A/N: A tumblr prompt Regina is indifferent to baby Neal in public but secretly loves to play with him...

She was not going to love this child. For one thing it wasn't hers. And for another thing it was Snow's. Her relationship with Snow had been mending for a while, but there were some lines that she would not cross. Some relationships she would not allow to be re-established.

But damn it if the Snow-spawn wasn't adorable.

She and Snow had been working on town budget figures when Snow had had to step out of the office and Regina found herself making faces and waving at Neal. The delight on his face just encouraged her and soon she was snapping her fingers and making little colored lights appear dancing around his swing. She had an impulse to sit on the floor and direct the light balls with her fingers so he could follow them just out of reach...

... but what she was doing on the floor would be too hard to explain when his mother came back.

Hearing Snow she waved the lights away and sat back in her chair. "Snow, check the baby, he smells..." She made a disgusted face.

"All babies poop, Regina. You changed enough diapers..."

"Contrary to what you might think, Snow, royal babies shit does stink."

The next time it was a town meeting about the ice wall. There were a lot of people concerned about what it meant for the town, and others who pointed out that it wasn't like they went anywhere anyway. Neal was at that point where he hated being left in a swing and made too many noises. Snow or David should be holding him, bouncing around, but David was off chasing the Snow Queen and Snow... well she was trying to figure out how to get her power point to work properly.

A few of the dwarfs were trying to help, which just meant it would take longer and Regina quietly picked up the baby and walked out the side door into her old office.

Once alone she smiled at him, "I know little Snow-spawn, I know, dealing with incompetence is so trying."

She moved into a practiced and steady bounce of a practiced parent and sang softly, "a dormir va la rosa de los rosales y a dormir va mi niño porque ya es tarde..."

By the time she heard the noise of chair's shuffling in the other room he was asleep and she came back, unceremoniously handing him back to his mother. "Next time a baby sitter?"

Snow chuckle and shook her head as she lay Neal down in his stroller.

"Don't give me that look, Snow, I can still smite you even if I choose not to."

"Of course you can, Regina."

The town fireworks celebration this year was more fun than before, mostly because Regina and Emma decided that letting the dwarfs play with explosives tied to rockets was probably not a good idea. Not after last year.

So the two of them had put on a magical display of their own over the bay, and Regina couldn't help but feel in a good mood after that much magic. At least until Snow came up and without explanation handed Regina the baby, a bottle, and a small stuffed toy.

"I ... really need you to watch Neal. There is this... thing..."

And she ran off quickly after both Emma and David.

Regina shook her head and looked down at the baby. "I don't really want to know, and you probably don't either, but at least they didn't want me to go with them. It can't be too bad."

She tweaked his nose and smiled at him, making funny faces. When she thought Ruby had been watching her she gave the werewolf a dirty look. "Don't you have a date with a lonely fire hydrant?"

Neal was starting to crawl, which given that he was a Charming actually that he was starting to get himself in trouble. Luckily he hadn't quite mastered how to move his arms in time with his legs for too long. Unluckily he had discovered that he could propel himself across the room by either dragging his butt and just using his arms or even more terrifyingly just rolling until he got where he wanted.

And at least lately, that was always at Regina's feet.

Snow would smile. Regina would frown at her and sneak a quiet glance down at the baby. She'd sigh and shake her head as if to tell him later.

Except babies have no sense of time, so five minutes later he'd make himself back to her feet and look up expectantly. She sighed and picked him up.

"You know some day I could smite you too."

But she said it with such deep love in her voice that no one who saw her with the baby could ever take that seriously.