"Henry, please have a seat."

"Am I in trouble?" the boy asked worriedly as he plopped down.

Emma shook her head as Regina smiled gently. "No, we… there's something we'd like to discuss with you."

Henry eyed them both warily as they each took a seat on either side of him on the couch. His gaze flickered from one mom to the other with unease. "It still sounds like I'm in trouble."

Emma gave him a genuine smile. "Relax, kid. It's just… parenting stuff."

Henry's eyebrow rose questioningly, but he gave them a moment before he started firing off questions.

Regina inhaled as if to say something, but exhaled in one burst.

Emma chewed her lower lip, her gaze trained in her lap, as she grew slightly pink.

Henry simply looked between them expectantly.

Emma addressed Regina. "Are you sure this isn't something he could talk about with Archie? David, even? You know… more father figure?"

"This is definitely something he should hear from a parent, preferably both mothers. But if you'd rather not you're welcome to leave." Regina sneered.

Emma tried to hide the small smile that resulted from the "both mothers" comment.

Henry, on the other hand, was alarmed that the rare afternoon with Emma might be truncated. "What is this about? What are you trying to tell me?"

Emma reddened further.

Regina reached for a stack of pamphlets on the coffee table, handed them to Henry, and began her spiel. "There comes a time in every boy's life when he starts to undergo some… changes. I trust you paid attention to the video in Ms. Blanchard's class last week?"

Henry's brow furrowed. "The one where the Magic School Bus goes into the pinball machine and learns about light and stuff?"

Regina shot Emma a nasty look as she blonde stifled a giggle.

"No, not that one. The one where the boys and the girls went into separate rooms and…"

A look of comprehension flooded Henry's face. "Ohhh, you mean the puberty one. About hair growing in weird places and stuff."

Regina replied "Yes, the puberty one."

Emma nodded. "And stuff."

Regina shot Emma and odd look, and Emma glanced down in embarrassment.

As Regina seemed to prepare herself for her next sentence Henry glanced at the papers in his lap for the first time. His eyes grew wide as he shuffled through them.

He fell back against the coach with a sigh. "I know what you guys are doing. Nicholas told me the other day that it was really awkward when his dad tried to give him the 'bird and the bees' speech."

Emma stuck her bottom lip out as she sighed in such a way that made her bangs flutter.

Regina simply sat back against the arm of the couch, still angled towards Henry.

"So… how much did he tell you?" Emma asked.

"Not much. It was kind of confusing. He said something about a boy putting his thing inside a girl and then she had a baby inside her that came out nine months later." Emma couldn't help but find the scrunched-up look on his face kind of adorable. "It sounds like some weird kind of magic, if you ask me."

Emma smiled at him and ruffled his hair.

Regina also gave him a smile as she smoothed it back down. "It's always magic with you, isn't it?"

"How else would it work?"

"That you'll learn in ninth grade biology," Emma supplied.

"Then why are you trying to talk to me about this stuff now?" Henry asked.

Regina's arm rested on Henry's shoulder. "You don't have to wait that long if you're interested, actually. The science is all in the pamphlets."

Emma rolled her eyes. "pamphlets," she mumbled under her breath. Then, not to be outdone, she also placed an arm around Henry's shoulders. "There are some things that are important you know before you hit puberty, too. Like always use protection."

"Though not for at least another eight years." Regina was quick to add.

"Protection? From what?"

Emma reddened.

"From conception." Regina replied.

Henry's brow furrowed. "But I thought… conception… was the purpose for… intercourse?"

By this time both mothers had a healthy red glow to their cheeks.

Regina looked to Emma, who gave her a look that said this one's all yours.

"Well… You see… Um… Sex is fun." Regina came up with. Emma's eyebrows shot for the ceiling. "So… sometimes people, you know, engage in intercourse for fun. Not to make a baby. So if you want to, you know, engage in intercourse without making a baby or catching a sexually transmitted infection, you um… use a condom. It's in the pamphlet." Regina finished, quite flustered and blushing profusely.

"Any questions yet?" Emma asked, squeezing Henry's shoulders and subsequently Regina's arm.

"So… that's what adults do for fun? Make babies, except when they don't want the girl to actually get pregnant they use a condom?"

"No no no. Sex… Sex isn't just some pastime." Emma clarified. "Sex is something you do with someone you love and who loves you. And it shouldn't be taken lightly, either. It's an incredibly intimate experience when done right, and yes, fun, but… it's special. That's why some people save themselves for marriage, to make sure their first time is with the person they'll be spending the rest of their life with."

Henry nodded.

Regina spoke up. "And that's also why it should always be consensual. Do you know what consensual means?" At Henry's confused expression she elaborated "What about 'to consent'?" When he nodded, she continued. "In intercourse both parties should consent. There are bad people out there, Henry, who engage in intercourse without the other person's consent. That's called rape. Usually it's a man who rapes a woman, but not necessarily. So I want you to promise me something, okay Henry?"

He nodded.

"If you ever have anyone do anything to you that you don't want, whether it's intercourse or touching or anything, you tell me or Sheriff Swan or even Ms. Blanchard immediately, okay? And know that anytime, in any situation, you have the right to say no. And if the person doesn't listen you tell one of us, you understand?"

Henry nodded vigorously. "Like the Stranger Danger coloring book I had in kindergarten?"

"Yes." Regina smiled.

"Okay."

Regina swallowed, then continued. "And I want you to promise me something else, okay? If you ever find yourself in a situation, hopefully years and years from now, when you may be about to engage in intercourse, you listen to the girl. If she says no, you stop. If she does anything to suggest that she doesn't want it, you stop. Okay? And it doesn't matter how short her skirt is or whether or not she ordered dessert, if she doesn't want it you respect her wishes you stop, you understand?"

"Geez, I'm not going to rape anybody. I'm ten."

Emma, unusually stern, looked at him with brevity. The crooked smile on his face quickly faded as he took in the wateriness of Emma's eyes and the slight hitch in her voice when she spoke. "I know your mom raised you better than to hurt anyone, but I want you to promise, okay? I want you to promise that you'll never force anyone into anything they don't feel comfortable with."

Henry nodded sincerely as he found his voice. "Okay, I'm sorry, I promise." There seemed to be another question on his tongue, but he bit it back. Instead he silently leaned his head against Emma, which provoked a watery smile.

Regina, who still had an arm around Henry, placed her hand on Emma's shoulder. Her face was full of concern despite herself as their gaze met, and a thousand words were exchanged in those silent seconds. In that moment, Regina knew Henry's father wasn't the charming fire fighter he'd talked about.

Regina cleared her throat, breaking the silence. Henry sat up as Regina's hands met in her lap.

"We don't want you to come away from this thinking that intercourse is bad, which it isn't." Regina shared a look with Emma, who nodded in agreement. "It's one of the most intimate ways to show the person you end up with in maybe a decade or two that you love her." Regina winked at him, signifying that she didn't really expect him to hold off until thirty. Mostly.

"Or him." Emma added.

Both mother and son gave Emma a surprised, curious look.

"You know, I'm just saying that it would be totally okay with me if you were gay. You'd still be the same Henry."

Regina bore a look of confusion. "Happy?"

"Gay." Emma repeated. "You know, homosexual? Queer? Or… bi, or pan?"

Henry spoke frankly. "You're making less and less sense."

Emma searched Regina's face, incredulous. "I really have to explain homosexuality? To both of you? Are there really just no gay people in this town? I thought for sure Ruby, maybe Graham… No?"

Emma got her answer from the two imploring looks she received.

Slightly red, Emma explained. "Look, in a heteronormative, err, straight couple there's a man and a woman, right? I guess that's what you'd consider normal around here. But there are other kinds of perfectly normal couples too. Like two men, or two women. I mean, love is love, right? No matter the gender. Men who are attracted to men are usually called 'homosexual', or more commonly just 'gay'. Women who are attracted to women are usually called 'lesbians'. And people who like both men and women are referred to as bisexual. Make sense? It's pretty common in Boston. I can't believe…" Emma trailed off.

Both Henry and Regina seemed to mull it over for a moment.

Henry, of course, had a question. "So gay men who love each other make babies together the way het… hetero…"

"Just say 'straight'." Emma said. "And, um, not exactly. Gay or lesbian couples have sex too, they just… don't have the parts to make babies."

Henry nodded. "So… my true love isn't necessarily a girl?"

Emma smiled. "Not necessarily."

"Whoa." Henry blinked several times. "So… if I like Nicholas more than I like Ava, that's normal?"

"Yeah, it would be pretty normal. But don't go trying True Love's Kiss or anything, okay? You're only ten, kid. I'm pretty sure girls still have cooties at that age. So don't jump the gun, but if when you're a little older you end up wanting a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend…"

"It would be okay?"

"It would be okay."

Henry broke into a grin. "I'm going to go look for lesbians and gay people in my book!" As he started to stand up the pamphlets shifted in his lap. "And maybe read these."

As he bounded up the stairs Emma turned to Regina, who had been conspicuously quiet.

"Well, that didn't go so bad." Emma smiled, her blush starting to recede.

Regina was lost in thought. Emotion swirled within her brain. So many possibilities were suddenly opened up, so many things made sense. A part of her clicked into place as she recalled a word Emma had explained earlier. Bisexual. So much became clearer. Maybe that erotic energy she felt around Maleficent in the other world hadn't been a weird side effect of the magic. Maybe those confusing, troubling, somewhat wonderful, strange things that had been happening in her brain and in her chest and in her stomach and in between her legs since Emma's arrival wasn't some sickness, some defect. As so many realizations came to her at once Regina found one question balancing at her lips.

"You mentioned that, um, gays and lesbians don't 'make babies' organically because of the, um, parts. How do…" Regina blushed deeply. "How would two women, you know… engage in intercourse?"

I kind of latched onto the idea of fairytales as very hetero-normative and if no homosexuality seemed to exist in Fairytale Land it follows that if anyone in Storybrooke was gay (s)he wouldn't know it and certainly wouldn't be out.

And I'm sorry if I've messed up "the talk"; I'm not a parent, I haven't the faintest how it goes with boys, and I barely remember my own experience. Expertise is appreciated.