Once on Instagram II

Happy Birthday Neal Charming!!

Author's Note: Ot feels like I haven't updated in forever, sorry! I've just had major writer's block. But I have a double update coming for this book tomorrow, and I'll have the final chapter of Forget Me Not up soon.

Also, I had an idea the other day when my dad and I were messing around. We were trying to come up with a topic for something, and I jokingly suggested, "How about ways to bring Robin back?" Long story short, now I'm trying to come up with twenty-six ways that Robin could be saved/brought back to life/etc. (one for each letter of the alphabet) and I'm thinking that after I finish Forget Me Not, I'll do a one-shot book with a one-shot for all twenty-six ways.

Or I could publish a list of a few of my many, many, fanfic ideas and have you guys vote on which fanfic I should write next 😂😂

Also, there should be another chapter of A Different Sort of Wicked up in the next few days as well as the first chapters of Belle and Emma's fanfic ;)

Anyways, I said a while ago that (baby) Neal's birthday was June 4th, so we'll just say the Charmings had the party a few days after his actual birthday...

~

"Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Ne-al
Happy birthday to you!"

"Now blow out the candles," Emma encouraged her younger brother. "Like this," Emma blew a puff of air in Neal's face. He simply giggled and blew back at her. Emma groaned, "No, at the cake!" Emma turned to face the cake and blew, but not hard enough to put out the candles.

Neal attempted to imitate his sister, and only blew a little bit of air at the cake.

"Did I not say that this exact thing would happen?" Regina rolled her eyes, but she had a smile on her face.

Emma turned and glared at Regina. While the blonde was looking away, Neal blew at the cake harder and successfully put out the single candle that sat atop of his birthday cake. Snow began clapping for her son and soon, everyone else joined in.

Neal smiled and reached out for the cake. Snow tried to stop him, but Regina intercepted her friend. "Snow, this is the best part. You let the kid get all messy, take pictures, and use them for blackmail later." She lowered her voice, "And since Emma is the one holding Neal, they'll both get messy. Double blackmail."

Snow frowned. "Is that what you use Henry's baby pictures for? Blackmail?"

"And to show Violet and Grace so I can embarrass him."

Snow rolled her eyes. "I don't have time to wash the cake out of Neal's clothes."

"I have to do laundry for five people; I think you can manage."

Neal pulled his hand back from the cake and looked at the blue icing that was now covering his fingers. Instead of putting it in his mouth, he turned around and held his hand up to Emma's face. Emma's first instinct was to back away, which only caused Neal to smudge the frosting on his hands all over Emma's cheek. In retaliation (and because Emma's a five-year-old at heart), she dipped a finger in the frosting and smeared it on Neal's face.

David had already pulled out his phone and began snapping picture after picture. Henry leaned in too close to Neal and got a glob of frosting on his face as well. He used his fingers to wipe it off and wiped it onto Emma's forehead.

~

After the frosting fight between Emma, Neal, and Henry ended, everyone ate ice cream (the cake was pretty much ruined) and sat around the Charmings' apartment remembering the things that had happened just in the first year of Neal's life.

"Well, we have to start out with Zelena kidnapping him, obviously," Regina said.

"And then Killian and I fell through the time portal that Neal helped open," Emma added.

Zelena opened her mouth to say something else, but thought better, and continued eating her ice cream instead.

Suddenly, Snow jumped up from where she was sitting. "Neal never opened his presents! Regina, can you help me carry them over here?"

Regina nodded, "Sure." Roland crawled over to Robin's lap so Regina could stand up and help her friend.

~

Once the party was long over and everyone besides Emma and Henry (who were spending the night at the Charmings') had gone home, the apartment was quiet. Neal, Snow, and David were asleep and thanks to Emma's magic, she and Henry could watch a movie without waking anyone up.

"Hey, Mom," Henry popped a piece of popcorn in his mouth, "how mad do you think Mom would get if we paint her house while she and Robin are on their honeymoon?"

"Why would we do that?"

"Why wouldn't we do that?"

"Because she would literally set us on fire."

Henry shrugged. "Just a thought."

"How about we raid their fridge and pantry instead?" Emma suggested. She took the bowl of popcorn from Henry and grabbed a handful of it.

"Of course you go for the food." Henry laughed. "But the fridge'll probably be cleared out. Mom always complains that Robin, Roland, and I eat too much."

"You're a growing boy," Emma protested. "You need lots of food!"

"That's what Robin and I keep telling her! But then she just rolls her eyes and takes away whatever we're snacking on."

"My fridge is open any time. Bring Robin and we can talk about Regina."

Henry scrunched his face up, "Please don't turn this into SwanQueen."

"Oops," Emma muttered before shoving popcorn into her mouth. Henry snatched the bowl back and fixed his eyes on the TV and watched as Rapunzel shoved Flynn into her wardrobe.

"You know," Emma said thoughtfully, "everyone compares Tangled to Killian and I...but Flynn is literally a thief. So maybe it's more SwanFire than Captain Swan."

"Or maybe it's just Rapunzel and Flynn. You know, just two animated characters that are completely, one hundred percent, made up."

There was a moment of silence before Emma and Henry both burst out laughing at Henry's comment. Once the two were finally able to look at each other without dissolving into another fit of giggled, Emma sighed. "Sometimes, I wish I really was just a normal person and not a fairytale character. But then I remember it's only because I'm a fairytale that I have such an amazing and impossibly big family." She wrapped an arm around Henry and pulled him into a half hug, "Thanks for believing in me, even when I didn't believe in you."

"I'll always believe in you, Mom."