Chapter 21: Happy Birthday Regina – Part II
The Cliff
Emma left the camping in a fist of rage and mixed up emotions; maybe she overreacted a bit by just leaving, but she really needed a break from everything she was feeling. - When she arrived the cliff, she noticed the kids were still playing on the water and Zelena was standing there with her arms folded, probably wanting to scold them to just hurry up, get out of the water and go eat lunch, but Lizzy and Henry seemed to be doing a game between them, she couldn't tell if they were seeing who could stay underwater for longer, or if they were trying to see who could grab a big rock and just stay underwater like that; but the whole view made her smile and calmed her a bit, specially by just watching Henry.
The teen boy was her family now, the triplets and Brooklyn were the future, maybe Emma shouldn't worry so much what's about to come, she fucked it up right now with Brooklyn, she still has another chance and maybe this time she won't drop him or be wise enough to pay attention to him every second.
Emma snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Regina's voice behind her, saying:
"Ah, there you are. By now I thought you'd be showing off your diving skills."
Emma turned her head and looked over her shoulder to see Regina approaching her. "I am not with my bikini." She shrugged. "Plus I'd rather show off to you." She joked a bit.
Regina smirked and debated a bit if she should sit down on the dirt besides the blonde, this time there was no blanket or anything to be under her, and Emma seemed to notice Regina's struggle because by now the blonde was taking off her red leather jacket. "No- Its fine." Regina quickly spoke when she saw Emma was about to put the jacket over the ground.
"Just sit, my queen." Emma chuckled and placed the jacket on the ground anyway, took hold of Regina's soft tan hand and helped her to sit down over the leather.
Even if Regina told her to not do it, she was still very pleased that Emma did it anyway. "Charming." She added after hearing the queen part, a title very used back in the enchanted forest, but this time there was no 'evil' attached to it and Emma said it like she really meant it and in a loving way.
Then they sat there in an awkward silence as Emma tucked her knees up to her chest while staring down at the lake watching the kids still playing and Zelena by now took off her shoes, rolled up her jeans and went get her feet wet. "I am sorry." Emma broke the silence.
"For what?"
"For what I said to your future self…I didn't mean to sound so offending."
Regina pressed her lips together before let out a sigh. "It's fine, Emma. It was the truth anyway. I did not had a normal childhood, and every time I tried, never ended well."
Emma let out a low snort. "You tell me." She then scratched her cheek. "But I still feel like I had more fun in my childhood than you did in yours."
"Perhaps." Regina shrugged.
And Emma noticed how uneasy Regina felt about this subject, so she just bumped her shoulder slightly against the brunette's. "Don't worry, I will make it up for you and make sure you have fun forever." She smiled while looking forward.
And Regina turned her head as she looked at the profile of the blonde's face. "I'd like that." She mumbled with a smile and kept admiring the saviour's face.
Emma eventually turned her head to look at Regina and quickly smiled after seeing the brunette's smile. "Can I ask you something?"
"Can I answer it'?" Regina perked up an eyebrow with a smirk.
Emma rolled her eyes as she shook her head before take a hold of Regina's hand and squeeze it. "How-..how did you got that scar on your lip?" She bit down on her lower lip, wondering if this was even a question she could ask, she didn't want Regina upset at her, she already had the future Regina for that. "If you don't want to say its fine."
"No- I.." Regina licked her lips as she passed the fingertip of her index finger over her scar softly before drop her hand over her lap. "When I was twelve I lost track of time while riding, I only had two hours of riding everyday, and one day I was enjoying it so much that I completely forgot about the time. I also fell from my horse that time and bruised my knee, and ruined my riding clothes. When I got back home, my mother was already preparing a speech about my next punishments, but then she noticed that my riding clothes were ruined and my bruised knee. I explained her what happen and she threaten to stop me from riding ever again, but I couldn't let her do that, riding was the only good thing I had in my life, so I stood up for myself and my mother having a bad temper and also loving jewellery on her hands, she slapped me across my mouth and one of her rings injured my lip."
Emma listened the whole explanation and gave a slight squeeze on Regina's hand she was still holding in order to let the other woman know she was paying attention and that she'd supported her. Cora was the real deal, she made Emma remember about the all bad parents she had in the foster care, but she didn't care about that, she was just upset that Cora treated her Regina like that. "Whoa..that's..all because of ruined clothes and getting home late?" Emma sighed out and shook her head, feeling like she just had a deja vu.
Regina shrugged feeling like she had to take off the past from her shoulders. "That slap made me completely forgot the pain on my knee. My lip bleed so much, it was a deep cut; I ran up to my room in hopes my father would come after me to help me with it, but only a maid did." Regina stared down at her linked hands with Emma. "I remember freaking out every time I looked at the mirror, it was disgusting on the beginning, I felt so ugly." Regina let out a small snort, remembering her mother comments about how now she wouldn't find a proper gentleman for her because he wouldn't want to get closer to her nasty scar, that really brought her self esteem down more low than it already was.
Emma wrinkled her nose when Regina seemed to be more focused on the ugly part than anything else. "How could you even feel ugly with such flawless face?" she teased a bit and nudged her shoulder against the brunette's again. "That scar even gives you more charm, plus you can barely see it."
"If it's barely seen how do you know it gives me more charm?" Regina now perked up an eyebrow as she eyed Emma.
"You know what I meant.." Emma pouted.
"Enlighten me." Regina teased.
"Tease." Emma mumbled before pinch the back of the brunette's hand she was holding. "I like it." Emma told her before lean forward, getting closer to Regina's face and place her free palm over her cheek; she caressed the soft tan skin underneath her pale palm before close the gap between their faces and plant a soft kiss upon the other woman's scar. She kissed it twice then pecked her upper lip by placing it between her thin lips. "You are beautiful, Regina." She mumbled those words while opening her eyes and stare into deep brown ones.
Regina was a bit taken back when Emma began to kiss her scar, it was a feeling that squeezed her heart in happiness, and when she said she was beautiful while staring deep into her eyes, Regina couldn't help but just show a super tender meaningful smile and close her eyes to lean her forehead against Emma's and just let the blonde hold her like that.
Emma loved when Regina smiled like that, it was a rare thing to see, so every time it happen it was like a miracle for Emma.
And the new couple didn't realize that on the lake, everybody was staring at them.
"Oh my god, Henry your moms are getting on it!" Lizzy exclaimed with a big grin as she punched her brother's arm.
Henry flinched when Lizzy punched his arm. "They are your mothers as well." He replayed her as he looked up at the cliff and witness how his mothers kissed, he already saw his future mothers showing affection towards each other, but seeing his now present mothers doing that it was more weird than he thought it could actually be.
"Finally, it was about time." Ian commented behind them as he held Evelyn in his arms, having the water length over his belly button, little Evelyn was just splashing her tiny chubby feet against it.
Henry looked over his shoulder to his brother and smiled at Evelyn before tickle her feet and splash some water against them, the little baby only laughed and kept kicking at the water to splash it back at Henry.
"Well the show is over." Vivienne said when she noticed that her mothers were already walking away.
Henry quickly looked back up at the cliff and noticed they weren't there. "I gotta go." He mumbled as he tried his best to run out of the water, which was a hard task to do specially with the rocks underneath his feet.
"Ah, finally you guys decide to get out of there." Zelena commented as she was about to hand a towel to Henry, but the boy just shoved his feet inside his kickers and kept on running. "Henry! Where are you going?!" She called out after the boy.
"I am hungry!" He made up something as he continued running.
Everybody stared at each other wondering what he was really up to, but knowing Henry it was probably one of his operations again.
Camping
Emma and Gina already apologized to each other and Emma was surprised that Gina was the first one to apologize first and make sure that Emma wouldn't be upset at her. She understood why the other woman acted like that, Brooklyn was the little one and their precious thing. However when Emma mentioned she bought Brooklyn a turtle Gina was about to throw another fist till she noticed how happy the little boy seemed to be with it.
Right now Em and Emma were playing with Brooklyn and the turtle, while Gina and Regina were setting up the table. Gina was about to complain where the kids were, till Henry's voice brought everybody's attention to him.
"Mommm! Mooomm!" Henry basically called out for his mother as he kept on running and when he was at everybody's sight, they noticed he was still in his swimming shorts and his brown hair all damp from the water, in fact the teen boy seemed like he just got out of the water.
"What is it? Is something wrong?" Regina easily panicked when Henry called out for her like that and seeing his face kind of in despair and breathless, she thought the worst.
Henry panted as he watched everybody, his present mothers were not side by side, they were apart, in fact the Reginas were together by the table, while the Emmas were together by the last night's bonfire. "N-No nothing I-.." Now Henry wouldn't exactly throw questions at his mothers since his future mothers were present as well. "Just happy birthday mom." He showed her a sheepish smile with a shrug as he pressed his arms against his sides, only now realizing that he was still wet from the lake.
Regina was sceptical but she just smiled. "Thank you, Henry." She approached him and hugged him not caring if he was still wet.
Gina smiled as well missing her son at this age, the big grown up Henry was more busy with his own life and he wasn't this cute anymore.
"I am starving!" Lizzy exclaimed as she walked up to the camping with her siblings, niece and aunt.
And that brought chuckles from everybody. "Let's eat then." Em spoke.
…
After their lunch, Henry was already giving side glances to Emma and kicking her leg underneath the table, when she looked at her son, he mouthed the word 'cake' and she quickly remembered about that, so she went get the cake and the all candles, she stayed in the truck and began to put the all candles in the cake with Henry's help as everybody wondered what they were doing; when the all candles were in place, Emma began to lighten them up which was another hard task because there was so many and the cake wasn't small. - When that was done, she carried the cake towards the table with Henry's help. "We got you cake, moms!" Henry exclaimed as he smiled at both Regina's.
"A cake?" Regina perked up an eyebrow as Gina chuckled.
"Don't worry." Emma mumbled as she placed the rectangle cake in the middle of the clean table now. "It's carrot cake, I told Granny to try make a healthy cake because your majesty has something against sweets." Emma teased as she bumped her hip against Regina's arm, since the brunette was sitting down and she was standing up.
Regina frowned slightly, pretending she was offended by Emma's words but then just shook her head.
"Whoa, thirty eight candles, ma." Lizzy mumbled as she finished counting the candles.
"That's a lot of candles." Regina pointed out.
"Yeah well you see.." Now Emma wasn't sure how she would explain why she filled the cake with candles.
"Ma' refused to get the candles with the numbers because she didn't want to mess up with your age, so she thought filling up the cake with candles was the safe thing to do." Henry quickly sold out his mother.
"Henry!" Emma gasped.
And everybody else laughed.
"I am still impressed that you got the age right." Regina mumbled.
"Haha! I told you." Emma quickly poked her son's chest. "I told you she was thirty eight, not forty."
"Forty!?" Regina gasped.
"Aaah come on ma, you can't do that." Henry whined. "I am sorry mom, ma's lying."
"I am so not! You said you thought she was forty!" Emma began to defend herself.
"Maa!" Henry whined even more before pinch his mother's arm. "Stop getting me in trouble with mom!"
"Too bad, kid." Emma grinned before pinch his arm back.
"Children shall we enjoy the cake and stop discussing my age?" Regina called them out of their argument.
"Right, let's go the singing part." Emma said as she clapped her hands together.
"No singing." Both Reginas said at the same time.
"Why not?" Emma frowned slightly.
"Because it's annoying." Regina commented.
"Then just blow the candles and make a wish." Henry suggested.
"That I can do." Gina said as she leaned over the table slightly to get closer to the cake.
"Okay moms, ready?" Henry smiled brightly as he stared at them. "Okay, go!" He chuckled and watched his both brunette mothers thinking about their wish and then they blew the candles at the same time.
When every candle was out, everybody just clapped and Emma was handing a knife to each Regina.
"Now lets eat cake!" Brooklyn exclaimed as the little boy seemed to stop paying attention to his turtle for the first time.
And it seems Granny did knew how to make a healthy cake delicious, Regina seemed pleased that it was carrot cake, and the kids didn't seem to mind since they enjoyed the cream that Granny put around the cake. When Henry finished his cake, Emma nudged his arm reminding him about his gift to his mother, so he quickly went to get his backpack and took out a small dark box from it with a red bow wrapped around it.
"Mom." Henry cleared his throat as he shifted a bit awkwardly on the heel of his feet.
Regina was already helping out with the plates along with Emma, Gina and Zelena as Em was doing some silly games with the rest of the kids. "Yes, Henry?" Regina turned around as she looked at her son.
"I got you something." He chewed on his lower lip as he handed her the small box.
Regina perked up an eyebrow as she wiped her hands on a towel then took the small box, she wondered what it was, only now remembering that Emma told her that Henry had a gift for her, and it involved her bracelet that she was still wearing, so she began to wonder what the shape of the charm Henry bought her. - She unwrapped the beautiful box carefully and then opened it to see a small silver apple, that quickly made her chuckle as she took it out of the box. "I love it, Henry." She commented and placed the box over the table as she removed her bracelet and Emma was now helping her out to put it all back together.
"I told ma to not buy the apple one cause I wanted to be the one getting it." Henry smiled.
"Yeah, that's why you got the high heel shoe one." Emma chuckled as she placed the bracelet around Regina's wrist again.
"It's beautiful." Regina said as she now stared at her bracelet with another charm attached to it, she couldn't wait to have this full of charms and each one with a memory or meaning. "Thank you, sweetheart." She approached her son and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a tight hug.
And Henry hugged her back, it was moments like this that she realized how big her son was getting.
"Family hug." Emma said as she wrapped her arms around Regina and Henry.
And that's it guys, its slightly shorter than my usual chapters.
Next chapter will be more fun because it will have Henry's questions all over the place and the adults will spend some drunk time by the lake, so there will be awkward conversations and hilarious ones.
Xoxo loves!