A/N: Another update just because :)


"Now I think it's safe to say that after all was said and done, I had singlehandedly brought Emma and my mom together," I looked out to the crowd that chuckled and nodded, "Right? Right? It was all me and that liver. So now they're married. Emma moves in, they go jet-setting on some honeymoon, they continue to act all in love and gross and I'm starting to think it will never wear off. Actually, at this point I know it'll never wear off.

So there I am, at age 17, seven years A.E in the midst of my high school career. Both my mom and Emma's careers have taken off. My mom became the top art curator in the city, she had to turn down offers because she was so busy. Emma, funny enough, becamse the principle of Brown School," people in the audience clapped, and Frizzy Hair smiled and nodded in the front row. "Principle Butler retired and Emma's reputation as a teacher, as well as her new repertoire with the mothers of the school made her an easy replacement. Things were pretty sweet to say the least.

Except for one tiny, little, life changing, awful detail. I was in high school. Me, a thin, brainy, head in the clouds, constantly writing teenage boy, and though I had the capacity and desire for love as any typical teenage girl, I was utterly and hopelessly alone.

That's right. No girlfriends, no love interests, no rendezvous-ing in the park. That is," I lifted my forefinger up to the air, "until karma finally paid me a visit. Now I know you're thinking, 'this story isn't about you Henry. We want more cute lesbian family time we never knew we would enjoy so much' and yes, you shall get that.

But while this section is mainly about my epic pursuit of love, I am reluctant to say that the only reason I am currently engaged to the most perfect woman in the entire world right now, is because of the mother and Emma. So there you go, even when I'm talking about me, that happen to do something extraordinary. Figures."


"Where are you going?" Henry asked as he padded past the foyer in his sweatpants and t-shirt.

"Going to the grocery store, wanna come?" Emma filtered through the small bowl that sat on a side table for her keys.

"Why not?" Henry shrugged while he slipped on his shoes.

"Wanna drive?" Emma asked as she jogged down the porch steps.

"Sure," Henry looked up and caught the keys Emma threw at him and made his way to the other side of the car to slide into the drivers seat.

As they drove, Emma dug around in her bag for the list of things Regina had written out for her to get.

"Kathryn's coming over tonight," Emma said distractedly as she looked over the list she finally found the bottom of her bag.

"Oh I forgot I didn't really explain this. So Kathryn, the editor of ART magazine actually became really good friends with my mom. After meeting with her several times for business, she and my mom realized that they had a lot in common.

While Kathryn had been married, her husband traveled so much she essentially raised her daughter alone just as my mom had raised me, before Emma. So Katrhyn started to come around to hang out. Sometimes to talk and relax with my mom over a glass of wine or dinner. By association she, like so many others, fell victim to Emma's charms and became friends with her as well.

"Oh cool," Henry answered casually while he drove, pulling into the grocery store parking lot.

"Her daughter's coming over, the one that volunteers at the school," Emma said as nonchalantly as possibly while sneaking a side glance at Henry. Henry pulled out the keys and got out of the car, falling immediately in step with Emma as they walked toward the entrance.

"And…"

"Just thought you would be interested."

"Why would I be interested?"

"Because she's your age."

Henry stopped walking and grabbed Emma's arm to force her to stop too, "Emma…"

Emma played innocent, "What?"

"I know exactly what you're trying to do."

"I'm not trying to do anything," Emma began walking again, a smirk on her face. Henry jogged to catch up to her.

"This was totally my mom's idea, wasn't it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Emma!"

"Henry, remember that time where you wanted me to go on that roller coaster with you. The one that was like number two in the country?"

Henry furrowed his eyebrows, "yeah…"

"How long did you beg?"

"Like three hours."

"And did I give in?"

"No, because you were scared! You said you would pee your pants if you went on that ride."

"Reasons aside, did I give in?"

"No…"

"Did I give in!" Emma screamed, obviously enjoying the scene she was causing. Henry laughed and covered her mouth with his hand.

"Mom! You're screaming!" He pulled his hand off Emma's mouth reluctantly, but she remained perfectly still. He looked at her face and wrinkled his forehead before realizing what he'd just said.

"You've never called me Mom before."

Henry shrugged, and smiled easily "I think it's cause you used to be cool so I only thought of you as my friend, Emma, but now that's all gone away so you're just a mom."

Emma shook her head, but smirked nonetheless, knowing that it had meant more to Henry than he let on.

"Plus, you're trying to set me up on a date right now which is so a mom thing to do."

"What can I say?" Emma flipped her hair, "I'm a natural."

"So we split up the shopping list and got everything pretty quickly. Once we got home I went up to my room and tried to focus on the music I had been busy compiling before going grocery shopping, but the fact that a girl my age was coming over for essentially a blind date was scrambling my brain.

I tried for like a good hour to just ignore it. But I found myself being like 'oh I should take a shower, you know just because the one I took this morning wasn't really a good one'. And then a little while later I'd think to myself, 'I should definitely shave, my mom always hates when I don't shave'."

I looked at the crowd, "I mean, come on, do guys really shave for their mothers? No, they don't. They shave for pretty girls that just happen to be coming over to their house for a not-date, date." I sighed, embarrassed, "Four outfit changes, a gallon of cologne, and a 'Oh my god I just ran out of deodorant, oh no I didn't there's some right here' scare later, the doorbell rang.

"Henry, get down here!" Regina screamed from the bottom of the stairs. Emma quickly rushed up behind her.

"Maybe this is a bad idea," Emma whispered while she hugged Regina from behind. Regina turned in her arms.

"We're just…helping him along,"

"But we kind of did more than that."

"I wouldn't say tha-"

"Regina, we told Kathryn's daughter that our son was taking her out on a date and he has no idea! We basically left it so there is no option but for this to blow up in our faces!"

"You are the same woman I married, right? The one that hit on a seemingly straight woman in a hospital cafeteria while her son was sleeping in the floor upstairs? I'm pretty sure you gave your liver up as a pass at me. And if he's learned anything from you, he'll think on the fly," Regina's lips were curling upwards as Emma rolled her eyes.

"Okay, okay. We'll see how it goes," Emma threw up her hands and retreated back to the kitchen where Kathryn and her daughter Paige were chatting at the table.

"He'll be right down," Regina reassured as she poured wine into glasses, a smirk on her face.

Henry gave himself the worst pep-talk imaginable in his bedroom mirror before walking down the stairs into the kitchen. The moment he stepped into the room, his eyes were immediately glued on the girl that sat at the table. Her amber eyes pierced his own, her brown hair falling in waves on her shoulders. She looked away from his gaze after a few seconds with a blush on her cheeks.

Kathryn, ever the matchmaker, stood up and joined Regina and Emma at the kitchen island while they pretended to chat about something work related.

Henry slowly approached the table and sat across from the girl, his own heart beating rapidly in his chest, "I'm Henry," he held out his hand, instantly regretting that he hadn't checked if it was clammy.

The girl shook it lightly, smiling as she ran her fingers through her hair, "I'm Paige."

"So, why'd you decide to come over tonight? Just to hang?"

The girl looked at Henry, confused. Her eyebrows furrowed, "You don't know?"

"I don't know what?"

Paige blushed again and let out a little laugh, "Our moms set us up on a date. We have dinner reservations I think."

"We do?" Henry found himself conflicted, on one end he had a strong urge to go shake all three women in the kitchen by their shoulders. On the other hand, he wanted to go hug them all for giving him the opportunity to go on a date with this beautiful girl.

"We don't have to, if you don't want to," Paige quickly rushed out.

"I do," Henry answered just as quickly. "Let me just get my coat."

Henry walked to the closet in the hallway, motioning secretly to Emma and Regina on his way out to meet him in the hall. They nodded to each other and made an excuse for Paige's benefit as they scurried away.

The three met in the hallway, just outside the kitchen. Henry paced back and forth running his hands through his hair.

"What's wrong with you guys!" He huffed while still pacing. Emma and Regina watching him in his distressed state.

"Henry we just wanted to help," Regina started up, throwing a look at Emma that said 'don't you even dare say I told you so.'

"You get me a date, fine. You don't tell me you made dinner reservations, fine," He got to the end of the hallway and pivoted around on his feet, "but you set me up with the most beautiful girl in the god damn planet and you don't even give me a heads up.

Like you could have at least said 'yeah Henry she's pretty' which would be a completely understatement but then at least I would have some sort of heads up." Henry kept mumbling to himself while he paced back and forth. Regina and Emma looked at each other, smiles breaking out on their faces.

After Henry was close to wearing a hole in the floorboards Emma grabbed him by the shoulders, "You're the smartest kid I've ever met. You're handsome, and kind, and nice, and creative. You're the type of guy girls bring home to their parents. And you already know her mom, so that's out of the way.

You're the guy they make movies about Henry. Sappy, romantic movies. I know, right now you're out there in school competing with jocks and muscle heads that have half a brain, but this girl's like you Henry. She's different than all those awful girls." Emma waited until he nodded, she smoothed his hair back and kissed him on the forehead. He took a deep breath, nodded at Regina as well and went back into the kitchen with his shoulders squared.

Regina looked over at her wife, "when did you become such a mother?"

"Henry actually called me Mom today," Emma mumbled shyly. She looked up to see Regina's reaction, but somehow it was less surprised than she imagined it would have been.

"You know, I fall more and more in love with you every day."

Just as Emma was about to respond, Kathryn peeked her head out from behind the kitchen, "Hey love birds, our children have just left on their first date together. Wine drinking must commence immediately, or else I may just get in my car and follow them."

Emma leaned forward and gave Regina a quick kiss on the cheek, "me, too." She whispered in response to Regina's earlier comment.


"That was the worst date I've ever been on," I deadpanned to a shocked crowd, "ask Paige, it was awful." I motioned to the exact brunette with amber colored eyes I had been talking about. She nodded in the front row, slightly chuckling. I turned back to the crowd, "we left the house only to realize that we had no idea where our dinner reservations were. We tried to call our moms, but they weren't answering. So we kind of just sat in the car, unsure of where to go. I said we could pick up some sushi and go to the park and she seemed to like that idea.

I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with the brilliant idea ya know? but once we got to the part it started to rain. We got drenched, made it all the way back into the car when we realized our sushi was still sitting out there, water logged. So I offered to go back and just eat at the restaurant. She agreed, so we went back to the sushi restaurant. This were going okay until I made her try this vegetable roll with urchin that I loved.

Turns out," I rubbed the back of my neck, preparing myself for the laughter that was about to come, "that she was allergic. So now her face is swelling up and it's all my fault. I take her to the grocery store to get some medicine because I had no idea what else to do. I get her the medicine and for a couple minutes everything seems to be going fine, considering. We're sitting in my car and her face is kind of going back to normal, but of course, then her throat starts to close up."

I put my hands in my face, the crowd cracking up at how much of a fail this date is, and I don't blame them. It was so awful it sounds like I'm making it up. "So at this point I'm absolutely freaking out. I drive her to the hospital and I call my mom, Emma, and Kathryn. Thank god they answer. When they arrive at the hospital I'm sitting in the waiting room with my head hanging down. It's midnight now.

I'm really upset, as I should be, because not only did I completely blow it with this girl, I almost killed her." I say distressed as I make eye contact with Paige who's smiling at me and nodding like it was just yesterday. I stop for a moment, unable to continue because that girl's amber eyes get me every time.

"At two a.m. they tell me that everything is fine. She's doing fine. They tell me I can go see her. Now, at this point the last thing I want to do is go see the girl I have just put in the hospital, but I man up and take responsibility. When I walk in there she's laying in the bed, looking just as beautiful as she did when I first saw her hours ago.

I'm thinking how impossible it is that someone who just spent her night with a face the size of a basketball could look so perfect soon after. I sit next to her in the bed, spewing out every apology I can think of. And she's just watching me, completely entertained.

I'm pretty sure I went as far to apologize for my shoes squeaking when I walked, I don't know. Did I?" I motioned to Paige who nodded and laughed out loud, "Yeah, see, I was just a mess. So after I run out of things to apologize for I just sit back in my chair, absolutely miserable.

She's still staring at me at this point. I though she was deciding what she was going to do with me. What she did end up doing, was the last thing I expected though.


"This was a complete disaster," Paige said calmly, looing quizzically at the boy whose head is hanging next to her hospital bed.

"I know."

"Your mothers came in here right before you did."

Henry looked up, his eyes wide, "They did? Oh god…" He groaned as he shut his eyes. His head fell into his open hands.

"They gave me this."

Henry looks up, seeing a folded piece of paper in her hands. Carefully, he takes it and opens it, noticing how Paige's eyes follow him intently.

Upon opening it he realizes that this piece of paper was the same one he was scribbling on in the waiting room. On it he had written:

I screwed up the date of a lifetime today, with the most beautiful girl in the entire world too. She has these eyes, I mean god, they're like… I can't even begin to describe them right now.

If this works, which I assume it doesn't, but if it does and this will actually come true, please, please, please give me a second shot with her. Even though I spent hours of our date effectively and unknowingly poisoning her, I promise I will make sure it never happens again. Thanks.

Henry looked up, his face covered in a blush as he stammered out, "I, uh saw in a movie one time when I was a kid and it said if you wrote a wish on a piece of paper and then burned it, it could come true. I was gonna burn it, but then I came in here."

Paige's lips curled ever so slowly into a smile, she rolled onto her elbow and leaned over the bed, pressing her lips to Henry's.

"Next time, I'll pick the place," she said after pulling away, still hovering inches away from Henry's lips.

Henry nodded, completely absorbed a trance from the kiss.

"Henry?"

"Yes?" He asked with a soft smile, his entire world having been flipped upside down by that kiss.

"What are my eyes like?"

"Hm?"

"In the note, you said you couldn't describe them right now. What are my eyes like?"

"I can't tell you," Henry responded with a small smile. "I have to show you."

I paused and looked out at the crowd, unsure if they were enjoying my own personal backstory or if I was boring them. 'What did they look like?' I heard someone shout from the back of the room. I smiled and glanced to Paige who was looking at me with the same look she always gave me. The one where she tilted her head to the side, one side of her lips quirking into a smile, her eyes sparkling.

I kept my eyes focused on her as I answered the question that had been shouted, "What do her eyes look like? Well, I brought her to the park a couple weeks later, and I made her lay next to me under this huge oak tree.

We laid there for an hour, waiting for the perfect moment. It was October when we went, pretty breezy, and we were hudled up in our sweatshirts and sweatpants.

At four o'clock, right when the sun was in the a specific position I pointed up at the leaves. 'You see there?' I asked her. I pointed to a lightly leaf littered branch where the sun filtered through. The leaves were brown and orange and red. Some fell. Some didn't. Mostly they just swayed in the wind.

I remember she nodded, her eyes following my outstretched arm. I said, 'That patch of leaves, right where the sun streams through, that's what your eyes look like.'

She stared at the patch, watching how each ray seemed to light up and reflect off each leaf, making the colors bounce around through the air.

And she says, 'Those are my eyes?' in the tiniest voice I'd ever heard. 'Those are your eyes.' I replied."

I looked out to the crowd and Paige's eyes had begun to shine slightly, moisture gathering in them.

"I proposed to her under that tree," I said to the crowd, my voice trembling with emotion.

Paige bit her lip, something I'd seen my mom do to Emma countless times before. And I thought to myself, how lucky I am that my mothers handed her that paper in the hospital.