Once Upon a Time. . . (on hold)

Fire.

I took a quick glance at the mirror and combed my hair with my fingers and moved a few strands to where they belonged. My eyes looked a bit swollen and small, with dark circles under each of them. My lips were terribly chapped due to dehydration. In conclusion, I looked like an absolute mess.

'Don't you always?'

I hurriedly opened the door, revealing Axel standing with a rather surprised look. I felt my mouth open a little. "Uh... Hi?"

He frowned. "Where does Mrs. Grayjoy live?"

I pointed at the house next door, feeling slightly relieved yet down.

'You idiot, he didn't even know where you live. Did you really expect him to visit you?'

"What brings you to Mrs. Grayjoy's house?"

I expected him to go: "that's none of your business", or: "Why does it matter?" because everything about him seemed so secretive. Even the tiniest things that couldn't matter that much were carefully and cleverly concealed by him. I was pretty sure I was the only one out of the ten who actually knew his name.

I noticed that he was carrying something wrapped in leaves. He looked down on the item on his right hand as well.

"My dad asked me to send this to her. He felt bad because she was always lonely."

I didn't know what else to do, so I nodded. "Well, that probably explains why she's a bit...crazy. Or so I heard."

He gave me a puzzled look, then cleared his throat. "Anyway, I should go. Sorry to bother you."

"Wait!"

He turned around calmly. "Yes?"

I twisted my hair, a loose curl produced when I let it drop. "I...I'm sorry a-about just now."

'Real smooth, Charlotte.'

He shrugged. "Eh, it's completely fine. I went through worse tantrums back then." He stiffled a low laugh, so I laughed along with him. "How worse?"

He bit his lower lip. "I snapped my dad's arrow in half, which he spent weeks to make. But I wasn't done there. I tossed it to the fireplace while my mom was knitting. I cried before my dad even had the chance to scowld me."

I smirked, then sighed. "Sure, you're really moody sometimes but that's a bit hard to imagine."

He laughed. "Try imagining a fat little boy with brown hair that went all the way down to his small eyes. That'd help."

I found myself laughing harder than I was supposed to. It wasn't even that funny, but I was laughing like I'd never heard anything that funny before.

"Is your mother home?"

I shook my head. "Why'd you ask?"

"I wanted to thank her for the cake," he said with a polite, small smile. The day sure went nice for him, because he wouldn't be smiling or talking to me if it wasn't. 'It would've been smoother if I didn't fuck it up.'

I believed that he was a happy person. Perhaps a little too happy once. As heartless as some people were, there had to be a time of their life when they felt like they were one of the happiest people alive, right?

"You're lucky she isn't here, though. I think it's best if we...don't bring up any archery related things or things-people who were linked to my dad, apart from us both and his parents. In this case, you fit both the categories."

He scoffed. "I know I'm not a likeable person, but what did I ever do to your mom?"

'It's a bit hard to not dislike you when you're so private and you seem oblivious about everything but I like-'