so i was just watching ouat clips on youtube and i got to the one in 2x08 where henry wakes up after talking to aurora in the fire room and you can see david and regina both wake up after falling asleep watching henry, and it really made me think about how at that point in the series they absolutely still saw each other as threats to each other so them being able to do that says so much to me about where their relationship must have been. this wasn’t too long after 2x05 when daniel came back, so david’s already seen her at an incredibly vulnerable point in her life, arguably more than any time he’s ever seen her before. he’s exhausted trying to find a way back to snow and emma, keep the town in line, and keep henry from doing anything stupid. regina’s exhausted dealing with the aftermath of the curse breaking, everything with henry, and then just having to kill her first love. and they don’t have much in common, have every reason to hate each other, but they’re able to come together for henry, for his safety and security. i imagine they both waited for him to fall asleep to start talking, and of course it’s david who starts the conversation because regina is more than happy to sit in silence and act as though he doesn’t exist. he talks about henry, what he’s been up to when regina isn’t there and that’s easy for her to discuss, it’s safe, it’s henry. and they talk for a while about nothing before he can’t help himself anymore and asks about daniel, about what their lives were like before snow and the king and the curse. if she’d had a little more rest regina would’ve shut down the topic before it even started, but she’s exhausted and worried out of her mind and he’s the first person to really ask (snow never wondered what her life was like before, never cared) so she tells him about daniel, about the life she really wanted with him and the story of how she got the scar on her lip, and in turn he tells her about his farm and his mother and that he didn’t really want to live like this either, that they aren’t as different as they think. regina’s quiet, practically asleep to the lullaby of lives never lived, and she whispers to him that she knows she’s evil because she doesn’t regret anything because it got her henry, and david goes quiet himself, let’s the confession sit in the air for a moment before he tells her that she would’ve been a great shepherd, but she’s an even better mother. and regina’s eyes well with tears when she tells him he makes a decent prince, but he’ll make an even better father. and it’s this conversation, that doesn’t change anything but explains so much, that under any other circumstances would’ve never happened, that lets them take their walls down enough to fall asleep in the same room.
