The Mischievous of Them All {OUAT/Henry Mills} [1]

The Outsider

At the apartment Henry and I sat on his bed, not moving in inch and not saying a word. We just looked at the window and was stuck in our thoughts. We hear somebody walking over to us, but we didn't turn around just kept staring.

"Hey, kids." We turned around and saw Emma with a plate, it had a pop tart on it, and a bag of Kit Kat's, "You hungry? I managed to wrangle up a pop tart and I got these out for you, Aria."

"No, thanks." Henry said. Emma looked over at me, waiting for my answer.

"I don't want any." I said, then turned around and looked at the window again. She left them on the bed beside us and walked away. I brought my knees up to my chest and laid my head on Henry's shoulder. He laid his head on mine and I closed my eyes in thought.

[Later]

Henry and I sat on his bed with the phone in between us, ringing. We waited for him to pick up, but we both knew that wouldn't happen. He's gone and there is nothing we can do about it. We just stared at the phone and waited.

"You've reached the office of Archibald Hopper. I'm sorry I can't take your call right now. I'm either with a patient-" The recording was cut off.

"Or dead." I said as I hung up the phone.

David came over to us and sat down, "It's okay, guys. Things will get better, I promise. You just...got to hang in there."

"Doesn't feel that way." Henry said. I laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, not wanting to talk anymore.

"I know. I know." David said, quietly. I heard the front door open and I sat up and saw it was Pongo, running over to us.

"Pongo!" Henry and I exclaimed, smiling.

"How did he get in here?" Mary Margret asked.

"I brought him. Marco and I had a chat. Archie knew how much Henry and Aria loves this dog. We decided they should have him. That is, if you two are up for taking care of him, guys." Emma said, looking over at us.

"Yeah, we are!" Henry said, happily.

"Aria, Henry, why don't you take Pongo outside and clean him up?" Emma suggested.

"Okay." We stood up and I grabbed Pongo's leash, "Come on. Come on, boy! Come on! Let's go! Come on, boy." Then, we went outside.

———–

At the apartment, Henry is drawing some blueprints and I'm helping him by pointing out somethings we could do. Pongo is laying by Henry's feet and Emma walked over to us and looked down at Henry's drawing. 

"You plotting your escape from Shawshank, kids?" Emma asked us.

"No, they're blueprints. We had some ideas for what to do if David and Mary Margaret move out. Look." Henry held up his drawing for Emma to look at.

"You want to make Mary Margaret's room an armory?" Emma asked.

"Yeah. To put weapons and stuff in. To protect us – from Regina." I explained, "I also have my magic too, so-"

Emma cut me off, "She's not going to hurt you guys. I'm not going to let her."

"She hurt Archie. What if she wants to take me and Aria back with her?" Henry asked.

"That's not going to happen." Emma said. We heard someone knock on the door which caused Pongo to become agitated. "Pongo? What is it?" Emma walked over and answered the door to reveal Archie, who is alive. "Archie..."

"Hi." He said. I stared at him shocked. How is he here? He's not an hallucination because Emma and Henry can see him too.

"What happened?" Emma asked him. I started to walk over to him and Henry stood up, doing the same.

"It was Cora. She kidnapped me." Archie answered.

"Archie?" Henry asked.

Henry and I rushed forward and hugged him. He returned the hug, "Henry, Aria. Oh! Oh, it's alright. I'm fine. I'm fine." He let go of us and Emma spoke up catching our attention.

"Kids. We were wrong. Regina didn't do it." Emma realized.

"I knew it. Maybe we should let her know." Henry suggested.

Emma nodded, "Yeah. But something tells me, either way, we're going to pay the price."

–[End]–