SO THIS CHAPTER IS BASICALLY ALL THANKS TO SNOOPYKID. I WOULD NOT HAVE COME UP WITH THIS IDEA ON MY OWN. THANKS FOR THE IDEA!
"Hey, Mom, can I ask you a question?" Henry asked as Emma's yellow bug rattled down Main Street. She didn't want to think about what she'd do when the poor thing finally gave out.
"Of course." She replied, keeping the suspicion out of her voice. Typically, when he wanted to ask her something, he'd straight up ask. He wouldn't ask for permission to ask something unless he wasn't sure she'd like the question.
"Gramma said you don't like chocolate chocolate chip cookies. She said she found that out after you had been with August… and you were upset. Did August say something mean to you? Cause I liked him, but no one hurts my mom." Henry said haltingly, unsure of himself. Was he pressing too many buttons? Was he wording it wrong? He didn't want to make her mad. Emma looked at him, then back at the road, then back at him. Eyes on the road, you idiot, are you trying to get your and your son killed? She mentally scolded herself. Last time she drove with her attention divided, she'd ran into the Town Sign. Good for our tourist business, bad for our local signage.
She laughed, shocked at what Henry had just said. She was supposed to take care of him, not the other way around. At her reaction, Henry hastily added,
"But please don't be mad at Gramma, she was only explaining the fact that you don't like chocolate chocolate chip cookies."
"Oh, Henry, I'm not mad at anyone. I'm just… surprised is all. I didn't think she'd remember that, and then you… look, August didn't say anything. I mean, he did, but he brought issues up to the surface that I hadn't dealt with at the time and probably should have dealt with years before. It was no big deal."
"Then why were you upset? You don't get upset." God, the kid was persistent, wasn't he?
"Henry…" She sighed and closed her eyes for a brief moment, trying to quell her irritation. He wasn't trying to pry, he was just genuinely concerned. She knew he'd be upset if he thought she was angry so she silently counted to five before speaking again. "It was a really complicated situation. He was trying to get me to believe in the Curse but I didn't want to believe. Not because it was stupid, but because I was trying my best to get you back." She didn't mention the fact that believing her parents hadn't abandoned her on the side of a street and that she was very much wanted and loved would have been too painful when she inevitably found out that Henry was just using his storybook as a coping mechanism. Sensing it was time to put an end to the conversation, he said,
"Do you think the kitchen's gonna be in more of a mess than when we left?"
"Why would you say that?" Emma breathed a sigh of relief, thankful to not have to continue on the conversation they had been on.
"Cause Gram and Gramps are cleaning it up and sometimes they get distracted."
"What!?" Oh god, had Henry figured out what her parents had been doing that day they walked in on them?
"Like the time me and you went out to get more juice cause you really wanted juice, and when we came back, they'd knocked over a picture and a flower vase by the time we got back. Remember? They found two mops that they were supposed to be using to clean up the juice cause you started laughing so hard you dropped it and it exploded everywhere, but they didn't and they made more of a mess in the process. When we walked through the door, we found Gramma on the couch with the handle pointed at Gramps and Gramps was raising his hands up in surrender."
Now that he mentioned it, it did seem vaguely familiar. Well, at least by 'distracted' he meant using various household objects to sword fight or as Henry and she affectionately called it, 'swording' and not… Emma didn't want to think about that.
"Yeah…" She shook herself out of her thoughts. "Yeah, maybe it'll be messier."
"Mom?"
"Yeah, Henry?"
"Do you think we can play a game tonight?" At that, Emma's face lit up. She never really was particularly fond of Game Nights, only because it was bittersweet; of course she loved playing games with Henry and spending time with her parents, but she shouldn't have to be making up for lost time with any of them.
"Of course." She smiled, taking a hand off the wheel to ruffle his hair.
Emma groaned as she plopped onto the floor in front of the coffee table. Henry ran down the stairs with the giant box of "Sorry" in his hands. Everyone was so full from the pizza and cookies. Even the kid had shaken his head when Emma had offered him another one. Mary Margaret and David took their seats on the couch.
"I call blue!" Henry announced.
"Red." Emma shrugged. David and Mary Margaret chose yellow and green, respectively, at the same time, much to everyone's amusement.
"Is everybody clear on the rules?" The brunette asked as she shuffled the cards.
"We've played this before." Emma rolled her eyes. "Let's just get on with it." In truth, she was thrilled to be playing a game with them, but she'd never let anyone know that. Henry knew it too from their little chat in the car, and it caused him to giggle.
"You got the color you wanted, there's no need to be cranky." Snow smirked.
"I'm not cranky."
"She's a grown woman she shouldn't be mad if she doesn't get the color she wants." David said.
"Really? Because I've seen her throw bigger fits over less." Mary Margaret continued.
"I do not throw fits!" Emma's voice grew louder and she threw her hands in the air.
"Yeah you do." Henry said, pointing at her. "You are now."
"Guess who I'm coming after this entire game?" She turned her eyes to Snow.
"I am a master at this, Emma. Good luck."
"No, I don't think so. This was my favorite game at the different foster homes I was in. Turns out when you're constantly moving so you don't have alliances for games, you figure out pretty quick how to fend for yourself. Metaphorically, gaming-ly, of course. But usually it's better not to build alliances and just do it by yourself. I mean, treaties and alliances are what got everyone involved in World War One. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and it should have just been those two but most other major European powers were bound to treaties that stated they had to back the other up in war." Feeling everyone's eyes on her, she quickly wrapped up. "My point is to just try to destroy everybody else and you'll win."
"I didn't know you were a history buff?" David said questioningly.
"I dunno." She shrugged. "History is fact. You can't dispute what happened and can't prove it wrong, like science. It's kinda… there… set in stone. Even the seemingly insignificant events are gone but not forgotten; there's always someone who remembers something no one else does. In school, it was the one subject I was good at because the techniques slash way the teachers graded didn't change. Well, besides lunch and Gym, those two were fine."
"I imagine they were." Snow mumbled, staring off into the distance. "You do excel at eating."
"And punching people." David added with a cough.
"Dear God when did Game Night become Torture Emma Night?"
"Aww, come on, Mom, it's fun poking at you."
"As for your comment, David, I never once punched someone in gym class. I did quite frequently, however, shove people."
"I don't believe that you never got into a fight in high school." Mary Margaret said as she placed the pile of cards in the center of the game board.
"Hey, I never said I didn't get into a fight, I just said I never did in Gym class."
"You have to tell us this story, Mom." Henry turned to face her and bumped into the table in the process, sending Snow's card pile sliding over. With a patient smile, the older woman fixed them.
"Kid, we're playing a game."
"Plleeeaaasseee!"
"Alright, alright." The blond resisted the urge to clamp her hand over his mouth. "It was my first day of Freshman Year. I had put my backpack down on a seat at the lunch table, then got into line. When I came back, I discovered my new backpack was on the floor. I was pissed because new things were a rarity in my life, and I had wanted to sit next to the girl I had met earlier in the day. She'd seemed nice enough. Sitting in my seat was this guy who I'd later learn was a Senior and the starting quarterback of the football team. Needless to say, we both got a visit from the principal… in the emergency room."
"Emma!" Snow gasped, fixing her with a stern look.
"I was suspended for a week, so I started my afternoon classes a week after everybody else." The blonde continued, hiding her smile at her mother's antics behind her amusement at the story. "I had a concussion, he ended up with a broken nose." Henry didn't bother hiding his snicker, nor Charming his pride. After Emma got a look at her father's face, she quickly redirected the conversation. "We have a game to play, don't we?"
"Yeah." Henry nodded eagerly. He loved Game Night.
