This is before the winter finale. Lucy is not in the hospital. Regina is awake. Rumple is awake.
Prompt via gimadca: could you write a fic when Roni and Weaver are awake and they exchange gifts at Christmas?
I hope this works! :)
Christmas had been a holiday that Roni, no, Regina had learned to love long ago. Thanks to early morning wake up calls of ''Santa has been here!'. Henry had been the one and only person who could make her appreciate such a holiday during the hectic moments in her life when she feared she would be alone. This year, was different in many ways. Henry wouldn't be waking her up early morning calling to her about how Santa had visited in the night and she wouldn't be watching a beaming youthful face glance up at her as he ripped open wrapping paper and found exactly what he had wished for on his list.
"Lucy loved everything." Henry states, placing his hands on the bar. Even though he had no idea that Lucy was her granddaughter, he still had a smile on his face that allowed Regina to find comfort in the fact that she had indeed picked up on something the young girl had wanted. "Do you thin Jacinda liked the gift that I got her?"
"Of course, she did." Regina wanted to reach out and grasp his hand in hers, but she fought it with everything she had in her. Tonight wouldn't be the night she would try and keep these two apart. Even if she had purposefully removed ALL mistletoe from the premises — better safe than sorry. Hell would freeze over before she would be the cause of losing her son on a holiday. "But, I think it would be nice of you if you could...help Alice get home. She's had way too much eggnog and she's stumbling out of the door instead of walking." She watched as Henry fought the urge to not be a good person, to instead walk Jacinda home. Doing as he was taught, he chose the right thing and gave her a small smile before walking over to Jacinda, letting her know he would see her tomorrow and then heading in the direction of where Alice was stumbling.
"Thank you for doing this." Jacinda said as she tilted her head in the direction of her child who was currently poking at something Weaver was holding up and pretending not to understand. "I'm still not sure why the detective came or why Alice was here.."
"They were already drinking before you guys arrived." It had been the truth, they were talking at a booth in the back but when Lucy squealed from the first gift, they both slowly gravitated towards the happy commotion and then were practically pulling jokes out of their hats and enjoying the small festivities being had. "No idea why they joined in, but it's better than being alone on the holidays." That much was true, she could remember the moments she had spent alone all of her life during holidays. That being the sole purpose of keeping the bars doors open all day and until midnight, when the holiday would be over.
"Still, I am grateful. Thank you. We'll be heading home, I hope you had a good time too." Jacinda's hand reached for Regina's, giving it a squeeze before heading over to Lucy who still wasn't getting why Weaver seemed so stumped by something so simple. Both Mother and Daughter gathered up their things and headed out of the door, onto the street and bound for home.
Weaver stood and began gathering up the shreds of wrapping paper that had scattered in the gift opening frenzy. Regina gripped a bottle of whiskey, turned the lid and headed in the direction of her former mentor. "Thirsty?" Offering it to him, she watched as he balled the wrapping paper up, aimed for the trash bin and got it in on the first try. A smug smile tugged at his lips as he reached for the bottle and took it from the bartender, bringing it to his lips and taking a long swig. "Nice shot. But you missed one."
The detective turned in the direction in which she was nodding, bringing the bottle away from his mouth he noticed a wrapped gift beneath the tree with a decorative message scribbled on a tag. "You bought me a gift for Christmas?" He asked, brow cocked up high as he seemed to shift on his feet. "Here I thought, this bottle would be it." Holding up the scotch whisky, he gave it a swirl as a smirk tugged at the corners of his lips.
"Oh, I have three bottles over there ready to go. I know how much you seem to like it...now." The final word seemed to lost to the detective, she had meant it as a nod to the same exact brand he kept in the back of his pawn shop for years and yet now; he seemed to have a taste for it more often than back then. "...anyway. Open it." She knew he was awake and if anything would prove it, her second gift would. But the first would have to do for the time being.
Hesitantly, he lowered the bottle and placed it on a nearby table, then turned and walked towards the tree. Weaver knew she had something up her sleeve, something meant to shake him into telling her who he was and yet he couldn't quite allow himself that luxury, not yet. Reaching for the gift, he then stood and gave it a shake for good measure before plucking at the wrapping. "You shouldn't go through trouble to get me anything." His words were soft, yet devoid of any specific emotion as he sat down against the sofa and began looking through the bundle that had been tied together with a golden ribbon. He could comment on the small notion at whom he used to be, but he wouldn't, not yet. She had gifted him a very intricately bound leather notebook that would fit perfectly to hold case information in or hell, even tidbits he knew to have led him here. The second item was a pair of rich leather gloves, those he always needed. Third, a spool of golden thread with a key tied to the end. Glancing up, he cocked his head to the side in a silent question.
Regina angled her body just slightly then raised her arm, pointing in the direction of the keg room. Pushing himself onto his feet, he laid everything down on the couch apart from the spool and the key, then headed in the direction she had directed him. "Don't think you're out of the woods yet." He leaned near her as she sidled up beside him, shoulders brushing just slightly. "I have your gift in the car."
"You got me something?" Regina asked, completely taken aback.
"I did." He admitted, shooting her a once over before he thrust the key into the lock and turned it, hearing it click — he pushed it open. Regina reached past him and flicked on the light, his eyes falling on the contents before him. "What the—"
"I maxed out a few credit cards...but..." Her eyes were drinking in his reaction and as much as Rumplestiltskin could mask anything; he couldn't mask this. "..Merry Christmas, Rumple."
She had scattered straw on the floor along an antique spinning wheel. Of course, this land didn't have magic, but here a wheel sat and here he was itching to get his hands on it. His mind could really settle down when at the wheel, all thoughts and emotions could be worked out.. "Where did you?" He asked, bringing himself closer to get a good look at what was on the seat. Reaching down, he pulled the leather bound book up closer to himself, fingers flicking it open and eyes wandering over the Latin text. It was a fourteenth century Grimoire. "..this—"
"As it happens, this land might not have a lot of magic, but they still have these and they believe in them heavily, so.."
"If you're not home..." He began, recounting a moment when Regina had spent two weeks with him and felt homesick. She had found the line in a book and the next thing he knew, she had turned her chambers into something that resembled her bedchamber.
"..find it in the air around you, find it in the fabric of a woven carpet, find it in those you see."
"Regina.."
"Merry Christmas, Rumple."
"Merry Christmas." He turned to her then, his eyes giving away to his emotions as he closed the space between him and his apprentice, arms snaking around her waist and pulling her flush to himself. "You always find a way to shake me. Test me. Regardless of how many times you've failed, you still try and every so often — you succeed."
"As do you, with me. Though, you are more successful than not."
"Now my gift is a little off kilter. I had meant to make up some elaborate story about why I had chosen it in the first place, just to ruffle your feathers, but now—now you know." He had his reasons for why he hadn't told her in the first place, but maybe there were other means of convincing her to go and find her sister, to bring Zelena back here because they needed the entire team together, he ones who were fighting this fight long before the curse. "I'll be right back."
Regina walked over to the straw after he left and bent to pick up a piece, her fingers running along it as she had done years ago, back in his castle. Always curious about how he could turn it into gold, how he had taught her mother to do the same.
"Here we are.." He stated as he walked through the threshold, a wrapped gift in his hands as he gave her a soft smile that looked more like a smirk than anything. He had packed it all in a generously sized box and wrapped it the best he could, given it wasn't anything like those gifts on the films that they played late at night, but it was nice, paper tucked and taped where it should be, crisp smooth sides, a black bow wrapped around gold gift shiny paper. Their colors.
She accepted the gift from him and sat down on the floor, Weaver joining shortly after, then she began to unwrap it, fingers slipping beneath the paper and tugging in a manner that reminded her of how her Mother told her Queen's were supposed to unwrap gifts. With poise and a patience that knows no bounds. Once the paper was gone, she opened the box and peaked inside — a smile soon tugged at the corners of her lips as she ran her hands inside over two bottles of home brewed apple brandy, a couple of books that seemed to be about Snow White and the Evil Queen ( no doubt that would have gotten under her skin had he not given way to him being awake now), A few Asgard's that would indeed prove to be much better than the ones she had been using lately. Seeing as these resembled more of her style back in the enchanted forest. Pulling out the last two objects, she sat them on her lap. One was wrapped in a cloth as smooth as silk, golden and striking against the light in the room. She gripped the fabric with hesitant fingers and slid it off, the item coming into view.
A looking glass. Hand held and somewhat small. It resembled that of the mirror she had long ago, it reminded her of home. Of Storybrooke and of the place she had called the same back in The Enchanted Forest. It also reminded her of how far she had come just to be here, in this realm with no magic, and on the side of good. "Thank you." Laying it down against the silk cover, she moved onto the little golden box and slowly opened it, revealing a golden anklet with charms on it. Not really her style, but the charms warmed her heart like nothing else. They each represented parts of her life.
Reaching her hand towards it, she plucked it from it's box and held it up, examining it in the light as Weaver took her foot into his lap and began rolling up the fabric of her jeans nearest her right ankle, then he held his hand out. She handed it to him, not wanting to let the charms go but they would soon be on her ankle. Close to her. "There's one on there for my mother and my father." She stated, watching as he delicately clasped it. "And one for Henry. One for you. One for Hwin. One of Rocinante. Thank you. Thank you, Rumple. Truly."
"It should make you feel closer to home than you were before."
"Having you awake and on my side makes me closer to home. We have to find a way around the curse."
"And we will. I promise you."
When his hand closed around the anklet and her skin, she gave him a warm smile because he had never truly let her down in his promises and she was sure this time would be no different.