Chapter Text
Title: Glass Walls – Can’t Reach You Anymore
Characters: Regina x daughter!Reader, Henry x sister!Reader
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Word Count: ~1k
Warnings: emotional hurt, Henry and Regina are being a shitty fam,
Request: Can u pls do angst ouat fic in which reader is adopted children of regina alongside with henry? However u r not part of the fairytale but u r loved anyway by regina and henry and u love them. But things changed when henry brought emma back in town. Suddenly regina and henry become secretive and distant. regina is all about making sure henry stays with her. u feel lonely, u feel like an outcast, unwanted. you want to run away. will someone notice u? pls do this if ur in a mood to write. thanks.
....
You still remembered the night Henry ran away. You both usually talked about everything, so when a blonde woman from Boston -her name was Emma as you learned later – pulled up with her yellow car to bring him home it hit you hard. Why did he never tell you he was trying to find his ‘real’ mum?
You still sometimes stayed lying in bed at night thinking about how he hadn’t trusted you back then and how it felt ever since like he didn’t talk to you anymore. He had completely withdrawn and it strained the whole family. You noticed how he started to look at your mom differently too, there was a new sort of wonder in his eyes and sometimes you swore it might even be hint of fear.
Your mom didn’t take the change well either. She seemed moodier, even stricter than usual and since Henry ran off to meet Emma whenever he could it was often you who took the fall of her mood swings. Your mom had always been very unique in her parenting style, but you had never once doubted that she loved both you and Henry unconditionally.
But ever since everything started to change and things started to be weird around town you weren’t so sure anymore. Your mom was suddenly either moody or super busy with her job. People were disappearing, turning up again and waking up from comas. It was a lot to wrap your head around and whenever you tried to casually talk to your family about it they shut you out.
The longer this dwelled on the more you felt like the odd one out. Henry and your mom both clearly knew things they weren’t willing to discuss. You weren’t stupid you could read their faces and hear all the things they weren’t saying. The only question that seemed to come to your mind more and more prominent wasn’t what was going on but why was no one talking to you. Didn’t they feel like they could trust you?
One family dinner when you started just another attempt at casual dinner conversation while subtly nudging your talk into the right direction everything went spectacularly bad. All you did was ask Henry whether he thought you could meet Emma too some time, considering she was his birth mother. You expected your mom to maybe get angry, it certainly wasn’t easy for her to suddenly have another parental figure to compete with around, but what you hadn’t expected was for Henry to look at you like that.
“Why would you want to meet Emma?” He looked so confused “She’s not your mom.”
An empty feeling settled in your guts. So because you weren’t related by blood he didn’t want you to meet someone that obviously mattered a great deal to him? He truly shut you out like that after a lifetime of growing up together? You swallowed, not feeling hungry or up for dinner conversation any longer. Pushing the empty feeling and the tears back you shrugged awkwardly.
“I just thought you would like to introduce me”
“No one is introducing anyone” Your mom threw in, an edge in her voice “I thought we talked about you staying away from her, Henry.”
And from there it just went on in a staring contest between your brother and mother. In their argument, they totally forgot you were there too. Done with both eating and being the fifth wheel in this family you got up to put your plate in the sink. Maybe you could go to your room and get some alone time to think there. Because you didn’t get enough alone time when everyone else was around too, you thought with some bitter irony.
“And where do you think you’re going?” Your mom asked sharply, her angry eyes directed at you. And here it went again, you braced yourself. She was mad at Henry and you would get the blow, because no matter how often they argued they never said everything. The unspoken secrets were out there, a painful elephant in the room, and yet they just danced around them.
“Upstairs. I think I forgot to do some calculus”
“You know that in this house homework is supposed to be done before dinner?”
“Yes. Sorry.” You said “I guess I just forgot.”
And with that you turned to get rid of your barely touched food and flee from all the nagging emotions in the back of your head. That wasn’t the family you grew up in anymore. They both felt like total strangers. Well not quite strangers, you could still see glimpses of the people you loved, but you couldn’t quite reach them. It was as if suddenly there was a wall of glass between you. You could still see, but never quite reach them.
The worst thing however was that despite their disputes and the suspicious hanging between your mother and brother, they seemed to still be on the same side of that glass wall. You could see them both, out of reach, and obviously both upset about something you weren’t part of. As if they were part of a whole other world that you weren’t in on. A world of secrets that brought darkness over a family you once thought was actually pretty great in its own way. Well maybe you had just gotten that wrong.
You walked into your room to see your school bag sit on the bed. A bag, a pair of pyjamas next to it, … And so, a very impulsive thought formed in your mind. If your family wanted to shut you out, they wouldn’t object to you leaving all together? Maye that was even what they wanted? They could maybe finally talk about all these secrets and resolve their problems. Were you the one holding them back from finally speaking the truth to each other?
You swallowed hard. You didn’t want to be the one who ruined everything. Determination sparked in your young (y/e/c) eyes and you stuffed a few things into your bag. Time for you take action and make things right again. Time to find a family that wanted you around.