Regina's eyes regretfully opened to the still unflattering accumulated murky sky of the night. She found it quite troublesome how most of her thoughts tended to marvel upon the surface of the night. Everything easily spurting out of her mind with no control whatsoever to stop it.
This wouldn't be the first time she had awoken from her slumber because of a myriad amount of speculation. She had awoken time and time again when she first had Henry, constantly wondering what the dark one wanted from her.
She learned to live with it, the everlasting impending uneasiness. She learned to cope with it for her son, her boy, her little prince. Though he wasn't from her bloodline he was her only true family and she couldn't possibly imagine a life without him after she had spent more than an entire decade raising him.
Sure, at first being with him caused her so much pain and sorrow, but things change so dexterously over time, she would know from the way her feelings for Daniel had changed drastically. She finally understood the true meaning behind the cite "there's a fine line between love and hate."
It can go either way when it comes to love and hate. One can love so much to the point where they hate that they love so much, just as much as one can hate deeply only to repress the love they truly feel.
Don't give in to your love, they told her, to avoid any sign of weakness, they reasoned. That's what her mother had told her, what she had raised her on. She told her love was weakness, but Regina knew better. Love isn't weakness, it's the fear of falling in it that is. Regina was no weak fool.
The queen sighed, rising from her bed, knowing that any likelihood of dormancy would be too far from reach for her. She wore a pair of pumps and a soft, thin shawl draped around her body to keep it warm.
She left her room and took soft steps around the castle, careful not to wake anyone. She walked till she arrived in her garden, the flowers gleaming from the reflection of the fading moon.
She let her fingers brush over the tenderness they offered, the wind fanning the flowers and her shawl. She wrapped her arms tighter around her chest to hold down her tumbling coat, her loose hair flying to her face. She walked away from her garden, taking a simple stroll around the castle's front yard.
She led herself to the stables; it had been forever since she had felt the rush of being on a horse, or its skin for that matter. She craved the delicacy it submitted, the exhilaration it transmitted. The simple joy it permitted.
She explored the exquisite stallions that preoccupied the stable. She recognized each horse, knowing their names by heart, and she lifted her arm to pet each one.
"Alaska." She whispered as she rubbed the top of the black stallion's head. She moved to the next horse, her brown fur just as alluring.
"Delilah." She whispered to the brown stallion, the horse excreting a sound of pleasure, causing the queen to giggle. She moved to the next horse.
"Excalibur." This horse was a darker shade of brown. She played with it some more but was taken aback when she noticed a white stallion she had never noticed before. She walked up to it.
"I've never seen you before." She whispered softly with a smile as she reached her hand up to touch the white horse she had never seen before. The horse eased into her touch easily. She smiled as the horse rubbed its head against her soft hand.
She'd been so engulfed with the horse that she hadn't noticed someone standing behind her, carrying a few stacks of hay. The knight gently placed the hay down, smiling at the view she caught herself looking at.
Here before her stood the queen in her night gown, her hair set loose, falling freely till her mid back, a cloak covering her torso.The queen in her utmost modest state looked breath taking. The knight had lost her own voice for a second as she saw the queen play ever so gently with her trusty stallion.
She walked to the queen, placing her hand gently over the queen's hand, which lay over the horses. She stood mere inches apart from the queen. She felt the queen's hand stiffen the slightest bit before she spoke.
"She likes you." The knight whispered in awe. Her stallion rarely accepted any touch from strangers, yet the queen had managed to have it ease into her touch in a matter of seconds. This was yet another thing that impressed the knight.
After a few seconds of their hands lingering over each other, fingers to fingers, wrist to wrist on the stallion's head, a chilling madness driving into the pit of the queen's stomach, the queen slipped her hand free as she took a flustered step back to look at the knight.
"Is she yours?" The queen asked, once again placing her hand on the gelding, this time on its back, trying with all her might to avoid making eye contact with the knight. Emma smiled at the flustered queen.
"Yes." Emma said as the horse made another sound of pleasure, plastering a bigger smile on the queen's ever so beautiful face.
"What's her name?" the queen finally asked, looking at the knight that had had her eyes on Regina since forever.
"Aphrodite." Emma smiled as the queen smiled at her, then soon whispered the name as she pet the stallion once again.
"She's beautiful." The queen whispered.
Not as beautiful as you.
The knight thought to herself as she found herself gawking endlessly at the alluring sight of the queen and her fascinating simplicity.
"Would you like to ride her?" Emma asked. The queen looked at the knight in astonishment. The agitated queen took a step back.
"I shouldn't." She shook her head. The knight frowned looking at the suddenly saddened expression of the queen. "I haven't ridden in years." The knight could hear the faint expression of pain behind the sorrowed whisper of the queen.
"I could teach you." The knight took a step towards the queen, about to reach for her hand, but the queen immediately crossed her arms over her chest, closing off the knight.
Not again, I can't let her in like I did Daniel.
"No, you are here for Henry, not me." The queen simply stated, as she sucked in a deep breath, fixing her posture.
"I'm sure the boy would not mind. Besides, he's asleep." The knight tried to reason with the queen, she even left a slight smile on her lips to comfort the queen, but again the queen shook her head slightly.
"Thank you for the offer, but I mustn't. I should head back to sleep myself. I wish you a good night, Ser Swan." The queen hastily said as she left towards her castle in a rush, leaving the knight in the most utterly confused state.
The knight watched as the queen disappeared, wondering what could have made the queen close off from her so easily. Her mind was set to determine why. She would figure it out somehow. Emma could never hold back her curiosity, it was a bad habit.
Henry woke a few minutes before sunrise, he was all ready and dressed for his training session today. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed heavily, tidying the edge of his clothes and pulling down at his shirt.
"Focus, Henry. No distractions." He pointed at himself with determined eyes and finally left his room to head to the stables, but was stopped by his mother who stood by the castle gates.
"Morning, mother." He smiled at his mother, who smiled back. His mother, unlike last night, completely dressed in a queen's attire. She pushed back his messy hair.
"Henry, dear, must you always look rushed?" She commented on his un-neat appearance. The boy chuckled.
"I amalways rushed, mom." The boy states with a smirk, but looked out at the gates to see the knight about to arrive at the stables before him. "I should hurry." He quickly kissed his mother's forehead before he dashed to the stables. The queen kept a keen eye on the boy before the knight turned around, their eyes interlocking from a distance, causing the queen to stumble and dash off herself.
The knight sighed at the queen's actions and replaced her slight misery with her tough exterior as she looked at the breathless boy.
"You're late, Henry." The knight looked into his eyes with a slight hint of anger.
"I ran into my mother." He spoke between breaths.
"And what if there was a war going on and your best warrior was stabbed with a knife because you were a second late?" The knight began raising her voice as she turned around on him. "What would you say then?" She walked up to his face. "Would you tell him that you ran into your mother?!" The knight raised her voice to its highest volume. The boy straightened his posture.
"No ma'am!" he answered back with the same level of volume. The knight smirked. The boy was gaining confidence.
"Good." The knight said, backing away from his face. "We will work on your strength and body today. Any skilled warrior needs to be stronger than the average strength of three men." She said as she kept her arms behind her back. "To do that you are going to run up and down the hill, the stairs, and around the castle twice. No breaks. Once we've accomplished that I will have you pulling a cart filled with my desired amount of weight. Am I clear?" she questioned, looking at the fear oriented boy.
"Yes ma'am." His voice strained the slightest. The knight walked up to him.
"Am I clear?!" she yelled again, forcing the boy to gain his posture again.
"Yes ma'am!" he yelled back, his body already covered in slight drops of sweat.
"Let's begin then." She said, leading him to the hillside.
The queen felt quite lonely now that Henry was spending his time practicing and training with the knight. She didn't have much queenly duties to attend to so she found herself once more in her room with a book in her hands.
As much as she wanted to read her story she couldn't, her late night or early morning encounter with the knight kept replaying in her mind. And now this morning, that minor glance she caught from a distance drove her insanely delirious.
The queen put her finger on the page she had stopped at and looked out the window, the book resting on her chest. She stared out of the window watching her son dripping with sweat as he pulled a cart, the knight yelling into his ear.
The queen traced over her hand as her eyes landed on the knight. That moment when she felt the knight's pliable touch on her hand, the degree of gentleness in so much contrasts to the way she treated the young boy.
The queen couldn't quite register this knight into her head. Something about her made her question so many things. What was this knight's secret to driving her brain into thinking about her?
Regina stared out of the window and clutched her hand tight.
What is it about you I find so intriguing?
She questioned herself as her eyes darted towards the knight.
Henry had been dragging the cart across the castle for the past fifteen minutes; it felt like it weighed ten gallons and kept increasing as time passed, his pace slowing easily, the knight walking by his side.
"Faster!" She yelled at him. He tried his hardest, putting all of his strength into yanking the abundant heavy cart. He took long strides on the mud by the stables, his breath hitching, his clothes drenched with sweat. Every stride he took, his face clenched, his thighs drowned in agony.
Can't. Do. Any. More.
He thought as he barely moved his legs.
"I can't!" he yelled with all the energy he could muster up. The knight shook her head.
"Come on, Henry!" she raised her voice. "You can do this!" She encouraged him more.
"I can't! I can't!" He began to give up slowly as his feet tangled together, causing him to fall. He lost his grip on the cart, his balance hit the ground, he felt a crack in his ankle. It pained him. He groaned.
"Get up."
The boy looked up at her with pleading eyes.
"I think I cracked my ankle. I can't get up." He tried to push himself up.
"Get up, Henry!" she yelled into his face. "You want to be a knight?!" She questioned him.
"Yes." He said, his breathing calming slightly.
"Do you want to be a great king?!" she provoked him.
"Yes!" He yelled louder.
"Then get the fuck up!" She grabbed his arm, pulling him on his feet. He stood, pushing aside his pain.
"Pick up the cart and move faster." She demanded him. He looked at her, the anger in his face visible. He picked up the cart and pushed himself harder as he walked with the same speed as he did before.
"Faster!" She demanded, her face turning red from all her yelling, the vein on her forehead popping out. The boy tried to go faster, but he lacked the right motivation.
"I can't go any faster." The young prince spat out.
"Yes you can!" She said. The boy shook his head, moving slower.
"378." The blonde said, confusing the overly exhausted boy.
"What?" he questioned.
"I failed 378 days before I became the knight I am today." She said, the boy instantly remembering the talk they had had just the day before. "I fell 378 times before I rose. It took me a long time, it doesn't have to for you, so don't you dare tell me you can't one more time, because you can."
The boy was amazed by the knight's confession.
378 failed attempts but she didn't give up, she made it. She did it, which means so can I.
He told himself, pushing himself harder. He gripped the cart's handle harder and pulled it with more strength than he ever thought he could. He smiled to himself as he pulled it faster than he thought he could. The knight smirked.
He will definitely take much less than 378 failed attempts.
She thought as she watched the boy complete his final lap. The boy took his final step to the finish line and put the cart down. He looked at his reddened arms and smiled, turning his open arms into fists as he turned around to face the smiling knight.
"I did it!" He yelled, surprised at himself. "I did it!" he jumped in the air with excitement, then rushed to hug the knight. The knight struggled to keep her balance for a second, surprised by the sudden contact the boy had given her. He smiled against her cheek.
"I did it." He whispered. The knight's arms that were draped at his sides wrapped around the boy, who eased into her touch. "For once, I didn't fail." He whispered happily, mostly to himself. The knight found her lips erupting uncontrollably into a smile.
"Yes you did." She whispered, patting his back, proud of the boy.
Night had befallen the Enchanted Kingdom. Henry's excitement was keeping him up and about. He had spent the rest of the day helping the knight at the stables. He loved the stables just like his mother did.
The knight noticed his easiness towards the large animals. She watched the boy play with her stallion the same way the queen had this morning, making her relive the moment for a second.
"You love horses, don't you?" she asked the boy as she cleaned up the stable.
"Yeah I do. Up until I was 3 my father used to bring me here every day. He used to be a stable boy before he became king." He smiled, petting the horse.
"Does it run in the family?" she questioned, thinking back to her encounter with Regina.
"I guess you could say so." He started to scratch under the horse's neck.
"You said you used to." She spoke with interest, causing the boy to look at her. "Did something happen?"
"I'm sure you've heard of the stories about our kingdom."
"I did, but I don't necessarily believe anything I've been told unless it came from a trusted source. This is your kingdom, surely anything you say about it must be true." The knight took a seat on a stack of hay as the boy pet her stallion once more before walking to another horse.
"Something did happen." He said as sadness graced his face. "A lot of things of which hurt my mother." He looked at the brown horse sadly, avoiding any eye contact with the blonde, whose were filled with suspense.
"My father wasn't a faithful husband. Maybe a faithful king, but not a faithful husband. I was the result of an affair, and though I knew my presence hurt my mother, she never treated me unfairly, but my father treated her unfairly."
Why would he lay eyes on someone else? Regina was beautiful, I wouldn't have the nerve to look at anyone else if I were him. I wouldn't even want to.
"My mom, she can't… She can't conceive a child and my father needed a guarantee that no one would try to grab his kingdom from under his arms. So he met with the dark one."
"Rumplestiltskin." She whispered. The boy looked at her sadly.
"Yes, he had heard tales of his powerful magic. He told him he could not give him what he wanted, but he bred the idea for someone else to carry his child into his twisted brain. I know my father's intentions were for the good of the kingdom, but if I ever saw him I would never forgive him for what he did to my mother. Even if he gave me life, he threw away my mother's unconditional love, and that is the worst thing anyone could ever do to a human life." He spoke with anger etched in his voice.
"Do you know who your other mother is?" she questioned. The boy shook his head sadly.
"After my father's death during the ogre wars, my mother was drawn to the dark one. She wanted his magic to bring my fucked up father back, but she didn't know of his affair then. The dark one's magic had many limits, and bringing the dead back was one of them, so he offered her me to fill the empty hole she had in her heart. Before I was brought here, Rumplestiltskin made sure any memory I had of my other mother was gone, and when I was here I looked into my mother's eyes and felt the betrayal and loneliness that lingered, and I knew somehow that I was a slight cause of it." The boy had let a tear slip down his face as he spoke of his mother's pain.
"She didn't deserve it, you know." His voice cracked as a few more tears ran down his face. "She raised me like I was her own child, she loves me endlessly and I do her, but I'm not naïve enough to not know that she still feels an emptiness I can't fill, and I hate that I can't fill that." He rubbed his eyes, trying to dry away his tears.
The knight stood from her place and hugged the boy, letting him cry into her shoulder. It was evident on the boy's face that he felt responsible for his mother's pain.
I vow to fix this family if it is the last thing I do.
The knight told herself as she felt the boy's grip on her tighten and his tears thicken. They stood like that for quite some time.
Henry entered his mother's room, his body drained out. His mother was already lying in bed, the covers covering her body. She shifted once she heard slight steps.
"Henry?" she questioned the figure that stood before her bed. The prince smiled and climbed up onto his mother's bed after taking his shoes off. The queen could see the slight glimmer on the boy's cheek. She instantly jolted up.
"Henry, have you been crying?" she questioned him. The boy shook his head silently as he lay down, waiting for his mother to lay down as well before he talked. Regina hesitantly lay down facing her boy, who just clutched onto his mother, resting his head on her chest.
"I love you, mom." He whispered, his voice quivering slightly. His mother, shocked with worry, knew it would be best if she just asked him tomorrow, and for now just comforted him. She caressed his head and kissed his forehead.
"I love you too, Henry." She whispered, holding onto him for dear life.