I apologize for any spelling/grammar mistakes, I don't have a beta. All rights go to ABC except a few characters of my own creation. I hope you enjoy(:
Bass looked different, his eyes were still the same blue they always were but they showed a hint of sadness that were mimicked in Charlie's own, he was the same height he had always been but he seemed shorter, maybe it was the way Charlie held herself higher now or maybe six years of reflecting back on what he did had taken his once strong stature. His voice was still the same raspy voice, it sounded like the taste of coffee on a Sunday morning, Charlie had always been a coffee addict and she wasn't in the business of denying herself such a simple pleasure.
Charlie was always a force to be reckoned with, but five years of hell had made her as ruthless as the villain in her mother's tale of the kingdoms. Her hair was the same dark brown color that it had always been and she still sported the same natural waves that had spent countless nights strewn about Bass' well toned chest.
It was the first time in five years she had allowed herself to let emotions into play. No emotions had been drilled into her for five years. A spark is unable to be contained when emotions come into play, and Charlie had never started a spark she couldn't stop because of her laws. Maybe today would be the day she brought a tidal wave of flames down on herself.
"I never wanted to hurt you Charlie," Bass never was a good liar, over the course of one year Charlie had picked up on his tells, the way his eye would dart slightly to the left before he would speak or the subconscious way he would run a perfectly tan hand through his caramel color locks that more often than not, smelled like forest.
"If that were true you wouldn't have done it in the first place, Bass." Charlie avoided eye contact, she knew if she looked him in the eyes she spent three years memorizing and three years trying to forget, she would be right back under his spell.
He never needed magic to control her, his cool cerulean blues were enough. It's easy to drown in a sea of love that tastes a hell of a lot like safety, even when you know the water ahead is treacherous.
Bass took a step forward and in return Charlie stepped back. Five feet, she reminded herself. Five feet and maybe, by some miracle she could walk out of the clearing with her dignity; and her life. Not that she was afraid of Bass, it was always herself she had no control over. Restraint and resistance were synonyms that Charlie didn't hold in her vocabulary.
"I was promised you wouldn't get hurt. Gray lied to me-" It's the truth, his eyes never faltered, but it didn't stop the roll of anger filled statements that fell out of Charlie's mouth.
"Oh, he lied to you! That makes it all better then, how could I be so fast to judge? Now what was this lie exactly?" Charlie's eyes had filled with tears that were starting to cloud her once acute sense of vision. Maybe it was a metaphor, she never could see the real person Bass was when they were together. It's hard to hate someone you once loved so much.
Bass looked at the ground, his mouth opened and closed repeatedly, like gravity had taken over him for just a moment, after all when you hit rock bottom there's only one thing that can bring you down further. The silence filled the clearing like a tidal wave of guilt ready to drown them both, but one of them had a life jacket and Charlie didn't believe in second chances.
She stood there, waiting for the waves to come crashing in a rapid succession of burning lungs because maybe Bass would feel an ounce of the pain Charlie went through. Maybe getting dragged under the waves would teach him not to fuck with women forged from fire, but no such ocean enveloped them. The clearing was still the same clearing, Charlie was still Charlie, Bass was still Bass, and Charlie was still waiting for an apology and explanation that would never be good enough. The silence was becoming a pattern of theirs.
Charlie closed her hazel eyes that once lit up at the sight of his goofy, crooked grin. She wanted to turn on her leather laden heal and tell him to fuck off, but curiosity really is a killer. She found herself glued to the grass that was slowly turning to ash around her. Anger is a tricky thing and being born from a Queen and a White Knight wasn't exactly conducive to a calm demeanor.
She couldn't bring herself to say the one word, eight letters, two syllables that had been hanging off the tip of her tongue like acid for the past year.
The only sound that could be heard was the crunch of leaves beneath her leather soles. It wouldn't be long before she would feel the familiar burn of fire begin its ascent up her body and a spark in her mind that would never be put out.
"Do you remember the night you taught me the game with the deck of numbers? We played it for hours in our tent, well into sunrise, and we used acorns for money." Bass was pleading, but it sounded more like a one way ticket to a heated fight between ex-lovers.
Charlie stood silent, not willing herself to let the salt water fall, as if it would somehow stop the flow of memories that were stampeding in front of her hazel eyes.
"Poker," A small smile tugged up on the corners of her cherry red lips.
"Poker," Bass confirmed, a slight grin appeared in the corner of his upper lip, "You told me I was a lousy gambler, you called every play I tried to make. You told me never to play the game for real because I would lose everything I owned." It was true, that night had been one of many she returned to the Enchanted Forest instead of her mansion in Storybrooke, only this time she had brought a deck of cards and a bottle of jack with her.
Charlie's emotions were waging a war inside of her that any normal human being would have surrendered to at this point, "Why are you telling me this Bass?"
The silence that followed was unbearable. Charlie wanted to leave, more than anything she wanted to disappear in a cloud of smoke, but she needed to know why. It was the question that lingered in the forefront of her brain and nagged her at all hours of the night, but no goddamn reason was ever good enough.
"Because I gambled for your life," Charlie had heard a lot of submissions of guilt over the last half decade but none of them had ever evoked such a spark of emotion inside her, the red flames that danced in front of her once tear filled eyes were growing at an unnatural rate, "and I lost."
Maybe it was an ocean of flames Charlie had been waiting for after all.
Hey guys! This is my first fanfic and I would love feedback! This is only the prologue, the next chapter will introduce these characters as well as some of the shows characters! Swan Queen will appear in the next chapter! Reviews are greatly appreciated!