"Hey wait for me! Robin come on, wait!"
Henry Mills was short of breath. His cousin hadn't made it easy for him- an admittedly not much of an athletic guy- keeping up with her walking up and down the Hyperion Heights' streets on this trip. A couple of weeks after the unison of all the realms back home and his mom's coronation, there they were again, back at Hyperion Heights. Only this time it wasn't a great doom or a curse or anything magical that brought them here – well, except the magic bean they used to realm jump of course. Unison of all the realms implied magical realms; the world without magic would have to take a little more effort to get to, even now that the grounds have been supercharged with Gothel's residual magic thus allowing certain magical manifestations to occur.
It was the people who lived in Hyperion Heights that asked for this trip. They wanted some things they had left behind in their hurry to save the world and their loved ones back way when and with all the commotion they just never got around it sooner. Henry and Robin ended up volunteering. His mom, being the Queen now, was out of the question. Tiana had assumed some responsibilities Regina had assigned her in good faith of her leadership skills and also she and Naveen were on the honeymoon phase of their relationship, they wanted some peace and quiet at this point. Lucy and Alice both begged them to come with but Robin insisted her "little bunny rabbit" should stay behind and spend time with her dad, he was too excited to organize their wedding to be left alone, and it would be a great bonding experience for them. Plus the trip would be short, a couple of days tops.
Henry had said a similar thing to Lucy who was just jumping up and down of excitement when she heard they were going back to the place she called home for so long. She should stay with her mom and keep up with her schoolwork. "You have so many unexplored places over here Lucy. Don't worry, I'll bring you whatever you want from Hyperion Heights and I'll even take pictures of anything you'd like, okay?" he remembered uttering before they said their goodbyes yesterday. He tried to get her list from his jacket pocket to check it and he surely wasn't going to run after his crazy tomboy of a cousin. "Robin I'm staying put, if you wanna run off, be my guest" he said loudly. "Well at least stay on the pavement and not on the street you big buffoon" he heard her say and in a few seconds he felt her nudging him to the left. "And you're supposed to be the older one. Pffft"
The blonde girl shoved him a bit too hard and Henry lost his footing, going straight up on a garbage can that was located at the corner of the alley near them. While he hit it with his back, the list fell of his hands. Fortunately, Robin's reflexes were quick and she grabbed it before it got lost by a light breeze of the wind or random street water ruminating at the side of the pavement. "I'm so sorry Henry, I didn't mean to…" The girl stopped her apology midair when she stood up and laid eyes towards his direction.
"Don't move." The words fell on Henry's cheek as the man who had grabbed his mouth and put what appeared to be a knife on his throat, grazing it, looked her intensely in the eyes. Robin raised both her arms very very slowly as she said "We are passing by. Honestly, we mean no harm" Judging by the man's unkempt appearance, she deduced he was a homeless man, maybe even a slightly paranoid one. His next sentence confirmed her suspicions. "This is MY alley, MY corner! No one takes that away from me, do you hear me?" She nodded in the most earnest way and said in a calm voice "We don't want that, really. It's all yours. We were simply passing through. If you let him go we'll prove it to you, we'll go right on our way and you'll never see us again" The man with the long and tangled salt and pepper hair and the scruffy beard to match raised the blade from Henry's neck slightly and he simply said near his ear "Young lad, try anything funny and that blade will belong to you. Your guts that is" He then let his mouth free and draw his body back, giving them a chance to go honest on their word. Henry walked slowly towards Robin and when they finally were together he turned around to look at the man. "Thank you" he said and just as Robin was taking her first steps away, he froze.
"Didn't you say you'll walk away boy? Or have you forgotten my blade?" The man narrowed his amber eyes. "Henry let's go", he felt the sleeve of his shirt getting pulled repeatedly but all his attention remained on the older guy. "How long have you been here?" the young author asked without moving. The strange man stated looking menacing but he didn't even flinch. "Please answer me this and we'll leave you alone, I promise. Please" A low voice penetrated his chest "You've said that before lad. My patience is thinning." "Please" Henry almost pleaded and that took the man and Robin both by surprise. That was an unusual emotional display considering, well, everything. "Around a month. Are you happy now?" Henry's eyes welled up and he almost chuckled. "Yes. Very." he let out right before he finally allowed Robin to drag him away walking in a brisk manner.
"What is wrong with you dude? He had a knife and I don't have my bow and arrow to protect you. Plus I don't want to get into a fight with a homeless man, he seemed battered enough. Are you freaking insane?" the blonde girl barked the words under her breath, as if the man could hear them somehow even though they had walked almost two blocks down and he certainly wasn't following them – she checked. Henry turned abruptly and grabbed her by the shoulders, halting them both. He was as emotional as he had been right before they left that alley, maybe even more. "Robin I…" his voice cracked slightly "Do you know who that man was? Did anything seem familiar to you?" Robin tried to think and give him her honest answer. Maybe that would stop him and let them carry on with their trip. "His eyes were kinda familiar but they were brown. Half the population has brown eyes" she said and hoped that would be it. Much to her dismay he wouldn't let it go. "Trust me Robin, his eyes WERE familiar and I know because I've looked into them countless times. Did you hear what he said? That he came here about a month ago?" Robin was getting frustrated but humored him. "Yeah, so?"
"Robin…. I'm fairly certain that man is my grandpa. That man over there…is Rumplestiltskin" Robin rolled her eyes, stomped her foot and started walking uttering "My god, you really are insane" Turning around to face him she continued "We both watched him die Henry, what are you talking about? Is your imagination on high speed again? Write a book, it'll do you good. This…whatever this is, won't" After saying that she faced forward again and tried to assume their normal pacing so Henry would drop it but without any luck. He caught up with her and held her arms again, looking straight into her eyes, dead serious. "Robin. He died. Around a month ago. And we never found his body. We thought it magicked away as a side effect of the sacrifice. But what if that wasn't it? What if something else is going on over here? We have to call my mom" The last sentence was told not directly to his cousin but at an undetermined point on the horizon before him. Robin looked at him and couldn't even fathom he entertained that idea. "You're not going to worry her for nonsense, Henry, come on! Plus if that was him don't you think he would have recognized at least you?" Henry responded calmly "Maybe he's cursed again. Or maybe that's not it since Roger's still alive and well, his good deed hasn't been undone… Or is that possible?... Maybe he has something in his brain again, maybe the Dark One didn't leave, maybe he tried to carry Belle in his mind like he did with my dad… I don't know, maybe…" Robin placed a hand on his shoulder to make him focus back on the present, his hypothesis didn't make any sense and if she let him carry on with this they'd stand there for hours. She took a deep breath and said calmly. "If Regina got here to see him would that ease your mind?" As he nodded she said almost to herself "I suppose you two can carry on with the lists, there's not much left anyway. And I'll get to see my beautiful girl earlier."
"All right!" Her voice boomed and startled him. "I'll go back to the castle, notify auntie, brief her on the situation here and you go wait for her at Roni's okay? Eat and drink something, clear your head a bit, she'll be here in a couple of hours. Give me the bean" Henry obliged and the young girl caught it mid air, tossed it in the deserted alley they had found by a quick scanning around the area they stood –a relatively safe place for their little display of magic. As the portal flared up, Henry shouted to the disappearing figure of the girl "Tell her I'm sure. Tell her to trust me!"
Henry Mills walked the distance to Roni's bar as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his plaid shirt dressed shoulders. But inside he was feeling light as a feather. He had the heart of the truest believer and it hadn't betrayed him once so far. It wouldn't start now.
