One-shot summary: Some wounds don't heal. No matter how much time has passed.

Juliet felt like she wanted to cry, but not in the way she was supposed to cry. She was supposed to feel like air and cry from her own happiness – but as she stared at herself in her wedding dress all she could feel was crippling fear and sorrow.

She griped her elbows tightly as she stared at her own reflection. It was a beautiful dress all things considered – white and tea-length, with a veil that fell to just past her shoulder. The seamstress and her had worked tirelessly on it and she had tried it on many times before, but as she tried it on one last time before the ceremony next week, something in her had just broke.

"You think someone will love you – making that mess!"

"You're lucky me and the others here took you in, obviously the men people rejected you for a reason."

"Ina! Just look at you! Do you really think the world of man will ever accept you?!"

Azul had been a recurrent suspect as someone who had slung out many of her mental scars and as she stared at herself in the mirror all she could hear was his voice. It was everywhere in this room and pounding in her head and she felt so much hate for that stupid swan. Even hundreds of miles away that damn bird was trying to take this from her.

But that part of her – Ina – tried to believe all those words he said to her. He had showed her how to survive on the island and all that had been true, why wouldn't this be true too?

Was it possible that no one loved her? That all this was just some cruel act meant to humiliate her? That Varian really had written her off as a basket-case in that dungeon years ago and was just doing all this because he was trying to think of a way to send her back? It seemed a drawn-out and malicious plan, but they had been planning treason back then…

Juliet didn't want to believe that. After all these years and everything they had been through, he could have easily just told her to leave. He had no reason to smile at her and hold her and kiss her the way he did when he secretly hated her.

But was it possible? Ina, the old, forgotten little girl she once was, was trying to reconcile that perhaps all these years really meant nothing to him or to any of her friends.

Juliet shut her eyes tightly to keep those salty tears from falling because damn it Azul, for once you won't win.

"Hey, Jules," came the one voice she didn't want to hear, the door swinging open, "Rudiger just dragged me all the way here, what's wrong…."

His voice drifted off and Juliet didn't know why, and that just made that fear in her worse because even though she wanted him to go she also wanted him to say something or do something or go or please just –

A hand griped her shoulder and Juliet was nearly a thousand percent sure it was him.

"Jules," he said, voice breathless, "please look at me."

Juliet shook her head. He couldn't see her crying. This was stupid, it all was stupid, just because some stupid swan said some stuff a long time ago without her even knowing if she believed what he said was true.

"Jules," he said, using that voice that made her feel terrible because he just wanted to help her and why wouldn't she let him? "Please. You-you're crying."

Was she? Apparently, some of her tears had come out. She opened her eyes and turned to face him and was met with the concerned blue eyes of her fiancé and she felt something akin to almost calm flood her system in a small dosage simply because it was Varian. Varian was here.

"What's wrong?" Varian asked, reaching up to touch her cheek. Even though she knew he was trying to comfort her she pulled back because in this moment Ina wouldn't let her trust anything. But then Juliet saw that pain in his eyes and Ina was pushed back down inside Juliet.

"I-I-I—" Juliet gulped. "Do-do you love me?"

Varian looked beyond aghast, he seemed almost offended. He took both her hands quickly and squeezed them tightly.

"Of course, I do," Varian said, "You know that."

Yes, of course, she knew that she had always known that, why had she doubted?

"Just look at you! No one will love you!"

"Even looking like this," Juliet whispered, and Varian's image became blurred with tears.

Confusion cleared from his eyes however, and they flooded with concern and understanding. He let go of one of her hands and reached to caress her cheek.

This time she didn't flinch away.

"Especially looking like you do," Varian said softly, leaning down so that his forehead rested on hers. "You are the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." He kissed her forehead. "No matter what some silly swan says."

Warmth spread throughout Juliet's chest and Azul's words started to fade from her head. It had been years since she had last seen that bird and yet it still felt like those insults and biting remarks were coming at her constantly. And sometimes it just became too much, and they all fell on her at once to make her a stumbling mess that turned her world upside down.

Ina was Azul's charge and followed him blindly, and no matter how much Juliet tried to let her die that girl was always coming back to haunt her. Juliet at times could see her almost as a ghost, but today she had seen Ina not in the past but as herself. Ina was her past, and no matter how much she pushed her away she was coming along for her present.

But Varian hadn't loved Ina. No one loved Ina. She couldn't let Ina come back.

"I'm sorry," Juliet said.

"For what?"

"I-I-I and then, you know, Ina, and –"

He frowned and moved to take her face in both his hands, his expression turning stern. Juliet looked at him in surprise. What was with this sudden shift in his mood?

"Never be ashamed of Ina," Varian told her sincerely. "She was you and she's been through a lot."

"But, 'Rian, she – she brings back him."

Azul was the one animal that had been the very bane of her existence. Yes, he had been the one to pull her off that beach during the tide but beyond that all he had done for her was use her and insult her. With a human as his ward, no one had dared challenge him, having feared her of all people because none of them had seen something like her before.

She wanted to forget him. But, of course, Ina wouldn't let her.

"The let her," Varian said simply. He sighed. "Sometimes that swan is going to come back to haunt you and the things he is going to say are going to sting, and they're going to hurt, no matter how hard you try and push away those memories."

Juliet hated that truth, but a part of her already knew it. No matter what that was her past, Azul was her past, that island was her past. It was good and bad, but it was her past and no wishing was going to take it away.

She looked down at her feet, but Varian rose her head up to look at him by her chin. His smile was wide and comforting and made that warmth in her expand.

"But when those memories come back – no mater why – know that I'll be here," Varian said. "For both Juliet and Ina, because they are you. And you're crazy if you think I'm going to let you hurt."

Juliet could have sworn she felt her heart triple in size in that one moment and she leaned up on her toes to place a kiss on the tip of his nose.

"Crazier than you," Juliet said. Varian laughed and pulled her into a full embrace. The second his arms were fully around her she felt peace finally return to her.

Azul and Ina were her past and Varian was right, she could never fully put it behind her. They left behind things that could force her into being that girl all over again. Sometimes it was like walking eggshells to desperately avoid the simple things that could do it, but other times it was something that she couldn't avoid, because she hadn't been expecting it.

It had hurt, it would hurt, and it will always hurt in varying degrees. But at least she had Varian to help her get through it.

"I love you, Varian Wry," she whispered into his shoulder. He placed a kiss at the top of her temple.

"I love you too, Juliet," Varian said in return. The lack of her surname didn't go unnoticed by her – it used to be a simple fact, his name was Varian Wry, and her name was just Juliet. But now that simple name seemed so small. In one-week time she would have that addition to her name and not just any addition, but the same one Varian had to his.

And speaking of the wedding –

"My dress!" Juliet suddenly said, pulling back from him. Rapunzel and Cassandra had told her all about the wedding dress tradition back when Rapunzel had gotten married. The groom wasn't allowed to see the bride's dress before the wedding, it was bad luck. And that was the last thing she wanted.

Varian chuckled with an eye roll.

"This is serious, Varian!" she said, crossing her arms. She wasn't sure why – crossing her arms certainly wasn't going to cover the whole thing and he had already seen it, so really there was no point.

"Jules," he said, putting two hands on her shoulders, "those rules are for normal people." He reached around and pulled her veil out so that it wrapped around her shoulders. "The rules have never applied to us, and even if they did, we would just ignore them anyway."

Juliet smiled up at him. It was official – she was marrying the best person ever.

"But…." Varian said, looking down at her dress once before rising to look at her with that smirk of his, "I do have to say that I'm upset I'll have to wait a week to see you in this dress again." He twirled a ringlet of her hair around his finger. "I almost wish we could get married today."

Juliet laughed and stepped back from him, swiveling around to look at herself in the mirror again. Before the image of herself had driven her to tears, but now all she could see was her smiling face back at her. In time to the reflection, she felt Varian's arms slip around her waist and his head come to rest on her shoulder, smile as nearly as wide as hers.

"Just think," Varian whispered, voice soft against her ear, "in one week we'll be married."

Juliet leaned back in his arms to rest on his chest and entwined one of his hands with hers.

"Thank God," Juliet said, "At twenty-two, I thought I was going to be an old maid."

Varian's chest rumbled with laughter.

"Thank you," Juliet said, turning to place a kiss on his cheek.

"For what?" Varian asked.

"Being you," Juliet said. "I really needed you. And what you did."

Varian smiled back at her and pecked her lips lightly. "Anything for you, love."

It's been…. two months? I had so many ideas and no way to get them started so I had like five one-shots with no ending. And then I finally looked up "Newsies" and listened to "Something to Believe In", and well…. inspiration has struck.

I'm also accepting requests, if anyone wants to leave one!

Love y'all!

Anonymous: This doesn't have any official update schedule, but I've had some recent inspiration (because of your review actually!) so they may be coming out a little faster. I actually only really knew that Jeremy Jordan was in "Newsies", but then your review came in and I searched what Jack Kelly and Katherine looked like and I was surprised how similar they looked to the grown-up versions of Varian and Juliet I had imagined, I actually changed them to the covers of "These Runaways Will Run the Night" and this one. "Something to Believe In" actually loosely inspired this one-shot. Great to hear from you!