★ ᴛᴜʀɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀɢᴇ

multi muse blog for henry sr, zelena, and henry jr

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

“It’s better you didn’t,” Cora said, unable to look at Zelena as she spoke. Cora did not regret killing Jonathon, and she never would. It did not matter what wistful tones her daughter took, or what sad eyes she made. That would not change Cora’s feelings on the matter. She’d taken her revenge on the man who, frankly, had nearly ruined the rest of her life forever. She did regret. She was glad.

“He’d have betrayed you as he betrayed me,” Cora stated coolly. “He wanted nothing to do with you. He would not provide money for your care, nor even acknowledge you as his own. He was a dishonorable, penniless scoundrel and not worth a second of your time.”

Cora turned then, facing Zelena once more. “I suggest you put those wishes out of your mind, my darling. He’d have only disappointed you.”

Biting down on her lip, Zelena did her best not to let any kind of disappointment show on her face. It would be silly to be upset over a matter like this, not getting to meet the father that wouldn’t have cared for her anyways. Cora was right, she should banish the thoughts from her mind...and yet, she couldn’t. She wanted to see him, wanted to know what he looked like and sounded like. She wanted to know if he was still a gardener,  what his home looked like, where the tavern was where he met Cora. She just wanted to know more about where she had come from, beyond the stories that only her mother could tell her. Perhaps there would always be a lingering curiosity then, a quiet wondering of what would her life be like if she had known the man who helped create her.

But she wouldn’t share any of this outloud. It would sound like pestering, and Zelena knew she was lucky enough to have been given Jonathon’s story at all. She wouldn’t push her mother over the edge in search of details that wouldn’t matter.

“...I guess that’s what most fathers do.” she sighed, meeting her mother’s eyes and shrugging slightly, “I’m sorry for what happened...but...thank you. For telling me, I mean. I’m glad I know now.”

She rose up from her seat then, making moves as if to leave. She had gotten what she came for, and didn’t see any reason to pester her mother more. It was best if she went back to where Regina was, but before she went, there was just one more question...

“...do you think of him often?” she asked softly, “When you look at me? Do I...remind you of him?”

[storybcrn]

; meet again

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

Cora’s hands clenched against the fabric of her jacket. She tried not to think too much about his response, or what that might mean. She deserved to suffer, didn’t she? Surely that was why she was here at all. She hadn’t exactly expected any shining white light at the end of her tunnel. 

Still, his description of this place was unnerving to say the least. She met his eyes for a moment, searching for indications of lies or withheld information- but his gaze was steady, and damn him, he was always was honest. Yet there was one thread he had left dangling.

“He? What do you mean he?” 

She could finish the rest of his sentence for him, however, and knew well what it meant- so this was not hell, exactly, but there was one. She couldn’t help but picture the old tales of fire and brimstone, and shuddered at the thought. Under different circumstances she might have scoffed at anyone who thought they could keep her trapped in a place like this, but she hardly believed there was anything better waiting for her regardless. If the only other alternative was eternal damnation, well…

She stopped that thought.

“Yes, it broke. There was a savior,” Cora explained, shifting back to thoughts of Regina- somehow that was more upsetting than the state of her own soul. She lowered her gaze again. “I don’t know if she’s happy, I…wasn’t there long…she has enemies, and I…well. Maybe she is happier now.”

She didn’t want to believe that, echoes of Regina’s pleas of don’t leave me still ringing in her ears. But maybe, now time had passed…maybe it was better this way after all. Hadn’t Regina wanted her dead at one point, anyway? Wish granted.

Oh, no. He had said too much. How could Henry have been so stupid? He knew Cora and knew what she would do to maintain control, be it over someone else or her own life. In their world it was different, people were easy to manipulate, and consequences may be brutal, but they were never eternal. Down here it was different. Down here, one wrong step meant suffering that never ended. He was not about to let his wife go off in search of him, it would only lead to trouble.

“No.” he said, shaking his head with vigor, “No, it’s not safe. You don’t know what he’s like, Cora. He is unlike any King who ever lived, he’s immortal. He’s overseen this land for longer than anyone has been here, you don’t know what he’s capable of! It’s too dangerous to even speak of him, really, we shouldn’t be discussing this...leave it be.”

Shaking the worry from his mind, he gave a glance over his own shoulder before striding up towards his wife. They needed to move, they needed to find some place safer. While the Lord of the Underworld had ears everywhere, he would be easier to avoid if there were not standing in the center of his domain.

“You must tell me more. I...I want to know what her life has been like. I have missed her. But we cannot do it here. Please, come with me.” he urged, holding out his hand to her, “If you insist on leaving once we’ve talked, then you may. But the longer we remain here, the more dangerous it becomes.”

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

Cora stiffened. Part of her wanted to smile- Zelena was sharp, and intelligent. And Cora was proud of that. Part of her wanted to frown, however, because this was not something Zelena needed to know. Not yet. She was smart, but not old enough to understand.

Cora glanced down at her hands, pressing them together. She remembered it still, the vindication she’d felt squeezing that blackened heart between her hands. She’d sunk her nails into it, watched it bleed. She’d watched blankly, but every cry and scream she’d made on Zelena’s behalf had gone into that kill. All her anger, her hate, her sorrow. She’d used them all to rip that heart from his chest- after her own, it was the first heart she’d ever taken. 

And the first one she’d crushed.

“Yes, he died,” Cora said, no trace of remorse in her voice. She did not regret her actions, no. But it didn’t matter. She was not going to tell the truth yet- someday perhaps. But for now Zelena was far to young to know her mother had killed her father. “I heard the Prince speaking of it once at a ball, how is gardener had fallen ill and he’d had to hire a new one. I knew that gardener was Jonathon for there were no others at the castle.”

Zelena wanted to accept what Cora told her as truth without any fuss. It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, people got sick and died all the time. If Jonathon wasn’t nobility, he would of course have been more likely to suffer from whatever ailed him. It was a perfect story with a bitter ending, one that she should take and be satisfied with.

But she wasn’t. The way her mother spoke of Jonathon, of what he had done to her, made it seem like a coincidental ending of this sort was too perfect. How would Cora know the sickness killed him, if all the prince had said was he was sick? Was this story simply a farce to keep Zelena from questioning further; was her father still alive, or was he dead amid other circumstances? The tone Cora had used when finishing her tale made the young girl suspect the latter, but she would say nothing. If there was more to her history than Cora was willing to share, there was a reason for it. She would find out when the time was right.

“...I see. I’m...I’m sorry it happened that way, all of it. I understand that he was wretched, but I...” She shifted for a moment, biting down on her lip with a tinge of nervousness. Maybe it was a foolish assumption, but she had a feeling Cora would not like what she was about to say. “...I do wish I could have met him.”

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

Cora bit back an insulted snarl- who did her husband think he was fooling? Still, she thrust the baby towards him, dropping her in Henry’s arms. “Fine,” she hissed. “If you’re so certain, take her.”

See if I care. For she didn’t care, and that was the entire point of it all, wasn’t it? She’d torn out her foolish heart, so there was no need to feel anything at all. What did it matter, what did anything matter. Why bother with love or sentiment or the feel of her daughter in her arms or…or the jealousy at how easily Regina settled in her father’s embrace.

The sudden weight of the baby startled Henry, and he scrambled to support her head in the crook of his elbow. He had never envisioned himself like this, not just a father, but an involved one. It was unusual for his wife to have refused a caretaker for their daughter, but it gave them both a chance to spend more time with Regina...after all, no one else was looking after her.

And what Henry had discovered in the few short months they’d been parents is that nothing made him happier. Cradling his daughter, singing to her, rocking her to sleep, he loved it. He loved her, his little Regina.

The silently wicked part of him also loved to see the way Cora bristled when the girl quieted down in his arms. He had been right, and he knew she loathed that. 

“...there, you see? She must have just needed some new arms.” he chuckled, “It’s nothing you’re doing, dear, I’m sure. She’s just a little anxious, that’s all.”

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

Cora bit back an insulted snarl- who did her husband think he was fooling? Still, she thrust the baby towards him, dropping her in Henry’s arms. “Fine,” she hissed. “If you’re so certain, take her.”

See if I care. For she didn’t care, and that was the entire point of it all, wasn’t it? She’d torn out her foolish heart, so there was no need to feel anything at all. What did it matter, what did anything matter. Why bother with love or sentiment or the feel of her daughter in her arms or…or the jealousy at how easily Regina settled in her father’s embrace.

Henry scrambled to adjust his hold on Regina once Cora had deposited her in his arms, making sure to support her neck and draw her in close to his chest. She continued to cry for just a few moment more, but after the prince began to rock her, she quieted almost instantly. Both parents could assume whatever they liked about their baby’s outburst, but neither would have been able to guess that Regina simply preferred the rhythmic beating of Henry’s heart to the emptiness in Cora’s chest.

“...there, you see? She just needed a little something different, that was all.” he cooed, using his thumb to brush away the tear tracks on his daughter’s cheeks, “I’m sure it was nothing you were doing, darling. Sometimes they just...get fussy!”

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

“I didn’t want the kind of life for you,” Cora said quietly, trying to ignore the guilt she felt. She hadn’t lied, exactly. There were just things she couldn’t say…or didn’t want to say. Why did that feel the same as a lie?

Why did she feel anything about a simple half truth at all?

What Cora really wished, was that she had tried harder to find Zelena a better home. She’d had so few options at the time, but perhaps leaving her baby in the woods to chance hadn’t been the best choice. For all she had known, Zelena might have died…but surely that was better than starving with Cora, wasn’t it?

Those emotions were all too tangled up and confusing. Cora would rather just hold her daughter now. It was easier to think of the present- she had her daughter back, she had Regina too. That was all that really mattered, at the end of the day. Wasn’t it?

“Yes, you have me now,” Cora murmured, running her hand through Zelena’s hair. “I’m not letting you go again.”

A quiet yet sullen voice spoke in the back of Zelena’s mind, reminding her that she had lived that kind of life regardless of what Cora wanted. She had been poor, often hungry and tired from day to day labors. She would always carry those memories of her life in Oz, but she could not condone Cora for them. It was not her mother’s fault that’s where she had ended up. She could just as easily have been plucked from the yellow brick road by a noble, or by Oz himself; there was no use in blaming Cora for something she could not control.

But as those thoughts in her head quieted down, Zelena found herself furrowing her brown with a sudden realization. The story wasn’t adding up, not the end of it. When she had first been brought to the estate, she was told Jonathan was dead. That was the only information she’d had for two years...how could her mother have come by such a fact in passing if the last she saw of him was in the gardens?

“...didn’t...didn’t you say he was gone?” she whispered suddenly, sitting up a little straighter so she could speak to Cora directly, “Jonathan. Y-You told me he passed away...b-but that you never saw him after he left you...w-while you were pregnant. How did you find out?”

Maybe it was just an assumption? Maybe Cora didn’t really know, and this was her best guess...could that mean he was still out there somewhere? Still a bastard, probably, but one that she could see? A man she could look at and understand where she came from, even if she wasn’t proud to be his.

[storybcrn]

rubiedheart:

       Seeing her brother approach, Evie smiled at him as she slipped off the fence. She enjoyed these moments with Henry, it at first gave them a chance to get to know one another, it was exciting and exhilarating but now, now that they were better acquainted with one another, they just had fun. She grinned at him before chuckling lightly as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders, ignoring the stares from his class mates “Operation Romantics because I swear, Mom and Emma are dating. Or at least moms dating another woman, and I’m hoping it’s Emma because she’s lovely — and I’m sure you’d like them to get along more often too.”

“Mom and Emma?” Henry repeated, “Wait...really? That would be so cool!” His enthusiasm skyrocketed for a moment, smile growing with his desire to know more. Since Emma’s arrival in town, she and Regina had struggled to see eye to eye. But things had been getting so much better lately, and if this was true, that would be the ultimate success story.

“So...we gotta find out if they’re dating! What do we do first?”

[storybcrn]

; meet again

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

“We were companions for eighteen years, and I trusted you enough to help raise our child.” Henry shot back, his eyebrows raised as he tried to make Cora see things his way, “And I have been here for far longer than you, Cora. I remember what those first few days felt like, but I also remember how to overcome all of that.”

It had been painfully difficult, trying to reach an understanding, trying to comprehend what Regina had done. Henry had offered her a way out of her sorrows that she had found fruitless, and he supposed this was the price to pay for his misjudgment. But even after reconciling with his own loss of life, after knowing why Regina had done what she’d done, the image of his daughter’s hollow and sorrowful eyes had kept him trapped in this stage between life and death. He could not rest without knowing she had freed herself from her past and taken control of her destiny.

He suspected Cora may be down here for much of the same reason. She was going to try to push him away because of it, but here he was, ready to refuse.

“It isn’t easy to do on your own, let me just try to be there for you. And…and if you still wish me gone, at least tell me about Regina first. I want to know what’s happened, I haven’t seen her for so many years…”

Cora lowered her gaze, a small wince flickering through her shoulders. Trusted her…not that she had ever cared much for Henry’s opinion, but should anyone have ever trusted her with a child? It was too much to think on just now, there were too many heartaches. She could only handle so much.

“We were married…but I don’t recall any friendship,” Cora said quietly, arms crossed around her chest. Companions didn’t seem like the right word for what they had been. An alliance, perhaps. Partners in raising their child. But never close, or warm with one another. Certainly there was no reason for him to be so concerned for her now. 

“Just…tell me what this place is. Beyond being a place for souls with unfinished business, I’ve gathered that much,” Cora said, trying to focus her attention on a more practical matter. Maybe that would be enough to stem the flow of emotions in her heart…at least enough to answer his questions. She grit her teeth- not even she could deny he had a right to know.

“Regina’s fine…fine enough, anyway. I’m sure you know she cast her curse. I followed her, when it broke…and then…” at this Cora clammed up again. No, no, she couldn’t talk about it. Couldn’t talk about what she did or why, couldn’t talk about how she died…not here, not now. “She’s fine.”

Henry sighed, unable to say she was wrong. Those eighteen years had been interesting to say the least, and he could not deny that he and Cora had never been as close as a husband and wife should be. But he had tried to love her, tried to trust her, and didn’t that count for something? Surely all the time they had spent together, no matter how bitter or confusing it may have been, didn’t amount to nothing. 

“...even so, I don’t wish to see you suffer in this place.” he stated, “There are plenty of souls who are down here alone, but you don’t have to be. It...it would be safer that way.”

His words led him right into her next question, one that made him shudder with worry. He didn’t know how much he could say without revealing something impossibly dark-- or how much would be overheard by ears he couldn’t even see. In this land, no one was safe no matter their time or place. That was the trouble with being trapped here by a god.

“I...I don’t know. It’s not somewhere we’re supposed to be, it’s not the true afterlife.” he whispered, “Everyone here is trapped, there’s only two ways out. Either you finish what you failed to complete in life, or you...or you go some place worse. But he doesn’t allow anyone to move on. Only a few have escaped, everyone else...”

He didn’t have the heart to finish. He needed to think of something else, something less horrifying. Talk of his daughter was an ample change in pace, even if it didn’t sound like all happy news. 

“Her curse broke? What does that mean? Is she happy? Is she safe?”

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

Cora stared blankly at her husband for a moment. Was he stupid, or something? Extra attention? What was Cora giving her, exactly, if not just that? She held her baby just a little closer, one hand rather possessively wrapped around Regina’s back. 

“What do you think I’ve been doing all this time, ignoring her?” Cora said, bristling at the very thought. Regina kicked at her chest in response. “Clearly she doesn’t want to be held, that can’t be the problem.”

Ah, yes. The look. Cora was giving him the look, where it was clear that she doubted his intelligence and probably wasn’t going to be afraid to say it. Henry had found in the year of their marriage that he was subject constantly to such a gaze, but with their baby still bawling right in front of him, he didn’t want to take the time to talk about it.

“Well, you...hold her often. Maybe she needs someone else.” he supplied, hiding a little smile as he watched his daughter smack her foot against Cora’s chest, “Please, my dear. Let me try.”

At that point, he had reached out his arms and was trying to gently pry Regina out of his wife’s embrace. It was most certainly a challenge, it always was, but he was willing to risk it if it meant giving Regina some peace.

[storybcrn]

"Did you have a nightmare?" { for henry jr }

“...I...guess so. You and Grandma were stuck in the Enchanted Forest again, and we couldn’t get you out. I just got...nervous.”

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

“Oh…oh, Zelena, no,” Cora said, leaning forward to draw Zelena into her arms. “No, that was the last thing I wanted to do.” She had tried to keep Zelena, truly, but Cora didn’t think the tale of Leopold was a good one to tell at this time…if ever. Some things her girls just didn’t need to know.

“It was a very complicated decision, my darling. But I never wanted to,” Cora assured, hands tangling in Zelena’s red hair. Another half-truth. But she hardly wanted to admit that it was ambition, above anything else, which had compelled her to abandon her child. Maybe one day she would explain- but not now. For now, all Zelena needed to know was that Cora hadn’t been able to afford to keep her.

And it was true. 

“I had no money…no support from anyone…I had no way of raising you,” Cora said. “I thought…I thought it would better for you. But I was wrong, and I’m sorry. I should have come for you sooner, I’m so sorry…”

Zelena buried herself in Cora’s embrace willingly, hiding her face in her mother’s shoulder the way she often did when they had talks like this. She was glad not to be crying, though, as she usually was by this point in the conversation. But today she had chosen to fight back tears, knowing there was no use in crying over something she couldn’t change.

She would always live with the knowledge that she’d been given away, and now she would always know that her father had been a disgraceful man. These were facts, not half truths that she could alter to make herself feel better. However instead of being sad about it, she could be thankful that even though Cora had given her up as a baby, she’d brought her back into her life and allowed her to live happily under her wing. Zelena didn’t have any reason to be sad about that, so that is the fact that she would focus on.

“N-No, no, it’s okay.” she murmured, trying to force a sympathetic smile that Cora couldn’t see, “I...I understand. Really, I do. L-Lyndon talked often about how it w-was hard to raise a child in that kind of life...it...I...would have made things more difficult f-for you.”

That’s what she had started calling her adoptive father-- Lyndon, his real name. He was no father to her anymore, and she would not address him as such, but the memory of him always lingered. It was easy to see that in the way Zelena spoke about herself, as if she were a burden that had been passed around between the two families.

“But...it’s really okay...because things are better now. I...I get to be here with you!”

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

“No, he wasn’t a prince,” Cora said, shaking her head. “And he wasn’t wealthy, or even genuine. You see, Zelena…” Cora reached out, grabbing her daughter’s hand. “Sometimes men…people…take advantage of others. And it’s especially common for a man to take advantage of a woman.”

At this Cora faltered for a moment, glancing down at her lap, because really, she didn’t want to get too deep into talk of sex. Zelena may be fourteen now, but she was still just a girl. Cora sighed. “Because we were engaged, I thought it would be all right to spend the night with him. I suppose I thought it was smart…to seal the deal, so to speak.”

Cora looked up again, meeting her daughter’s bright blue eyes. “Two weeks passed, and he never came. I waited two months for him. And during those two months, I missed my monthly bleeding. I knew I was pregnant,” Cora said, squeezing Zelena’s hand at that. “So I set off to find him. I traveled to the Northern Kingdom, sought him out at the palace…only to discover he was a simple gardener, and had never had any intention of marrying me at all. When I told him I was with child, he refused to provide any support or money. That was the last I saw of him.”

Another lie- Cora had shown up a few years later to crush his heart in her fist. But that was another detail Zelena didn’t need to know.

“...oh.” Zelena’s face fell, her shoulders slumping ever so slightly. She didn’t know what she had expected or why she was disappointed-- perhaps she was sad on her mother’s behalf? Empathy must just be getting the best of her, but it was still disheartening to hear that the man she was related to was nothing more than a bastard.

But he was still the bastard that had helped make her, and she wanted to hear the end of the story even if it was to be doused in harsh truths. So she kept a steady gaze on her mother, holding her hand gently and nodding her head along with each explanation. Not that she knew about spending the night or sealing any kind of deals like that, just to show she was listening.

And then came the unfortunate reality of it all. She was a child created out of deceit and painstaking desire that was never to be fulfilled, rooted in the wickedness of man. Her father was no father at all, and she understood why Cora hand’t told her of him sooner. But she still had questions, ones that she was rather afraid to ask knowing what she did. Cora had been poor, she’d been working at the mill and would have mothered a bastard child, it would have been no way to live. She understood the cruel necessity of having to give away a child the lifestyle of peasantry couldn’t support. But, still, she had to wonder if there had been any other option.

“Is...is that way you gave me away, then?” she asked, swallowing hard, “Because he didn’t...g-give you anything? Or...or did you...not...want me, after that? Because I was...h-his baby...”

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

“Before,” Cora said, gaze shifting back towards the window. “You remember when I told you…that I was once the daughter of the miller? I had to work every day making and delivering flour. But at night I would work in…an establishment. That’s where I met your father.”

Cora looked back at Zelena, deciding to hide the truth about her alcoholic father for a little longer. She didn’t care to re-live it herself, and Zelena was still young enough she didn’t need to know. Cora had never even told Regina that. So there was no need to mention the tavern either. She took a breath, and plunged onward.

“Jonathon was visiting my village for a week or so. He and I…got to know each other a little. We talked, flirted…it was all fairly innocent,” Cora explained, though again that wasn’t entirely true. She couldn’t deny to herself how attracted to Jonathon she had been. But Zelena hardly needed to know about any of that, and Cora had no plans to explain any of it until she was legitimately engaged. 

“At the end of his stay, however, Jonathon pulled me aside and told me he was a Prince, that he loved me and wanted to marry me. He proposed with a ring made of a piece of straw. He said he’d return in two weeks with a real one,” Cora said this part rather quickly, hands clenching in her lap. “Like a fool I believed him.”

Zelena nodded gently, reaffirming her knowledge of Cora’s past. Regina had been the one to tell her about their mother’s upbringing at first, giving very brief descriptions of the past on the day Cora got her heart back. Her mother had gone into greater detail later, but had never mentioned any kind of establishment. Zelena didn’t know what she meant by that for certain, but she had a few guesses. 

Then, they were back to Jonathon. Jonathon who, as far as Zelena could tell, was an ordinary man, visiting an ordinary place where her once-ordinary mother had worked. There had yet to be a malicious twist in the story that she feared was coming, otherwise she doubted that Cora would have been so reluctant to tell her the truth of this story. But at the moment, this whole meeting sounded like any other encounter a man and a woman might have in a nearby village.

“So...he wasn’t a prince.” Zelena said, more like a statement than a question. Some foolish part of her was wishing that maybe her father had been, to legitimize her blood even if only in her mind, but she was not so ignorant as to actually believe that. “And...and you accepted? You two were to be married? Was he wealthy, would you have been happy?” 

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

Cora’s face slowly fell, her hand trailing from it’s place at the edge of her desk down into her lap. She supposed, in hindsight, she ought to have expected these questions sooner rather than later. She was caught off guard, however, because hadn’t expected them now.

For a long moment Cora looked at Zelena. She could pick out the features which belonged to Jonathon- her eyes, her nose, her height. The eyes stood out the most, bright blue and impossible to forget. But for all that she looked like her father, the majority of her features came from her mother- and grandmother.

“It isn’t a happy story,” Cora said quietly, her tone rather grave. Was Zelena really old enough to be hearing this? Fourteen seemed rather young. But then, Cora had been running a mill at that age. Perhaps her daughter was old enough to understand, at least in part.

“Your father’s name was Jonathon,” she began. “I was only five years older than you, nineteen, when we met.”

The longer Cora looked at her, the more Zelena began to feel like she had made a mistake. Maybe now wasn’t a good time to ask, maybe there was never going to be a good time. Maybe she should bow out gracefully before she upset her mother, and maybe she could just live with the fact that her father was dead and that’s all she’d ever know. It was fine. That was fine.

“...if...if you think I should wait...t-then that’s okay too. I’m sorry, I just...I don’t know...anything...” She swallowed hard, wishing to disappear in a puff of smoke and simply pretend this conversation never happened.

But then, Cora started to talk, and her heart leapt up into her throat. Jonathon. Her father’s name was Jonathon. Cora and Jonathon had made her, Zelena. That little bit of information was enough to perk her right back up.

“Were you married to Regina’s father then?” she asked softly, “Or was this...before?”

[storybcrn]

sxmethingbreaking:

Cora glanced up from her place at her desk, surprised to see Zelena in the doorway. In the past year that Zelena had been living with them, routines had been established that the family had grown used to. Now was a time that Zelena typically spent with Regina, late afternoon. Cora glanced out the window towards the sun- it certainly couldn’t be anywhere near supper time.

Cora shut her book them, assuming Zelena must want to talk about something more serious. It wasn’t often that she chose not to play with Regina. Though looking at her teenaged daughter, Cora did wonder if maybe Zelena was getting a bit old for childish play…perhaps that was what was on her mind?

“Of course darling, come in,” Cora said, gesturing for Zelena to enter the room more fully. “Is something the matter?”

Once allowed into the room, Zelena swung herself around to the other side of the door and shut it gently. She didn’t want any of these words drifting out into the hallway where servants or her sister may hear them. This was a conversation she wanted to have with Cora, and Cora alone.

“No, not...not really.” she mumbled, moving towards her mother’s desk and taking up a seat across from her. Hands fiddled nervously in her lap while she bit down on her lip, searching for the right way to ask this awkward question. How exactly did a fourteen year old girl go about asking her mother for information on her other biological parent?

Taking a deep breath, she mustered up the courage to give it her best shot. “...Regina is making a gift for her father right now, since his birthday is approaching, and I...I remember when I first came to live here, you said that one day you might...tell me about my father. S-So...I was wondering...if we could talk about that...maybe now?”

She could have winced at her own meek delivery of the request, but it was all she could do. The only knowledge she had about her other parent was that he was dead, and that wasn’t much to go off of. She needed to know more,

[storybcrn]

rubiedheart:

♔ storybcrn ( HENRY )

         As she sat on the wall waiting for her brother to finish school, Evie sighed lightly as she ran her fingers through her hair. Being older than Henry, she was let out earlier than him but she still had to wait for her brother. She knew her mother was seeing someone, she just hoped it wasn’t someone that they knew would treat her horrible, part of her was hoping it was Emma, she quite liked them, especially together. Looking up, she watched as Henry exited school “Hey kid, you ready for a new operation involving Mom?.”

    Henry could see Evie from what felt like a mile away as he exited the school; maybe it was just her hair, or maybe it was the fact that he had never had a sibling to wait for him to finish class, and his eagerness to see her every day made her easy to find. But today, when he did spot her, his face scrunched up slightly in suspicion. “...what kind of operation are we talking about? Because Mom will be super cranky if she finds out and it’s not good...”

[storybcrn]

@sxmethingbreaking

As summer turned to fall, and the leaves began to drop from the trees, Zelena found herself in a rather uncomfortable situation. This was her second year living with her Cora and her family, and now that she was accustomed to the way the house and the people inside of it behaved, she was struggling to address the arrival of a particular date.

Henry’s birthday. A day of celebration for the man who was not her father, was not her adopted father, and had frankly been rather shocked by her appearance in his life. He was kind and gentle, and over time had grown to accept Zelena into the folds of his family, but that didn’t make anything less...awkward. He was of no relation to her, and speaking about or to him only left the young girl with more questions than answers.

Questions that she had never dared to ask Cora before, but were now constantly on her mind with the approaching celebration. Last year, she had been able to claim innocence; she hadn’t known when anyone’s birthday was, including her own, but this year she would be expected to. But how could she celebrate this estranged father figure when she knew nothing of the man that had actually had a hand in her existence? How could she be expected to go on knowing only half her own story?

Thoughts like that are what brought her to the door of Cora’s study. She gave a tentative knock on the heavy oak door before pushing it open ever so slightly, poking her head in to make sure she wasn’t intruding.

“Mother? May I come in?”