Love and Mischief chapter 4

Maya didn't understand why people were angry at her. She'd had a few near misses, almost caught by people very clear they would punish her if they did. Her dreams helped them. She'd seen several act on them, keeping those terrible things from happening. Shouldn't they be glad they knew and could do something? Fate wasn't a rigid thing, it was malleable. And her work made it even moreso. The dragon woman and the fairy had almost caught her yesterday! The dragon woman had made threats of violence. The fairy, who was her partner, seemed to calm her down a bit. But still if someone did catch her eventually she hoped it wasn't them! The woman who she'd helped about the babies had nearly walked right into her from behind the day before that. At so close Maya didn't think her illusion of just being empty air would have held. If she hadn't sensed the woman behind her rushing to catch up with her youngest child at the lake…. Maya had been momentarily captivated by the little girl's laughter and mischievous look on her face.

So during the days she'd hide herself as best she could, today inside this small cave where she could relax her illusion power.

After a week Inari began to feel more adjusted to this strange town. The woman who called herself Granny had been quite impressed with his cooking and quite happy about how it was making her diner quite the draw. He chuckled; she also had made it quite clear she was attracted to him.

For the first time in many years he was enjoying obliging that attraction. Granny seemed quite amused that their obvious fling had scandalized some of the more uptight members of the town, particularly a couple who had apparently been royal in this Enchanted Forest realm he'd heard mentioned. Some place they'd lived before. He wasn't sure if it was a curse or spell had brought them here. But whatever it was most the people seemed very happy here, freely stating their lives were much better here. Apparently it had to do with the woman that was mayor of the town.

The uptight couple went by the names Aurora and Phillip. They seemed like the type people he would have enjoyed pranking and causing chaos for in old Japan- clearly sure they were absolutely superior to most in the town. But they seemed scared of the woman who was also a dragon, Maleficent. She first viewed him with suspicion but after learning he was a parent separated from his children, by the spell that brought him here, she had become sympathetic. And she now seemed quite amused by his open liaison with Granny. Maleficent, apparently was typically a recluse, but had recently been seen in town much more frequently, along with her partner, the rogue fairy, Tinkerbelle. The two were seeking who caused the nightmares. He had made suggestions he hoped were helpful. Although he didn't have dream magic, his magic was partly illusion based. It was almost certain the dream magic user was using powerful illusion magic to hide. He had sensed it once during his nightly walks, but then it disappeared.

But the person he'd felt the strongest connection to was Belle. Belle's friendship was genuine and before he left he'd like to take away a bit of the sadness in her heart. Her daughter Bae also continued to remind him of his younger daughter Mitsue. Although he stayed at Granny's, he frequently found himself spending almost contented hours with Belle and her young daughter.

He had even told Belle the story of how he had found his younger daughter Mitsue. What had happened to Mitsue before he found her had filled him with such outrage he had withdrawn even further from the world outside of the fox spirit realm. Perhaps he'd been too harsh though. Although there were monstrous people in this world, this abduction to this Storybrooke had reminded him there were also good people, people he could help, still.

He'd rescued an abandoned child in the woods near one of his shrines, in the other realm, the land called Japan. Anger sliced through his heart thinking about the circumstances. The child had been only three years old when he found her. Her parents hadn't even left her at the shrine, like his daughter Kitsu had been, around 150 years ago in that realm. His younger daughter had called out for him and he'd gone and brought her back here, even though she was fully human. The child made it clear she had no one that would care for her. Her parents had even called her Maigo- Stray ! He had immediately changed her name to Mitsue, with the meaning, Blessed meeting. She'd been his daughter for a number of years in her birth realm. Due to the magic in his realm though, she had only aged about 4-5 years, he guessed; as she could now wear the kimono Kitsu wore when she came to the fox spirit realm- when she was around 7 years old.

Regina massaged her temple. She felt a tension headache starting. Yet more complaints from people who hadn't had their nightmares resolved. Including Grumpy- who made sure his complaints were aired daily. Not his nightmare, but Nova's. The fairies nightmares had hit three days after everyone else's. Perhaps whoever caused them didn't immediately know how to cause them in fairies. Suspiciously, only the three emancipated fairies- Tinkerbelle, Nova and Iris had been hit with them. Even more suspiciously, theirs had been much vaguer than everyone else's, and seemed to involve being back under the blue fairy's rule. This made the blue fairy almost assuredly the prime suspect. But they didn't have enough real evidence, according to Emma, to even question the woman, yet.

Then there was the complaint Aurora and Phillip lodged, in person, today, about Granny and Inari. If there was ever a royal pair that was more obnoxious than the Charmings it was them. Regina didn't care in the slightest about Granny's love life, and the fact she and the fox spirit were having a very public fling wasn't news.

But that snooty former royal couple decided they were offended by it and it was the mayor's or sheriff's job to put an end to it. Gah! They'd even made a suggestion that the former evil queen could maybe lay some kind of curse on them! The only people she was currently tempted to put some kind of spell on were those royal pains in the ass!

Apparently Aurora and Phillip had made their disgust obvious to Granny and Inari, because last night the fox and wolf couple decided they would prank the stuck-up couple. They stood in the woods just outside the property line of Aurora and Phillips house, around midnight, and made wolf howls and fox yips- loudly. This went on for about 20 minutes. Long enough for the offended couple to call the sheriff's office and Emma to arrive at their house. At which point Granny and Inari ran off into woods laughing. Emma didn't pursue. She told Aurora and Phillip the most she could charge Granny and Inari with, if they did it again and she caught them in the act, was a public nuisance charge, which was a fine of 5 dollars, if the charges were proven. Thus, why they deigned to come to the mayor's office this morning to air their grievances, to her. Ugh, she needed a break and it was just 10 AM. Perhaps she could call up Robin and they could have lunch together, at Granny's. She'd decide how to handle this situation then.

Robin was dealing with a similarly frustrating morning in the park ranger's office. One that made him consider a few days vacation that didn't involve stepping into this office. The main problem was his two coworkers, who complained, yet again about having no resolution to their nightmares of last week.

One, he had sympathy for. It would not be a quick resolution, her son was going through adolescence and the nightmare was about the boy coming to some harm due to some foolish behavior. The boy refused to heed his mother's warnings and worries. It appeared, unfortunately, that nothing could be done to stop this from happening. But as one of the scenarios played out, it happened in the woods.

Robin had taken precautions to make sure if it did happen there, someone would be there to rescue the boy quickly. He had told Regina. She had used her magic to make magically run surveillance cameras at the likely spots. Cameras that the office had monitors for- also courtesy of Regina's magic. It just was growing aggravating to hear about this issue with her son day after day. He'd even spoken with the boy, apparently to no avail…

The other coworker's problem, on the other hand, was of his own making and he refused to do anything about it. He expected Regina to magically solve his problem, or if not Regina, one of the other powerful magic users in town. It was his stairs to his basement. The nightmare was one of the steps was rotten and would cause him a fall if he didn't replace it. He didn't know how to do it himself, and was too cheap to hire someone. He claimed it was Regina's duty to fix it since it was her curse that brought them here. Every day he heard this or some variant on it. Emma should because she was the savior as well as one of the sheriff's…. Robin was sick and tired of hearing this every day. This was more aggravating than when Little John complained for a week about a heist that Tuck had caused them to miss...He needed a break, needed to see Regina before this evening. Perhaps for lunch at Granny's.

When Robin arrived at Granny's Regina was sitting at a booth, scowling out the window. Robin touched her shoulder and sat down beside her.

"I need to get myself in a better mood before I pick up Hope and Grace from daycare." Regina mumbled.

"Perhaps relating my morning of frustrations will cheer you up?" Robin smiled lopsidedly. Just seeing Regina had lightened his mood. He saw the faint lift of her lips before she sighed in exasperation.

"Frustrating seems mild for my morning. And apparently 'I need to speak to Granny and Inari about their inappropriate behavior'." Regina rolled her eyes.

"Oh yes, the prank they pulled on Aurora and Phillip last night, that you mentioned over the phone." Robin chuckled

Regina smirked, then sighed again. "It's funny, yeah, but it's also a headache that I would rather not deal with. But I'm mayor so..."

"Perhaps I could. Since they were in the woods, wouldn't I technically have the ability to say something?"

"Hmm. You know, you just might." Regina's mood lifted.

"Then l will."

"Okay"

"Now that's settled we can enjoy our lunch."

"Yes." Regina lightly kissed Robin on the lips.

Robin smirked and pulled her closer and whispered in her ear. "Milady, if that's what kind of lunch you wanted I believe we are in the wrong place. Unless you perhaps wanted to do a little payback for Granny's and Inari's mischief, which we must address?"

Regina's eyes danced with amusement and desire. She whispered back. "A tempting offer, thief. But" she sighed "We are the parents of four impressionable children, although one is almost an adult, but still, I'd rather not send the message that making out in public is correct behavior." Regina shifted to cuddle against Robin "This however, is perfectly acceptable."

Robin let his arm rest loosely on Regina's waist and kissed her on the forehead. "I agree."

As Regina drove to pick up her daughters from the half day of day care she remembered when she made the reluctant choice to let them go there. She had felt like a failure. She had cared for Henry all alone day and night up till she sent him off to kindergarten. But that was under the curse. It was easy to make sure her daily meetings took place during Henry's nap time. Henry had also been a rather docile preschooler. He was content to quietly play while mommy worked nearby. And Roland, although a sometimes mischievous boy, had been mostly under Robin's care until he started school.

The girls though, were thoroughly Mills in behavior. Very active, difficult to get to take naps, and prone to sheer brilliant audacity that she found hard to not laugh at. Plus this was a now a somewhat odd but yet typical small town in Maine. People barged in all the time during her office hours. She had managed when they were infants in the office with her all day, and valiantly struggled once Hope hit two…Hope was more prone to attention getting behavior. Robin had again offered to take the girls with him to work some days, like when they were both infants, but Regina reminded him again, the Rangers Station just couldn't be secured like her office. He then offered to quit and stay home with the girls until they went to school, but she assured him that wasn't necessary.

But Grace, once she hit two, she developed a passion for climbing anything she could attempt to, and once Grace started Hope had to join in with her little sister… It was Snow that gently suggested perhaps the girls might benefit from daycare. She stated Neal loved it and he'd been going since he was a baby.

The girls separation meltdowns the first day had further fueled Regina's guilt. But when she picked Hope and Grace up they were all smiles and excited about the fun they'd had. The next morning they had been impatient to go to day care. Since then, baring sickness, they ran ahead to the playroom with a cheerful "Bye mommy!" and didn't look back. They had made friends quickly, to Regina's relief. Snow and David's son Neal was already there, as well as their toddler cousin Cedric, so that helped matters. Like Roland had been with his baby sisters, Hope and Grace were fascinated about their little cousin. They were also quick to defend him against any bullying attempts by the older preschoolers. The girls would squabble with each other over toys, but no one else better try anything with either one of them. Any foolish bully soon learned not to mess with the Locksley-Mills girls. They extended that protection to Neal as well, since he was sort of family, and the boy despite a slight pompous streak, was somewhat timid.

Once Grace turned three, Robin convinced Regina to let him pick up the girls every other day and take them to the playground in the park after their half day of day care. Since it was part of the park, which was part of the woods he was able to finagle the duties to cover this on his days with the girls. Henry had also spoken to his mother and he would show up after school with Roland and take the girls home and watch them until Robin and Regina got home.

The girls could have spent the whole work day at day care but neither Regina or Robin wanted that, they liked that hour at work they could spend with the girls before Henry and Roland arrived from school. Often they'd both spend a half hour or more with all four children before Henry would either just walk home from Regina's office or Emma would run by the ranger's station in her patrol car and all four kids would pile in for the ride home. It gave Emma some time with Henry, while Roland entertained his younger sisters in the back seat. Regina knew sometimes Emma would stop by Granny's and treat all four kids to some high calorie desert. Hope had taken it in her head that Emma was somehow their aunt and Grace copied her, Roland decided it sounded good to him too, so Emma was now Aunt Emma to all three of Robin's kids. Regina had just laughed and said it made as much sense as any of the other crazy family trees in this town.

Regina was surprised when she walked in that Neal was waiting with her daughters. It looked like he was valiantly trying to hold back a crying jag. Her daughters were patting him on the back and looking adorably concerned.

"Regina." Snow had a grim look on her face.

"What's happened?"

"Neal had a nightmare during naptime."

"Like ours last week?"

"That's what I'm afraid of. He won't say what it was."

Regina's hands curved into fists and a hint of flames flickered around her fingers. "Now they are going after the children? Enough! We find who's doing this now. And I don't care what laws Emma or David have to make up; I want that woman who still calls herself the Mother Superior brought in for questioning."