hunnyfresh - Letters from War

She pushed herself up quickly when her bedroom door creaked open. For a second, she wondered if it was the woman plaguing her thoughts and more than one interesting scenarios crossed her mind, but when no one had appeared at the door, her eyes wandered down to see Henry peaking his head into her room.

"Henry?" She whispered quietly.

"I sleep here?" He whispered in a voice that was not remotely close to being quiet.

She turned and slid out of her bed, kneeling in front of the boy and taking his hands in hers. "Did you have a nightmare?"

He shook his head. "I sleep with Emma."

She smirked. He didn't look shaken or scared. He didn't even look tired. If the kid needed some cuddles, who was she to turn him down? Before he could turn on his puppy dog eyes, she nodded. "Only if you promise to go to sleep."

"Yeah!" He cheered but quickly covered his mouth realizing his volume. "Yeah," he repeated in a whisper.

He bounded for her bed, scurrying to get over the edge before plopping himself right in the middle.

Emma shook her head, hardly believing a single kid could be that adorable. But then again so was his mother. She winced to herself and tried pushing that thought away but only managed to think of it to a lesser degree before she scooted in bed next to him, opening her arms for him to curl up into her side.

Regina was having a fitful night. No, her dreams weren't plagued with terror. On the contrary, a certain blonde soldier was starring in it, and soon they were back in Emma's beetle, parked outside the mayoral mansion. The heat and tension surrounded them as they inched closer and closer together, their destination set. Regina's heart beat wildly, and she couldn't help but feel thrilled that she would finally get to feel the pressure of Emma's lips on her own. She was so close to them, plump and pink and within a hair's breadth from her own lips. Regina's tongue came out to wet her lips, and she swore she felt the tiniest bit of flesh from Emma's before the loud knocking jarred her awake.

Her eyes snapped open, her forehead was slick with sweat, and her heart was beating just as quickly as it was in her dream. It took her a moment to truly process what she had been dreaming about, and it took her less than a nanosecond to scold herself. Emma was her friend. She couldn't be having these feelings for her. Leave it to Regina to develop some unknown feelings for the one person who could stand to be in her vicinity.

The knocking sounded again, and Regina sat up, catching the time on her clock to see it was just half past one. Henry didn't knock, a trait she had yet to instill in her son, so it only left one other option. Emma.

"Yes?" She called out, her voice hoarse and cautious. What if Emma wanted to continue what they had almost started in the car? What if Regina let her?

The door opened and Regina saw Emma's head pop into the room with an apologetic smile on her face. "Hey, sorry to wake you."

"It's fine. Are you okay?" She moved to slip out of bed when she noticed Emma had Henry by the hand. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

"I'm fine, dear," Emma joked, using Regina's default term of endearment. Regina's heart skipped a beat. Her focus had been on Henry so she didn't see the embarrassed wince Emma had done.

"I sleep with Mommy now," Henry announced and released Emma's hand to climb into Regina's bed.

"Now?" She looked to Emma for clarification.

"Yeah, he came into my room a little after we put him to bed. He slept for less than an hour before he wanted to see you," the blonde explained.

Regina turned to Henry who had made himself comfortable in his mother's queen-sized bed. "Dear, you have to go to sleep."

"'Kay." With a playful smirk on his face, he dropped onto his back and shut his eyes tight.

"I'm serious, young man," Regina said sternly, poking his side before turning to Emma. "Thank you for bringing him."

Emma chuckled. "Good luck. He seems to be pulling all his tricks tonight."

"I'm well-equipped to deal with him."

"Night, Regina. Good night, Henry."

The boy's response had been an exaggerated snore, which both women shook their head at before attempting to go back to sleep.

"Mommy," Henry whispered nearly two hours later. "Mommy."

"Mmm," Regina rolled over to him in her sleep-state and wrapped an arm around his middle.

"Mommy," he tried again, pulling at her eyelids.

She scrunched up her face, burying it in his chest. "Henry," she responded groggily, though she remained more asleep than awake.

Henry wiggled out of his mother's grasp and straddled her side, leaning over to press his lips right to her ear. "Mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy."

Regina jerked awake, grabbing him at his hips as she sat up, stretching her back and forcing her eyelids open. "Henry, Mommy is very sleepy, and you should be sleeping too."

"Not tired," he insisted.

"Do you have to go to the potty?"

He shook his head.

"Do you want Mommy to get you some warm milk?"

He shook his head again.

"You have to sleep, Henry. It's either here or in your room."

He put a finger to his chin in thought. "Emma?"

She groaned and fell back against the pillows. That was not one of the options she had given him, but right now, Regina was too tired to care. Her dreams hadn't let up one bit, and she needed all the rest she could get if she was prepared to battle her thoughts tomorrow. "Okay, okay, fine. You can sleep with Emma if she allows you."

He grinned and scooted off his mother, using her blanket to lower himself to the ground. Regina followed after him, too tired to put on her robe, and sauntered into the hallway in nothing but a silk nightgown. Henry beat her to Emma's door first, and before she could tell him to knock, Henry opened it and ran into the darkened room.

"Henry," she hissed, jogging the last few steps to Emma's room to see that she was too late in detaining her son for he had already climbed into Emma's bed, crawling from the foot to the headboard and snuggled under the sheets with the blonde.

"Huh?" Emma sat up abruptly, taking less than a second to get her bearings.

"Sleep time, Emma," Henry said as he tugged the blonde back down.

"Is this okay?" Regina asked, leaning into the doorway to keep herself upright.

"I thought you said you were well-equipped," Emma muttered through her sleep-ridden voice.

"You have military training," Regina dismissed waving her hand haphazardly, as if that were answer enough. "Can he stay?"

"Yeah," Emma mumbled tiredly and plopped back down into bed, asleep in seconds.

Someone was awake. Regina felt it. She shut her eyes tightly, cursing that she had only truly fallen asleep half an hour prior. Henry's room arrangement shenanigans were keeping her restless, and now she was awake at - she opened her eyes to see that it was 4:38 - god, Emma better keep him in that bed if she wanted to live.

"Regina," she heard her name muttered on the other side of the door. She debated feigning sleep, but her motherly worries always seemed to wrack inside her brain. "Regina."

"What?" Regina groaned, stuffing a pillow over her face.

"Open the door."

Regina growled and whipped the covers off. Within two steps she had the door open seeing Emma on the other side, dark circles under own eyes and a very awake Henry on her arms.

"Hi," she whispered, nudging the boy to go to his mother.

Regina took him in her arms and pulled his head down to rest on her shoulder. "Hi."

"Is he done playing musical beds yet?" Emma asked with a slight whine in her voice.

"Henry?" Regina asked directing the question back to him.

"Come." He held his hand out to Emma and opened and closed his fist to motion her into the room.

That simple gesture seemed to wake up both women instantaneously. Regina's eyes widened while Emma's lips parted in a preempted stammer. A yawn tore through Regina, large enough to make her eyes water and reminding her that it was quite late. She barely had time to cover her mouth before cocking her head back to Emma and motioning toward the bed. "Come on, soldier."