Chapter Text
When I was ten years old, I changed the world.
People typically think of changing the world as this grand gesture, when truly its sometimes as simple as tweaking a formula for plastic so it can be made thinner and more flexible, something which destroyed Tupperware's stranglehold on leftovers storage and made way for Gladware, to say nothing of the countless improvements in computing, manufacturing, medical advancements, to name but a few industries impacted. It can be writing a school song for a high school and donating the rights to them instead of demanding payment after a keenly felt tragedy. It can be choosing to stand in quiescence with someone going through a rough time, offering steady companionship during tumult. Changing the world doesn't have to be a grand gesture in front of the world to make a difference.
It can be as simple as making an effort.
I was born to a young mother, freshly 18 years old and incarcerated for a crime, of which she was largely innocent. It took many years for me to find out what happened to her afterward. For the bulk of my young life, I had no idea I was adopted. My mom was the woman who raised me, and it was kind of weird being one of the few kids in town who didn't have two parents, but it wasn't so strange as to single me out from others. By and large, my childhood was rather idyllic, and for that I am deeply grateful to both of my mothers: the one who birthed me and gave me up to have my best chance, and the woman who chose me out of all other children in the world to care for as her own. Storybrooke is a place spoken of in hushed whispers, exultant shouts, wry resignation, and bloviating emphaticness. It is both the most boring "nothing ever happens here" town in the world, and the place where more happens on a random Tuesday than anywhere else.
My life has always been a story of dichotomies, even from the very beginning. Both of my mothers credit my existence with shaping what their lives have become. I credit them with shaping me into the man I am today.
My name is Henry Daniel Mills, and I am the true born son of Emma Swan and Regina Mills. I have the Heart of the Truest Believer, the right and justified title of Heir to the United Realms, and I am The Author.
It is long past time for me to tell what I know of the story of my mothers.