Disclaimers : Still in the first chapter if no one stole them...Don't own anything or anyone, no dwarves, characters or dragons.

Author's note: Just in case anyone cares/ wonders or noticed I use both "Lilith" and "Lilly" when referring to Maleficent's daughter. Maleficent always refers to her daughter as "Lilith" since it was the name she had chosen for her and how she "sees" her. Regina refers to her as "Lilith" when speaking with Mal but will refer to her as "Lilly" with other characters specially with Emma since its "who" Emma knew her as.

Author's (not so serious) note: Mushu to the rescue! Also, a word of advice from Cora: never trust a negligee to be left unguarded

A Happy end for a Dragon

It was a lovely Saturday, Regina had decided to tend to her beautiful garden, after tending to her beloved tree, which held precedence over all other plants and most humans, of course. She was debating herself with a particularly tenacious weed when she heard her mother shout "Stop that negligee!". She turned in time to see her mother chasing after a garment that flew sexily suspended in the air.

Regina weighed her options, she could help stop it...but were would be the fun in that? This was way more entertaining. She even saw the exact moment Cora calmed enough to remind herself she had magic, come to a screeching halt and stop the flying garment.

Regina just quirked her eyebrow at her mother "Somethings just can't wait to get out of the closet.." , "Oh ,you would know dear" Cora chided then just promptly summarized "Polyester does not work with mermaid scales" Regina just huffed "Polyester does not work with anything".

Ruby was at home, thankfully she had gotten saturday morning off.

Granny and her had spent the night running as wolves to prepare for the elder Lucas first Wolfstime in ages. Her grandmother was so happy and exhilarated she had given her the morning off. That meant she could spend wonderful, lazy morning in bed with Belle.

She had just logged on her laptop to check her e-mail when she saw a notification from the online store. Her eyes bulged out at the number of pre-orders! She had to tell Cora and Regina.

"What's up Wolfie?" Belle said re-entering the bedroom clad in nothing but a t-shirt and panties... Well, delivering the news to the witches could wait. They were used to being rich anyway. She noticed another message in her inbox "Oh you know? Zelena will be coming to visit next week" Belle looked menacingly to Ruby "As long as she's the only visit from Floozy-ville" Red smiled "You are never going to let that go are you?" Belle smiled evilly "Oh Wolfie.. Never!"

Emma entered the dinner with Henry to meet with her parents for coffee and to catch up. Henry spotted Mal and rushed over. Maleficent was as usual with her daughter, who sat sulking. Nothing new there... Apparently, the absence of Regina made the young dragon confident enough to have a go at Henry. "Hey I thought Mulan had trespassed her rat, have you lost it o something?"

Henry raised an eyebrow, much like his mother, making both Emma and Mal smile and then blush quickly when their eyes met.

"He is an ancestor" he said pointedly "And he is with Mulan today" that seemed to make Lily even more upset "Whatever. Useless thing", Henry didn't like her tone "He is not useless, he is a dragon!" , "There are rats bigger than that! Of course he is useless!", "He is not!", "Is too!" It went on for a while, until Mal and Emma exchanged a Regina-doesn't-really-need-to-know look and they both redirected their respective offspring, Henry to go greet Snow who had just arrived, and Lily to go pay the tab.

The older dragon caught Emma's strange look directed at Lily and explained "Dragons live a very long life, so they take longer to mature... That is why, at the moment, it may feel like your age difference is bigger than it once was." Emma smiled at Mal "Its weird. And this coming from someone who is as old as her own parents..." they shared a smile and the sheriff continued "I knew her so long ago. So much has changed, and yet sometimes she acts like she is closer in age to Henry" Mal nodded "Adolescence last much longer in dragons, and it is complicated for shape-shifters, they remain more immature than expected".

She saw the glint in Emma's eyes and added "Yes maybe that's why we are almost extinct", Emma laughed "I believe you are improving your jokes!", "Careful darling" Mal warned with no malice whatsoever.

Emma took the opportunity to ask before joining her parents "She seems to have some problem with Mulan... She is giving her a really hard time" Maleficent hadn't noticed anything, with so much work to do lately and other concerns regarding her daughter "I can't say I noticed, but I apologize. She is having a hard time dealing with her own inner dragon, which is expected for someone who is learning for the first time so late, but I believe she takes it personally".

They bid their goodbyes as Lily returned to the table and Emma went to sit with her parents and son.

After they left the dinner, Snow took a deep breath and David seemed to get automatically uncomfortable. "Emma I was wondering if you and Regina.." before she could even finish Charming bid a quick goodbye "Honey loved to see you, outside of work I mean, I have to go back to the station and wrap up my shift" and bolted away.

Emma though this couldn't be good and took a deep breath of her own, "Well what I was going to ask was..." Snow effortlessly picked up her momentum, "Now that everything seems to have settled down for a while now, have you and Regina considered having more kids?" , "What the hell?!" was all Emma could say, Snow sighed "You know? Your father was sure, you would say something like that." Where was a drunk Leroy to act as a distraction when you needed him...

At the society Mal was teaching her daughter, Henry sat with Mushu away from the main training arena, since Lilly was not an easy dragon and it would be dangerous. However, Mal wanted him to see how difficult creatures could be, and well, her daughter was a fine example.

The transformation was smooth enough, with Lilly turning quite quickly, but it was easy to see that moving around in such a large body wasn't even near flawless, specially flight. It reminded Henry of a chicken, but he held back his laughter, just because Lily was a bit of a bully didn't mean he had to be.

Mushu sat beside him sipping soda and keeping mostly to himself "See why bigger ain't always better kid?" Henry just nodded his agreement.

Then came breathing fire which Lily simply couldn't do "Lilith focus" Maleficent said patiently and the dragon huffed and grunted something that had Mushu tsking and the older dragon warning "Careful darling, just because I am your mother, it doesn't mean that my patience is limitless".

Lily saw Mushu and Henry watching, she hated practicing with an audience and Mal had indulged her so far. It upset her that they were seeing her fail. There was a little smoke coming out of her nostrils at the thought. It was the most she had ever managed to do so far.

Suddenly an idea came to Mushu "Hold my drink kid" and before Henry could say anything the small dragon had sprinted off straight into the training arena. He yelled loudly to Lilly "Hey! Look at the almighty dragon! Can't even light a match" producing a small flame of his own.

The dragon screamed and turned to chase him, but he was too small and quick, even an experienced large dragon would have trouble catching up. He seemed to be everywhere at once "Need some help from the Fire Rat?" He cooed summoning effortlessly yet another flame.

Lilly was livid! She looked at him and just wanted him gone! She wanted him to burn! At the thought she breathed out her very first flame, without even noticing. Mushu dodged it quickly running around like a noisy little target. He did it once or twice again, just until the young dragon was tired, then hopped on her nose teasingly "You did it kid! Congratulations!" loving the perplexed look on the other dragon.

He jumped beside Maleficent. "You are indeed a very brave dragon. If not a bit reckless" she said, Mushu just smiled "Oh I have experience with teenagers" he winked, Mal smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek "Be as it may, thank you". She went to approach her daughter who had turned back to human form.

Mushu hopped on Henry's shoulder saying dreamily "Lets go kid , our work here is done," Henry just smiled and rolled his eyes.

Maleficent had just finished speaking to her daughter, congratulating her on finally making fire, and telling to go inside and get something to sooth her throat, she would need it before her human form got used to the fire.

She was just finishing tidying the arena up for the next lesson, when a chirp and a puff of smoke alerted her she was not alone "Dr Hopper how do you do? I hadn't seen you" the man looked sheepishly at her "I am sorry to intrude. My form is not very noticeable" there was a small awkward silence before he continued "Sometimes things can be overwhelming... Specially while reconnecting relationships," the look on Mal's face wasn't enough to deter him "if Lily wants to, I could talk to her. And to you of course, in my professional capacity or just as a friend" the soft blush on his cheeks suggested that ,maybe, he might enjoy being more than friends, but he was too much of a gentleman to broach the subject.

Mal gave him a soft smile "Thank you doctor. I won't make any promises but I will take your offer into consideration" , he smiled kindly to her "Take as long as you need" and something in his demeanor told Mal that he actually meant it.