Age of the kids: Around 4
-.-.-.-.-.-
Gideon wanted to be a hero, plain and simple.
Since he was old enough to comprehend the words his parents recited from his storybooks, he wanted to be one.
Sometimes he would pretend to be like the ones in his books. Neal and Robyn, who more or less lived a second life in his home or in the sanctuary of his mother's library, would play along and the roles would switch daily.
The day Alex Boyer—the preschool bully and, in the mind of the four-and-a-half-year-old, Gideon's worst enemy—pushed Gideon and his friends to the last straw, Gideon truly tried to be a hero.
It was a normal day, as it had been for the past three months since they had started kindergarten. Because Robyn couldn't walk, she couldn't do the thing Gideon and Neal would usually like to do, like swing or play on the slide. However, they spent their earliest years using their wits and imaginations to play together, so doing so in a different environment wasn't much of a stretch.
They were playing in the sandbox, a slow and not too exhausting task that involved itchy legs and grit-filled shoes afterwards, but it was still something they could all do together.
They were having a great time until Alex Boyer came along to cause trouble.
Alex always reminded Gideon of an angry pig due to his thick nose and boorish attitude. He was a typical bully, and Gideon's parents said that meant he should always try to be nice to him.
"Sometimes mean people just need a bit of love," she would say with a wink his father's way. "It always works."
However, to Gideon's young mind, he didn't think Alex wanted to be friends. He was always taking Neal's cookies at snack time and refused to help clean up after play time. Not to mention he was always calling Robyn really dumb names. The names weren't creative nor very hurtful, but they were a jab that made his friend feel just a bit more outcasted from the other children, and Gideon did not want to be friends with someone like that.
Neal groaned when Alex approached, knowing good and well their calm break was about to be over. They had complained to the teacher before, but the young, fairly inexperienced women waved it off as play and had yet to deal with him.
"What are you weirdos doing?" he inquired cruelly, jumping into the box and causing their sculptures to collapse.
"What does it look like?" Robyn growled.
"Zip it wheel chair." He responded.
"Alex, go away." Neal warned him calmly, the aire of a leader in his tone.
"You don't own the sandbox, Nolan." Alex fought, kicking the bucked in Neal's hands away.
Gideon glanced nervously around for one of the teachers, noticing instantly that they were busy with another student. She wouldn't be coming to save them after all. He felt Neal moved and turned around just in time to see him standing to Alex's height.
"Leave us alone." Neal warned calmly. "You do this all the time and it's not funny. If you want to play that's fine but stop calling us names and kicking away our stuff."
"Stop calling us names!" Alex mocked.
"Cut it out!" Robyn yelled from the ground.
"I'm not talking to you wheel chair!" Alex yelled, kicking a wave of sand into Robyn's face.
Gideon felt his whole body run cold at the site of Robyn arching down and shouting out in distress. For a moment the world around him seemed to slow, the only thing in focus was Neal's panicked expression as he knelt to help Robyn rub sand out of her eyes.
The young Gold turned up to his friends' tormentor. The piggish boy was actually smiling about what he had just done, as if he somehow thought he was going to get away with his cruel actions.
A thick heat began to thaw his shock, filling him with a familiar tingling sensation that he instantly recognized.
He wasn't allowed to use magic outside of the house; that was rule one in the Gold family rulebook.
But Gideon knew—or at least his father always said—that some rules could be broken when circumstances called for them.
And this situation certainly called for a bit of rule-breaking.
He jumped up, sand trailing down his corduroys as magic sparked through his small fingers.
Just as Alex turned his way, Gideon held his hand up to the boy's face, the idea of just what he wanted to do to him running though his mind.
When the bully shouted out in shock, Gideon knew his spell had worked, but a new fear set in. He had never used magic like that before, and he only wanted to make Alex stop, not hurt him.
The bully dropped his hands from his face and revealed the effects of Gideon's spell: Alex's face was covered in boils, his nose as puckered as a pig's—in fact, that's exactly what Gideon had done.
Alex acted like a pig, and that's just what Gideon had turned him into.
The other children soon noticed the commotion and watched in astonishment as their classmate panicked over his sudden change in appearance. Most, not realizing the full intensity of the situation, were laughing at him.
Gideon glanced down at Neal and Robyn. They had recovered from Alex's cruelty quickly and were now struggling not to laugh at how their rival's downfall. They couldn't hold back any longer when the boy went squealing into the school for help, and soon Gideon was laughing too.
For a moment, he was one among his peers, a true hero in their eyes like the heroes his parents about read to him. He had used his powers to help his friends and teach Alex Boyer a lesson once and for all. He felt like—he had stopped evil in its tracks and now everyone could live at peace.
Or at least they were going to until the stern, tight-haired principal came bounding out, her hard eyes finding Gideon instantly.
"Gideon Gold!"
"Uh oh." Neal whispered.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Half an hour later Gideon he was sitting in the principal's office between his parents as she gave them all the third degree. Beside them were Alex, his face restored to its original form by Gideon's father, and Alex's grandmother, a stout but glassy-eyed women who didn't seem to know quite where she was.
"We don't tolerate bullying of any sort at this school," the principal explained.
"If magic was involved, it must have been an accident," Mr. Gold tried to explain. "The spell is undone now and there shouldn't be any lasting damage."
"And we'll pay the cost for any…lasting effects." Belle added.
Gideon sighed as his parents and the principal continued. He was going to get additional lecture from his parents when he got home, but he was glad Alex was finally getting reprimanded for his wrongdoings.
"And because of that, I'm going to have to suspend Gideon for the rest of the semester."
The principal's proclamation brought Gideon from his musings.
"What does suspend mean?" Gideon asked. He felt like he may have read the word in one of his books, but he couldn't be sure.
"It means, young man, that you won't be allowed back here for the rest of the year." The principal explained before his parents could.
"What!" the little boy exclaimed. "What about Alex?"
"Alex, of course, will get the help he needs because of your stunt, and will continue here." The principal continued.
"That's not fair!" Gideon exploded. "He hurt Robyn and Neal! He's been hurting them for weeks and no one was doing anything about it."
"He what?" Belle gasped, glancing at the boy who was now smothered in his grandmother's side.
"He's been calling Robyn names and taking Neal's things! He hurts the other kids too!"
"If that's the case, Gideon than you should have told the teacher or me." The principal pointed out.
Gideon groaned irritably. He could feel that tingling again, only this time it felt like it was trying to spread past his controlled fingertips.
"Gideon," his father whispered. "It's okay."
The gentle statement from his father soothed Gideon's agitation enough for the magic to die down.
"Regardless, I can't allow Gideon to continue here." The principal continued with an air of finality. "If he did this to one student, I don't want to begin to imagine what he could do to another if he felt provoked."
"That will not happen," Belle tried to assure. "Give us the weekend to help him understand the error of his ways."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Gold, but it's for the safety of our other students."
When the principal remained silent, Mr. Gold stood and held out his hand for his son.
"Come on Gideon, it's time to go home."
Gideon restrained angry tears as he took his father's hand. This wasn't fair! Heroes weren't supposed to get punished when they did the right thing! The villain was supposed to be defeated and the world was supposed to be better for it! That was how the story was always told!
He glanced back at Alex and glared at him as he turned from grandmother's side and stuck his tongue out.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The next morning Gideon awoke on his own accord, the bitterness he had felt from the day before still as new, even with the smell of his mother's pancakes reaching his nose.
A soft but familiar knock echoed through the room, and Gideon threw the covers over his head just as his dad walked in.
"Hey Gid," Rumplestiltskin greeted as he took a seat behind the lump of blankets. "How about you get up son?"
Gideon tightened into a ball. He didn't want to get up. Didn't want to talk about yesterday.
Rumplestiltskin sighed. He always knew the day would come when he'd have to lecture Gideon about the use of his powers, but he always thought the talk would come when the boy was much older, and not so soft and innocent to the world.
However, Gideon wasn't like most children, magical or not. He had history with magic in his past life, and if he let this one incident go unchecked, it could stir but bad memories and habits that would follow him into adulthood.
"Gid, I want you to know that your mom and I are very proud that you stuck up for your friends yesterday," he smiled slightly when Gideon loosened under the covers. "But you have to understand that there are times when you just can't use your powers."
"Even when someone's being hurt?" Gideon grumbled. "When you tell the people who are supposed to help but they don't."
Rumplestiltskin shrugged. "You got me there."
"I didn't want to do it, Papa," Gideon muttered, squeezing the corner of his pillow. "I just wanted him to leave us alone. I just…wanted to be a hero"
"I know, m'boy," Rumplestiltskin agreed. "I know what it's like to want to protect the people you love with every fiber of your being. But sometimes magic isn't the answer."
Gideon didn't answer. The boy was too young to comprehend just why what he did was so wrong, even if he understood that what it had certain consequences.
"People like us," Rumplestiltskin said as he soothed the boy's hair. "We have a special ability to help people. But, even when we don't mean to, we can hurt them too."
Gideon sniffled as his response.
"And sometimes being a hero means letting the villain walk away," Rumplestiltskin explained. "Because sometimes when you see them again, they want help," The Dark One smiled when his son smiled in agreement, and helped him sit up. "So how about after breakfast, we go over to Alex's house and apologize."
Gideon made a face.
"He knows to be nicer to you, so how about we give him the benefit of the doubt?"
Gideon released a great sigh. "Fine." He bounced off the bed and followed his dad down the stairs.
"But I still wish I could have turned him into a real pig!" he muttered naughtily.