What A Year Can Do || Outlaw Queen

January (2)

January 2017
( part two ; january 16-31 )

January sixteenth was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which meant no school. Henry took the opportunity to sleep in until ten, while Regina woke up early to grade papers. She needed to finish grading the spelling tests from Friday.

At 10:05, Henry walked into the living room, still half asleep. "Morning," he mumbled.

Regina looked up at her son and smiled. "You sure you don't need to go back to sleep?"

Henry shook his head. "'m hungry. Wha's for breakfast?"

"Whatever you find in the kitchen," Regina replied before turning her attention back to the papers in front of her. Henry made his way to the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of Lucky Charms.

Regina and Henry spent the day at home, mostly because they didn't have any ideas of what else to do. They did, however, go out for dinner. Henry talked about school, avoiding the question he really wanted to ask because he didn't want to make his mom feel awkward. But Regina noticed that Henry was acting weird.

"Is there something bothering you?"

Henry responded too fast, "Nope."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

Henry nodded, not speaking his answer this time.

"Henry, you know you can talk to me about anything."

Henry sighed before looking up at his mom. "Do you like Robin?"

"What?" Regina responded, the question catching her off guard. "No. No, he's just... we're just friends. Why?"

Henry shrugged. "You seem pretty close with him. And I need to know if you're gonna date someone, 'cause that last guy was a jerk."

"Graham? Yeah, he was. But Robin's not like that, and we're just friends anyways. You don't need to worry about it, Henry. We're only so close because we're working together."

"Mm-hmm." Henry took a sip of his water, the look on his face clearly revealing that he didn't believe Regina.

"Henry!"

"Sorry. I believe you. If you say you only like Robin as a friend, then you only like him as a friend."

"Thank you. And you need to call him Mr. Locksley around my students."

"I know, I know."

( ~ )

Tuesday began Robin's second week of student teaching. He brought Roland with him in the morning, which set Henry a little on edge because of how much Roland seemed to get along with Regina.

"You aren't jealous, are you?" Regina whispered as she hugged her son goodbye before he left for school.

"No!" Henry responded defensively.

"Mm-hmm. See you after school."

"See you later, Mom." Henry waved at his mom, Robin, and Roland before heading out of the classroom to begin his walk to the building next door.

( ~ )

The week went by smoothly. Henry stopped glaring at Robin and pretending Roland wasn't there. Regina knew he needed time to adjust to change, so she allowed him to have the time he needed and assured Robin that Henry didn't really hate him or his son.

That weekend, Henry spent Saturday with Nic and Ava's family, as they had invited Henry to go ice skating with them. Regina graded some papers and e-mailed Robin about the lesson plans for the upcoming week. It wasn't very exciting, but Regina was glad for the calm weekend.

( ~ )

The next week was fairly uneventful for both Robin and Regina as well. Henry, however, found himself in a dilemma of his own. Of course, he wasn't going to say anything about it to his mom.

Henry had been friends with Grace Hatter since kindergarten. They had been next door neighbors until sixth grade, and Grace was the perfect Girl Next Door. It was always Grace and Henry. Henry and Grace. They were the kids who would grow up, get married, have kids, and grow old in the same small town where they were raised.

Then Violet Morgan walked into Storybrooke High School in a light purple dress and a genuine smile on her face, like it wasn't sucking all the joy out of her life to at school so early the first day back from Christmas break. She had smiled at Henry, and Henry had felt something...different. It was different than Grace, because Violet was new. And Violet wasn't the Girl Next Door. Violet was Veronica Lodge, Grace was Betty Cooper, and Henry was Archie Andrews. Stuck in between the girl he'd been friends with since forever and the new mystery in town. Also, Henry was definitely too into the new TV show based on the Archie comics - Riverdale.

And just Henry's luck, the Valentine's dance was next month and it was clear everyone expected him to ask someone to the dance. But not only did Henry not know who he truly wanted to be with (or if either Grace or Violet wanted to be with him), but he wasn't sure his mother would even allow him to go.

( ~ )

That Friday, before Henry left for school, he made a split-second decision. Regina had gone to the office to copy some papers, meaning it was only Henry, Roland, and Robin in the classroom. Roland was absorbed in his coloring book at the moment, so he wouldn't pay any attention to Robin and Henry.

"Hey," he said as he passed by where Robin was sitting. He kept his voice low in case Regina was nearing the classroom. "Just so you know, my mom's birthday is next Wednesday. I know she won't tell you that herself, so I figured I would."

Robin looked up at Henry, trying to decipher the boy's expression. Was Henry trying to tell him he expected Robin to get something? Or was he assuming Robin would want to know when Regina's birthday was? Or that Regina would want Robin to get her something? But Henry had the perfect emotionless expression, so Robin simply said, "Thank you for letting me know." Henry nodded and walked out of the classroom.

Robin frowned. He wanted to do something for Regina on her birthday, but what? What would she like? He hadn't known her long enough to know what kind of present she would want.

Well, he'd better pay very close attention the next few days because he needed to find some sort of present.

( ~ )

January Thirty-First. It was January Thirty-First - the day before Regina's birthday - and Robin still had no clue what to get her. Why did it even matter so much to him? Why couldn't he just get her a card like any normal person would?

Of course, deep down, Robin knew the answer to his question, but he wasn't ready to admit it to himself yet.

A small voice shook Robin from his thoughts, "Papa?"

"Yes, my boy?" Robin turned is attention to his son.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. It's just, it's Ms. Mills' birthday tomorrow and I don't know what present I should get for her. ...Do you have any ideas?"

Roland looked up at the ceiling, clearly trying to think of something Regina would like. "She likes sour candy!"

"Sour candy?" Robin questioned.

Roland nodded. "Henry told me. He said she likes Sour Patch Kids and Warheads and..." Roland frowned, "I don't remember the rest."

"That's okay. I know what to get her. Are you too tired for a quick trip to the store?"

Roland shook his head confidently. "No! I'll stay awake!"

"Okay, then I guess we're off to buy some sour candy."

( ~ )

A/N: Okay it has been way too long since I updated this because I had zero ideas for this chapter, and I obviously couldn't publish any of the others until I had finished this one. But now that this one's done, I will hopefully update more and get back on a regular updating schedule.