Rose Chapter 1

Unhappy Childhood

I don't own any of the characters on Once, all glory goes to the writers and Adam and Eddie. This is a bit AU, but takes place about 13 years after Belle banished Rumple. It will start slow and maybe angsty, but will pick up pace and have fluff. Please review/follow/favorite.

"I wonder if everyone else's life is this hard," has been my constant thought since the day I was born. My name is Rose Marie Gold, and I'm the child of the Dark One and Belle. Those two forces of good and evil should make a perfect harmony in my life, but they don't. They would if both forces were constantly present in my life, and they aren't. So my life is what you would expect from being the only offspring of the darkest and the lightest: crazy. The want to do good is in me just as strong as the want to do evil. I'm a villain and a hero. It's like I have messed up DNA.

To help you understand me, you first have to understand both of the lives of my parents. My dad is the Dark One, Rumple is easier to call him, and he is the strongest evil force known to man. He will manipulate you, make deals with you, and eventually you will feel like his slave because of how much you owe him. He wasn't always like this though.

My father had a hard childhood. His dad, grandpa Peter, was the town drunk. His mom abandoned him after trying to change Peter, but realizing she never could. I guess that's what my mom did too but that comes in later. Peter would come home in the wee hours of the morning just to pass out on the couch. He never had a stable job and was never there for Rumple. He never talked to him, or rough housed, or praised him about his good grades. Dad was crippled in his right leg. He had saved a student, Neal, from a car about to run him over in front of school. Ever since then they had been the best of friends. Because of his leg, he could never play sports. Of course his father wouldn't even be there to cheer him on if he could. He spent all his time in the local club: Neverland Paradise.

By High School it was too late. Rumple had grown up without a mother and a father who was just as bad. He was picked on by the other kids because of his leg and his father. Neal was the only one who stood by him. Until Zoso came along…

"Rose, get your ass down!"

-Page Break-

"Stupid pig," I think angrily as I am rudely interrupted by my step-father, Gaston. "Coming," I shout back with forced cheerfulness.

"Hurry up girl; you have chores to do."

I come out of my bedroom and go down the stairs trying not to stomp in anger. "I'm here," I announce when I reach the last step.

"Good. I'm going out and your mother and I want you to clean the garage."

I sigh knowing exactly what that would require. I would have no free time for the rest of the day. "Don't you dare sigh at me missy," he says harshly after catching my mistake. "Your mother and I work hard to put a roof over your head. You will never understand that level of responsibility, so the best you can do is clean the house for us while we go to work. I swear, sometimes you're just so ungrateful."

I could hardly keep from saying, yeah right you don't work, but I don't want anymore trouble so instead I answer back, "Yes, I understand."

"Good. And no more attitude from you girl." He says as he thankfully leaves. I go to the garage to get a head start because I know it's going to be a long job. Gaston had trashed the garage, along with some of his buddies, last Friday when he came home drunk. All that BS about him working has my stomach want to spit out fire. I feel a tinkling in my hands and a bit of smoke start to rise. "Control yourself now Rose," I whisper to myself. I don't want to make any more messes, but I'm able to get myself back to normal fast.

As I clean I think of mom and Gaston. She married him after she had left my dad. Mom had grown up more traditional, and a woman with a child and no husband to support her seemed a tragedy. One day, Gaston had come into the library where she worked and had wooed her off her feet. But the thing that really made her decide to marry him was that he said he was willing to be a father to me. "He's been anything but," I scoff. She had not seen his laziness and arrogance in that moment. Now she has to try and support us on her meager pay, and I am stuck with all the housework. Gaston will sit around all day and do nothing. Or else have fun with his normal crew.

It took me all day to clean the garage, and I have just enough time to eat a quick dinner before Gaston comes home. I race up the stairs as soon as I see his truck pull up in the driveway. Now what did that stupid cleaning job interrupt me from. Oh, that's right. I was going to tell you about my father and Mr. Zoso. And of course how my parents met at Storybrooke High.

As for my other story about Milah I'm still writing it but I have writers block. Some help would be greatly appreciated :)