Regina reluctantly walks up the steps, her eyes keep going to her covered wrist, and she nearly stumbles at one point because of it, but Daddy manages to catch her just in time. A few steps ahead of her, Zelena looks down and rolls her eyes. Hands curling into fists, she can barely manage a glare back at her stupid sister, not when her heart feels too full with a weight she can't describe. Towering over the both of them, Henry shakes his head. "Come on now, girls. Off to bed."

He urges them on, a gentle hand on each back. Zelena shrugs it off quickly, practically bounding up the steps like they're locked in a race. Regina frowns at the sight, but cannot bring herself to move much faster, and it is only the warm hand at her back that keeps her on track.

Regina and Zelena sleep in separate but adjacent bedrooms on the second floor. By the time the two of them reach the top step, the redhead is already heading into and shutting the door to hers. There's a loud slam that makes Regina wince and Henry sigh, before silence reigns once more.

A hand nudges her towards the other door, and Regina looks up her father, pleading, though for what, she isn't quite certain. The band on her wrist seems to burn, and she wants with all her heart to rip it off. But even without Mother's hawk eyes on them at the moment, she knows the folly of such a move. Mother always seems to know, after all.

"Go to bed, mija." He told her gently, "I'll be with you in a moment."

It's not much of a promise, but Regina obeys, and Henry disappears into her sister's bedroom just as she enters hers.

Alone for the moment, her eyes stray to her wrists yet again. The covered skin prickles, and she bites her lip, debating. Finally, after a moment of indecision, she finds her need overwhelming her sense, and she slips the band off-gently, because she knows she will have to put it back on, lest her mother have her head.

The moment she glimpses the green ink again, it's as though a great weight has been taken off her. She breathes out, a long sigh of relief, as her eyes greedily trace the flowing script on her wrist. Robin. A finger unconsciously reaches out to follow the curve of the line, as her mind conjures up images of what Robin might be like. They are murky and nebulous, because a name is not much hint, after all, and Regina mostly pictures the bird instead. Would Robin like birds? She herself likes them fine, though she much prefers horses.

Thinking of the brown pelt of the horse makes her remember the rich brown of her other soulmark, and her gaze slides down onto the other name on her skin. Daniel. That is a boy's name, probably. Though there is a girl in her class named Josh, so maybe she is wrong, and it is a girl's name, after all. Regina isn't sure which she wanted. Most of her friends are were girls, because most boys are kind of messy and mean, but she isn't sure if that meant she wanted her soulmate (soulmates, she supposed) to be girls. Maybe she is meant to have one of each. That makes sense, doesn't it?

Caught up in her thoughts, she doesn't hear the door opening behind her until it is too late.

"Oh, Regina." Her father's soft voice breaks through her reverie, and she startles, whipping around to face him guiltily.

She tries vainly to hide her hands behind her back, but in her surprise, she drops the incriminating band on the floor. Wincing at the sight of such obvious evidence, she can only look pleadingly at her father. "Daddy… I don't want to cover up my mark." Maybe she doesn't understand why she has two instead of one, but she doesn't want to hide one, like she is ashamed. Robin, whoever they are, is still her soulmate, after all.

Henry only shakes his head at her, saying sadly. "Mija, you know what your mother told you."

He places the band back on her wrist, securing it tightly, and as he does, Regina's eyes stray to the identical band on her father's wrist. Her mother has one on hers as well, and now, she has one to match.

Cora and Henry are not soulmates, so they cover up their wrists as tradition and politeness dictates. It is a kindness, supposedly, so that they will not have to look at the permanent reminders that say how wrong their relationship is. These days, not all choose to cover their marks, instead displayed their wrists it all its mismatched glory (or sometimes, all too matching black scars). Non-soulmate couples are not entirely uncommon, not anymore, but there is still a certain difference, a kind of question mark that makes people look twice at such a couple, and it is no less true with Ckra and Henry, not even to the ones closest to them both.

More than once, Regina has wondered about her parents, and she knows Zelena has too. They are not soulmates. To their children, this is a perfectly sensible (and even reassuring) conclusion. Because looking at them, she is not sure she can continue to believe in the dream of a soulmate of she bad to face her parents as proof of it. But the fact that they aren't soulmates only makes her more curious, more confused.

She had never seen underneath the bands on her parents' wrists. Both of them keep it, almost obsessively, hidden. Only once, Regina managed to catch a glimpse of a long name in gold flowing script on her mother's right wrist when the band slipped for just a second, but it was quickly hidden from view again. She has never caught even the smallest peek at her what lies underneath her father's wrist, though that is not as much of a mystery.

His soulmark is merely a dark, blotchy mark, the clear scars of deceased soulmate on his wrist. It looks a little like what a burnt black hole might look like, and it's an apt metaphor for how most people feel after their soulmates. Henry likes to pretend it doesn't hurt anymore though, that being with Cora now is enough (though how could it ever be, even if Cora wasn't the way she was?). Looking at their children (and he does think of Zelena as his), he thinks maybe they are enough.

Henry doesn't ever tell them the name that used to be on it though, remaining just as close lipped about it as their mother. He explains that it is highly taboo to ask the name of a soulmark scar, that what might seem like a simple question could trigger flashbacks and intense grief. Even with regular soulmarks, he explains that it is best not to ask, to wait for the people to speak or show it themselves. If they remain silent or if they cover it up, it usually means they don't want other people to know, so it would be extremely rude to force them.

To Regina and Zelena, who remain in a world where their friends and peers freely show off and discuss their soulmarks on end, this is a strange, foreign concept. Even Regina, who must now always keep a band on one wrist, still has at least one remaining hand to show off proudly.

But that is the difference between children and adults. Or perhaps, that is the difference between those who have met their soulmates and those who have not.

Zelena thinks that it is her biological father's name on her mother's wrist, and the way things didn't work out between them is the reason Cora seems to be especially strict with her. Regina is not as sure, thinks her sister might simply be entertaining some fantasies that their mother will someday be with her biological father again, and they'll be one big happy family.

When she was younger, and infinitely braver (or just foolish), she remembers asking her mother about the name. More than once. Always, there was anger, a swift and powerful scolding coupled with some punishment. But after, later, Regina remembered sadness. Quiet, hidden, but just barely visible within her mother's usual ice blue eyes.

As Regina looks down on her wrist, now covered by the same black band that stretches across both her parents' hands, she wonders if she will be like them as well now, if talk of soulmates will bring a frown to her face, and a permanent air of sadness to her heart. She dearly hopes not, but she is afraid that it is so, because, as her covered skin prickles again, she already feels a weight settles between her heart, like a rock she can never get out.