Please, don't spoil everything this time.

Chapter 25 : Here we are.

Baelfire was freezing.

The young man almost screamed with anger and frustration when he completely understood how much he failed.

It was not supposed to happen this way, he shouldn't have come back.

He should have went to the Land Without Magic, not come back to the Enchanted Forest !

He froze when he realized all the implications of his return, the first of them being his father. What would he do if his father found him again thanks to his magic ?

In the Land Without Magic, he wouldn't have to answer this question, because there would have no problems.

But now... he was trapped.

He didn't want his father to find him, not after he abandoned him, not after he learned that he was the one who murdered his mother.

He missed him, yes, as he missed the pirate too, but, as with Hook, he didn't want to forgive him right now.

Baelfire still didn't know the truth, he didn't know his father changed for him, thanks to Belle, he didn't know the Dark One didn't exist anymore, he had no idea that Rumplestiltskin finally became the Sorcerer.

He didn't know that his dad finally succeeded to become the hero and the father he always wanted him to be.

Had he known what happened, yes, he would have been more than pleased to see him again.

Except that, again, he had no idea of who his father finally became.

One day, he would figure out this, but now, he just had to find a place where he would be safe and not suffer from the cold outside.

He looked around him.

There was snow there, around him, on the ground and he began to shiver again.

So... here he was now, lost in a forest in a world which was not his since a long, long time, where he was risking his life because of the cold present during the night, and he may die because of this.

And... he could be saved in the second if he asked his father for help (if he supposed that his father was still alive and still the Dark One – but, in fact, even as the Sorcerer, he would have heard him and listened to him. And come for him. It was his son, after all), it would have made things much more easier.

He turned his head in a sign of obstinate refusal.

No, no, he couldn't, he just couldn't.

He knew it was stupid, but, unless he really was in a terrible danger, he wouldn't call for him.

(Maybe it was just inappropriate pride, but he didn't want his father to know he came back.)

Which was not the case right now.

The young boy began to walk again, trying to warm himself, and not to loose himself in the forest in the process of his walk.

§§§§

It was 5 am in the morning when Baelfire arrived in front of the castle.

He was still freezing, but it was nothing he didn't already have to support in the past, in London, or in Neverland, when he was trying to survive and when he was lonely.

And he shivered when he thought again about the darkest moments of his life. When he was all alone, on his own, with no one with him to help him survive.

He looked at the place, and smiled, because it had nothing to do with his father's place, his "Dark Castle", that he got before abandoning him.

He turned his head, trying to put his memories aside, far from him.