Ch. 3

I could still feel Sarah's foot shaking as she stared back at me. "That was singularly the most terrifying encounter I have ever had," she breathed out. I blinked. Did she see that too? Someone- no, me, it was me, I threw a knife. And I wanted to kill that person. Like actually kill them. I shivered. "What do you think he wanted?" she asked.

To make a deal. He wanted something he could only get from me. And in return, he'd give me something I wanted. And Sarah...I desperately looked at her face, feeling the crawling itch across my skin and something clench in my belly. She was dying.

"Kit!" Her foot jerked under mine. I shook my head once, trying to pull the present back into focus.

"Umm what he wanted?" I replied. She nodded, brow furrowing slightly. I wondered if she could hear the slight strain in my voice. "I'm not entirely sure, but if I had to hazard a guess, for some reason I think he wanted our names."

She raised an eyebrow, "Then why didn't you give them. My god when you started talking I thought he was going to kill you. Like actually attack you!" Her voice began to take on a note of panic. And it was her fear that cleared the last of my own as I pushed the images in my head to the back of my mind. Now is not the time. Its probably just residual from... Doesn't matter. Not now.

"Guido, Guido!" I half shouted, trying to get her focus on me. After hearing her name the second time she took a deep breath and looked at me. "I'm sorry that I made you worry. But there was no threat from him. He was just some creepy old fucker who probably just gets his rocks off from sticking his nose in other people's business. " You asshole. You fucking promised her you would never lie to her. You promised her. But does it count if you are lying to protect them? To make them feel better?

Of course it matters. You lie to children because they haven't seen enough of the world to have their own courage. You might as well slap her in the face and tell her you don't think she's capable of handling the truth. It's not your decision to make whether or not she should feel afraid.

And as I looked her in the eye, I could see that she saw the lie. And the offense she took from my audacity to lie to her to her face. "Shit," I swore violently. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to- I just wanted to- Fuck! I don't want you to worry, Guido, and I thought..." I faded off. I couldn't look at her face anymore so I started tracing patterns on the table again. I felt horrible. A fucking asshole. That's what you are.

I jerked when she put her hand on mine to still my fidgeting. Her hand was warm. I looked back up at her, and she had a weak smile on her face. There it is, that smile that she always has for you. "Hey, it's ok. I know you haven't had your coffee yet and you're always an idiot before your second cup." Her smile grew more sincere, and I couldn't help the grateful one that I grudgingly allowed on my own face. How the fuck did you ever earn this friendship? What did you do to deserve someone this good? Someone who tolerates all the shit you pull and weird shit you say. Ungrateful little fuck.

"Man if you let me use that excuse, I could get away with murder. I know I'd sure as hell kill some people before my second cup," I responded.

"And probably after your second cup too," she shot back.

I held my hand to my chest in mock offense, "I would never!" Her eyebrow went up again, clearly indicating exactly what she thought of my exclamation. I was saved the indignity of having to come up with a reply by Ruby coming out from the back with our plates. As she made her way toward us, she glanced around, and I could tell she was confused.

"Hey did someone come in here? I thought I heard the bell ring," she asked as she put our plates down.

I turned to her, watching her face carefully as I spoke, "Yeah, a one Mr. Gold?"

Sure enough, I saw her features flicker through a range of emotions. Shock, horror, fear, confusion, wariness all showed on her face, then she obviously realized she was reacting and schooled herself into impassivity before settling on polite curiosity. So we aren't the only ones who clearly don't like the guy. He's too creepy to be a realtor and something tells me he isn't a lawyer, except when it suits him. So what does he do that has even a waitress fucking terrified of the guy.

"Oh," she pretended to be surprised, "Did he um, say what he wanted?" She isn't afraid for herself. She's worried for us. That was no random encounter. He knew we were here, and she is terrified as to why he would seek us out.

"No, just came to introduce himself, with a creepy little bow and all," I gave a casual wave of my hand. I threw in the derogatory phrase to see if it might entice her to be a little more forthcoming about any information on him.

"Did you... And uh, what did you say to him?" she probed. Talk about a lack of subtlety. Jesus.

I shrugged, "Well, it would have been poor manners to not return the introduction."

She visibly stiffened, "You gave him your names?" Aha, so the fuck was trying to get our names. I felt Sarah twitch under my foot again, drawing my eyes back to hers. She lifted an eyebrow as she registered the implications of Ruby's question.

"Should we not have?" I answered with a raised brow of my own.

She seemed to realize her mistake, speaking from the panic that had clearly overwhelmed her, and immediately tried to back pedal, "Oh no.. it just that... he's only... we don't really..." She continued to fumble. It seemed like her fear did for Sarah what Sarah's fear had done for me, because she jumped in to quickly calm the flustered waitress.

"Actually, Kit was extremely rude, dunno what she's on about 'being polite.' She introduced us by our last names and as good as told him to fuck off, excuse my French."

I was surprised at the flippancy Sarah managed to put in her tone. If I had not seen the sheer terror on her face not minutes ago with my own eyes, I'd have said she was completely unconcerned. She never used to be able to do that.

"So he doesn't know your names?" Ruby asked, seeming both impressed and surprised.

I grabbed my coffee mug again and took a swig, before swallowing with a shake of my head. 'Nope. Why? Is he Rumplestilskien or something?"

Ruby must have been in the midst of swallowing I think, because she gasped and immediately started choking. Well that was... not what I was expecting. I shot a look over to Sarah, whose eyebrows were so far up her forehead they might have been in danger of touching her hairline. We both turned back to Ruby and waited for her to get her breath back.

When she finally managed to compose herself, she cleared her throat, "What makes you say that? How do you know that name?"

"What, Rumplestilskein?" She nodded. "Well I mean in the old story, he's this little demonic elvish git, sorry, um guy, and he is in the business of making deals. And well, I can't remember if she was a prisoner or just poor, but some young lady asks for his help by having him spin straw into gold to save her life. And he agrees if he can ask for a favor at a later point, or something like that. And she agrees, sort of like, 'oh what's a little magic imp ever gonna need from a farm girl' type deal. But she ends up somehow getting married to the prince, can't remember how, and she's pregnant and he come back and demands her first born child for payment. And she's absolutely horrified and asks him for a way to keep her child, and he's like 'you get three days to guess my name." And then poofs off. So the first day she asks like the court magician or something like that, and he doesn't know, and the second day, she asks like the village wise woman I think. Why is it in all these old stories they can only do like one productive deed a day, like what a waste of time. And what the hell does a single guy want a newborn child either?"

Sarah kicked me under the table. "Ah right, anyway, she's freaking out and the morning of the third day, she's out walking in the woods crying and she come upon him dancing, chanting something about how important names are and she'll never guess his, because names have power and none knows his name and so no one had power over Rumplestilskein. And she hears him and returns home. When he comes to take her baby, she gets three tries, and she gives two commonplace names then remembers the name he had said and says that that is his name and he like jumps from her window into the road and like stamps his foot until he literally disappears or something and she gets to keep the baby and she lives happily ever after."

Ruby stared at me, "How do you know that story?"

That's a weird question. "Umm I used to have a book of Old Mother Goose stories growing up. It was a compilation of all the biggies. You know, Red riding hood, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, St. George and the Dragon, Robin Hood, Rumplestilskin, Goldilocks, The Old Lady in the Shoe, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Hansel and Gretel, Princess and the Pea, The Little Boy and the Dyke, Old Man and the Sea, King Arthur, Beowulf, The myth of Finn McCool and the Giants Causeway...Wait those last ones weren't in the Mother Goose Books. Good stories though. Anyway, I grew up on them," I finished. God you are such a chatter box today. Stop talking so much, someone might start to think you are just a bad plot advancing device. Oh god, next thing you know, my hair will turn pink.

Ruby, however, seemed enthralled by what I had been saying. "Wow, you know all of those?"

I nodded, "I loved those stories growing up, and when I got older, I continued to enjoy fables and myths, although I prefer the ancient myths now more than the old wives tales that were immortalized in rhyme and story. Hell, between Guido and me-"

Sarah shook her head, "And I."

"And I," I corrected, "between the two of us, we probably know all the old fairy tales and myths."

"Well, let's not exaggerate," she insisted.

"Ok," I conceded with an eye roll, "Not all. Maybe 3/4 of them."

Sarah just rolled her eyes. This is a really weird conversation to be having with a stranger, like wow. I smiled at her and took another sip of coffee.

Rudy now looking at us with a completely different kind of interest, almost calculating. "Do you have a favorite?"

I glanced at Sarah. That's kind of a loaded question. Wait, why the fuck does she care anyway? Oh come on like you aren't massively curious what hers is. She looked deep in thought and had to ponder what my own answer would be. Well King Arthur is awesome, and the myths of Merlin and Morgan Le Fey are also good. And then there's Robin Hood, and Ivanhoe, although that's not technically a myth. Blue Beard is good, but the best are the old myths- Apophis swallowing Ra, Pandora fucking the world over, The coming of Kali the destroyer, The Hyrda, Medusa, Scylla and Charybdis...ooooohhhh I know THE HARPYS.

Sarah hummed thoughtfully, "Probably Princess and the Pea. That one always cracked me up."

Ruby nodded with a grin, "I like that one too." She turned to me.

"Well, as far as fables and fairytales go, I've always loved Robin Hood and King Arthur and Morgan LeFey. And the tales of fairy circles and changeling children. Blue Beard is kind of funny in a twisted sort of way. But my favorites are the Greek myths of monsters. Especially harpies. Those ladies were where it was at."

Ruby raised an amused eyebrow at my peculiar choices. "And what's yours?" I asked. Quid pro quo after all.

She gave a knowing smile, "Little Red Riding Hood."

I nodded, "I always liked that one growing up. especially the version where the granny and the daughter cut themselves out of the wolf belly, rather than the woodsman doing it. Seems more in character."

Ruby's eyebrows went up, "What version is this?"

I smiled, "It's from the musical Into the Woods..." She shook her head at the name, indicating she didn't know it. "Oh you have to watch it. It's essentially a real life telling of some fairytale characters who all live in the same world together. It's one of the most accurate portrayals of humanity on stage I've ever seen in a musical actually. Although, I must warn you, watch the stage version, not the movie that came out recently. The movie is good, but you should see the play properly first."

"I'm definitely going to have to watch this," she said. There is some subtext to that comment that I'm missing.

Sarah spoke up, "Although, it's really interesting, one of the few big stories it doesn't have is Snow White. But that's no big loss really."

Ruby raised an eyebrow. Again something crossed her face that indicated she understood more from the comment than I had, but I nodded in agreement with Sarah anyway. "Well it's mentioned in the passing, along with Sleeping Beauty, but it's probably for the best anyway. With the exception of the original Grimm's version, it usually ends up as such a boring story anyway." Ruby smirked. Ok there is defiantly something I am missing here. She opened her mouth to respond when the bell above the door Its a doorbell holy shit tinkled again.