Henry wakes up with a small crook in his neck, noting to later tell his parents of his need of a new mattress….in fact, a new bed entirely. He sluggishly makes his way down to the kitchen in hopes that one of his parents, mainly his Mom, is already up and able to make him breakfast, but as he gets closer, it has become apparent that neither of them has made it out of bed yet, let alone downstairs.

By the time both of his parents have made it to the kitchen Henry has not only finished the bowl of cereal he and his parents have packed for the trip, he had also cleaned and put away any dirty dishes, not to mention, time to go outside and explore in the backyard. It's been some years since he's been back there, but knowing his Mother, everything is still in pristine condition, the only difference he can detect are the trees being taller than before.

Just as Henry locks the door he hears both of his parents walking down the stairs arguing about something that sounds work related.

"We've been here for less than 24 hours and already you two are practically at each other's throats."

Internally Henry rolls his eyes, deeming it too early to get into it with both of his parents, and because of their bickering with one another, neither of them see Henry making his way back upstairs towards his room.

Upon entering his room, Henry goes straight to the overnight bag he had brought along with his suitcase. In it, are all the supplies one would need to plan out their latest operation.

"Henry, I just don't think you're ready for the responsibility yet; a puppy is a lot of work. The answer is no."

"But, Moooooom, I am so ready for a puppy, I brush my teeth every night without you telling me to. Ma, tell her.

"Sorry, kid, I'm going with Regina on this one, I don't think it's time."

"Fine."

Henry thinks back on that memory chuckling to himself. That plan didn't go as well as he would had hoped; at the end he still wasn't able to get a puppy, but that was his first operation and after that he had only gotten better, he only hopes this operation will his most successful one of them all.

Henry's parents were more complicated to think if a plan for, they knew every trick up his sleeve, so he had to come up with a new set of plans completely, but he's sure this plan will work - it has too.

After coming up with his new operation and making sure it was as fool proof as it can be, Henry finally lays down in his bed after a full 2 and a half hours at his desk. And as he lays in bed he wonders why neither of his parents haven't come looking for him, since going to bed last night, he knows that neither of them has seen him. But with the tossing and turning from the night before and the small bed problem along with the work he put into his latest plan, he was too tired to really think much about anything before he fell asleep

By the time Henry has woken up again, it was pretty late, the sun was starting to set. He walked downstairs to find both of his parents on the couch. His Mom was reading another one of her novels and his Ma was flipping through the channels (as usual, there wasn't much she enjoyed watching if it didn't involve action, blood, gore, or cartoons). Henry walks towards them and sits in between them.

"Heyyy, we haven't seen you all day, have you been sleep this whole time?"

"No, I woke up earlier to eat breakfast and then I went around the backyard a bit before I went back upstairs."

"Hmm, we didn't see you come down, or up the stairs, where were we?"

"You two were in the kitchen….arguing again."

Both Emma and Regina look to one another over Henry but doesn't say a word.

Henry doesn't know why his parents argue all the time, but he does know that the try to hide it from him, but they aren't doing very well with keeping that a secret. Since Henry could remember his parents haven't always been that agreeable with one another. He sometimes wonder why they stay together, but at the same time, he doesn't know anything else.

It's the end of the weekend, and as expected, not much went well for the family. Henry's parents had at least one thing to argue about the entire time; if it wasn't about how Emma washed the dishes, it was either how Regina was so controlling. At this point, Henry believes that they argue just to argue, the only upside is that Henry was able to leave town for a while, and the last person Henry wanted to face was Peter. There were occasions where Henry could sometimes say they were friends, but Peter's definition of "friend" means something completely different, but he had to do something, tomorrow was school day after all.

The next morning, Henry was no more rested than he was when he left for their family trip, the stress of his parents and Peter was becoming a little too much for him, but he still dragged himself out of bed.

Upon arriving to school, the very first person Henry spots is Peter.

"Ma?" Emma starts to slow down as she approaches the school.

"Yeah, kid?"

"Do you think you can drop me off a little ways down the street from the school?" Emma looks a little puzzled.

"Uhh, yeah, sure. What for?" Henry doesn't want to tell his Ma the truth about Peter, or at least not yet, so he quickly comes up with some lame, but believable excuse.

"Umm, I don't want you to embarrass me in front of Grace."

"Ooohh, ok." Emma doesn't say anything else as she parks at least a block away from the school, but everything she wants to say is plastered on her facial expression, Henry just rolls his eyes and exits the car.

Henry doesn't start to walk towards the school until his Ma drives off, as soon as she does, he start to slowly walk, thinking of what he can do to create as less of a scene as possible. The bad part about all of this is that Peter is the type to love any kind of attention he can get, so keeping all of this quiet was going to be a challenge, so Henry's best hope is to just keep it quiet long enough to think of a story to tell his parents when it finally surfaces.

"I didn't see you all weekend." Henry doesn't stop walking, but he knows Peter will follow.

"I was out of town." Nothing else is said from Henry, eye contact wasn't even given. All Peter does is nod, then walks towards Home Room.

As Henry walks to Home Room the only thing going through his mind is how much of a scene there's going to be later on. Since nothing has erupted now, that only means it's going to get worse later. The suspense was probably going to kill him before Peter does.

It wasn't until lunch the next time Henry seen or even talked to Peter after Home Room.

"Have a nice trip?"

Henry stares Peter down for a short moment before he finally responded. "Yeah. All my parents did was fight about things that seemed so pointless. How was your weekend? I'm sure it was better than mine despite you being an asshole all the time."

"It went pretty well. Grace, how was your weekend?" She just shrugs her shoulders while she picks at her school lunch. Both Henry and Peter lift their shoulders dismissively. "So today we're going to go down by –"

"I can't."

"What do you mean 'you can't'?"

"Here it comes. I can't go out tonight, I need to go straight home after school."

"Why? Are you grounded?"

Henry just looks down at his lunch, not making any eye contact. "No, I just have something I need to do… it's personal."

Peter gives Henry an annoyed look "Why are you always blowing us off?"

"Look Peter, I'm sorry, but this is something I have to deal with, I promise, I'll hang out with you two next time."

"This has nothing to do with your gay moms does it?" Henry says nothing. "Whatever your lesbo moms are going through is their problem, one of them probably finally got with a guy."

"Shut the hell up, Peter, I'm tired of you talking about my family." Henry and Peter have a stare down before Henry finally gets up, leaving the rest of his lunch untouched. Everyone watches as he leaves the cafeteria.

No one has ever really seen Henry get angry before, maybe that explains why no one bothered him the entire time he walks down to his locker, but Peter was never really the type to get the hint.

Peter shoves Henry into his locker as he spins him around.

"You need to get your act together, you're giving my reputation a bad name."

"It already has a bad name, and I don't even know why I hang out with you, it's not like we're friends." Henry shoves Peter back, not exactly getting the same effect as Peter did, but it still got the job done.

"Because you need me to scare all the bad people away, remember?" Peter mimics a scared child, making fun of Henry.

"Well I don't need you as much as you think." Peter just looks at Henry as if he's contemplating something before he actually does anything. When he does, he just shrugs his shoulders.

"Fine, but don't think you can just come back when things get hard." Henry doesn't respond, he just watches as Peter walks away.

"Well that was a lot easier than I thought." Henry opens his locker and grabs the rest of the things he needs for the remainder of the day. "Now all I have to worry about now are my parents." Henry closes his locker and leaves on that last note.

After school Henry runs straight home, hoping his Mom hasn't started making dinner.

He rushes through the door and goes straight towards the kitchen, panting as he says, "Good…you haven't….started dinner yet."

His Mother turns around a little startled grabbing her chest. "Oh, Henry, you scared me for a moment. No, I haven't, is there anything you want to eat tonight."

"Can we have your famous lasagna tonight?"

Regina smiles at the complement to her food. "Sure, Honey."

Henry begins to leave the kitchen and head upstairs, but he turns around to say one more thing to his mother. "Oh and Mom?"

"Yes, Dear?"

"If Ma asks why you made lasagna tonight, can you not say it was because I asked?"

The Mayor looks a little puzzled as she tries to wonder why her son would ask for a strange request. "Ok."

Henry runs to his room in hopes of finishing his homework early, he wants to get to his Ma before his Mom does, everything has to be perfect for this to work.

"Emma, close your mouth when you eat!"

"But that's how I show my affection."

"Emma! Not in front of Henry."

"Whaaat? I'm showing my love for you. We love your Mommy, don't we, Henry."

"Henry, close your mouth. Emma, look what you've done."

"I LOVE MOMMY!"

"I love you too, Honey."

It's a whole hour before Emma finally comes home, at least a full 30 minutes after Henry finished his homework, plenty of time for his to have gone over the next steps of his operation.

"Hi, Henry, how was school?"

Henry turns off the tv and goes over to hug his Ma. "Well, I'm sure you and Mom will be glad to hear that I'm no longer hanging out with Peter."

As Emma and Henry both walk towards the Kitchen, Emma and Regina exchange looks, both surprised, but still satisfied with the results. "Well that's good, sorry you had to lose a friend, Kid."

As per usual, Regina gives a small remark. "He wasn't much of a friend, couldn't be with the way his parents behave. They wouldn't know civility if it bit them in the ass."

"What happened to language."

"…Sorry, Henry." Both Emma and Henry can detect the lack of sincerity in her apology, they both just shake their heads and snicker. Regina's sass was always their favorite quality of the woman.

"Anyway, what's for dinner?"

"We're having—"

Henry interrupts. "Your favorite; lasagna."

"We haven't had that in a while, what's the occasion?" Emma looks to Regina and Henry for an answer.

"Just 'cause it seems." Emma just moves towards the kitchen, gathering plates and silver wear while Regina gives Henry a scrutinizing look.

"Henry, while Emma sets up the table, come help me in the kitchen." As soon as they are out of ear-shot of Emma, Regina confronts Henry.

"So what's the name of this operation?" Henry knew he wouldn't be able to go one hour into his operation without one of them figuring it out, so he was greatly prepared for this moment.

"Mom, you know I wouldn't be able to do anything without you or Ma finding out, making it literally impossible to even plan an operation."

"But that wouldn't stop you from trying."

"….You got me there." From the other room Emma yells for food.

"What are you two doing in there?"

"We can't keep Ma waiting, she'll end up eating the table." Henry quickly puts on the oven mitts and grabs the lasagna dish, and just as quickly, walks out the kitchen.

"I'm going to have to play it safe from here on out….I really hope this works."

During dinner, only a few moments after their typical question and answer session about school and work, Henry gets right into it.

"Hey, Ma, remember during my fourth birthday when you and I were arguing over who should get the biggest piece of cake?" Henry chuckles lightly hoping it would get his parents to do the same.

Emma smiles in the middle of her bite as she tells a little more of the story.

"Yeah, and to solve the problem your Mom took the biggest piece for herself."

"Well you two were acting like children; pouting and sticking your tongues out."

"Well, Mom, I was only 4."

"But Emma wasn't."

"Hey, I was just getting into the spirit of the party." Both Emma and Henry laugh while Regina turns her lips up into a slight smile and rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, well I think you sticking your finger in the icing was taking it a bit too far."

"So that explains the giant hole in the cake, and you told me it was tiny trolls using it for glue." Emma shoves a fork full in her mouth, blushing lightly.

For the rest of the time at the table, the family reminisce over old memories, Henry hoping that it will make his parents remember why they got together in the first place, but just in case they didn't, he brought up one last memory before going to up to bed.

"Hey, Mom, how did you and Ma meet?" Both Emma and Regina laugh simultaneously. Henry smiles, although slightly confused, hoping it's a fluffy, loving story.

"Oh, Kid, me and your Mom had known each other for a few years before we had even gone on our first date. I'm still surprised we're together; we hated each other."

Before anyone was able to hear the story, Regina sent Henry to bed. Both Henry and Emma protested.

"Oh come on, Mom! It won't take that long….Will it?"

"Yeah, 'Gina, it'll only take a few minutes."

No matter how cute both Emma and Henry's puppy-dog eyes were, Regina was not hearing it.

"No but's. You can hear the story another time, Henry."

"Sorry, Kid, maybe some other time, I promise."

Before going to sleep, Henry goes over dinner in his head.

"So dinner went as well as I guess it could have gone. If only Mom weren't staring at me the whole time…On to the next step."

Henry waited until Friday to go through with the next step, this way he can go stay at a friend's house and his parents can have the house to themselves.

This time Henry didn't rush home, instead he had gone to the flower shop and had gotten red roses, the brightest they've had for his Mom.

On Friday's Henry knew that the town had a meeting that lasted until around 7, so Henry had the house to himself for quite a while , enough time to get things set up.

Henry had finished with everything earlier than expected, so he started on his homework. Afterwards he started to watch some tv while he waited for his parents and ride to get home, but while he waited he had fallen asleep.

He doesn't know how long he had been asleep before he was woken up by the sound of the front door unlocking, but once he was fully aware of what was happening, he hurried to grab his bags and headed towards the door as he hears his parents and Jefferson talking.

"Thanks again, Jefferson, for allowing Henry to spend the weekend with you and Grace."

"Not a problem. Grace nearly begged to have Henry over, and anything for my girl."

Henry walks into the foyer and stands next to Emma. "You ready, Kid."

"Yep. Thanks again for letting me stay, Mr. Jefferson. Oh and Mom, I left a surprise for you and Ma in the dining room." Both Emma and Regina raise their eyebrows in disbelief as Henry runs towards Jefferson's car. "BYE!" Henry yells over his shoulder.

In the car Henry and Grace greet each other with grins going from ear to ear.

"Thank you inviting me, we haven't been hanging out much since that fight I had with Peter."

"It's ok, Henry. I still don't know why I was friends with him."

"What do you mean 'was'?"

"Well, when you stopped talking to Peter I saw no reason for me to continue to talk to him anymore," Grace shrugs her shoulders, "so after that big fight you two had, I moved from our table. Peter saw me when he walked back in the cafeteria, but he didn't say anything to me."

Henry nods his head in understanding, not saying anything else as Jefferson enters the car.

"Everyone buckled up?"

In unison, both Henry and Grace answer with an enthusiastic, "Yep," as they smile and blush at one another.

A couple days later

Henry walks into the foyer, hangs up his coat, and sets his bag down. "Moms!"

"We're in the kitchen, Henry!" Regina calls to him. As Henry enters the kitchen he spots the flowers in the trash with glass at the bottom. He sees that his parents are having their breakfast; juice and toast for Regina and just coffee for Emma.

"So how was your stay with Grace over the weekend?"

"It was great. I really missed her."
"Well that's good, Kid….So how long have you two been going out?"

Henry is surprised by the question, he doesn't really know how to answer. "NO! We aren't going out. Why would you ask that?!"

Both Emma and Regina smirk at one another, "No reason, it's just that you seemed real happy to spend the weekend with Grace, you never really seemed that happy when you stayed with anyone else."

"No, we aren't going out, we're just friends." Emma nods her head while Regina just grins as she places their dishes in the sink.

Henry tries to change the subject. "So how was your weekend?"

Without missing a beat, both Regina and Emma answer together. "It was great." Henry eyes them both but continues with the questions.

"Did you two enjoy the dinner I made?"

"It was awesome, Kid, how did you make that, it tasted just like your Mom's."

Henry laughs at his Ma's discovery. "Because it was, I just warmed up the leftovers and made a meal out of it."

"I knew you were smart." Emma ruffs her hand through Henry's hair as she and Regina head towards the living room. "So tell us about your time with Graaaace." Emma puts emphasizes on Grace's name as she takes a seat at the end of the couch.

"Maaaaa, I tooooold you, Grace and I are just friends, so there's nothing to tell." Henry slumps down next to both Regina and Emma while trying to push Emma away from poking him. "Why don't you tell me about your weekend?"

"But, Heeeenry, there's nothing to tell." Emma says, mocking her son.

Henry rolls his eyes in a fashion Regina would be proud of. "Fine, don't tell me, I just won't tell you about the kiss on the cheek Grace gave me before I left." Henry tries to get up from the couch, but Emma pulls him back down by him pants loops.

"SHE WHAT!?" Henry smiles as his Ma takes the bait.

"There's nothing to tell." Henry tells his Mom's as he nonchalantly turns on the tv and flips through the channels.

"I think he has you beat, Emma." Regina comments and laughs as Emma just pouts.

"Ok. Ok. Our weekend was fine." Emma shrugs her shoulders.

"Just fine? What did you two talk about? What did you do all weekend?"

"You know, the usual stuff, dear."

Henry doesn't take that as a final answer. "Liiiike? Come up, tell me something. Pleeeease?"

Emma and Regina look at one another with worry in their eyes, Henry sees it slightly before it disappears. "Look, Kid, our weekend was a usual weekend; good food, good company, minus one of course, and we enjoyed it. That's all, really nothing else to tell."

Henry nods his head. "Fine. Well I'm going to head up to my room for a bit, I had a busy weekend."

"Wha—Wait, Henry, what about the kiss, we had a deal."

Henry turns around when he makes it half way up the stairs. "We never made a deal." He grins.

Regina laughs slightly as she says, "I think he has you beat, Emma. Again."

"Are you sure you didn't give birth to him?"

Once he gets to his room Henry closes the door, after he does, he falls onto his bed.

"This is going to be harder than expected." And he falls asleep.