Evergreen │Once Upon A Time Fanfic

My chicken gets abandoned.

I was cooking some chicken for dinner when I heard the commotion outside. It had just been about half an hour since Emma left to confront Regina. Switching off the gas, I ran over to the window to see people running in one direction. Just as I was about to go to the door and see what was happening, Mary Margaret rushed in. 

"What's going on?", I asked her.

"The Mayor's office caught fire. I am going to help.", she replied. 

"The mayor's office? Emma is at the Mayor's office!", I said, panicked.

"Oh god", Mary Margaret mumbled and rushed out the door, me at her heels, ignoring chicken for the first time in my life.

 10 minutes later, we were standing outside the fire- engulfed mayor's office. Emma's yellow bug was outside the building, confirming that she was inside. Henry ran over to us, panic-stricken.  

"It's going to be okay", I mumbled, mostly to myself. We came all this way, and I can't lose Emma in a stupid fire. 

Just then, two figures emerged from the fire. My breath caught in my throat when I realized that it was Emma and Regina, Emma supporting Regina, who looked like her ankle was broken. Emma set her down on a stretcher as me, Mary Margaret, Henry, Granny, Archie, and Ruby hurried over to her. Many other people followed us.

The next 10 minutes were chaos-filled with joy, surprise, and awe. Everyone saw Emma as a hero. 

"You saved her!", Henry yelled, jumping up and down.

"You're a hero", Ruby said.

Everyone started discussing ways to spread this incident to increase Emma's chance of winning. They started walking away, leaving Henry, me, and Emma alone. 

"See, this is how good wins. Good never has to play dirty", Emma said, smiling.

"Yeah", Henry said, grinning ear to ear. I hugged him just for fun. Emma noticed something from the corner of her eyes. She went to a pile of rubble and picked up what looked like a thick strand of wool. 

"Gold...", she mumbled.

"What?", I asked her. 

Emma looked angry. "Nothing", she mumbled and headed to her car.

"What was that about?", Henry asked me.

I shrugged.

***

The next two days were filled with election campaigning and posters. I, Emma, and Mary Margaret were constantly tired that the average number of hot cocoa we drank doubled in those two days. 

I kept on stapling posters with Emma's face all around town like some wild, adrenaline- pumped 4 -year -old. I was stapling a poster on the notice board of the city hall outside when- you guessed it, Dean Cinders walked over to me. I stopped what I was doing and smiled at him. He grinned back. 

"So, supporting Emma Swan?", he asked me, gesturing to my posters.

"Well, yeah. She's.. uh... pretty cool", I said, somewhat lamely. "Who you rooting for?", I asked, trying to cover up my stupidity.

"Uh, not sure yet. My mom isn't much for politics, so..", he replied.

"Ah, then here you go", I said, handing him a poster. He took it and smiled. 

"I guess she'll be pretty impressed with the savior Swan", he said, still smiling. "Of course, she'll vote for her if I say that you recommended. she has a special liking for you", he said.

Wait, what? This guy told his parents about me? We barely know each other that much. I laughed, not knowing what else to do. 

Just then,  a woman came out of the building and walked over to us. 

"Come on Dean, got to go-", the woman trailed off, noticing me. "Is this Piper Blanchard?"

Dean nodded and the woman smiled from ear to ear. "I am Natalie Cinders, Dean's mom.", she said,  shaking my hand. 

I smiled and said, "Pleasure to meet you, Mrs.Cinders"

"Oh, Dean's told me so much about you! It's great to finally meet you!", she said, hugging me. Whoa, what was happening? 

"Mom...", Dean groaned, embarrassed.

"Oh come on Dean, you should have invited her home! Such a beautiful young girl!", she said, caressing my face.

"Thanks a bunch, Mrs. Cinders.", I said, still smiling, trying not to look weird or awkward. I had no idea what to do.

Mary Margaret came to my rescue. "Hey, Pipes-", she started, then looked at Dean and gasped, "Is that Dean Cinders?" I nodded, wanting to melt into the ground. I thought she came to rescue me, now she's making it more awkward.

Mary Margaret and Mrs. Cinders made introductions and talked for half an hour when I and Dean just stood there, embarrassed. I bet I looked like a ripe tomato from all the blushing. The two women made invitations to their homes and finally, Dean and I dragged our respective mothers away from each other. I waved at Dean, who waved at me back. I could have sworn he blushed.

"Mary Margaret!", I whined, after we were out of earshot from the Cinders. "What were you doing, embarrassing me like that?!"

"Embarrassing you? I just got you an invitation to your crush's home. you should be thanking me."

"I do not have a crush on him!"

"Oh fine! Keep saying that to yourself. Obviously, he has a crush on you"

"He doesn't! We're just friends!"

"Come on, Piper! Go get him when he's available! Don't go and sit in a corner after he's taken by someone else!", Mary Margaret said. I had a feeling she was talking about her and David.

"Fine, whatever! The debate's in 2 hours. Come on!", I said, walking to the town hall.

***

I took a seat beside Henry in the hall where the debate was going to take place. Henry looked nervous and shook. I had no idea where Mary Margaret was, though.

Soon, the debate started. Sidney and Emma sat at either side of the stage and Archie started his welcome speech on the podium in the middle of the stage.

"Tragedy has brought us here, but we are faced with this decision.", Archie started. "And now, we ask only that you listen with an open mind and please vote your conscience. So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to the candidates – Sidney Glass and Emma Swan.  Glass. Swan. Sounds like something that a decorator would make you buy.", he joked. " Wow, crickets.", he said quickly, When he realized no one laughed.  "Okay, uh... Uh, Mr. Glass – your opening statement."

Sidney walked to the podium and said, "I just wanna say that if elected I wanna serve as a reflection of the best qualities of Storybrooke: Honesty.  Neighborliness. And strength. Thank you. " Beside Henry, Regina cheered loudly.

"And Emma Swan.", Archie said, gesturing to Emma.

Emma got up, a look of determination plastered on her face. "You guys all know I have what they call an uh- troubled past.", she started. "But, you've been able to overlook it because of the um, hero thing. But here's the thing: The fire was a setup." Wait, what? The audience started murmuring. Emma continued after they settled down a bit." Mr. Gold agreed to support me in this race, but I didn't know that that meant he was going to set a fire. I don't have definitive evidence but I'm sure. And the worst part of all this was- The worst part of all this is I let you all think it was real. I can't win that way. I'm sorry.", She said.

Great. Just Great.