Finding What I Thought I Lost – A Rumbelle story that seems to have a lot of Charming despite the fact that he's not one of my favourite characters.
A/N: Okay, so if any of you are reading my story 'Boss' and are hella angry at me for not updating since August, I'm sorry, I'm an awful person, I know, but I hope to have a new chapter up before I go back to college on January 4th. I just had to get this out before I could even think about 'Boss', sorry sweeties!
To any new readers who have no idea what the balls I was talking about up there; hi! I'll warn you now that I'm an awfully erratic updater – sometimes I can update twice within four hours and other times it takes months for me to get a chapter up. I'm afraid that's just how the ball bounces, bitches. But I try. I swear, I do.
This idea has been killing me for a long time so, here it finally is. It's based on Tinuviel Undomiel's 'October and April' fic – which I totally 100% recommend – but there are differences. I thought (after reading 'October and April') what if Charming figured out Rumbelle's relationship after escaping and seeing Rumple? I don't know, I just thought it might be interesting. I promise my A/N's won't always be so long.
P.S. The title is based around the line "I find everything I thought I lost before" from Red's song 'Pieces'.
Prologue –Just Make It Stop
James barely struggled as they pulled him from his cell, knowing his imminent execution was close. The small amount of hope left in his heart disappeared quickly, slipping through his fingers like water. The former prince felt his shoulders slump forward, defeat evident in his demeanour. In his mind's eye he pictured his love, Snow White, and began to think of all the reasons he loved her. Just as he was being dragged out of the doorway to the dungeon, James heard a heart-breaking sob.
Lacey.
He hadn't even begun to think about her, but now he was worried. Without him around, who would talk to her? Who would befriend her? Who would protect her? Not that he could have done much to stop the Evil Queen and her guards, but it was a hell of a lot more than he could ever do dead.
Mind made up, Charming let his legs buckle beneath him, causing his whole body to go down. He briefly saw Lacey step out of the darkness of her cell to wrap her hands around the bars of the door, a worried expression gracing her tear-stained, but still beautiful, face. In her faded, lilting accent, he heard her gasp his nickname, evidently concerned. Allowing himself a second as the guard told him to get up, Charming built up his energy before punching one guard in the stomach with as much force as he could manage. As the second guard wrapped his arms around him from behind, James pushed back against him, using this momentum to kick Guard One's gut and then force Guard Two backwards until he hit the wall. Quickly elbowing him in the face, the currently not-so-charming Charming broke the guard's nose and sent him careening down to the ground, unconscious. The first guard came at him with his sword, but James swiftly swerved left, out of the way, and elbowed his face too, before grabbing his arm and bringing it violently down to his knee. The guard dropped the sword immediately, just as James had hoped.
Their fight had ended up moving from the dungeon's doorway and into a long hallway, in which, James noted with determined exasperation, there were two more guards. He wrapped the chain that attached his cuffs around the first guard's neck and yanked it back, choking him slightly before forcing his head against the wall violently, knocking the guard unconscious. Taking a deep breath, the brunette pulled his cuffed hands away from the guard's throat and stood, turning to face the other two guards who were currently rushing at him.
It took a while, and a lot of effort, but he finally apprehended those guards too. The previous pauper turned, intending on going back for the friend whose name he did not know in order to avoid the exact situation they found themselves in now. It was ironic that they thought they could avoid friendship by simply not knowing each other's names, like that was important but sharing life stories, laughs and, of course, information on their loves, was not. To say her own experience had turned out extremely heart-breaking, Lacey was still quite the romantic, and she loved it when he told her stories of his Snow White.
As James began to walk back to the dungeons, he came face to face with a dark knight holding a bow and arrow, pointed straight at his head. Instinctively, Charming turned to run the other way, before seeing yet another guard in front of him.
Were they unlimited? Did they come at an offer of six for the price of one?
Ignoring his cynical, sarcastic thoughts, James panicked as the unarmed guard yelled out "Shoot him!" The archer did just that. He shot; but not at Prince Charming. James spun around, his face blatantly displaying his confusion over why the Queen's guard had shot down one of his own.
"Who the hell are you?" James blurted out quickly; still unsure as to whether he could trust the guard. He had certainly helped the escapee out, but if he did that to his own kind, what would he do to a prisoner on the run?
The guard pulled off his helmet, exposing a young, slightly bearded male. "A friend." The man spoke, his voice tinted with an accent. Charming was still unsure as to whether he could be trusted, but if he was willing to help, who was he to say no? It was unlikely that he'd be able to sneak both him and Lacey out easily anyway, and having a guard on their side would most definitely help.
And, frankly, they needed all the help they could get.
A/N: Soooooooo, let me know if you like it, if I should continue and blah-di-blah-di-blah. This is obviously set in the future and the first chapter will jump back to when they first met, but don't worry, there won't be too much Belle/Lacey and James/Charming bonding and the main story is Rumbelle. Okay, that about sums it up so review please!
And I am currently looking for a Beta if anyone's interested, just PM me!
Also, there will probably be a little swearing throughout the entirety of the story and most likely lemons later on 'cause we all love a bit of fruit, don't we? So if you're underage, go away or just don't tell me so then my conscience is clear, 'kay? I will only set the rating at 'T' until I feel it is no longer appropriate, though.
Disclaimer: Yep, it's all me, I own OUAT (are you kidding me? Of course I don't). Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz + ABC own all Once Upon a Time rights, and Tinuviel Unodomiel owns all the creativity for the basic plot, I just twisted things around a little. Also, every chapter title will be from a song I associate with Rumbelle, so I don't own those either. This chapter's was from 'Monster Like Me' by Morland and Debrah Scarlett.
Thanks and kisses, Lianne.