IC: Ten Fwd - Story Deviation #1

[goldencobra]

After leaving Room 0732, Henry headed back to Ten Forward. He'd stay there continuing to meet new people and take notes until he had the storybook returned. If it took longer than a week, he might go ask for it back but he'd rather be sought out here where it was more public than quarters.

Over the next few days, he wondered what to call the man. Dad was out of the question. And he refused to believe he was his grandfather. He doubted the man wanted to be called Rumplestiltskin so really, Gold was the only viable option. And it would be Gold, not Mr Gold. Even if Henry was very polite, he wasn't going to be so much so to this imposter. He wanted more answers first.

So the days passed and Henry sat looking out at the stars for hours on the end and the people in the room for hours on end, drinking the vaguely good hot cocoa and wondering if he'll ever get home.

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[magicsprice]

Gold had forewent reading the book the first night he'd gotten it. Between the visit's conversation, and the notebook he'd gotten to skim for a bit, he'd had too much to mull over and deal with before he could properly sit himself down to read it.

It was the next night before he'd begun it, and while he'd never personally read the book his grandson possessed, he did get to overhear a considerable part of it while he'd had Charming in his shop. There was also the fact that he knew that if that particular image had been in his grandson's book, those who had read the book, would have known who he was after a bit of thinking and comparing him with the image, and they would have known of the dagger long before Cora had come into things.

Thus it was obvious in that respect that the book he held was different than the one from his own Storybrooke. He wished he knew just how different, but he could only guess really.

When he finally finished it a few days later, he picked it up off the desk in his room and headed out of his quarters to go track the boy down. Fortunately that was easily enough done since he had decided to check the lounge first before looking for the boy elsewhere.

Upon reaching the table that the other Henry was seated at, he set the book down on it as he spoke. "I've finished with your book. You can have it back."

[goldencobra]

Luckily for Gold, Henry had been observing the room not the stars so he saw the man coming. He nodded at the statements before reaching into his bag and pulling out the box he'd been given as trade.

"Thank you. And you can have your box back." He hadn't tried to use it all this time, only planning on it if he had asked for the book and been denied. He wasn't sure what he would have done after that but he hadn't bothered to think any further. No point wasting energy on it.

He flicked through a few pages of the storybook to check it was still intact before placing the box on the table and the storybook back into his bag.

"So...did you find many differences?" As much as the trade was over and he wanted to ignore the man, he couldn't help but be curious about it all.

[magicsprice]

Gold picked the Box up off the table and held it in his hands as he answered the boy's question.

"I found one rather glaring difference. Rather an important one I should think, given it dealt with me and how I came by the title everyone knows me by."

[goldencobra]

Henry shrugged. Knowing things about Rumplestiltskin was second nature by now so it didn't seem that important.

"I wonder why." Again, it was a muttering to himself rather than Gold but the man was sure to hear it anyway. Pulling out his notebook, he wrote this down in the correct place. All information was useful at some point.

[magicsprice]

"Who knows. Possibly something to do with whatever caused the timeline to split in the first place." He replied quietly to the muttered words.

Now that he'd done what he'd come here for, it was time to leave the boy be and go about his own business. "Should you want to discuss what other differences there might be, you know where my room is."

With that, he turned away from the table to head toward the bar.

[goldencobra]

He nodded and just as Gold turned to leave, Henry piped up. "I'd rather..." Was it his place to determine the boundaries of their relationship while they were here? Perhaps not. But he's started, so he was going to finish. "I'd rather we had discussions here. In Ten Forward." The Around other people was left unspoken but clearly implied.

"If you want to work out when the timeline split, we could do that...some time...maybe..." It's an olive branch made solely out of curiosity. Henry has no love for this man, but he's still a curious boy in his heart. And perhaps that's enough to start with.