A/N: Public service announcement: I feel like I need to take this moment to mention just how much I am FUCKING LOVING season 3 so far. Seriously. I LOVE Peter Pan and I LOVE the fact that everything has gone bat-shit dark and creepy and I LOVE the fact that a possible actual real living breathing SQ friendship (or something thereabouts) is actually fucking coming towards us. I love it all and I'm so goddamn happy.

...we always need some positivity, so that is all. Onwards, my children!

Chapter Twenty-Five

August didn't say a word as he sat down in his usual booth in Granny's. He didn't have to – because Henry was sat down opposite him, and he had already exploded.

'They're not just friends, August!' he hissed, his eyes blinking so rapidly that August couldn't see his eyelashes as they moved. 'I knew it! I knew it! There's something else going on there and they didn't want me to know. They've been hiding it from me all this time.'

August swallowed, unsure whether he should be relieved or painfully anxious.

'Okay,' he said slowly. 'And why… why do you think there's something else going on?'

'I saw them,' Henry said quickly, resting his fists on the table. 'They were holding hands. They thought I couldn't see them but they were holding hands, and also Emma's always at our house and my mom cares about her more than she's cared about anything except for me and they laugh all the time and Emma actually eats her food when Regina's there and they're happy around one another, August. They're happy and they're holding hands.'

August sucked in a breath. Busted.

'But what if—?' he started. But Henry immediately cut him off.

'No,' he said firmly, narrowing his eyes and leaning forwards. 'No. No more lying. I'm done with it. And I'm not stupid – I can see what's right in front of me. I know.'

When August didn't respond right away, Henry let out a long sigh.

'How long have you known?' he asked.

Drumming his fingers against the leather booth, August contemplated the smartest, most worryingly perceptive child that he'd ever met in his entire life. He tried to summon up a good reason why he should keep on trying to lie to him. It didn't take long before he realised that he was going to come up with absolutely nothing.

'A while,' he said quietly, waiting for Henry's reaction. 'I never had any proof though. I just… knew.'

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'Because I couldn't be sure,' August said. 'And because I didn't know how you'd react. It confused me at first too, you know. I have no idea how this happened. But at the same time, now that I do know – I have absolutely no idea how I kept missing it.'

Henry nodded. 'It's suddenly so obvious.'

'That it is, bud,' August said. 'It's been staring us right in the face for a long, long time.'

Henry swallowed, looking down at the table. His forehead had crumpled, and he was frowning down at his bunched fists like he waiting for them to strike out and punch something.

Eventually he groaned, shaking his head.

'But this makes everything so much worse.'

August barely blinked – he had somehow been waiting for this.

'Kid,' he said gently. 'Look… I know that this is a lot to handle. I really do get that. But really, the bottom line is… people fall in love. That's it. And it's the hardest thing in the world to do, but it's also pretty much the greatest. So who gives a damn if they're both women or not? You said it yourself: they're happy. They're happy together. Don't you want them to stay that way?'

Henry immediately looked up, his nose wrinkling. He just stared for a moment.

'What?' he finally demanded. 'August. I don't care that they're both women. What are you talking about?'

August blinked. 'You don't?'

'Of course not,' Henry rolled his eyes like this was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard in his life. 'I care that Emma's the Saviour, and my mom's the Evil Queen. Or that she was the Evil Queen… whatever. Emma's destiny is to break her curse, and we've been pushing her along and doing everything we can to make that happen, and now look – they're in love. My mom has fallen in love with the Saviour who is going to destroy her curse, and the Saviour has fallen in love with the Queen who is going to destroy her. Of course this makes things worse! I knew that the curse breaking would be difficult, and it would hurt them both, but… August. They're in love. What is this going to do to them now? How… how are either of them ever going to be able to survive this?'

And for once, August had no answer. August had no smart retort, no wicked smile to throw Henry's way. He could only look at the small boy who was sat before him with utter hopelessness dragging his features southwards, and sigh.

'I don't know, kiddo,' he said quietly. His leg gave a painful twinge as he admitted it. 'I really, really don't know.'

He forced himself to look back down at his cold cup of coffee, shaking his head.

'Maybe at this stage…' he said, more to himself than to Henry, '…maybe it's too late to save them from it. Maybe they're just going to get hurt. Maybe that's it.'

'What?' Henry demanded, shaking his head. 'No. That can't be it. This is our fault! We have to fix it!'

'It's not out fault, Henry,' August said firmly. 'We didn't make your mom cast the curse. We certainly didn't make them fall in love. But… you're right. We do need to try and fix it. Because, while we definitely can't stop either of them from getting hurt… maybe we can minimise just how hurt they get.'

'Damage control,' Henry clarified. August nodded.

'Exactly.'

'How are we going to do that?'

August opened his mouth to respond. He faltered.

'I have no idea.'

Henry bit at his bottom lip for a moment, frowning from beneath his too-long hair. '…we need a code name.'

'A code name for a mission with no outcome?'

'It has an outcome,' Henry said firmly. 'The outcome is to keep them together.'

August frowned. 'It… it is?'

He almost jumped when Henry narrowed his eyes at him: his expression was a perfect mix of those two very women whom they were talking about. It was a mixture of scorn, and of absolute certainty.

'They're both going to have their hearts broken by this,' Henry said quietly. 'But they're also the only ones who will be able to fix them again afterwards.'

August half shook his head.

'Has anyone ever told you how smart you are?'

'Quite a lot,' Henry said, smiling sadly. 'It gets old.'

'Gotcha,' August smiled. 'So, you were saying – code name?'

Henry pondered this for a moment, scrunching his nose up. Eventually his face broke into a crooked smile.

'Operation lobster.'

August nearly choked. 'Beg your pardon?'

Rolling his eyes, Henry groaned. 'You've never seen Friends?'

'Ah,' August said, the thought clicking into place. 'I get it. Your mom let you watch that show?'

Henry smiled again then. It was all teeth, all nostalgia. 'My mom liked Ross and Rachel. She said… she said that they were real true love. They could withstand anything.'

'Not like Snow and Charming?'

'Not so much,' Henry grinned. 'She's not a big fan of theirs, apparently.'

'Who knew?' August said, leaning back in his seat. He sighed after a moment. 'Okay, kiddo, you've got it: Operation Lobster it is.'

Henry watched as Regina prepared their dinner that evening. Over the previous weeks she had stopped wearing her shoes inside the house: he was slowly realising that he was catching up to her in height.

Leaning against the island in the centre of the kitchen, he watched the way that she moved about the room. Her steps had once been so rigid, so commanding; even in her own home. Now they were more fluid, like everything was suddenly just slightly easier for her. Like less of the world was pushing back against her.

She was smiling to herself. It made his chest ache.

'Mom?' he said after a moment, his voice gently questioning.

She didn't turn around, but she called over her shoulder, 'Yes?'

'…do you think that the Evil Queen ever fell in love?'

The pan that was in Regina's hands half-fell from her grip before she caught it at the last moment.

She snapped her head around to look at him, her eyebrows knitted together.

'Do I… what?'

Her son was simply watching her. His hazel eyes were warm, not suspicious, and his arms were loosely folded across the top of the counter

'The Evil Queen,' he repeated slowly, his forehead creasing. 'Did she ever fall in love?'

Half-shaking her head, Regina forced herself to answer. 'I… I don't know. Why are you asking me?'

'Because you were her,' he said softly. When he saw her flinch, he added, 'Once.'

'Oh. You don't think I am anymore?' she asked, turning away to fill the pan up with water. She took the moment to blink until her eyes weren't stinging anymore.

'No,' he said evenly. 'Not anymore.'

'But you still think I used to be?'

There was a pause before he admitted. 'Yes.'

Something inside her chest clenched. She turned back to him with a sigh.

'Why are you asking me this, Henry?'

'Because I can't imagine her falling in love,' he said quietly. 'But I can imagine you. I see the way you are now – how you treat people, and the things that you do. She wouldn't do any of that. She wouldn't be able to let someone into her life like that, I don't think. Would she?'

Ignoring the question, Regina asked one of her own. 'Why is this suddenly something that's bothering you? I've always been like this. Nothing's changed.'

'Everything's changed,' Henry said. 'I see how you are with Emma.'

This time, the pan did slip from her grasp. It clattered into the sink, water spraying across her crisp white shirt.

'You… what?' she choked out, turning back. He was watching her with the same calmness, but there was a glint in his eye that she didn't like.

He carried on just as steadily as before, like the clang of metal on porcelain wasn't still reverberating throughout the room.

'You care about her,' he said with a shrug. 'You look out for her and you spend time with her and you laugh with her, and I… I can't really imagine the Evil Queen doing that. I just can't imagine her falling in love.'

Regina opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her pulse was thundering away inside her temples and she wondered if maybe she'd misheard him over the sound of it.

'Henry…' she stammered, shaking her head. 'I'm... not in love either. You know that, don't you?'

He didn't answer for a moment. His gaze was steady as he watched the deep blush that was spreading across her cheeks.

The doorbell rang just as he answered.

'Of course I know that,' he said, smiling at her. 'I just… want you to know that it would be okay if you did fall in love. With anyone. Because I think that you deserve it.'

Regina swallowed. The doorbell rang again, but she didn't move.

After a moment, Henry gestured towards the hall. 'Do you want me to get that?'

She shook her head quickly.

'No,' she said, forcing a smiling. Her eyes were stinging again as she reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. 'I'll get it, sweetheart. Just… just stay here.'

He watched her go. Suddenly she looked even smaller.

It was Emma at the door. Of course it was.

'Hello,' Regina managed to force out, a strained smile still plastered across her face.

Emma's expression immediately clouded over.

'What's wrong?' she asked as her way of greeting. Her eyes flickered across Regina's pale skin and her slightly trembling jaw, and they narrowed. Regina's smile faltered for a split second.

'Nothing,' she said. Her voice was quieter than usual. 'How are you?'

Ignoring her, Emma took a step towards her. 'What's happened?'

'Nothing's happened,' Regina muttered. 'I'm just—'

'Then why are you looking at me like that?' Emma demanded.

'I'm not looking at you like anything,' Regina hissed.

Emma's face scrunched up with disbelief. 'Why are you whispering?'

Regina glanced over her shoulder, towards the kitchen. She couldn't see Henry, but she knew that he was still there and she knew that he was still, without a doubt, listening.

'Emma... everything's fine,' she said, slightly louder. Then she gestured towards the dining room. 'Now. Are you coming in or not?'

The moment that Regina got up to take the dishes through to the kitchen, Emma swivelled in her seat so that she was looking straight at her son.

'Okay kid,' she said firmly. 'Spill.'

He simply blinked. 'Spill what?'

'Why is your mom acting weird?'

Henry shrugged in a way that was obviously meant to be a casual. 'Is she acting weird? She seems the same to me.'

'Henry,' Emma said, narrowing her eyes at her son's infuriating shit-eating smile. 'Come on. Tell me what happened before I got here.'

'Nothing,' he said, shrugging. 'We were just talking.'

'About what?'

Henry watched her for a moment. She had taken the band aid off of the side of her face since the last time that he'd seen her, and the second cut that had been carved against her existing scar was painfully obvious. He hadn't asked her what had happened.

Finally, he answered. 'We were talking about the Evil Queen.'

There was a beat where Emma blankly looked at him like she hadn't heard a word that he had just said.

That pause ended the moment that her eyes suddenly turned dark.

'Jesus, kid. You're still on that? You're still calling her that?'

Henry blinked.

'What do you mean?' he asked, his voice cracking slightly. 'We weren't—'

'No, Henry,' Emma interrupted him with more ferocity than he had ever heard from her before. 'No. There are some things that I can let slide with you because, yeah, I went ten years without raising you and so I clearly still don't really get the whole maternal thing quite like Regina does. I'm cool with you sneaking candy into your bedroom and I'm cool with you hanging out with me at the station when you're meant to be doing your homework. But that? Calling your mom that? Henry – it has to stop. I mean it. Do you really have no idea how hurtful that is to her? Jesus, do you even know why you say it anymore? I mean, have you even looked at her recently? Does she still scream 'poisoned apples' to you?'

Henry had never seen her look so angry before. She was breathing heavily like she'd been chasing after the words that she had just all but shouted at him, and even then, when she had stopped speaking and the room had gone oddly quiet once more, her chest was heaving like it was ready to explode.

He blinked once more. His mouth had gone dry.

'You've never shouted at me like that before.'

All at once, Emma deflated in her chair. Sighing out loud, she reached up to push her hair back from her suddenly warm face.

The scars on her face became all the more obvious in that movement, and Henry tried desperately not to stare at them.

'Yeah, well,' she muttered, letting her arms thud back down to the table. 'You deserved it.'

'But… you've never gotten mad at me before,' he said slowly, considering her trembling jaw for a moment. 'Not really. Why… why was that the thing that made you do it? You've never cared about me calling her that before. You were defending her. Why?'

The sudden smugness on his face was not lost on Emma, and she narrowed her eyes at it.

'Henry,' she said darkly. 'Promise me that you'll never call her that again.'

'You're avoiding the question,' he pointed out.

'I'm a grown up,' she threw back. 'I can avoid whatever I want. Now promise me. I mean it.'

Henry groaned and folded his arms across his chest.

'Fine,' he said. 'But, for the record – I didn't call her it in a bad way.'

Emma just stared at him for a moment before her face cracked with incredulity.

'How in the hell can calling someone an Evil Queen ever be meant in a nice way?'

He smiled crookedly at her. 'Do you promise not to yell at me again?'

'I didn't yell,' she snapped. But a burning curiosity was already scratching at the palms of her hands, and she bit down on her bottom lip. '…why were you talking about it?'

Henry grinned again, suddenly victorious, and leaned forwards against the edge of the table. He opened his mouth to tell her. Then his gaze was distracted by a movement on the other side of the room, and he faltered.

Regina was leaning calmly against the doorframe, her arms crossed over her chest. He didn't need to look any closer to know that she had heard every single word.

Although her eyes were dark with the same hurt that had crossed her face in the kitchen earlier that evening, there was something else trying to break through it: she was looking at Emma, at the slight pink tinge that still clouded her cheeks from her sudden enraged outburst. Regina was looking at her with pride. With gratitude.

When Emma turned to face her, following Henry's sudden startled gaze, Regina's face broke into a tiny, almost imperceptible smile.

Emma smiled back at her, resting her arm across the back of her chair.

'Regina,' she said firmly. 'Henry and I were just having a little talk about a few things. Like name-calling, and common decency.'

Regina edged back into the room, her arms still folded across her chest.

'I see – so you decided to give the bad cop routine a try, did you, Miss Swan?' she asked coolly, taking up her seat at the table once more. Henry didn't look up at her. She could see out of the corner of her eye that his cheeks were burning. 'How novel.'

Ignoring her, Emma turned back towards Henry. When he finally forced himself to look back up at her, she raised her eyebrows at him.

'Henry. Do you have something to say to your mom?'

He glanced at Regina, that same knowing smile now tugging at his lips once more. Regina forced herself not to flinch.

'Emma,' he said quietly. 'It's okay. Really. I didn't mean it in a—'

'I don't care,' Emma interrupted. She leaned back in her chair, her fists clenched in her lap. 'I really, really don't care how you meant it. I still want you to apologise for saying it. Now.'

Regina felt an odd sensation in her chest then – like her heart was exploding and being crushed all at once. She swallowed, taking in the staunchness on Emma's face, and tried to tell her to stop.

Stop defending me... I haven't deserved it.

But she couldn't bring herself to speak. Her chest was tight and her jaw was trembling and all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around Emma and thank her for even bothering to care.

Slowly, Henry turned to look at her. He took a deep breath, the smile on his face now long gone and replaced with something that looked like actual, genuine regret.

'I'm sorry, Mom,' he said quietly, his eyes unblinking. 'Really. I shouldn't have called you that. I didn't mean to upset you. Really. Because… because I know that that's not who you are anymore.'

Upon hearing this last word Emma's hands suddenly flew up into the air in disbelief.

'Henry! Christ! Can you please just—'

'Emma,' Regina suddenly interrupted her, never taking her eyes off of Henry. He hadn't jumped when Emma had shouted, and his expression hadn't changed. He looked back at her, unblinking, with a face that said that he was sorry. He knew the truth, and he was sorry anyway.

Regina swallowed and said to Emma, 'It's okay.'

Henry tilted his head to one side, considering her. Something in her expression flickered, and suddenly he saw it: exhaustion. She was tired, and she was miserable.

She was tired of lying. She was tired of lying to both of them.

He watched as she forced a smile back onto her face, reaching across the table to take hold of his hand.

'I accept your apology, Henry,' she said, her eyes strangely dark. Emma frowned at her – she couldn't understand why she sounded quite so urgent. Why she looked quite so close to tears.

Regina took a deep breath, rubbing that familiar circle against her son's hand. He squeezed back.

'Thank you,' she murmured. She took a deep breath before she repeated it. '...thank you.'