#daggzandarrows

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills & Henry Mills Characters: Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time) Additional Tags: Eventual Swan Queen, Swan Queen - Freeform, Regal Believer, Swan Mills Family, Slow Burn Summary:

Henry doesn’t hate Regina.

That would almost be easier.

Instead, they circle one another carefully in the aftermath of the curse, both grieving the relationship they used to have and neither quite knowing how to rebuild it.

Then Regina disappears.

Everyone else thinks she’s fled, but Emma and Henry know better.

Set after Emma and Snow’s return from the Enchanted Forest but veering completely from canon (no Cora, no Hook, no lead into Neverland).

Hmm... I’m gonna say “yet to be finished/published” qualifies as “yet to be written,” so I’ll go with: my January projects are finishing the Oblivion piece for Regina’s birthday, and finishing a prompt I got for Valentine’s Day LAST year in time to post it for Valentine’s Day THIS year.I also have a wild plot bunny right now for a Missing Year one-shot, but I don’t know if/when I’ll be able to get around to writing that. If I stick with my writing goal for the year, I’ll hopefully have time for more one-shots in addition to BIn and all the stuff I have to finish.

The next writer I want to introduce to you is CHELSEA

Holy cannoli, who doesn’t know her amazing stories? She’s the tumblr prompt queen for me, gives out fics like candy and never disappoints in her diversity when it comes to ideas. She has so many ongoing verses it’s hard to decide what’s your favorite. I don’t know how she finds the time to write all these fics! Celsea totally deserves some love from all of you, so show it - in prompts, in reviews, in reblogs... and tag her stuff. She loves tag flailing! 

Tumblr: @daggzandarrows

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChelseaGentile

FF.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4857219/Daggzandarrows also, she tags her tumblr stuff mostly with ‘oq ff’

Also, here is her Master Fic List, because not everything is on ff.net!

Ships: Writes mainly Outlaw Queen but also Evil Charming and I think I’ve read SQ, RB and lots of other amazing stuff as well.

Favorite completed fic: An Unwelcome Return   ( When Emma and Killian return from the Enchanted Forest, Regina's world is turned upside down - King Leopold is both alive and in Storybrooke. Told from the perspectives of all those affected by the King's return. Established OQ, a Leopold instead of Marian alternate universe. )

Favorite WIP: Ok this was SO hard to pick, I can’t believe I am making myself do that. So... I’m going to be sneaky and will give you two recs... one from ff.net and one of her Tumblr verses.

A Different Kind Of Reality ( When Robin meets a young boy, lost and alone in Boston, he can't help but to aid in getting him home. Once there he meets Henry's mother, the beautiful Mayor Mills, will he be able to leave this new town knowing that someone such as her exists? OQ/RB Rating may change. )

Sponsor Verse  (Starting with the prompt: “Have you drank all of these bottles in one weekend?!” You can find the rest in the Master Fic List linked above!)

This made me so happy, because it’s a verse I struggle with, I sometimes love it and sometimes think it’s so dramatic and over the top, and I get why it’s not for everyone, or particularly the original story isn’t for everyone.  I loved writing it, but I second guess a lot in it when I reread it (which I do often since I’m writing the story all over again from Robin’s perspective lol).

“Baby Peanut’s magic”

————

“If we suppress it, it will only hurt her in the long run.” Regina explained, her patience running thin because they'd talked about this for so long now and, as much as she loved Robin, he just wasn’t getting it. “She needs to learn to control it now, while she's young lest she lose control and, god forbid, kill someone.”

“She wouldn't.”

“Not on purpose, Robin,” she amended on a tired sigh. The kids were due home soon and the chance to speak so openly with him was quickly dwindling. “You know her temper. At least if she understood what it was, she'd be prepared.”

He shook his head, still pacing in front of the window as she watched from her place on the sofa. “I just…” he sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, “I don't want her to turn out like-”

“Like me?” It stung, penetrated deep and flooded her veins like acid.

His pace slowed as he turned his head to look at her, a look of horror on his face, “What? No! That's not-”

“Magic is in her blood just as it is mine, Robin. Regardless of who birthed her, Mills’ blood runs through her veins. You cannot condone my magic yet condemn Zelena’s because they are one and the same.”

“Regina, I-”

“If you'll excuse me,” she interrupted briskly, swallowing thickly as tears glistened in eyes that wouldn't lift to look at him, “I need to make a start on dinner.”

————

“Is Mom sick?” Henry frowned as he watched Regina walk from the room, the plate of food in her hands barely touched unlike the children's empty plates she’d stacked beneath her own.

Robin swallowed guiltily, his own food inedible with the way his stomach was knotted. She'd barely looked at him since before dinner and had immersed herself in the children when they'd bounded through the front door, full of joy and caked in dirt having spent the afternoon in the forest with Robin’s men.

He felt awful.

“I think she's just a little tired, Henry.”

“She looks sad,” Scarlett frowned worriedly with eyes still on the door through which her mother had walked, “do you think she'd like a hug, Daddy?”

He couldn't help but smile with absolute affection at his daughter’s words, nodding his head as he replied, “I think she'd love that, darling.”

————

Her shoulders shook with her silent sobs as she pressed her face harder against her legs, wrapping her arms tighter around her knees and berating herself for getting so worked up over something she knew Robin hadn't meant.

He loved her, loved every single part of her - he'd spent many years now reaffirming that belief in her - and she knew that included her magic, he was just worried that it would corrupt their girl like it had done Zelena and Regina both and his fear wasn’t irrational...it was just unnecessary.

He didn’t understand how frightened Scarlett would be should she feel that first surge of power without knowledge of what it was or where it came from. There’d been many a night in which Regina had stood watching in the doorway of their daughter’s room as her dreams had been magically projected onto the ceiling, chuckling softly as her teddy bears had danced about the room in a way that had been strangely elegant.

It was beautiful, their daughter’s magic, but it could change and Regina wanted her to be prepared for that in a way that she herself hadn’t been.

There was a tug on her fingers that startled her, eyes wide as she lifted her head to blink wetly at the very person she'd been thinking of staring concernedly back at her.

“Why are you crying, Mama?”

She’d inherited magic from Regina’s side of the family but had most certainly inherited Robin’s ability to move silently when he wanted to. “Oh, I just stubbed my toe, sweetheart,” she replied and she hated lying but this was not something she was ready to discuss with their daughter yet, not until she and Robin were agreed on the best course of action. “It really stung.”

Eyes as blue as her father’s but as expressive as her own blinked back at her, a shadow of suspicion there as Scarlett looked to her bare feet and back again.

She changed the subject - or at least her daughter’s train of thought - by holding out her arms to Scarlett and asking, “Can Mama have a hug? It’ll make me feel much better.” And that was no lie.

Dimples dented chubby little cheeks as Scarlett nodded and reached arms up towards Regina, giggling wildly when she tickled at her sides as she lifted her onto the bed and placed her in the gap between legs now crossed, folding her arms tight around her daughter’s waist as small arms wrapped around her neck in turn.

Regina threaded her fingers through strawberry blonde curls and held Scarlett’s face to her neck as she cried quietly, trying to keep her shaking to a minimum. Their daughter was good in spite of her conception. Inherently good and that wasn’t only because of Robin but because of her too. She knew that even on her worst days.

They’d raised her in the right way - Zelena’s visits were still supervised even now and they’d never heard anything to be cautious of but it would remain that way lest she even dare think she could corrupt the goodness in Scarlett’s heart - but Regina knew the lure of dark magic. Knew how it could whisper in your ear and wrap around your heart.

It was a chance they weren’t willing to take where Zelena was concerned despite Regina’s own desire for a change in her sister much like her own. There was simply too much to lose.

“Can I sleep with you tonight, Mama?”

Her heart ached in her chest as she stroked her fingers through Scarlett’s hair and nodded, “Of course you can, my darling.”

————

She wasn’t sure of the time nor how long she’d been asleep but when she blinked open heavy eyes, she found Robin to be sitting in the armchair in the corner of the room watching them sleep. He looked exhausted and completely guilt-stricken. It was automatic and instinctual for her to lift a hand from Scarlett’s back and hold it out to him.

Robin didn’t hesitate to cross the small distance to the bed and slip carefully beneath the covers, instantly leaning up and over their daughter to press a kiss to Regina’s lips. “I am so sorry, my love.”

Regina shushed him gently, accepting another lingering kiss from him before she lay her head back down onto the pillow and watched as he did the same after dropping a kiss into Scarlett’s sleep-mussed curls. They lay in silence for a long moment, just soaking in the tiny child in their arms and the joy she brought to all of their lives much like her brothers before her. A child not born of Regina, much like the other two, but just as embedded in her heart.

“She may be Mills by blood,” Regina began quietly, shushing him gently when he moved to apologise, to tell her he hadn’t meant that. “But she’s also a Locksley by heart and soul. She’s so good, Robin. Much of the darkness in both Zelena and myself was out there by years of neglect. We chased that with a need to be loved by people who didn’t have the capacity to and that in turn bred abuse and an acceptance that that was what we deserved…until we couldn’t stand it anymore.”

“That dark path was a choice both Zelena and I took. I was simply lucky enough to find people to pull me back from that, to make me realise that there was so much more for me to find in the light.” She pressed a kiss to Scarlett’s temple when the girl snuggled deeper into her hole without waking before continuing. “One day Zelena might realise that too - maybe she’s already leaning that way, only time will tell…but Scarlett will never have to wonder if she is loved because we show her everyday. She will never feel alone because she has a whole army of people behind her. And she will never feel scared because we are going to tell her the truth.”

“Within reason,” Robin laughed softly, and she breathed a laugh in return because yes, some things she didn’t need to know just yet. But others…

“I suspect she already knows she can do special things or at least sense it, I began to suspect at her age,” she smiled down at the angelic features so relaxed in sleep, reminded of Henry at that age and Roland too, not yet aware of how dangerous or scary the world could be. “I just don’t want her to fear what is a part of her. I don’t want her to resent her magic, not when we can prepare her for it, when I can teach her to wield it properly.”

“I know,” Robin moved forward to capture her lips in a kiss that said so much more than he could. It was full of apology, of compassion and of promise. She was not alone. He stayed close when he allowed the kiss to break, stroking a hair through Scarlett’s curls. “I don’t want her scared either. I want her to feel confident in who she is, to know she can be whoever she wants to and we’ll always be there to catch her if she falls…it’s just…”

“Scary?”

He nodded, relief colouring his features that he was finally communicating what he’d been trying to say earlier. “I have absolutely no doubt that you will keep her safe, Regina. I trust you implicitly.”

She smiled tenderly at him, eyes moving over his face for a long moment before she admitted, “It scares the hell out of me too, Robin…” and then, “but the thought of Scarlett disliking or even fearing any part of herself scares me more.”

Robin leaned in once more to press a kiss to her forehead, cupping the back of her head as he moved in closer to hold his two favourite girls as he pressed his forehead to her own and promised, “Then her lessons start tomorrow. Let’s show our daughter another of the beautiful things about herself to love.”

Swan Queen FF

She thought she’d finally figured the place out. Henry was unhappy at home, sure, but he wasn’t being abused. The Mayor could be a raging bitch but she could also be one of the best examples of a mother Emma had ever had the chance to see.

Like now, for instance.

Emma stood silently at the bottom of the stairs, one foot on the floor and one still resting on the bottom step with her hand curved around the handrail for balance as she took a moment to watch the two at the end of the garden without them knowing.

Henry was dressed for school, his backpack on and his homework folder in the hands he had clasped in front of him as he listened to whatever it was that Regina was telling him. For once, Emma mused, there was no anger or distrust in his dark eyes. He looked very much like the child Emma believed he probably was before his storybook came into the picture. The kind who obeyed his mother’s commands because she’d brought him up with manners, the kind who loved her just as fiercely as she loved him and with complete innocence. She wondered, not for the first time, just how much of Henry’s dismissal of Regina was more for Emma’s benefit than anything else. Looking at them now, in the quiet of the morning, a fresh day not yet ruined by outside forces, she could quite easily see a way back for these two.

Her heart fluttered in her chest - a strange sensation that she tried hard to ignore - when Regina swept a gentle hand through Henry’s hair, brushing it away from his eyes as she continued speaking quietly with him. Her other arm was crossed over her stomach as though she was bracing herself, waiting for the attack that usually came when she tried to offer her son a little motherly tenderness. Thankfully, it didn’t look like that was going to happen.

She watched for a few moments more, really savouring the image she may not get to see again, before she took herself into Regina’s kitchen and out of the line of sight. There was a reason she’d lingered in the bedroom this morning - two really but one of those reasons was just leaving and would remain none the wiser.

She was unsure of herself in all of the worst and most ridiculous ways. Should she stay or should she go?

What had happened last night between herself and Regina was wholly unexpected but, as she’d lain awake a few minutes longer than the prickly mayor, taking in everything that had transpired, it had almost felt inevitable that this was where they were going to end up.

It had started from an argument, full of fire and passion but somewhere in the middle time had seemed to slow. Frantic kisses had become soft and tender. Hair tugs, while absolutely encouraged by both parties, had become fingers threading in silky tresses, cupping the backs of heads to hold one another even closer. Things had shifted between them but Emma was completely unsure of how permanent that change would be.

It was only a few moments more before she heard the front door close and the sound of heels clicking ever closer, echoing the beat of her heart.

There was a slight pause, almost unnoticeable but most certainly a pause, before the kitchen door swung open and Regina breezed in. A pang of sadness resounded in Emma’s chest. The mask was back in place - a calculated smile and eyes that held steady but gave nothing away.

“Thank you for remaining out of Henry’s sight, Miss Swan.” She could feel it, she was about to be dismissed. And sure enough, “But he is happily unaware and on his way to school so no need to linger any longer.”

Regina didn’t even bother to look at her, choosing instead to navigate her way around the kitchen island to the fridge. She began busying herself with pulling what she needed from the shelves as Emma fought for the right response. It was bad enough feeling like she wasn’t good enough in her own head but to be let go so easily only picked at the scabs of very old wounds still not healed. “I, uh…” and had it been any other day and any other person, she probably would have already left without even thinking of saying goodbye but last night had been different with Regina…at least she’d thought so. So much so that she found herself too hurt to even argue with the woman. So she didn’t. “Bye, Regina.”

She gave the brunette one last lingering look, allowed herself one more moment to mourn the ridiculous fantasy she’d obviously cooked up all on her own last night, before she was making her way back through the kitchen door and across the foyer.

It was only as she pulled her own walls back up around her heart, certain that she would never again speak to Regina if Henry were not concerned, that the sound her name being called had her turning to find Regina standing in the kitchen doorway looking torn.

A full bottom lip was pulled between perfectly straight teeth as the mayor’s mask slipped a few inches, revealing an indecision similar to Emma’s own. As if anything could be simple when it came to them. “Would you like to stay for coffee?”

Emma couldn’t help the small smile that pulled at her lips in return as she wasted no time thinking and nodded her response. Glad to see a smile pulling at Regina’s lips that could be mistaken for something close to happy or, at least where they were concerned, as happy as they could be for now. And for now, a little bit of happy was better than none at all.

Taken from the September Prompts list currently on my page. This is number 1. Coffee Smell

Every time I listen to the song So Close and think of the scene it is from in Enchanted, I think of Outlaw Queen during that bloody painful Frozen arc and I HAVE to write something.

So we’ll pretend that Marian was really Marian and after she gave her blessing to Regina, nothing else happened in the town of Storybrooke. There was no Zelena issue to resolve but our Regina wasn’t quick to forgive Robin for things that happened during that time.

I’ve left descriptions of clothing etc. out of it purposefully. When I’m reading a fic, I usually like to visualise some of my favourite characters looks and just go with that so when descriptions come into it, it either muddles my brain or I just ignore them 🙈 that is only me though! If you prefer descriptions, let me know and I will include them in the future.

—————————

“I’m fine right here, sweetheart,” Regina smiled at Henry. Waving him away when he attempted to lead her to the table that Emma and her parents were sitting at. “Go have some fun.”

She had only agreed to come because Henry had refused to go without her.

If there was one thing Snow White loved, it was a victory party. She almost found herself wondering how many had been thrown over the years she’d attempted to kill the girl but decided not to take herself down that path tonight. They were in an extremely healthy place now. They’d never be the young princess and her kindhearted rescuer again, too much had happened. But they’d become something of a family once more.

She smiled over at the woman in question, shaking her head when Snow frowned at her resistance to join them.

Almost subconsciously, her eyes drifted to where Robin stood with his back to her and his eyes trained on his whiskey glass at the bar. When she looked back to Snow, she found sympathy there but no pity and for that, she was grateful.

She and Robin hadn’t spoken much since Marian had given her blessing. Regina hadn’t seen much point in it. They’d missed their time many years ago in a land far different than this one and they’d been fools to think otherwise. She’d been the biggest fool of all.

Darkness hadn’t yet touched her heart when she’d first laid eyes on him in that tavern. Sure, she’d had the first suggestions of darkness shrouding her thoughts but her heart had still been pure, much like Robin’s was. But now…she was the furthest thing she could have been to what he deserved. How she’d ever believed it could work was ridiculous. Of course he’d choose another over her. Of course he would.

It was a deep ache that threatened to steal her breath entirely every time she allowed herself to think too much into it. Tonight wasn’t about that though. Tonight was about spending time with her son and the people he loved and who loved him, even if they didn’t all love or even like her. So she took a deep breath and swallowed against the lump in her throat. She’d weathered the storm before, she would do so again with the help of Henry this time to keep her on the right path. On the only path she wanted to be on.

When a glass was placed in front of her, amber liquid swirling within, she took a deep breath, readying herself to look into shining blue eyes and refuse the offer of a drink only to release it swiftly and in no way subtly when she found Granny to be standing before her.

“Knock it back quick, girl.”

Regina frowned up at the woman before realising how she was standing right in front of her, her bulking frame hiding Regina from view of any who may be looking over. She smiled gratefully before picking up the glass and tipping the whiskey into her mouth, swallowing like she was a dying woman and this was the elixir of life. “Thank you,” she coughed lightly, placing the glass in Granny’s hand.

“Atta girl.”

And with nothing more than a comforting squeeze of her hand around Regina’s, she was moving off towards the bar once more.

——————

A short while later, Regina found another glass in front of her. This one easily identifiable by the smell that reached her instantly. Tequila.

“Miss Swan, I’m-“

“You may look fine, Regina,” Emma interrupted as she lowered herself into the booth opposite her, her own shot glass in her hand, “but I know I’d prefer a friend in this situation.”

Robin had since moved from his place at the bar to sit beside his (now) ex-wife and son. Their gazes had met a couple of times, holding only for one painful instant before she was looking anywhere else but at him despite the feeling of those eyes still on her.

“It’s been a hard few weeks for everyone,” she continued, her fingernails tapping at the glass in her hand now resting on the table in front of her. And Regina blinked.

Though she’d initiated the search that had helped stop Emma from relinquishing her powers - a ridiculous notion that the Charmings had somehow entertained for a terrifying moment - she’d been too wrapped up in her own issues with Robin to remind Emma that magic was in the very fabric of her being. So she nodded and lifted the shot glass in front of her, smiling when Emma mirrored her and knocked them together with a satisfying clink before they were sinking the tequila without so much as a grimace.

Emma’s eyes moved back over to her family and Regina studied her for a moment. Here was a woman who’d finally found everything she wanted - the son she’d been too afraid to keep, the parents she’d always searched for and the love she’d always craved from other partners but never found. Yet, much like Regina, she’d been unable to accept it and had tried to change herself.

Regina shook her head, knowing that she too should be accepting that she was simply enough as she was despite her past but it was so much easier to give advice rather than take it.

“If ever you should need my help with anything, Emma…” she began tentatively, lifting her eyes from the table when the blonde turned her attention back to Regina. “I may not be the most approachable, but I am always here…whenever you need.”

Emma nodded gratefully before chuckling softly to herself and eliciting a frown from Regina. “You may not have been approachable when I first got here, Madame Mayor,” she grinned, able to laugh at their initial rivalry now despite how both were nearly killed numerous times during those first couple of years, “but you’re most definitely not as scary now as you were then.”

Dark eyes flashed with a dangerous humour as a perfectly tweezed brow lifted. “You think I’ve gone soft, Miss Swan?”

“Okay, no,” Emma laughed, lifting herself from the booth. “Let’s leave the Evil Queen in her cage, shall we?”

Regina merely shrugged in response as Emma began backing off with a much easier smile than when she’d first sat down. “The night’s still young.”

“Yes,” Emma nodded, that smile softening as she cocked her head towards where Robin now sat alone, “it is.”

——————

She was on her way back from the bathroom, weaving slowly through those who’d chosen to get up and dance - Henry and Emma among them, she noted with a smile - when small fingers curl around her hand suddenly.

“Dance with me, R’gina!”

“Roland, use your manners,” Marian’s admonishment came instantly as Regina turned to find the two behind her.

“Dance with me please, R’gina!” he amended adorably, Regina’s heart growing two sizes as she crouched to his level with a warm smile.

“By the looks of your rosy cheeks,” she tapped at the side of his face, eliciting a shriek of laughter from him, “I’d say you’d already been dancing.”

He nodded before reasoning, “But I haven’t danced with you yet!”

“You can’t just abandon your mama,” she replied, not wanting to step on Marian’s toes with their checkered past. “Who will she dance with?”

The woman in question laughed easily, shaking her head as she explained, “You’d be doing me a favour,” she raised a hand to her forehead for Roland’s benefit as she added, “I’m all danced out, I’m afraid.”

Roland looked from his mother and back to Regina excitedly as she looked up at Marian with her eyebrows raised in question, asking if the woman really was sure. When she merely smiled wider and nodded, Regina looked back to Roland.

“Well I guess that’s settled then.”

And with that, she hefted the giggling toddler onto her hip and began turning them in circles, revelling in the same excited shrieks this kind of dancing had once pulled from her own son when she’d twirled him around the kitchen as a child.

—————-

She was almost out of breath and quite ready to call it a night. Roland had allowed her a moment of reprieve, running to his mother to ask if she’d been watching their two, three, four different dances (which, of course, she had). She was about to turn and start making her way back towards her table when she felt it. She felt him. Standing behind her.

“May I have this dance, milady?”

Regina turned slowly on the spot, quite sure at least four pairs of eyes were on them already as she finally locked a steady gaze on the man she’d been unable to look at all night.

His smile was so earnest, so full of hope as he stood before her that she found herself automatically nodding despite the lump rising in her throat.

Robin gave her a long moment more to change her mind before he was slowly and tentatively stepping into her space with his hands held up palm outwards.

She shouldn’t, Regina knew she shouldn’t but somehow, her hands lifted of their own accord. One found its way onto his shoulder, curving over the muscle there as she felt him cup her waist, while the other laid gently atop his waiting palm.

There was a moment in which their eyes locked once more. One filled with every single word they’d never been able to say to one another, never been brave enough to voice in these last few heartachingly awful weeks. And then, without any more thought to it (because what needed to be said right now, here in this frozen moment between them) they pulled one another closer and began to move, feeling for the first time in a long time that perhaps things wouldn’t have to be so difficult anymore. Perhaps for once, things could be easy.

Chapters: 3/?  Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Robin Hood Summary: Never Say Neverland - Set during Season 3A when our crew finds themself in Neverland. What if The Shadow brought Roland instead of Neal…I started this a long time ago - if anyone would like a continuation, I would happily do so but I definitely need a season 3 rewatch first to remind myself of all that happened!

preview

Regina

“Show yourself before I set fire to the earth you stand on.”

Her eyes shot to the rustling foliage as her nostrils flared with the thrill of a possible fight, fire burning at her fingertips and a thirst for blood thrumming through her veins as she awaited her predator’s attack. She was exhausted, her feet were swollen and blistered in her boots and her neck was aching something terrible from countless nights spent sleeping on the ground and studiously ignoring both the Charmings and Emma for fear that she would soon kill them all - she was in no mood.

In all honesty, she was hoping to find either Pan or one of his vicious four-foot cronies hiding behind the shrubbery but instead she was surprised when, rather timidly, an even smaller boy appeared before her.

His hair was wild, curls ragged and matted with dirt, his cheeks were smudged with mud and his clothes were ripped and frayed. He carried nothing other than a small tattered teddy that was clutched in a tight palm, its legs dragging on the ground with each small step the child took. Dark eyes were on her hand and the fire burning bright above her skin and so, after a moment of staring rather dumbfoundedly at the boy, she closed her fist and extinguished it with a growing frown.

He didn’t look like one of Pan’s boys but she was no fool to Neverland’s ways, the land itself as terrible and manipulative as its leader so she moved no closer to the child but instead kept her eyes trained upon his, her head tilted in her studying.

“You can do magic?”

His little voice tugged at her heart, at the mother inside of her who ached to call him over and wipe away the tears she could see glistening on his cheeks, but if he was nothing more than a decoy, an illusion sent to leave her vulnerable to attack then she would never find her Henry and that was something she couldn’t risk. “I can,” she replied calmly and evenly, still watching him for signs of sudden movement but he simply stood and stared up at her with a quivering lip as he chewed at his thumb.

“My papa said that magic is bad,” he told her, his voice growing tight and his eyes watering. She guessed it to be at the mention of his father though she couldn’t say for sure as her head tilted even further, her brow furrowing as her eyes narrowed slightly because he didn’t seem to be a shapeshifting sprite nor could she detect any new magic in the air. He radiated an innocence that her very gut told her could not be fabricated.

Regina took a cautious step closer to the boy, breathing steadily with hands ready by her side as she asked “and where is your papa?”

His bottom lip wobbled once more as fresh tears trailed from his unblinking eyes, glistening in the starlight above them, “in the ‘chanted Forest”

Her ears perked at that, at the mention of a home that had once been her own. She softened both her stance and her demeanour a little when she asked “and why isn’t he here with you?”

“The man said that the shadow only comes for children,” he explained tearfully, “he told me to say some words and when it came I’d be okay but I wasn’t…” he was crying in earnest now, his cherubic face scrunched with distress, reliving the moment as he told her, “he took me from papa.”

“Why did the man want you to call for the shadow, sweetheart?” she couldn’t help the endearment as much as she couldn’t help but walk closer to him, her own expression sympathetic for his little cries were unbearably sad.

He hiccuped as he moved to speak, bringing the hand not holding his teddy up to rub at his eye before managing “he wanted to get to his Henny.”

Her blood ran cold at that, her lips parting on a gasp as she froze in place - Neverland suddenly felt a lot colder. “Wh-what,” she coughed lightly to clear her throat as she lightened her voice in an attempt not to frighten the boy even more, “what was the man’s name?” and when the child only continued to cry, sniffling, she asked “was it Neal?”

“Yeah!” he seemed to perk at that and instantly she was dropping to her knees before him, this child was not dangerous but he was most certainly lost. And Neal was alive ?

“Oh, sweetheart. I’m Regina. What’s your name? How long have you been here?” she asked, unsure of how to comfort the boy without frightening him though she was encouraged by the way he seemed to shuffle a little closer to her so that the toes of his tiny brown boots were half an inch from touching her knees.

“Roland.” He shook his head, his bottom lip pulled out in the most heartbreaking of pouts “I don’t know,” before he was trembling and falling into her open arms, “I wanna go home!”