I'm sorry, I was seriously busy this week and when I got home after work I was so dead each night just couldn't do anything. So anyway here it is and I hope you enjoy it. Please, please review
Chapter 11
We stood outside in the cold beside the main road. I glared at him before mockingly asking "The diner? Can't you afford anything better? Or is this all a town full of fairytale characters can provide?"
"Well dearie; you never said how fancy the place had to be in how little arrangement." He grinned.
"Ah, a loophole I over looked." I sighed. "I just thought that tonight would be more of a celebration, since I haven't lived with you for over twenty-eight years."
"Remember the last time you decide to have a big celebration. And more importantly I remember how that big celebration ended." He paused "I could just save time and drop you off at the Sheriff's office now." He teased.
I glared back at him. "Some people really need to move on." I groaned.
"Maybe; still would you like to accompany me into the diner for dinner?" He smiled as he offered me his arm.
I looped mine in his. "I would be delighted." I smiled back.
Ruby looked up in shock as we walked in. I guess it was quite a change from yesterday. Dad and I took the booth furthest from the door. Ruby rushed over to us "What can I get you?" She looked at me as though to ask if I needed a knife to get away from the monster.
"A menu please." She placed a menu in front of me and another in front of dad. "Oh and a cup of tea would be great, white no sugar." I smiled at her to assure her I was here by choice not force. "Daddy?"
"Yes, ah tea please."
"That would be white with two sugars." I beamed, how many times had I made that for him over the years on old nights in the castle.
"I don't have sugar anymore, dearie."
"That explains a lot. Without those teaspoons of sugar each day you've lost your sweetness." I mocked. I turned to Ruby and whispered. "That's if he ever had any to start with." She laughed until she caught a glimpse of daddy's death stare.
"Umm I'll be back with your ah... teas." She smiled at me before rushing off to get away from my dad. Personally I couldn't blame her. He was one scary guy when he wanted to be.
"Was that necessary?" He groaned.
"Yes" I beamed. He just glared in response. "So when did you stop having sugar in your tea?"
"When we came here." He replied before leaning over the table as if he was about to tell me a big secret. "Sugar is bad for you."
I laughed so hard I was finding it hard to speak. "You are practically skin and bones." I pointed at him. "Two sugars in your tea wouldn't kill you."
"Tell me that when I have diabetes and the doctors are trying to amputate my good leg." He was enjoying this; the whole avoiding the real answer with a joke thing. Then again, it was totally his style.
"I'd like to see them try. In fact I'd pay to see that conversation." I smirked.
"Well no amount of money is worth my good leg." He picked up his menu and began scanning it as though the conversation was over.
"Who said it would be you I'd be paying?" I mocked.
I could see his eyes just above the menu lift to pierce me with his glare before he dropped them back on the menu. "I'm sorry but everyone in this town is too scared of me to do that."
"Well maybe we'll just have to change that." I smiled as I flipped my menu open. Dinner time!
We walked back home in silence. Dinner had been a great. It was good spending time with dad again, but at the same time it was hard. He was so ready to be my father again. It was like he was trying to push me into forgiving him. I on the other hand just wasn't ready for that. I could enjoy the teasing and laugher. I could even handle the hugs, kisses on the forehead and holding hands. Still the constant pressure to show him love was killing me, not that I'm going to tell him that, but it still was. I couldn't just go back to way things were before he... before he did what he did. I suffered for so long and well now I just can't forgive and forget. "A penny for your thoughts?" He asked.
"Trust you to choose the least amount of money for something." I mocked back playfully while successfully avoiding the question.
"Well in that case how much do you think your thoughts are worth?" He joked as he put arm around me.
"One million dollars" I laughed.
"Isn't that a bit steep?"
"This is coming from the evil pawnshop owner, whose price is always too steep for anyone to keep." I teased.
He let go of me and put his hand to his heart in a gesture of shock and horror. "Me. Evil. Never!"
I laughed so hard I nearly fell over. He pulled me in close as we continued to walk back to his house, I mean our house. "Do you really think I'm evil?" He murmured so quietly I almost didn't hear what he said.
Well I could tell he needed me to say no, but I'm not actually sure I believed that. He was the Dark One after all. And didn't that some with the title of Evil. Still he wasn't actually evil, evil. He could be nice, even kind, though maybe that was only when it suited him. It was only then I realised we had stopped walking. I could see him looking at me. His eyes were pleading for an answer, one that I couldn't give. He put his hands on my shoulders. "Do you think I'm evil?" He repeated in desperation.
This was one question I couldn't avoid. "You're not evil." Relief flooded through his scarred face. Still I couldn't just stop there. He needed to know the truth. He needed to know how I really viewed him. "But" He looked up at me. I could see he didn't want to hear it, but he needed to. "You're not good either."
His hands dropped from my shoulders. "So what am I?"
"You're a bunyip."
He blinked a few times as though he couldn't register what I had said. "I'm what?"
"You're neither good nor evil so you're a bunyip."
"A bunyip?"
"Yep, my dad is a bunyip."
He took my hand in his as we continued our walk back to the house. "Is a bunyip better than being a monster?" he asked still trying to take in the fact that I called him a bunyip.
"It depends" He looked at me as though he was confused; a look that one doesn't often see on my dad's face. "Bunyips can be nice and well monsters are not really known for being nice." He smiled at that. "But bunyips can be pretty ugly and well not all monsters are ugly. I mean Regina is quite pretty but without a doubt I would call her a monster."
"Are you calling me ugly?"
I burst out laughing. "No comment" Maybe if I could keep this up, the mocking and teasing in jest, not to mention all the laugher. Maybe, just maybe I might be able to learn how to recreate the father daughter bond we had so long ago.
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