A/N I wrote this little story for a Femslash Exchange. I originally gifted it to sporkmetender. It's already uploaded to AO3, I'm just trying to make my collection on here complete as well.

Still, if you haven't read it before I hope you like it! Reviews are sooo welcome!

She heard him before he even got to the front door. His angry footsteps echoed through the hallway as he stomped up the staircase to her apartment. The door opened and she could hear Henry's frustrated grunt as he got in. A moment later the sound of a backpack sliding across the hallway could be heard. It slid into view a moment later and came to a stop against the back of the couch with a soft thud. He knew better than to swing his backpack around like that. The door closed loudly and a moment later his bedroom door was slammed shut as well. He also knew better than to slam the doors.

Emma folded up the paper she had been reading, counted to three and then called out.

"Henry?!"

"No!" Came the irritable response of her teenage son.

She sighed and then called again. When did he become such a moody boy? Such a teenager? Where did that cheery, talkative ten-year-old go? She regretted the times she wondered what traits he had gotten from her. Because right now, she could very clearly recognize a part of herself in him and in hindsight, it may not have been something to wish for after all.

His bedroom door opened and Henry appeared in the doorway of the living room across the hall from his own room.

"Fine," he grumbled. "I know I'm not supposed to throw my backpack around. I'm sorry." He bent down and picked his bag up off the floor, swung it over his shoulder and tried to make is way back out of the room.

"Henry." Emma warned him. Dared him. "Sit please."

She had seen him grow moodier and moodier since school started again. At first she thought it may just be the fact that he was hitting puberty pretty hard nowadays, but somehow she sensed that that wasn't all that was going on. A few weeks into the new school year she started recognizing a pattern in his mood swings. His bad moods peaked in the mornings and afternoons, when he had to go and came back from school. It didn't take long to put two and two together.

Henry's shoulders sagged as he sighed, dropped his bag, turned around walked around the couch and plopped down. Emma followed him carefully with her eyes before she scooted her own seat back and stood to join him on the couch. She was just making her way over when a soft knock on the door made her change course into the hallway.

"O great," Henry mumbled as Emma went to let the visitor in. He was usually very pleased to spend time with both his mothers, who were growing closer and closer together, but he really wasn't in the mood for talking. Let alone to both his moms at the same time. They were really starting to get good at forming one front and sometimes that really sucked. Like now. They asked about school so often, it was exhausting.

"Hey, you made it!"

"Of course I made it. why wouldn't I?"

Regina stepped inside, shrugging off her blazer and revealing the white blouse she had on underneath. Emma noticed how it was unbuttoned to a point where it was only just acceptable. Businesslike with an edge to it. She followed the buttons down to where they disappeared into a pencil skirt the shirt was neatly tucked into. A skirt so tight it must've been made especially for her.

When the brunette turned around to hang her blazer on the coat rack, Emma should've turned away. She really should've, but her eyes weren't cooperating and so she practically stared until Regina turned around. At least she had the good sense to snap her eyes back up before Regina noticed. What was she doing? This was Regina. Her best friend. This couldn't happen. This was her son's other mother. Speaking of Henry, she should get her mind back to the present and the talk she was about to have with him.

Two pairs of footsteps made their way back to the living room. One pair of socked feet, one pair of heels.

"Henry was just about to tell me what's been going on with him lately," Emma said, clapping him on the shoulder as she sank down on the couch next to him, Regina taking the chair on his left. "And why he's been so moody."

"No I wasn't," Henry stubbornly denied.

This was so very unlike Henry. Regina had watched the smile on his face fade away too. Their boy, who always wore his heart on his sleeve, had been keeping things in for too long. Regina exchanged a look with Emma and then she leaned down to put a hand on Henry's knee.

"Henry, dear," she began softly. "What's wrong? You have been coming home from school with that frown on your face for weeks now. What happened? You used to love learning new things."

Henry kept his eyes firmly on the hand he was using to trace patterns on the armrest as he replied, "I still do."

Regina didn't say anything. She just scooted out of her seat a little more and took his chin in her hand, bringing his gaze up to meet hers. It still amazed Emma how much the woman could communicate without actually uttering a single word.

A moment passed as mother and son just looked at each other and then Henry caved.

"They laugh at me," he exclaimed, throwing his hands up.

This was news to both his mothers. He'd had trouble making friends a few years ago, sure. It was the whole reason Mary Margaret had given him his book. Neither Emma nor Regina could remember many times Henry had had friend over. Other than Grace and Nicolas, he didn't really ever mention anyone either.

How could she not have noticed before, Emma wondered. Had she really been that blind? Between the curse and Neverland and all other threats they'd had to deal with, something as ordinary as school had never really been high on her list of worries. Henry had always done fine keeping his grades up and with his new found ever expanding family, she never noticed how little friends he had. None of them had, had they? Was it just her? Watching the boy sitting here next to her, she was mentally kicking herself for not paying more attention. These thoughts weren't helping. This wasn't the time to start calling herself out on being a bad mother. There was never a good time for that. Besides, she already knew she wasn't as good of a mother as she wanted herself to be.

Shake it off, Swan, she told herself sternly. Focus on the here and now.

"What do you mean, they laugh at you?" She asks calmly.

"I don't know," Henry shrugs. "They all have so much history together, and I don't. They all know each other from the Enchanted forest and stuff. And then there's me. I don't get half the jokes they make."

"I thought things were going well a while ago," Regina admitted confused. And if Emma was being frank, so did she.

"They were, I was totally cool when I got back from Neverland. And being the Savior's son definitely helps." Regina tried, she really did. She tried to hide the flinch when Henry referred to himself solely as the Savior's son, completely ignoring her role in his life but Emma caught it before she could school her features. She received a small smile before the emerald eyes turned to their son again. "But that wore off and now I'm mostly just the loser who doesn't get half their inside jokes and who sucks at P.E."

"Henry," Regina started taking one of Henry's hands in both of hers, but Henry just shook his head.

"Don't mom," he interrupted. "Don't tell me it's okay or that it's not that bad. You don't understand. You never have. You don't know what high school is like. You've never been a kid in this world. Just leave it. It doesn't matter."

Regina physically reared back a little as his words hit her hard. Her hands fell limply into her lap when he extracted his hand from them. He got up and they both watched him go. Regina was still staring at the doorway he disappeared out of, stunned by the harsh tone in his ever deepening voice.

"He didn't mean that." Emma's voice and the proximity of it startled her. The blonde was now sitting closer, where Henry had been just a moment before.

"He's right. I don't know what he's going through."

"Really?" Emma countered. "So you don't know what it feels like to be misunderstood? To be disliked by everyone? To have basically no friends and to feel like you absolutely don't fit in? You may not have gone to any high school, but he's wrong in assuming you don't understand."

Emma was right. At some level, she could relate better than most but it was scary to have someone else say it. She had begun trusting Emma with bits and pieces of her past. The blonde had heard plenty of stories from others too of course. All that combined with Emma's own experience gave her a pretty good idea of the hardship Regina had gone through. Still, knowing all this, it felt strange to hear Emma say it. Like she still couldn't believe the blonde actually knew all this. That she had allowed anyone to get this close was still a shock to her. Somehow it had gradually happened, and she had allowed it. If she was being completely, painfully honest with herself, she even liked it. Wait, when had that happened? She blinked a few times, averting her eyes. She smoothed the palms of her hands over her thighs and then she rose to her feet, effectively breaking the moment between them.

"Let's start dinner, shall we? Perhaps if we give him an hour to collect his thoughts, we can breach the subject again after we ate."

Having dinner was something new they did. At first it would always take place at the mansion, since the table would be a little too crowded in the Charming loft. They all got along fine, but having weekly dinners was still a bit much to ask. Now however, now that Emma had her own apartment, Regina came over sometimes and they cooked together. Well, Emma was mostly in charge of the salad or something else that couldn't go wrong or end up catching fire but still. Emma had initially persuaded Regina by telling her she really needed to learn some basic recipes to keep their son somewhat healthy on the days he stayed with her. But since nothing ever really went according to plan, things had evolved to regular dinners where they left out the cooking lesson part and just prepared food together because it was fun. This way, they could both spend more time with their son and it was a perfect excuse to spend time together as well. Not that they needed excuses anymore.

An hour later, Henry sauntered into the kitchen pulled partially by the delicious smell of roast beef and partially by that nagging voice in his head telling him to apologize to his brunette mother. Emma notices him first, quickly making up an excuse about needing to change before dinner. This wasn't her moment.

"Mom?" Henry asked in a tentative voice.

Regina turned off the faucet, slowly lowering the knife she was rinsing to the counter. She turned around to look at him. To his relief, he couldn't detect any anger in her features. It told him to just say what he needed to.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean what I said. I was upset and I- I wasn't thinking."

"You were right," Regina said and Henry was about to deny it, but she held up a hand indicating she wasn't finished. "But I wish you would talk to me. If you explained, if you let me, us, in, then perhaps we could understand."

"I know," Henry mumbled his eyes downcast. "It's just that me being a loser isn't really something I want to talk about."

"Oh Henry, you're not a loser," Regina said as she walked forward placing both his hands on his shoulders. She didn't even need to bend down to do so anymore. He was growing so fast, too fast it seemed.

"That's right, kid," Emma said a she walked back into the kitchen. Of course she had heard everything, she may have multiple rooms in her apartment but it was still pretty small and with the doors open she heard every word. Regina also noticed she still had the exact same outfit on. Not like she had expected anything else.

"You can't be," Emma added as she came to a halt next to Regina, making a show of straightening her spine. "with such an awesome mother, there's no way for you to be a loser."

"That's right, dear." Regina nodded. "And you also have Emma."

The corners of Henry's mouth turned upwards as Emma faked being hurt by Regina's words. And just like that, the tension in the room evaporated.

They didn't talk about school during dinner or the dishes afterwards but when Henry went to his room to do some more homework before bed, the topic came back up. They agreed that something needed to be done, but neither knew where to start. Not everyone fitted seamlessly into the hierarchy of a high school. Emma, of all people, knew all about that with her secondhand ill-fitted clothes and transferring schools so often she never grew out of being the new girl.

As they talked about it they quickly found that neither one of them had any useful experience from their teenage years. Neither one of them had found a way to fit in back then. One never staying long enough to find her place, the other had been forced to stay in places that were all wrong. They did however eventually find where they fit in. Their place turned out to be a small town in Maine. As they talked about this, they quickly realized you didn't need to change yourself to accommodate your surroundings. It really worked the other way around. So many people didn't seem to get that. Emma saw plenty of kids coming and going for petty crimes at the sheriff's station. Stealing make up or trespassing on a dare. All of them getting in trouble in the hopes of fitting in.

It didn't work. The only people who truly fitted in, were the ones who found a place they could be themselves and be celebrated for it. In Henry's case, this wasn't the gymnasium or the football field. And unfortunately, those were two of the very few options high school kids in Storybrooke seemed to have. And that needed to change.