#quarantine has me reading sq fanfic

[ambssssssssss]

The Swan-Mills Family Discovers Kingdom Hearts

Part 1 of ?

I don't go here but anyway

One day, after the last curse is broken by True Love's Kiss shared between Emma and Regina, the two of them are at the Mills household with a tumbler of apple cider split between them debating on letting Snow plan them a huge extravagant wedding or just sneaking off to the courthouse one day, when Henry comes home. He's absolutely buzzing with excitement as he walks straight into the den and turns on his PS4 (he's probably more than a little spoiled by now, which annoys Regina to no end but he's still her little prince so she actually doesn't mind all that much) without so much as a hello to his mothers.

Emma and Regina follow him and blink curiously as the opening credits for a game they don't recognize begins to play. The style is a little outdated but it looks like the animation had been updated recently based on Emma's very limited video game knowledge. Curious, Regina picks up the case the game came in and turns it over in her hands.

"Kingdom Hearts?" She reads the title aloud, her inflection morphing as the words change into a question. Henry hums.

"I know everyone is pretty tired of the fairytale thing but I couldn't resist getting this. It looked like so much fun."

"I don't really think we can get tired of fairytales considering the fact that we're living one," Emma says, but her curiosity is peaked and she seats herself on the arm of the couch next to Regina. "But this game is about fairytales?"

"Kinda. It's hard to explain Ma," Henry eyes don't leave the screen as he sets the brightness, difficulty level, and controller vibration intensity. "But there's a ton of save slots if you want to play too."

"We'll just watch for now kid," Emma tells him , absently rubbing Regina's back with one hand. Henry nods and presses the button to start the game.

The family of three all find themselves almost immediately engrossed in the story of the game. The beginning is a little slow, though the choices and questions are interesting. Henry had accepted the staff and given up the sword, leaving the shield alone. The Heartless, the enemies Henry had to defeat, were actually pretty cute. At least, they were until an enormous, shadowy figure of the main character, Sora, appeared. Henry made a few comments on how the fighting style would improve as Sora gained more skills but Regina was more interested in the surface the character stood on. Each one depicted a different princess and Regina wondered what they might symbolize.

Another round of questions and Henry was told that his journey began at dawn and then the game finally, truly began. As Henry directs Sora to explore the place called Destiny Islands, Emma repositions herself so she's sitting on the couch cushion instead of on the arm. Regina settles against Emma's side with her legs tucked underneath her and her head against Emma's shoulder as they continue to watch. Henry, seated on the other end of the couch closer to the television, is leaving forward with the controller in his hands. His brow is furrowed in concentration as he races against Riku, for the 7th time, and loses again. Emma has to hold in a chuckle as Henry groans and begins the race again. Regina is relaxed in her arms and if not for the way she had maneuvered their hands together and was absently playing with Emma's fingers, Emma would have thought she had dozed off. Henry let out a little cheer as he finally beat Riku in the race and the family watched the next cutscene with interest. There seemed to be quite the mystery to solve, people in strange robes, and even the makings of a love triangle between Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

By the time Emma remembered that they were supposed to meet up with her parents for dinner like they did every Tuesday, Henry had already beaten the huge shadow figure for a second time, gotten a weapon called the Keyblade, and was wondering around a world called Twilight Town after a long cutscene that revealed more familiar Disney characters in the game. Thankfully, these were characters that Emma was certain were just fictional. She had no idea what she would do if she ever met a real Donald Duck or Goofy.

"Time's up, kid. We've gotta meet you're grandparents for dinner." Emma called when Henry found a save point and he groaned good naturedly but complied. After donning shoes and jackets, the Swan-Mills family made their way to Granny's diner chatting about the game.

"I think we should restrict this to a non-school night game," Regina commented as they stepped through the door to Granny's. Charming and Snow had already claimed a table for the whole family so they made their way over. "Clearly it is easy to lose track of time playing this."

That was an understatement. Regina and Emma hadn't noticed the hours passing, three of them to be exact, and they were only watching Henry play.

"What's this?" Snow asked curiously after pulling each of then into a hug one by one. Charming did the same for Emma and Regina but traded a fist bump with Henry instead as Emma greeted her baby brother.

"A new game Henry is playing," Regina answered as they all took their seats again.

Henry launched into a startlingly in depth run down of how the game came into existence, its reputation of having a hopelessly convoluted storyline, several branch off games that were not necessary to play but would fill in a lot of gaps outside the two main games, and the much anticipated release of the third game in the main franchise, Kingdom Hearts III.

"Sounds interesting," Charming said after Henry finished his long winded explanation and began to devour his food. Regina was glad that the explanation was over if only so Henry could eat his food while it was still somewhat warm. "And it's about fairytale characters?"

"Sort of. The game was developed by Square Enix but they collaborated with Disney for this. Most of the characters are either from Disney or another video game series called Final Fantasy."

Snow asked about the plot of the game but Henry shrugged his shoulders. In it's most basic form, the game was simply about light versus dark, good versus evil. Henry didn't know how much this game would delve into the shades of grey between good and evil but he was eager to find out.

"You'll have to let us know how the game goes," Snow said after they finished their meal and were walking out. Henrt nodded enthusiastically as he gave his grandmother a parting hug.

"I thinks its gonna be awesome," Henry said as he pulled away. Then he looked over his shoulder at his moms and smiled his most charming smile. "Even if nothing can be as great as your story."

Emma chuckled. "Nice try kid, but you're not getting extra game time tonight."

"As soon as we get home its homework, shower, then bed. You have school tomorrow," Regina completed, taking Emma's hand in her own as they walked out.

Charming laughed as Henry shrugged his shoulders, "Worth a shot."

The Swan-Mills family walked back to Mifflin street and Henry, as instructed, grabbed his bookbag and went up to his room to complete his homework for the night as his moms retreated to the study to finish the cider they had started earlier.

"He's right you know," Emma commented sometime later from her spot on the couch in the study. Regina, sitting at her desk and reviewing a few documents she would need for a meeting the next day, looked up curiously.

"What are you talking about darling?"

"Henry," Emma rose from the couch and made her way to Regina's side as she spoke. "He was right about us. No story will ever be better than ours."

"He was sucking up so we would let him play more video games," Regina rolled her eyes but still put the papers she was reviewing down in favor of pushing away from the desk and pulling Emma down into her lap.

"Doesn't mean he was wrong," Emma placed her arms around Regina's shoulders, one hand tangling in long, dark hair as the other caressed Regina's cheek.

"I suppose so," Regina tilted her head back slightly to look Emma in the eyes. "As long as our story has a happy ending, I think it will be the best one ever told."

"Our story has the happiest ending of all because it's not an ending. It's a beginning. The beginning of us."

Emma leaned down and kissed Regina then, slowly and surely and with the confidence that she'd get to do so every day for the rest of her life. As Regina poofed them up to their bedroom in a cloud of light purple magic, videogames could not have been further from Emma's mind.