Plum
Rumple's thoughts as he looks at his past, present and future. TW: reference to marital rape, nothing too major but felt like I should mention. These characters belong to the great Adam and Eddie, I own this storyline. Thanks in advance for reading and please let me know what you think!
That'd it feel wrong was something he expected. He'd held her as a babe, pink and plum with her cherub-like features. She really was a beauty, even at that age. She'd grown up under his watchful eye, even though Cora tried and tried again to keep him away, she would be his ticket to his son. He just had to adjust his plans a bit. Cora, unsurprisingly, turned out to be a horrid mother, unloving in many a way but the child grew to be as kind as her mother was cruel. He saw her skipping happily through her childhood and knew something had to be done. She was twelve when the boy was introduced to her by his grandfather. She wasn't fond of him, nor was did she disdain him. She merely nothing-ed him. That changed when they both turned fourteen and mindless babble turned into that sort of awkward flirting only teenagers were capable of. By then she'd figured out her father was really a spineless man who could offer her nothing but his presence, so the boy became her only confidant. When they started sharing sweet kisses under her apple tree, he became her secret, the one thing that was really hers and hers alone. When he died, so did her secret, her freedom and her happiness.
He watched her in her wedding-dress when she discovered who was responsible for her fiancé's death, and the final bit of kindness left her eyes. He saw her the morning after her wedding night, when the innocence had gone but the bruises hadn't and she'd become a ghost of the girl she once was. A puppet, ready for his manipulations.
When he taught her, he still thought of her as that little tyke, a child in many ways. He'd often called her 'child' when he mocked her, she hated this and bit angrily that her husband did the same. As her power grew, so did her confidence. He started thinking of her in a less innocent way. When he never used to touch her, now he allowed his hand to fall on the small of her back, on her ribs, her arms. He loved grabbing her neck, his thumb and index finger painfully at her jawline, forcing her eyes to meet his in a fight for dominance. He always won. Perhaps it was because of Milah or Cora or even Zelena, they were all commanding and domineering, but he enjoyed seeing her at his feet, like a pet. His little monster, just like he created her.
Even when she was about, hunting down her stepdaughter while ruling an unwilling yet somehow thriving kingdom, just a few words would have her kneeling. She might've grown to play games with him, feeling smarter and more clever every day, trying to gain some of the power she clearly didn't have. But most of their encounters ended with her between his legs, resting her chin on his thigh, him petting her hair. There was nothing sexual about it. Just a master with his pet.
It changed when Belle came into view. He'd never expected to fall in love with someone the way he fell for her. Milah had been his first love, he hadn't known any better. Cora had been an equal, but their shared passion, or more their shared hatred would have led to nothing. Regina was his, but he didn't feel for her the way he felt for Belle. It was different. That they all ended up rejecting him didn't surprise him in the least. What did surprise him was this separated part of Regina, forcing her way into his shop, into his life again. Except the passive side of her, the part he relished in, had stayed with the good Regina. The Queen was all dominance and play.
So he supposed it would've been wrong and it should've felt a lot wronger than it did, but Regina and The Queen were two completely different people now. Regina would revolt, would she know where he touched her, that he knew where she liked to be touched. One day he would use that information against her, taunt her with it. The Queen would taunt her counterpart with her swollen belly, a fact that disgusted everyone but them. It would be a trick from her side, wanting to reunite with the sickly good woman, be whole again, to fully feel again. And Regina would have to comply or risk a child that was somewhat hers to be raised by someone truly evil. Neither Belle nor Regina would want him involved in the lives of his sons, but those were all problems of the future.
Right now, The Queen was kneeling before him again. But there was nothing submissive about it. It was also a lot less innocent than it used to be.
N/B: Thanks for reading. I'm back, not just with writing. OUAT really almost lost me for a bit there in season 5, I liked the storyline but I felt like the writing had been better and a lot of stuff was very... ex machina, if you know what I mean. This season though, it's really going back to its roots. I'm not just loving it because I'm a big Regina fan, but I also feel like the other characters are getting better, stronger and just more realistic parts. A&E really stepped up their game. I'm also a very low key Golden Queen shipper, with Lana and Robbie being just... wow (my opinion) so I can't believe it became Canon. Very happy and weirded out about it. If someone wants to fangirl with me, please PM me!