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Other than the drinking the bar dry incident (which Maleficent did eventually pay for). Red has interacted with the dragon very rarely, and yet, here she is, in her house, chasing the 'twins' while Regina reads to Mal and the 'baby'.
Of course, Regina is only ten. Regina's not meant to be ten, but something happened, and the baby, Emma, Emma Swan the savior, took one look at the tall blonde dragon staring at her and the other 'children' in the street and decide she was her mother.
Maybe Emma panicked. Not their Emma, this young Emma, who only has a handful of words, and huge green eyes that fill with tears all too often, has decided Mal is her mother.
What shocked Ruby, is that Maleficent, the dragon, has gone with it. She holds Emma on her hip while they make dinner. (Regina and Henry cook surprisingly well together, even though there's a gap between them and Regina doesn't know Henry's her son).
Snow and David are both almost two, Granny thinks, and perhaps because of how many teeth they have, and they're better adjusted as long as they're together. They play with blocks in the other room and Ruby alternates between watching them and making sure the Henry-Regina dinner making team is going well.
What's funny is how well they get along, the two of them. They click. Regina has a vague understanding that something happened, that she's not meant to be ten, but is somehow the woman in pictures with Henry. The 'twins' have no idea, but are happy enough as long as they have each other.
But Emma, sweet Emma, cries when Mal sets her down. Cries before she goes to sleep if Mal isn't holding her. After the first two nights of screaming, she's slept in Mal's bed. Dragon's aren't maternal.
Are they?
Somehow she's gone from a few sparse conversations with Maleficent, to sharing a house with her while they try to keep the 'children' safe. Belle, Lily and the fairies think they have a solution, but the twins are so little, and Emma seems to know she's been left. One of her adopted families did give her back, she said once, and Red can't help wondering if that mother was a tall blonde. Emma's fine as long as she's there, comfortable and happy in Maleficent's lap.
They're all nearly old enough to eat without high chairs, Emma and Snow and David, but Emma will barely eat without Mal, and Snow and David prefer to steal each other's food.
Regina and Henry serve. It's nothing complicated, macaroni and cheese with tuna and peas (for protein, and a vegetable). Ruby sits next to the 'twins' making sure they eat some of it instead of just smooshing it into their hair. Luckily, afterwards they can just dump them into the bath while Regina and Henry read comic books and Emma does whatever Mal is doing.
It's then, putting dishes in the dishwasher, that she realises this is what a relationship is like. Trading off children, talking about homework, and what the kids will eat for dinner and who needs to go to bed while who can stay up, and somehow, without even noticing it, she's become utterly domestic with a partner and five kids.
It's a pack. That must be why she likes it so much. It has nothing to do with the way Mal's laugh sounds or how Red's chest tightens in that very warm when the kids swarm around Mal's legs for a story.
She doesn't want this.
She might.
"Goodnight," Maleficent says. They pass each other in the hallway, holding children, exhausted, and something warm touches Red's cheek.
Oh, fuck, she does .