All the magic (OUAT Peter Pan)

Chapter 40: Quite a change

Amelia sat outside the cabin waiting for Matt. Mentally she went over what he might say to her and how she would respond. She didn't have to wait for him long, soon his car pulled into the driveway.

"There you are!" he yelled as he walked out of the car, and gave her a tight hug. "I was so worried about you."

She brushed off the hug and stuffed her hands in her pockets despite the fact that it was a warm day. "I agreed so we could talk face to face like you wanted, so talk. You almost killed someone yesterday, accused me of telling him of your weakness, and then got mad when I didn't wanna go home with you."

Matt leaned against the hood of his car and Amelia sat down next to him. "I know, and I apologized. As you said, when I feel like someone is threatening me, I don't have the best reactions. I did not mean to scare you and make you lose trust in me. Please know that I would never hurt you. I love you and I don't want to make you leave me when we are close to the curse breaking. I can feel that the curse is almost up."

Amelia tapped her fingers on the hood of his car as she asked, "How can you feel that the curse is almost over? I do trust you it's just-" She stood up and walked in front of him. "- last night scared the crap out of me. I know what you've done, I've read it and you've told me some things, but it's so different seeing it right in front of me."

"Why is reading and seeing it so different for you?" he asked her simply.

She began passing around a bit. "I don't know Matt. It just is. Things I read about magic and monsters and true love are fake. It's great no impact on reality fiction. But this book, this story is different. It's all so real, I guess when I read it I can pretend you haven't done all those things. That I can pretend that this is just a fun game and it can stop and my life can go back to how it was. No evil queens, no uncle who is a killer, no curse." Amelia took a breath and sat down on the ground while Matt watched her, he knew she had a lot of emotions to get out.

"I believe in the curse and know it's real, don't think I'm changing my mind and think it's fake. I believe it with my whole heart I just sometimes wish it was fake. The curse isn't even broken and so much has changed since it was mentioned. Henry ran away to get Emma, you attacked Mr. French and got put in jail, and you nearly killed August. I'm not even allowed to go to Henry's house anymore."

"I know this has been a very difficult year." Matt told her crouching down in front of her. "But let me present the year from a different perspective. You learned magic was real, something you wished was real since my curse memories can remember. You got a boyfriend, stood up to the monsters who hurt you. Believe me, they will get what is coming to them when the curse breaks. No, I won't kill them." He told her as she opened her mouth. "You learned about the curse and time and time again have seen it to be true. You've made new friends and have had more time for yourself than you have in years. "

Amelia looked at her uncle and stood up and sat down on the bench on the deck of the cabin. Matt sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Thanks." she mumbled to him her emotions still all tangled together.

"Why don't we head home? You had an intense day yesterday and have school tomorrow. You can paint for a while or read and later we can watch a movie or play a game. I want us to be on good terms. I already lost one child because of not being able to be the father he needed me to be, I can't let it happen again." Matt said not looking at her but at the spot where he thought he had reunited with his son but was not.

"I want things to be good with us too. Even when you are scary or pissed or stuff like that, you're still my family." she told him as she gave him a big hug. "I know you lost your son, but you're not going to lose me. I'm getting into this bad habit of wanting to forgive you when you do really bad things. Let's just go home. I need to paint and chill out. A little time to myself to think."