A/N- Thank you for reading/ reviewing. I think we all needed this.
Another haiku for all of you (that rhymes!)
'Finals week is hard
Showers become optional
What even is life?'
...
"Sometimes we must yield control to others and accept our vulnerability so we can be healed."
― Kathy Magliato, Healing Hearts: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon
...
The first time that Regina colors in twenty some years is that evening sitting across the kitchen table from Henry Swan. Emma had ushered her inside the second that Regina felt herself nodding and her facade cracking.
"I can't just impose on you like this." Regina had tried to insist.
"It's no imposition, I promise. And you can pay me back in childcare, can you watch Henry for me while I finish up dinner?"
And so it happened. The introductions were as simple as, 'Hey Henry, this is Regina.'
Hi, do you like din'sars Gina?'
Thus Regina found herself seated at the small table across from Henry who was scribbling in a coloring book. The table itself seemed to reflect the general feel of the apartment, it was small, well loved wood showing the nicks of years of use.
Henry is situated on a chair with arms that seem to be doing a good job of preventing him from falling over, and a few pillows stacked up so he can reach the table. He was chattering idly telling a story about a dinosaur (named Steve) and how he wanted ice cream but his mother said he couldn't have any until he finished his vegetables (pronounced as veg-tals in his three year old lisp). Regina thought the story sounded suspiciously like something that had actually happened, but she smiled and nodded along.
She didn't notice Emma finishing dinner. She didn't see when the blonde came to lean against the doorframe of the kitchen, arms crossed over her chest and a wide smile on her face while she watched Regina color with her son.
Regina is only alerted to the blonde's attention when Henry suddenly perks up, "Dinner?" He asks excitedly.
"Yeah, kid."
Henry clambers uncoordinatedly off his chair and races into the kitchen where Regina watches Emma ask him how hungry he is (very). Emma rolls her eyes, the kid is always very hungry, but she spoons him a fair serving of pasta and asparagus before walking it out to the table for him.
The three of them eat dinner in relative peace, Henry filling in the air with anecdotes of his day, and taking delight in Regina's impressive knowledge of dinosaurs (she interned for a summer at the Museum of Natural History before she knew what she wanted to do with her life).
When they finish and Emma bans Regina from trying to help with the dishes, when Emma helps Henry brush his teeth and get ready for bed, when Emma drops onto the couch beside Regina (it's worn and comfortable), an awkward kind of silence settles over the two women.
Emma sits in it for all of two seconds before laughing, "Are you more of a wine or beer woman?" Regina cocks her eyebrow for half a second before Emma nods her head, "Wine, why am I even asking?"
Regina follows Emma to the kitchen where she pushes through a tall cabinet to reveal a wanting alcohol assortment, "Red alright?"
"Of course."
Emma smiles and pours two glasses.
They stand in the kitchen leaning against opposite counters. For some reason it feels safer here. By now the bandage on Regina's left palm is dark red, it hasn't stopped bleeding since she reopened it during her fight with Daniel.
Emma doesn't push her to talk, they just stand and sip until Regina feels ready.
"I had a fight with Daniel."
"He didn't-"
"No." Regina shakes her head, "It was just a verbal altercation, but I couldn't stay there after that." She sips from her glass, aware that her hand is shaking slightly, "I don't really know why I came here, I just walked and I ended up on your street and-"
She shrugs, letting herself trail off, staring at the tiled floor.
Emma places her glass down on the counter and takes careful steps towards Regina, aware that she could bolt at any moment. The woman had been so calm during dinner, but now that she's confronting the reason she ran, she's falling apart. Emma only stops when she's inches from the brunette, "You can always come here." She promises.
Emma pulls the glass from Regina's hand and places it down safely. She knows Regina isn't much of a hugger (Regina had told her so on one of their morning runs), but she pulls Regina into her anyway, "You'll always be safe here." She whispers into the shorter woman's hair.
This promise is what makes her let go.
Regina cries.
She empties everything she's feeling right out of her eyes and onto Emma's shoulder. Throughout it all, Emma never once lets go of her, she just carefully strokes Regina's hair and murmurs reassurances in her ear. At some point, standing becomes too much for the women, and they find themselves sitting on the floor, leaning back against the stove, Regina curled half in Emma's lap.
They stay like this until Regina has no more tears, and until Emma's legs have gone numb.