Sorry for the long update. Thanks for the reviews. I've been chained with my work for a few days. I had a hard time writing Henry and Snow and the Bloody RED WEDDING in Game of Thrones ate me up and I was still in shock. I couldn't function more. So, yeah, I had to end the first chapter here. I'm contemplating what my next chapter would be entitled. To CS fans, I know you're itching to know bout Killy, so am I. but let's laid out everything first.
He jogged down the stairs buttoning his coat and grabbed his scarf. He overslept again.
"Henry! Wake up, kid. You'll be late." Her mother's voice rang from the kitchen. He smelled toast and chocolate in the air. That was his favorite.
He slipped to the stool, tossing his bag on the table and grabbed a french toast.
"Hey, slow down, kid. You'll gonna end up choking them." His mother was adding cinnamon to her own hot cocoa.
He chewed them and had a gulp of chocolate milk. "But I have to, I shouldn't have overslept. We have some important visitor today. It's a shame for me to be late."
His mother put down the mug on the table and cocked her head.
"Seriously? That's the first time I heard you say that, kid. That might be some special visitor for you to actually cram to school."
"Very much." He gulped down the drink. His mother came to his side and took out a hankie wiping off the chocolate on his face. "Thanks, Mom."
"Off you go, kid." She said, taking his bag down to the door. Henry followed after. "See you later."
He nodded happily and shouted back at her, "Happy birthday, mom"
School was pretty much boring. But maybe today was an exception, Henry thought. He was tired of learning lessons who were taught over and over again.
In the school bus, everyone seems to be neat and exceptionally nice. He's sitting at the far end of the bus. And finally, he went down to their room. He sat just near the window. That's where he was always. He was not as much as anyone can be friendly but rather maintains true companions.
When the school bell rang, everyone gathered at their respective seats. His classes today will be graced by the queen or so if his teacher wasn't inventing another story just for his classmates to come for school. While their teacher was discussing the protocol of the day, his attention was caught by two fluttering blue jays on the window. It was odd, he thought. Blue jays are a rare sight especially because they lived in the woods.
"Aren't they a beauty to behold?"
"But they are just birds, what is more to that?" He replied then turned his head to whoever spoke to him.
A pixie cut hair black as ebony, lips red as blood and skin white as snow greeted him. The lady smiled at him. He scurried to his feet and bowed to her. "I'm sorry your majesty, I didn't know it was you. Please don't behead me." As soon as he said those, the class erupted in a laughter.
He made himself a fool again. His cheeks flushed and with his head down, he sunk slowly on his chair, wishing the ground would swallow him down. He heard his teacher tried to silence the roaring laughter which died down eventually.
Their teacher introduced their guest, to which he knew from the woman, was not a queen today but a teacher as she said.
"Call me Mary Margaret." She said and smiled at the whole class. Her eyes averted to him and he lowered his head.
"Remember, we are not doing a cage, but a home." She walked past the little boy and off to the window. The little blue jay flapped its wings and flew over the birdhouse. That's when the school bell rang. One by one the children hurried off past the room. She spun around and saw the boy, whom the other kids called as Henry. From the looks of his face, he was beyond annoyed. He lowered himself and tied the loosened shoe lace. Like many other ten year old kids, he couldn't tie a better knot. She walked towards him.
"Let me." She took the laces and carefully tied it.
"Thanks." He beamed and look at her. "You know, you really don't act like a queen. Somehow that's different."
She smiled at the frankness of this boy. "Different good or different bad?"
"Different good."
"Why are you being here alone? It's already lunch. Aren't you supposed to be with your friends?" She asked. The boy's shoulders dropped and smiled a sad smile.
"I don't have any." He murmured silently.
Her face dropped as her heart melted to what he said. No friends. And she knew what it feels to be alone. Somehow she had gone through with it. It is the most unpleasant feeling in the world.
"Uhm, thanks." Henry pursed a smile and garb his bag.
"Wait, Henry." She called him. "Would you like to join me for lunch? I can be your friend." She smiled at him and watched his eyes lit up with a genuine smile plastered on his face. She held her hands to him as he took it and walked towards the garden.
"Was there really a place called Neverland? Just like you read to us?" Henry asked while munching on his almond Chocolate sandwich.
She hesitated to answer the question. In this land, all of those tales were nothing but a product of one's imagination, with an exceptions of those who wrote them, maybe.
"You don't believe them?"
"My Mom said those were written for kids who wants to escape from reality. They're tales to appease the broken ones."
She frowned at his answered. "That is sad, though. They might be but in every story they give us hope and that is the most important thing anyone can have."
"So?"
"They might be, but no one's know how to find it."
"Second star to the left and straight on 'till morning. Didn't you say so?" He answered.
"Absolutely." She smiled. Last night, when she finished the book, she didn't know what to do with it. David would have been worried about that. Now, she knew what's needed to be done.
She was there, He thought. That evil woman was looming around the forest outside his estate. There wasn't an accident, she made it all happen. Did she find all of them? She might have, long years have passed and with a woman like her, she would scurry all the more just to find every one she bore ill-well. For a powerful woman like her, it would only take her a blink.
He looked at his hand. He was ripped off with all his powers. And the more he hated was this prison chair he had for years, he couldn't even count. He smiled at the bitter memories.
He took his cane and walked past the window which was draped in red curtains. He watched the horizon. The girl was here and alive. She would be his passageway from this place. And for some reason, the queen doesn't know nor had any idea about it. He smiled at the thought. He has the advantage.
"Oh dearie, you will never outwit the dark one." He smirked.
The wolf girl and the hunter. He saw them and had even a face-to-face encounter, henchmen of two queens.
Tooth for a tooth, if they have awoken from this curse.
He has found six of them. But where are the rest. He walked towards his desk where a map was laid. England, they were here. The wolf girl and the hunter was at the heart of this country. The doctor was near to him. And the puppeteer was in the south. He looked closely at the dots he had drawn on the map. Somehow, the princess could be near the heart or of the south. That was where they housed at their land. He smiled in triumph and glimpsed at the book laying down.
The royals of this land lives as to what they are in their own enchanted land. He knew the couples very well even if no one recognized them because it was him who charmed and altered their appearance especially to the eyes of the queen and even to him. Precautionary, that's what he always does.
And he was always close them. So close. And even if he cannot take one step away from his estate, he had the abundance of whispers.
He remembered the evil queen asking him the evil curse and had he said, "In return, you will never harm me and in every favor I ask, that you shall do if i say the magic word, please."
That she did, but, a student learns great from a master. No harm befalls him because she kept him in this land prisoner like before and was stripped off.
A knock was prompted on his door, and out of it came a plump man.
"You do realize you have no more than a person concerns you, rather than me?" The man said carrying a small chest box.
He dismissed him and had his eyes fixed to what he was holding.
"Might be for you. Waiting at your doorstep." The man gave him the box and went to stare the map laid on his desk.
"And what pray, does a royal butler need from me?" He said, opening the box, his eyes fixed on the man.
"Some favors indeed."
"All favors are costly, my dear."
"As mine."
He lowered his eyes to the box. His eyes widened. Not a word escaped from his lips. Anger took control him and gritted his teeth. The plump man saw his face on a grim and then perched at the box.
"Oh, bibbidi bobbidi boo." The man said smirking at what the chest was.
Inside was a powdered gold dust and a parchment with a written letter, "Weave me golden straw strings."
"Happy birthday, Em." Ruby came to her beamingly.
"Thanks, just don't shout about it." Emma answered.
"C'mon, cheer up just a bit. You've been too grumpy, far too long. You should loosen up a bit." She said and sat down next to her.
"Been at the hospital?"
"Yeah, still unconscious, I say. Better for him to stay that way else it would be my undoing." She said.
"Seriously? Why are you so against him?" She asked.
The thing is, it is just a feeling. A hunch that something draws her to that feeling of dislike to Graham. Perhaps, when they were younger, something happened, and she couldn't figure out the memories of that. "None that I could think of. Anyway, I have to go. I need to find anything about Sherlock's assignment."
She nodded.
"By they way, did you accept his offer?"
"Do I have a choice?"
She smiled. She took her coat and walked towards her car. She glanced at the mirror and spotted her lucky charm. A red wolf hanging on the mirror. Just before she could drive away, she looked at the files Sherlock had gave her.
She sighed. Why did she accept his operation? Sherlock gave her a single detailed paper.
Regina, written on the top.
"You stayed." Her thoughts were cut when Henry appeared in front of him.
"Yeah, I did. I have never been out from our house far too long. " She said.
"You're really different than the rest of the majesties." He looked at her with a smile on his face. She liked the way this boy smile. Was it a hunch that sometimes, she could see that smile like Charming's. She dismissed her thoughts because she would have had a glimpse of some bitter memories again.
"Maybe I am." She smiled at him. Sometimes it made her realize she misses the good old days in the Enchanted forest. She missed riding on the horse with bow and arrow at her hands. She missed chasing those brute and ugly ogres. She missed being carefree. And in this world, that she cannot do. Every move, the people here watches her unlike there. She could even drink with them on pubs, eat on bare hands with them or sleep on haystacks or stables. But now, things are badly different. Things go awry by then. She sighed at the thought.
"Uhm, my Mom's gonna be here anytime. I'll introduce you to her." Henry said as he sat on the bench prompting to look at her.
"That's so sweet of you." she said fondly. For some reasons, she wanted to stay and meet the lady who raised up a smart boy like he is. But generally, staying up a bit will cause ruckus and she didn't want to create such.
"Actually, today's her birthday and we're celebrating it. Would you like to come with us?"
Her head snapped to the boy's words. She had totally forgotten about it. "Oh, then, happy birthday to your Mom. Henry, I would love to stay but I came here to give you a present. If you will accept this." From her side, she took a brown cased leather satchel and produced a brown book. "Here, I want you to have it. These are stories written full of hope, endurance and above all, love."
Henry took it in his arms, and his eyes lingered on the golden stamp written "Once upon a time" on its cover. She would remember to thank Lumiere for his handiwork. "I believe, they're fairytales but my mom."
"Make her believe Henry. If there's one who believes, definitely everyone will believe. And you are after all, a hero, ain't you?" She smiled.
"Then, thank you, your majesty." His face now beaming in joy. "It's like you're a fairy godmother."
She laughed at the idea. "I still prefer to be someone who lives in the woods."
For the next chapter, I had Emma's past foster life on my mind. Oh yeah, I've written 'Once upon in Neverland', you can also check it out. Please leave reviews, it would really help me a lot for my next chapters. Gracias!