Not Quite A Fairytale
Chapter 3: Date?
Emma had only been living there for a few days, but already, Mary Margaret had altered her life-style, sub-conciously, around her new roommate. When she woke up, at around seven, she made two cups of coffee, two bowls of cereal (or toast or eggs, whatever she was making), and had it on the table for when Emma came down. She had already learned that Emma wasn't a morning person, but it seemed that Emma had altered her life-style too, by getting up at around a similiar time to Mary Margaret, in order to have breakfast with her, and eat the breakfast Mary Margaret had made her.
Emma had been offered a job by Sherriff Graham to be his deputy; she hadn't given him an answer yet. Mary Margaret knew that she was still fearful; taking a job made her stay in Storybrooke extremely pernament. Even though Emma had moved in with her, Mary Margaret knew the whole thing was a working process with Emma, one small step at a time; becoming a roommate was a pretty big step, and she had a feeling Emma was refraining from taking another big step for a while.
She hadn't seen David since Saturday. He had probably been at work, and she had been at work too, and there was a big chance it could be a while before she saw him again, seeing as he had lived in Storybrooke for a month before their first meeting. She hoped it wasn't another month until she saw him again.
Henry asked about him aswell. It seemed like the young boy had developed a close bond with David, latching onto him after knowing him for 5 seconds; then again, he always had been like that, bonding with strangers so easily. It actually scared her if she was being honest.
Nevertheless, every morning Henry would ask after David.
"Have you seen David again, Miss Blanchard?" He inquired.
"No, sorry Henry," she replied each day, giving him a symapthetic smile.
One morning, like normal, he asked again.
"Have you seen David again, Miss Blanchard?" He asked. There was something different in the way he was looking at her. A small twinkle in his eyes.
"No, I haven't Henry, he's probably just busy."
"Oh.. Well, I saw him!"
Mary Margaret raised her eyebrows, indicating for him to continue.
"I saw him yesterday; I went down to the arcade after school, and I saw him walking along, so I spoke to him and asked how he was and he said he good."
"That's great Henry," she said smiling, only slightly jealous that it was Henry who had bumped into him.
"Yes, but that's not all!" Henry exclaimed, grinning. Yes, there was definitely a twinkle in his eye.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. He asked me about you," Henry said, clearly getting to the part he had been excited to tell her about.
She felt her heart hammer in her chest, a soft pink blush creeping up her neck. She bit her lip for a moment, closing her eyes, then opened them again and looked at Henry.
"Well, don't you want to know? What he asked me?"
She did. She did want to know.
"Well, seeing as you are so desperate to tell me, enlighten me."
Henry beamed with happiness.
"He asked how you were doing, and I told him that you were fine and that you and Emma were getting along well as roommates. He then asked how long you'd been my teacher for, and I told him for a few months, and he asked if you were a good teacher, and I told him that you were the best teacher in the world, because you are."
She smiled at him. "That was nice of you to say," she said, touched.
"It's the truth," Henry said with a shrug. "Anyway, we started talking about you, me and Emm and that, and then he asked, like really casually, if you were.. you know, seeing anyone."
Her eyes immediately widened, her pulse rising. Did he-? Could he really-?
"He asked you that?" She said, in disbelief. He couldn't have, surely he wouldn't ask Henry that, or would he?
"Not exactly them words, but he certainly implied it. He said something like, "Does anyone else hang out with you three? Like, doesn't Miss Blanchard have a boyfriend or anything? It was clear that he was trying to find out if you were seeing anyone."
Mary Margaret couldn't stop her pulse from rising. She was slightly unsure why her heart was beating so fast, why it felt like it was going to burst from her chest. Just because he had asked Henry a simple, kind of personal question, it didn't mean he was interested in her. Then again, it didn't mean that he wasn't interested in her. She wasn't sure. She wasn't sure about anything. She wasn't sure why she felt so happy to hear that David had asked after her, she wasn't sure why she wanted to see him so badly, she wasn't sure what on earth she was feeling.
"It might not have been.. meant in that way Henry," she told him quietly. "It might have just been a simple, normal question."
"Trust me Miss Blanchard," Henry said, as he started walking away to sit at his desk. "You didn't see his face when he asked. There was nothing normal about the way he asked that question. "
The Animal Shelter wasn't a bad place to work. David loved animals, especially dogs. But there wasn't really an animal he didn't like. He went to visit them each day, making sure they were all fed, cleaned, and for some, he made sure they had taken their medication. He had been called into helping Doc with surgery a few times, nothing life-threatening though. He had helped a dog who broke his leg, which had to be pinned back into place, and he had helped with a cat who had suffered minor internal bleeding. He loved his new job very much, a lot more than his old one, then again, he didn't like to think about that. He was still haunted by what he had seen, what he had lived through, and he tried to push it, along with everything else, to the back of his mind; of course, it wasn't always so easy.
His apartment was nice; it was close to the docks, and when he looked out his window, he saw the view of the sea, of the boats moored up, the world at his reach. His apartment was of a reasonable size; he had two bedrooms (one was filled up with cardboard boxes, many items still needing to be unpacked). He had a small kitchen, large enough for himself however, and a comfortable sized living room. He also had a small bath room, close to the bedroom he was using.
He had been going out more now; he worked four days a week, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday being his days off. He spent the days he had off exploring the small town; he had ventured out into the woods a few times, enjoying the scenic area, and he had visited most shops, getting used to his new area.
He hadn't seen Mary Margaret again, nor had he seen Emma, but he had seen Henry. And he may, or may not, have asked too many questions about the boys school teacher. Okay, he definitely asked too many questions about the boy's school teacher. He felt drawn to her, her emerald green eyes always capturing his own, and he wanted nothing more than to spend more time in her prescence. Of course, he had come to the idea one night that maybe she was seeing someone, and he had found himself asking Henry, casually, if she was in a relationship.
"Does anyone else hang out with you three?" He had asked, while talking to Henry about him, his Mother and his school teacher. "Doesn't Miss Blanchard have a boyfriend that hangs out with you sometimes?"
Henry had grinned, clearly getting what he was playing at, and he couldn't believe he had thought that Henry wouldn't notice him asking after her love life.
"Oh no," Herny said, unable to wipe the smirk of his face. "Miss Blanchard doesn't have a boyfriend, she's single."
David nodded, trying hard to stop a small smile from appearing on his face. "Oh, right."
He had no doubt that Henry had told his teacher, and he while he was hoping to see her again, he was also embarrassed. The one good thing that had came from asking Henry, was that at least he knew she was single.
On the next Saturday morning, a whole week since he had seen Mary Margaret and Emma, David decided to go for a jog. He pulled on a tank top, and long shorts, and tied up his shoe laces, and set out early. He started round the docks, jogging lightly, before sprinting down the road, towards Toll bridge, where he began jogging lightly again. He crossed the bridge, the cool air brushing nicely against his skin, and entered the woods. The woods were quiet, the only noise coming from the soft hum of the birds. He zig-zagged through the trees, sprinting for a few minutes, then back to jogging. The trees were tall, blocking out some of the sunlight, so only patches of the forest were light. His heart was beating fast as he round a corner, finally starting to lose his breath. He stopped, clasping his hand to his chest, as he leaned against a tree trunk for support, closing his eyes.
He stayed there for a while, his breathing slowly going back to normal. He kept his eyes closed, enjoying the peacefull woodland noises much more than those of traffic and cars that he would wake up to in New York.
A snap of a branch made him jump, his eyes pinging open. His eyes darted through the trees, and he saw a figure making its way through.
A figure with black hair and green eyes.
Mary Margaret.
She was wearing a purple coat and black sweat pants, her pink trainers muddy. She hadn't noticed him, atleast not yet. But she would in a minute, he knew it. He sighed, rubbing his face with his hands, before stepping away from the tree.
"Mary Margaret," he said simply.
Her eyes found him automatically, and she smiled lightly when she saw him.
"David."
She made her way towards him, stopping when they were a few feet apart.
"What are you doing out here?" He asked.
"I was about to ask you the same question," she replied, tucking some of her hair behind her ear.
"I went for a run," he told her. "I like running in the mornings, and the woods is the perfect place for that."
"That is very true," she said, nodding.
"So, what are you doing?" He asked again, stepping closer to her.
"Oh, I usually go for a walk some mornings, the fresh air helps clear my head," she said. "And the woods is full of fresh air."
"So it is," he said grinning.
She smiled at him, putting both of her hands in her coat pockets. "Henry said he saw you the other day; he was very happy, he's been asking about you for a while. I think he likes you."
"Nice to know," he said, running a hand through his hair. "What did he say?"
"Oh, you know," she said shrugging, her eyes flickering to the ground. "He said you were good.."
"Did he say anything else?" David asked. It was clear he had. She wouldn't be looking at the ground like that if he hadn't.
"He said you asked after me," Mary Margaret said, shifting her eyes back up to him. "I thought that was nice of you."
"You're one of the only people I have spoken to more than once," he said grinning. "I don't have a lot of friends around here yet, and making friends is hard enough as it is, especially when you're an adult."
"We're friends, David," she said, a bright smile coming appearing on her face. "Of course we're friends, trust me, you officially have a friend."
He laughed, and she giggled, which was strangely beautiful. "That's nice to know," he said honestly. "Maybe we can meet up again? This time actually, you know, arranged. I don't want to have to wait another week for me to run into your again."
"Neither do I," she replied. "Maybe we should meet up for a coffee or something, or maybe lunch? I could meet you for lunch tomorrow? I think I'm free."
He sighed, groaning. "I would love to, really I would, but I work until three tomorrow, and that is kind of late to have lunch."
She nodded, biting her lip. She looked adorable when she did that. "Okay," she said, after a moment's silence. "How about dinner?"
His eyes widened. Lunch and coffee were something that friends did. Dinner, dinner was something completely different. A man and a woman going out for dinner? It sounded very much like a date, but he wasn't sure if it was or not. He was definitely getting mixed signals. She had said they were friends, but now she was asking him to have dinner with her, and he wasn't sure where that stood with her. And he couldn't exactly ask because that would make him sound like an idiot, and he didn't want her to laugh at him, no, definitely not.
"Sure," he said, once he had found his voice. "Dinner sounds.. great."
"Okay," she said, a blush rising on her cheeks. "I'll meet you at Granny's? At.. half past six?"
"Okay," he murmured, his heart pounding, this time not because he had been running. "I'll see you at six."
"So, what you're telling me, is that you kind of, sort of, asked David on a date?"
"No! I don't- I don't know!" Mary Margaret yelled, falling onto the couch. "He said he'd like to meet up again, so I brought up the idea of having lunch tomorrow, but he was working, so I mentioned dinner, but dinner usually means you know, like a date, and he accepted, and now I don't know what it is, especially since I said to him that we were friends about a minute before the whole 'dinner' thing."
"And now you're confused about how to treat it."
"Exactly."
"Well," Emma said, raising her beer bottle to her lips. "I say, treat it like a date; dress up nice, do a bit of flirting, see what happens."
"I don't want to make a fool of myself," Mary Margaret muttered, her voice slightly muffled as she had burried her face into a cushion.
"You won't! He clearly likes you, I mean, he asked Henry about your love life. Henry."
"I know," she sighed, raising her head. "But that's not all that I'm worried about; I suck at dates."
"What do you mean?" Emma asked.
"Well," Mary Margaret said, propping herself up on her elbows. "I hardly go on any dates, any, and when I do, it never leads to a second one; I haven't been in a relationship since I was in college. I just, I just can't do dates."
Emma frowned, taking another sip of beer. "What usually goes wrong? What went wrong with Whale again?"
"Well, other than the fact that he spent the majority of the night sneaking glances at Ruby's behind-"
"He was obviously bored then."
Mary Margaret sat up, shocked. "Are you saying I'm boring?"
"Of course that isn't what I'm saying," Emma said, taking a seat beside Mary Margaret. "You just bored him; what did you talk about?"
Mary Margaret thought for a moment, before wincing slightly. "I might have mentioned how I wanted kids-"
"You didn't!"
"-and how I wanted marriage-"
"Mary Margaret!"
"-and how I wanted true love."
Emma groaned heavily, closing her eyes. "You. Don't. Ever. Mention. Marriage. And. Children. On. A. First. Date. Come on, it's standard rules!"
"I'm sorry!" Mary Margaret whined. "He just wasn't paying attention to me, and I got nervous and I rambled."
"You need to control your rambling tomorrow," Emma ordered, giving her a hard look. "And you need to make sure you don't mention anything about children, or marriage, or true love, or you will scare David off, and then you will be gutted because you like him."
She didn't protest. She just sighed. "Fine. Fine."
"And.." Emma said, this time gentler. "I saw what you wore on your date with Dr Whale; you need to wear something abit more.. you know, interesting."
"Why!"
"Because, your outfit is the first thing a man sees, and sorry to tell you, but Whale wasn't such a fan of your blouses and cardigans; I'm helping you chose what to wear."
Mary Margaret arched an eyebrow. "Nothing too slutty, I don't want to make a fool of myself."
"Okay."
Mary Margaret wasn't sure if it was a date or not, but if was a date, she wanted to make sure she did it right.
A/n: Thanks for the reviews! It seems a few of you are interested in David's past.. don't worry, you'll find out soon (: Oh, someone asked if David in this story is more like cursed David or Charming. To answer that, I'll say he's a bit of both. Maybe slightly more on the cursed David side simply because it will suit this story more.