She has the most beautiful bright blue eyes; no one could deny that simple fact. They shine a little brighter whenever she smiled, but held a cold look without a smile. He always liked it better when she smiled those striking blue eyes were unnerving to look at without the extra shine and shimmer. It was the type of smile that believed that even he couldn't be a bad person and that he was innately good on the inside. Secretly he hoped that even if the curse were to be released, he could still remain close to her. But, of course, the good always win and people like him would always loose.
Even in the past her eyes never really fit her character, or so he thought. He would have preferred a green shade or even a honey golden color for her eyes, and for those reasons he would end up making the most regrettable deal ever.
Ivy the Flower Fairy is now known as Eirys the owner of the Green Fairy Flower Shop in Storybrooke, Maine. She, like everyone else, retained most of her former personality and she still had those disturbingly blue eyes that he secretly detested.
"Welcome to the Green Fairy, how can I help you today?" Eirys asks placing a freshly cut flower as a page marker before glancing up at her next customer. "Mr. Gold, you're early this month. Would you like to stay for some tea?" Being the owner of the flower shop next door to his pawn shop, he always collected her rent last. It also gave him something to look forward to on rent collecting days.
"That would be lovely." Mr. Gold says collecting the rent money from her. He flips the 'open' sign around and follows Eirys into the flower shop's back room where paisley green cushioned metal chairs were carefully placed around a circular mahogany table. "What kind of tea will we be having today?"
"I was thinking of Blue Mallow tea." She sets some water into a kettle to boil and spoons some dried herbs into a clear teapot, adding some extra herbs for flavor. For a moment, there was a comfortable silence settling between the two. "Will you be spending Thanksgiving on your own again?"
"That was the general plan." Mr. Gold replies, watching her pour the boiling water over the tea leaves. She sets the matching clear teacups and saucers on a silver tray along with a pot of honey. She also adds a small bowl of lemon slices before bringing the tray to the table. "Will you be spending it with that boyfriend of yours, the surgeon was it?"
He cringes a bit when he said the word 'boyfriend', he never really liked the surgeon in the first place, and the dislike grew even more when he found out that Eirys was dating the loathsome man. "No, I didn't really want to keep a broken relationship going. It would never have worked out between us."
"I see." Mr. Gold says taking a teacup from the tray and sipping its contents slowly. The teacup also hid the small smile that appeared on his face when he heard the news.
Eirys gently takes the cup back with a small teasing glare. "I wasn't done making it." She puts a small spoonful of honey into the cup and a few squirts of lemon to turn the tea into a rosy pink color. "You could join me here, no turkey though."
Mr. Gold shrugs noncommittally, "Why not?" he was never one to actually enjoy holidays with other people; therefore, his pawn shop was always open, even when there would be no customers. He secretly smiles once again as he raises the cup to his mouth, despite the curses effect of erasing everyone's memory; she was still very much the same. Even in the fairy tale world, she refused to eat anything that came from animals.
Eirys pours herself a cup of tea, adding the honey and lemon to it before settling down across from Mr. Gold, enjoying the silence that came with his presence. Despite their jobs requiring them to constantly converse with others, Eirys thoroughly enjoyed the silence in which she could enter her own special mind palace without the interruption of others.
"Why did you breakup with him?" Mr. Gold suddenly asks, his curiosity getting the better of him. He takes a sip of tea so he wouldn't accidentally continue talking and reveal something he wouldn't want her to know about.
She glances up at him with a surprised look on her face. Of course the question was unexpected since Mr. Gold had never shown much interest in her personal life or in anyone else's personal life. He just knew things about the other townsfolk. "He thought that I was spending too much time working at the store and not enough time with him. All the times that we did go out, he would just ramble on about how successful his career is. He was very narcissistic."
And with that, the entire conversation was dropped and the two of them returned to the best way they knew how to communicate, by silently pondering what could possibly be going on in the head of the person who sat across the table. They mutually recognized the time as their time, the time of them to be near someone they could always trust and to sit in that person's presence with awe. It was a sort of ritual that became their time. And of course, that time would end much too soon as the old grandfather clock in the corner struck the hour, calling an end to their time once again.
"I truly must get going." Mr. Gold says. Eirys places the glass tea set in the sink to wash later and walks him to the store door. She scoops up a small potted plant as they pass the cashier.
Eirys could feel a flush creeping onto her cheeks as she hands the flower to him, her hand brushing up against his. "It's a freebie. It has a strong fragrance when it blooms, you can put it in your office when you work on those old books."
Mr. Gold gently take the flower and with a curt nod towards her, he heads back into the chilly fall wind and take the short walk back to his store.
"Saphira, you're always late." The dark haired girl scolds the panting blonde who had just ran from her own house to the meeting hall just to make it there before the ceremony began.
"Oh relax, Ivy." She says, catching her breath and finding two empty seats near the back of the room. "I couldn't find my good cloak and they're still fairies coming in."
Saphira tugs on the collar of her sky blue cloak, which represented her ability to grant wishes. The light color contrasted oddly with Ivy's own dark foresty green cloak for earth type magic. "Aren't you excited to finally leave this place? We can go out explore, stay up late, and eat anything we want."
Between the two friends, Saphira had always been the more adventurous one, wanting to explore the forbidden caverns and solve all the mysteries of life. Ivy, on the other hand, was the shy timid one who worried about the consequences of her friend's actions. "We don't get to leave until the fall, remember?" Ivy whispers as the ceremony began with singing from the ancient fairy book of Lore.
After the singing all the fairies had to line up to wait their turn to be given their new names. They all fidgeted in line as their parents tried to give them reassuring smiles. Their new names would represent their magic and spread their reputation throughout the lands. "I heard that the Ogre Wars are starting to get worse." A male fairy whispers to them, his red cloak symbolizing his fire magic. "Kingdoms are even asking for fairy aid in enchantments and to even fight on the front lines."
Saphira and Ivy pass worried glances; humans were always fickle creatures who sometimes take advantage of a fairy's kindness, especially fairies with strong magic. It was one of the many reasons why a fairy had to come of age and specialize in magic before they could leave the protective Fairy Grounds. Humans were also not allowed to ever be on the Fairy Grounds, if that were to happen, said human would be terminated and any fairies that helped the human get onto the grounds would be exiled.
Ivy gives Saphira a little nudge as the blonde's turn came up. Saphira throws her shoulders back and marches up to the podium where the book of Names sat. She touched the book with her hand, letting her magic pass into the book, the book glows a bluish hue. A deep booming voice echoes from the book. "You will now be named the Blue Fairy." The audience and other unnamed fairies burst into applause, to be named after one's magic was reserved to the most promising fairies.
Ivy sighs inwardly, gingerly taking a step up to the book. She slowly reaches her hand to touch the crinkled worn surface of the book, adding a bit of green magic. The book glows a pale emerald green. "You will now be named the Flower Fairy." Saphira starts the applause with her unladylike screams and catcalls. Ivy walks down the other side of the stage and hurries over to her best friend, her head bowed low in embarrassment.
"That was so embarrassing." Ivy whispers her face turning redder than a fire fairy's cloak, her pale skin didn't help. Saphira grabs her hands practically jumping in her seat.
"In three more months starts the beginning of our lives." Saphira goes into her little day dreams about the world outside of the Fairy Grounds. She didn't believe in anything she couldn't see. "The first thing I'm going to do is talk to a real human who has real problems. Then I'm going to find a place to stay, or maybe I'll just camp outside in the forest." She rambles on and on about the future possibilities.
Ivy just nods and smiles, Saphira was capable of holding a conversation by herself and will later claim that she had been talking to someone else the entire time. Ivy thinks about the world outside, the only experience she had been through story books and pictures her parents had showed her. "Hello, Ivy you there?" Saphira waves her hand in front of Ivy's face. "Everyone's leaving for lunch, if we don't hurry all the good food is going to be taken."
"At least some things never change." Ivy says getting out of her seat. "Let's go feed that bottomless pit you call a stomach." Outside the ceremony hall was an array of food and drinks.
"I just thought of something." Saphira announces licking the last bits of her blue icy treat. "Do you even know how to do flower magic?"
Ivy glances over at her mischievously, her blue eyes casting an evil glaze over her face. She waved her hand over the ground; a green colored mist seems to flow from her fingers, nurturing the earth. A small green sprout pushes through the grass, quickly growing into a thornless blue rose. "Here, a present for our new Blue Fairy." Ivy plucks the rose off its stem and tucks it behind Saphira's ear. The rest of the stem shrivels back into the ground.
"Of course, your eyes are much more beautiful than mine." Saphira says taking the rose and tucking it behind Ivy's ear. "See, even the rose pales in comparison."
Ivy glances into her glass of water. Piercing blue eyes stare back at her. The blue rose in her dark brown hair seemed much paler than it was when it was placed behind Saphira's blonde hair. The other fairy folk felt unnerved by her eyes, their attention always focused on something above her head when they talked to her. Sometimes, even her reflection scared her.
She always found it strange that the people of Storybrooke feared Mr. Gold of all people. Something about him made others weary of his actions and they avoided him like a plague, but to her, she found him interesting yet mysterious despite the number of years they had known one another.
To be exact, Eirys couldn't be precisely sure as to when they first met, but she could clearly remember the start of their time. It was a point in her life where she didn't have many friends, they all drifted away from her, and the over all business of her flower shop was slow, almost to the point where she couldn't even break even.
It was a warm winter morning, a few weeks before the rent collection. "Ah, hello Eirys, how rare it is to see you." Mr. Gold greeted as she stepped into his slightly dusty pawn shop. Eirys nodded towards him and slowly made her way around the store. The porcelain tea sets sitting behind glass cases had caught her eye immediately. Mr. Gold could clearly see the joy in her eyes and took out a few sets. "You have a key eye for good merchandise. I can sell you one for a good price."
"I have no money at the moment." Eirys replied, gently caressing a teacup with a blue rose design on it, "perhaps another day." She slowly sets the teacup back onto its matching saucer.
Mr. Gold gently takes the tray with the blue rose tea set on it and places it on the highest shelf in the cupboard behind the counter. "Then it'll be right here until you can make your purchase."
It was rare for her to receive any kindness. Her life at the moment was very rough, she had just moved out of her parent's home and settled into the living space connected to the rundown flower shop. All her friends from her childhood had moved on with their lives and were generally not interested in keeping in touch with the green thumbed girl. And she had little to no money in her name or in her business.
But for some reason Eirys didn't feel too worried about it. It was almost as if she knew that something good was going to happen that was going to change her life for the better. Or it could have been her unconscious telling her that she'd get a lot more customers after pipes broke at the local candy shop around Valentines Day. The next day all the boyfriends and husbands were at her door buying roses for their girlfriends and wives.
"Eirys, I was wondering when you going to stop by." Mr. Gold said when she entered a few days after the Valentines Day rush. It always seemed as if no on ever came to the pawn shop, yet it never looked like he was having financial problems. But then again, he did own the entire town. "The tea set is still here if you want it." He pulled the tea set from its place on the shelf.
"I'm probably going to end up right back where I started, poor with no customers." Eirys joked picking up a tea cup and looking at the design. "But at least I have something beautiful to look at. And drink out of."
"You enjoy drinking tea?" It was probably this question that had sparked the creation of their time. Despite the locations of their respective shops, they had no apparent similarities.
Eirys nods, a happy smile on her tired face. "It's a secret and expensive hobby of mine. In high school I had two part time jobs in order to pay for all of my tea. It drove my parents crazy."
Mr. Gold chuckled; the thought of this originally very modest and shy girl actually talking animatedly about a single topic was very amusing to say the least. "I can imagine that." He rings up the price for the tea set, which was very reasonable for her situation.
"Perhaps you could join me for morning tea once in a while." Eirys said, watching Mr. Gold's slender fingers carefully wrap each piece in newspaper. "Busy is usually slow in the mornings and teacups were made for more then one person."
It was as if Eirys didn't fully understand what she was saying. Not even a blush graced her sharp cheeks after her comment, just curious icy blue eyes staring into his brown ones. "Perhaps." He replied, regaining his composer and handing her a bag with her tea set inside.
Stealth was the key at that moment. There was nothing suspicious about a young fairy sneaking into the forest behind her house during the height of the summer afternoon when all others would be napping or lounging.
Ivy checks over her shoulder the fifth time in a span of a few minutes before carefully stepping over a fallen tree. She could feel a certain coldness coming from the tree that told her that it had been dead for some time. Wind specialized fairies could tell of a storm brewing just by the smallest shift in the air, and Water specializers could tell where a prime area for a well could be just by listening to the river. Earth specializing fairies like her self were more connected to their magic; they could feel the pain of forest fires, the coldness of dead trees, the joy of the first blooming flowers, and any other emotion the earth could feel.
Because of the link between her own magic and the earth meant that she had the watch her emotions. If she were to get suddenly angry, the branches of the trees could lash out, thinking that her own life was in danger.
The first time she had gone through the forest was many years ago after a misunderstanding with Saphira. She didn't understand the dangers of the world, and she expected her best friend to understand her passion for the unknown as well.
"What do we have here?" Ivy whispers under her breath at the sight of an unfamiliar person sitting under her tree. In the clearing was a grand old tree, its old trunk holding itself up with pride, and its branches strongly bracing against the wind. "And who might you be?"
She tiptoes around the back of the tree to get a better view of the person. His skin was tinted a slight golden color for some reason, his brown hair was matted with blood, and red blood was flowing freely through a wound on his head. "Who's there?" He croaks out, wincing when she pressed her handkerchief to his wound.
"Don't worry." She replies, applying pressure to his wound. "My name is Ivy, I'm the Flower Fairy. What's your name?" She kneels next to him, tucking her sundress under her legs.
He glances at her, inspecting her face for hidden intentions. "Bae, my name is Bae."
"It's very nice to meet you, Bae." Ivy removes the cloth as the bleeding finally stops. She waves a hand over a grass, small white flowers sprout from the ground. "My parents told me that if you crush these flowers and put them on your cuts, they'll heal faster." She rubs the crushed flowers into his cut. "I've never seen you in the Fairy Grounds before."
Bae shakes his head. "I'm just passing through." The less she actually knew about him the better; after all, if she didn't recognize him then no one would be able to find him. "But I'm not a human if that's what your wondering under that brown hair of yours." He weakly taps the top of her head.
"I know that." Ivy replies finding herself actually enjoying the pat. It wasn't a pat that was mocking of her young age, but rather one between siblings. "But you do have magical abilities. You wouldn't be able to get in here if you didn't."
"All magic comes with a price." He mumbles, closing his oddly large golden eyes, the blood loss causing him to loose consciousness.
Ivy had been hoping to spend the afternoon alone in her secret place, but she found herself liking the stranger instead of being frightened by him. He wasn't fussy like most of the other fairies she knew, yet he didn't have the arrogance of humans.