Disclaimer in Chapter One.
Henry paced the room, wracking his brain on what to do. Killian was standing guard outside his room, so it wasn't like he could just sneak out. The Genie had said the answers would come to him when he was ready, and he was more than ready to get out of this place. Medieval days seemed awesome in books when he was reading about knights saving princesses and fighting dragons, but the pot in the corner that told him that was the emergency night time toilet wasn't looking too awesome to him.
The Genie lingered in the mirror as he muttered to himself, never adding to his self-musings or saying whether he was on the right track or not. The floating head simply remained there, watching his every move.
This is like a problem solving equation, he told himself. Mom had always helped him with those when his math homework was just a little bit too tricky. Ma said just to use a calculator. He had neither his mom nor a calculator, so what did he know?
His moms hated each other in this world. That fact made him frown. What else? Emma could wield a sword and Regina had magic, that was a cool one. Come to think of it when Regina used magic to fling Killian from the room, remnants of purple smoke followed his trail. He hadn't noticed it then, too preoccupied with the sickening thud the man had made when his body hit the concrete seconds before the doors flung closed, but it was there.
Just like it was there when his Mom was reading that weird book.
He shook his head. Could that have been magic, even in their world? He was ten and even he knew that even though the thought of a real life Hogwarts was really, really cool, there wasn't any magic in their world. Let alone, embedded in a book.
His head shot up and he turned to face the Genie sharply.
"The book!" He cried.
The Genie raised his eyebrows in intrigue though his expression remained stoic.
"There was a book that Mom was looking at right before she collapsed," he explained, rushing to the table and clutching at its edges. "That book was old and weird looking. It had all these symbols all over it, but there was this purple smoke just like the magic. Could that be it?"
Henry's heart raced as the words poured out of him. That had to be it. What other explanation could there be? Magic book. Spell. They wake up here. It all made sense.
The Genie held his wild gaze, giving off no indication whether he was right or wrong. Until he smiled.
Henry threw a fist in the air. "I knew it!"
He rushed to the door and had his hand on the handle before he paused and turned back to the mirror. "Erm, you wouldn't happen to know where it is, would you?"
"The Queen possesses many books," the Genie informed.
Henry rolled his eyes. "How are you supposed to be a helpful Magic Mirror when you don't give straight answers?"
The man in the mirror grinned. "Your mother wonders the same."
Voices came through the large doors, and Henry could hear Regina's voice, ordering Killian away. Before he could shoot back, the doors opened and Regina stepped back in wth a black knight in tow. Their visor was down and their stance was intimidating as they backed up Regina who was already pretty frightening, even in Henry's world.
"Mom," Henry rushed forward. "I need your help-"
Regina held up a hand and the boy slowed his step. She waved another hand over the knight, the same purple mist clouding the guard as it did his mother in her study, and before his eyes, Henry saw Emma again. She was bruised, but the glare on her face directed to Regina was all Emma.
"Did you have to mute me too?" The blonde hissed though Regina paid her no mind.
"Mama!" He ran this time, not giving either women time to process his approach before he engulfed them both around the waist.
He didn't see the way they glanced at each other, neither knowing what to do about the child around their waist. Henry just buried his face between them, breathing in their familiar scent and feel. In any world, Mom would always smell like jasmine and Ma would always smell like cinnamon.
It was Emma who shimmied out of his grasp first, and as soon as they were separated, Regina took calculated steps away from the blonde and their alleged son.
"Kid," Emma began, dropping down to one knee. "We need to talk."
"We need to get out of here," he insisted. "I figured it out-"
"You," Regina's voice dropped to a low threatening timbre. Henry didn't flinch and Emma rolled her eyes. "Need to tell us where you came from and why exactly you think this filth and I are your mothers."
Emma turned to swiftly glare at Regina, and the brunette cocked an eyebrow daring her to question it.
"Because you are," he said again.
"Prove it." Regina waved her hand in the air as if expecting some show before she waltzed to the chaise in front of the fireplace and sat.
Henry gawked. "How? You don't have any of my memories."
"Figure it out," the Queen demanded.
Emma stood and huffed coming to stand behind Regina's chaise. She didn't sit, and Henry wondered how exactly they knew each other in this world.
He crossed his arms and glared at his mothers. When he got home, he was going to give them a piece of his mind. He'd take twice as long to get ready for bed and not put his shoes away. That'll show them.
The two women gazed at him expectantly. They really wanted him to prove it. It wasn't even like he had their eyes or the same DNA. He was just theirs and that was always enough. Feeling at a loss of what to do, he slowly uncrossed his arms, letting them dangle to his side, and started to hum.
The same bars Regina used to sing for him to fall asleep sounded softly in the air. Regina faltered, and Emma smirked just a little bit.
Before he could get to the second verse, Regina held up a hand for him to stop. "That doesn't prove anything."
"You named me after Abuelo Henry," the boy stated with a determined step forward. "He died in our world when I was four. Is-is he still here?"
Emma looked down solemnly at the Queen, and when Regina's stoic expression remained fixed on the boy, the Saviour answered. "No."
Henry frowned but took another step forward. "He ran the stables in our world, and you had a horse named Rocinante. You used to take me riding on him. He's older now, and I've been asking for a horse for years. You say I'm too little. Ma says you're just scared to let me ride on my own."
"He got you there," Emma muttered amusedly to Regina, nudging her shoulder though she remained impassive.
Henry turned to Emma then. "You wanted to adopt because you never got the chance to be taken in by a family when you were younger, and you didn't want any other kid to go through what you did. Do you have a family here?"
The blonde's smirk turned into a frown.
"You used to tell me that the first family you ever had was the only one you ever needed, and that's when you met Mom." Henry knit his eyebrows as pieces started to fall in place. "I-I think you wanted to be something. Mom said you wanted to be a cop, and she didn't want to stand in front of your dream. But that's it, isn't it? You tried doing the saviour thing even in my world, but Mom meant more to you so you followed her back to Maine."
"What are you talking about, kid?" Emma asked shifting uncomfortably.
Regina shook her head. "How did you get to our land?"
"The book," Henry said excitedly. "There was a book with weird symbols and you were reading it and there was purple smoke!"
Emma nudged Regina. "It sounds like the kid's been sniffing one of your magic books."
Regina dismissed her wth a wave of her hand. "My books are kept locked away in my library."
"Really?" The blonde scoffed. "Because one time you left one out and I ended up turning into a cockroach."
Regina levelled her with a knowing smirk. "And how do you know I wasn't just turning you into a cockroach?"
"Can I see it?" Henry piped up.
"No!"
Henry faltered as both women yelled out. It shook him because how many times had his mothers teamed up together, and here they were, in a land where they supposedly hated each other doing the exact same thing. Regardless of what world he was in, he was still their petulant and insistent child.
"But what if it's the key to getting home!" He stomped his foot imploringly.
"This," Regina said, rising from the chaise, "is my home. I have worked hard to bring this realm to peace, and I'll be damned if some child is here to take it away."
"Regina," Emma frowned. "He's just a kid."
Despite the Queen's outburst, Henry held himself tall, his chin sticking out, and his chest puffed. "I'm your kid. And you taught me to stick up for what I believe in. You both did."
He took a step closer and made sure he had their attention. Their eyes never left his. "And I believe in you."
He turned on the spot and headed towards the door, calling over his shoulder. "If I have to find this library by myself to get us all home then I will."
The door slammed shut behind him as the two women were left standing dumbfounded in the room. It was Emma who broke the silence first with her amused snickering. Regina turned to squint confusedly at her reaction.
"Does your son amuse you?" She questioned.
"My son?" Emma laughed. "Did you see that glare? It was like looking at a picture of you."
Regina rolled her eyes but didn't argue as she led the way out of the room lest Henry find himself in trouble he couldn't get out of.
Regina internally groaned. Never externally, not when she was taught that Princesses and Queens never show their frustration. Though there were many a night with the blonde inside her where she couldn't control stifling any groans or moans or any other obscene noises. But those were the days of the past, and right now, she was reminded that no matter how difficult it was to find one spell book in a room full of thousands, she was not allowed to show her annoyance.
Henry and Emma, however, had no problems voicing their aggravation.
"What's it look like again, kid?" Emma asked slamming a book shut.
"It's this big," Henry answered holding up his hands that gave no real visual cue. All they knew was that it was bigger than the size of his palm. "And it's brown."
Regina cocked an eyebrow at all the books on the tables and lining the shelves. They were all brown.
"And the cover had weird symbols on it. With swirls," he continued. Stealing a feather and ink from the desk, he drew a spiral on a blank piece of parchment and held it up.
"That's simply a caution sign. A warning for the reader to beware of the contents of the page." She picked up a book at random and sure enough, it had that symbol. "All magic books possess that symbol."
"So we know nothing," Emma surmised.
"I'll know it when I see it," Henry promised. He moved to another shelf on the far wall and plucked an armload of books into his arms before bringing them to the table in the centre of the room.
Regina winced. Emma snickered. It was going to take the Queen ages to reorganize her books.
She was grateful she had ordered her guards away for the evening. Usually she walked with a personal guard, especially since Snow's release, but she figured hiding Henry and Emma away from her staff was the best course of action. When both the boy and the blonde grew hungry an hour later, their stomachs growling in tangent, Regina softly rolled her eyes at how similar they were but produced a fruit platter with cured meats regardless.
Every so often she would glance at the boy who called himself her son. Their son, really. Their son named after her father, and whose nose twitched like hers and who frowned like the blonde beside her. Perhaps in the other world he claimed to be from, Emma had given them a child.
The idea of Emma swollen with a baby made her breath falter.
The blonde in question looked to her with a raised eyebrow, but Regina continued searching for whatever book Henry thought he could find. It was probably a delirium potion that he had taken. She wouldn't put it past Snow White to drug a child in order to use him as intelligence. Gain access to the Queen and her best Knight, and Snow would surely have an in with the kingdom. But Henry had information on them no one else in the whole realm would know, so she had to wonder...
She glanced at the child who used his fingers to pick up a piece of meat, gobbling it up in his mouth, then moved to pick up a book. Before he made contact, she tsked. "Wipe your hands."
His hand hovered over the book before he dropped it down to his lap and used the end of his shirt to wipe.
Regina sighed. "There are handkerchiefs by the platter."
"But they're already clean." He held up his hand as evidence.
Regina glared at Emma. "How do you doubt he's your son when he acts just like you?"
The blonde ignored her and swung her feet up onto the table with a small pile of books in her lap. She looked to Henry with a knowing grin. "I'm the nice one, aren't I?"
Henry looked between both women as if he was scared to confirm or deny her statement. Regina folded her arms. Why wouldn't she be the nice one?
"Well, you do really dumb things sometimes," Henry said by way of answer. "Like sometimes you'll come home really late and not tell Mom you had to go to the hospital-it's a place where lots are healers work."
Regina scoffed and looked to the blonde. "That's like that time you scratched your chest in a practice duel and refused to let a healer look at you for two days."
"It was a scratch," Emma argued.
Henry frowned. "You said that in my world too."
"Then I like the Emma in your world," she stated, dropping a book onto the table and picking up a new one.
"Yeah, you guys are the same pretty much," Henry mused aloud to himself. "The Emma in my world is also crazy about Regina too."
This time Regina was the one to smirk. "Some things never change."
"I'm not crazy about you." Emma argued, feet planting to the floor.
"Sure, dear."
The trio continued to spend the rest of the day and night scouring through hundreds and hundreds of spell books. Henry had managed to narrow it down to the size and shade of brown the book was, and when both women understood and were able to bypass the more grandeur-looking styles, their search hastened.
Not by much though.
After a dinner of roast swan, which Regina presented with a wicked glee to her eye, their search began to wane as the hour grew later. Henry knocked out with his head on the table, and Regina magicked a table to transform into a small bed so that Emma could lay his body on something more comfortable. They briefly wondered if they should pause their hunt since Henry was sleeping, but they silently continued on.
It was for the best, Regina had whispered into the quiet of the room with only the sound of Henry snoring and the crackling of the hearth to keep them company. The less guards saw of Emma, the better. It wasn't because this was the longest she had been in Emma's presence in the last two years, and she found it comfortable. That wasn't it at all.
When it past midnight and the fire died down to a warm glow, the light from the magically lit candles was the only thing lighting the room. Regina had a small pile of books in one corner, seemingly fitting the description Henry had so vaguely given. Emma's pile was bigger, less strict with her rules of what qualified as the magic book Henry had seen. The blonde yawned as she flipped through a book's pages, deemed it unreadable and tossed it to her pile of possible books.
With a heavy sigh, Regina stood from her spot, aware of how Emma's eyes followed her despite trying to remain subtle. Subtlety was never the blonde's strong suit. For such a great warrior, Emma was pointedly clumsy. If she hadn't overseen Emma during her early days of training, sparring with Captains and men twice her size, she would have assumed the young woman nothing more than a lady's maid. But Emma was a warrior, her movements were controlled, powerful, direct. Regina knew first hand of that. She shut her eyes. The late hour was taking its toll on her.
With a wave of her hand, purple magic surrounded her. Gone was her blood red dress and beehive up do. Her makeup was even washed free. Emma gawked openly now at the way that Regina's long hair was braided over a shoulder and how she donned a simple white dressing gown. Despite the more innocent look, the Queen crossed her arms over her chest with a raised eyebrow.
"It's late," she said by way of explanation.
Emma nodded mutely. "I know. I just-I miss it."
Regina took her seat once more and sat primly in the chair. She reached for another book. "Miss what?"
"Us."
The word hung heavily in the air. Regina's eyes glanced up from the book and met Emma's sheepish gaze. For such confidence, the blonde was suddenly shy as she moved her eyes from Regina down to the book at hand.
"That was a long time ago." Regina stated pointedly at her book though even she knew her eyes were unseeing.
"We were together longer than we weren't."
The Queen's eyes flashed meeting bright green ones. "It was still the past."
Emma leaned forward then, reaching her hand over the table but not grabbing for Regina. "You don't miss it?"
The brunette ignored her and made it a point to turn the page. As diplomatic as Regina was, her stubbornness could cause a war, or extend it, rather.
Did she miss Emma? Her fingers shook with each turning page as she silently scolded herself. How could she when the one person she ever loved had broken her trust? Emma should have followed orders and killed Snow White. Instead, she showed herself to be a traitor to the Queen in front of both kingdoms.
Yet, Regina missed her.
Being this close to her, this familiar, with a son-she slammed the book shut and set it back in the pile she had taken it from. Wisps of magic basked off the page. Luckily it was nothing more than its scent or Regina would be growing a pig's nose.
There was a thought.
If a book had somehow landed in Henry's world and her counterpart had inadvertently activated a spell, then that was one explanation for how Henry got here. But what of them? They couldn't possibly be from the world the boy spoke of. They had memories here. Regina remembered her parents and her upbringing. She and Emma had history together that was far more detailed than a simple memory spell. What they had was real.
She rolled her eyes at that. Was being the operative word.
Whatever the Emma and Regina in Henry's world did, they were together, in love, with a child. That was all Regina ever wanted. She may have a Kingdom who revered her as their Queen, but marrying the crown wasn't enough for her. In another life perhaps. She laughed to herself. Well, in another life it was absolutely certain.
"What?" Emma spoke up. The brunette snapped her eyes back to the blonde, realizing she hadn't been getting much done searching for the book.
She picked up another one. "What?"
"You have that look on your face."
"That is what I look like, Saviour," she drawled flipping to a random page.
"No." Emma stood and scooted her chair closer to Regina's, ducking her head to inspect the brunette thoroughly. "What's on your mind?"
Regina shut her eyes and debated sending Emma back to the dungeons for insubordination, but there was something about the blonde that put her at ease. There always was. She sighed and whispered in wonder. "In another world, he's our son."
"Yeah," Emma answered with just as much awe. "He is."
They both looked at the snoring boy fondly.
"He gets his manners from you," Regina said pointedly.
The blonde laughed. "I wonder where he gets his temper from."
She stood and removed her leather vest, dropping it unceremoniously onto the table before them. Regina scowled, but the blonde ignored her. She continued to stretch out her limbs before the graze on her arm made her wince. Pulling the fabric of her shirt from the shoulder down to inspect it, she nodded seeing that it was healing well enough.
"You'll need a healer," Regina pointed out dryly.
"It's just a-"
"It's not a scratch." The Queen stood up then and made her way over to the blonde. She trapped Emma between herself and the table and made quick work with untying the strings holding the top of her shirt together. When they were loose enough, she tugged the sleeve down to fully expose the shoulder and most of Emma's collarbone. A garish green jagged wound stared back at her. "It'll get infected and you'll lose an arm."
"Do you care?" There was little malice in her words, and when Regina looked up, she caught Emma's face mere inches from her own, gazing intently for answers.
She didn't give one. Instead, she hovered a hand over the wound. "May I?"
With Emma's permission, she called forth her magic, purple mist circling a sun-kissed shoulder until the green jagged wound faded back to unblemished skin. "You'll live another day to cause a ruckus against my guard."
The blonde rolled her eyes and stretched out her shoulder, rolling it back several times before deeming it acceptable. Silently, both women returned to their seats and continued their search. Regina was determined to ignore the blonde for the rest of the evening, perhaps even retire for bed soon. The sharp intake of breath coming from the other woman in the room had her looking up.
Emma held a book in her hand, a deep bronzed purple with a brass lock over its pages. The lock was unclasped, and the spine was well worn, but when the blonde opened the book, the pages were blank save for a pressed orchid.
"You kept this?" Emma wondered, touching the dried flower within.
"It is mine," the Queen muttered, though she diverted her eyes and let her braid fall over her face to hide the red tinting her cheeks.
"Not your typical coronation day present." Emma closed the book and stood. Her hollow steps in the library seemed to boom against the dying crackle of the fire. They held each other's gaze for a long moment before she handed it over to Regina who took it and stared down at the cover.
"Other Knights gave me a badge of their honour and from you I received a book." There was no taunting in her words, just simple fact as she carefully placed the book down in front of her.
"And you kept it."
She dipped her head solemnly. "I kept it."
Wordlessly, the blonde dropped to one knee. Immediately the Queen recognized the sign of fealty, one Emma and the rest of her guard had sworn to her on the day of her coronation. Emma closed her right fist and placed it over her left breast, her gaze fixed on Regina's.
"Regina, I swear to you, daughter of the Eastern Kingdom, my loyalty." Regina's breath hitched, but the blonde's eyes never wavered. Even on the day of her coronation when Emma had repeated these same words to her, green eyes remained fixed on the newly crowned Queen. "I swear upon my life that every breath I take, every bead of sweat I shed, every beat of my heart shall be in your name as the one true Queen. For I know nothing except my loyalty and devotion to you."
Regina's face remained impassive though her brain was warring inside her. She had believed Emma when she said the words then, and she was so tempted to believe her now. Her shoulders sagged and she stared transfixed at her fingers in her lap.
"I should have you hanged for lying to the Queen's face," Regina finally murmured though there was no promise in her voice.
"It wasn't a lie," she begged, her eyes saying something that her tongue couldn't. Her hand dropped slowly from her chest to her knee.
"Then why wouldn't you kill Snow?" Regina questioned, her voice edging on a hiss.
"Are you mad that she's alive or are you mad that I didn't do it?" The blonde challenged.
"What does it matter? You've shown your true colours to the Kingdom."
Emma's head dropped, her chin pressed against her chest and her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. "Ask me why."
"What?"
The blonde lifted her head, steely determination set in green eyes. "Ask me why I let her go."
"Do not demand things of your Queen."
"I am demanding things of Regina, the woman who tried everything in her power to resist retaliation until our people became too hungry to fend for themselves."
"We are not your people," the Queen hissed.
Emma kept going. "It would have been so easy to give you Snow's head. It would have been easy to spill her blood on the castle steps. I made the best decision I could and-"
"And betraying me was the only thing you could do?" Regina stood up then, chest heaving and eyes ablaze.
The blonde rose to her feet, her palms up defensively and her eyes begging the woman before her for understanding. "If you killed Snow, this war would never end. Her resistance wouldn't have rested until it was your head they had on a pike."
"That's a decision I make as Queen."
"It was a stupid one." Brown eyes darkened and Emma was quick to explain. "You may be reckless with your life and say it's all in the name of the crown, but I refused to put you in harm's way more than you already are."
Emma took a cautious step forward and then another and another until she could feel the tension radiating off the brunette. Regina's arms were crossed over her chest and her eyes were near-black. A scowl was etched onto dusky pink lips, and Emma almost shut her eyes wanting to smooth it away to see that smile she had missed for so long.
Her palms rested on Regina's shoulders first, and when the Queen didn't shake her off, she let her hands drape down over her arms and untangled them from across her chest. Regina's hands in her own was a familiar weight. The brunette was always so smooth compared to the callouses on Emma's pale palms, and after living in the forest for two years, her hands only continued to get more rough. Still, Regina didn't move and kept her intense gaze on the blonde.
"You were already winning when we found Snow, Regina," Emma explained. "You won every battle, you gained the loyalty of half her kingdom. Killing her would have darkened your heart and put it in a place where it wouldn't come back from. I swore fealty to you long before the day you became Queen, and I promised to protect you in every way possible. This Kingdom needs you on the throne, not assassinated on the side of the road out of vengeance."
She dropped her hands then and let one catch around the brunette's waist. If Emma hadn't had been so close, she would have missed the way Regina's breath hitched at the contact. Slowly, she moved her free hand up to Regina's chin, thumb stroking her jaw line there as she stared intently at the scar over the older woman's lip. It had been the one and only assassination attempt that had left a mark on the Queen, and it was that attempt that set Emma's gears in motion.
Regina, however, was desperately trying to keep her eyes open, was willing her flesh not to pebble at the blonde woman's touch, but no matter how hard she had tried, her eyes slowly shut and her skin tingled in anticipation.
With ease she weaved their fingers together, squeezing reassuringly. "Regina."
The brunette looked, eyes snapping to their joined hands then moved to pleading green eyes.
"Let me come home."
A whimper escaped the Queen's lips, though if she had done it in anyone else's presence she would have denied it to the grave. Through little willpower of her own, Regina squeezed Emma's hand in return, and the blonde looked as if the simple gesture was like a drop of water in a desert.
Regina opened her mouth, brain still unaware of what her tongue wanted to say, until Henry moaned in his sleep and the spell that had washed over them broke long enough that Regina was able to pull back and clear her throat. Without so much as a second glance, Regina turned from the blonde and sat near Henry, making sure the boy remained sleeping.
The tension in the library ran high, and Henry couldn't figure out why. When he woke up that morning on yet another unfamiliar bed, he thought maybe this time it would be just a bad dream. Nope. He was still in crazy land with Tweeddle Dum and Tweedle Dummer as his moms. As long as they were saying he wasn't their son, he could call them whatever he wanted. He was thankful (and hopeful) that neither of them could read minds in this world. He'd be so grounded if they could.
Regina had magicked them another meal, breads and cheeses and fruits this time, and when Emma had asked Regina to pass a stem of grapes, his brunette mother pointedly ignored her. It was like that time he had broken his wrist all over again, and even in this world, he was scared for the fate of his mothers.
He knew better and decided to leave well enough alone, so they all searched through the library in silence. After seeing so many spell books, he didn't want to admit he was starting to forget what the one they were searching for was starting to look like. Already Regina was starting to put back the books they deemed a wrong fit back onto the shelves. There was a little tiff between Regina and Emma when the blonde didn't realize that was what she was doing and started bringing those books back. Luckily for them, when Henry climbed up onto a chair and reached for the highest shelf to see if they missed anything, his fingers felt the spine of a leather book.
He grinned.
"I found it!" He hopped off the chair and waved the book in the air like he had just found a golden ticket. "This is the book!"
They stood and moved around the table to see what he had found. Emma was the first to reach him, plucking the book from his fingers and inspecting it.
"It's in gibberish," she frowned.
"Elvish," Regina corrected and stole the book from Emma. She flipped through its pages, her eyebrows furrowed in contemplation. "It's a book of destiny."
"What does that mean?" Both Henry and Emma scrunched up their noses in similar confusion.
"These spells," Regina said flipping out its pages. Mists of purple flew from the book like dust. "They alter destiny. Gaining foresight, invoking lust, tipping chance—it helps a person to take control over their fate be it relationships or circumstance."
Regina hummed as she paused on a page with a tilt of her head. "And your mother must have used this one."
Henry rushed to her side and stood on his tippy toes to see into the book. All he saw were a bunch of squiggly lines like the warning sign on the front. Mimicking his blonde mother, he said, "It's gibberish."
Instead of rolling her eyes at Henry, Regina glared at Emma as if she was the sole reason why her apparent son took so much after her.
"Elvish," she gently corrected to the boy.
Emma moved over beside them as well and leaned over Regina's shoulder to inspect the book. "So give it a blow and see if it'll all go away."
"I can't." Regina skimmed her fingers across the page and showed them to the other two. Her fingers came away bare from the text. "The magic was already used."
"That can't possibly be the same book the kid saw in his world," Emma said.
"Regardless, the only thing left to do is let nature take its course with this spell." Her furrowed brow and steely gaze still locked on the page had Henry tilting his head.
"What does it mean?" He asked.
Regina took a breath before speaking quietly. "In every world, under every star, happiness shall not be too far."
"That's vague." Emma wrinkled her nose.
Henry smacked himself in the forehead as a light bulb went off in his head. "That's it! A happy ending!"
"Kid," Emma sighed. "This isn't a fairy tale."
He glared at them with a look that Regina was proud of. "You're a Knight of the Evil Queen fighting against Snow White." They looked at him like he had two heads. He huffed and muttered, "nevermind."
"What are you on about?" Emma crossed her arms over her chest.
It was his turn to look at them like they were some strange creature. "Don't you see why I was sent here? In every world, your happiness isn't too far. You guys aren't together in this world!"
Still, they looked at him like he was an alien.
He huffed and waved his hands towards them. "Kiss!"
"True Love's kiss?" Regina asked dryly.
"You have True Love's kiss here and you don't think this is a fairy tale?" Henry ground his teeth. "If you guys share True Love's kiss, we can all go home."
"Henry—"
The boy cut Regina off with a stomp of his foot. The Queen looked surprised, but Emma seemed to be holding back a chuckle. "No. All these days you two keep saying that you don't believe in this, and you look at me like I'm crazy. Just try. Just this once."
Regina sighed resignedly, and Emma shifted from foot to foot. Slowly they turned toward each other, and Henry could practically hear the silent communication his mothers were having. Humour him, no doubt, but there was something in their eyes that reminded him so much of how Ma would look over at Mom when they thought he wasn't looking.
"I suppose…" Regina began.
"It doesn't hurt," Emma finished.
Henry grinned then frowned. That same lovesick look came over their faces whenever they were about to kiss, and he knew, he just knew, that they didn't even know they were doing it.
Emma took a step forward, one hand hovering at Regina's waist and the other lingering by her chin. She never touched though, not when Regina wasn't a hundred percent receptive.
"Just a kiss and he'll go home," Regina clarified.
"Just a kiss," Emma agreed.
Regina took a step forward, and Emma's hands couldn't help but land where they were. Tentative fingers lightly lifted Regina's jaw upwards. Their gaze remained locked. The tension in the room heated and this time, it wasn't because the two women had argued to no end. No, the air in the room thinned as they stared hard at one another and the space between them dwindled.
Slowly, Emma ducked her head, tilting it to align with the slightly shorter woman. Henry wasn't sure who made the final step forward, Emma or Regina, but soon the space between them was gone and for once, he was glad to see his mothers kissing.
But nothing happened.
He scrunched up his brow, half-expecting this whole True Love's kiss thing to be instantaneous, but as they remained pressed against one another for another few seconds, the air around them just felt suffocating and uncomfortable.
The two women pulled back. Emma's eyes were half-shut and she looked a little dazed, but Regina didn't hold the same sentiment. Her frown had quickly replaced the quiet eagerness it had shown seconds earlier.
"Wait," Henry started confused. "Try again."
Emma was all too quick to step forward, but Regina held a hand to her chest and forcibly pushed her back. The Queen directed her frown to the boy, and Henry couldn't help but mimic it.
"Enough," she said with a hollow determination. "It didn't work."
"But it has to!" Henry cried. "You have to try again. You're the one who cast the spell. It has to be your happiness you find."
"I have all that I need."
"That's a lie!"
Regina held up a hand and instantly a fireball erupted from her palm. Henry paused. For the first time in all his days here, he was worried that Regina would use it on him.
"We can try again—" Emma jumped in.
"Why?" Regina scoffed, turning a threatening glare to Emma. "Because you think you're my True Love? I am done with you, traitor, and I done with this ruse. Take your love child and get out of my Kingdom."