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It wasn’t until she’d passed the tree for the third time that morning that she noticed it.
In her defense, she’d been busy. Relocating presents from their many, many hiding places to the space beneath the massive fir. Fixing what she hoped would be a stunning breakfast for Regina (and Henry too, when the latter woke up). And it was a small thing, really, such a tiny difference that she couldn’t really be faulted for not immediately noticing that the tree had an extra ornament.
Even if that ornament did happen to be the most intricately carved wolf she’d ever seen. And, if there was one thing Red knew, it was wolves.
“What do you think?”
Tearing her eyes from the small, glass figure only to find herself face to face with Regina, the brunette tried her hardest to pull her voice from her suddenly tight throat. “Where-” she tried again, “Where’d you get this?”
“I made it,”
“Made it?” she repeated, as though the words were foreign and had never before reached her ears.
She nodded. “Last night, after Henry went to bed and you went for your run, I was sitting here and I just…” she sighed, running her fingers through short dark hair, “I was sitting here and I couldn’t see anything on this tree that was yours. You helped us decorate, of course, but there was nothing…Red about any of it. Nothing had your touch,”
Red nodded, silently urging her girlfriend to continue.
“I couldn’t shake the thought that the tree was so…so mine. That you should have some part of it, something that was yours,”
She swallowed, hard. “Regina, you didn’t…you didn’t have to do this,” she said and the look in her eyes was something like awe, like she couldn’t believe Regina would do something so entirely for her. Like she didn’t think she deserved it.
“I wanted too,” she said, trailing her fingers delicately along a golden garland, “It shouldn’t be just mine anymore; I…don’t want it to be just mine,”
The were moved forward, gathering the raven-haired woman into her arms. “It’s beautiful,” she said earnestly, “Thank you. You didn’t have to but thank you,”
She could feel Regina smile against the side of her neck and hear it when she spoke, “Merry Christmas, Red,”
“Merry Christmas, Regina,”