{ enchanted forest }

13. { tiny }

The very next morning Mr Gold left around noon after asking Doctor Hopper and Granny to take turns in watching over Winter in his absence. Exactly at noon he knocks on the door of the condo to find out that they had another traveller with them: Henry. He didn't exactly mind, as long as Miss Swan came with him and helped him out. That's all he really cares for.

They loaded the luggage into the back of his care and go to Logan International Airport.. on their way to New York.

Once they were there and all checked in, waiting for their luggage to be checked, Henry tries to make conversation by asking if he ever left Storybrooke before. "Are you worried about meeting your son," he asks casually. "No, Henry, I'm fine." "Has Winter ever left Storybrooke after coming there?" Mr Gold rolls his eyes in annoyance and Emma asks him to keep the questions for later as it was their turn.

Rumple reacts grumpy on having to take his shoes off, but when he was requested to put his shawl and cane there too, he was terrified. He could forget who he was. Who Baelfire was, who Belle was.. who Winter was. Everything. A man starts to complain behind them and Mr Gold reacts agressively, but Emma shushes the situation and promises to help him through it.

He quickly shrugs it off with his coat and hears a deep, thrumming sound in his head. He puts it in the bin with the help of Miss Swan and almost falls, but she helps him stand up. Mr Gold was looking around him, dazed, but once the shawl returned Emma immediately grabbed it and draped it over his shoulders. The sound disappeared and he regained sense of his surroundings. He was safe, he hadn't lost his memory.

He was still ready for the journey.

*

"Please, I can't do it," she says as she looks down the cliff at the sparkling water of the sea, clinging onto the thing that's closest to her that moment: the man who took her to that cliff in the first place. She feels a chuckle ringing through his chest. "You can do it, Winter, you are just not assured of yourself. You don't believe," he responds.

Winter looks up to meet the green eyes of Peter Pan, who was enjoying how she clutches to him. It had cost him a year to win the hesitant girl over to even look him right in the eye during conversation. Now she was touching him, holding him and above all.. trusting him. Soon enough he can pursue his plan to make her fall completely and utterly in love with him, a stage he had hoped to reach sooner.

But first, she needs to believe in him and trust him without a second thought, which was what this was for, though she believes it was to widen her imagination. She was a little broken soul, got ripped from her ideal life and her innocent dreams for the future. Marry a prince, have a loving marriage and get children together who they will adore.

How sickeningly sweet.

But now those dreams were broken, she needs to believe again. She needs to let go of worry and fly with him. Peter takes Winter's hands in one of his, the other on her cheek as his thumb gently traces her cheekbone. "You've seen me fly many times before. You've flied with me when you came here, so why don't you go on your own?"

"Because you can fly already! You believe you can do it, I can't," Winter mutters. He chuckles once again, the sound warm and nice to her ears. She didn't know that all his kindness had a reason. Peter smiles at her gently. "Come on, you can do it. Just trust me," he breathes into her ear. Winter shudders and suddenly realises their closeness. Without a second to waste, she jumps apart from him.