The sun was sinking beneath the horizon line- the last glimmer of daylight presently streaming across the wooden floor of the Gold family living room. As he lie on the couch taking it in, along with the smell of roast drifting from the kitchen and the sound of Belle clattering pots and pans together as she cooked, Rumple brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes and glanced on the floor in front of him. He and Belle had been through a lot-well ever since they'd known one another it had seemed like they constantly had to fight to be together- but this past year and a half had tested their relationship and pulled it to its absolute breaking point. It'd been his fault- mainly- he knew that, with all the lies he had spun together behind her his plots to kill the pirate and strip the Savior of her magic all to ensure his plans went along as planned. He hadn't wanted to do all those awful deeds, truly he hadn't, but the chance to free himself from that forsaken dagger had arisen and-at that point in time- he had been willing to do anything to free himself of its control. What he hadn't planned on was making his vast web of lies, murdering people, deceiving his wife, trapping other magical entities in a hat, and least of all being pushed out of town by his own sweet wife. Truthfully-perhaps the saddest part of the ordeal- he could blame her for it. No matter how much hurt she'd subjected him to by banishing him, he knew he deserved it. Oh well that was all behind him. What mattered now was that he was back in Storybrook, and had made some good choices and things between he and his wife had been mended. Everything was ideal now for Gold, and he knew he would never let it slip through his fingers again. Especially with the new-
"WHAHHHHHHHHHHH!" A shrill scream made Gold jump backwards on the couch a little, he glanced down immediately after he got his bearings together.
"Hey now," Rumple cooed, scooping the baby up from the yellow bouncer and cradling the babe in his arms, "Papa's here, it's alright." He softly flicked the baby's nose and squeezed his child closer to his chest. "I promise I'll always be here for you… Always." A lump found its way in his throat-those words sounded awfully similar to ones he had spoken centuries ago. "I'll do better." He whispered, nuzzling his head close to the baby. "I promise." A light tug on his hair brought his thoughts back to just ones of pure contentment and away from the pain of the past- and he made his voice higher pitched to speak to the infant. "Do you have Papa's hair?" He shook his head gently and the baby giggled, "Do you?" He tickled the baby's feet, which seemed to make the tug on hold on his hair tighter, "Oww, yes you do have Papa's hair." He pulled it out of the baby's grasp, even he was surprised with how quickly his tone had turned to seriousness. "You're a strong one." Gold pressed his lips to the baby's head. "Just like your brother and your mama." This- being a father again- was truly the greatest gift he'd ever known, and one he thought he'd never again get to experience after Neal's death. He wasn't going to ask questions, though. Some greater force had granted him the chance to be a husband and a father again- given him a second chance at the life he'd always wanted- he wasn't going to mess it up this time. "You want to play?" The sapphire blue eyes the child had obviously inherited from Belle shone up at him blankly. "Come on, come play with Papa." He lowered both himself and the baby on the floor- setting the youngster on the ground in front of him- and reached for a light brown stuffed bear Belle had insisted upon buying just before the baby shower." Come get Mr. Bear." He wiggled the toy in front of the baby's face, scooting himself backwards as he did, "Come to Papa, come on." He encouraged the baby who-at seven months old- was still a bit wobbly and still getting accustomed to crawling. Nevertheless, the kid was able to pull their weight towards Gold. "Yes!" Gold cheered, picking the child up. "You're crawling! You did it!" Once again, Gold kissed his child's head. "Papa loves you." He ran his finger over the smooth flesh of new life, feeling the fine hair on the head of his child and taking in the beauty of this symbol of he and Belle's eternal love- her eyes and nose with his lips and facial structure. "You want to fly?" The simple question tasted bitter in his mouth- flying. Wasn't that what had made his own father abandon him? Yes, it was, but he was not his father and neither was his offspring. "You'll live it, sweetie, I hear its lots of fun."
Gold dangled the baby in the air-holding it firmly as to support the head. He knew that at seven months old his child was capable of supporting their own head, but he couldn't stop the instinct to protect the baby. "Super Baby!" He was rewarded by tingly laughter from the new life. "You really want to be Super Baby?" He asked, biting his tongue, and the baby clapped as if to say 'yes'. "Mama wouldn't like this… Don't tell her." His finger went to his mouth to symbolize to the baby to keep quiet for a moment, and then he adjusted the child in the crook of his arm. Using the finger of his free hand, he pointed toward the baby and raised is hand- the baby raising with it. Soon, the child was in the air bad Gold was chuckling heartily. He rotated his hand in slow circles, watching above him as his baby spun in the air-laughing and clapping gleefully the entire time.
After a few moments, Gold brought the levitating baby back down to him-he didn't want to risk getting caught by Belle. He kept a solid hold on the baby that was now resting against his knees. "What about some littler magic? Mama detests magic being used in play, but you will have to use it one day-a child born of true love holds very special gifts." He kept one hand on the baby and raised the other slightly in the air and produced a large bubble of water. "I suppose it's better to start you with water instead of fire." He moved the bubble closer to the baby-a tiny hand reaching out to touch the glimmering thing in its father's hand. "Yes, touch it, it won't hurt you." When the hand made contact with the bubble, the child withdrew it with evident surprise-with a hint of amusement.
What happened next shocked Gold. He had simply been making silly faces at the baby for a few minutes at the baby, when out of nowhere the baby made a scrunched face-Gold had expected he'd be in charge of doing a diaper change when he saw it. However, the infant did not soil their pants, but rather produced a miniature water bubble- similar to the larger one Gold had made only moments before. "Child!" Gold exclaimed, his eyes drinking in the product that had just been made. He'd known his and Belle's child was special and would contain magical forces- all products of True Love did- but he hadn't expected it to happen so soon. Aside from the golden haze that had seemed to glow after Belle had given birth, Gold hadn't expected for the powers it had to be figured out until at least the middle of childhood. A small splash in the face made Gold stop his frantic thoughts. "Hey," He raised his voice, "Did you just throw your first magical bubble at Papa?" Rumple made another-but smaller than his last- bubble in his hand and threw it at the baby gently. The baby giggled and made another-and threw it at him again- and so did Rumple. They had created a new game that each of them were enjoying- chuckling and tittering as magical bubbles were thrown about the room in attempts to hit the loving opponent. In truth, less than half the shots actually hit father or child. Small puddles of water had been splattered around the room, but Gold didn't care to think of cleaning them-after all he and his child could clean them with a swipe of a finger.
"Whoa there!" Gold's voice turned serious for the first time that night as his arm shot out and zapped the chipped cup that sat upon an end table. One of the baby's bubbles had hit it and nearly toppled it over, but Gold had-thankfully- caught it in time, and had just placed it back in its proper place using levitation magic. "You're too young to understand that now," Gold focused on the babe, "but that little chipped teacup is very important to Papa and Mama." The child was looking in another direction, 'You don't care, do you?" His voice couldn't disguise a touch of dismay. "Well of course not, you're a baby. You don't understand what I'm saying." His thoughts must have distracted him from actually paying attention to what the baby was doing because the next thing he heard was,
CRASH. The sound made him jump, then shift his gaze to where the babe's gaze and laughter were directed. "Oh no." He sighed, looking into the baby's bright ocean eyes, "You broke your mama's favorite vase." The innocent face that smiled up at him was impossible to be mad at, "We'll fix it." He nodded, "Mama won't ever know." He sat the baby on the floor, and went over to pick up inspect the damage. It was a simple fix-with magic. Gold soon felt something ghost his ankle and looked down to see that the baby had followed him. "Ah, ah, ah!" He chided, raising the child in the air once again, "I don't want you cutting you fingers or anything." Putting the vase back together required both hands to emit the power on the shards at the same time, but only took a minute to fix. "There we go, it's all better." Gold murmured to the baby-rocking back and forth in midair and mimicking the spinning motions Gold had made. "You want to spin again?" He hesitated a moment, "Oh, alright, only for a minute. He spun his finger around and around-watching the happy baby enjoy the ride. Gold was so engrossed in watching his child have fun that he hadn't noticed the light footsteps that had made their way to the entrance of the sitting room,
"Rumple!" He brought the baby back in his hands and tight to his chest as soon as he hear the angry tone in Belle's voice. Sheepishly, he pivoted on his feet and gave a guilty grin.
"Yes, Dear?" His voice low and awkward.
"What did I say about using magic to play with our child!?" She stormed in the room to get closer to them. "What did I tell you? Tell me, Rumple, I know you remember." Her voice was stern and more forceful than it'd been in a long time. Gold sighed,
"Not to use magic when playing with the baby." He recited the words she'd told him and had him commit to memory. "I know."
"And what were you doing?" She raised her eyebrows, hands on her hips.
"Using magic to play with the baby." His hands rubbed the dark hair on the baby's head.
"Why?" Belle wanted answers, and she wanted them fast.
"I don't know." One of Gold's arms flopped to the side, while the other rocked the tittering baby. "Because I wanted to, because our baby was having fun, I don't know. Dearie, I-"
"Don't you 'dearie' me, Rumple." The circumstances seemed to tell him she was serious, but the way her features had for some reason changed to a smile made him second guess that. His bewilderment must've shown. "I want to be mad." Belle laughed, "How can I though? I mean, you look so adorable right now-standing there all sleepy looking with our child in your arms." Gold smiled, she wasn't too angry if she could laugh and say how cute he and their baby were. Belle snuggled herself beneath Gold's free arm-wrapping one of hers around him- and gently intertwining her fingers with his beneath the baby's head, feeling the roughness in his well worked and calloused hands and the fineness of young hair mixed. She looked up at him, "Rumple," when he looked down she knew she had her full attention, "You know I don't mind you using and practicing magic, right?" He nodded. What I do mind, though," She continued, "is you using magic to do things you could easily do yourself. Rumple, I know you're still struggling with this… this addiction, but taking the time to play with your child without magic isn't that hard. It's really fun, and it's something that you'll miss one day. Please, don't waste that time you could spend entertaining the child on entertaining the sweet thing with magic. Rumple, you are our child's papa," she squeezed his hand that was supporting the baby lightly, "This little sweetheart deserves to know their papa, not their papa's magic."
Belle's speech sunk in as soon as she said it, and he believed everything she had said. He knew it was all true. He hadn't intended to use magic today-honestly he hadn't- but when his baby's smiles and laughter started, he hadn't been able to resist. "I'll do better this time around, Belle, I will. I'll be an exemplary papa."
"What do mean this time?" She scoffed, "Stop feeling guilty about Baelfire." The arm draped around Gold's waist tightened, "You made mistakes, but he turned out to be a wonderful man, a great father, and a hero to us all. He loved you and he forgave you, you can't hold on to all the mistakes of the past- they'll stand in your way of a happier future." She kissed his shoulder, "What matters now is that is us-our family. You have me-and I love you and this little cutie more than anything in the universe and nothing will ever change that- and you have our child-who loves you more than anything in the world. Rumple, I know it isn't easy for you to believe, but you have no reason to be afraid anymore. We're here-together- and happy, we have our baby with us, and we're living a good life. Sure, times may get hard, but nothing will change between the three of us-our family."
"I know." Rumple agreed, and truly he did. His heart felt lighter than it had in a long time, He nuzzled his head on top of Belle's and savored the moment of holding the two of the people he loved most in his arms. "I know," He repeated, kissing the top of Belle's head. "I love you both."
"We love you." Belle answered for both she and the baby. The babe wasn't satisfied with Belle speaking for the both of them, though, as soon a little golden orb with a reddish pink heart in the middle of it appeared in the baby's palm. "Rumple, what is that?" Belle tilted her head up at Gold and then to the baby, she honestly thought he'd had something to do with the appearance of the strange figment. "What did you do to the baby?" Gold laughed heartily,
"Nothing, Belle, I promise." He smiled, "Children born of True Love all have magical gifts, don't you remember the Charmings and Miss Swan? Where do you think her powers came from when neither of her parents had any? True Love, dearie, it creates magical gifts in children that are the product of it." Belle nodded, she did remember hearing that- and talking to Gold about it when she had still been pregnant.
"I thought you said that powers wouldn't arise until childr-"
"Not all children are the same" Gold shrugged, "Some find their powers later and some find them earlier." Belle leaned her head against Gold's shoulder.
"Well, looks like we'll have to start those lessons sooner than we thought." She smiled at their child who was beaming up at her. "We don't want the whole town getting destroyed by a little baby." She poked the baby's nose, and then stood on her tiptoes to kiss Gold's cheek. "Anyways," She stepped away towards and headed back toward the kitchen, "I came to tell you that supper is ready. Lay the baby down for a nap and come eat supper with me, Rumple."