That chasm between memory

[follow_the_wolf]

For the better part of thirty years he had been limited to the strict boundaries of Storybrooke, to a single small town and its surrounding forest where he had ranged so far and wide in his life before the Queen's yoke had settled across his shoulders. It was all but unthinkable, as even in those years before the dark curse he had been sent out on excursions into the villages and lands under Regina's control. Such expeditions had been rare in eight years and had never been times that Graham had in the least enjoyed who he was or what he had been made to do, but still the memory of them echoed in his thoughts until shoved forcefully away in favor of exploring the first new surroundings he had had in decades.

He wished to get the lay of the land, as it were, and had spent the majority of the past days devoted to exactly that task. Although he had avoided the doors not trafficked regularly (as far as he could see) by the hotel's other residences, the reminder of the Prince's words on the matter keeping him cautious, he doubted his caution would keep him from those for long. There was the matter of why he had been brought to the hotel that plagued him, as much as the how, although the latter he assumed had to do with magic. But whose?

He explored this new world carefully until a careful stock taken of his having only the clothes on his back and a few bills in his wallet had forced him to consider a slightly more long term concept, that of procuring employment at the hotel for the time being. It required some asking around and a visit to the hotel office, but a short time later he secured himself a position among the hotel's security, having little idea else what use his skills could be in such a setting.

The days since his arrival had allowed his memories to settle more sure in his head, the breaks between Huntsman and Graham lining up more neatly for all the fact that Graham's hazy experience when seen through the Huntsman's eyes left him nauseous too often. The complications of Regina and of Emma and of the feelings he had buried years and years before in order to keep them and the woman he harbored them for safe made no small tangle, but still he found himself drawn down to the hotel's bar with the understanding of who he was likely to find there.

He took a seat, setting his forearms on the table in front of him and tried to catch the eye of the woman with her dark hair spilling over her shoulders. "Hello, Ruby."

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[littlerubyred]

Ruby's shifts at the bar were a pleasant part of her day in that it gave her an environment in which she was secure. She was used to slinging drinks and food, used to talking to people and making herself useful, and for all that was uncertain about her new environment she did find herself liking the people she was slowly getting to know. The sight of she Sheriff, looking so familiar and handsome amongst all that was still new and foreign to her was not an unwelcome sight, as it never had been. There had seemed a point in time that Ruby might've nursed a bit of a crush on Sheriff Graham but that seemed long ago, and fruitless besides. He'd always been as removed from her as the moon itself, and though she flirted with him as happily as she flirted with anyone else, she never expected much in return.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite Sheriff," she said as she made her way over to him, propping one hand on her hip and grinning down at him in welcome. "Do you still wear your star around here, Graham? I always found that to be an especially sexy touch, like a superhero."