Title: You Found Me/ Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Genre/Type: Angst/romance / Characters/Pairings: Victor/Ruby
Series: None / Rating: K+ / Warnings/Spoilers: None / Setting: OUaT: 2.12 /
A/N: I don't own RedWhale etc. | is in place of the lyrics to the song 'You Found Me' by the Fray. I've removed them because of © issues.
| The water looked so dark. Dark, thick, endless. But so inviting, it's endless depths seemingly reaching up a cold hand, beckoning him into its embrace. Just one more step. One. More. Step. That's all it would take, just one step then…nothing. No pain. No dark magic that rips out people's very hearts and souls, tears them to shreds before setting them on fire before their very eyes. No evil, no failures. No monsters and magic. Just rest, pure, non-magic related rest. Just one more step. He looked at the watch in his hand. Something so small, so harmless, ticking away every second in your life, before taking it away with a 'tock' into the world of never returning. Expect this one didn't. It was small, far from harmless and cracked. Just like his life, cracked, empty and broken, oh so broken. A voice cried out to him, and he could feel more than see the fellow monster behind him, her voice traveling to him in wind, so full of life and meaning when it started, but now empty and hollow. The voice faded into the mist that consumed his mind, as he warned the monster not to come any closer. He turned back into the water, imagining the hand still extended. He threw the watch into the water, watching as it soon disappeared into the depths. He took a breath one step closed his eyes just one more and stepped.
| Monster to monster. She'd saved him; another monster had saved him from his never-sending sleep. Oh the irony of it all. Monster to monster, they sat there. Anyone passing by would have thought them just two, ordinary people sitting and watching as life passed them by. Oh to be ordinary. Monster to monster, she looked at him. Not with shame, not with judgment and not with disgust and no disappointment lay hidden in her eyes. If only she'd known him before, what he'd done, who he'd really been, and then maybe she wouldn't have looked at him like that. Monster to monster, he looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time. He remembered back when he didn't remember, he looked at her then. But she'd never looked at him, not like this. Monster to monster, the way she looked right into his eyes, as if going so much deeper into his very, black soul, was almost his undoing. She looked so pure and innocent, trusting this monster before her with everything she had within her.
| Faith. He'd almost laughed out loud when she'd said "I have faith in you." Faith was something he'd never had before, not from anyone and not in anyone. And now he had it, from a girl that was a monster inside.
"And it's not too late."
"Too late for what?"
"To have a life." He stopped walking; looking at her, studying her face as best he could in the shadows. They hung over her like a shroud, and she wore them like a mourner. Like a friend. Everything was hidden from his probing eyes, except her own. So large and deep and pure and…faith filled. It almost destroyed him.
"A life…" He repeated slowly, more to himself than to her. He paused on every syllable, as if trying to make sense of those strange words, all bundled up into one seemingly simple phrase. A life.
"Really? What kind of life is there, for a monster?" She paused, breathing in as he stood there, waiting for her answer. Because he wanted to know, really and desperately wanted to hear her answer. What life could a monster have? Here or back there? Where did it matter where?
"Life is a funny thing, isn't it?" She said, almost in a whisper, "And you know what? I don't know. I don't know what kind of life we can have here or anywhere else for that matter. But I do know this: we have to make our own way, make our own lives here."
"You make it sound so easy." He shook his head. He had his answer. But did he like it?
"It's not," This time she stepped forward, just a little until her face was lit by the moonlight, "But we can do it. Together."
| He'd done it. Saved a life instead of taking one, and all without magic. And as he stood before all those people, lost and alone and far away from home, just like him, staring at him with smiling faces: it felt good. It felt real and right and oh so good.
"So he's really gonna be ok?" He glanced down at the voice next to him, before looking back at the man, unconscious on the bed before him and nodded.
"I think so. It'll take some time for him to recover, but I think he's going to be ok." He smiled softly and shook his head.
"What?" She asked, smiling back.
"We could've lost two lives today. Instead, we've saved one. I've saved one."
"No, you've saved two." She replied, squeezing his arm softly and smiling at him, "And monster to monster: I'm glad you did." He had his answer. But did he like it? He smiled at the monster next to him. Yes, he did.