Emma and Neal was at the front of the group, their hands entwines and swinging back and forth as they talked. Henry and Belle were still ranting about Divergent – or perhaps they had moved on to The Hunger Games – so Gold was simply following them, pretending he knew what they were talking about. Zelena was holding Riley, who was, thankfully, quiet for the moment, and she and Arthur were whispering about something. Regina and Robin brought up the back of the group, with Roland in front of them, urging them to go faster.
Before Emma and Neal stepped through the doors, Emma turned around to face the others. "You know the rules! No killing each other, and the last one to get banned from the store wins! May the odds be ever in your favor." Regina rolled her eyes at Emma's speech and the blonde turned back around and drug Neal into the store.
~
Regina, Emma, and Neal were gathering food in their cart while Zelena and Arthur looked for other necessities like toilet paper and napkins. Robin had taken Roland to the bathroom, and Henry, Gold, and Belle were looking at the books.
Emma grabbed two boxes of Lucky Charms and stuck them in the cart while Regina had her back turned, debating on which flavor of Quaker Oatmeal Squares to buy. When Emma was sure that Regina was still distracted, she and Neal picked out several different flavors of Pop Tarts and dropped them into the cart as well. Regina frowned when she saw them. "We don't need that many Pop Tarts!"
"Uh....yes we do," Emma replied.
"No we do not." Regina grabbed two of the boxes from the cart to put them back, but at that moment, Robin and Roland returned from the bathroom break.
Roland's face lit up. "I love Pop Tarts!"
Regina glared at Emma before dropping the Pop Tarts back in the cart. "Darn you, Swan."
"Point for the five-year-olds," Emma smirked. She high-fived Neal and turned to Roland. "Why don't you help us do some shopping?"
"Yeah!! Papa," Roland turned to look up at his dad, "can I go with Aunt Emma?"
"Yes you can, my boy."
"Thank you!" Roland hugged Robin's leg before running over to Emma. She picked him and set him down in the back of the cart amongst the food they had already picked out.
Emma pointed forward. "To infinity...and BEYOND!"
Roland giggled as Emma ran, pushing the cart down the aisle, Neal right beside her. Emma glanced back at the Locksleys when she reached the end of the aisle. "You two have fun," she winked. "But not too much fun." Emma turned continued running with the cart, the sound of Roland's giggling echoing down the aisle.
Regina turned to Robin. "She took our son!"
"On the bright side, now we're alone, Milady." Robin smirked and pulled Regina into a hug. Regina smiled softly and hugged Robin back. Roland had been fine at the water park with Emma and Neal, and Wal-Mart was (or at least, should be) far less dangerous.
~
Robin and Regina had separated so they could gather what they needed quicker.
"Regina?"
Regina jumped when she heard her name. She turned around to see Arthur holding a basket full of various items. "Oh, good, you're alone."
"Should I be concerned?" Regina asked hesitantly, ready to call for Robin if necessary.
"No! No, I just need to talk to you...without anyone else around."
"Yeah...that's still a little concerning."
"Are you okay?" It took Regina a moment to realize that Robin's voice was only in her head. "Do you need me to come beat someone up for you?"
"It's just Arthur," Regina assured Robin. "I'm okay. Right now, at least. I'll tell you if something goes wrong."
"Okay. I love you, my Queen."
"I love you too, Robin."
Regina refocused on her conversation with the person actually standing across from her. "So what do you want? Is it something with Riley?"
Arthur frowned. "No. Riley's fine."
"I don't care which one of us can eat more ice cream sandwiches, if that's what this is about." Regina was trying to think of what Arthur could want to talk to her about.
"No--"
"Is it about which of us Zelena likes better?"
"No! Are you done interrupting now?"
Regina pressed her lips together and nodded silently.
"Sometimes, I don't know how Robin puts up with you," Arthur muttered under his breath.
Regina rolled her eyes. "You're lucky he's not here. He'd give you a black eye for saying that."
"Yeah, Snow probably would have too," Arthur agreed. "And I know Robin loves you and for him, it's not 'putting up with you' because he doesn't get annoyed by you like I do."
"You don't need to apologize," Regina said. "You're like the brother I never had; of course we annoy each other."
When Regina described Arthur as her brother, his stance changed, like she had found out about something she couldn't have possibly known, but somehow, it sounded like she did. Regina noticed the change and frowned. "What is it?"
"Um...about me being your brother..."
Regina didn't say anything to interrupt this time, so Arthur took a deep breath and continued, "I was wondering if you would give me your blessing to marry Zelena? I already asked her adoptive mother and Cora, back before we left Storybrooke, but I wanted to make sure it was okay with you."
Regina smiled and pulled Arthur into a hug. "Of course!" She lowered her voice, "Now you can be the brother that I actually do have and we can annoy each other for the rest of eternity."
The two broke apart and Arthur could see the excitement in Regina's face, which calmed his nerves about Regina only approving because it would make Zelena happy.
"I hope you don't actually mind me being your..." Arthur's voice trailed off as he tried to figure out the family tree, "half-brother-in-law...?"
Regina laughed, "Everyone's related somehow. I'll be happy to welcome you to the family."
Arthur nodded. "Thank you. And I hope you don't feel like I'm trying to steal you and Robin's glory or anything."
"Not at all," Regina assured the King of the Underworld. "Besides, we all know in twenty years, Snow will still be fangirling over our wedding. Same with you and Nimue."
"Regina! There you are!" Robin rounded the corner. "You okay."
"Perfect." Regina smiled at her fiancé. "I was just talking to Arthur about...stuff. Now, did you find the potato chips I was looking for?"
Robin triumphantly held up a bag of Lays barbecue potato chips.
"This is why I love you." Regina took the bag of chips from Robin and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. Regina turned to glance back at Arthur on last time. She smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
~
As soon as Riley became a little fussy, Zelena knew it would end with her screaming. But still, she tried to calm her daughter. It only held off the screaming for a few seconds, so Zelena rushed off to find Regina, hoping that she would be with Robin and one of them could calm her.
The red head turned down an aisle and let out a relieved breath when she saw Regina. Unfortunately, Robin was not with her. When Regina heard Riley's cries, she rushed over to the baby and her half-sister.
"What's wrong?" Regina asked.
Zelena handed Riley over to Regina. "I'm hoping you can settle her."
Regina took Riley and attempted to calm her down, but the baby was still screaming. So she looked up at her half-sister, and the two spoke in unison, "Robin."
"Can you ask where he is with your soulmate telepathy?"
Regina nodded. "Robin, where are you?"
The reply was instant, "With Emma, Neal, and Roland in the toy section. Do you need something?"
"I need you to calm your screaming daughter."
"I'm on my way!"
It was a few minutes before Robin arrived, and as soon as Riley was in his arms, she quieted down.
"Oh thank goodness," Zelena let out a relieved sigh. "I was worried something was wrong."
"I guess she just likes Robin better than you," Regina shrugged. "No offense."
"None taken," Zelena smirked. "But that means she likes Robin better than you as well."
"On second thought, she's probably just tired and Robin is more cuddly than we are."
"Yeah, he's like a giant teddy bear," Zelena agreed.
Regina narrowed his eyes. "He's my teddy bear."
"Okay, so am I a teddy bear and a cinnamon roll now?"
Regina and Zelena both looked over at Robin. Regina nodded. "Robin, you're cuddling with your six-month-old daughter right now. If you wanted the answer to that question to be 'No,' you should have handed Riley to one of us."
"As long as I can be your teddy bear and cinnamon roll," Robin pulled Regina into a side hug and kissed the top of her head.
Zelena scrunched her nose. "Ick. Isn't there a rule against PDAs in Wal-Mart?" She turned away. "I'm going to go find Arthur."
"Because that won't result in PDAs," Regina called after her sister. Zelena looked back at Regina and stuck her tongue out, and Regina returned the gesture.
~
Once everyone was finally ready to check out, Regina looked over all of the carts. "Okay, Emma, take out those root beer Pop Tarts; that's disgusting and I'm not paying you any money to eat them. And we're not getting the Orange Crush ones either. And Zelena, you do not need seven bags of green apples!"
"You're no fun," Zelena frowned. "Who died and made you Queen anyways?!"
"Eva. And we're paying for all this with my money, so put it back!"
"Wait!" Emma pulled what looked like a credit card from her pocket. "I have a $30 gift card, and this is my money! So I can buy whatever I want with this. And I'm getting my Pop Tarts and Zelena's apples."
"Where did you get a gift card?!" Regina exclaimed.
Emma shrugged. "Dunno. It's from 2013."
Regina rolled her eyes, but gave in because she wasn't in the mood to fight. "Fine. Whatever. Let's just buy all this stuff and go back to the house."
"Yes!" Emma and Zelena cheered. They high-fived and Emma stepped up to buy the Pop Tarts and apples with her gift card.
~
Author's Note: Finally finished this! I've been busier than I expected, but we're traveling again all day today, so I'll probably just write. Because soon, there's going to be a WickedKing proposal ;) (AHHH I'M EXCITED TO WRITE IT im trash help)