Emma Swan-Jones was by no means a bad person. She just honestly wanted her daughter to have the very best time for her sixth birthday.
She had been planning it for months in advance. They had rented the field in the best park in town, gotten there the day before to get it decorated and ready, hired the dwarves to help prepare things, gotten Elsa to have a snow cone station at the ready, Ariel giving swimming lessons in the portable pool David had brought and set up for them, had Cinderella doing everyone's face paints and even hired Granny and Ruby to prepare all the sweets and treats that were sure to give everyone a sugar high. They had even managed to get Anton and Snow's help to include a pair of regular horses from the Nolan farm to pull along a carriage as well as the best surprise of all. It hadn't been easy but Emma had finally managed to get her daughter an actual unicorn (or as Hope called it, a magical pony). They were fairly rare as of late and this one was still young and perfect – a light purple hint to its white coat with bright blue eyes and a light pink mane that rolled down the back of her neck and around the crystal white and sparkling horn sticking out just above her eyes.
The unicorn was the crowning achievement on the perfect party. Snow hadn't been very sure when Emma explained that Hope would be keeping her as a pet after the party was over, but as Emma explained, the unicorn was going to be hunted by dark magic users for her horn anyway. At least this way Emma and everyone else could keep it safe. It would live a good long life with Hope. Emma would make sure of it.
So everything was set, planned, ready and waiting.
It was all perfect…
… Except for one thing.
Alice Jones.
Alice was Emma's niece in law (it was actually much more complicated but everyone had adjusted to thinking of Rogers and Killian as brothers so that's what everyone went with now) and she happened to be the same age as Hope and in the same class as her in school. She also happened to be the only person in the whole of the class that Hope did not want at her birthday party.
"She's weird, mum!" Hope had whined, stomping her pink sandal foot on the floor of their kitchen. "She does all this weird stuff! No one even likes her! She always goes and plays by herself and talks to the school hamster and says weird things about him! He can't talk back to her but she pretends he does! I don't want her ruining my party! It's my party!"
Well… It was her party. As mean as it might seem, it wasn't right to force Hope to invite someone she didn't want to be there. The whole day was meant to be about her and what did it even matter if Alice apparently didn't have any friends? No one would notice her not being there and she probably wouldn't even know what she was missing. Emma had seen Alice's 'weird' behavior for herself the few times Rogers had asked her and Killian to babysit (though he only asked them if Rumple and Tiana were both busy). She did have a habit of talking to things – animals, plants, pictures – as if they could understand her and as if they responded. No wonder Hope was so upset with her being there. She'd probably spend the whole time having an endless conversation with the horses or the unicorn and take up the time from everyone else.
In the end Emma gave Hope permission to not invite Alice.
"But you need to send the invites by mail so as not to hurt Alice's feelings," Emma began explaining.
"I will!" Hope said, not really listening and skipping out of the room, much happier now.
*O*U*A*T*
The day of Hope's party, Robin Hood-Mills was doing her absolute best to be as slow as possible getting ready and heading down the street. And it wasn't just because her mother was forcing her into a lime green frock that had more frills on it than a dog did fur. She insisted on wearing her brown shorts and white vest underneath – fully planning on ditching the dress the second her mother turned her back – and pulled on a pair of brown boots so late that her mother finally gave in arguing with her about them in order to finally get her out the house. Zelena desperately needed Robin to go to this party, even if they ended up being late for it. Her daughter had been spending far too much time with her brother and the Merry Men in the woods and didn't have any real friends at school. Zelena was determined to change that, whether Robin wanted to or not.
So despite Robin's best efforts, she soon found herself trudging down the street with a fat pouting scowl on her lips, kicking every loose object that happened to be lying down in front of her. Zelena kept telling her off, telling her to stop slouching, to smile, to stop pulling at the green ribbons she had put in Robin's pig tailed hair, but she might as well have been talking to the pavement for all the good it did her. About halfway there she gave up trying, letting Robin sulk and instead focusing on rushing her fast enough that they didn't make such a disastrous entrance by being too late to even sing happy birthday over the birthday candles.
Halfway there, Robin happened to glance up and caught sight of a familiar face sitting by herself on one of the local street benches with a thick red book settled in her lap. It was Alice. Robin had seen Alice a lot in school but had always been hesitant to approach her. She always seemed to be enjoying whatever game she was playing and Robin felt very self conscious about interrupting her in case she wanted to be left alone. And while she didn't want to interrupt her reading, she also saw another perfect opportunity to once again put off going to Hope's party.
"Be right back!" Robin declared, darting away before Zelena could stop her and rushing up to Alice.
Zelena started to call her back, then hesitated and stopped as she saw where she was going. Her daughter was willingly approaching another girl her own age without Zelena prodding her back with encouragement the whole time. There was no way Zelena was going to ruin that!
"Alice!" Robin said, coming to a stop in front of her. "Are you on your way to the party?"
Alice looked up and smiled widely right up until Robin mentioned the party. At that she dropped her eyes back to her book and shrugged. "No."
Robin blinked. "You're not? How come?" Had Alice found a way out of it? Could she get Robin out of it too?
"I wasn't invited." Alice shrugged, ducking her head further down into her book so her messy blonde hair fell down and hid her face.
"What?" Robin frowned. "Everyone was invited!"
Alice shrugged again.
"Why weren't you invited?" Robin pushed.
Alice finally looked up again. "Hope didn't want me. She told me. She said she asked her mum if she could not invite me and she said yes." She looked back down. "She said I'm weird."
Robin's frown turned into a scowl. "Well who needs her dumb party!"
"You don't wanna go?" Alice blinked, surprised.
"No!" Robin pulled a face and stuck out her tongue. "Hope's annoying! And her party sounds boring!"
"Even with the magic pony?" Alice said, wide eyed.
"Roland told me it's just a unicorn." Robin shrugged. "And anyway. It shouldn't be at a party. It should be free in the woods. Roland says it's cruel to use it as a…" She paused. "I can't remember what he said. But he said it was bad."
Alice glanced down at her book. "I wish I was there so I could set it free to run in the woods."
Robin glanced back at her mother, who suddenly was no longer in a great hurry to get Robin to the party now she was talking with Alice. Instead she seemed more interested in fixing her hair and clothes casually across the street. She looked back at Alice and smiled. "I gotta go to the party. Roland there already. But wait here for me, 'kay? I'll be real quick."
"Why?" Alice asked.
"So we can play!" Robin said happily.
She was already turning away when Alice called after her. "You don't think I'm weird?"
Robin looked back over her shoulder and grinned. "Yeah! That's why I wanna play! Weird is fun!"
*O*U*A*T*
When Robin and Zelena finally arrived, they were more than late. But despite Zelena's fears that everyone would stare and point at them, the party was such a loud and busy event that no one even noticed their arrival. They slipped onto the field and made their way towards the table where all Hope's presents were stacked one on top of another. Zelena quickly set down the gift she had brought for her (a cheap coloring set) before she turned to push Robin's shoulder, meaning to nudge her towards the other kids. However she didn't get the chance as she was already rushing off towards Hope, Alexandra and all the other girls crowded around a miniature toy car that Emma had enchanted to ride around passing out pink frosted cupcakes to everyone. Zelena smiled, proud that Robin was making a real effort to make other friends, before she turned to find Regina and the other adults hanging around the tables.
Zelena had faded from view just as Robin reached the girls. She ignored all of them focused instead on Hope. It wasn't hard to find her. She was dressed in a bright sunshine yellow frock with pink patterns swirling around the skirt and white flowers on the torso, and was the only girl who had a ridiculously large silver tiara balanced in her bright blonde hair. She also happened to have a birthday girl balloon in one hand and a plastic light up wand in the other that she was using to wave so enthusiastically, she nearly took Alexandra's eye out twice before Robin had even reached them.
As Robin got close enough she didn't slow her pace. In fact she sped up, reaching her hands out and charging straight into Hope's back. Her hands hit her shoulders and threw her forward and with her hands full, she failed to catch herself and hit the ground hard, narrowly missing the toy car whizzing around. The balloon slipped from her fingers, drifting towards the sky and her tiara slipped into a crocked position on her head.
Robin then stood with her hands on her hips, frowning as Hope spluttered and gasped in shock, rolling and jumping back onto her feet. She rounded on Robin and immediately stepped up onto her toes so as to seem taller than the other girl she was normally nose to nose with.
"You pushed me!" Hope accused.
Robin responded by lifting her hands and pushing her again. Hope saw it coming, yet still was unable to stay on her feet, falling back down to the ground for a second time. "Yeah, I did!" Robin snapped, glaring down at her.
Hope stared up at Robin, sat on the ground for a moment of surprise before her blue eyes began to bubble over. A moment later she threw her head back and screamed and howled loud enough to be heard by all the parents standing by the dinner table. Within seconds they all rushed over, Emma at the lead with Snow, Regina and Zelena following closely behind.
"Honey! Are you okay?" Emma gasped, ducking and tucking her hands under Hope's arms, helping her back onto her feet.
"What happened, sweetie?" Snow asked, leaning over Emma's shoulder.
"SHHHHHHEEEEEEEE! PUSHED! MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Hope screamed, pointing the wand at Robin.
"What?" Regina rounded sharply on her niece.
"She did!" One of the girls said immediately. "We saw. She pushed her."
"Robin, is that true?" Zelena demanded.
"She's horrid!" Robin snapped, pointing back at Hope. "She's awful and horrid and dumb!"
"Robin!" Regina shouted angrily.
"You apologies right now," Emma said, frowning at Robin while her hand dusted the grass blades off of Hope's dress.
"She should say sorry!" Robin snapped. "She made Alice feel bad!"
"Alice?" Snow blinked. "Alice isn't even here, is she?" She glanced around like she might spot the messy blonde running in amongst everyone else.
"No! She's not!" Robin snapped. "Cause Hope didn't let her come! She said she wasn't invited!"
There was a brief pause. "Hope." Emma groaned. "I thought we said we wouldn't tell Alice so not to hurt her feelings."
"Hold up." Regina said, turning her frown onto Emma. "I'm confused. Why wasn't Alice invited? I thought the whole class was coming."
"It's a long story," Emma said quickly.
"She said Alice is weird so she wasn't invited!" Robin shouted, fighting to break out of the grip Zelena now had on her to keep her from propelling herself on Hope a third time.
"Emma?" Snow asked, frowning at her daughter. "I thought you said you were going to have Hope invite either all the girls or the whole class? Why did you let her not include Alice?"
"It's her party, okay." Emma sighed. "She doesn't get on with Alice very well."
"Last time I checked, all or none means all or none." Zelena snorted.
"Let's not change the subject now!" Emma snapped, scowling at Zelena now. "Which is that your daughter was attacking mine!"
"I was standing up for Alice! My daddy says always stand up for people!" Robin snapped.
"Your daddy's dead!" Hope snapped through her tears.
"HOPE CHLOE SWAN-JONES!" Regina shouted.
By this point, Emma just looked embarrassed and quickly reached down, scooping Hope into her arms. "I'm gonna go get her cleaned up." She said.
She started to walk away and Snow hurried after her. "Emma, seriously! What kind of lesson are you teaching your daughter? That it's okay to exclude people if you call them names? You can't let Hope invite everyone but Alice! How do you think the poor girl feels?"
"Mum, with all due respect, Hope is my daughter and I'll raise her how I want." Emma said sharply. "This is Hope's party and she's going to have what she wants and invite who she wants."
Snow crossed her arms. "And say what she wants as well?" She challenged.
Emma turned to Hope, still crying softly in her arms and frowned. "No. She will apologies for that."
At that, Hope began crying hard all over again. This was her party and now she was in trouble after Robin had pushed her down! It wasn't fair!
Meanwhile Zelena and Regina were in a heated discussion of their own back in the middle of the field. The vice like grip that Zelena had on her daughters arm had loosened slightly, allowing Robin to finally slip free and now she hovered, looking up as Zelena became outraged that Regina would even suggest Robin's violent behavior was from her parenting.
"You're in trouble…" Someone suddenly sang into Robin's ear.
She jumped and spun around, then grinned at the sight of her older brother. "Yup!" She said cheerfully.
"What did you do?" Roland asked.
"Pushed Hope over."
Roland snorted and covered his mouth to smother a laugh, then reached over and ruffled Robin's hair, causing one of her ribbons to become half undone. "Good girl. Anyway, I'll see you later, okay?"
"You leaving?" Robin said, her smile dropping hard.
"This party's boring." Roland shrugged. "Gonna go into the woods and shoot some arrows."
Robin glanced up at her mother; still so busy arguing about just how much she lets Robin get away with at home that neither she nor Regina had even noticed Roland's arrival. She looked back at him and grinned when she caught sight of something over his shoulder. "Wait for me. I need to change and I'll pick you up!"
Before Roland could ask what she meant by that, Robin had rushed passed him to the nearest flower bed. He looked at Zelena and Regina, then awkwardly began to shuffle away before they noticed him.
While everyone continued to either party, argue, or hover around, Robin quickly stripped off the dress and threw it carelessly onto the bench. Then she broke into a hard run and dashed across the field as fast as her little legs could take her. She ran straight for the unicorn where it was drifting in amongst greedy children that were pulling poking and prodding its mane, sides and tail greedily. A few were even trying to jump up and grab its horn like it was a game rather than a piece of its body. Robin nearly stopped to push each of them over but knew she only had so long before her mother caught on to wha she was doing. Once she realized that, she would definitely get Regina or someone else to use their magic and drag Robin back to them before she could get away.
So instead, Robin simply pushed those closest out of her way and jumped up. She managed to grab onto her back and slide her body around into a sitting position on top of her, reaching down and untying the loose rope around her neck that was being used to keep her from running off in the middle of the party. Once she was free, Robin lightly grabbed a hold of some of her long soft hair (it felt like feathers in between her fingers) and leaned forward. She then carefully nudged the unicorn's sides with her knees and turned her around, directing her around and away from the kids and for the streets.
Roland had drifted over to the present table, probably seeing if there was anything he could sneak into his pockets without getting caught, and Robin directed the unicorn straight towards him. She wasn't much of a rider, so had a feeling the creature understood that they were escaping, since she immediately followed every direction and rushed straight over to the table. A few people were shouting after them and Robin heard more than one person scream her name (one or two might have even been adults) but ignored all of them.
"ROLAND!" She called.
Roland glanced up in time to see her and immediately jumped onto the table, kicking and scattering presents onto the grass around them. He trampled on a few parcels, no doubt breaking a couple under his heavy stomps, and was laughing when he reached out a hand and caught Robin's. He jumped and landed on the unicorns back easily and the three of them jumped over the food table ahead of them, ducked around the people rushing around in their way, and shot out of the field and onto the streets.
"Did they just…" Zelena said, her mouth falling open speechless as she watched their shape disappearing down the road.
"Yes they did." Regina nodded slowly.
Zelena's body tensed and felt her lips purse furiously. "That. Girl. Is-"
"Just like her father," Regina chuckled.
Zelena blinked, turning to look at Regina for a moment. Then sighed and shook her head, but was unable to stop the smile pulling at the corners. A moment later the two sisters burst out laughing at the mess the Hood siblings had managed to cause after less than five minutes of arriving at the party.
*O*U*A*T*
Alice was still reading her book on the bench where Robin had left her. She had slipped out the house so her papa wouldn't see her sad face and ask her what was wrong but now she was even more lonely than if she had stayed inside. It had been nice when Robin had stopped to talk to her, but she'd gone to the party. And even though she said she wasn't interested in going, she obviously had changed her mind after getting there. Alice had heard about all the things Hope was having and couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy at all the fun everyone else was having there.
Just then an odd sound reached Alice's ears. Like a clopping sound on concrete. She glanced up and her eyes widened at the shape that quickly grew larger as it approached. Within seconds she realized it was the magical pony that Hope had been bragging about (though now Alice could see it was definitely just a normal unicorn) and riding on its back was a boy Alice vaguely recognized and… Robin!
"I'm back!" Robin called, pulling the unicorn to a stop in front of her.
"Hope gave you her unicorn?" Alice gasped, her book completely forgotten as it slid off her lap and onto the floor as Alice climbed to her feet.
Roland snorted loudly and Robin elbowed him. "Not exactly. But anyway! Who cares how! We're gonna go set her free! Wanna come?"
"Can I?" Alice beamed.
"Duh! It was your idea!" Robin grinned.
"Okay but we better go soon before Emma or Killian come chasing after us," Roland laughed.
Alice stepped forward and gently stroked the unicorn's face, moving her fingers over her soft features with care the rest of the kids at the party hadn't even been capable of. Smile smiled at the creature softly as she did. After a moment, she began whispering and leaning her forehead against the creatures face intimately.
Roland frowned down at her. "What are you doing?"
Alice glanced up and blushed slightly, remembering what Hope had said. "Uh. I'm just talking to her."
"You talk to animals?" Roland blinked.
Alice hesitated, then nodded.
"That's awesome!" Roland beamed.
"Told ya she was cool!" Robin said, grinning proudly.
Alice was surprised by their enthusiasm but quickly found herself grinning back at them. "You think it's cool?"
"Hell yeah!" Roland said. "So what is she saying?"
Alice paused, putting her ear near the unicorn's mouth for a moment and listening to what Roland would describe as rumbles and huffs of breath. After a moment Alice looked shyly back up at them. "She'd like you to get off her now. She doesn't really like people riding her."
"Oh! Sorry!" Robin and Roland rushed to climb off, each moving around to gently stroke her face and apologies in turn.
"I'm serious though," Roland said, glancing nervously behind them. "We should get going. Come on, I know a short cut to the woods."
With Roland leading the way, Robin and Alice stood on either side of the unicorn by her head and they began walking and guiding her along together. They moved quickly, very aware that there would be a number of people chasing after them by now, but Roland ducked them in and out of alley ways and behind buildings that kept them off the main street and shortened what would have been a much longer walk.
"So does she have a name?" Robin asked, looking around the unicorn at Alice.
Alice muttered to the unicorn, stroking her while she spoke then paused to listen. She looked up and shrugged. "She doesn't have one."
"Should we give her one?" Robin asked.
"Well you got to call her something!" Roland called back. "Can't keep referring her as 'The Unicorn'. What about Blaze?!"
"Ugh, no! That's a boy's name."
"It can be a girl's name." Roland shrugged.
"Well it's not her name." Robin turned back to Alice. "What do you think?"
"Me?"
"Yeah, you!" Robin laughed.
Alice fell quiet, watching the unicorn closely for a moment as they walked the long way around the back of the Nolan farm, closing in on the woods. She concentrated so hard on a name that she began frowning and wasn't quite looking where she was going, causing her to stumble a couple of times, although even that didn't stop her from thinking hard about names and she barely reacted as she straightened herself back up and kept going. Robin resisted the urge to giggle and instead waited with uncharacteristic patients.
"I know!" Alice said finally. "Frou-Frou!"
"Frou-Frou?" Robin asked, testing the name out. She reached up and stroked the unicorn. "What do you say, girl? You like Frou-Frou?"
In response she gently rubbed the side of her head against Robin and Alice in turn, giving Alice an extra lick along her ear and making her giggle. "I think she likes it!" Alice laughed.
"Frou-Frou it is!" Robin grinned, rubbing the unicorn face.
A moment later they had reached the edge of the wood. Roland paused, unhooking an old waterskin one of the Merry Men had given him from his belt. It belonged to his father and now he rarely went anywhere without it. He turned it up and let Frou-Frou have a long drink from it. He didn't know when the last time she had any water was but no doubt would need some soon. She was in for a long run once she was free to head as far into the woods as she could get. She was smart, and would probably want to get far enough away to avoid any more run ins with anyone who might once again mistake her for a child's pet.
"I'm kind of sad to see her go," Robin said, hugging Frou-Frou around the neck.
"She'll be fine," Roland shrugged.
"We can always visit!" Alice said excitedly.
"That'd be fun." Robin said, then reached over and took Alice's hand in her own. "Let's promise! Every day we'll come here, after school, and see if she's nearby. And every week we'll go into the woods and look for her! Roland can help!"
"Sure, Roland doesn't mind wasting his weekends." Roland said, rolling his eyes but Robin ignored him.
"Okay!" Alice beamed.
"You gotta promise!" Robin said immediately.
"I promise." Alice said firmly.
"A proper promise!" Robin said suddenly.
"What's a proper promise?" Alice blinked.
"We gotta kiss." Robin nodded.
"We do?"
"Yeah. Cause boys spit on their hands and shake when they make promises. But I don't wanna spit on my hand. So we can lick our lips and then it's basically the same thing." Robin said seriously.
Roland bit his tongue to keep from laughing or correcting her. Little John had told him off for not letting his sister "have her fun" as he put it and in the end, this was a story he could happily file away for when Robin was older and more easily embarrassed.
"Okay!" Alice nodded. The two made a point of sticking their tongues out and wetting their lips dramatically. "I promise!" Alice stated with Robin repeating after her before they leaned in and quickly pecked each other's lips.
"It's a forever promise now," Robin nodded seriously. "We can't ever break it."
"Never ever." Alice agreed.
After they were finished, they watched Frou-Frou run off ahead of them, her beautiful light shaded body fading into the dark shadows of the safety of the woods. Roland was already bored, turning his attention towards the town to see if he could spot anyone chasing after them (almost hoping they would be so they could have an exciting chase) but Alice and Robin watched Frou-Frou go right until the moment she disappeared. Their forever promise to visit her often cemented in their newfound friendship.
A friendship which might one day grow into something more…