Dark Red|| Rumpelstiltskin

Chapter 2

Ouat
Season 1 Episode 2
The Thing You Love Most

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Aster was not where he was supposed to be.

Regina had said to stay near the castle and technically he did. It was his magic that had gone haywire from excitement, teleporting him further into the woods. Regina had said that when she gets back she's going to introduce him to a friend, and now Aster had no idea where he was.

He sighed, walking further into the woods, stopping when he saw an empty house that looked abandoned. It would take a few months for Regina to get back from her trip, and almost all night for his power to replenish enough to teleport back to the castle.

He had healing magic, it came easy to him from his heritage that his mum brought with her before she died. It hadn't manifested until he started to live with Regina, so he never was able to heal himself after he and his dad, King Holden, "spent time together."

Any other spells took a long time to learn and drained him quite a great deal. It would be ideal to stay in the house, he would be back way before Regina would, and none of the guards would snitch on him for being out all night.

A few hours later, Aster was preparing his dinner. The sun had set over 20 minutes ago and the fire was piled high for the late fall air was freezing to the touch. A knock had sounded throughout the house, making Aster jump.

Who in their right mind would be outside in this kind of weather Aster thought, appalled that someone was outside in the middle of the forest at that. When Aster moved and opened the door, he could barely control his shock. Standing there was a man, his skin a greenish-gold hue.

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Ian's POV:

I'm sitting in Granny's, eating a chocolate muffin and drinking some hot chocolate topped with whipped cream. It was spiked, just less than an oz of vodka but I deserved it! I haven't fronted in weeks now and Katrine makes me eat all of this healthy food when I'm in the headspace. Not that healthy food's bad, I just miss eating sweets and drinking. It was October 20th, officially cocoa season, so it wasn't too strange to see a grown man drinking it, much less spiked.

From where I was sitting I could hear and see the new lady in town, Emma Swan. Peter had told us about her after Micheal told us about his encounter with her, he was embarrassed that he'd forgotten to tell us.

I don't blame him though, whenever he returns to the headspace Ben jumps all over him, in love with the attention he gives him. Anyways, I could overhear everything going on in the diner, which is why this was my favorite seat. Nothing ever happens here, but when it does I need to be the first to know.

"Yeah, I know. You have an admirer." Are the words Ruby says to Emma, drawing me out of my thoughts. Emma turned around, her eyes immediately locking on Graham. As Emma walks to Graham's table, I look around, Henry was two booths away, wearing a small cheeky grin as he sipped on his cocoa.

"Ah, so you decided to stay," Graham says, giving Emma a tiny wiry smile. "Observant. Important for a cop." Emma replies as I cringe. It was only five words she needed to turn the conversation awkward.

Unfortunately, Graham's conversational skills seem to have been set to awkward as well, "That's good news for our tourist business, bad for our local signage." I wished that right there and then the ground would open up and swallow me whole.

As Emma gave him a look, he continued to speak. "It's— it's a joke... because you ran over our sign..." I almost stood up to leave but decided to see the painful conversation through.