The Life We Will Fight For

Epilogue

[A/N: Surprise! This story wasn't quite over, there has always been a little something I still wanted to put down to conclude it, and finally, I did it!

It was certainly an adventure writing this, sometimes in a genre that I wasn't used to at all, but in the end, I'm proud of this little story (and the first part too!). If only we could have seen this on the show...

I hope you enjoyed following this adventure as much as I did writing it, thanks for all your votes, comments & support 🥰]

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„Mommy!!", the little boy squeaked, impatiently, „Hurry!"

„I'm coming, I'm coming!", in her heels she was struggling to keep up with her son on his tiny legs, running toward the harbor, „It's not like daddy is going to leave port without us, you know?"

„We could have just poofed there, mommy", Bonnie declared while walking next to her mother, holding her hand.

„We've talked about this, sweetie", Regina said with a gentle but stern smile, „No poofing until you're old enough."

„But why??", she whined, looking up at her mother with those crystal blue eyes that made her look so much like her father.

„Because I say so."

„And what's old enough?"

Her mother paused. Actually... she had no idea. She didn't even know whether one could really be too young for poofing. It just seemed like... it should be? At least she herself wasn't poofing anywhere until she was well into her adult years, so... she wouldn't know.

„Twelve", she replied matter-of-factually, and the little girl's eyes became so wide that she'd almost fear they might fall out of her face.

„TWELVE?! That's still... four years?"

„See?", her mother winked at her, „maths is what you should stick to right now."

With an attitude that befit a true princess, little Bonnie rolled her eyes at that.

Her mother knew that if her daughter had her way, she'd do nothing but practice magic and brew potions all day every day. From a very early age, it had become apparent that Bonnie had inherited the Mills family's gift for magic. She'd been begging and begging to get lessons, but her mother, as well as her aunt, had always refused. Until the little girl eventually decided to teach herself and almost set the whole house on fire. So in the end, her parents figured that Regina teaching her would at least be better than anything the girl might be up to unsupervised.

Her son Liam, on the other hand, the spitting image of his mother, was a pirate through and through, and he worshipped the ground his father walked on. She still remembered all too vividly the temper tantrum he had thrown followed by the nervous breakdown of the century when she had told him that he couldn't just cut off his hand and have a hook instead like his father. To dry his tears, they had given him a fake hook that he could wear over his hand, and one time he had refused to let go of it for three days straight. In the end, they had to snatch it away from him while he was asleep.

So naturally, pirate was the only thing he aspired to being when he would grow up, and so far he couldn't understand why that wasn't a viable job opportunity. And so, he had been feverishly yearning for this day to arrive since his father had promised them to take them out with his ship, just the four of them – a proper family excursion as they hadn't had one in a while, ever since things had gotten way too busy with both kids in school, Regina's duties as mayor and Queen and his own projects, having discovered a passion for mixology and opened up his own bar serving innovative and high-end cocktails a few years ago. Another venture of his that his children weren't quite able to enjoy along with him yet...