Second part of this little project that I started.
I plan on posting one chapter for each character, always short and sweet, nothing angsty.
Anyway, here's some regal drabble for you.
Hope you like it – please say hi to me if you do. I love to hear from you guys.
Love,
Nat'
.:.
Regina Mill is an active woman. She likes to move. To work, to go, to do.
Even if she is now, after Robin, learning to enjoy the quiet. Which is good right now, since she's being forced to stay on her bed by all the boys in the house.
"Honey", she says do Henry, who is refusing to leave her side. "You know I can help, right? I like to help."
"It's your birthday, mom." He says from his spot by her side on her bed. "You get to do nothing for a change."
Smiling at him, she caresses his face, loving that he cares enough to stay in bed with her as a guard.
"You can go see your friends, if you want. I won't mind", she tries.
"Don't worry." He says, smiling at her and turning the page of the book he was reading, apparently ending the discussion.
Sighing, Regina sat back against her pillows.
She loved the he wanted to be with her, share her birthday with her. She didn't love the fact that maybe he was doing it out of guilt, for all those times he said she wasn't his real mom, back when Emma drove that yellow bug into their lives. If someone needed to feel guilty, it was her, for all those times she made him feel like he wasn't loved.
Feeling thirsty, she opened her mouth to ask him to get her a glass of water, but Roland chose this moment to run into the bedroom and jump by her legs on the bed.
"Daddy's coming with breakfast." He announced, and crawled between her and Henry, settling himself by her side, even putting his little legs under her heavy covers. "It's for you, because it's your birthday. I helped crack the eggs."
"Did you? How did that go?" she patted his knees over the duvet.
"It went well. But he didn't let me cook them." Robin entered then, carrying a big tray with eggs, toasts, fruits, pancakes, bacon, tea, a small jar of orange juice and the biggest slice of cake he could fit in a plate. "But I spread the butter on all the toasts."
Placing the tray in front of her, Robin planted a kiss on top of her head.
"Is there space for one more, my love?"
She moved the covers, signaling for him to sit by her side.
"Just how many people are you feeding?" she asked, looking at the exaggerated amount of food on the tray.
"Just eat what you want. We'll take care of whatever you dispense", Robin encouraged, picking up a strip of bacon.
Strange how she could feel so good, surrounded by love, when her birthday was an event she stopped liking when she turned 10, and the effort to be good and to make a good impression were bigger than the celebration of her.
The food was all very good, but she made a show of eating the toasts, just to see the proud smirk on Roland's face, the dimples she loved making an appearance.
"This is excellent. Thank you so much for my breakfast."
"You're welcome. We can make it again tomorrow." Said the small boy, accepting a forkful of eggs she offered him. Henry bit on the cake Robin passed him on a napkin.
"Do you need me to get you anything else, my love?" Robin asked, fishing another strip of the bacon.
"No, I'm wonderful, thank you."
She ate her breakfast, sharing with her boys, listening to Henry talk about his new book, her head resting on Robin's shoulder, Roland practically lying on top of her, his little foot on her knee. When Robin went back to the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal for Roland, the bell rang.
"That's mom with grandma and Neal", Henry said, looking up from his reading. "They want to say happy birthday."
"What, now? I thought we were all meeting at Granny's later."
He shrugged. Moments later, Robin came back, Mary Margaret holding baby Neal behind him, Emma walking in last.
"Hey, happy birthday Your Highness!" Emma said, bowing down exaggeratedly before crossing the door.
"Thank you. What are you doing here?" Regina asked, while a smiling Mary Margaret deposited a curious eyed Neal on her arms and sat at the foot of the bed. "And it's Your Majesty, just so you know."
"Yeah, yeah." Less gracefully than her mother, Emma also accommodated herself on the bed, while Robin gave his son his bowl of cereal (without milk, as he was allowed to have on the weekends) and resumed his seat beside her. "How old are you anyway? Eighty nine, right?"
"No, not eighty nine!" Regina protested, bouncing Neal on her knee, making the boy giggle. "It doesn't matter."
"I feel like a kid in this town. Everyone is so old", the savior joked, sneaking a few chocolate Captain Crunch's from Roland's bowl, making him laugh at her. "Maybe I should be going to school with Roland and Henry."
"You could be in my class!" the boy said, his mouth full. "There's a free seat next to mine. You can sit there."
"That's so nice of you! I'll think about it."
"So. What are the plans for today?" Mary Margaret asked, her smile so bright Regina's cheeks hurt for her.
"Nothing much. I wanted a party, but she says she doesn't want one." Henry offered.
"I really don't". Neal crawled from her knees towards his mother, and then back to sit himself on Robin's legs, reaching for the tray still sitting on the bed. "There's no need."
She exchanged a look with Mary Margaret, and queen and princess remembered, in silence, all those extravagant birthday parties in the Enchanted Forest, where everybody was happy, but them.
"Maybe we should reserve the parties to the younger, kids parties are the best. I know Roland has a birthday coming along." Her former nemesis said.
"I couldn't agree more." Said a voice from the door, Charming and Emma's pirate suddenly walking in the bedroom.
"How in world did you get in?" Regina asked. She would have phrased it differently, but the under age population in the room was very high.
"The day I cannot pick a lock is the day that I'm no longer a pirate." Hook offered. "Happy birthday, my dear queen." He bowed his head.
"It's 'Your Majesty', mate", Robin interjected from his spot, making Henry and Emma laugh.
"We're coming from the docks", said Charming, walking in the room, around the bed, picking his son up and settling beside his wife, who adjusted herself to the center of the bed, pulling Emma with her, so David and Hook could sit too.
Regina suddenly felt the room was too crowded, and had half a mind to move this not so little get together downstairs. Another part of her, one that had been growing in a fast pace lately, was thankful she had a king size bed, so everybody fit.
She was in the center, sitting against the pillows, Roland now full sitting on her lap, still cradling his bowl of cereal, munching away. Henry was comfortably sitting on the edge by the door, his book forgotten, now talking to Emma, who was, along with Mary Margaret, on the middle of the bed, legs tucked in under them, shoes discarded on the floor. Robin, occupying her other side, moved the tray to the floor, and sat up, crossing his legs in front of him and was accepting Neal, who was being passed to him by David so he could take the walkies out of his belt, now sitting himself on the very edge of the bed, behind Mary Margaret and beside Hook, who had Henry's book in his hand and was reading it's first pages, a look of mild confusion on his face.
"What were you doing in the docks?" asked Henry.
"Making sure the Jolly Roger was in good conditions", David answered.
"What for?" Regina asked.
"We're taking you sailing, old lady!" Emma exclaimed, doing a little silly dance, and everyone looked at Regina as if waiting for her answer.
"And everyone knew about this?"
"Surprise!" Mary Margaret actually sang.
"Oh, because the last time we were all on a boat together was so pleasant?" she asked sarcastically, referencing the not so great trip to and from Neverland.
"Exactly because of that." Henry looked at her.
"So we can erase that crap of an experience and, you know, make a new memory. Come on, it's gonna be nice."
"Yeah, Gina! Let's go please!" Roland was, obviously, incredibly excited.
"You know, my love", she looked at Robin, who was smiling, looking straight in her eyes, the smug bastard. "I wasn't on that trip. So I thought it would be nice. Do something new."
She tried desperately not to blush, since they had already done "something new" yesterday, when he barged into her office, locked the doors and had his merry way with her on her desk, "to celebrate the weekend and the birthday of the light of my life".
"It's gonna be cool, mom, come on."
"Come on, Regina, don't be a party pooper!"
"Everything is set up already, let's go!"
"The ship, Gina!"
"This book makes no sense, mate."
"We packed lunch!"
"It's a distopian society, and you have to read the first book before this one."
"No mermaids this time, honest!"
Everyone started talking at the same time, to her, to each other, and Roland got up and walked across the mattress to give his cereal bowl to Robin and then join Hook in reading Henry's book, and Neal, now back with his mother, tried to stand up too, his hands fisted on Mary Margaret's fingers, bouncing up and down on his own tiny legs.
It was so noisy, she didn't understand what anyone was saying, and was about to tell everyone to be quiet, that ok, she would go, when there was a loud crack, and the bed suddenly sank to the floor, making every one yell in surprise.
There was a stunned silence for about five seconds, where nobody moved or made a sound.
"That's not gonna happen on the ship, right?" Roland asked.
And then Robin was laughing, Emma following right along, and soon they were all in a fit of slightly hysterical laughter, Snow sayinng that her sweater was caught in Killian's hook, "Wait, don't move, you're gonna tear it!" and Regina had to shake her head.
Never would she imagine that the best birthday she would ever had would be because of these people, this curious, complicated family that constructed itself around her, making her once dark heart beat lightly inside her chest.