For the first time since Thanksgiving, Henry found himself sleeping with Aubrey at his side, and he loved it. He loved her – really, entirely, this-might-just-be-true-love loved her – and that realization had done a number on his stomach – to say nothing of realizing exactly what was in his future now that Aubrey had told him about the baby that was currently nestled underneath her heart. So even though he was lying in a perfectly comfortable bed that he'd started to think of as his own, with his arms once again wrapped around Aubrey, he just couldn't sleep.
So he carefully disentangled himself from her and crept down to his grandfather's spinning wheel as quietly as possible. There had been many a night since coming to this castle that Henry had spent time on this stool while Aubrey slept. At first, he had seen it as something of a necessity. When some gold was spent in the village during the day, he would replace it in their stash overnight. However, after Thanksgiving, he'd found – much like Rumplestiltskin had centuries ago – that the act of spinning was cathartic, and he'd found himself spending more and more time at the wheel under the cover of darkness. There was now more gold in that cabinet than he and Aubrey could ever hope to use in a year, and he was just waiting for her to call him out on it.
That was going to be an interesting conversation – one that he was wary of but ultimately prepared for. Because of that, he didn't bother to consider it for long until he allowed himself to get lost in the spinning and the emotional release that the action practically required. After Aubrey's earlier announcement there was a lot for him to get his mind wrapped around, so he didn't climb back into bed until about twenty minutes before Aubrey woke up in the morning.
"Good morning, Marquess," she murmured with a smile when she pulled up the covers on her side of the bed and saw that his eyes were opened into narrow slits as he watched her. Henry mumbled what might have been a greeting and moved to roll over and – hopefully – go back to sleep. However, he was happy to change his plans when Aubrey knelt beside him on the bed and kissed him on the cheek, gently tugging on the shoulder of his nightshirt as she suggested, "If you're awake, you could come help me make breakfast."
"Now why would I do that?" he asked teasingly, cracking an eye back open to look at her.
Aubrey opened her mouth and then closed it, an actual blush stealing into her cheeks – something Henry had yet to see on her face before now – before she admitted in a whisper, "I've missed you."
"I've been here the entire time, beautiful," Henry responded with a smile, sitting up languidly and pulling her into an embrace.
"I've missed talking to you – so come on, humor me." She pulled a pouting expression, adding, "You wouldn't really make your pregnant… castle-mate face the dank, dark, cold kitchen all alone while you stay in a nice warm bed up here, would you?"
Henry groaned and released her, slinging his legs around the edge of the bed and hauling himself to his feet as he declared, "You're horrible."
"And pregnant – and yet you love me still," Aubrey joked – and then she panicked, realizing that she'd spoken what she thought to be a presupposition. "N-not that I think that–I'm not saying that you do love me, because it's totally-"
Henry rounded the bed with a patient smile on his face and put his hands on her shoulders, cutting her off as he stated with gentle firmness as he held her gaze, "I do love you, Aubrey. I haven't said it before, and we haven't really been easy on each other since we got here, but I do love you, and I will do anything it takes to make this work – being here for however long we must be, having a baby… even once we get back to Storybrooke, Aubrey, I will continue to love you, and I will keep my promise to you. 'Whatever happens, I'll take care of us.' Even in Storybrooke, even with a baby, I will find a way; I promise." Aubrey's eyes were glassy as she leaned into his shoulder, but there was guardedness in her gaze and barely-there stiffness in her spine that Henry didn't like. "Don't you believe me?" he whispered worriedly against her blonde locks.
She nodded rapidly as she pulled back and caught his gaze, murmuring, "I love you too."
"But what?" he queried, still eyeing her.
She shook her head and took his hand, pulling him out of the bedroom and down two flights of stairs into the kitchen. "Here." She handed him a bucket and gestured for him to go get water from the well outside.
"No," Henry said stubbornly. "Something's wrong, and if you really do love me, you're going to tell me what."
Aubrey sighed temperamentally and turned a sharp gaze to him, saying irritably, "Let's make a deal;" Henry snorted, but she continued on as if he hadn't. "You go draw the water and give me two seconds of silence in which to think, and then I'll talk, 'kay?"
"I thought you missed me?"
"Yes, but this conversation – if you really want to have it – requires tact, and that doesn't come easily to me, in case you haven't noticed, so just give me a minute to collect my thoughts before I open my mouth?"
"Okay," Henry agreed, giving her a gentle peck on the lips before he started to leave the kitchen, teasing, "And, yes, I have noticed that tact issue."
He ducked out of the way just before a flying pear could connect with his head and darted outside, chuckling as he obliged Aubrey's request for a minute alone and considered what the topic of the upcoming conversation might be. He was taking the last steps back down into the kitchen when he realized. The "magically appearing" gold that he'd been spinning.
