You Found Me

Prologue

STORYBROOKE, MAINE, 2019.

A hand of the clock on the clock tower on Main Street clicks down, showing a quarter past eight. Below, a town full of modern fairytale residents bustle about, enjoying the sunshine of the particularly warm early-September day.

Magical emergencies are few and far-between nowadays in Storybrooke, tucked away in a quiet, hidden corner of Maine. Now, people embrace their modern lifestyles and go about their normal lives, preforming normal tasks, going to work, going to lunch, heading home, and doing the same thing all over again the next day.

It's exactly the sort of thing that drives Henry Mills insane. Eighteen years old, fresh out of Storybrooke High, and absolutely tired of just existing, watching the town pass by, but hardly feeling apart of it, desperately waiting for his life to begin. However, what's a perfectly normal day for the majority of the town, is by contrast a monumental one for the Mills family.

Today is the day that Henry leaves.

The moment he'd woken up on that bright Tuesday morning, he'd felt different in his bones. He'd glanced around the room, noting the bare walls and feeling a sort of nostalgic pang, but overcome with a buzzing excitement from deep within him, knowing that today, finally, he's leaving. Going. Even escaping.

It's not at all that he doesn't adore this town or the people in it, and he knows without a doubt that he'll desperately miss the most important people in his life, but he's been waiting for this moment for as long as he can remember--where he can grab his things, shut the door, kiss his mothers goodbye, and drive away, to find...

To find his story. That's all it is, isn't it? Henry Mills, the young Author, wielding one of the most powerful tools in all the realms, writing every single other person's story but his own.

His thoughts are interrupted by a loud rapping on his door. "Wake up, Kid, your mom needs to start bright and early on her sobbing-and-hugging agenda if we're ever going to get you out the door by noon."

Oh, right. He shrugs into a hoodie and opens the door to find Emma, who looks as though she's about to knock again. "Good morning to you, too, Ma."

Emma grins, pulling him into a hug that lasts significantly longer than her usual squeezes. He feels her breathe him in, sinking her fingertips into his back. He melts into her, too, trying hard to remember his fervency to leave. The last day is weighing on everyone's mind--even if it's just the last day, for now.

He breaks away first, hands on her shoulders, and studies her face. Still paler than he remembers it in years past, hair slightly faded, but still Emma. And it's times like these when he's overwhelmingly glad that when she's around him and Mom, she acts like the Emma he knows, instead of Mrs. Jones. He glances down at the gold band on her finger and swallows. Following his gaze, Emma seems to read his thoughts, and uncomfortably twists the ring with her thumb, bending her fingers back to hide it from view. From her back pocket, her phone chimes, but she ignores it.

"C'mon, Kid, your mom made pancakes."

Henry shakes himself from his thoughts, and links his arm in hers, gesturing with his other hand towards the staircase. "After you, m'lady."

Emma snorts, dragging him along with her, tripping on the first few steps. "Dork."

"Nerd," Henry shoots back immediately, and Emma turns with a smirk on her lips.

"That's rich coming from Mr. Comic Book as well as the freaking Author of the universe or whatever, but sure, I'm the nerd."

Henry grins at her, and, though he's not proud of it, sticks out his tongue a little. "Just because I'm a nerd, doesn't make you any less of one."