Chapter 6: Padrone
Warning: This story may contain traces of: OOC-ness, spoilers, tortures, magical spells, AU, swords, powerful spells, badly written but still very awesome duels, family, severitus, spouts of random insanity now and again, rambling author notes and minor character bashing. Engage at your discretion.
THE OTHER WARNING: This author is currently not very busy, bored out of her mind and suffers from severe cases of bad humor. Take the WARNING seriously, just not the author in general.
A jingle of bells, a slapping of shutters and Ruby sighed again. Another not so busy afternoon with little customs that mostly just flitted around the diner, trying to find something warm to drink and past the time until the rain stops. She sighed again and shook free of any large water droplets like the storm outside and plastered on a smile, expecting to see another familiar face.
But the face that came through the door was anything but familiar. Bronze hair, curled at the edges, sharp emerald eyes that sparkled with mischief, pale green coat, black boots and a navy fingerless glare peaked out from the large umbrella he was just closing shut.
He slid into a counter stool and looked to the menu up the opposite wall, bright eyes scanning the hot drink's section with utmost scrutiny.
"May I have a hot cocoa? Cream and no cinnamon please." An accent from somewhere she couldn't place but is familiar somehow. His voice sounds hollow, like he lost something, like when her Peter died...
"Coming right up!" She said, trying a cheerful smile and kicking the memory back to the Tartarus in his mind it sprung from.
"So where are you from?" Ruby asked, placing the over flowing cup in front of the strange boy's long fingered hands.
He smiled, one that could not reach his sharp eyes, "I'm looking for someone. I made a promise to him, and I intend to keep it." He sipped his drink, using a napkin nearby to wipe away his moustache.
Intrigued, she kept asking, "What kind of promise?"
It seems the curl of his lips were never able to cross to the windows to his soul, Ruby wondered why. "A special kind. It depends whether or not he actually wants me back." Ruby nodded, feeling sympathetic for this strange boy.
She knew practically everyone in Storybrooke since Granny's Diner was the most reliable resturant around. The only names she couldn't remember were the ones from the pack of Lost Boys that lived in a huge cabin somewhere in the woods
They were all homeless boys, abused and suffered in the hands of their so called parents that saw them as nothing more than tools and machines. Pan heard their prayers on the second star to the right, so he rescued them. Pan brought those boys to a family. A home in a dangerous jungle, but they were safer than ever, in Peter Pan's no longer there arms.
Everyone blamed themselves.
Another ingle of bells, a clatter of shutters and Emma Swan emerged, argueing in low voices with Mary Margaret and her son, Henry. They were all slightly wet, apparently the big black umbrella was not designed for three, the yellow pendant glistened with dripping water on Henry's chest.
Ruby caught one word: Peter Pan.
The little trickster Peter Pan that caused much trouble with his plots and magic, but he also saved Storybrooke from the brink of destruction when the true master of Neverland burst through from whereever it came from. Emma tied two green and violet bells with thick red ribbons on a branch of a tree Henry had named Vigor Mortis, right next to the destroyed dungeon.
The bell never rung, not even when Ruby managed to reach up and played it within her hands. Emma denied all blame.
From the booth near the doorway, Emma and Snow were still arguing about things that Ruby does not particularly wants to know, the diner went back to its comfortable silence. Ruby didn't think anyone would notice the stranger's presence, after all, she almost took him a Lost Boy until she thought better of it.
"Thanks for the drink," he said, tossing the money and a generous amount of tip next to the empty cup and grabbing his coat from the adjacent bench. She waved semi-enthusiastically as he made his way to the door, until a small voice stopped him.
"Wait!" Henry called, leaving his seat and the two of his many maternal family behind. The boy did stop, but refused to turn around.
"I believe this belongs to you," Henry held out the yellow pendant that just a second ago was around his neck. A pendant almost as important as hi life and something only a saviour and a fairy knew the origin of.
The boy turned his head, Ruby could see the exasperation and surprise in his bright eyes. He closed Henry's hand that held the beaded necklace. Fingers pale underneath his glove.
"Keep it Henry," the strange boy smiled, something that finally reached his eyes. "Keep it safe." One more smile, Ruby blinked, and the boy was gone, through the door or the window that were letting all the excessive storm water in.
Where had they heard that before? It was so familiar, she knew them from somewhere. Those three words were important, to two boys. But she just couldn't remember who, it seems Snow and Emma were thinking along the same thing too, only Henry's expression was clear.
A warm breeze suddenly blew through the small restaurant, starting all but a boy standing by the flimsy door, still holding a yellow gripping the yellow pendant in his hands. Ruby abruptly knew how she found that boy so familiar, even though she only saw him as he was being drifted apart, she still remembered. At least the key details of why she should.
"I am Peter Pan," echoed around her mind, preventing him from making them forget a second time.
Peter Pan fails, and death, could always be counted as a failure. Peter Pan never makes failures.
Never.
So this is the end. Thank you all.