Author's Note: This is a "Once Upon A Time" fanfiction. It'll be in the POVs of several characters; two of them are my OCs, Ronan and Ashlin. The other POVs will be the Storybrooke characters, such as Mr. Gold (who will probably be an important part of this fanfiction; he's my all-time favorite TV show character).
I promise to try my best to make sure that Ronan and Ashlin are NOT Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus. I know firsthand how annoying it is to read a fanfiction with Mary-Sue-ish OCs. I also promise to try my best to keep the Storybrooke characters true to their TV show counterparts. Please forgive me if I change Mr. Gold's personality a bit, unintentionally—like I said, he's my favorite favorite favorite character, so I might make him a little nicer/more sympathetic. Unintentionally, not on purpose.
So…yes! I do not own any of the "Once Upon A Time" characters (even though I wish I did)! Ronan and Ashlin are my own creations. I hope you enjoy this, and reviews are encouraged. : )

Ronan risked throwing a glance over his shoulder. The men were still in hot pursuit. His sister Ashlin was right behind him. Her coppery-colored hair was wild, and she was breathing hard.

He turned back to the road in front of him. They had just entered a town. Maybe someone here can help us…

He could hear Ashlin's footsteps behind him. Then, suddenly…they faltered and stopped.

Ronan skidded to a stop on the sidewalk, spun around, and ran back. Ashlin had fallen and was struggling to force her clearly aching muscles to work.

Ronan grabbed Ashlin's arms, pulled her to her feet, and shoved her out of the way, just as the five men caught up.

One of them plowed straight into Ronan. He managed to stand his ground, and used the other man's momentum to throw him to the ground.

Ronan got into a half-crouch to maintain his balance, keeping his eyes on his opponents. The fellow who seemed to be in charge was a large man with longish, unkempt hair and deep-set gray eyes.

Then two of the men charged him. Ronan seized one of them by the arm, and twisted it backwards. There was a sharp crack, and the man howled.

The second attacker lunged for Ronan and tackled him to the ground, where they rolled back and forth for several minutes, each grappling for the upper hand.

After being hit in the face repeatedly, Ronan's vision began to go blurry. Just then, there was the sound of a gunshot. The weight on top of Ronan disappeared.

He staggered to his feet just in time to see all five of his attackers disappearing down the road out of town. He watched them go, brow furrowed. Then, with fear, he remembered Ashlin.

"Ash! Ash, where are you?" he called, keeping his voice low but urgent. He turned around, searching for his sister. There were several residents of the town standing in the street watching him, but he would deal with them later.

Just as he was beginning to think that Ashlin had run away, there was a quiet scuffling sound from an alleyway to his right. He looked that way and saw his sister creep out, in a crouch and still half-hidden in the shadows.

"Ashlin, it's okay. They're gone for now." Ronan extended a hand, then, realizing it had blood all over it from where he had scraped it on the pavement, lowered it and offered her his other hand.

She took his hand and he helped her to her feet. Then he turned to face the curious people in the street, careful to keep his sister behind him.

There were two women, three men, and a young boy who looked to be about eleven or twelve. Ronan fixed them with a suspicious stare. "Which one of you fired the gun?"

"That would be Sheriff Emma Swan," said one of the men, gesturing at the blond lady standing next to him.

"Thank you, ma'am," Ronan said, nodding at the sheriff. "I wasn't faring too well there."

"Were you planning on coming here, or was it just an accidental thing that happened on your mad dash to escape those guys?" asked Emma.

Ronan paused. "Accidental, to tell you the truth. They've been following us for a while, but we've always been one step ahead of them. They caught up earlier this morning and started chasing us."

"Who are you, anyway? I mean, what are your names?" Emma inquired. Ronan could tell that she was collecting information.

"I'm Ronan. Ronan Pennington. This is Ashlin." He jerked his head back slightly, indicating Ashlin without actually looking at her. Too much attention made her nervous.

"Well, nice to meet you," said the man who had spoken first. "I'm August Booth. The lady in black is the mayor, Regina. That little boy is Henry, and that's Mr. Gold."

Ronan nodded at Mr. Gold, who gave a terse nod back. His face was expressionless, so there was no telling what he was thinking.

Henry, however, was different. He was staring at Ashlin with a thoughtful look on his face.

"It's nice to meet you all, but we should be going now," Ronan said. "We didn't plan on staying here."

"You should stay for a few days," August said. "Those guys are probably going to be lying in wait for you two for at least a week."

Ronan frowned. "No, I—"

Suddenly, Henry came forward and stood in front of Ashlin. "Hi, Ashlin! I'm Henry."

"I—I heard," Ashlin said quietly, her voice shaking a little. "I'm Ashlin."

"I know, I heard." Henry grinned. "Do you like to read?"

"Henry…" Emma sounded like she was warning him about something.

"Yes, when I get the time," Ashlin replied.

"I have a really good book!" Henry said. "It's in my backpack at the diner; why don't you come and see?"

Ashlin's facial expression was one of nervous surprise. Henry started towards the diner, tugging gently on her hand.

"Ronan?" She looked to him for approval.

He shrugged. "If you want…"

She followed Henry, who was still pulling on her hand. The two disappeared into the diner.

"Sorry, he can get a little excited when it comes to books," Emma said.

"It's fine," Ronan answered. "Ashlin can be…withdrawn at times. Any time she agrees to go and do something normal—like reading—it's a good thing."

"Are you her uncle?" asked Regina.

Ronan raised his eyebrows, taken aback. "No, I'm her brother."

"You look a little old to be her brother." She sounded suspicious. "And you look nothing like her."

"I'm only twenty-one; she's sixteen. And she was adopted," Ronan said tensely, feeling slightly offended.

"Oh." Regina nodded, but Ronan sensed that she was refraining from saying something else.

"So will you stay for a while?" asked Emma. "You don't want to risk running into those men again."

Ronan hesitated, and then nodded. "Ashlin and I can camp out in the field just outside of town. We're used to it."

"All right, if you want to," Emma said.

Ronan nodded. "We've slept in worse places than that field."

"If you don't mind my asking, where are your parents?" inquired August. "Or…family, at any rate?"

"Dead," Ronan said tersely, his face darkening. "It was an accident. They went camping, left me at home to watch Ashlin. We got a call the next morning from the police saying they had found our parents' bodies in a ravine, knifed to death." He swallowed hard to keep the tears back. I'm not going to cry in front of these people…

Mr. Gold and Regina—most likely the both of them felt rather uncomfortable—turned and left, going into a shop down the road a ways. Ronan was glad they were gone; Mr. Gold's emotions and thoughts were too hard to read, and Regina seemed unfriendly.

"Well, I'm…sorry," Emma said.

Ronan shook his head. "Not your fault. I think I'll go get Ash now and take her out to the field. Thank you for letting us stay on here for a few days."

"No problem." August offered his hand, and Ronan shook it.

With that, Ronan made his way to the diner and walked in. Ashlin was at a table near the back with Henry, bent over a book.

He walked over to them. "Ash?"

Both of them looked up. Ashlin had a strange look on her face; slightly confused and dazed. When she saw him, though, her expression slowly returned to normal.

"Yes, Ronan?" She leaned back to look up at him.

"The sheriff said we could stay in the field just outside of town for a few days, until we're sure those men aren't going to be after us again." Ronan cast a glance at the book on the table. It appeared to be a storybook of some sort.

Henry reached across the table, taking the book back and putting it into his backpack. "Do you want to come back tomorrow and read some more of the book, Ashlin?"

"Sure," Ashlin replied, smiling. "It's…very interesting." She slid out of the booth and stood up. "I'll see you later, Henry."

"See you later." He got up too and left the diner.

Ronan opened the door and waited until Ashlin had walked outside before following. She was silent on the way to the field, and he stayed quiet as well. There was something…peculiar about this town, one that he couldn't place his finger on. Until then, he intended to try and keep an eye on Ashlin; she had a knack for getting into trouble.

And trouble was something they didn't need any more of.