Bright eyes flicker up hesitantly as the brunette takes a seat at the dining room table; a strong black coffee cupped between her hands. Henry looks back down at his Cheerios awkwardly, chasing the little O's around the bowl with his spoon. Out of the corner of his eye, he spies his mother opening and closing her mouth a few times as though trying to find the right thing to say. Eventually, the Mayor's eyes drop down to her coffee and she lets out a defeated sigh.

Henry is astonished to find that the brunette looks almost sad, and his first thought is unkind; sure that she's simply trying to manipulate him into feeling guilty for last night's outburst.

"The thing about real life, kid, is that things tend to be a hell of a lot more complicated than 'good' and 'evil'..."

Emma's surprising statement... And he supposes that he does feel a little guilty, regardless of the Mayor's possible motives. He has spent so much time engrossing himself in the undeniable, unquestionable - hell, documented - fact that the woman sitting opposite him is pure evil, that he has perhaps lost sight of the person beneath. He's still sceptical about Emma's sudden blasé trust towards her supposed enemy, but the blonde's hushed tone as she'd sat with him on his bed and demanded that he realise his mother's evident love for him sticks with him in a way that's almost comforting.

Looking back up at the brunette, he speaks in the low, polite tone the Mayor had believed lost towards her since long before the Sheriff's arrival.

"How do you feel?"

Regina glances up, startled, regarding the young boy with pink-tinged eyes. Faltering momentarily beneath her glittering coals, Henry simply does what comes naturally and offers her a smile; small at first, but then wide and genuine. The brunette drops her gaze back down at her coffee hastily, swallowing as she feels tears prickling against her lashes. Running a finger thoughtfully over the mug's handle, she eventually reciprocates with a small smile of her own.

"I've felt worse, but I've also felt a whole lot better..."

"Would you like some water?"

"That... Would be lovely."

She watches as Henry slides from his chair and pads towards the kitchen, his jeans suspiciously crumpled and his small frame drowning in the grey hoodie handed down to him by the blonde. She glimpses a rip in the sweater's sleeve - a remnant of his adventures with the Sheriff in the woods - and muses with a sigh on just how much he reminds her of Emma with his hair mussed and his clothes falling about his body messily.

Henry returns to the table with a glass of water. She had heard the tap running despite her preference for bottled water, but she doesn't mention this. She simply takes a delicate sip before studying Henry with tentative sorrow.

"Henry... What happened last night... I should never have-"

"-It's okay."

The boy shrugs as he looks up at her, his expression childishly casual as he goes on to explain his discussion with the blonde. He reasons that his mother must be aware that Emma had stayed over, and so referring to the fact is unlikely to get the Sheriff in trouble, but he offers the Mayor an abridged version nonetheless, and in this version, he had come across the blonde downstairs while fetching himself a glass of water.

"Emma said you were drinking because you were sad..."

He finishes his explanation quietly.

"Trust Miss Swan to tell a child that liquor is the way to solve their sorrows."

Regina rolls her eyes, but Henry ignores her statement; her tone absent of its usual scorn when speaking of the Sheriff. If he didn't know any better, he would even go so far as to say he detects a hint of amusement as the words fall from her lips.

Of course, he does know better than to believe something like that.

"Are you sad?"

He asks.

"Oh, Henry, of course not-"

"-Because if you are, you can say..."

"I-... I was upset last night... I did something I wish I hadn't, and thinking about it made me upset because I regret the thing that I did very badly... I shouldn't have dealt with it like that - alcohol solves nothing, you best remember that, Henry - and I should never have allowed myself to speak and act the way I did to Mr Glass, especially with you in the house... I'm sorry."

"It's ok... I guess I was kind of a jerk, too."

Dark eyes sparkle with a mixture of irritation at yet another adverse term added to her son's repertoire, and amusement. Reaching for his hand across the table, Regina squeezes it lightly, her heart breaking a little at his ill-concealed flinch before he relaxes his fingers in hers.

"You were right to be angry, Henry."

"I-... I wasn't very angry. Emma said I shouldn't have talked to you like I did... I'm sorry I called you evil."

The breath catches in the brunette's throat at the magnitude of that small statement. Her son's constant witch-hunt at the mercy of the wretched fairytale book has caused her to have heard the word muttered and whispered so many times, and yet the pain of hearing the word coming from him never dulls with repetition. Clearing her throat, she carries on lightly, once more diverting her attention carefully down to her coffee.

"... Miss Swan said that?"

"Yes... She-... She also told me-... Why didn't you tell me you helped Emma during the storm?"

"Hmm?"

"She told me you helped her by letting her stay here so that she wouldn't get hurt... Why didn't you tell me?"

"I told you to stay in your room and do your homework. I suppose I didn't think the rest was a matter of your concern."

"You helped Emma. You made sure she wouldn't get hurt... That's not something the Evil Queen would do..."

Regina bites her lip, blinking as she feels her lashes growing heavy with moisture. Glancing up at the boy cautiously, she carries on in a voice not quite steady.

"Things are never as simple as 'good' and 'evil', Henry... Not even in your fairytales... But that means more to me than you know that you think that way."

Henry blushes, shrugging sheepishly before offering a tentative grin which the brunette repays in kind. Slipping from the table, he turns to collect his empty bowl and spoon before padding out into the kitchen. His mother's voice has him returning to stand in the doorway once he has loaded the items into the dishwasher.

"Come here."

He walks up to her curiously, his eyes wide when she pulls him onto her lap in a way he hasn't allowed her to do in years, her arms wrapping securely around him. Twisting a little, he links his own arms around her neck and closes his eyes as her fingers play gentle patterns over his spine. Kissing him on his crown, she pulls back, studying him warmly.

"Did you sleep in your clothes?"

Henry stiffens in her embrace, but the brunette merely brushes his hair away from his face as she murmurs quietly

"It's okay, you weren't alone."

He gapes at her comically and she sighs, letting him slide down from her lap. Fussing with the rip in his sleeve with a sniff of disapproval, her tone is brisk and businesslike when she speaks next.

"Look at the state of you. Go on, get upstairs and in the shower, I want you on time for school, no excuses."

He nods, hurrying out into the hall.

But not before he glimpses the brunette smile at him warmly as she sips her cooling coffee.