Right, so this will be a dark one. Just a fair warning; it's going to get ugly and messy and raw. Maybe not to the extreme, but it's definitely that kind of story.
So if you're into that, I hope you'll give this a try.
This is AU which means no supernatural stuff, no magic, no kingdoms and no parents who are as young as their kids. I won't go into too much detail about the changes because they'll become obvious as the story progresses, but keep in mind this is not going to follow canon.
Enjoy and share your thoughts!
I don't have to sell my soul
He's already in me
I don't need to sell my soul
He's already in me
Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
"Maybe you should just shut up already!" Aurora shrieked, bursting through the door with the force of a thousand storms.
"Shut up about what? The truth? Wouldn't that be convenient!" Phil shouted back, following her from a distance.
Aurora was almost running now, her small feet skidding dangerously across the ice.
She hated winter. She hated having to walk back to her house with all these voices screaming in her head. She wished everyone could just disappear.
But Phil was still following her, even though he had forgotten to put on his coat and was trembling from the cold. She momentarily appreciated his stubbornness.
"I don't want to hear it anymore," she said over her shoulder.
"That's too bad, because I'm not done yet. Aurora, stop! You can't run away from this!"
He pulled her arm, but she wrenched away.
"I'm not running! Look, I've made my decision and you can't change my mind."
"This isn't you, all right?! You would never do this to yourself."
Aurora was fuming.
"Who do you think you are to tell me what I'm like?"
"Your friend, Rory. Your friend," Phil said, stammering from the cold.
"Then as a friend, kindly back off," she retorted.
"I can't. Because you're making a big mistake."
"It's my mistake to make then. Not yours. You don't see me controlling your life."
"I'm not trying to control you. I'm trying to help you."
"Thanks, my parents have already told me the same thing."
Phil gaped at her.
"So it's official. You've told your parents."
Aurora sniffed, looking down.
"They're threatening to kick me out."
Phil's eyebrows rose. "And that…doesn't concern you at all?"
Aurora shrugged in a self-deprecating manner.
"I don't know what concerns me anymore."
"This. This should concern you, Rory."
"Don't. Don't be like them. I've heard it all. I've heard all their stupid speeches about responsibility."
"I'm not giving you a speech. Jesus, why is it so cold?" he said, rubbing his hands together.
Aurora sighed.
"Go back inside, Phil. We'll talk tomorrow, when we're both calmer."
"I am calm!"
Aurora raised an eyebrow. People all around them had paused from whatever they were doing and were staring at them, waiting to see what happened next.
Storybrooke has nothing better to do, as usual, she thought, pulling a face.
"Don't you wanna get out of this town anymore?" Phil asked dismayed, almost as if he had guessed her thoughts.
Aurora looked away.
"We had a plan, you and I. We were gonna ditch Storybrooke and survive this college experiment together. Remember, Rory? Remember that? What happened to that plan?"
"I'm not that girl anymore."
Six months earlier
Mary Margaret Blanchard waved a hand in front of her face.
"Earth to Aurora. Are you even listening to me?"
She had been spacing out. It wasn't her fault something was happening right across the street. Something new.
Nothing ever happened in Storybrooke. Nothing, until now.
Mary turned to look at what she was staring.
A yellow bug was parked in front of Granny's Diner. It brought a splash of color to the otherwise bleak September weather. An equally colorful young woman threw back the door and walked out.
Mary Margaret gasped.
"Emma?"
Aurora's mouth fell open. "That's Emma Swan?"
She hadn't recognized her.
Then again, the last time she had seen her, which was eleven years ago, Aurora had been seven. She still had vivid memories about it, though. She remembered being in awe of the pregnant girl walking down the street with her head high. She remembered worshipping this goddess with golden hair.
And yet, she hadn't even recognized her.
Maybe she needed glasses. Maybe Emma had changed to a great extent. She still sported the same enviable blond curls and hourglass figure, but she was definitely no longer a teenager. She had filled out. She had matured. She looked aged and confident. She looked like she had seen and done things. And she was wearing a fabulous red leather jacket.
Aurora wondered if she'd ever look like that once she left Storybrooke, once she actually started doing something with her life.
Mary Margaret rose from her chair.
"I'm sorry, Aurora, I know we planned to work on your algebra portion for another hour, but I'm afraid we're going to have to rain check."
"That's fine, I'm not in a very productive mood anyway," she replied, still looking out the window.
Mary Margaret noticed how enthralled she was.
"Do you want to come with me and say hello?"
Aurora didn't hear the question. Someone else had gotten out of the car. Emma Swan had brought someone with her.
He was tall, bearded, in his thirties, and his scarf was chequered red and black. He leaned against the car and took out a cigarette and a lighter, glancing about him with a sardonic look in his eye. He kept one headphone inside his ear.
"Aurora?"
She shook her head.
"No, um, I don't think that's a good idea. I'm just a stranger, after all."
Whereas Mary Margaret was a friend. In fact, Mary Margaret had been very close to Emma Swan, once upon a time.
"Nonsense. No one's a stranger in this town. She'd be happy to see you," she insisted.
Aurora bit her lip.
"I'll catch up with her later. You should be the one to talk to her first."
Mary Margaret conceded, finally. She took out some money from her purse and insisted on paying for their hot chocolates. She promised to make up for their lost time next week.
Then she said goodbye, and left the diner.
Aurora let out a breath of relief. She wasn't happy that her study session had been cut short. She usually enjoyed these meetings. She was happy because she was alone with this new sensation. She peeked over her shoulder at the yellow bug.
He was still leaning against it, still smoking in an indifferent manner, as if nothing could ever faze him.
It seemed absurd that he was here, in Storybrooke of all places.
He belonged in a movie. He belonged in a fictional world where someone this alluring could actually exist.
Emma ran to Mary Margaret and they both hugged for a full minute.
Aurora's eyes never left the stranger's figure.
She had never experienced such a strange pang of desire before. Of course she'd had crushes and felt attraction for different boys in her life, but this was something different, something scary and unfamiliar. This wasn't a boy.
She almost wanted to crawl out of her own skin. She felt embarrassed, ashamed even. As if everyone in the diner could tell what was happening.
She resented the stranger, even hated him for making her feel like this.
But she was wrong. The whole diner wasn't staring at her. They were staring at Emma Swan.
Ruby had stopped making rounds and was standing by the doorway, trying to eavesdrop on Emma's conversation with Mary Margaret.
Aurora realized she was acting ridiculous. The only reason she felt such a pull towards him was because he was a mystery, a novelty. She knew everyone else in town, except him. That was the only explanation.
I have to get out of here, she thought.
Gathering courage, she grabbed her bag, put on her jacket and walked out of the diner briskly, looking straight ahead.
She'd make a clean exit and avoid looking in the yellow bug's direction.
She'd go home and have dinner with her family and the next day, she'd hear all about Emma Swan and the mysterious stranger, because by then, the news will have spread all over town. And she'd just shrug and say "that's neat" and leave it at that.
That was the plan. It was safe. It was going to work.
She took out her phone, pretending to text as she walked down the street.
Phil, you're never gonna believe what happened, she typed, even though she was never going to send the message.
And then she dropped her phone, because she had run into a solid body.
He bent down to pick it up quickly.
"Shit, sorry, didn't see you there. Here you go."
She stared at him wide-eyed. She was sure her lips had parted and she looked like a moron. But she couldn't do anything about it. Her brain had stopped functioning.
He smiled, raising an eyebrow.
"Are you going to take it, or…"
"Oh, God, yeah, sorry," she stammered, grabbing it from him clumsily, touching his fingers in the process. They were warm and rough.
"It's okay. Does this place have any good coffee? We've been driving for hours and nothing decent so far."
That's when she realized he was pointing at Granny's Diner. The second thing she realized was that he had an accent. A foreign accent.
"Uh, yes, good coffee, um, definitely, yeah, I mean, not spectacular, but great either way, go for it," she blabbered, looking down at her newly recovered phone.
He smiled again.
"Okay, thanks, I'll be out of your hair then."
"Bye," she muttered, going round him, making sure she wouldn't bump into him again. And then she bolted.
She simply ran.
As if her life depended on it.
Maybe it hadn't been the smoothest exist, but she didn't know what else to do. She had panicked and she had felt breathless. She didn't like feeling breathless.
The stranger looked after her with a startled expression on his face.
Strange girl, he thought.
But then he shook his head, smirked, and stepped inside Granny's Diner.
When Aurora finally got home, she didn't bother to say hello to her parents or make her presence known. She jumped up the stairs to her room and locked herself inside.
She threw herself on the bed and pressed her face in her pillow.
She felt hot. She felt cold. She felt stupid. She felt great.
And she knew she was in trouble because the pang was still there and it wasn't going away very soon.
She could still picture him, standing in front of her with an amused expression on his face. She recalled the shape of his lips when he smiled and the way he had tilted his head at the diner. His fingers on her fingers, briefly.
The sensation made her want to touch herself. She closed her eyes and let it envelop her. Everything else disappeared.
That evening, she didn't come down to dinner as usual. She told her parents she wasn't feeling well. Her mother thought she was working herself too hard with school and preparatory classes. Her father thought she was not getting enough sleep, because she stayed up online every night. And her tabby cat, Sleeping Beauty, thought she was just lonely and needed a boyfriend.
"It's just one of those days, you know," she told them, waving her hand dismissively. "Nothing to worry about."
She considered calling Phil later, but she realized this wasn't a boring school problem or some sad Sherlock gifset she'd seen on tumblr.
No. No, I can't share this with anyone. He won't understand.
She knew she wouldn't be okay. She wouldn't be okay until she got back to her boring routine in her boring town with the same boring people she knew.
She wouldn't be okay until Emma Swan and her mysterious stranger left Storybrooke.