Better and Worse
Summary: Spoilery. My attempt at self-soothing after seeing the Canadian promo for Episode 12, Season 2, "In the Name of the Brother." Inspired by my darling wolfenqueenyuri's own take on same. Thank you dearie!
Cora.
When she walks into his shop, he tells himself he should hardly be surprised. Hook is a bully and a thug and a thief, but the kind of powerful magic it would take to get to Storybrooke …. he couldn't do that on his own. He'd need someone with actual skills and intelligence to get him here.
Someone who learned from the best.
The pirate and the Queen of Hearts. Was there ever more of an unlikely alliance?
Well, perhaps the Dark One and the Evil Queen …
"Hello Rumple," she says calmly. There's no smugness in her voice, no triumph. She speak as casually as if this is an everyday occurrence, her strolling into his shop, as if they are merely passing acquaintances exchanging pleasantries, as if there is no dark history between them.
As if she was not the only one who ever bested him.
Almost, he corrects himself. Almost bested him.
He got what was hers, in the end.
No one can break a deal with him. Not really.
Not without paying a terrible price.
"What do you want?"
She gives him a cold smile, and it's then that some smugness seeps through. "So rude," she chides. "Aren't you happy to see me, after all these years? Aren't you going to ask how I've been doing, what I've been up to –"
"I don't have time for this Cora! I have more important matters to attend to."
She smirks. "Ah yes, like your precious Belle. She doesn't even recognize you, I hear. Recoils at the sight of you." The words are true, and like a knife to his heart (a dagger with his name on it). "Though I must say, given what you are, what you do, that's hardly an inappropriate reaction." For a moment, Cora's hard expression falters.
"If only I had done the same," she says softly. "If only Regina had done the same, recoiled from you."
Rumplestiltskin feels the anger rise in him. "What do you want?"
"My daughter."
Oh, that. His lips twist in a bitter smile. "She's not mine to give, dearie."
"Isn't she?"
He says nothing.
She moves closer to him. "You told me," she says softly. "After you spun that straw into gold for me, after I guessed your name and got to keep her, after I defeated you –"
"You never defeated me."
" – You told me you'd have her one day. And you did. And you do. Now I've come to get her back. Set her free."
Set her free? He has to bite back a mad giggle at that. Does she really see herself as Regina's savior?
Cora's capacity for self-delusion is matched only by his own.
"I want to make a deal," Cora says.
"Alright." It's what he does, after all. Rumplestiltskin can't stop making deals any more than he can stop breathing.
"Don't fight me. Stay out of my way. Don't tell anyone I'm here. Don't warn Regina I'm coming for her."
"In exchange?"
"I'll help you get Belle back."
Cora is cruel and clever. He's desperate, she knows it, and she's giving him a shred of hope.
"How?"
Her smile is enigmatic. "You'll see."
He leans in close to her. "You know what will happen if you try to play me, dearie."
"I know all too well. Do we have a deal?"
"Yes. No more fighting." He extends his hand. "Truce?"
Cora grasps his hand in her own. And then, things seem to happen in slow motion, and yet at the same time, too quickly for him to anticipate.
Her lips are on his. The kiss is bizarrely gentle, almost familiar. If he closes his eyes, he could almost think it was …
But it isn't. Cora doesn't smell like apples. She never has. She is beautiful, and she is powerful, but she smells like hunger and greed and bitterness, and she tastes like ash.
When she pulls back, she hisses, "You had her."
He can't tell if she's jealous, or angry, or both. "I …"
"You had her. Just as you said you would. You told me one day you'd have her, in every way. And you did, didn't you?"
"She summoned me, Cora. Because of you. Because of what you did to her. Because you drove her away." You drove him away, the Blue Fairy had said of Bae. "You drove her away, and straight into my arms."
She was ripe for my plucking.
"You used her. You used her to create the curse. But that wasn't enough, was it? You had to use her for your own selfish pleasure as well. The girl you held as a babe in your arms. You sick bastard."
For a moment, his mouth goes dry and his hands go numb.
But I didn't mean to, he wants to say.
She was crying. I don't even remember putting my arms around her.
She was soft. She was warm. She was willing.
But I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to take her into my arms, into my bed, into my black, twisted little heart –
But instead of speaking those words, what he does is sneer in Cora's face. If she thinks she can play the role of the outraged mother with him … "You're calling me sick? This from the woman who tortured her with magic, who ripped out her true love's heart, and then sold her off to a king, to be ridden like a horse whenever it pleased him? Say what you like about me, dearie, but at least I didn't pimp Regina out for a crown –"
The sting of Cora's slap feels more natural than her kiss ever could.
"The truth hurts, doesn't it?"
"Stay out of my way!"
"If Belle gets her memories back, I will. A deal's a deal. But if not … all bets are off, as they say."
Cora sweeps out of his shop without another word.
Don't trust her, Regina. Don't listen to what she says. She will never love you or approve of you. Not the way you want her to. She will never make you feel good enough.
He could go and tell her that, but of course he won't.
He doesn't break his deals. Not anymore.
If Regina suffers, it will be Cora's fault, and not his. He no longer cares what happens between mother and daughter. In fact, he never did.
Cora was right. He'd used her to create the curse, and he'd used her for his own selfish pleasure as well. The girl he held as a babe in his arms. The sweet little girl had grown into a beautiful and broken young woman, and then he'd held her in his arms in an entirely different way, as she trembled an took eagerly what he was giving her, sighing his name like a prayer –
Rumple. Oh Rumple … like that. Just like that, just like that …. ooooh yes … oh please Rumple, oh please make me feel, make it better, make it all better …
Regina, my wicked one, my wicked one …
But he'd never made it better, no matter how good she felt in the moment. Then and now, he'd only ever made it worse.
Despite all Cora has done to her daughter, sometimes he still wonders which one of them hurt Regina the most.