I don't own these characters; Disney/ABC does.
Epilogue: The Musketeers
Henry loved the new house, even though he missed his old one. Yes, he could collect his material things again, but some stuff was just gone and it was hard to come to grips with that, especially since it was done by people he had helped. They had not taken him into consideration, even though he had spent a good part of his life trying to free them. But, that was okay, he was learning, in general.
The new house was not as big, but it had so many things the old house did not have, like his treehouse. When they first got the house, his ma and grandfather insisted on building one for him, even though he felt like was too old. Eventually, he understood it was more for his ma and grandfather to have something to bond over. He was not sure why they needed something beyond work to bond over, but they seemed better for it, so he was happy. Plus, he loved the thing. It was really cool.
The treehouse was in a big tree in the backyard. It was not an apple tree. His mom did not seem to be interested in planting a new one, even though she had a herb and vegetable garden in the corner of the yard. His tree house was a simple design. It was in the tree, but also on thick wooden stilts. A hanging rope ladder led to an open platform that was wide enough for someone to sit on. Then, there was a small "house" structure with a window in front and on both sides. It was the perfect place to hang out with his new friends. Sometimes, he stargazed with his mothers on the "porch" part. Mom knew a lot about the stars and he and Ma were content to listen to her go on and on.
"Did we leave it this dirty up here last time?" Mikey asked as she kicked a pizza box out of her usual corner spot. Her short-legged beach chair creaked as she dropped into it, almost slipping her can of root beer.
"Obviously. Not like the mayor or the sheriff came up here and had a pizza party," Faruq replied as he went to his own chair. He had a couple of books by it that he always left in the treehouse, in case he got bored.
Henry chuckled, as it was more likely than his friends thought for his mothers to chill in the treehouse and do something as mundane as eat pizza. He glanced at Mikey and Faruq as he settled into his own short chair. It felt inevitable for him to become friends with Mikey. First off, their mothers were friends, so their families were around each other often. Beyond that, Henry appreciated Mikey. There was a tough love to her that let him know she really cared. She did not care that his mother was the Savior or the Evil Queen like most people did. She looked at them as Emma, Regina, and Henry — a family. And, she came with her very understanding and super cool best friend, Faruq. They welcomed him to his duo and now they were a trio.
"I dunno. My moms have weird date nights. I've caught them up here a couple of times," Henry said. It was nothing big. They would sit on the outside part, hold hands, and sip drinks at night. It was cute, how content they were with each other all the time.
"It's probably because they're so busy," Mikey replied.
"Doesn't explain why they can't just have a candlelight dinner at the table or something," Faruq said. "My parents do it all the time."
Henry shrugged. His moms liked doing their own thing and they were busy. Mom was mayor again. No one was more surprised than she was when the votes came in. She liked to humbly explain that there were just so many candidates it was easy to win without a lot of votes because all of the votes were so spread out. Henry still thought it spoke volumes in recognizing his mom was changing for the better for her to be reelected. It had only been a couple of months, but she was trying to do her best for the town.
She had hired a few of her rival candidates into Town Hall, including Grams. Henry was not too sure what Grams did, but it was enough to calm her supporters down. And, she hired D'Artagnan's other musketeer friend, Aramis, as town planner. It was agreed the town needed some work since, yes, people had aspects of their Cursed personas, but they were not their Cursed selves. The town should reflect who they really were. It was all annoying, according to Mom, but she said that about anything outside of her home life.
Henry stuck his head outside of the tree house. "Hey, are the hot dogs done yet?"
Emma was at the grill. They were having a house-warming cookout style, upon Ma's instance, even though they got the house three months ago. It just had not been warm enough for cookout at the time. Ma did not really know how to work the grill, but Gramps had cursed memories of it and stood by her elbow, giving her instructions. It was nice whenever they got along.
D'Artagnan helped Emma a little as well, but then stepped away to join Mikey's mother, Nanette, who was talking to Faruq's parents and smiling so big. Mikey glanced out and happened to see. Her eyes lit up as she saw her mother put her arm around her mama's waist.
"How are things with your moms?" Henry asked. There were a couple of times when Mikey came to school upset or she would hang out with him and Mom, trying to avoid her own mothers because they were fighting and it hurt her. Adult relationships seemed hard, but her parents were working on it, like his mothers. It was cool, but sometimes, it was painful, frustrating, and nerve-wracking. Henry knew the feeling because for all his mothers being in love, they were still his mothers and they fought like nobody's business every now and then.
Mikey nodded. "Pretty good. They said it's a little weird to date and live together, but they're making it work, even though it's one of the things they argue about sometimes. I'm glad Mama stayed in the apartment, though. We do a lot stuff together. The best is playing music together. What about you and your moms? Is it weird for them to date and live together?"
Henry scoffed. "They love it. They're actually pretty gross together. They're mostly smiling and giggling and kissing. Even when they're mad at each other." Yes because his moms were who they were, they argued sometimes, but they had weird arguments. One time, he watched his mom make Ma a sandwich after an argument, slam it down in front of her, tell her "you better eat it" before storming off and slamming a door somewhere in the house to punctuate her fury. Ma was no better. She gave Mom a foot massage while watching her favorite movie with her, even though they were not speaking to each other. But, it was nice to know and see they were kind to each other even when upset.
Mikey laughed. "You love it."
Henry sighed. "I do. They love each other, like you said. We're a family, like you said. We're exactly what I wanted and because Ma talked to Grams and Gramps and they listened for the most part, we're a big family." Grams and Gramps were a huge work in progress, but they tried and that counted more than they would ever know to Emma, but she had pretty low standards for them now.
"I told you." Mikey never missed a chance to say that.
"Yeah, you're never smug about that at all," Faruq said with a laugh. "I'm happy the Curse stuck me with an actual married couple who are kind and awesome."
Henry looked down on the adults. "I think we all kinda got lucky."
Mikey moved and threw her arm around Henry's shoulder. "Now you're getting it. You don't know how badly I wanted to push you out of that tree so much when you're whining about how your moms treat you. They care about you." He had kept insisting to her that they treated him like a baby, not getting that he felt that way because he felt helpless because he got kidnapped, used, and actually died in front of his mothers. It was a lot. Sessions with Archie and talking to his mothers and his friends were helping him sort that out.
"I know. I know. I was a jerk." He face-palmed and shook his head. "But, I've gotten better. We've all gotten better." He had learned how to cope, how to be a better person over the past couple of months and he was still learning, but everyone assured him that was fine. They were all still learning, too. His mothers were learning how to be better parents, his grandparents were learning how to be better parents, and they were all learning how to be better people. That was just life.
"Hey, is the food done, yet?" Faruq's voice carried as he poked his head out of a window, his long, wavy dark hair falling in his face. "They're getting all philosophical up here again! I'm too young for this!"
Ma laughed. "The hotdogs are almost done! Cut me a break. It's my first time!" She motioned to her apron, which proclaimed "sorry, it's my first day!"
"Why didn't you let Regina do it? She loves cooking," Mikey said, which was not a lie.
Mom sneered from where she stood with Aramis and Grams, probably discussing town business. It was a bit funny to see her in casual wear. Being with Ma had relaxed her enough that she could walk around without her "armor" on around certain people, so she wore comfy black pants with one of Ma's long sleeve Henley's on.
"That is not cooking." Mom waved it off. "I prepared and seasoned all of the food and that ended the cooking aspects. If I wanted to roast things over an open fire, I'd go live in the woods."
"Wasn't that plan A before Emma asked you out and you moved out of the condo?" D'Artagnan said with a grin.
Mom curled her lip. "Why did I invite you here?"
D'Artagnan shrugged with nonchalance that reminded Henry of his other mother. "I could sue you for discrimination since you invited every other member of the sheriff's department except me?"
Henry chuckled and leaned back, looking at Mikey. "You think our moms are best friends?" It was nice to think of his mom having a best friend. While his ma did not have many, she had more than Mom and Mom was still so standoffish with people. The closest thing Mom had to a friend was Tinker Bell, but it was more like a mentor relationship with Mom trying to help Tinker Bell adjust to living in Storybrooke and the "real" world.
Mikey shook her head. "I think your moms are best friends. Then, whatever's after that, my mom comes in. Although, I think your mom's trying to be better friends with my mama. They've set aside a day to go grocery shopping together."
"That's cool," Henry said. He liked that. His mom deserved friends.
"So, what's the deal with your dad? He picked you up from school the other day," Faruq said.
"Oh, my moms let me see him and everything, but they decided to see if he could be trusted to get me from school and then get me home without one of them needing to call him. He managed, although I have to remind him a bunch of times." Henry could not believe he had not noticed how hardheaded his father could be when they first started spending time together. If he did not stay on Dad's case, he would mess around lose his chance to see Henry.
Mikey snorted. "As rude as he is, I'm surprised he listens to you."
Henry shrugged. "I like hanging out with him, but I guess I see him a little differently knowing how much he hurt my ma. She doesn't say too much about it to me since he's my dad and she's not around him, but I get it. He made bad choices, choices that changed a lot for her. For me, he's making somewhat better ones."
Mikey scoffed. "Is he? He told you not to apologize when you were very obviously rude to me."
Henry nodded. "True, but here's the thing, Ma says my dad's like her, feral. She says both of them kinda have to be trained in how to act in society. Mom is the same way, but different sorta. She knows how to order people around and organize and stuff like that, but she doesn't know how to interact with people on a regular, friend level. I don't even really know how to interact with people, which is why I thought family just knew what was right." He sighed. "We got a lot to work on, but we'll get there." He smiled.
"You guys have help, so it'll be cool." Mikey patted him on the back.
"Hot dogs are ready!" Emma's announcement was enough to get them out of the treehouse.
While they got out of the treehouse, Mikey just by jumping, hotdogs were moved off the grill and hamburgers were put on. They would have those when they were done. There was also chicken and kabobs and corn waiting to be grilled. Salad sat on the picnic table, but none of them would have that. Nanette brought over roti and potato salad, so Henry would have some of those because Mikey claimed her mama cooked as well as his mom. He could believe it when he tasted the potato salad. Turned out, it was pretty good, but his mom still made it better.
The cookout was nice. Henry hoped it set the mood for how things would be between them all. It had such potential and he would not let his pride or prejudice ruin it.
-8-8-8-8-
Emma never thought she would be a person who liked a porch swing, especially one in the backyard, but she loved the damned thing. Maybe it was because Regina liked to cuddle up to her on it. They spent every night on the swing in the backyard, even back when it was cold outside, staring at the stars and talking, like they did in Neverland. Regina had a glass of wine while Emma had a beer and one of the leftover chicken kabobs. For a first time griller, she felt like she did a damn good job.
"I still can't believe we took a positive thing away from Neverland," Emma said, resting her cheek against Regina's head for a moment. Then, she sat up enough to avoid getting chicken in Regina's hair as she took a bite of her food.
"I still can't believe it took two people, one of them a child, pointing out that we had feelings for each other to realize we did," Regina replied.
Emma chuckled. "Yeah, that one goes down in history." She pulled Regina closer. Regina put her wine down on the platform under the swing and put her hand across Emma's lap in a one-armed embrace.
"It doesn't matter, though. We're here. We're a couple. We're a team. And we're going to kill your mother tomorrow."
Emma laughed. "I'm not helping you kill my mother." This was a weekly thing with Regina and Emma could understand why. No matter what her mother was trying to do, she was always self-righteously annoying about it.
Regina pouted, but glared at her as well. "You're my partner. You're supposed to support me. I'm sure David would help Snow take me out."
That got another laugh out of Emma. "Probably." She kissed the top of Regina's head. "What happened?"
"She just does things where she doesn't consider the whole. She keeps accepting proposals on town expansion without remembering we have to explore where the border ends in the woods, first off, and second off, people need to make an appointment rather than approach her in the street for things. Certain people have a problem with walking up to her while others don't and she's creating an unfair advantage as well as an unfair image while thinking she's 'being for the people.'"
Emma cringed. "That would've been her as mayor, huh?" A huge section of Storybrooke would have been thrown to the wayside and Snow would not have been the wiser, thinking she was doing what everyone wanted.
"Yes, it would have. But, let's forget for now. I mean, you don't love me enough to help me murder her, after all."
Emma snickered and leaned down for a proper kiss, which she got. "I love you plenty." She plucked at the sleeve of Regina's shirt. "I especially love when you put my clothes on. Very sexy."
Regina smirked and sat up. Emma was confused for a moment, but then Regina moved onto her lap, straddling her thighs. They locked eyes and the view was much better than the stars. Regina kissed her, despite the fact that she had a kabob in her hand. She moaned as Regina's tongue lapped at her lips and she could only let Regina in. She thought the fact that she was eating would turn Regina off, but she was so delightfully wrong. Regina kissed with her as much fervor as always. I freaking love this woman and she loves me. How lucky am I?
"We have to make up for all the kissing we missed," Regina said.
"I'm all for that, but can I just…" Emma pulled the last piece of meat from the kabob, put it down on the plate, chewed as quickly as she could, and grinned as she swallowed.
Regina smiled and shook her head. "You're so… you." She ran her fingers through Emma's hair.
"And you love me for it." Emma slid her hands under Regina's shirt. The feel of soft skin was enough to short circuit her brain. How could I not know?
"I really do love you. Now, we have kissing to catch up on."
"I like the sound of that. As long as you don't mind the chicken taste—" Emma did not get to finish that thought as Regina leaned in to kiss her, both to shut her up and show her affection. She would take it. They really did have a lot of kissing to catch up on.
-8-8-8-8-
The End.
I hope you enjoyed the story. I would like to thank my beta again, Helpbutton95. Come say hi to me on Facebook or Tumblr. Back to my padded cell with me. I'll be back soon. There is artwork for this over at Ao3!