The heavy sigh was the only sound in the back room of Rumpel's shop. His annoyance of the small watch piece was getting the better of him. It was a simple enough job. Strip and clean. As he had taken the back plate off the watch, the mechanism burst out of its constraints and were now all over his workbench. He sat there for an hour already, trying different combinations of the pieces to get it back together. It was alluding him. Yes, he could magic it all back into position, but where would the fun be in that?

Dropping the tweezers onto the bench, Rumpel stood from his stool and went over to the whiskey sitting on the side. He poured himself a drink and necked it in one for courage to resolve his eminent problem. His hand rubbed the back of his head as he sat back down on his stool, ready to try again.

Tweezers in hand, Rumpel was ready to try again but his attention was drawn to the front of the shop by the ringing of the bell. Footsteps entered the shop and then the door was closed. Rumpel waited for someone to call him, but the footsteps came closer. The curtain moved and Gideon stuck his head between the curtains, at the sight of his father he smiled.

"Hey, father." Gideon greeted and swept the curtain out of his way with his arm, and stepped into the room to stop on the other side of the workbench.

Rumpel smiled briefly before looking back to the watch in front of him saying. "Hello Gideon."

Gideon spied on the watch piece and leant down onto the counter for closer inspection. "What're you doing?"

"Trying to put this back together." Rumpel informed him as he grabbed a piece of the watch piece with the tweezers. He gently laid it into the watch and then picked another piece off the table.

"Why don't you just use magic?" Gideon rested his chin into the palm of his hand, his elbow propping the weight of his head.

Rumpel closed his eyes to count to himself, his annoyance boiling. "Because… I am trying to behave myself. Your mother wants me to use less magic."

"I would think she would understand on this occasion." Gideon stood up and rested his hands onto the edge of the table.

"Yes, she probably would." Rumpel replied in agreement, placing another piece into the watch. "But it always starts with the smallest of lapses." Gideon watched his father rebuild the small watch piece. It took some time but Rumpel finally got it all back together and as he replaced the back plate to the watch, he let out a triumphant sigh. Getting up off his stool, Rumpel crossed to his whiskey for another glass to celebrate his victory. He gestured to Gideon if he wanted one but Gideon shook his head.

Sipping at the golden liquor, Rumpel took in the sight of his son. He knew his son had not come to Rumpel to simply hang out with his old man. There was something troubling his son. In the past, this would have been opportunity to put a deal into motion, but not with him. Gideon could have the world if he wanted it, in Rumpel's mind, and Rumpel would pay the price for his son. With that in mind, Rumpel sat back down on his stool and readied himself for the proposition.

"What can I do for you, Gideon?" Rumpel inquired.

"I'm not here…" Gideon stopped seeing his father raise an eyebrow at him. "Ok. I need some advice and possibly some help."

Rumpel rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "What?"

"You know, how Lilly and I have been seeing each other for about seven months now?" Gideon's cheeks reddened as he spoke to Rumpel. "Well, I want to ask her to marry me."

The room fell silent. Rumpel sat staring at his son. He knew they had become very close, Lilly and Gideon, but he had not realised it had got to the point of a marriage proposal. It was very big step for his son to be undertaking. However, as much as Rumpel had had his reservations of Gideon seeing Lilly, as she was Maleficent's daughter, the two had been inseparable since the Charming's anniversary party. There had been quite a few mornings, where Rumpel had come up from the basement in the morning to find Lilly stood in his kitchen making breakfast for everyone. She was pleasant enough and Rumpel had found it easy to make conversation with her.

"Father?" Gideon touched Rumpel's hand that held his whiskey glass.

Rumpel shook the thoughts from his head. "Sorry."

"So," Gideon paused. "What do you think?"

"Gideon, I am not the best one when it comes to this sort of thing to ask advice. Your mother is the best one to talk to about this." Rumpel said being honest. "But, if you're asking me, do I think she'll make you happy? Then I do. And if marrying her is what in your heart you think will make you happy, then I wouldn't stand in your way, son."

Gideon's smile was wide. "Thank you, father."

Rumpel finished his whiskey in one. "Have you told your mother yet?"

"Yeah…" Gideon said rubbing at the back of his head. "I don't want to tell her just yet."

"Why not?" Rumpel frowned at his son across the workbench. Belle would kill Rumpel if he did not tell her, so he hoped his son would save him from death by telling her himself.

"There's the help bit, I wanted to talk to you about." Gideon looked very coy before continuing. "I want to do a surprise proposal."

"Okay." Rumpel pursed his lips after he spoke, thinking 'what are you getting me involved in?'

Gideon leant forward onto his elbows onto the workbench. "I just don't have any ideas of how to do it."

"And you think I would?" Rumpel said with a chuckle.

"Father, you can be quite romantic at times. I've seen you with mother." Gideon said.

Rumpel scrunched his eyebrows at his son. "I only ever do what I feel is right at the time. I don't think about what would be romantic."

"Okay then," Gideon leant off the workbench and ambled round the bench to stand beside his father, his hip leaning against the workbench. "How would you do it, if you was to ask mother to marry you today as a surprise?"

With a deep sigh, Rumpel scratched at his brow and thought about it before he said. "First thing first, I would get the engagement ring. Something special but not too over the top, because I would want the wedding ring to out shine it."

Gideon took a mental note of what his father said, nodding his head, as he said. "And?"

"And then, I would…" He thought about it and then smiled. "Take your mother to our cabin for a weekend getaway. Then whilst we were having tea, I would hide the engagement ring in her teacup."

"You two have a fascination with teacups." Gideon said, rolling his eyes at his parents.

"It's a special moment from our past." Rumpel informed his son with a playful shove.

Gideon laughed and then said. "But that wouldn't work for me. We don't have a thing like that."

"You could take her away to the cabin for the weekend." Rumpel said, loosening his tie from around his neck. "The moment would probably present itself to you."

"What? As I give her some cereal for breakfast?" Gideon scoffed.

"No. I mean like if the two of you were sat in front of the fire and then you felt the time was right, you could propose to her." Rumpel waved his hand in the air, trying to get his point across.

Gideon gave Rumpel a lopsided smile. "Are you positive you're not romantic?"

Leaning to one side, Rumpel glared up at his son beside him. "I will remind you that I am the Dark One and you are not too big to go over my knee."

They laughed together at what Rumpel said, but Gideon seemed to have a sobering thought. "It doesn't sound very special at the moment." Gideon said, covering his face with his hands.

As Rumpel went to speak, the shop door opened and rung with the bell. "Rumpel!"

The two men looked between each other hearing Belle's voice in the other room. The curtains parted and Belle appeared who looked surprised to see Rumpel and Gideon together. She walked around the workbench taking in the sight of the two of them and kissed Rumpel.

"I came to see if you wanted to go and get some lunch together." Belle suggested to him, her arm naturally hung around his shoulders.

"Erm…" Rumpel looked at Gideon and then back to Belle. "We were just talking about something, sweetheart. If you go and order, I'll be there in a minute."

"Talking about what?" Belle asked as her gaze split between the two men.

Gideon shook his head at his mother. "Nothing really. Just father and son stuff."

Her eyebrow raised at what Gideon said. "Stuff?"

"You know," Rumpel pulled her closer with an arm around her waist, bringing her face close to his. "Stuff!"

"Oh!" Belle said before kissing Rumpel quickly and leaving his embrace to leave the room, saying as she went. "I'll leave you boys to talk about 'stuff' then." They waited until they heard the shop door open and close again, signalling that they were alone again. Rumpel stood from his stool and walked over to where his suit jacket was hanging.

"Let's do the first call of business first." Rumpel said, shrugging on his suit jacket. "Let me have lunch with your mother and then tonight, come round my house and I'll have a selection of rings for you to choose from."

"Okay. Thank you, father." Gideon said approaching his father and hugged him. Rumpel squeezed his dear son, relishing at being able to hold him. He never pushed for any physical contact. Rumpel was well aware that some men did not like showing emotion or touching their fathers. Nevertheless, he was so happy that his son was comfortable enough with him that it did not matter if they were alone or in the street, Gideon would hug his father no matter who was around.