and then disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.
The entire restaurant was quiet, nobody could believe what had just happened. Granny was the first to speak "You ungrateful kid, you have no right to speak to your mother that way!" when she saw the protest in Emma's eyes she repeated herself while looking her in the eyes "Yes, your mother! She has done some terrible things but she never hurt you and, most importantly, she has been changing to be worthy of you. I don't know what brought this on, but whatever justifications are running through your head, you are wrong" Emma stood up and started to defend Henry, because as petty as it sounded, she was glad Henry had called her mother to Regina's face. "Hey! Don't talk to my son like that, you should know better than anyone how much of a monster Regina is!" Granny turned towards her and angrily said "I'm pretty sure you gave the right to call him 'your son' when you signed the adoption papers. You are literally the last person he has met in his life, how much of a mother can you be when you didn't even remember his birthday? " Snow noticing how angry the old wolf was, step in the middle to try to calm the situation "Everyone calm down, it was just a misunderstanding" and looking at Emma added "I mean, you could explain what happened a little bit better to Henry". Hearing that Henry was confused and said " I understand perfectly, Regina started to scream at Emma without reason and was about to hurt her!" Granny saw red "It's that what you told him? Seriously Emma, you are not only killing Regina but you are also messing with Henry's psychological health!" looking at the kid she continued "Your mother was yelling at Emma because she forgot about your birthday, she was defending you and was not about to hurt her at all… I pulled her away because she was about to cry, and I know how much the queen hates to be seen vulnerable…" Henry started to tear up, and then he let the tears fall down his face when he heard the old wolf's last words "you don't deserve to have her as a mother kid…" because he couldn't agree more.