Notes: Just stumbled upon this story I wrote last April, shortly after watching Skin Deep (1x12). I've been shipping Rumple/Regina since the beginning of the show, so I wrote this to "fix" that episode within cannon. A lot have happened on the show since then, so this is quite AU now...
Belle
Belle kisses Rumplestiltskin. He had seen the kiss in his visions, and thought perhaps they would have a chance at love. What he did not foresee was how she would smell and taste like apples and honey, and how the taste would bring up images of raven-black hair and dark eyes in which he could have drowned himself. He pushes her away harshly, appalled. The sensation of magic rushing through his veins back into his heart is all too farmiliar, even though the last time he had experienced this seemed like a lifetime ago. It was easier back then, before that single drop of tear had taken up residence inside of his heart.
He looks down at his almost human hands, and shrieks at the girl in front of him. The sunset has lit her auburn hair on fire, her blue eyes are wide and pure with love swimming in them. He hates her then, for her innocence and goodness, but most of all for his own inability to love her. The queen had ruined Belle for him. The queen had ruined him, for everyone.
He pounces over to her mirrror and screams at her. Jumping, pointing, cursing, delirious, not caring if he gives her pleasure by revealing his pain. Afterwards he reflects, that she must really have enjoyed the show. She must have enjoyed it enough to come all the way to gloat at him in person.
That will do
"Teach me how to take hearts", she demands.
"For a price, yes, of course. No, not apples, your majesty". His caresses the crisp apple in her outstretched hand, and then touches her palm as the apple shrivels to dust. "See, they don't last", he says giddily, but she sees sadness in his eyes.
"A golden thread, on the other hand, lasts many lifetimes". He closes the space between them without taking a single step, and pulls on the gold thread around her neck until the hidden trinket hanging from it comes into sight. "This will do". He reaches for the ring that's still warm from being close to her heart.
"You can't have it", she says, then more meekly, "You can have me instead". He steps in closer and drops the ring back into her bossom. "No, I can't have you, as long as you have that ring, can I?" She shivers as the metal has lost some of its warmth, and his breath is hot as it reaches her right ear. "That will do, though, I suppose".
The blood suprises him, and her pain. Later on they both would wonder if he would have been gentler had he known. In that moment it doesn't matter though, as they are both too excited to stop and think, and soon afterwards the ceiling fell on them.
Falling
The king took no interest in her for himself. She was to be a gentle and virtuous queen, like the pale moon, that gave comfort to his daughter and the kingdom. Rumplestiltskin awoke something powerful in her though. She would never again be content to be like the moon, to simply reflect another's light. Sometimes she likes to think that Rumple prevented her from falling, into obscurity.
It's hard to pinpoint the moment they fell for each other. Some would say that as she fell from grace, the Dark One fell for her. At least they took great pleasure, and secretly pity, in each other. With each embrace he let himself become a bit more human. Eventually, his long nails would retract so that he didn't leave gushes in her back, his scales would fade so that he could feel the softness of her skin, and all his magic would retreat back to his heart so that he wouldn't bring down the ceiling in ecstasy. The first time the ceiling fell on them he thought he had killed her.
Protege
He teaches her magic of air, mineral, water, and fire. He teaches her potions, mirages, and all his favourite spells. Never once, though, does he touch on matters of the heart. He wakes up one day with limbs tied to the bed posts. He isn't all that suprised.
She demands her end of the bargain, so he guides her to take his heart out. Glowing red with veins of gold, the entirety of his magic, beating in her hands. She doesn't dare to look at his face. Crying, she puts his heart back, along with a drop of her tear.
"You'll come back", he states as if it's a fact, yet uncertain of himself. "Maybe", she says, equally uncertain. "Don't go", he screams inwardly as he watches her leave. He's revisited by visions of her with other men. He knows she's not coming back.
She does come back though, to find him atop a beatiful princess on the dining table, scales and nails and all. He looks up only to see a shadow fade away.
Her mother's heart is dimmer, smaller, and harder, yet no less fragile. Regina cannot bring her hand to squeeze, so she lets go, and merely watches as it crashes to the ground and crumbles to dust. Not unlike the apple I gave him, she thinks.
Visions
He spies on her in his visions, unwillingly. He despises himself for being jealous of the men she beds. Her heartless pets. She keeps their hearts in boxes with quaint labels, and he wonders if any of them are tear-stained like his.
Everytime she cries his heart hurts.
The king's birthday, the festivities makes her extra lonely. She cries herself to sleep and dreams of him. His dark eyes and golden skin. Whenever she cries she dreams of him. She wonders if he ever thinks of her. She decides to go see him, maybe even make ammends.
She runs into Belle on the road, and sees that the girl loves him, but is leaving. She would not let another make the same mistake she made, and so she convinces Belle to return.
She lets her carrage wander and almost misses the ensuing scene in front of the mirror.
True Love
He gets Snow and Charming's hair and distills True Love, and invents an antidote for it. It numbs his heart against the pain caused by the evil queen.
Her heart breaks a little for him when Belle dies. She thinks he must have loved that girl. Through the mirror, she had seen them kiss, him becoming almost human.
She goes to check on him, meaning to comfort yet her every word injures. They fall into bed together somehow, his nails sharp, his skin cold and smooth, his lips metalic, the ceiling doesn't fall but the bed breaks. She cries quietly, for the second love she lost. His chest is wet with her tears, and he's relieved that his heart is numb.
She asks him for the dark curse, to take away everyone's happy endings. He takes her ring in exchange, and she lets him. He puts the ring on, it's a bit too tight. He welcomes the physical pain. He has her heart now, because she's given in to darkness just as he has. He's not sure how much of himself he has left.
Perhaps
The True Love antidote wears off and his heartache comes back. He ups the dosage, once, and again. Eventually it loses its effect. He's tired. Tired of people, tired of making deals, so he lets himself get caught and thrown in a dungeon, where he's well fed and has few visitors.
She finds him there, and accuses him of giving her a faulty curse. He twists her ring around his finger and calmly asks her to kill her father. "Real magic takes real sacrifices. You should know that by now, dearie". The horror and hatred in her eyes stabs his heart like a dagger, yet he's relieved to see that she still has feelings left.
He bargains with her then, for her. He wants her in this next life, no matter what else may come. All he would have to do is to say "please", and she would bend to his will. She would kiss him tenderly, whisper honey-dipped words into his ears, profess her love to him, and perhaps, even love him, and let him love her back.