The first snow of the year came only a week after Thanksgiving. Eirys stares at the white puffs of crystallized water with a sense of awe. She pulls the wrapped potted plant in her arms closer to her body before quickly locking her store and walking briskly towards the hospital. In her haste she didn't notice the person walking in the opposite direction before the collision, causing the other person to topple over. "Ah, Ms. Mayor, I didn't see you." Eirys silently chastises her clumsiness, reaching down to give the mayor a hand. By some miracle, the plant was still very much intact.
"Never mind that," she replies fixing her little black dress and her matching pea coat. "You better not let that person waiting." She nods towards the plant in Eirys's arms.
Eirys nods, gladly taking the chance to get out of the conversation. "Have a nice day, Ms. Mayor." For most, Mr. Gold was the most frightening person in Storybrooke, for Eirys, that person was the mayor. Regina Mills, had been the mayor of Storybrooke for as long as Eirys could remember which didn't ease the discomfort she had whenever they talked.
Eirys shivers wrapping her brown jacket closer and continues on her way. Every time the two crossed paths she felt like she had to wash off all presence of the other woman. Eirys walks towards the room the flowers were requested in. It was a mysterious order. The person requested for potted flowers to be sent to a patient and that money would be wired to her bank account. No further contact with the employer.
"Eirys, what are you doing here?" Eirys finds her shoulders relaxing at the sound of a female voice. She had been dreading the delivery due to her previous relationship with one of the staff members. Thankfully, it wasn't the said staff member who had called her out.
Eirys turns to face the short haired brunette known as Mary Margaret. "Just delivery some flowers. I haven't seen you at the store for a while now, I was getting worried."
Mary Margaret shrugs an easy smile gracing her face. "Just some volunteer work, the kids are getting antsy for winter break and everything. Speaking of which, are you planning anything?"
"Not particularly." Eirys says sliding open the glass door to the room. It was the John Doe coma patient. "I have to do my taxes and this is a slow season for me so I can't afford to do anything big." She couldn't help but whisper in the room. There was something on the internet saying that coma patients could hear things.
Mary Margaret fixes up the pillow under the John Doe's head. "Why don't you come over to the school? The kids love you and there will probably be enough snow on the ground to make snowmen and snow angels."
"Sure, I'd love to." They walk out of the room, silently sliding the door shut behind them. The get together with Mary Margaret's students is the perfect excuse for an adult to play around in the snow. For some reason the thought of playing in the snow reminded her of a certain pawn shop owner. "I wonder if Mr. Gold's ever played in the snow."
Mary Margaret lets out a very unlady-like snort, unconsciously glancing behind her to make sure Mr. Gold wasn't going to pop out of nowhere. "How can you say things like that so easily? He has ears everywhere." She nervously laughs at the mental image of Mr. Gold actually playing in the snow.
"Don't worry about him." Eirys says not feeling the nervousness that had overtaken her friend. "He's actually not as bad as everyone thinks he is." It was always hard to explain her friendship to others, they all had a built in idea of who he was without actually getting to know him. It placed her in a very troubling position.
Mary Margaret seems to take her word for it. "Well, if you want, I suppose the children won't mind if he comes along. I'm sure they'll just ignore him and just play in the snow."
Eirys and Mary Margaret trade farewells and head towards their respected homes. The snow hadn't let up creating small mounds of it along the wet sidewalk. The air was showing signs of a very promising winter filled with snow, hot chocolate, and many kids catching the flu.
"I refuse." Mr. Gold says stubbornly in response to her question. He takes a sip of his tea, the mint undertones reminding him of peppermint candy canes and other accessories that came with the winter season. "Why does Mary Margaret want me to be there?"
"Because it's going to be fun and you have to get out more." Eirys argues, trying to come up with a logic reason for him to get out of his home this season. In reality, Mr. Gold was a hermit most of the year, only coming out to collect his money and to attend town meetings. And he didn't even go to half of them, leaving her to relay any messages that need to be relayed. "Please, please, please go!"
Mr. Gold reaches for a gingerbread cookie, not looking up to meet her gaze because he knew what kind of face went with that kind of voice. "No." He says firmly taking a bite out of the cookie. "That is my final answer."
"But people are going to keep saying that you're a creepy old man who sits inside his house and watches people from his window." Eirys says letting a small tear out of her left eye.
"I don't really care what people say about me." He replies taking a sip of his tea, in all honesty, he had probably heard worse. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt."
Eirys stands up, slamming her hands against the table. Her precious tea set rattling dangerously. "I care what people say so you're going to go and spend a day in the snow with little children and you're going to have fun." She sits down angrily, snatching the rest of his uneaten cookie and grumbling incoherent things under her breath while she ate.
"Bae why won't you come with me?" Ivy demands. Her blue eyes glaring down on him, he could almost feel the holes they were boring into his head. "Have you even stepped out of this clearing since you wandered in here?"
He shrugs his shoulders. "I will, eventually." He replies. He peeks at his trousers, they were starting to get holes again, and some of his patches had patches of their own. In any case, he had to find some new clothes. "Don't you have any friends to go with, what about that Blue Fairy you keep talking about?"
"Saphira's only going so she can shop at some human market." Ivy replies, she waves a hand over the ground. The tree trunk behind his head shifts and protrudes outward into his back. "I'm starting to loose my patience."
That was an understatement. Bae yelps as a tree branch whacks him on the head. Of course it doesn't hit him hard enough to break skin, only enough to give him a headache the next day along with a big purple and blue bruise. She was angry enough to use violence, which meant that she was beyond a loss of patience. "Don't you have some place you need to be?" He asks gritting his teeth in pain.
Ivy turns on her heels and stomps out of the clearing. The tree finally calms down enough to return to its original shape. The fairy children who had come of age were going to have their first chaperoned trip outside of the Grounds. Bae sighs, resting his head on the soft grass, watching the sun dip lower and lower. It was almost time for his nightly prowl.
He was naturally a very curious person; always wanting to know more, of course that meant snooping around the Fairy Grounds a few minutes after his blue-eyed friend had left. He'd choose a different exit, doubling back, taking turns until he reached the outskirts of the Grounds, then he'd choose a nice, tall, sturdy tree to climb and sit in. The first few nights he chose a bad tree, but his next tree had all the juicy secrets.
He didn't know too many people who needed to blackmail a fairy, but it could come in handy one day. So he diligently kept track of each scandalous piece of knowledge that passed his tree like the fact that the mayor really liked young blondes, and that the metal-works teacher's daughter who was engaged to the Master Fire's Fairy's son was cheating with some other fairy. He sighs as all the cheating and perverted fairies went in to do their affairs. "I suppose I could go." He mumbles under his breath, unable to focus due to the uncharacteristic outburst that afternoon.
The trip started early in the morning. Lucky for Bae, he had dozed off on his little nightly prowl. The excited chattering of the fairies had woken him up before someone noticed his presence. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Bae wonders to himself, watching the group starts out East.
"What do you want to do first?" Saphira asks rhetorically, she had an extra bounce in her step as they walked out of the Fairy Grounds. "We could buy pies from the bakery, or explore a castle, or pet a cow!"
Bae sometimes wondered if this blonde girl just talked to hear her own voice since she could surely carry on a whole conversation just by herself. "Saphira, we have to follow the group." The cautious one of the pair of friends explains patiently. The obvious wave of excitement has yet to hit her exhausted appearance.
"Ivy you need to lighten up sometimes." Saphira says waving her hand as if to disband the negativity that was pouring out of Ivy's pores. "It must be because you're cooped up by yourself all the time."
Ivy doesn't have a chance to reply since the group came across the nearest village. All the fairies seem to rush off towards it like a stampede of pigs running towards their food. "Well, your friend seems quite happy today." Bae says in his cheerful mocking voice.
"Bae, you came!" Ivy exclaims, a new light emerging in her eyes. "Why are you here anyways? I thought you didn't want to come." And within a split second her happy mood died down into a slightly angry one.
"Well, aren't you coming here?" He asks back glancing around to make sure his cover hadn't been blow by some insignificant human. "Not that I really want to be here right now. Could we?" He practically pushes her towards a more secluded part of the road, following a bit behind the rest of the fairies. "Now, what were planning to do today?"
Eirys shifts the brown cardboard box in her hands. Her short stature almost tips over as she reaches for the door handle to the school. It is the day before the winter holiday break, and as such, she decided to bring little festive plants for each of Mary Margaret's students. "Need some help?" A long lanky arm in a black wool jacket reaches past her and turns the door handle.
"And here I thought that I was going to freeze out here." She rolls her blue eyes, Mr. Gold holding the door open for her to go in first. "I thought you 'refused to come'." She stomps her boots on the mat to shake off any excess snow.
He shrugs, closing the door behind him, taking off his black wool gloves. "I was in the neighborhood when I saw that you could use some help." He carefully steps around the wet footprints made by melting snow.
Eirys carefully makes her way to Mary Margaret's classroom, letting Mr. Gold open the door for her. "Eirys, thank goodness you're here." Mary Margaret almost tackles the girl when she enters. The sound of out of control children burst in the background. "They're just so excited to go out and play."
"Hi, kids!" Eirys says as the most curious children come up to greet her. Everyone had their boots and snow-pants already at their tables. "So, who wants to go outside and make snowmen?"
"I do!" The kids scream, scrabbling around to get their coats and mittens on, dropping the toys they were currently playing with. Some of them, the ones who were already partly dressed to go outside, waddled over to peek inside the box. "What are those?"
Eirys carefully takes one of the green potted plants out. "These are little Christmas trees. I have enough for everyone to have one. We can decorate the pots when we get back inside."
The kids were practically turning red from all the excitement and they weren't even out the door yet. Some how, Mary Margaret is able to get all the kids out into the snow without any instances of voices being raised and small childish quarrels occurring. The kids practically throw themselves into the snow.
"Well, this was unexpected." Mr. Gold notes watching the kids immediately start making snow balls and having a massive snow ball fight. There was no natural teams being formed, rather, it was every child from themselves in an all out snowball fight to the death. "Sure hope they don't get sick, parents love to bring their sick kids everywh-"
And in that exact moment, a stray snowball, which might have been intentional, went flying through the fray and hits Mr. Gold straight in the face. A suspenseful silence falls over the three adults as the children continue to scream and run around in the snow. "Mr. Gold, are you ok?"
"I'm just fine." He replies wiping the melting snow off his face with his gray scarf, "just peachy." He doesn't dare look at Eirys because she would be doubling over any minute ready to burst with laughter. And as he had suspected, she did. Her laughter echoing over the rest of the children's to the point where she had collapsed on the cement ground and her cheeks were bright red from the lack of oxygen. "I'm glad you find this so amusing."
Mary Margaret does a much better job at covering her giggles by pretending to help Eirys back up. But Mr. Gold had a sneaking suspicion that she was also just collapsing in laughter. "That was the funniest thing I've ever seen." Eirys says gasping for a breath. "You should have seen the look on your face."
"It was absolutely not funny." He replies slightly frustrated. He was one who did not liked to be laughed at. He would sometimes do the laughing at but never, was he the one to be laughed at. "My mouth was open and everything." He nudges some of the appalling snow away with the toe of his shoe.
His last statement only made the blue eyed woman die in laughter again. Her olive green jacket shakes as her sparkly bubblegum pink mittens try to stifle her laughs. He rolls his eyes at the childishness of his only friend, and secretly bends down and picks up a wad of snow. Now, he was no snow expert by any stretch of the imagination, but this snow was perfect for making into a snowball to toss at someone's face. Or in his case, shove down a certain person's jacket.
Eirys lets out a blood curdling shriek as the cold powder-like water touches her warm-blooded skin. She jumps a little trying to get all the snow down her shirt, shivering as the snow melts into icy water. "I am so going to get you for that." Her blue eyes narrowing competitively, while his brown eyes stare back at her in boredom. She packs some snow by her feet to form a small snowball and shoves it down his jacket, giggling as she does so and running off to get more snow in the playground.
By then, the children had created teams and started to build elaborate forts out of snow with general plans for attack and defense. It was quite impressive for their youthful minds. Of course, being the childish adult that she is, Eirys manages to drag Mr. Gold into such a game, both of them playing on opposing sides.
The kids on Mr. Gold's side didn't seem to mind his presence. If anything, they enjoyed it as he gave them hints as to their opponents' weak points. Whereas Eirys managed to convince the kids to keep throw snowballs at the poor pawn shop owner's face, turning it from a nice tan color to a brilliant red tomato color in a matter of minutes.
"I never thought you could get him to do anything remotely fun." Mary Margaret says after the snowball fight died out. The kids moving onto playing in the forts and making snow men with oddly shaped bodies. The three of them were sitting on a bench near the entrance to the school. Mr. Gold and Eirys were slightly shivering due to the amount of snow they were each hit with. "Though, I can't say I want to be in your shoes."
Both Eirys and Mr. Gold had red faces all the way up to the tips of their frozen ears. Not only that, but their respected jackets were soaked being created for warmth rather than repelling water like most children wear. Adding on the fact that neither of them were wearing appropriate pants for kneeling in the snow and taking shots of snowballs to the legs. At least Eirys was slightly better off in her knee high black and pink poka dotted snow boots. "When does the school day end again?" Eirys asks, lifting her jacket away from her wrist to look at her watch.
"Not early enough." Mr. Gold replies hunching over and shivering in the cold. "If I come down with something, I'm going to blame you." He says crossing his arms to try and retain as much body heat possible. "This is why I don't have fun."
"Ivy, Ivy, come taste this. It's so good!" Saphira says shoving a plate of some flavor of pie into the timid girl's hands. By the looks of it, it was blackberry pie. "By the way, who were you talking to? I swear I heard you talking to someone." She glances around them. "I guess it was just my imagination." She shrugs the suspicious feeling off and continues on her tasting spree.
"That blondie sure knows how to get around." Bae says coming out of his hiding spot between two cabins. "She is one fierce chatterbox. I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark hallway, or a light one." The chaperones were letting them explore on their own for a few hours, as long as they remained in pairs.
Ivy rolls her blue eyes, taking a tentative bite of the pie. It was fresh off the fire; the blackberry syrup was tart and warm. "She's not all that bad." Ivy takes another bite, letting the pie warm her chilled skin.
The Fairy Grounds were always warm and sunny due to the concentrated magic properties of all the fairies. However, outside the Grounds, the world was slowly growing colder. Bae didn't seem to notice the chilly breeze that blew past them, and if he did, he didn't show it. In fact, the only thing he really did was eat food, complain, whine, and eat more food. "Anyways, dearie, I have places to be and people to see." He says as something catches his eye.
And before Ivy could wonder about the meaning of his words, he skitters off towards some unknown destination. "Ivy, come on, we found a place to buy jewelry." Saphira says, her blue cloak flying behind her as she grabs Ivy's arm and drags her towards a certain vender. "Aren't these pretty?" She holds up a small pendent made with a shimmery pink stone. "Look, this one matches your eyes." She picks up a blue necklace in the shape of a flower.
"You have a good eye." The rich, smooth, mature voice says behind them. Saphira whips around to face the speaker. Ivy, however, almost jumps out of her skin and calls the roots of the trees to attack the person. "I haven't seen so many fairies in one place in a long time. It must be my lucky day."
Ivy turns, her eyes widening at the sight of the lady. She had an air of royalty around her, dark brown hair, bottomless brown eyes, and dressed in black. There was a striking familiarity of the woman. "You're the widowed Queen, aren't you?" Ivy asks recognizing the woman through a description her parents wrote about in a letter.
The woman turns her gaze towards the Flower Fairy. "That I am, now, you must by an earth fairy. And you." She points a dainty finger at Saphira. "You must be a wish giving fairy, am I wrong?"
Saphira shakes her head, her eyes watching every move the queen makes. "What do you want from us?" There was a certain evil malice that oozed out of the queen. Even Saphira's natural friendliness was gone.
"I was just hoping for a little trade." The queen replies picking up the two necklaces. "I'll buy these for you, and we can talk business later." The merchant quickly packs up the necklaces, and placing the coins in his purse. "Now, will you grant me my wish?"
Saphira stares at the queen with cold eyes. "What do you wish for, my queen?"
"It's quite simple actually." The queen replies, walking us towards her carriage. It is also black with silvery white details, black drivers, and black horses to pull the carriage. "I want you to tell me where this girl is hiding." The queen takes a folded paper out of her pocket. The paper turns out to be a wanted poster of a girl, no older than the fairies themselves. "Can you?"
Saphira takes the pictures, her eyes glowing blue. "She's in the forest near the castle. She is waiting, hunting for something." Saphira shakes her head. Wish magic is very tricky; sometimes they could do exactly what a person wishes them to do, other times it doesn't bode as well.
The queen seems to accept the answer, patting Saphira on the head. "Thank you, you have done very well." She opens the carriage door and steps inside. "I'm sure you'll both become very useful fairies in the future."
Saphira stares at the path the carriage takes until it disappears from sight. "I hope I never have to grant her another wish." She shivers, gripping her necklace tightly in her fist. "She is really creepy; did you feel that aura she had?"
Ivy nods, "She makes me want to take a bath and scrub my skin raw." Ivy glances at the necklace the queen bought her. She tucks it into her pocket not really wanting the necklace anymore. "Do you want to go shopping?"
"Of course." Saphira replies, skipping towards another vender, tucking the bad experience in the back of her mind. Ivy follows slowly behind her, taking her time to fully digest all the food Saphira made her eat in the past hour or so.
"Well, wasn't that an interesting experience." Bae says cheerfully peeling himself away from a tree and falling in step with the green thumbed fairy. "I don't suppose you have anymore pie with you?"
Ivy shakes her head, taking a look at her friend. He seemed to be the same, only he had a certain amount of scratches and scraps that were definitely not there before they separated, "What happened to you?"
He just shrugs off her question, wincing when he lifts his left shoulder. "Well, let's just say that I met someone and then some things happened and let's just leave it at that." On the last three words he taps her teasingly on the nose.
"Right and I bet I'm going to have to bake you more food now that you're 'hurt'" She guesses working her way through his thoughts. "If you find something you like why don't you just buy it?" She digs through her coin purse and hands him a few coins. "And you better give those trousers back to the poor sap you stole them from."
Bae readily accepts the coins. "Nothing gets past you, dearie." And with that he disappears, probably to steal more clothing. He wasn't, exactly, the type of person to just give clothes back after he's tried them one and liked them. He probably wasn't even going to spend that money on food, rather he'll probably do something stupid and Ivy would rather not know what he does in his free time.
"At least they're kind of quiet." Eirys says trying to find a good point a view of the whole situation. After coming inside from their extravagant snow play, the kids decided to paint and decorate their potted plants. Said kids, now inside and drinking hot chocolate while doing crafts, were almost bouncing off the walls. "What did you put in there?"
"I don't even know anymore." Mary Margaret replies, rubbing her temples. An empty pot of hot chocolate sits in the coffee maker with packets of instant hot chocolate next to it. "I'm going to pretend like we ran out of hot cocoa." She quickly swipes the box of the instant drink mix and stashes it high on a closet shelf.
"I think it's time to switch to DC" Eirys says suddenly feeling very old. "I mean, where do these kids get their energy?"
"DC?" Mary Margaret asks, her brain slowly beginning to shut down for a well deserved nap. She yawns glancing at the clock in the corner of the room. "At least they've stopped trying to kill each other by paint poisoning."
Eirys nods catching the yawning disease. "De-caff, I assure you that it'll be the best investment you'll ever make for these kids. No one needs an energized child in the house at two in the afternoon."
The end of the school did not come fast enough. The last of the children were happily picked up by their parents who were bracing themselves for two weeks of pure torture. "It's times like these where I'm glad I'm not married." Mary Margaret says heading towards her apartment. "I'll see you soon, Eirys!"
"They grow up so fast sometimes." Mr. Gold says absently. He limps slowly back to his shop. The amount of exercise he did earlier had taken its toll on his leg making a sharp pain go up his leg every time he put too much pressure on it. He winces as a particularly sharp pain explodes in his leg.
Eirys casts a worried glance at him. "Why don't you come over? I can fix you something for your leg." Mr. Gold nods, biting down on his lip as another surge of pain tingles up his leg.
By the time the two of them got to Eirys's store, Mr. Gold had bitten a nice sized hole in his lower lip where blood was quickly spilling out of. "I should have left you to freeze outside of that school." Mr. Gold gently touches the ice pack wrapped in a cloth towel to his wounded lip, not caring about the blood that would soon stain it.
"Hear, drink this." She hands him a mug of steamy light brown liquid that looked like watered down apply juice. Mr. Gold removes the towel to take a sip, unprepared for the bitter taste of pears to enter his mouth.
"What is this?" He demands, practically gagging on the mouthful, forcing it down his throat. "And why does it taste so bitter?" He presses the ice pack back onto his cracked lip as his excessive exclaims caused the split to open again.
Eirys glances at him coldly. "It's a steamed pear with ginseng root drink. I told you that it would help." She pulls the pear out of the pot it was boiling in and puts it on a plate. "You can eat the pear too if you really want to."
Mr. Gold shakes his head. "No thanks." He braces himself for another sip of the tea, and under Eirys's watchful eye, he drank the entire cup. "I am never playing in the snow ever again." And although he would never admit it, his leg did feel a little better.
Eirys walks him back to the closed shop, handing him a new free sample to take with him. "Have a safe drive!" She didn't shut her lights until she was sure that Mr. Gold made it to his car safely.