A/N: Happy weekend :)! For me, that's been lots of writing and two concerts in a row yesterday and tonight, so a pretty good couple of days! (Well, and regrouting my bathroom, but the less said about that, the better). I hope you enjoy this chapter. The next few will be more substantial and work towards wrapping this story up, but I wanted to add this as a mirror to Regina's previous chat with Henry rather than skimming past it :). Reviews would be awesome!
Pulling up outside the Mayor's house, Emma yawns and slips down in her seat; covering her nose with the thick folds of her scarf. She considers using the bug's horn to announce her arrival, before reaching for her phone in order to do so in a more polite manner. Before she's so much as entered her passcode, she looks up at the sound of the front door opening and watches as Henry descends the steps wrapped up in his neat wool coat and a pair of tasteful green gloves that match his mother's in style, but not colour.
Raising her hand, she adds a small wave as the woman in question moves to stand in the doorway to offer her a curt nod; Regina showered and dressed in spite of the criminally early hour, just as Emma had known she would be.
"Hi, mom."
Henry greets as he steps into the car and slams the door, affecting a theatrical shudder as the interior temperature of the blonde's bug isn't all that dissimilar to the frosty chill outside.
"Is the heating still broken?"
"You can turn it on for a bit, but shut it off when it starts to smell like burning."
Emma advises, looking over her shoulder as she reverses to turn them around.
"Can't you fix it? With your magic, I mean?"
Henry frowns, the idea only just occurring to him as the weather has only recently turned for the worst.
"Maybe... I've never used magic on the bug."
The blonde shrugs as she pulls out onto the road.
"Why don't you try?"
"I just... I like my car how it is. I'll take it to the garage sometime this week and see if they can do anything about it, but I like it, you know, normal."
"Oh."
Henry nods, offering the Sheriff a small smile in a bid to pretend to understand, and she glances over at him with a bemused look as she admits
"Well, that's the theory. Right now I don't like it so much."
She chuckles, her breath escaping in visible plumes of mist.
"You know, mom's car lets you choose how warm you want the seats heated?"
"I did know that. She's pointed it out several times."
Emma grumbles.
"You can also cool them in summer."
Henry continues, earning himself a sigh.
"I know, she showed me a couple of months ago, but it just makes me feel like I need to pee... Actually, it made me feel like I was peeing, which really isn't what I want from a car."
"Yeah, but everything in her car works."
"Well, good for Regina."
The blonde mutters, attempting to clear some of the road salt from her windscreen with wiper fluid, but when she pulls the lever, nothing happens.
Fantastic.
"I still like your car best, though."
"Yeah?"
"I mean, not right now..."
Henry grins, before shrugging his shoulders as best as his heavy coat will allow.
"Usually, I do. It's interesting."
"Mhmm: will it start? Will the radio work? Will there be a puddle of rain in the footwell after a storm? Forever interesting."
Emma sighs as she pats the steering wheel, and the boy shakes his head, challenging her boldly
"You could get a new car."
"I could... I won't."
The blonde replies simply, indicating left and taking them out onto the woods road.
"Aren't we going to Granny's?"
Henry frowns, and Emma wrinkles her nose as she confides
"I had this whole thing planned, but I didn't realise it was going to be so f'ing cold... We can go to Granny's if you want?"
"No, I want to do your thing."
The boy insists firmly, and she accepts his request while muttering that she's an idiot. He doesn't bother arguing with her and instead watches the road curiously in a bid to figure out where she's taking him. When she pulls up in a layby he knows well, he gets out of the car without further question.
"Here, can you take this?"
Emma hands him a bag from the trunk before stepping back to offer him a critical assessment.
"...What?"
"You might be cold in just one sweater underneath your coat if we're sitting still, that's all. Here."
Opening her door and leaning inside, she pulls a thick woollen sweater from the back seat.
"Is this Hook's?"
Henry asks curiously as he takes it from her and folds it over his arm. He nibbles his lip as she throws him a dubious look, but when he appears momentarily uncomfortable, she reasons coolly
"Do you really see Hook wearing that?"
"Maybe not."
"Me neither. It's David's, he left it at the station and I was supposed to bring it home for him... That was sometime last February, I think."
She admits, shouldering her own bag and leading them into the band of trees that shield the shore from the road.
"We haven't been here in ages."
Henry muses as they approach what remains of his castle, and Emma nods as she ducks beneath a large plank of wood that had once made up part of the floor.
"Wait a second, let me check it's alright."
She toes at the sand beneath and runs her hand over the underside of the plank to check for any sticking-out nails, before beckoning for the boy to join her in the cramped space beneath.
"Sorry, I didn't realise it would be so snug under here, you're getting pretty tall... We can just sit in the car if you'd rather?"
"It's fine. It's nice."
"Mm, that might be pushing it."
"It's nice being back out here with you. Even if it's all broken up."
"Yeah, about that... Maybe don't tell your mom? She'd call me out for being irresponsible, and I really don't want to give her any reason to think she's right."
"Not anymore, she wouldn't."
Henry points out shyly, and Emma looks to her side to meet his gaze with her own and advises seriously
"She would. She'd enjoy it just as she's always done. Just because she likes me well enough now doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy scolding me. She might actually like it more... You'll understand when you're older."
She rolls her eyes, holding out her hand in a request that Henry pass her the bag she'd asked him to carry.
"Oh, nice!"
He exclaims as he watches her take out a thermos and two tin cups which she fills with hot chocolate.
"No cream, I'm afraid, but I figured it might get messy... I also finished what was in the fridge last night, but we'll go with the messy thing."
"It's fine, it's still nice."
Henry assures her, taking a sip as he watches her unpack the bag she'd shouldered on their way here.
"Alright, one of these has mustard but I can't tell which one, so... Spit it out if you need to, but do it outside."
Emma shrugs, handing him a sandwich wrapped in brown paper, before pulling a thick blanket out of the bag that Henry recognises as the one usually folded over the back of her sofa. Taking the end she hands him, he spreads it over his legs, removes his gloves, and unwraps his food; giving it a cautionary sniff.
"I think this one's alright."
He advises, and she takes a bite from her own sandwich and nods in agreement.
"I've never had a picnic in winter before."
Henry smiles, watching the waves roll in further down the shore.
"I kind of like it. No bugs, and it's sort of nice and peaceful so long as it doesn't start pouring with rain."
"...Did you used to do it a lot?"
"Depending on where we were, yeah. It just made a change from sitting in the car. I never made sandwiches, though."
Emma grins, and Henry nods as he chews thoughtfully, before pointing out
"You've never made sandwiches for us to take out in any weather."
"No... Maybe that's something else not to mention to your mom."
"That you don't usually make me sandwiches?"
Henry frowns, raising a brow when the blonde laughs and shakes her head.
"No, that I made them today."
"Oh... Why?"
"I made fun of her yesterday when she put together that whole plate ready for when you came home. I told her it was kind of weird and highly awkward, and I think I rubbed some proverbial salt in the wound by clearly finding the fact pretty amusing... And now look what I've gone and done. I've prepared a whole scenic breakfast... I've one-upped her in making things strange and formal."
Emma sighs, and the boy chuckles as he points out
"I don't think sitting inside wrecked play equipment is all that formal... But you're right. She does hate that; being beat at something."
"Fortunately for her, it doesn't happen very often."
The Sheriff shrugs as she takes a sip of her hot chocolate, before glancing to her side as she feels Henry's eyes boring into her.
"What?"
She demands, and he offers her a theatrical hitch of his shoulders.
"No, nothing."
"... That's what I thought."
The blonde mutters, and Henry grins as he finishes his sandwich.
"Is that why you brought us out here? To win?"
"Hmm, I don't think I'd have to go to too much effort to win the crown of who's more awkward between myself and Regina."
"Mom would never let you win a crown, no matter what the competition was."
Henry advises, and Emma nods as she knows he speaks the truth.
"No, there is that... No, I brought us out here because I wasn't sure if talking about... Stuff... At Granny's was the best idea. Just, you know, in case you wanted to ask me anything in private or something like that."
"Gross!"
"Yes, the whole deal is absolutely disgusting."
"...I'll tell mom you said so."
The boy teases.
"Oh good, I'll bet she was worried, what with recent events, that she'd have nothing to be annoyed at me for."
"I don't think mom will ever run out of things about you she finds annoying..."
"That's true."
"Well, that she pretends to find annoying, anyway."
Henry elaborates, handing the blonde the sweater she'd given him from the back of her car as he feels her shiver beside him.
"Are you sure?... Thanks. Next time we have to discuss anything weird or important I'll try to time it for summer."
Emma promises as she takes off her coat in order to pull David's sweater on over her own, before turning back to Henry and adopting a more serious tone.
"So, are we good? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I guess the whole, um, two girls thing is a bit weird. Not bad, just... Weird."
"It's not so weird. People will always just like who they like."
"And you always liked my mom..."
Henry sounds out, looking both surprised and amused over the fact.
"I mean, I could have done without a lot of the drama when I first came to town, but, to be honest, now we're all in on the truth, I figure things could have been a hell of a lot worse. She certainly had the propensity for it!"
The blonde laughs, blushing slightly, and when Henry offers her a politely confused frown, she shakes her head and elaborates coolly
"Regina held back. She'd never admit it, but I'm still here, aren't I? I know there were certain rules that came with The Curse, but she's always had two sides to her. Pretty much always. She can be an absolute bi- nightmare, but she makes up for it, and then some. And it's not as though I never stirred the pot. I stirred it a lot and added all sorts of things she wasn't prepared for, and in the end, I think both of us kept on messing with each other because we kind of liked the game of it... Sometimes, the game would also drive me a little crazy, but I still enjoyed watching your mom storm around town, whether she was furious with me or feeling smug over whatever new and bizarre obstacle she'd sent my way. She hated me, but she looked good doing it... Sorry, kid, but if you think adults have things any more figured out than the kids in your class experiencing their first funny feelings about each other, you're wrong. Love makes very little sense most of the time."
"...Love?"
"You know what I mean."
Emma sighs, brushing the comment off swiftly with a toss of her hair, and Henry studies her curiously before joining her in studying the roll of the waves.
"Yeah... I think I do."
"... Anyway. We better head back to the car to give you time to dethaw before school. Give me your trash and take these over to rinse out."
The Sheriff hands the boy her cup so that he can dip it into the surf to remove the dregs of hot chocolate while she shoves the paper from their sandwiches and the blanket back into her bag.
"Are you guys really going to send Mr Hyde home today?"
Henry asks as he trudges back to the wreck of the castle, handing the blonde the washed-out mugs with his fingertips tinged lightly blue.
"That's the plan."
"What about Dr Jekyll?"
"That remains to be seen... Jekyll said he wanted to stay here and fix the ship and cut ties with Hyde, but... I guess we'll see. It's a big thing; permanently shutting a part of your own personality out."
"Mom did it."
Henry shrugs, and Emma nods as she climbs out from under the destroyed planks of the castle and brushes herself down.
"She did what she felt was best."
She agrees cryptically, heading back up the bank towards the trees and her car beyond. She offers the boy a grim smile as they trudge through the sand, wondering if he means to ask her anything else on the matter, but he simply wrinkles his nose as he considers her pensively, before asking curiously
"So, the next time you come over to our house, is that like a date? Or...?"
"What?! No!"
"No?"
"I... Look, can I just get you to school without you sending me into heart failure?"
"Fine... You know, mom says the more defensive you are, the more telling it is."
"Yeah, well, your mom says all sorts of things that are both wrong and infuriating."
"Hey, I'm her son, I have no choice in whether or not I listen to her! You do, and yet..."
The boy spreads his palms, once more swaddled in green wool.
"... I miss when you were ten and you were nice to me."
Emma grumbles, rolling her eyes as Henry snorts with laughter.
"You should hear what mom says about deflection..."
He warns sweetly as he steps into the car.
"Oh, I know what she has to say about that, believe me."
The blonde sighs as she starts the engine and waits apprehensively to see if the bug plans to cooperate and pump out enough heat to demist the windscreen. After about ten minutes, she deems the car road-worthy and pulls out of the layby to head towards the school.
"...You'll be careful, though, right?"
Henry speaks up finally, and Emma glances over at him, trying to decipher the context of his request a little uncomfortably.
"With your mom? Of course. I-"
"-I meant today, with Hyde. Both of you will be careful?"
"We'll be careful. Honestly, from the sounds of things, it doesn't sound like it should be that big of a deal. I mean, it's a big deal for Hyde, I'm sure, but as far as our part goes, it sounds relatively simple."
The blonde smiles, praying she's right.
"Good... Are you coming over later?"
Henry asks as they pull up outside the school. It's still early, but Henry gets himself ready and makes to open the door; planning on finding Snow to let him into the warmth of her classroom until lessons start.
"Maybe, we'll see."
"Cool. It's a date."
The boy grins, slipping swiftly from the car. Leaning over and stretching out her arm to roll the passenger-side window down, Emma yells after him irritably.
"It's not!"
Shaking her head when Henry offers her a thumbs up without looking back, she turns the car around to return to the Mayor's mansion to get ready to tackle Hyde.