Written for Round One of the 2016 Rumbelle Prompt Showdown, under the name Renee D'Auber. Prompts used were: rock candy, an unhappy marriage, servant and employer. Also I am open to continue this story, but I am only accepting prompts for it over on tumblr.
It had been a tradition of all previous curse holders to make deals. But the current Dark One had never felt compelled to follow tradition. She did not like the taste of desperation, the willingness some people had to abandon others in their greed. The deals made her uncomfortable, it made the darkness in her whisper that see, humans are worthless, selfish things, leave them, waste them, trample them under your feet. Her preference was to keep her magic to herself in her secluded palace in the woods. Alone she could ignore the voices. Magic came with a price and not using it was the best way to avoid payment. But occasionally the summons were so insistent that she had to make an appearance just to be able to get some peace.
The midnight blue cloak covered her silvery reptile skin, but her sudden appearance still startled the woman pacing outside the small village's only tavern. She watched as the woman dropped the plain wedding band she had been fiddling with, not bothering to pick it up from where it had fallen in the mud. It was only the woman's introduction of herself that drew the Dark One's eyes from the abandoned ring.
The blatant disgust in her voice spoke of the true reason the Dark One had been summoned. Milah, wife of the spinner, her words had said, but her mouth had wanted to say wife of the coward.
The Dark One knew of the spinner, the gossips in this town were horrid and inescapable. Every market day when she ventured out in disguise for books and amusement she was warned to stay away from the spinner's empty stall. She had, not because they told her to because she makes her own choices. But merely because her skills at embroidery were not worth buying thread for. A mistake she regrets since it seemed that any patronage would've been welcomed.
Milah spoke of how wretchedly the town treated her, how they could never afford enough to move on, and how she was absolutely festering in unhappiness in her hovel with her husband. The overt undertone was that it was all the fault of her husband, if he wasn't in the picture she'd be free.
The Dark One had a fleeting moment of sympathy. Once she had almost been forced into a marriage she hadn't wanted, but Milah's need to absolutely sever herself from her spouse without a thought to him was displeasing.
She offered Milah a few options, pleased that the woman didn't wish her husband dead, just far away. They settled on the key to Milah's happiness being a fresh start. She focused on a portside town that was familiar to her magic, and with enough money for Milah to begin again. Milah was nearly glowing with anticipation of the future laid out before her. Even when the conversation turns toward the matter of payment her smile didn't waver.
Curious about the man Milah was leaving, the coward who fled the war as she had once fled her marriage, the Dark One asked for him and all Milah had left behind in exchange for her magic.
"He's no good as a husband," Milah warned with a wry smile. The Dark One waved her warning off and shook her hand to seal the deal.
"I don't need a husband. A personal spinner will suit me just fine." The lie was small, she'd find a uses for him in one way or another. With a swirl of sparkling blue smoke Milah was on her way to her new life. Resettling the cloak tight around her, the Dark One turned to go find the spinner and inform him about his own changed circumstances.
Rumpelstiltskin was sitting motionless at his wheel when he heard footsteps approaching the door. The sound startled him back into spinning, he hadn't been expected Milah back from the tavern for another hour or so, if at all before midnight. Seeing him being productive might appease her if she was returning in a foul mood.
The door swung open, hanging too loosely to even creak. But the woman who entered wasn't who Rumpelstiltskin was expecting at all. She stared at him curiously from under her hood, her eyes unnaturally blue and unnerving. Her scrutiny made him shiver.
"You're the spinner," she stated as she stepped inside. The room felt colder with her presence, despite the humid evening.
"Y-yes!" He pushed himself to his feet leaning heavily on his staff. "And you're –"
"The Dark One, yes." A quirk of her lips may have been a smile, but it didn't reach her eyes.
Rumpelstiltskin bowed, a bit shakily, but he didn't tumble over. "My lady, what can I do for you?"
"I was summoned by your wife." She glanced about the small room of what he called home, looking briefly towards the darkened loft where soft scratching sounds were coming from. "She wanted happiness and a fresh start." Her gaze returned to him when he winced sharply at her words. Her tone wasn't accusing, but he knew it was his fault.
"She left? I…I didn't realize how much…" he stopped himself with a shaking breath. It wasn't a surprise that Milah had been unhappy, she had made that fact clear every moment she could. But to leave like this with no warning… Rumple swallowed hard and gathered his meager courage to speak. "May I ask what the price for her happiness was?"
"Everything she left behind." She waved her hand to encompass the expanse of the home. "Including you, Spinner. Everything that Milah could once call hers is now mine."
"Even me?" A quiet voice asked from above them. Both the Dark One and the spinner looked up to see a face peering down from the loft above. Rumpelstiltskin's racing heart slowed at the sight of Bae, even as it broke a little. He could never imagine leaving his son behind, not for anything in the world. And it hurt to see his son abandoned. But, he was so selfishly grateful not to have to part with his boy.
"Oh!" the Dark One exclaimed, her eyes wide. She was staring at Baelfire as if she hadn't expected him and that made Rumple a little uneasy. "This is – your son?" she inquired.
"Yes, Baelfire. Milah, ah, Milah didn't mention him?"
The Dark One's eyes darkened and her lips turned down in sharp disapproval. "No, she didn't."
"Do I belong to you too?" Baelfire asked as he climbed down the rickety ladder. He moved to stand at his father's side, letting Rumple pull him close.
To Rumple's surprise the Dark One knelt down to be at the six-year old's height. She pulled the hood that was hiding her face back. Her lizard-like skin glinted in the firelight, but she spoke gently. "You do, that's part of the deal. All magic comes with a price." She smiled softly at him, holding out her hands as if cupping something. "Sometimes the prices aren't so bad." She briefly closed her hands, then opened them again revealing a handful of hard colorful sweets. "See? Candy for a smile? That's an easy price."
Bae smiled shyly, taking one of the candies.
"What are you going to do with us?" Even with the uneasy turn the evening had taken, he wasn't able to help a smile when she offered a sweet to him as well.
"Well, I thought I could find use for a spinner," she started, rising to face him. With her hood back, her curls wild about her face she seemed a little softer. "But I'm thinking, I may need a little more help about the castle."
"You live in a castle?" Baelfire asked, eyes wide. Rumple knew his son's mind was already racing ahead with thoughts of knights and swordfights.
"Yes I do. And if your father agrees you both can come live with me," she told him, watching Rumpelstiltskin carefully.
"Do I have a choice?" Rumple asked, worrying his thumb against his staff.
"We can work something else out if you'd rather not."
He nodded, more thoughtful than anything else. "Then, maybe, the price for Milah's… new life, was a new life for us as well."
She tilted her head, awaiting his choice. And it was that, the fact that she still gave him an option even when Milah had made a choice for him that decided it.
It had been so long since his opinion had been considered.
"We will go with you, my lady, thank you."
"You may call me Belle."