A/N: Hello! And welcome to Smolder! Book One of the Blazing Series!

For those of you who read this OC before under the title of Fathers be Good to Your Daughters, I completely uprooted that story line, and decided to take this in a whole other direction.

For those of you who are new, completely disregard that last statement.

Either way, I believe that you will have fun with this story. It will be slowburn, though. I have never actually attempted to write slowburn, so we'll see how this turns out!

I hope you all enjoy!

I picture Blayze (or Delilah as she is referred to in this prologue) as Jenna Coleman.

"What's past is prologue."

- The Tempest

"Delilah!"

With a jerk Delilah awoke, slowly the world coming back in to focus. Oh, god, had she fallen asleep? Bad form. Very bad form. Thank Christ it wasn't Regina shouting her name and awakening her from her little nap. She would never hear the end of it.

She looked up and saw Henry Mills, the boy she was currently supposed to be watching while his mother, Regina, took care of her duties as mayor, standing over her.

"Yes, Henry?" Delilah asked, smiling sleepily at her young charge. Her hair was stuck to her face with drool. How wonderful. She'd slobbered on Regina's nice couch cushions too. Greaaaat.

"Ms. Blanchard gave me a book today!" the child exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. He was such a brilliant boy, and so full of joy. Innocent. Unaware of the troubles and secrets of the world they lived in. He also made Regina a better person, which was a plus seeing as the woman no longer put herself first, but her adoptive son.

"Oh really?" inquired his babysitter, perching her chin on her hand. Mary Margaret was quite the unique person. She wanted everyone to be happy, and her way to make Henry happy was to give him a book. But why would he not be happy in the first place? Whenever she watched over him he was just a bundle of ecstasy. She could count on one hand the times she remembered him being somber, so what was wrong?

The boy nodded his head enthusiastically, "Yeah! It's a book of fairy tales!"

Fairy tales, hmm? She must have given him Grimm Brothers or Hans Christian Anderson. All stories that she had heard before. Half of them she had lived. All of them weren't how the story actually goes, but she wasn't going to tell him that. So she smiled and said, "Fairy tales. How interesting. Did you enjoy them?"

"I… um… I actually haven't read any yet."

"Well, why ever not?" asked Delilah. "Stories are meant to be read and enjoyed. The words take you off to faraway lands, with princes and their fair maidens, or the courageous knight braving the fearsome dragon that turned out to be a cursed fairy all along, and you're telling me that you haven't read them."

"I was waiting to read them with you," he said almost shyly.

That was quite touching actually, that he didn't want to start reading his fairy tales without her. "Well then, what are we waiting for? Go get your book."

Henry beamed and ran up to his room to retrieve his newest possession. Not a minute later, he bounded down the stairs and plopped down beside her on the couch, placing the fairly large book on Delilah's lap.

She ran her fingers down its hard backed, leather bound front, and traced the Once Upon a Time that had been stitched onto the cover. Never in her life had she seen something quite like this. Just from one glance she knew that this book was special. Opening the book proved to be even more to a shock. On the first page was a picture of two familiar faces, and upon skimming the story, she discovered that it was the story of Snow White. The real story of Snow White. Banditry and everything. Wasn't this just an amazing discovery?!

She grinned, "Any story in particular you wish for me to read?"

Henry shook his head, "Nope, your choice."

She quickly flipped through the book's pages, searching for a picture that seemed familiar, or a phrase of words that she had heard spoken before. The story that she had been looking for was about halfway through the book and titled "The Pirate and the Snake." Probably not the most original title one could come up with for the tale in which it named, but that was alright. It was all about the story anyway.

And so Delilah began reading.

"Most people have heard of Captain Hook, the infamous pirate known for sailing the seas of Neverland and beyond, but not many have heard of his true love.

"To many she was known as the Snake, a sorceress of great power who would tell you anything you wanted so long as she got something in return. Others who lived in port towns and pirate islands knew her as Red Jessica, the pirate lass that was known to fall into many misadventures with her crew. Only a few, the few people whom she loved and trusted in the world, called her Blayze.

"Captain Hook and his Blayze do not have your typical love story. They didn't fall in love at first glance, something both of them found to be childish. Their love wasn't spontaneous. It didn't just happen with an accidental kiss or a near-death experience. For them it took time, something they both needed seeing as they both had a mutual hatred for the other when they first met.

"No, this story is a long one, and it all begins with a woman in search of knowledge and someone either brave enough or stupid enough to take her there."