A/N- Here we have another chapter u-u, I changed the prompt to make it more interesting xD.
Since it isn't possible to reply to guests I'd like to use this note to reply to R.S-M and personally thank for their support ^^, if you are reading this I hope you find the coming chapter even more interesting then the first ;P
Well, same as always, we own nothing.
And we are our own betas u-u, if you like the story please do review and also send withgirl some love she's just as amazing a person as she is a writer ^^ and if I may be truthful she was the one who wrote most of this chapter xD
The neighing of horses sounded outside alongside the giggling being carried by the wind.
A sixteen-year-old Aalam dug the shovel violently into a pile of manure in the stables desperately trying to wash out the sounds of Regina's riding lesson.
Most days he didn't care that she was nobility and he was just a servant, mostly because most days it had no bearing on their relationship, she had never treated him as anything but her brother. In fact they had become so inseparable over the years that her father had joked that if he hadn't seen her birth he would swear that the were separated at birth.
That all begun to change since Cora had hired a new stable hand.
Now she either spent all of her time with Daniel or talking about him.
Her position meant that she was allowed to spend her days riding horses while he, the lowly servant, had to complete all of his chores 'without fail.'
The galloping suddenly ceased and Aalam looked up with a furrowed brow as he looked outside the stable door, Regina walked towards him with a small smile and it seemed that Daniel had led the horse to the other set of stables on the Mills family estate.
"Hey Al," she greeted.
He simply gave her a quick smile and continued with his shovelling.
"What's wrong with you?" She sighed.
"Nothing," he said automatically, though the smashing of the shovel against the ground begged a differ.
"Do you not like Daniel?" She sighed as she leaned against the door.
Aalam's throat constricted at her words. It was just how much he liked Daniel that was the problem. He knew that Regina would have no issue with him liking men and he was sure that she would be the first that he would tell, but he cursed himself everyday that it had to be Regina's first love that he fell for.
"I don't really know him that well," he replied while skilfully turning away to hide his blush.
Regina nodded, an idea forming in her mind. Aalam had a sneaking suspicion that he knew what she was going to say, and he sincerely hoped that she wouldn't say it.
"Then you must get to know him!" She declared, "there is no reason that you wouldn't like him once you spend even a few minutes with him."
Aalam closed his eyes in frustration. He had spent plenty of time with the stable hand. In fact it had been his job to induct him to the estate and it was Aalam that Daniel always came to whenever he had questions. It was during this time that he had developed his crush and he wished everyday that it would go away.
"And what did you have in mind?" He asked through gritted teeth.
Regina was silent for a moment, before she seemed to have a spark of inspiration, "mother and father are travelling next week, so you can have dinner with the two of us and get to know him."
"Sounds like a great idea," Aalam replied with a fake smile.
Regina ran forward and gave him a quick hug, "I need to get back to studying before mother notices that I doubled my riding lesson," she laughed before she ran away.
Aalam turned back to the manure and brought the shovel down, it smashed against the ground and the bottom split in two. With a resigned sigh he went off in search of another.
Waking up, Aalam got slightly startled at being in a different place, but in no time he remembered where he was.
"Ah, yes, I'm 'home' " He snorted humourlessly at this thought, he hadn't had a home since a long time ago. Since he had sold his soul to the devil and decided to burn the person closest to him with the fire of betrayal. 'Regina...'
And there it was, the guilt that he now associated with the thought of the brunette. 'There has to be something I can do to make up things with her. She's all I have...'
Sighing he raised his head from the table he seemed to have fallen asleep at and put his face in his hands to rub his eyes in a attempt to wake himself more fully.
Once he put his hands on his face though he came in contact with a paper that he might have been sleeping above. 'What the...?' Taking the paper he only remembered having written a question to it so it was with much surprise that he found an answer written in a different calligraphy than his own.
Why was the blonde so angry at me?
That had been his question.
Because she thinks you are in love with Regina.
Signed- Henry Mills
That was the answer and with it he remembered another deal he had made, this time for something good.
-Flashback of days before-
The smoke cleared and Aalam blinked a few times. The last thing he remembered was enjoying the company of a man he had met in a tavern, then purple smoke had bellowed across the land, and he woke up in this place. He had of course spent a lot of time hearing about Storybrooke, and how it was so much better than their world.
Honestly, he was just glad to be free of the infernal time freeze, he never had any wish to see this cursed land, but it would seem that he had no choice.
He felt a pounding in his chest, and shakily he brought his hand up. He felt a heart beating against his palm, something that he hadn't felt in years.
Letting out a ragged breath he felt a flood of emotion. Anger. Sadness. Regret. It all came down upon him in full force and there was one person that he thought about: Regina.
A screeching sound brought him out of his complete and utter shock, he just had time to furrow his brow before the unfamiliar metal contraption sped towards him, and a second later everything went black.
Aalam opened his eyes a moment later.
The all consuming pain had disappeared, with only the pain in his heart remaining.
He swallowed hard and tried to inspect his new surroundings, but it seemed that he was standing in some kind of dark oblivion.
Rubbing his hand across his face, he began to feel panic.
"Calm down, child," a voice chuckled darkly.
Aalam looked up, to see Henry Sr. "am I dead?"
"Not yet," he replied as he approached his former servant.
Aalam stepped away from him; by all rights this man should hate him. He had after all abandoned her daughter in her time of greatest need. He now had no doubt that he could have stopped everything the Evil Queen had done if had not been such a coward and had remained by her side.
"Not yet?" he asked in a shaky voice, a far cry from the demanding voice of the heartless man he was.
"Your body is being kept alive by Storybrooke's doctors, but your soul is in purgatory."
Aalam furrowed his brow, "why would I be allowed in purgatory," he had thought for sure that he knew where he was going after death, but this somehow felt like a second chance.
"I believe your returned heart had allowed you to feel remorse."
Aalam nodded solemnly, he definitely felt it. He had spent years not even thinking about his childhood friend and now she was all that he could think about, all he wanted to do was make it right, but he knew that would be an almost impossible feat.
"Do you want to make right what you did?" he asked, his former master approached him and put his hand on his shoulder. He had always liked Aalam, when he found out what he did to her, he saw how it hurt his daughter far more than anything that Leopold did to her. But he also saw the hurt on the servants face when he thought his friend wasn't looking. Though Regina had always been a far more observant person than most nobility, she had clearly been oblivious of Aalam's feelings until it was too late. He had seen him comforting her following Daniel's death, clearly never being allowed to grieve himself. Love was enough to make any snap, so he harboured no hate for the man, especially if he agreed to his insane plan to help his daughter.
"If I am dead..." he began, but Henry held up his hand.
"No, I am dead, you are simply in between. I have no doubt that their medicine is capable of keeping you alive, all you need is to be willing to return to your body."
Aalam swallowed hard. The thing was that he wasn't exactly sure whether he was prepared to return to his body. His emotions seemed to be somewhat dulled here, though they were still overwhelming. He didn't know whether he was prepared to return to a place where they may destroy him.
"How would that help her?" he asked after a moment.
Henry Sr. sighed and replied, "I have watched my daughter be miserable under her curse for three decades. Now I have had to watch her ignore her happy ending for four years. All I need is a chance to show her what she is missing, I have to help her."
"You have spent your life helping her," Aalam said with a confused expression, "do you really think she would enjoy the idea that you have spent your death watching her be miserable?"
"I spent my life as a coward, and now I have had the chance of watching the consequences. If I had only stood up to Cora, Regina may have been happy in our world, she would have lived her life how she wanted. I need to make sure that she is able to," he ranted.
Aalam's eyes widened as he realised what he was proposing, "you expect me to just give you my body."
"No, of course not," Aalam sighed in relief, before Henry added, "I'm asking that you will allow me to return with you, just until I have ensured that she is happy."
"You want me to share my body," Aalam scoffed.
Henry put his head in his hands, "I'm being ridiculous," he realised, "I know I am asking too much of you."
An image of Regina begging him to stay in the castle with her flashed into Aalam's mind. The image of complete and utter pain she felt as he had brought up Daniel.
"I agree," he finally said, "you should have the chance to help your daughter."
Henry turned with his eyebrows raised, though he was sporting a hopeful smile.
As if from another realm, Aalam heard an unfamiliar voice announce "charge to two hundred...charge...clear."
The King of the Ballroom felt a pull as his spirit was being called back to his revived body, he instantly reached out and grabbed Henry's hand, together they fell
backwards, through the borders of purgatory and into the land of the living.
With that Aalam finally realised what had been happening all along and was able to feel the other soul that now shared the same body as himself and understood why there were so many things he couldn't remember happening because it hadn't really been him to experiment them at all.
Rapidly planning a course of action he wrote down all he had experienced in the last feel days and hoped the old man would get the message to do the same.
Not wanting to wait to know more about what may happen the man promptly got up to make a sleeping potion for himself, that way Henry Sir would have the opportunity to disclose everything he had learnt to him.
A/N- And BOOM we've come to the big reveal and sh*t is about to go down lol
Have a good day ^^, hope to see you next chapter.
