The Girl and the Nutcracker ~ A Once Upon a Time Story

The next morning Henry and Clara met up at Granny's Diner, Clara was already sitting in the booth next to the entrance when Henry stormed in and sat across her. "Did you see the clocktower?! Do you know what it means?!"

"Henry, this is too much energy for the morning." Clara said tiredly, "But yes, I did see the clock moving again. And I guess it means something good?"

Henry just smiled and nodded, "Yes! It means Emma stayed! I knew she wouldn't leave me." Clara just smiled at his enthusiasm before noticing a blonde woman entering the diner. "Slide down, blondie at 12 o'clock."

Henry and Clara stared at Emma while she's having her breakfast. Ruby was cleaning up the tables when Henry made her come over. "Can I order a hot cocoa with cinnamon? And can you give it to Emma please?" Ruby just hummed a yes and walked away.

"Henry, who is going to pay for that?" Clara whispered to him, confused. Henry smiled, "I'm the child and you're the teen. Go figure." Clara scoffed a laugh, "I'm really rubbing off on you... I respect that."

"Here you go." Emma looked up at Ruby who handed her a hot cocoa, confused. "Thank you. But I did not order that." Ruby smiled, "Yeah, I know. You have an admirer."

Emma looked over her shoulder and saw Graham sitting at one of the booths. She walked over and put the cocoa in front of him. Graham looked up at the figure looming over him and saw Emma, "Ah, so you decided to stay."

"Observant. Important for a cop." Emma said.

"It's good news for our tourist business, it's bad for our local signage." Graham said with a wince referring to Emma's accident but she didn't react. "It's... It's a joke. It's because you ran over our sign."

Emma gave a little laugh, "Look, the cocoa was a nice gesture, and I am impressed that you guessed that I like cinnamon on my chocolate because most people don't, but I am not here to flirt. So thank you, but no thank you." Graham looked confused before answering, "I didn't send it."

"I did. I like cinnamon, too." Henry said with a smile while turning around to face Emma. Clara smiled before adding, "And I apparently payed for it."

Emma looked at the youngsters in the booth, "Don't you have school?"

"Duh. I'm ten. Walk me." Henry said before standing up. Emma still looked confused, "Can't Clara just walk with you?" Clara stood up as well before answering the blonde, "I'm an irresponsible 16-year old teen, you really trust me with a child that has a habit of running away to Boston?"

"That was one time!" Henry shouted while he's already outside.

———–

Emma, Clara and Henry were walking towards the Storybrooke school. "So, what's the deal with you and your mom?" Emma asked Henry.

"It's not about us, it's about her curse. We have to break it. Luckily, I have a plan. Step one – identification. I call it Operation Cobra." Henry explained with a smile, and Emma looked confused. "Cobra? That has nothing to do with fairy tales."

"It's a code name to throw the Queen off the trail." Clara answered. Emma looked at her, "you're into this too?" Clara smiled, "Of course I am."

"Alright, so, everyone here is a fairytale character. They just don't know it." Emma said and Henry nodded, "That's the curse. Time's been frozen, until you got here." Emma tried to take a bite of her apple while listening, but Henry saw it before she could take a bite. "Hey! Where'd you get that?"

Emma looked at the apple before answering, "Your mom." Henry took the apple from Emma and threw it behind him, "Don't eat that!"

"Okay, uh... Alright. What about their pasts?" Emma asked and Henry answered. "They don't know. It's a haze to them. Ask anyone anything. And you'll see."