Gold left to give everyone time to pack and to pack himself. I finished packing in the first five minutes, thanks to magic and now I'm drinking half a pot of coffee, thanks to staying up all night. Apparently we are going to find Rumple's son, Baelfire which is not something I'm excited about. I'm hoping he won't recognize me and if he does, he better keep his mouth shut. I didn't tell his father I know him, so there is no reason to tell everyone he knows me.
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Enchanted Forest (Rose is 16)
"You're grounding me?!" I shout at my mother.
"Do not raise your voice at me Rose." She responds sternly. "You skipped all your lessons and your meetings with the other kingdoms. I'm trying to prepare you to be queen, you can't behave like a child."
"I am a child and who said I even wanted to be queen! It's not like you're going to give me the throne any time soon anyways." I say with an eye roll. "And this is the first time I've ever skipped lessons."
"I don't care Rose, you are grounded."
"What are you gonna do? Lock me in my room?" I say with a bold chuckle. This whole situation was stupid anyways.
"No, that's not a punishment to you." Mother says and I scoff. She thinks for a minute and then she looks back at me regally composed. "Two guards will escort you and attend your lessons, as well as your meetings." She says and I shrug. It was a punishment but it wasn't that bad. "Oh I'm not done, dear. No magic, no weapon or combat training, and no horse riding or competition for the next 4 months."
"You're kidding." I say in anger and see a slight reflection of pink light from my head. "Mother that's all of competition season." I say and she shrugs to mock me. "And no magic? How am I supposed to get anything done?" I question.
"If you actually follow the rules for the next month, I'll consider ending your grounding early." She says and I look at her in disbelief.
"That's still a month off of competition season, I'll be a month behind in training with Obsidian. How am I supposed to win?"
"Well you should have thought about that before you abandoned your responsibilities. I can't just let you off the hook, Rose." She says calmly.
"I'm not asking you to let me off the hook. I'm just asking you to...lower it a little bit." I say desperately.
"Rose, you are a young woman now and it's time for you to take things seriously." She sighs. "Some day you're going to have to grow up and rule this kingdom." She says before heading to the door of my chambers. "I expect you for dinner at 7 and in bed by 9." She says softly before leaving.
——————
This was ridiculous. I thought of all the restrictions I now had while laying in bed at promptly 9pm. What is her problem? I skip out on one day and now I'll probably lose my first competition of the season for it. Hell I might not even compete. "Some day you're going to have to grow up" My mother's words rung through my mind. If this is what it takes to grow up, then I don't want to. I think while looking at my ceiling. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew my balcony doors open. I look over and see a boy sitting at my window.
"So you don't want to grow up huh?" He says and I sit up in bed, annoyed at the fact that he read my thoughts.
"Who the hell are you?"
"The person who can make sure you never have to grow up." He says annoying me even more.
"Ah yes, very vague indeed." I say and roll my eyes. "What's your name so I can call you every name outside of it?" I say with a fake smile and my expressive magic provides dim light in the room.
"You've got fire, I like it, Peter Pan." He says with a smirk.
"As in Neverland's Peter Pan?" I say and he nods. "I'm not stupid, Pan. I know Neverland is boys only." I say still annoyed.
"Well I've decided to make an exception for you since you have so much combat training and very powerful magic. Why do you think I came here instead of just sending my shadow?" He says and I start to consider his offer. "So what do you say to never having to grow up?"
"I can ride horses in Neverland?"
"If you believe in magic, you can do anything you want in Neverland." He says with a smirk.
"She may be a little harsh sometimes but I still love my mother. And she loves me." I say with a shrug and an eye roll.
"She'll just keep bossing you around and taking stuff away until you're a stuck up adult like her." He says and I lay back down. I don't have time for his lies. "Who knows, she might even take away your horse."
"Now you're just desperate, she still has her favorite horse." I say with my back turned to him.
"When was the last time she chose to ride him by herself?" He says and I stay silent. "Adults don't go ride horses for fun. Especially not future queens, pretty soon she'll make you stop riding. I bet it'll happen next year." He says and I realize that he might be right. It makes me angry to know that she would do that "for the sake of her kingdom". "But you're right. I guess I should go."
"Wait." I say suddenly and he turns to look at me with a smirk. "Let me get dressed and then I'm coming with you." I say. If she's going to take away my riding privileges. Then I'm going to go somewhere she can't stop me from riding.
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Rumple knocked on the Charming loft door with his cane. Emma answered the door, you could clearly see she was annoyed about this trip. I gave her a half wave from behind Rumple. She gave me a tired smile.
"Do you think we'll be cold where we're going or warm?" Henry says and I smile at the fact that he's coming with us.
"I think layers are always a good idea." Emma responds.
Gold gets upset at the fact that Henry is going but Emma points out that Cora's in town and no one can get hold of my mother. She's right to take Henry with her so I don't disagree.
"Then I guess we'll have to purchase another plane ticket won't we?" He says and I look at him confused.
"Wait we're flying?" Emma questions.
"Don't worry I'm covering all expenses, even the new ones." He says.
"Well you'll also be covering the expenses of half a pot of coffee. They won't let me take this on a plane." I say waving my slightly over sized travel mug . I decided to finish the other half of the pot of coffee on the way since I didn't have time to finish the whole pot.
"Where do you find a coffee mug that size in this town?" Emma says clearly still tired from staying up last night.
"You don't. I made it larger with magic about 10 minutes ago." I say and take a sip of my coffee.
"Ms. Mills, is that going to stay that large when we cross the town line or is it going to shrink back to it's normal size and get coffee all over my car?" Gold says in a very unamused tone.
"Well we'll find out won't we. It can be a learning experience." I say with a fake smile.
__________
"So where are we going?" Henry asks from the backseat of the car. I look at him with a smile, glad that Emma let me sit back here with him. I haven't talked to him for so long.
"Logan International Airport." Rumple responds and I roll my eyes at him.
"I think he meant after that." Emma says.
"So you really can't find mom huh?" Henry says and I tune out Emma and Rumple's conversation.
"No sorry Dani." I say and quickly glance at my wrist to make sure my bracelets on.
"Does she know you're leaving town?"
"No but I'll text her once we get to the airport just incase she decides to come out of hiding and track us down." I say with a slightly awkward chuckle.
"Why would she chase you down?" Henry asks.
"Because she probably doesn't want me leaving town for one of Rumple's errands." I say with a shrug.
"Oh okay, well what do you have to protect you from the spell on the town line?" Henry asks and my eyes go wide when I see how close we are to the town line.
"Oh shit." I say as we cross the line and blue magic covers my body.
"Stop! Rose doesn't have protection from the spell!" Henry says and the car screeches to a halt.
Emma turns around to face me with a nervous look on her face. I close my eyes for a second and feel everything go blank. When I open them, I look around the car.
"Hey" She says softly. "What's your name?"
"Danielle." I say and she looks at me with fear in her eyes. "Some people call me Quartz or Rose. But most decide on the Killer Princess." I say shocked at the fact that I remember.
"You remember?" Emma says with a sigh of relief.
"Yep, everything. But how?"
"That is a question for when we get back. But right now we need to find my son." Rumple says and starts to drive again.
______________
Halfway to the airport, I get a text from my mother.
Mother: So you weren't going to tell me you left town and Henry's with you?
Rose: So you weren't going to listen to me when I said Cora was using you?
Mother: Do not take that tone with me Rose. I am a grown woman and I will not be lectured by my daughter.
Rose: We're texting. What tone are you referring to?
Rose: And I'm a grown woman too.
Mother: You know what tone I'm referring to. Tell Gold to turn around right now.
Rose: Sorry he's kind of jet set on this and it's a two hour drive back.
Rose: Plus I owe him a favor
Mother: Turn around. I want to see my son.
Rose: Oh you mean KIDNAP Henry?
Rose: Yeah can't help with that.
Mother: Why can't you just help me get him back?
Rose: Because this is the wrong way to do it and he'd never forgive me.
Mother: He will because he loves us and if he doesn't, we'll use magic. Please Rose, just see this from my point of view.
Rose: I am seeing it from your point of view. The only problem is, you're seeing it from Cora's.
She didn't respond after that. Leaving me on read is a new kind of anger that I've never seen before. She won't take Henry. And if she tries to, she'll lose me. The thing that's hurting me most though, is that she seems to be okay with that.