Miles To Go

Chapter Seventy-Eight

"Morning, munchkin," Emma laughed as she ruffled Rachel's hair. "You ready for your big party?"

"More cake?"

"More cake and all your new friends are going to be there," Emma smiled and Rachel just squeezed both their legs tighter before Emma managed to scoop her up in her arms. "You're not excited?"

"Yes, Mama!" Rachel squealed as Emma held her partly upside down and started to tickle her and all Regina could do was shake her head and move to make her wife and herself a cup of coffee.

"You guys started a tickle war without me?" Henry whined when he walked into the kitchen with the puppy bouncing at his heels. "You know the rule, Ma! Never start a tickle war without me!"

"Henry!" Rachel laughed as Emma nearly lost her grip on her before she could put her down on the floor. Rachel ran to Henry and flung herself at him and the two crashed hard to the floor, both laughing hard.

Regina watched her children, her heart just flooding with love and pure happiness. To think that all of what she had now had once been ripped away from her at the doing of her own mother. It wasn't often anymore that she thought of her because it brought on so many painful memories, but when she did she only served to remember that Emma had come back to her by chance last summer and they had rekindled their romance and found love together once again.

It almost felt like a lifetime ago that her house had been just that, a house and not a home. Now it was overrun with toys in every room, laughter a constant element, and nothing but love within. She could barely remember those years she and Emma had spent apart, but the bitterness she'd felt still served as a reminder that she had not been happy without Emma in her life.

Regina was suddenly overcome by a wave of different emotions and she wrapped her arms around her wife, kissing her with everything that she had. Emma reeled back after a moment, her eyes questioning the sudden affection, before leaning in to continue their kiss, her hands falling to her hips as she kept her close. She had kissed her hundreds upon hundreds of times in the last year and a half and she would kiss her for a lifetime yet and no matter how many times their lips met, each one felt as electrically charged as the very first kiss they'd had so many years ago.

"Henry, they kissing!" Rachel laughed from where they were sitting on the floor.

"Yeah, they do that a lot, don't they?"

"Yep!"

"Do you know why, Rach?"

"They in love?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, they are in love. The best kind of love."

"Really?"

"Yes," Henry smiled as both his mothers smiled right back at him. "Hey, one day you'll find your prince or princess. We both will."

"We will?"

"You just have to believe it'll happen," Henry smiled at her. "But you're only four."

"I'm four!"

"You got a long time before you're allowed to have a boyfriend."

"Or girlfriend!" Rachel laughed innocently. "How long?"

"Many, many years," Henry said, deepening his voice. "You're not allowed to date until you're at least twenty, right, Moms?"

"Twenty is a stretch," Emma replied with false seriousness. "I was thinking more like thirty. What do you think, Gina?"

"Thirty?" Regina raised an eyebrow. "Might as well make it forty."

"I want kisses!" Rachel said as she poked at Henry before she scrambled to her feet and launched herself at Regina and Emma. "I want kisses," she said with a pout and Regina picked her up and peppered her cheeks with kisses that elicited squealed giggles and made Rachel squirm. "More, Mommy, more!"