An Ivy's Sun | Henry Mills

1 | Prologue

Ivy has always, strangely, felt at ease near the water, with all the sand and the little castle playground that Henry loved so much. Having grown up with, and been raised by, Graham, it's strange that Ivy is fond of it. Graham hates the ocean. He hates the salt water, the smell of it and how it would burn your eyes, and he hates the sand that gets everywhere and never comes out.  Ivy would be lying if she didn't agree with him because the burning eyes and itchiness from salt water and sand are annoying, but she loves the smell of the water, and she loves the ocean breeze, and she loves the color of sand. 

But because she grew up with Graham, and her brother practically raised her, she also loves the woods. Just like him. With its green leaves, green grass, and fresh green smell of dirt and wood. Next to the water, she feels at ease, like nothing can go wrong. Like she belonged here. But in the woods, she feels at home, like she owns them and she is the biggest predator in there.

But right now, Ivy is next to the water with the salt water air, ocean breeze, and pale sand, sitting atop the old and dry wood of Henry's castle.

Ever since Ms. Blanchard gave Henry this old book of fairy tales, he's been obsessed. He, and Ivy, have read the book front to back, cover to cover, multiple times now. And Henry is convinced that his mother, the Mayor of Storybrooke, is the Evil Queen, the villain of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Now, Ivy doesn't disagree with Henry, but she doesn't exactly understand where this strong belief in the fairy tales, and the curse, has come from. But Henry's her best friend and she's not going to tell him what not to believe in. So, she goes along with it and eventually starts to actually believe that it might be possible. And Henry is aware of her hesitant belief in the curse so he starts to create a plan to make her believe like her. He stayed for nights on end to search through the book for anything he could and once he did, he knew he could get Ivy to believe.

So that's why they're at the castle playground. To get Ivy to fully believe him. A side quest, operation you could say. Operation Sage.

"What's going on, Henry?" Ivy questions her best friend, the shorter and younger child. Henry grins and opens up his book up to Snow White and Prince Charming's story.

"So I've been doing some research," He starts. He begins to flip through the pages as he speaks.

"You know I've been trying to find my real mom since we found out mom is the Evil Queen, right?" Henry asks. Ivy nods before humming an affirmation when she notices Henry's eyes strictly on the story's pages.

"Well, I think I found her" He says. Ivy's eyes widen.

"That's great!" Ivy exclaims. Henry grins, looking up from the book to Ivy. He nods.

"I know! And I think I know who she is in the book!" He says. Ivy's eyebrows furrow and she leans towards him and the book as Henry flips the page once more and points towards the picture. The picture consists of Snow White and Prince Charming's newborn child, wrapped up in a blanket with the name 'Emma' stitched in purple.

"My real mom's name is Emma Swan" Henry explains. Ivy blinks in surprise, taken off guard to both Henry's knowledge of his birth mother and the coincidence that the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming has the same name as Henry's birth mother.

"Your Snow White and Prince Charming's grandson?" Ivy asks in a breathless tone of awe. Henry's eyes light up and his smile widens. He nods excitedly.

"Yeah!" He says. "And I know where Emma is"

"Where?" Ivy immediately asks.

"Boston" Henry answers. Ivy frowns, tilting her head in thought.

"That's not too far from here, is it?" She asks. Henry shakes his head.

"I looked it up. It's only a few hours if I take the right bus at the right time" He explains. Ivy's eyes widen.

"What?" She questions. Her mouth drops open at his words. "What do you mean 'if you take the right bus'? You're not seriously gonna go to her, are you, Henry?"

Henry shrugs. "What if she can break the curse? The book says the curse can only be broken by their daughter"

He brings attention back to the book by wiggling it in front of them.

"But- but, Henry... Boston? On your own? For who knows how many hours, on who knows what bus, with who knows what kind of people? What if you get hurt?" Ivy rattles off questions in a fury of concern. Henry hesitates to interrupt her, but he has to get to Emma.

"I don't know, but I have to find her. And- and, yeah, I think it'd probably be a lot better if you came with me, but... you can't leave here. Not with the curse." Henry says. His voice quiets with each word. He glances down at the now-closed book. Its title 'Once Upon a Time' stands out to him, reminding him of this newfound responsibility he's given himself, and it gives him confidence and courage to look back up to Ivy and say:

"I can do this" Henry firmly says with a nod. His fingers curl around the sides of the book, pulling it to his chest. His fingers squeeze so tightly that they turn white.

Ivy worries a bit of loose skin on the bottom of her lip before hesitantly nodding.

"Okay" She finally, reluctantly, says. "When are you leaving?"

"In an hour or two" He answers. Ivy's eyes widen again. Before she can shout another 'what', he quickly begins to explain.

"I'm grabbing a bus in the next town over to a bus stop that travels across state borders and then I'll hopefully be back tonight, with Emma!" Henry says. Ivy deflates and dejectedly nods.

"I'm holding you to that, Henry. I can only cover you for so long until I get in trouble for lying" Ivy says. Henry quickly nods.

"I know. I promise I'll be back"

He, in fact, did not get back later that evening. And Ivy did, in fact, get into a lot of trouble.

⚘𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊⚘𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊⚘

So, surprise! I'm back. With a different story. That's isn't related to the Evemmy Series. And I know I said I was going to not write until I finished that story, but this idea popped into my head because I'm rewatching OUAT and I just couldn't not start this. So I'm really sorry! And I swear to everything that I am going to be continuing to write A Loving Light, but not only has school been draining me from having the motivation to right (until now) but writing A Loving Light started to feel like a chore. It didn't really feel fun to write with the schedule and trying to cram to get a new chapter out. I didn't like how it was draining me even more than school was so I took break and I don't know when I'll come back to it because my summer break is going to be busy with teenager things like work and driving and shit. But I do geniously love that story so much. I just didn't like the schedule and what it was doing to me. I think at the moment I'm going to be playing around with story to see where it goes and when I get the spark to start writing A Loving Light again I don't think I'll be doing a schedule again. Anyway, I hope the OUAT lovers enjoy this cute little rewrite of the first season with the addition of my OC Ivy Humbert.

Also, go listen to "roslyn rainy day kinda vibe" on spotify. It's the playlist I was listening to while writing this and it was honestly so perfect for the vibe.