"We've got a white Christmas!"
“We’ve got a while Christmas.” Was the only shrieked warning Regina got before a cannon was fired towards her sleeping form. The bed rocked worse than Hook’s ship on the way to Neverland as Emma shook her awake, her little voice insisting, “look, we got snow! We got snow!”
“Ok, ok,” Regina pushed out an arm blindly to curtail the excited creature, giving herself just a moment before sitting up. She rubbed at her eyes to make out the clock reading 04:37. Gods, it was early. She focused on the girl bobbing about at the end of the bed, her eyes wide and awake and her hair a wild birdsnest. She should have braided it before they went to sleep. “It’s still early, baby. Are you alright?”
“Uh huh.” Emma nodded emphatically. “I just went to the toilet, and look!”
She took one of Regina’s hands in both of hers and stumbled off the bed, pulling her with her. The room was cold, and the older woman shivered under silk pyjamas. She couldn’t bring herself to mind too much. How long had it been since a child had woken her with pure, unadulterated joy to see snow?
Emma tapped on the window coated in condensation. “Mama, look!”
Regina pulled the girl to her hip and wiped the window with her sleeve. Their front garden was covered in a thick white blanket. The snowstorm still flurried so heavily that they couldn’t make out the street beyond the cars in the driveway, though she could see by how high the snow came on the tires that it was already deep. It was still a couple of days until Christmas but there was no way that all of this could melt before the 25th.
Emma was right, they were going to have a white Christmas.
“It’s beautiful, baby.” They’d had a little snow over December but the most they’d gotten was a one-inch cover that had melted by the next morning.
Emma turned to her, her face bright with excitement. “We go play?”
Regina burst into rich laughter. “Not a chance.” She pressed a kiss to Emma’s forehead as she pulled the curtain over again. “Too early.”
She placed her baby in bed, crawled in beside her, and pulled the blankets up to their chins, all the while Emma groaned at being subjected to much needed rest. “Not tired, Mama.”
Regina was already back on the cusp of sleep as she tugged Emma into her side. “Hmm, I am.”
“I wanna play.” The word was whispered with reverence, like this was the only thing that could possibly matter.
“Emma,” Regina peppered kisses across her little one’s face, “it is sleep time. We’ll play soon. I promise.”
The blonde snuggled in close, pulling Regina’s arms tight. “Ok, Mama.”
They did not, in fact, go back to sleep. By 6am, they were at the back door pulling on their snow boots and warm coats, Regina groaning to the stars that she was allowing this little gremlin to interrupt her sleep and take her out into the cold.
In an hour, when she was nursing a coffee with a spark-out toddler lying across her, she would decide it was worth it.