Mal curls around her neck, warm and familiar now after the month they've spent together. Her tail dangles down Regina's shoulder and she toys with it, holding Mal's robe in her arms. It's so strange to think that she'll be back, here,human, again. She's been Regina's constant companion, a tiny creature, rather like Henry as a baby (with a fire-breathing habit and an addiction to marshmallows), and she's just become so accustomed to waking with her curled in a ball in the bed, or listening to her purr to herself late at night.

She loves this tiny creature, adores her strange hoarding of anything small and silver, or the way she gets along best with children. Regina will be relieved not to need to rescue her spoons from behind the sofa, or clean burnt marshmallow from the carpet, but she'll miss this version of Mal and how this little being trusts so easy and chirps at everything.

Henry and Lily returned with Emma this afternoon and after the celebrating died down and the party was organized, Regina found herself staring at her son, who she missed so terribly, and the glowing orb in his hands, knowing she'd lose the warm, scaly creature on her lap.

"Was she much like her?" Regina asks him while they set up the spell.

Henry and Lily both shrug. "We don't know her that well, I mean, as she was, this isn't really year." He thinks for a moment. "She's funny. Has a weird sense of humor. Told stories at night about the Enchanted Forest, how she built her castle, how she met you."

Lily and Henry both grin about that. Lily runs her hand over the smooth glass globe, gently, almost reverently. "It was nice to get to know her, even if it wasn't her."

"It was," Henry says, looking over the book in front of him once more. "At least, in a way. More intellect and memory, less emotion, that part stays in the other form."

"That's you," Regina murmurs, rubbing Mal's little chin. She chirps and nuzzles Regina's face. "You'll be whole again soon, I promise."

"We wouldn't have gotten through without her," Lily says, arms folded over her chest. "Probably would have gotten stuck down there, just lost in the mists."

She and Henry share a shudder and she should never have let them go, but they're back.

And Mal was with them.

Henry looks over the book one last time. "All right."

Regina sets little Mal down on the ground, smiling at her. "It won't hurt."

Mal tilts her head, eyes on Regina's, but stays there. Content because she can still see her. Regina takes a breath, and she almost can't watch. Magic reaches out, white and warm, almost loving as it embraces that tiny dragon. Age comes first, and the sweet little being grows, first the size of a dog, of a pony, then a horse and for a moment she fears that she'll just continue to grow as a dragon, but then she shifts.

Maleficent is barely more than a child at first, standing naked in front of them. Henry blushes, immediately looking away. Regina starts forward, wanting to wrap her in the robe but the magic hums, keeping her back. The girl grows taller, thinner, and her long blonde hair cascades over her, covering her barely-there breasts. They grow, and her hips change, and her thighs and she's unmistakably adult, but not the woman Regina knows.

Her eyes are too wild, too bright, and she laughs as the magic surrounds her, aging her, filling her with memory and knowledge, thoughts and hopes and dreams.

She looks at them, and her eyes find Regina's and just stay, blue, bright and encompassing, as if she's devouring Regina whole. Her face grows into the woman Regina knows, with the tiny lines around her eyes, around her mouth, and slowly, the magic starts to fade. It settles, leaving her bare skin gleaming with power.

Maleficent stands before them, naked and full of power while her lover, her daughter, and the boy she gave up so much for (though he stares at the ground as if looking up will lead to his demise) surround her.

Regina hurries forward, wrapping the silver silk robe around her shoulders. Mal studies her, watching her eyes, smiling.

"You're so much smaller," Mal says, reaching for Regina's chin.

"You can't really sit on my shoulders now,' Regina says, keeping her eyes on Mal's. This is her, she's back, vivid and splendid again, but she can sense the child, the baby who she held so close.

Mal studies her, as if trying to remember, and then she laughs. "I loved that."

"You did."

"It's okay Henry," Lily says. "She's back."

Regina has to give her up, let her talk to her daughter, let Henry thank her for all that she's done. So she kisses her cheek and takes a step back. She has to let go.

Maleficent and Lily embrace, and there's truth in it, hope, and a kind of peace they didn't have before they left. Perhaps it was good that Lily met her mother's mind separate from her heart, that she got to know her without the emotions in the way, because now, those emotions make more sense. The blind feelings that remained in the baby are safer now, less threatening.

Henry hugs her too, still blushing. "Thank you for saving my mom."

"Of course," Maleficent says, touching his cheek. She waves her hand and her robe disappears, replaced with a black wool waistcoat and trousers. Her hair's still down, loose, but there's something powerful in her, regal and commanding that Regina hasn't seen for a month, maybe more.

Regina doesn't see her alone until late that night. Henry, Emma and Lily have celebrated and laughed and told stories about the strange underworld Emma was trapped in. Mal features in many of these stories, the guiding voice, both sarcastic and soft. She kept them safe in the darkness, reminded them to keep fighting, gave of herself in a most unselfish way.

And yet Regina misses the warm weight in her lap, the little face trying to get her attention. She can't stop staring at Maleficent the woman, because that creature is in there, her constant companion, and she misses that being. Snow even hands her little Neal, letting his baby weight soften the missing weight of the dragon.

She takes her coat, ready to head him and let Henry find his way back when he's done talking to his family. He survived the Underworld, and he can find his way back to the house. She waves at him and he walks over, hugging her tight.

"I love you," he says, beaming at her. "Thanks for trusting me."

"Always," she promises, because part of loving him is knowing how powerful he is. "I love you."

He squeezes her shoulder, then returns to his grandparents and his other mother. Emma smiles at her with such gratitude that Regina has to admit this is worth it. All of this is worth it, but she misses the little dragon. She even whistles for her, low and soft and on the other side of the diner Mal looks up.

They share a glance, and Mal smiles so gently that she has to know, she has to remember. Regina shivers, because that naked affection isn't something she's ready to accept from a human.

Wrapping her scarf around her neck, Regina steps out into the darkness without a little dragon on her shoulders. She walks into her house without that little creature bounding ahead of her on the wood floors. Walking into the kitchen, she glances at the bag of marshmallows on the counter and sighs. Grabbing them, Regina starts to put them away but a hand touches hers.

"Not yet, I have to admit that I like them, whatever they are." Mal's fingers close around hers and Regina turns, meeting bright blue eyes that are as open as the baby's. Her heart races, aching in her chest because she needed this, the warmth of knowing she's loved, needed.

"Marshmallows." Regina hands her one, letting her turn it over in her fingers.

"I meant to teleport home and found myself in your living room."

Regina smirks. "Hopefully not under the sofa."

"No," Mal replies, her smile soft and rueful. "Though I remember what it looks like from that angle particularly well."

Regina throws a lick of flame onto the marshmallow and it burns in Mal's fingers, turning black before she blows it out. She eats it much more delicately than the tiny version of her ever did and her eyes go wide with the rush of sugar.

Mall mutters something intelligible and then she kisses her, taking Regina completely off guard and there's marshmallow everywhere and their lips and sticky with it. The kiss continues, spreading more mess over both of their faces and Mal's free hand strokes Regina's neck and somewhere in her throat Mal purrs.

It's deeper, hungrier and sexy in a way the tiny dragon never was, but it's still her, and so much her that Regina shivers.

"If you wanted me in your life, all you had to do was ask," Mal whispers. She kisses her cheek, leaving a sticky mark behind and Regina kisses her in retaliation, burying her fingers in Mal's hair.

"I didn't know," Regina murmurs. "I didn't know I–"

Mal nuzzles her cheek and Regina gasps because the heat is the same, the gesture has the same purity of emotion, but there's sex in Mal's eyes and against her mouth when they kiss again, and maybe somehow, now that she's back, they can have both affection and passion.

"Come on," Mal teases. "I'm used to sleeping in your bed."

"You don't remember that."

"I do," Maleficent replies, tilting her head. "I remember being curled up on your chest, listening to your heartbeat and being absolutely content."

Regina's heart continues to race ahead, wanting more than contentment. "Really?"

"You were my world, for a month," Mal says, leaning in. "How can I come back and let you go?"