A/N: I need to thank all of you for being so supportive. Your reviews mean so much to me and honestly, they keep me inspired. So thank you for that.
We've got a few more chapters after this one. I decided to double update today because I'm going away for the weekend plus a few days and somehow I feel as though you guys are not going to want to wait for a long period of time for that last chapter. :)
"You know how sometimes, despite all the shit that may be whirling, there are just those perfect days. Where you woke up without a worry in the world and made it through that whole day keeping it that way. Well, in that one year, there's one day I remember. One day I will never forget. One shining light in the darkness. January 14th 2013. Twelve A.E.
Henry and Paige walked arm in arm behind Regina and Emma through the streets of the city. The air was chilly and their breaths could be seen clearly, billowing like clouds in the air.
It was unusual, for a day to be this cold yet so sunny, which is why half of the city was out enjoying it.
Emma glanced over at the woman next to her. Regina was busy watching a small child play in the snow with a soft smile on her face. Emma reached her gloved hand down and squeezed Regina's.
Out of nowhere, Emma stopped and pulled at Regina's hand, "If you could do anything right now, what would it be?"
Regina turned to her wife, her eyes gazing into Emma's. She tilted her head, "Why do ask?"
"Don't worry about it," Emma replied, her smile growing into a toothy grin, "so what is it?"
Regina bit her lip in concentration as they continued to walk, "I think I'm exactly where I want to be right now." She finally decided, her eyes rising from their downturned state. Emma shook her head, emerald eyes sparking.
"Henry, if you could do one thing right now, what would it be?" The group continued to walk, but Emma twisted her head to look over her shoulder at the now twenty three year old young man.
He put his hand to his chin and stroked an imaginary beard sarcastically, but after a swift nudge in the ribs from Paige he threw up his hands, "Okay. Okay. I want to…" Henry looked around the streets, seeing the snow covered ground, vendors taking up either side of the sidewalks with hot chocolate stands. His eyes finally landed on the entrance to a park. The snow there was so different, so pristine in comparison to the dirt-covered slush they were currently walking through. "I want to go sledding," he finished with a grin.
Emma chuckled and glanced over to Regina whose eyes had widened. She looked down at her wool peacoat and heeled feet. She held out her arms and shook her head, motioning to what she was wearing.
"No way. I-"
Regina wasn't able to finish before Emma began dragging her by her hand into a store. Henry and Paige looked up at the store's sign New York Outdoor Co. The windows were lined with mountain climbing gear, sleds, snowshoes, and active winter clothing.
Paige leaned over and whispered in Henry's ear, "Your mom's going to kill Emma." Henry smiled as he felt Paige's breath against his skin.
"Yeah, she is, and I'm not going to miss one second of it."
He pulled her inside similarly to how Emma had with Regina. After the door swung shut behind them they looked around. The walls were covered with hanging sleds, below zero sleeping bags, freeze dried space food.
"Where's mom?" Henry approached Emma from behind. She was sitting on a bench, pulling a snow boot onto her prosthetic leg.
"She's in the fitting room." Emma's smirk was mischevious. Her eyes the brightest Henry had ever seen. Emma tilted her head to Paige, "Pick out whatever you'll need to be laying around in the snow. It's on me."
Paige began to protest but Emma looked down at her leather boots with her eyes raised, "So you're telling me you like freezing cold, wet feet?"
Paige looked down at her own feet and blushed. Henry went over and put a hand on her shoulder, guiding her to the boot section right in front of Emma.
They grabbed boots for all of them, followed by some winter coats. When Henry and Paige were busy picking out sleds, Emma began to pace in front of the fitting room.
"How ya doing in there?" Emma pulled on a hat she had found near the entrance of the store.
A muffled voice cried from behind the door, "I'm not coming out."
"Aw come on, it can't be that bad. I'm sure you look all explorer-y and hot."
"Emma," Regina whined, Emma began to think she wan't doing to come out but eventually heard the click of the door unlocking. Regina peeked only her head out, keeping the rest of her body hidden in the room.
"I look like a marshmallow."
"Marshmallows are cute."
"Emma!"
Regina's eyes begged Emma to let her take it off, but Emma was resolute. Reluctantly, Regina slowly pulled the door away to reveal her form. She was wearing black snow pants that were too long and accurately put, marshmallow fluffy. Her winter coat was stylish and high tech, but much too big and she held a hat with a fluffy pompom in her hand.
Emma looked Regina up and down, attempting to withhold her chuckles, but snorting as they came out her nose. Regina sighed and pouted, about to close the door when Emma stopped it with her foot.
"You look great."
"I look ridiculous!"
"Who cares? We're going sledding with our son and soon to be daughter in law. No one cares what you're wearing. Plus, just think about how warm you'll be."
Regina wrinkled her forehead, seemingly debating whether to keep it on or not,"Are you going to ever remember the image of me in these clothes after today?
Emma weighed it back and forth in her head, literally tilting to either side, "Ehhh, no."
"You're lying."
"I am. Keep them on."
"Mom! Looking good," Henry shouted from the other side of the store where he wore a green ski mask that had only the smallest hole for his face. He grinned, loving how ridiculous he looked. Regina chuckled, wondering if her son was trying to make her feel better, or just happened to be that well-timed.
"Fine." Regina sighed as she began to close the door, but again Emma stopped her.
"Oh no, you're wearing that out of the store. We're going straight there."
Regina grumbled and gathered up her old coat in her arm, "You're lucky you're blonde."
"What does me being blonde have to do with anything?"
Regina tilted her head, a devilish smirk on her face, "Oh, don't you know dear? Blonde's just happen to be my type. And that's all I'm in this for anyway."
Emma scrunched up her nose and shook her head slightly, "You are so in trouble now.
She walked to the register, smiling at Regina the whole way. "Henry? Paige?" Emma stood in front of the register and faced the cashier. She put her own hat on the counter, "We…have a lot."
The young teenage cashier nodded and scanned the hat. He turned to Regina who searching through her layers of clothing for the tags. She held out a tag and he leaned over the table, almost falling over it to scan it with his gun.
"Woah, hey there buddy that's my mom!" Henry shouted as he took a menacing step forward. The young man instantly retreated back behind the desk, holding his hands up defensively. Emma rolled her eyes and shot him a kind smile.
"He's just messing with you, don't worry."
The cashier let out a nervous breath of relief followed by a more relaxed laugh. He leaned back over and continued to scan the various tags that Regina held out.
After Regina, Henry pushed Paige up to the desk and twirled her so the cashier could scan her tags.
"This too!" Henry held two stacked sleds over his head, lofting it over the women.
"You guys seem like a pretty perfect family," He commented bravely as he punched a few keys on the register.
Emma snorted. Henry laughed. Paige giggled. Regina smirked.
"Not even close, man. I've only got one leg. Emma pulled up her snow pants to reveal her robotic prosthetic."
"I have her liver inside of me," Henry pointed at Emma, "and let me tell you, it's not the most functioning organ I've every received."
"I'm diabetic among other things," Regina admitted with a shrug. Emma wrapped an arm around Regina and kissed the side of her head with a smile on her face.
"I have a patch of hair that has no pigment in it?" Paige added with a shrug and her eyebrows raised.
"Oh god, no! No you do not! I cannot marry you," Henry, ever the dramatic, pretended to faint. Regina and Emma looked back at the cashier who regretted bringing up the topic in the first place.
While Emma waited for her card to run through for the purchases, she leaned agains the desk and looked at her wonderfully goofy family. Henry had his ski mask on still, Paige was rolling her eyes while Henry tied a bandana around her neck, cowboy style, and her wife was standing there looking more like a marshamallow than ever.
Emma chuckled as she realized that Regina Mills. Evil Queen, Regina Mills as the industry sometimes called her when she was particularly brutal on an art show, couldn't even put her arms down from the amount of fluff that was encasing her body.
"Ma'am." Emma jerked her head to the side, effectively snapping out of her trance.
"Here's your card. Have a nice day." The cashier nodded firmly and pushed her card back to her over the desk.
"We walked down the street in our new winter clothing looking we had just come from climbing Mount Everest.. My mom opted to zip her coat up to her eyes so that no one would recognize her.
We walked to the biggest hill in the park with our sleds. Being the city people we were we trudged up it, stopping several times, slipping here and there and crawling the rest of the way up. Emma carried my mom on her back the last stretch since I'm pretty sure she was losing the strength to move her limbs. Something my mom easily blamed on Emma's clothing choices." I scanned the crowd, squinting in an effort to try and recognize some of the people I had labeled as black blobs earlier. I wanted to see them now. I wanted to recognize them.
"So now we're at the top of this giant hill. There's no one in sight. And the adrenaline and endorphins that we've pathetically built up from the brief exercise has us all pumped and ready. We stand there for a second looking out at the now terrifying hill we had claimed to be manageable just minutes earlier.
Emma plants the sled down, it's long enough so we can all fit on it if we sit behind each other. I'm designated the pusher, and the game plan is to give the sled a head start before jumping on.
Naturally, my push gives the sled a rocket like launch, because I'm so incredibly. And also just as naturally, at the last minute, I trip. The sled goes flying down the hill without me," I smirk to myself. I can still hear the collection of screams that followed as my family tumbled down the hill on that sled, "Paige flew off first. She rolled off halfway down and proceeded to tumble to the bottom on her own.
My mom and Emma made it most of the way down. The only reason they ended off of the sled was because Emma told me later and this is a quote, 'You're mother looked so marshamallow-y I wanted to see what it would look like when she rolled', I stopped to chuckle, the crowd joining along with me. "I remember this so distinctly for some reason.
I was standing there on top of that hill watching my fiancé make snow angels halfway down. I saw my mom laying on her back, her head protected by a pillow of snow. She was laughing harder than I'd seen her laugh in my lifetime, her eyes looking straight up to the sky.
Emma lay next to her, leaning up on her elbow. Her hat was tilted to the side. She was cracking up as well.
After a moment, Emma leaned over and kissed my mom. I saw my mom's hands lift from the snow to hold onto either side of Emma's face. It made me smile.
When I glanced down to Paige, she was still making snow angels. After a couple minutes, she felt me looking at her and looked up. When we made eye contact she smiled at me with this look. This look she does, I can't explain it." I began to pace, my heart beating erratically, excitedly.
"I don't know, everything that day just seemed brighter, happier, louder, more. That day, life just seemed to be more.
And all I could think there while I stood on what felt like the top of the earth was that right here, in this moment, now and forever, this... this is love."
Sometimes I just get in a mood to write the fluffiest fluff. I mean I'm usually in that mood, but writing this chapter especially brought it out in me. Hope you enjoyed it!