I will find you...

[willalwaysfindyou]

Who: Prince Charming, Snow White, and Yamanaka Ino
What: Charming’s arrival
When: Now
Where: Lobby!
Rating: PG-13 for blood, I guess?

The world was slipping from him, growing more and more distant. He could feel the blood escaping the wound. He watched numbly as the Queen’s men broke into the wardrobe… empty. The corners of his mouth quirked up slightly. Empty. She made it. She would find them.

The pain was becoming unbearable. He felt himself fading, his eyelids fighting to stay open. His eyes closed and opened. Were he not bleeding out on the floor of the lobby, he would probably be wondering where he was and how he got there. The question flittered faintly in his mind, but all was throbbing pain.

Comments

[atetheapple]

"Charming?"

It's barely more than an exhale. The glass of water she'd grabbed from the kitchen, slips from her fingers and she barely notices. The body on the floor had been alarming enough, she'd met a whole bunch of strange people since arriving, but none of them had taken up something like this as a hobby. But catching a glimpse of his face, and then all of the blood? It knocks the air right out of her.

The next second has her running over and dropping to her knees and curses herself for not remembering to take her journal out with her.

"Charming?" She tries it again, voice shaky as she places her hands over the wound, applying pressure for the blood flow. "Everything- It's...I'm going to grab a doctor-"

And then she catches a glimpse of purple. "Ino!"

[ino]

She was just passing by, headed up to her room to grab something to bring back to the house. That plan is kind of derailed, though, when she catches sight of a guy who appears to be bleeding all over the place. It's only a moment after Snow calls out her name that she's rushing over and getting down on her knees next to Charming, examining his wounds.

"Did you find him like this?"

[willalwaysfindyou]

Charming lets out a pained noise when she touches the wound, but the pain doesn't matter. He has to tell her. He has to let her know.

"Snow..."

Charming reaches up shakily, caressing her cheek. He just about tells her when Ino runs over.

[atetheapple]

It's instinctive to turn her cheek into his touch, to force a smile onto her face. Like if she just looks at this with enough forced optimism, that he usually carries so effortlessly, she can convince them both that everything will be fine.

"I'm here." She misinterprets, because she knows, that if everything Henry says about comes to pass, that he's succeeded. She's just worried now, about the cost of it all. She spares Ino a glance out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes, he just...I was only in the kitchen for a minute, and when I came out he was..." Practically dead. "Can you help me get him to the clinic?"

[ino]

Ino shakes her head, a frown on her face.

"Don't move him. Just give me a moment."

She doesn't want the wound to be disturbed any more than it already has been. She'll reach over towards his stab wound now, placing her hand just above it as it begins a glow a faint green color. Charming might feel a slight tingle (that is, if he can feel anything at all through the pain) as she quickly does her best to repair the worst of the damage.

[willalwaysfindyou]

Charming doesn't know what's going on, who that is, what she's doing. He tries to lift his head to see what she's doing. It looks like some kind of magic, and he panics a little. Magic came with a price. What would he have to give? He just lost his daughter.

His head turns back to Snow, his hand falling from her face and searching for her hand.

"Snow. What's happening?"

[atetheapple]

"She's...Fixing you."

Not that Snow is the expert on magic, or recognizing it's uses, but she can see the blood flow lessening, and he doesn't seem to be getting any worse, so his heart slowing down isn't the cause.

She grasps his hand tightly in hers, and glances at Ino. "Aren't you?"

[ino]

"Trying to," she nods, not taking her eyes off the injury. She's got a slight sheen of sweat appearing on her forehead now -- but after a few moments, she lets out a sigh and pulls her hand away. There's still some damage there, but it's more like he scraped his side pretty badly, rather than got stabbed.

"Alright ... let's move him, now." She'll move over to the other side of Charming, now, to pull his arm over her shoulder and help lift him up.

[willalwaysfindyou]

"No, leave me!"

He feels a little stronger, but he'll just slow them down.

"The Queen's men... I'm sure they'll be here any second. Go!"

[atetheapple]

"I'm not leaving you!"

So despite his protests, when Ino gives the okay, she'll be moving to haul him up on his other side, and set about explaining. Just the bare facts for now, they can worry about everything else once she's sure he's okay.

"They aren't here. The Queen isn't either. And this place? It doesn't have anything to do with the curse, for...For the moment we're safe."

[ino]

"What she said," Ino nodded, checking that Snow had him before starting to walk towards the stairs.

"You'll be fine. We're just taking you to the clinic so I can finish treating your wound." And hopefully get some water into him, along with a little bed rest. Even though his wound was healed, he'd still lost a lot of blood. It would be good for him to lay down and relax for a little while.

[willalwaysfindyou]

Charming tries to help them move him as best as he can, trying to take in everything Snow says. He trusts her completely, so he takes her word for it.

"Sweetheart, Emma made it. She disappeared when they opened it."

He knows he needs to acknowledge and thank Ino, but that was important to get out. He turns his head now to Ino.

"How can I ever thank you?"

[atetheapple]

Her smile is watery in response, and she tightens her grip on him. It's hard to accept, that in giving their daughter her best chance, that in ensuring that good always won, she had to sacrifice both of them. She's trying not to think about it.

"I'm so..." It's on the tip of her tongue to say sorry, because she'd been wrong about it. She'd met Emma, and she was nothing like Snow had hoped that she would be. She settles on the little white lie, while they have an audience. "...Relieved."

She doesn't mean to ignore your presence, Ino, but for the moment she just needs a moment to compose herself, and well, she's interested in the answer. Magic never came without some kind of a price.

[ino]

Yeah, Ino doesn't really get what's going on here, but she figures it's some private thing between them, so she won't pry. Instead, she just looks a little surprised when Charming addresses her.

"Me? It's not a big deal, really ... " She looks a little sheepish. "Besides, I'm not done yet. We still need to clean that up and get a bandage on it."

[willalwaysfindyou]

Charming looks a little troubled. If she wasn't done yet, was the price to be paid later?

"What do I owe you for your magic?"

He might as well cut to the chase.

[ino]

"Owe me?" Ino blinked, confused. She doesn't really get what his expression means -- maybe magic is feared or forbidden where he comes from? So she'll try to reassure him.

"Well, first of all, it's not magic, but -- you don't owe me anything."

[willalwaysfindyou]

"Oh." Well, that certainly catches him by surprise.

"Where we come from, magic always comes with a price.

[atetheapple]

"What is it, if it's not magic?"

That's just about as important as what kind of price could possibly be extracted for all of this. She also doesn't really believe that there isn't a catch of some sort.

[ino]

"It's kind of hard to explain ... " Ino sighed, making sure Charming made it up the stairs and onto the second floor before continuing. "But every person is made up of cells, right? I can use my own energy to sort of ... force another person's cells to regrow faster, and in the way that I want them to."