#noremmaray

- James Ratri is the King of Neverland. He was the one that spent day and night trying to find a  magic flower to give to his sick Queen, Owl Minerva. Isabella, the most loyal and trusted of the guards was ordered to stay by his wife side, protecting her until James and the other guards came back with the magic flower.

- When the baby was born the royal family was faced with a shocking pair of red eyes, the intense color the exact shade of the magic flower. The baby, named Willian Minerva in honor of the queen survival, had absorbed some of the flower magic, for his eyes glowed in the dark and his tears had the capacity to heal.

- The king’s brother, Peter, is the one that kidnapped the prince. He initially tried to take the baby’s eyes and keep them as a substitute for the magic flower but the moment the eye disconnected from the baby head the magic was lost, the bright red turning sky blue. Peter managed to put the eye back later but the prince was left with a scar on his left eye. When he sings only the right eye glow brighter, and the few times he cried only the tears on the right hold the power to heal.

-Isabella died trying to protect Norman from Peter, considering her friend’s son a child of her own. She managed to gravely hurt the traitor leg and abdomen before kicking the bucket but unfortunately, Peter used the baby’s tears to heal himself completely.

- After the tragedy was over, everyone mourned the death of Isabella and the betrayal of Peter. The king ordered his guards to look left and right for his son, hoping to have hope restored. Peter was paranoic about the large search, so he moved to an isolated tower and changed Willian’s name to Norman.

- Norman loves to read and write. Peter gifted him books to keep him busy and entertained, unintentionally invested on the boy. All their meaningful conversations are about books and while Peter doesn’t mind the boy hobbies he still makes sure to only bring books where humanity is described as a horrible species. Ones where people with magic don’t get a happy ending.

-Norman dreams of going out and explore the world but he is wary of it. Listening to his father’s warnings and seeing how dangerous his situation is. If even the man who loved him dearly was practically obsessed with his magic, he doesn’t want to know what strangers would do to make him cry. He hasn’t given up on his dreams however so he learned how to control his tears. Words and stones will hurt him, but they can’t make him cry. Peter find this very troublesome, but thankfully a song is still enough to light up Norman’s eye and cure any fatigue, making him young again.

-Peter convinces Norman there are traps around the tower so he shouldn’t ever leave, it’s far too dangerous for a little kid! It takes time but Norman reluctantly agrees, getting more and more skeptical as the years go by.

- Ray, left with no parents after Isabella’s death, was adopted by the queen and king, both wanting their dear friend son to have a good life.

-Ray grew up in a place were everyone sung his dead mother praises. He had memories of warm gazes from both his biological mom and adoptive parents but he knew the king wanted his true kid back. He completely understood them, so he never attempted to study to be a king, waiting for the true heir to come back and fill in this hole his existence couldn’t.

-Ray is determined to be a royal guard, promising himself he would be strong, strong enough to prevent any possible tragedies from destroying his adoptive family again. He starts training to be a guard, a soldier. He grew to be the best in the castle, and while his dad is very proud, he knows Isabella used to be even better. Ray doesn’t mind his colleges' disappointment, he is well aware he cannot fill the hole Isabella’s death caused either, but he is scared he too will fail when his family needs him most.

- Emma works on an orphanage, has been living and helping around the place for all her life. Said orphanage is very poor so she collects fruits in the forest and steals bread and milk for the small children. She steals very little from a wide variety of locations, not wanting to actually prejudice any family. Most of the time people don't even see her, but other times she gets in fights.

- One day, she gets in a bad fight, probably would have died if a tired guard in training hasn't stopped the commotion, forcing her to return the food and giving two breads of his own to appease her yelling stomach. She said  her thanks but the guard waved her off.

- Times passes, her usual targets start to get wary so she is forced to expand her territory. Emma isn't sure where she should target until she sees a huge amount of sweets get delivered to the castle and decides to steals it for her little sister birthday. It’s not that hard to sneak past all the lazy guards and she always gets tasty rewards! So she keeps coming back.

- Despite not going much to the kitchen, Ray scary memory is enough to make him notice the foods and little items that Emma stole. He keeps his eyes open for any cheeky cook or skillful thief, eventually spotting Emma with a slice of his favorite cake. He recognizes her as the thief he saved a while back but he is so annoyed he almost cuts her hand off. Emma also recognize him but she decides to gets the hell away from the castle, apologizing "I didn't knew it was your birthday cake!! I am sorry!" and crying dramatically. Ragged looks and terrible diet aside, she proved herself to be far quicker than Ray, maneuvering pass him and promising to make it up too him.

-The next day there is a homemade cookie in his window with a badly written 'happy birthday' in it. It’s the cheap, no chocolate or honey kind of cookie, terrible when compared to the rich cakes he always get but...Not that bad... Ray half expect it to be poisoned but it's clearly not... He doesn't know what to make of it.

-She keeps coming, making sure to not get greedy and only picking the easy stuff. It’s a game. Ray tries his best to catch her but doesn't actually grab her when he has the opportunity. She started to like their interaction, teasing the boy and considering him her friend. Ray reluctantly think she is okay too and leave food by the window once or twice, smiling on the rare occasions another of those horribles cookies are placed in his window. Queen Owl and King James notice their interactions but pretend to be ignorant, happy Ray got a friend.

- This strange friendship they have it’s wonderful, or it was until Emma stole the prince crown.

-It was a tough choice. She felt bad for the King and Queen, silently apologizing to Ray too, but not giving the crown back. The prince probably won’t come back anyway and with this crown, she’ll get enough money to make sure her broken down orphanage, her home, doesn’t get demolished for a stupid shoe store.

- Ray runs after her, this time truly angry. That was the only thing left from the prince! His parents will be heartbroken! He orders the other guards to surround the city orphanages while he searchs for the girl, willing to play dirty if it came to it.

-After a lot of running, Emma finds the tower Norman is kept and decides to hide in there. Ray discovers the tower too and follows Emma, ready to threaten her with her siblings' safety in exchange for the crown. He doesn't expect to see the thief unconscious while a beautiful boy with a thick encyclopedia tucked under his arms drag her under a bed. Ray warily raises his sword, surprised by how much Norman resembles his dad, from the unusual white hair to the blue eye...It was identical to the king.

- Norman has a bad opinion of guards, trusting his books and convinced they hunt down magic people and torture them. But he also knows they’re very good at fighting and can be good shields, perfect to help him cross the supposed traps around the tower. So he hides his fear and acts relieved to see the boy in armor, stating he was hiding from thieves. When asked about his scarred eye Norman made up a story about thieves using violence to get his money, the cut was so deep he couldn’t save his left eye, so he used a substitute.

-Ray know something isn’t quite right with Norman’s story, in fact, he is pretty sure the boy, this younger version of James, is the missing ‘cute angel with red eyes’ his adoptive parents talk all the time about.

-When asked about the missing prince Norman looks genuinely confused, trying to hide behind a little smile and stating his dad Peter never talked about this missing prince.

-Peter hum? That’s either a very strange stream of coincidences or Ray just found the missing prince. That’s the only reason he accepts to escort this very suspicious ‘Norman’ to the city, trading Emma unconscious body (crown included) in return for his service as an escort. The guard ties Emma up and they both leave the tower, keeping an eye on each other. It may look harmless, but Ray knows Norman can do a lot of damage with the encyclopedia he insisted on taking with him.

-Norman tries to act neutral and focus only on finding traps but he doesn’t quite manage. His eyes light up in wonder over everything, spending a little too long rubbing his feet on the grass and trailing his fingers over tree barks. Ray just slowed down whenever Norman took a detour, finding it oddly adorable to see this boy that exude grace discreetly grab dirt from the ground and mumble “Fascinating...” when the dirt rocks dissolve into sand. It’s strange. Underneath his fondness, Ray can’t help but feel sad. If even dirt amazes Norman, he truly must have never left his tower in the 16 years the prince was kidnapped...

- It doesn’t take long for Norman to notice his father lied, there are no traps around the tower. It takes even less time to see Ray may suffer from resting bitch face syndrome but he is pretty nice. So Norman tries to actually speak with Ray, ask about his job and Emma situation. It’s a pleasant but mostly quiet conversation where Ray explains his routine in an unenthusiastic tone and Norman feel increasingly more fascinated by the outside world, feeling betrayed by his books and his father.

- Ray let him touch his hair and examine his armor. It's nice...And it only gets better when  Emma wakes up.