An uncooperative muse is a surly roommate indeed.

Thanks for all the lovely reviews and faves/follows! You're all sparkling gems of loveliness! I apologize for not responding to everyone's individual reviews and for the general tardiness of this chapter. The mountains were calling and I needed to answer before my wilderness permits expired.

To essentially everyone who reviewed and left a prediction about the mystery biker, the answer is yes. And worry not, a backstory is coming. Because who in this fandom doesn't love a good backstory?

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Walking away from Henry and the evil castle of a playground should have lightened the load in her heart. She wasn't going to stick around where she wasn't welcome, and the kid clearly didn't want her there anymore. Lily ignored the twinge of a voice in the back of her mind that insisted that wasn't true, just like she ignored the warmth fading from within her.

The forest was supposed to be her safe spot. Quiet solitude and rustling leaves were better conversationalists than people any day. She never worried that she would be kicked out of the forest, and no animals were going to try and strike up a conversation with her about the weather or judge her for anything. But the encounter with Henry had left her ill at ease, and the dappled sunlight and earthy scent of the forest just didn't feel quite as welcoming as it had earlier in the day.

Maybe it would be better if she just went back to Granny's for the afternoon.

Mind dejectedly made up, Lily wandered slowly toward the edge of the forest, her feet retracing the path she'd taken before. At one point on her return journey she stepped on a fallen arrow, snapping the shaft in two. She narrowed her eyes at the weapon in suspicion, and lifted her head to see several arrows shallowly stuck in a tree trunk and several more littering the ground in front of it. The realization that she didn't remember seeing the arrows when she first came into the forest sent a nervous shiver down Lily's spine and had her pulse quickening.

In a town that was such a mix of old and semi-modern she should have guessed there would be people who preferred hunting for their dinner instead of picking it up at the supermarket. She worried briefly that the hunters might still be around and mistake her for a deer or some other woodland game (Or worse, they could know about her dragon transformation and decide they wanted to hunt something bigger than a deer just for kicks), but the haphazardness of the arrows on the ground and the cluttering of them in the tree had Lily questioning whether she had stumbled upon a hunting area at all. If anything, the area looked more like a target practice zone for children. The tree-bound arrows weren't embedded too deeply, and the sheer volume of arrows on the ground in front of them spoke of a lack of strength by the shooter. It had to have been a kid who shot them, and a young one at that. But then where was the kid, and where was the adult who had likely been out with them?

Deciding it was better to just keep walking instead of risk running into anyone else, Lily shakily moved one foot in front of the other and walked away from the arrows. She curled her arms around herself, hugging herself in lieu of real warmth and comfort, not wanting to rely on the spattering of sunlight that had to fight it's way through the thick foliage.

With every step that brought her closer to the forest's edge, Lily's thoughts fell deeper and deeper inward as she recalled her morning. Fucking perfect, she thought. She'd gone and screwed up yet another encounter with Emma's kid. Even her apologies never seemed to stick. She was doomed to mess those up just like she messed up everything else. Was there even a point in trying to apologize, yet again, to Henry, or would that just be another recipe for disaster? There had to be another way to prove to herself that she could stay in Storybrooke and not be chewed out by the locals as more than the usual freak. She wasn't quite sure why it was so important that she try to stick around, but a flickering deep inside her insisted she could do it. Insisted that sticking around for dragon lessons and maybe to find her father, things she hadn't even begun to do yet, were just outward excuses for something else.

She groaned. Shit, dragon lessons.

She was supposed to meet Maleficent sometime today for training, had even said she'd seek out the older woman herself. But after the way the conversation with Henry had gone and with Lily's worsening mood she wasn't sure learning to control an uncontrollable dragon inside her was the best idea right now, if ever. The consequences of her failed conversation with Emma's kid were minor compared to the potential consequences of a failed dragon lesson. After all, what was a damaged non-existent friendship with a missing friend's kid compared to a burned and demolished town?

The root came out of nowhere, grabbing Lily's foot and holding tight. It sent her flying towards the ground and it was only at the last minute that she remembered to throw her arms in front of her before her face met the hard dirt. She landed with a thud, the air pulled from her lungs. Lily stayed unmoving on the ground, groaning at the ache now blooming in her chest and the frustration growing within her.

Nothing was going right today. Not running into Maleficent at the diner, not her apology to Henry, and now she couldn't even walk right, could she? If she somehow worked up enough nerve to actually start dragon bitch lady lessons with Maleficent everything would probably go horribly wrong with that too. All Lily wanted right then was to go back to Granny's and hide for the rest of the day. Nothing could go wrong if she wasn't around to make it go wrong, but the stupid root and stupid fucking day wouldn't even let her do that much!

The sound of breaking foliage and muffled voices a ways behind had Lily snapping to attention, her senses buzzing on high alert. The voices came closer and a sense of dread filled her. She couldn't let anyone see her like this, she realized. So Lily scrambled to her feet, racing to the thick bushes on the side of the path, and dove behind them. Belly flat to the dirt once again, Lily dared to raise her head a few inches to spy on the newcomers.

Two men came into view from where Lily had been walking only a moment before. One was the size of an ox, thickly built and not to be messed with. The other was more average in size but looked almost twig-like next to the first man. Both men looked worried and exasperated, their eyes darting about the entire forest looking for something. They exchanged a look and more muffled words, gesturing around the path and the forest, before the ox turned off the path into the thicker brush away from Lily, who let out a breath of relief at the larger man's departure. The twig continued forward, coming closer to Lily and calling out loudly.

"Where's he gone to? This in't funny no more Roland! Where've you run off?" The twig finally came close enough for Lily to get a decent look at him. He had an accent, a buzz cut, and a broken bravado to his step. His leather jacket was all at once shield and second skin, and Lily let herself wonder at the life someone had to have lived to want and grow a skin that tough.

"Roland, your papa'll have me head if you're not back to camp soon!" Lily's eyes narrowed. Whoever this Roland was, he had to be a kid, maybe even a young one. She felt her heart clench at the thought of a kid so young being alone, and the hair-brained notion of secretly trying to find the missing kid flickered through her before she shook her head fiercely and shoved the thoughts aside. No more dealing with kids in the woods, she decided. Hadn't the failed conversation with Henry been enough for today? What right or reason could she even have to look for a kid she didn't even know?

The leather twig kept walking down the path, away from Lily's hiding place as he kept calling for the missing Roland. He eventually walked out of sight beyond the trees and Lily let out a breath, releasing some of the tension from within her. Lily started silently counting to twenty, wanting to be sure there was plenty of distance between her and the searching ox and twig before she started her walk back to town.

One. Two. Three. It really wasn't any of her business if there was a missing kid in the woods. Four. Five. Six. Really, it wasn't. If the ox and twig's faces were anything to go by, this didn't seem like the first time Roland had gone missing. Six? Six. Seven. Maybe the kid wanted to run, and if he did, who was she to stop him? A big fucking hypocrite, that's who. Ten. Eleven. Thirteen. Lily had wanted to run from foster homes plenty of times growing up, and she usually ended up in the woods. It really wasn't that big of a deal if some kid wanted to run too.

Twelve. Fourteen. Fifteen.

It really, really wasn't a big deal.

She sighed. She wasn't doing a very good job convincing herself of anything. Or counting. It was almost like she'd taken that high school GED for nothing.

"What'cha doing?" A small, curious voice piped up from behind her, startling Lily into a gasp. She whipped around to face its source in the form of a little boy bundled up in a man's jacket and hat, a long bow almost twice his size clutched in his tiny hands. He couldn't have been more than five years old, if the roundness of his cheeks and wide-eyes were anything to go by. Lily would've bet money that this was probably the missing Roland.

Jesus fucking Christ, the universe had it out for her.

When Lily didn't answer right away the small boy asked another innocent question. "Are you hiding?"

"Yeah," She finally answered, wishing she didn't feel as pathetic she sounded in that moment.

But if the kid noticed her distress he didn't pick up on it, instead, his face lit up childish inspiration. "I'll hide with you!" He decided, rushing forward and curling into a ball next to her in the bush. Lily stayed frozen in place, still lying flat on the ground, eyes wide in disbelief at the kid who was far too trusting of strangers.

"Kid, what are you…? This is my spot," She sputtered weakly.

"No one saw you, so if I hide with you, then Scawett and John won't find me!" He whispered insistently.

Lily's forehead scrunched in confusion. Scawett… Scarlett? Will Scarlett? Was that who the kid was talking about? Unbidden, an image of Errol Flynn's red-clad companion from the original Robin Hood movie came to Lily and she grimaced. Of course they were real. Robin Hood was apparently soul mates with the Evil Queen, why wouldn't his band of Merry fucking Men be real too? Complete with ironically-ox-like Little John and twiggy leather-clad Will Scarlett?

"Scawett's a meanie," Roland whispered, clutching the bow tighter to him, a bow that Lily realized was broken. The curved lumber and taut string that once made up the weapon were reduced to a broken piece of wood and snapped thread. A thousand thoughts raced through Lily's head at what could have led to the bow's breaking, and just how exactly Roland and Will Scarlett were involved that entailed meanness.

She wasn't very fond of any of the scenarios her active mind came up with.

"Is that right?" Lily answered, not expecting a reply but getting one anyway.

"He got mad at me. And he yelled," The kid told her, dejected.

Lily pursed her lips at that. "That is mean. What made him yell like that?"

Roland looked away from her guiltily. "I-I broke papa's bow," He managed to stutter before tears took over his eyes and voice.

"Oh, shit kid, um… Hey, uh…" Lily twisted to sit upright, hands held out uselessly in front of her. She was completely lost and screwed. How the hell was she supposed to stop a kid from balling their eyes out? "Look, kid, I'm sure you didn't mean to break it. It was an accident, right? Not your fault."

Roland shook his head. "I-I bwoke it," He insisted between sniffles. "I was pwacticing sh-shooting and I couldn't pull the string enough so I…"

"So you what? I'm not mad kid, I just wanna know what happened." He'd actually been the one shooting those arrows she saw littering the ground earlier? How the hell had he managed to get any of those arrows to stick in the tree with a bow that was definitely way too big for him?

"I used my feet and it worked," He said, looking at Lily imploringly. "Then Will came and I-I bwoke it and the stwing snapped and hit me and it hurt." Roland continued to cry, lips trembling and hands quaking around the broken bow. It was then that Lily noticed the line on the other side of the kid's neck. A thin, angry red line cut into the surface of the skin, the damning evidence of his engineering incident gone awry.

"Hey kid, it's uh, it's ok. Really. You ju-oof!" Roland threw himself face first into Lily's stomach, burrowing closer to her as he continued to cry quietly.

Lily stared at the kid in wonder and disbelief. Why the fuck did this kid think hugging her would be a good idea? Lily herself wasn't a good idea. Nothing good happened around her, and nothing good would happen to a kid like Roland being around her. The dark cold surged inside her, decidedly uncomfortable with the blatant affection and familiar gesture from the kid. It twisted and writhed in confusion, not knowing how to treat the child in front of her. Should she be worried that this was all some kind of trick? But then what five-year-old could come up with something so elaborate? Was it a trap by the ox and twig? Maybe, but it would have been hard to fake the concern on their faces and in their voices at Roland's disappearance. If by some miracle there was no hidden agenda in the kid's misplaced trust in her, then how was she supposed to act? Should she push him off, or let him stay? Was she supposed to find his campmates?

As she fought with her instincts and prior experience the glimmer of light and heat inside her, the one that reared its ugly head whenever Henry was around, the one that insisted talking with the kid was a good idea, that glimmer started growing. It whispered to her that Roland trusted her (A terrible decision for anyone really, but even worse for a kid.) and that he needed comfort.

Lily dropped a hand onto the kid's head, patting the hat-covered curls uselessly. "Uh, there, there. Don't cry…" She didn't know what else to do. What else could she do anyway? Let the kid cry more? Try and get him to talk it out? Lily didn't have any real experience with moments like this one, on either end of the equation. What could she possibly do not to screw this up too?

In the end she let the annoying warm glimmer stop her from pushing Roland away, letting the kid lay in a tired heap on her lap. She didn't know how long he lay there, but he stopped crying pretty quickly, considering the throat clenching sobs he had been letting out before.

"Doing ok there?" She asked quietly. She knew better than to ask if he was feeling better. She never felt better after crying, why would he?

Roland nodded slowly, head still curled into her but no longer crying.

"Why were you trying so hard to shoot your dad's bow anyway? That thing's huge. I'm probably too small for it," She asked, looking to break the silence.

His reply was muffled against her shirt. "I'm no good. Papa's amazing and I'm no good."

At least if you're no good it's cute kid, Lily thought. If she failed at dragon training there'd likely be a burned town and hell to pay.

"I think you're allowed to not be very good at this stage of the game kid," Lily tried to reason with him. "Your dad's probably had a lot more time to practice and get good than you have. That's not your fault."

Roland pulled back abruptly, sitting up and looking at Lily intently. His eyes were puffy and his small face was screwed in concentration. Finally he nodded slowly, as if coming to some great epiphany. "You're warm. You'll be a good dragon. You should stay," He said sagely, as if the whim of a five-year-old could affect fate.

She stared at him in confusion and muted horror at the surety of his statement. But Lily didn't have time to wonder how the kid could possibly know that she had turned into a dragon before, because she felt a prickling along the back of her neck. The sensation shot awareness through her like a bolt of lightning and just as quickly she was tensed and alert, almost ready to act, but not ready enough when an accented voice popped into existence next to them.

"Aha! Found you, you tricky little hobbit!" Lily recognized the twig's, Will Scarlett's, voice from before, and despite the relief in it, it immediately put her on edge. She curled in on herself, unconsciously pulling Roland closer to her. Roland huffed in disappointment, unhappy to have been found, and crossed his arms stubbornly, still holding the broken bow in his small hands. "Now let's go back to camp lad."

"No!" Roland cried, shaking his head in defiance and refusing to look at the man.

"What'cha mean 'no'? You know it's not safe to be out alone. It'll be getting dark soon, we should head back for supper and bed," Will tried to reason with the kid. It worked about as well as yelling at a TV.

"Smaug was with me and we were talking," Roland insisted.

"Smaug? Roland you know that's just a story…" Will Scarlett's eyes finally met Lily's and she watched in resignation as he connected the dots to her identity and her fiery, definitely not child proof, alter ego. The change in the man's demeanor was instantaneous, even as Lily recognized the calm he was trying to maintain in front of the kid. "Roland, why don't you, uh, say goodbye to Smaug and we'll just, er, head back to camp with everyone else while we wait for your papa, yeah?"

But the boy shook his head even harder, actually moving closer to Lily. "No! I like Smaug!" Now Lily was just confused. Who in their right mind actually liked her?

"Look, kid, you should go with your friend. He's just taking care of you," She told him, voice less sure sounding than she wanted it to be. She may not know this Will Scarlett well, but she was pretty sure he genuinely cared about the kid. Having Roland go with him would be a lot safer than if Roland stayed near her.

Scarlett's eyes narrowed at Lily in thought, flicking between her and Roland as he contemplated something. Whatever it was he was thinking about, he decided it quickly and the tension seemed to float off of him. He moved toward the pair in movements that Lily thought were too casual to be anything but a trick, and knelt in front of them almost close enough to touch. He looked the boy in the eye and spoke with a sincerity that Lily knew in her heart was genuine, but that experience tried to tell her was a trick.

"Roland, I'm sorry for yelling. I didn't mean to get mad. I just saw you playing with the bow like that, and using yourself as a bloody human slingshot and… And you got hurt, and that scared me. We can try to fix your dad's bow; maybe even find you one for yourself that'll fit better. Whaddya say lad? Am I forgiven for going off me rocker?" He looked Roland in the eye the entire time he spoke, actually managing to hold the kid's gaze.

Roland chewed on his lip nervously and clutched the bow even tighter, leaning just a little closer to Lily. He stared Will down with a surprising intensity for several long moments before he seemed to break. Lily thought the kid might start crying again, given the tears that were now welling up in his eyes, as he rushed forward to the kneeling man. Roland threw the broken bow and his arms around Will's shoulders and buried his face in the man's neck. "You gave us a fright, lad. Please don't run off like that again," Will breathed in relief.

"I won't. I'm sowwy Will."

"S'alright lad."

It was another sitcom drama scene, a family reunited and mending broken bonds, and Lily felt the familiar curl of darkness shudder inside her. She shifted uncomfortably in the dirt, fingers grasping the earth beneath her in an attempt to do something, anything, besides look at the blissful live action drama unfolding in front of her.

Will Scarlett lifted his eyes to meet her gaze, his stare contemplative for a moment as he decided something else. He seemed to be doing that a lot, at least with her, staring off before talking. Lily wondered if he'd ever had problems controlling his head to mouth filter, and if this was his new way of coping.

He shot out a hand in front him. "Will Scarlett, and this lad, if he didn't remember to introduce himself proper, is Roland Locksley."

Lily stared at the offered hand, twisting her lip in annoyance at yet another handshake. "I know who you are. I figured that out already," She told him dully.

Will rolled his eyes, letting her dismissal roll off him easily, hand still hanging between them. "An' I've not been under a rock the past few weeks, lass. I know full well who you are and who your mum is. It's not about putting names to handsome faces like mine, it's about using manners in front o' the lad. Besides, it's not like you've really done wrong."

She hadn't done anything right either, Lily thought as she shrank back, sheepish and frustrated with herself for how quick she was to assume the worst. "I'm Lily," She finally replied, shaking his hand begrudgingly and guiltily. "Lily Page."

"Good to meet ya, Lily Page." Will wound his hand back around Roland, whose face was still buried in his neck.

Lily's curiosity got the better of her and she gestured helplessly at Roland and the broken bow. "So, what exactly…?"

"What happened? Ah. Well, Roland was sittin' on the ground, feet braced on the limbs of the bow, hands on the bowstring, and using his body like a bloody slingshot and crossbow while he tried firin' arrows at the tree," Will started to tell her. "I yell for 'im to stop, and what happened then? The bow snapped. Right then and there, it snapped clean. The wood shattered, the bowstring flew back and hit Roland in the neck, and I lost it. Lost hold of me temper and yelled at the little hobbit for putting himself in danger like that." He looked guilty as he spoke, and ran a soothing hand along the kid's back, but whether that hand was meant to soothe the kid or him, Lily couldn't say for sure.

Roland burrowed his face further into Will's shoulder and clenched his arms tighter around him. "Not a 'obbit," He insisted weakly, leading Will to chuckle just a little at the claim.

"Oh yes you are, little lad. You go 'round barefoot all the time, not to mention your feet'll probably be covered in hair when you get older. You're a regular Halfling," Will told him. Roland grumbled something into Will's shoulder and the man smiled gently before turning to face Lily again. "Regina and his dad've been reading to him. The Hobbit's one of his favorites right now. He's absolutely mad about it," Scarlett informed her, still holding Roland tightly to him.

"That's why he called me Smaug," Lily realized. It wasn't exactly an ego boost to be compared to a creature described as a greedy and selfish worm, but the kid had made a connection between two dragons and for some reason he didn't seem to hate her. A flicker of warmth tingled inside her and Lily decided maybe that flicker wasn't so bad. Hell, maybe she kinda liked that flicker after all.

"The villainous dragon? Yeah. It's his favorite part of the story. Not sure why though. I think her majesty might do a wicked dragon voice when she reads it to him. But no matter, Roland here loves that dragon. Don't ya mate? Don't ya?" Will started tickling the kid, sending the child into a round of uproarious laughter and lifting Roland's mood.

"Scawett no! No tickling!" Roland managed to say between fits of laughter.

Soon Will was laughing with him, and Lily had to fight the smile that threatened to turn her mouth upwards. What was that thing about laughs being contagious like yawns? "Alright, alright. I'll stop. But yeah, whenever Smaug the Magnificent comes up in the story this little hobbit gets all sorts of riled up and putting 'im to bed gets to be a real challenge. And speaking of beds, we oughtta get you to yours lad." Will stood up smoothly from his knees, still cradling Roland and the broken bow in his arms.

"Smaug come visit soon, pwease?" Roland asked, eyes pleading and mouth pouting cutely.

To say Lily was surprised by the request would have been an understatement. "Oh, I don't think…"

"He's right, Lily. You should," Will interrupted, surprising Lily.

She looked at the twig curiously, thrown off by the man's lack of distrust. She didn't think she'd really done anything to earn anyone's trust, so why was he telling her to visit the kid? "Why would you… I mean, why…?"

Will shrugged. "Kids're 'onest lass. Well, kids an' animals. Roland sees some good in you an' I'm liable to believe the lad. Plus, I trust you wouldn't try to purposefully hurt 'im."

His words shot through Lily almost painfully, wrapping her heart in heat and stealing her breath. But she didn't mind the sensation, not when it was accompanied by almost fuzzy warmth surrounding her in a blanket she could float on. She wondered if the magic carpet from Aladdin was real too and if this was what it felt like to fly on one. Like weightlessness and surety and faith. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard. Someone actually trusted her? Someone she didn't know and didn't have to buy off with favors actually believed she wouldn't go off like a gun at the slightest touch?

Will apparently didn't know how to take her extended silence, and fidgeted on his feet for a moment. "It don't have to be tonight, but soon, yeah? Robin and the rest would love to meet'cha. Just stop by whenever."

"Uh, yeah, sure I guess I could, uh… Yeah," Lily managed to stutter out, her mind still trying to catch up with the turn of events.

Will smiled and started to turn away before stopping mid-step and turning back to Lily; a look of what Lily thought was supposed to be concern on his face. "I meant what I said to Roland before. It's dangerous in these woods alone. So unless you're coming back to camp with us now you'd best get on lass."

"What, is some big bad wolf gonna eat me? He's gonna have his paws full, don't you think?" Lily managed to laugh.

Will laughed too, but it came out sarcastic and knowing. "You mean 'she', lass. 'She' won't have a problem eating you if you sass her like that." With another laugh he turned around and walked away, Roland tucked safely in his arms.

Roland lifted his small head enough to smile at Lily, waving to her. "Bye-bye Smaug. See you later."

She watched them walk away, further and further into the dense trees, a swirl of something growing inside her. There was the usual cold and dark that she felt whenever people left, even people who had places to be like the kid and Will Scarlett, but there was also that flicker of warmth that Henry's incessant questioning and Roland and Will's ridiculous trust had sparked in her. The warmth miraculously wasn't leaving like it normally did. If anything, it was growing just a little.

Lily's hands were clenched in the ground again, the dirt stuck under her nails by now, and she slowly uncurled her fists. Will Scarlett was probably right; she really should get back to town. Maybe she'd swipe some food from Granny's kitchen in an unpaid grocery run; it wasn't like the old woman would notice.

More voices in the distance, too muffled to make out, had her staying still though. Just because things hadn't gone to shit during her encounter with Roland and one of the Merry Men, that didn't mean she was willing to push her luck elsewhere. If she stayed hidden, nothing could go wrong. The voices came closer, and Lily started to recognize one of them as Henry. She flopped down flat on the ground, hiding herself and blocking her own view of the on-comers. Now she definitely couldn't show herself. If Henry really didn't want to see her, then she wouldn't make him see her.

"It's gotta be a clue! She told me she was in New York at the same time as us, and Mom said she used to live in Boston near her old place. Plus my moms found her just a few miles from Storybrooke. I'd bet money she was even near Phoenix thirteen years ago when mom was there. It's not a coincidence," Henry insisted to someone. The kid seriously needed to work on his maternal pronouns, Lily thought with a roll of her eyes. Her annoyance with Henry's word choice was quickly outweighed though, by the sinking feeling in her gut that he was talking about her. But what the hell did her old living situations have to do with anything, and why was Emma's kid still so hung up on it? And who was he talking to, his buddy Pinocchio?

"You're right Henry, that can't be coincidence. You said she was even at the same island castle as Emma in Isaac's twisted story. We just have to figure out what it all means." A chill went through Lily, clenching her heart and stealing her breath all over again, but instead of the comforting warmth from before, a frozen wave of fear and anger and hurt washed over her, sobering her from her previous elation. More than ten years may have passed since she'd last heard it, but she would never forget the timbre of his voice and how it always sent her heart racing. The pounding heartbeat in her ears told her that was still the case, and she silently cursed herself for letting that voice continue to hold power over her after what he'd done.

How the fuck was he even here? Of all the places in the world for her to ever have the cursed misfortune of seeing him again it had to be here in magical bumblefuck, didn't it? And if he was here, that meant he was one of them, one of the fairy tale characters. But which one? She had started to realize that not everyone in Storybrooke had a story that went with their life, so would she even recognize his real name if he said it? A thought came to Lily then and she blanched. If Henry said he was meeting his friend Pinocchio earlier, then that meant…

Fuck.

August W. Booth, her lying ex, was actually a no-longer-wooden fairy tale puppet incapable of lying.

Fuck her life.

Suddenly all of Lily's teenaged memories of morning wood held an entirely different meaning.

"Hey, speaking of…" August started, and Lily felt herself shudder. "You saw Lily earlier today, didn't you? Is she doing ok?"

"Pretty ok. I think. She looked tired when Killian and I saw her last night. I think she's kinda lonely and overwhelmed. She doesn't really know anyone here and Storybrooke's a lot to take in if you're new."

"Or if you just found out you're a dragon," August pointed out dimly.

The pair was close to her hiding spot; their voices clear and louder than Lily wanted them to be. Her already pounding heart went into overdrive.

"You knew her before, didn't you?" Henry challenged. "Why don't you talk with her? She might like a familiar face."

She heard feet shuffling, and could practically see August's nervous gesture as if she were staring right at him, but she didn't dare move. It was bad enough she had to hear his voice again but she didn't think she could handle actually seeing him in person. "Trust me when I say that I'm probably one of the last people she ever wants to see again. We didn't exactly part on good terms, if any."

"But you're hoping to see her again, right?" Fuck, the kid's voice sounded so fucking chipper and optimistic. He didn't understand, he was just a kid and probably had no idea what a broken heart felt like. What it felt like to wake up alone and cold at night after months of waking up to a man that was sunshine incarnate. Or what it felt like to carry that cold inside everyday for years, knowing nothing would ever feel warm again, but still hoping, dumbly and naively, that the sun would walk through the door and shine again.

It had taken her a few years after he was gone, but Lily had finally realized that hope really was overrated.

"You know, that's always been a problem for me Henry. I hope too much, but I'm too scared to want to actually do anything about it till it's too late." He was so resigned as he spoke, and the sound of defeat in his voice pulled at something deep inside her. Something she refused to acknowledge.

"Maybe this time, don't let it be too late?" Henry reasoned with all the wisdom and hope of child.

"We'll see kid. We'll see."

When their voices finally faded away Lily was left alone just like she always was, alone with her swirling thoughts and the now silent forest around her. The silence was deafening and only made her thoughts louder as they buzzed in her head. Her mind replayed everything August had said, not paying attention to the actual words but treacherously just trying to focus on his voice, re-committing every syllable and inflection to memory. It had changed surprisingly little over the years, still the same deep timbre as she remembered, but it sounded tired and resigned. The man she once knew was bright and hopeful to the extreme, weaving elaborate tales and bullshit stories over late night diner food and stolen beer.

She didn't know what to do about the speck of thoughts that wondered what happened to him since they'd seen each other. Just like she didn't know what to do now that her revenge had failed and she was lost in a forest of fairy tales and magic.

Lily didn't know what to do, so she settled for what she did best. She ran.

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