Hello there! Thank you so much for thinking this was a good idea (even if you don't stay to read but that's okay because I'd never really know) and clicking on my fanfiction! Anyway, this is a story that is set in the near future of the Once Upon A Time universe and it explores the idea of loneliness and what to do after a heartbreak. I mean, we've seen Regina's way and we've seen Rumpelstiltskin's way, both aren't very good, ahaha. So I'm going to try and introduce characters (I've chosen Giselle, The Princess and the Frog, Aladdin, Dracula (what?), and the Tongue-Cut Sparrow) that deal with them rather differently. 3 are relatively Western tales, one is a ballet, and the other is a Japanese fairy tale. Other than that, all of the OUAT cast remain the same.
Oh and if you want to review, you get a story favourite+follow from me on one of your stories and an author favourite+follow. So, that's always a good thing, yes? I don't know, reviews make me feel good so I thought I'd return the feeling. Aha. 3
"It's easier to make people hate something rather than believe it," Peter Pan crooned, his charming smirk plastered on his face.
So what's more powerful: hating something or believing something? The easiest way isn't always the best way. But although Pan never failed, he did have a nasty habit of taking the easy way out. He's always been like that– as Peter Pan and as Malcolm. He's hated and he's believed, and he's always loved the easiest of things. Believing in something proved to be too hard on him. Hating something simply proved to be much easier.
Peter Pan was not the only alias Malcolm has taken on. And it wasn't his first account of his deception amounting to dire consequences. It wasn't his first time lying. And, despite fading from existence, it wouldn't be his last.
Despite Malcolm taking the easy way out, his life was far from easy. Even from a young age, there wasn't much to believe in. But, you see, there's a true love for everybody. Malcolm was no different. His true love story was the descent of his downfall into darkness.
"Hey, kid, what you looking at?" Emma asked as she looked over Henry's shoulder, who was nestled in a booth at Granny's diner. Henry looked up, smiled at his mother then looked down, pointing at the picture.
"Looking at the fairy tales. There's some of these fairy tales that haven't even been mentioned by the others," Henry explained, "Like this one. No one even knows a man named Duke Albrecht or Queen Myrtha. They haven't even heard of them."
"Hey, that sounds familiar… what's the name of it?" Emma asked, flipping a few pages back to the beginning of the fairy tale. Henry crinkled his nose in the slightest of distaste. He wasn't even finished reading that page. At least, his mom could ask. "Giselle. Huh, that's a ballet now, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Henry answered plainly before flipping back to the page he was at. He didn't mark it and accidentally flipped a couple pages ahead. The illustration made Henry's eyes widen and Emma's jaw tighten. For the Duke Albrecht looked strikingly similar to a certain boy, a bloody demon, the nastiest person Baelfire has met…
He looked like Peter Pan.
What was he doing with the sweet, demure and lovely Giselle, the girl with the weak, dancing heart?
"Do you think… that's Rumpelstiltskin's mother?" Henry asked quietly. It was as if disbelief constrained his voice, a humungous feat considering Henry's heart.
"No, it can't be. There's no way Giselle would love Peter Pan, I mean, he's…" Emma furrowed her brow, trying to think of a better word.
"A villain?"
"Yeah."
Harry let out a wry smile before looking back at the book. The illustration was of a smiling teenager, in a vineyard on an autumn day, looking adoringly to a dancing figure, dressed in a light blue peasant's dress who was smiling just as brightly back at him. The boy didn't look menacing as Peter Pan did. Instead, he seemed every bit like the lovesick youth he's seen in the other fairy tales. He hadn't read all of Giselle so he had no idea what "taking the easy way out" will do to a person.