Here's a little mini-project that I decided to do when I started reading DaesGatling's "Enemy of My Enemy." What I have here is eleven loosely related drabbles in two AUs - thus two chapters - inspired by the Rascal Flatts' CD Feels Like Today. I wrote each drabble in the amount of time it took for the correlating song to play, separated them into the AUs, and here they are. Enjoy!
If it helps you make sense of these: "Oklahoma-Texas Line" and "Holes" take place pre-series, as if they were some of their cursed memories."Where You Are" takes place in season two. "When the Sand Runs Out" and "Fast Cars and Freedom" take place in season four. The last three take place post-season four.
OKLAHOMA-TEXAS LINE
"He really doesn't like you," Mary Margaret giggled, watching her cat, Percy, attempt to dig his claws into Mr. Gold's ankle as he walked into their home.
He shook the cat off of him and glared at it before saying, "Well, at least we're getting away from him for our day out."
"We don't have to go out," she suggested. "I know you don't like being in public… or affectionate, human, in public."
"For you I will," he grinned at her.
"Yeah, and I appreciate that… but I'm suggesting that we stay here anyway," she said, sashaying towards him with a now unmistakable purpose.
"Ah." Now he got it, pulling her to him for a kiss as he said, "In that case, I guess I could put up with the cat."
HOLES
Mary Margaret had left him. It was inevitable, he supposed; he was, after all, a hard man to love. But it still hurt. He felt like there was a hole in his heart, like maybe she had actually taken his heart with him when she left. Nothing was helping the feeling… not even the far too many drinks he'd had since she'd stormed out.
Maybe she'll be back. He hoped.
He had hope… and even in the midst of his pain, he could realize that she'd done that to him. She'd showed him how to hope – but for now she was gone.
And the thought just widened the hole in his heart.
He picked up his cane and pitched it across the room aiming for the wall. If his heart was going to have holes in it, then the wall might as well get a few too.
WHERE YOU ARE
Rumplestiltskin knew that he was a hard man to love… so not many people loved him. But that didn't mean that he didn't love other people. He did – some very deeply. He loved Belle for more reasons than he could count. She loved him back, for one thing.
But there was another person here that he loved, and that… well, that was entirely Regina's fault. Rumplestiltskin hadn't known that she was going to put that particular bit – a Mrs. Gold – into the curse, but she had… even if the woman who had been cursed into being Mrs. Gold had never acknowledged that fact. Because their cursed marriage had been formed as one that was already on the rocks.
She had moved out of their pink home in a "trial separation" making it plain that she didn't love him. But Mr. Gold loved Mary Margaret Blanchard-Gold despite himself, and so did Rumplestiltskin… at least a little bit.
WHEN THE SAND RUNS OUT
People had come and gone in Rumplestiltskin's life – too many people, considering his age – but Bae's death had hit him particularly hard, and for good reason. It had woken him up. Woken him up to the fact that the woman who he was supposed to be honeymooning with wasn't the woman that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with – and they both knew it. So it was time that they faced it.
It was time that he faced his fears and confessed his feelings to the real object of his affection. Yes, he knew it was near impossible that she would accept him, but he had to try. He had to change. He would promise her that he meant to change, and he would do it, he would prove himself to her.
He would start living the life he wanted, even if he didn't actually deserve that life… and that started with talking to Snow White about his affection for her.
Probably she would throw him out – or, better yet, call David, who would try to kill him… but at least he would die trying to get his happy ending.
FAST CARS AND FREEDOM
"You don't need that, you know," Rumplestiltskin informed Snow White, coming up behind her to wrap his arms around her waist as he looked at her in the bathroom mirror of her apartment. "I don't know why you even bother putting makeup on."
"Everyone has to put on a good face, Rum," she said, a little bit sadly.
The double meaning was unmistakable.
After all the memories Regina had given them once upon a time of being a happily married couple – after those feelings between them had remained even once the curse broke – it seemed wrong that they had to sneak around like this, hiding out at his cabin to get a moment alone together… away from their respective so-called true loves to be together. They had so many good memories of one another that it was hard to pretend that they weren't there, even if that was apparently what they were supposed to be doing.
To the outside world, it appeared as if Snow and Rumplestiltskin hadn't changed at all from what they'd been back in the Enchanted Forest, but Rumplestiltskin saw. He saw the way hiding their continued relationship had worn on Snow, the way it had made him look his actual age… and he hated it for both of them – but not enough to forget what they had.
BLESS THE BROKEN ROAD
Mr. Gold wasn't a gentle man; he broke, tore, and destroyed most things that he came in contact with. Those things that he even just touched were never left the same, and not in a good way. Yet somehow one woman in Storybrooke seemed impervious to his destruction.
The gentle little school teacher Mary Margaret Blanchard seemed totally unaffected by his reputation, oddly enough… and he liked that about her. And after the curse broke? Well, he liked the fearless Snow White even better. But he wasn't stupid enough to say so for a long while.
His heart had been broken too many times, and she had David… but then Belle cast him away and David gave his life at the hands – or fiery breath – of Maleficent's dragon daughter… and things fell into place. Rumplestiltskin and Snow White somehow found comfort in one another, and slowly but surely, in some sort of a miracle, they found true love. The road towards one another had been a painful, broken one, but still… they had each other now.
THE DAY BEFORE YOU
Rumplestiltskin had lived a very long and lonely life… and none of it had prepared him for what was now facing him. He'd been cursed more times than he could count, and yet today was a dream come true – a miracle really – and she was coming down the aisle of Storybrooke's single church in a dress that was as snowy white as her name.
She was breathtaking, and honestly… inspiring. He was going to spend every day from now on with this miraculous woman… and it made him regret how long he'd lived without her. But she was here now, and for her he was doing better – being better – and he never wanted to go back to the day before he had her at his side.
He loved her and everything that she was, she loved him and everything that he was – and everything that he was becoming because of her – and he couldn't wait to see what all of their tomorrows held.
BREAK AWAY
Mr. Gold really did hate the drama that permeated Storybrooke sometimes. It inevitably took away perfect moments like this – his new wife in his arms, still asleep as he pressed the gentlest of kisses onto her forehead.
"Snow," he whispered against her ear. "Let's get out of here."
"What?" she murmured, still half asleep.
"I don't want to be where they can find us; they will. I just want to be with you. Let's go to the cabin; our honeymoon won't be interrupted there. Please?"
She mumbled nothing in particular as she snuggled closer to him with a sleepy smile on her face.
"Whatever you want… as long as you give me five more minutes to doze."