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Entry tags:
Regina's Home
Working Title: Regina's Home
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Character/Pairing: Regina, Henry, mentions past Daniel/Regina
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge: This was written for the What's In A Name? challenge at the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
lands_of_magic OUAT land comm. If you join, be sure to tell them Kat Lee of Team Neverland sent you!
Warning(s): SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3!
Word Count: 1,477
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She pauses in the doorway, her fingers hovering on his light switch. She turns, looking back at him, letting the image of her son snuggled safely into his bed soak into her mind, and trying again to remember every little detail of him just in case she should never see him again after she wakes in the morning. It's a silly notion. They're all back where they belong. The curse is lifted again, and he has his memories. He knows who she is. He loves her again.
But she still can't shake the need to memorize everything about him. Every word spoken, every minuet detail is so much more important than she ever realized. She needs this. She needs him. She needs to remember everything about him, just in case something goes wrong. In case her sister takes him from her again, or worse. In case Emma takes him back to New York. In case . . .
There are so many ways their lives could go wrong, so many ways she can be destroyed over something happening to Henry. She knew a long time ago that, if she wasn't careful, her child could prove to be her downfall. What she hadn't realized until these last couple of years is that downfall wouldn't come to her through anything he did, but rather something that happened to him. She blinks back tears and gives herself a mental shake.
He's here now. He's back; he's safe. Emma won't leave her parents again, and even if she somehow manages to skip away from the wonderful and doting Charmings, she won't let take her son with her. Not again, not ever again, will she allow Henry to take her baby away from her.
But what if he wants to go? The thought sends chills through the former Evil Queen. Then her blood pounds in her ears. What if he wants to leave her? What if that's why things are as they should be yet seem only almost right? What if that's the underlining fear she senses in her subconscious? What if he chooses life with Emma in New York over life with her here? It would be safer, but it would take him away from her forever.
Suddenly, she's leaning against the wall for support, head spinning and heart pounding. The mere thought is terrifying. She can't lose him, not again! The first time was almost more than she could bear. She remembers trying to cut out her own heart to stop the pain that filled her without her son. Her fingernails arch on the switch. She can not go through that again. She will not!
Fury blazes in her dark eyes, but then a meek, soft voice calls to her from the bed. "It's okay, Mom. You don't have to go," Henry tells her. "You can stay."
But will you want to stay? she demands. He told her he wouldn't leave her again, but what if he changes his mind? What if he chooses the joys of modern day over the dangers their world presents to him? What if he chooses Emma over her?
She's barely aware of her own movements as she crosses the room to get back to her son's side. She's flipped out the main light but switches on his lamp instead. She starts to take his chair but notices the way he scoots over in his bed and looks imploringly at her. He doesn't speak a word; they don't have to have words, although she loves to talk with him.
She slides into bed beside him, although it's hardly proper at his age, and he instantly leans back against her. She wraps her arms around him and closes her eyes against the tears she can feel welling again. He takes her hand and squeezes it. "It's okay, Mom," he reassures her in that gentle, quiet voice of his that tells her he's not entirely certain she won't yell at him for thinking she's upset instead of admitting to her sorrow and fears. "I meant what I said today: I'm not going to leave you, ever again." He nestles closer to her, and for a moment, Regina remembers all the times she held him when he was younger, when she cared for him when he was nothing more than a baby, when she chased his nightmares away, when she held him when he was scared, when he was sick . . . She blinks and comes out of her reverie just in time to hear him mumbling sleepily, "No one can make me."
His words are true; she knows that. No one can make him leave her, but then no one can make him stay with her, no one without magic that is. She could easily cast a spell on him, make him forget Emma and the Charmings, make him fear New York. She could cast a spell to tie him to her forever.
"I love you forever," he adds, almost as though he can read her mind, and Regina finally smiles again as his declaration reminds her that they are already tied together forever. This bond they can have can not be destroyed by anything but magic, and she won't let that happen. It's already proven to be stronger than magic any way when it broke the curse earlier today.
"I love you too, baby boy," she whispers, though no one can hear her. She places a chaste kiss on the top of his head, then leans back against his headboard with him cuddled safely in her arms. He's finally back. He's finally home. She looks around the walls with a bit of a silly grin on her face as she realizes she is as well.
It's no secret that she named Henry after her father. He was a good man and loved her dearly, although he never stood up to her mother for her. That weakness had been the only thing that had made her able to take his life to enact the first curse. She still regrets that, but it's one of the many, albeit perhaps the worst, mistakes she's made that can not turn back time to undo.
She was curious about her father's name, about the name she was giving her child, and so looked it up on a web engine once when Henry was still a baby. She discovered that it meant two things, as the name was originally, according to modern scholars at least, based on two words. The first was ruler. She has no doubt that Henry, if given the chance, will be a fine ruler. He would have been a wonderful King, the best with which the kingdoms had ever been graced, if they had still been in her original time period. After all, with the purity of the Charmings, which she found disgusting in all but him, and her strength and wicked resolve, he would have been practically unbeatable, especially if she had been given the chance to teach him the magic she knows.
She may one day yet teach him, but that will be a decision that he will need to make. Magic is a wonderful tool for protection, after all, but it does always come with a price. She realizes she'd much rather keep protecting her son forever with magic than ever risk it corrupting him. Besides, with the way Henry doesn't want her using her magic now, she doubts he'll ever want to learn. Still, he would have been a fine ruler.
The other meaning of his name, based on the word "heim", is home, she recalls. She's always known that his reach will be far greater than merely his home, but she hasn't realized until this very moment just how accurately that first part of his name does describe her son. As she holds her child close to her now, she understands all the pain she's suffered without him. She knows why she's spent so many sleepless nights alone in this mansion she built for herself even after they returned to Storybrooke, and she knows, too, why she's been so restless.
Before Henry, she spent years wondering about True Love and mourning Daniel, who she'd believed to be the other half of her soul, her True Love as it were, but True Love does come in many, many forms. She smiles, thinking to herself in the dark of night as she's switched off his lamp, that there may well be other parts of her soul. Henry certainly is a part not just of her life but a huge part of her heart and soul, as well. She kisses his forehead again, finally feeling complete, and dozes, still smiling, for the first time in a long while for though she's been living in this mansion for many months now, she's only tonight come home.
The End
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Character/Pairing: Regina, Henry, mentions past Daniel/Regina
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge: This was written for the What's In A Name? challenge at the
lands_of_magic OUAT land comm. If you join, be sure to tell them Kat Lee of Team Neverland sent you!Warning(s): SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3!
Word Count: 1,477
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She pauses in the doorway, her fingers hovering on his light switch. She turns, looking back at him, letting the image of her son snuggled safely into his bed soak into her mind, and trying again to remember every little detail of him just in case she should never see him again after she wakes in the morning. It's a silly notion. They're all back where they belong. The curse is lifted again, and he has his memories. He knows who she is. He loves her again.
But she still can't shake the need to memorize everything about him. Every word spoken, every minuet detail is so much more important than she ever realized. She needs this. She needs him. She needs to remember everything about him, just in case something goes wrong. In case her sister takes him from her again, or worse. In case Emma takes him back to New York. In case . . .
There are so many ways their lives could go wrong, so many ways she can be destroyed over something happening to Henry. She knew a long time ago that, if she wasn't careful, her child could prove to be her downfall. What she hadn't realized until these last couple of years is that downfall wouldn't come to her through anything he did, but rather something that happened to him. She blinks back tears and gives herself a mental shake.
He's here now. He's back; he's safe. Emma won't leave her parents again, and even if she somehow manages to skip away from the wonderful and doting Charmings, she won't let take her son with her. Not again, not ever again, will she allow Henry to take her baby away from her.
But what if he wants to go? The thought sends chills through the former Evil Queen. Then her blood pounds in her ears. What if he wants to leave her? What if that's why things are as they should be yet seem only almost right? What if that's the underlining fear she senses in her subconscious? What if he chooses life with Emma in New York over life with her here? It would be safer, but it would take him away from her forever.
Suddenly, she's leaning against the wall for support, head spinning and heart pounding. The mere thought is terrifying. She can't lose him, not again! The first time was almost more than she could bear. She remembers trying to cut out her own heart to stop the pain that filled her without her son. Her fingernails arch on the switch. She can not go through that again. She will not!
Fury blazes in her dark eyes, but then a meek, soft voice calls to her from the bed. "It's okay, Mom. You don't have to go," Henry tells her. "You can stay."
But will you want to stay? she demands. He told her he wouldn't leave her again, but what if he changes his mind? What if he chooses the joys of modern day over the dangers their world presents to him? What if he chooses Emma over her?
She's barely aware of her own movements as she crosses the room to get back to her son's side. She's flipped out the main light but switches on his lamp instead. She starts to take his chair but notices the way he scoots over in his bed and looks imploringly at her. He doesn't speak a word; they don't have to have words, although she loves to talk with him.
She slides into bed beside him, although it's hardly proper at his age, and he instantly leans back against her. She wraps her arms around him and closes her eyes against the tears she can feel welling again. He takes her hand and squeezes it. "It's okay, Mom," he reassures her in that gentle, quiet voice of his that tells her he's not entirely certain she won't yell at him for thinking she's upset instead of admitting to her sorrow and fears. "I meant what I said today: I'm not going to leave you, ever again." He nestles closer to her, and for a moment, Regina remembers all the times she held him when he was younger, when she cared for him when he was nothing more than a baby, when she chased his nightmares away, when she held him when he was scared, when he was sick . . . She blinks and comes out of her reverie just in time to hear him mumbling sleepily, "No one can make me."
His words are true; she knows that. No one can make him leave her, but then no one can make him stay with her, no one without magic that is. She could easily cast a spell on him, make him forget Emma and the Charmings, make him fear New York. She could cast a spell to tie him to her forever.
"I love you forever," he adds, almost as though he can read her mind, and Regina finally smiles again as his declaration reminds her that they are already tied together forever. This bond they can have can not be destroyed by anything but magic, and she won't let that happen. It's already proven to be stronger than magic any way when it broke the curse earlier today.
"I love you too, baby boy," she whispers, though no one can hear her. She places a chaste kiss on the top of his head, then leans back against his headboard with him cuddled safely in her arms. He's finally back. He's finally home. She looks around the walls with a bit of a silly grin on her face as she realizes she is as well.
It's no secret that she named Henry after her father. He was a good man and loved her dearly, although he never stood up to her mother for her. That weakness had been the only thing that had made her able to take his life to enact the first curse. She still regrets that, but it's one of the many, albeit perhaps the worst, mistakes she's made that can not turn back time to undo.
She was curious about her father's name, about the name she was giving her child, and so looked it up on a web engine once when Henry was still a baby. She discovered that it meant two things, as the name was originally, according to modern scholars at least, based on two words. The first was ruler. She has no doubt that Henry, if given the chance, will be a fine ruler. He would have been a wonderful King, the best with which the kingdoms had ever been graced, if they had still been in her original time period. After all, with the purity of the Charmings, which she found disgusting in all but him, and her strength and wicked resolve, he would have been practically unbeatable, especially if she had been given the chance to teach him the magic she knows.
She may one day yet teach him, but that will be a decision that he will need to make. Magic is a wonderful tool for protection, after all, but it does always come with a price. She realizes she'd much rather keep protecting her son forever with magic than ever risk it corrupting him. Besides, with the way Henry doesn't want her using her magic now, she doubts he'll ever want to learn. Still, he would have been a fine ruler.
The other meaning of his name, based on the word "heim", is home, she recalls. She's always known that his reach will be far greater than merely his home, but she hasn't realized until this very moment just how accurately that first part of his name does describe her son. As she holds her child close to her now, she understands all the pain she's suffered without him. She knows why she's spent so many sleepless nights alone in this mansion she built for herself even after they returned to Storybrooke, and she knows, too, why she's been so restless.
Before Henry, she spent years wondering about True Love and mourning Daniel, who she'd believed to be the other half of her soul, her True Love as it were, but True Love does come in many, many forms. She smiles, thinking to herself in the dark of night as she's switched off his lamp, that there may well be other parts of her soul. Henry certainly is a part not just of her life but a huge part of her heart and soul, as well. She kisses his forehead again, finally feeling complete, and dozes, still smiling, for the first time in a long while for though she's been living in this mansion for many months now, she's only tonight come home.
The End