I hope you like this little thing.
Note: this was inspired by episode one of season six of The Vampire Diaries.
Nothing left to make me feel anymore
There's only you and every day I need more
~ Anything For You by Evanescence
~ Hope ~
She walked in like she owned the place. Not that she gave a damn about the grumpy stare its owner had given her or the fact that she was the last person he'd wanted to see at the moment.
Tough luck on his part.
"I believe the sign said closed, Miss Swan," Gold said in his nonchalant tone of voice, devoid of its usual mockery, though the smugness and attitude were still there.
He might not be the Dark One anymore, but not a lot had changed regarding his personality.
"I need your help," Emma said, her own tone revealing that was not just a simple request. Her need meant want, and that meant right here and now, whether he agreed with whatever it was that she wanted or not.
"Is that so?" Gold snarked. Of course she needed something. Why else would anyone dare cross the doorstep of his humble little shop? People rarely stopped by to buy anything anymore. If he had guests, they were there to either blame him for something, or make demands with no intention of paying for the desired help.
It was times like these that he wished he was still a Dark One.
"I need to see him," Emma said. Her voice trembled at the world him, almost bringing back that river of tears she'd tried her hardest to hold back, to suppress it at least while she was in public.
No one needed to see her grief, her sorrow, her suffering.
No one needed to witness her worst.
Especially not Gold.
She needed no pity; no blank stares, or saddened looks, or voices silent for its owners were at loss as to what to say.
The only thing she needed was closure. And she was going to get it one way or another, whether the former Dark One before her had agreed to help her or not.
"Dead is dead," Gold reminded her.
His old self would have taken pride in such a statement, perhaps even let a mocking chuckle escape his wicked lips.
This one had, however, simply offered a short explanation he'd given to many before her.
Though, those people he'd taunted and attempted to trick. On the other hand, Emma, whom he'd found herself growing closer to prior to her becoming what he once was due to the child she'd shared with his son, was, dared he say it, family. Incredibly distant and strained, but family nonetheless. He couldn't find it in his newly restored pure, heroic heart to take pleasure in her grief.
"Magic can't bring back the ones that are lost."
"I know that," Emma said, perhaps a bit too harshly, but she didn't care. She had a facade to maintain; a face to keep firm and strict, and a voice to stop from breaking.
She didn't need Gold to point out things she already knew. She was a lot of things, but stupid wasn't one of them. She was aware that magic could do a lot of things; she was, after all, one of the few lucky ones gifted with it. But there were miracles even such a powerful force could not perform.
Right now she didn't want a miracle. All she wanted was a small, tiny lie. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a little lie to keep her sanity for she was on her way to lose it all over again.
"Then what is it that you desire, dearie?" Gold inquired.
"I want a potion," she said. "A spell. Anything. I just want to see him again."
"I'm not a Dark One anymore," he reminded, and he'd be damned if he wasn't cocky about it. The darkness might have made him into something he wasn't, but it was still a part of him for centuries. That is not something that just goes away.
The taste of it would always be within him, eating him up inside, making him miss the power, the control, the dominance he'd once had. Making him miss the fear a simple glare of his could inflict upon souls unfortunate enough to meet it.
He may be a hero now, but even those of purest of hearts have a little bit of dark in them.
"Perhaps," Emma said. "But you still own a magical shop. There must be something in here that can help me."
Can. Not could. Because she was certain this man had what she wanted, no, what she needed, and he was going to give it to her, willingly or not.
For his wellbeing, she hoped it was the former. She'd made great progress. It would be a shame if her newly restored light magic was to take a shade of dark once again.
"I do," Gold confirmed with a slight nod. "However," he raised his forefinger as if to prove a point, "what you conjure will not be him, dearie. Just you." He brought his finger to his temple, casually tapping it. "A fragment of your imagination."
"I don't care," Emma said coldly, her voice dripping with venom that was clearly a threat. She wanted that, whatever he'd had, and she wanted it now. And he better give it to her without stalling.
Even an illusion would be better than nothing. Better than living her life without the one who made her feel most alive; the one who taught her to enjoy life, to allow herself to experience true, pure bliss. The one she'd planned a future with; a bright future full of joy and life, of nothing but happiness.
He'd promised her no pain. No suffering. No abandonment. Just love and understanding. And that was all he'd given her since day one.
It may have been short, but it was worth it. Every day she'd spent with him was worth all the hurt, all the pain. Worth everything bad that had been eating her alive ever since he'd gone away for good.
If only it had been forever, like they'd planned.
However, good things always have to come to an end. That was one of fate's cruelest unwritten rules. She would know; loss was no foreign term for her. She'd experienced it a lot.
And it always fucking hurt all over again, like a nightmare she couldn't wake up from.
Why had she been so foolish to listen to him and take it all away, when it was her who should have had her heart pierced by the cursed sword? Why had she indulged that one request that came with the highest of prices?
Had it been her, he would have suffered, yes. But he'd lived for hundreds of years. He would have found a way to live again, to breathe again, to love again. He would have been alive and – maybe not right away, but eventually – happy.
At least that's what she'd been telling herself since the moment her hand forced the sword through his chest, shattering all their dreams, turning them into nothing but empty wishes.
Some would consider those thoughts selfish.
Some would call them selfless.
She thought of them as just dreams and wishes never to come alive.
Just like him.
Because, as Gold and many others before him had said, dead is dead. Not even magic can reverse the lost force of life.
But what it could do was create illusions. Just a little false hope, a little bit of lies and fantasies. That was all she needed at the moment. To say one last "I love you", utter a proper goodbye, say a few loving words. To thank him for the memories.
Or get herself lost in what she should have been having had life gone differently, had fate not been so cruel as to take all the happiness she'd rebuilt after last time away again.
As if one time wasn't enough.
"I need to see him again," she repeated, her voice bearing more power, more authority than before.
That was an order, the man before her realized. And Rumplestiltskin didn't take kindly to orders, considering he was usually the one spouting them out like curses he'd once been so fond of.
This one, however, he was willing to indulge. Such desperation, he thought, to have to lose a part of your mind in order to not lose its entirety. To have to indorse a lie to regain the little sanity there was left in that pretty little head of hers. Not even he, back in those cowardly days he'd rather leave in the past where they belonged, would have sunk that low.
The man almost chuckled. There was no point in attempting to trick the Savior into making a deal. Not that he'd had the power to enforce it, anyway, even if he'd tried. Emma might not have been the Dark One anymore, but she still had the gift of magic and, by the stern look on her face and the venom in her voice, he'd known better than to try and play her.
"Very well," Gold relented.
He walked over to the back of his shop, his steps slow, cautious, leaving Emma alone with her thoughts. Her eyes never left his back, a silent threat to not attempt to cross her, not attempt to play one of his games, for she both could and would have his head at the slightest provocation.
The man was quick to return with a small vial in his hand, an item barely an inch bigger than a test tube, filled with liquid of the dark color of purple, almost sparkling under the dim light the small shop provided.
"Here you go, dearie."
He stretched his arm out to her and Emma snatched the vial with a swift, almost inhuman move. Clasping it with both of her hands, she brought it to her chest, holding onto it as if it were a small child, gently, yet protectively, her eyes firmly locked with his as if warning him away from the potion.
The potion that had been her temporary salvation.
"One drop of this and poof!" Gold said, ignoring the woman's glare, his hands making a theatrical gesture, one he'd been known for back in his days as the Dark One. "Your pirate is back."
"For how long?" Emma inquired.
"An hour," the former Dark One replied. "That is, if you follow the instructions."
She turned on her heel, heading for the door without a simple thank you. Such rudeness, he thought. But it was understandable. If he was to lose Belle the way she'd lost her dearest pirate…
He may not have been the Captain's biggest fan, but he understood the Savior. Heavens know he'd had his own share of losses, one more painful than the other. He couldn't blame the woman for wanting the one she loved back, even as just an illusion.
"Have in mind, dearie," he said just as she was about to walk out. She stopped dead in her tracks, not bothering to spare him a glance. "That is the last potion of the kind. Make it last."
Giving a slight, barely noticeable nod, Emma slammed the door to the shop and headed for the one place she knew she'd be alone, the one place where no one would bother her and question her actions.
She couldn't stop a smile from creeping onto her lips. She would see him again, and soon. Maybe not the real him, but him nonetheless. He would be there, before her in all his pirate glory, as if he'd never left her side.
And she would, after days of pure agony, finally be at peace again.
This is it for chapter one. I hope it turned out decent. Please, drop me a review to let me know what you think.
Chapter two is coming soon.