Case in Point
Summary: At long last, a full-length "Once Upon a Time" story from me! I wasn't sure about this, but someone was very insistent that I could/should do something other than a one-shot. So here goes …
This is a sort of AU in which the relationship between Rumplestiltskin and Regina in "our world" mirrors their student/teacher relationship in FTL (with some of my own head-cannon thrown in as well). The plot: Regina is a brilliant and eager first-year law student. Maleficent is the sharp but friendly second-year law student who takes her under her wing. And Rumplestiltskin is Professor Gold, one of the most respected, admired, and intimidating instructors at the school (I think this fits, since as you recall he was Mary Margaret's lawyer in Season 1). Young Regina finds herself in his Contracts class. Oh, and he's also assigned as her academic advisor. Other FTL characters will pop up in various roles as the mood strikes me. Twyla Mercedes, this one's for you!
Prologue: Before the Curse
Before the curse is cast, Regina is given a choice.
Well, she's given several choices, to be exact. She gets to chose who people will be. How they will be punished, in this new land, this land without magic.
Some choices are easy to make. Plucky young Snow becomes the timid schoolteacher. Her defiant Prince Charming becomes a comatose man whose name his wife doesn't even know. Jefferson, who deceived her so badly, is forever separated from his daughter.
When it comes to … him, however, the choice is more difficult.
Before she makes her decision, the curse offers her a vision of how it could play out.
Sometimes she thinks this curse is bigger than he who created it, and she who wields it, bigger than anything she's ever known, and that it has a sort of … consciousness, a mind of its own.
The curse shows her that she and Rumplestiltskin could have a history parallel to the one they shared in their world. And it shows her that she could live that history, plunge into that reality, in the span of a few seconds, then come back out, and make her decision.
It's probably better just to invent some vague back story for him and not bother with all this foolishness.
And yet … and yet …
My wicked one.
Regina takes a deep breath, and plunges into the mists.