Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon A Time or any of the characters and storylines in the show. This is just a fanwork made for fun.
This AU is set 15 years after the ending of The Dark Lady and right after it's epilogue.
The whole forest that surrounded the Dark Castle was covered with snow. Rose opened the front door, getting in and taking off her pink cloak, already hearing her little siblings playing at the dining hall as usual, their loud childish voices reaching her in the entryway, as she shook the snow from her clothes and hair, ready to make her way upstairs to her chambers when Mrs. Potts appeared at the other end of the hallway with a frown stamped on her face.
"Where were you, child?" She immediately inquired. "Master is looking for you like crazy! I swear to the gods, someday you'll kill one of your parents with those disappearances."
"I didn't disappear, Mrs. Potts, I was at Grace's house!" Rose defended herself, rolling her eyes at the maid's exasperation. "You can ask Jefferson, he saw me there."
And she was telling the truth. Rose had spent the day at Grace's house in the woods, just chatting and having some tea, but in her family, you couldn't just visit a friend without announcing it out loud, for every single living breathing person to hear, or her parents would freak out at some point. Not that she didn't understand them, because she knew very well how much they had already been through in the past, but sometimes, she just wanted things to be easier.
"Alright, go change for the dinner and if you see master Gideon, tell him to come downstairs too." Mrs. Potts instructed.
"Understood."
Walking down the corridor, Rose almost stumbled in Colette when she came running from the dining hall, her dark-brown curls floating free and her blue-eyes shining in contrast with her green-gold skin. The four-year-old girl looked up to see her sister, smiling, a little breathless.
"Rosie, can you braid my hair?" She asked.
"I'm a little late for dinner right now, Lette. Why don't you ask mama?"
"She is on the lab with papa." Colette explained. "They said that they were doing important things and we should stay here, playing."
Usual, Rose thought, looking around to see if any of their maids were around, but the only one she saw was the butler, Mr. Dove that was pretending to get hurt as the ten-year-old Chip pointed a wooden sword at his direction swinging it in the air, like he was fighting a whole army.
"Call Agathe then, right?" Rose told his little sister, knowing that their youngest maid would be willing to help her.
Colette nodded and she climbed up the stairs, going directly to her room and conjuring a huge bathtub full of hot water, where she stayed for a long time, cleaning herself and enjoying the great sensation of her skin being warmed, but eventually she had to get out of it, dressing herself for the dinner. Once she was ready, Rose left her chambers to find Gideon waiting for her on the hallway with a grin on his lips that indicated that he already knew how much she was in trouble.
"Oh, tell me I'm not the only one that Rumplestiltskin and Belle are going to kill tonight!" She practically begged, because usually Gideon was the great master in doing things to anger their parents too and when the reprimand was shared it wasn't so bad.
"Sorry, sister, but you are."
Crying out in frustration, she grabbed his arm. "Save me, Gideon, you are my hero."
"I'm always saving you." Gideon laughed. "At some point, I'll ask for payback."
"I can do whatever you want."
Tipping a finger against his own chin, her brother appeared to be thinking about that for a long, torturing moment, before saying: "That's tempting. Come to my chambers after dinner, I'll think about a way for you to compensate me."
A large comfortable armchair was set in one of the corners of the laboratory, Rumple sat on it with Belle on his lap, both clutching at each other like they had found salvation. It wasn't easy to get much time alone in the castle these days and even during the night it seemed that one of the kids were always waking up from troubled sleeps to knock at their door and ask for comfort. The imp spread kisses to his wife's throat, enjoying how sluggish her post-climax movements were.
"Can you believe that we weren't interrupted yet?" He asked in wonder.
Belle's fingers massaged his scalp, her nails brushing at his skin in a way that was capable of driving him mad. "It seems we have to hidden at the laboratory if we want to have a moment alone."
"Four children in this castle is too much." Rumplestiltskin said, still feeling the sweat covering his skin and her slick thighs brushing against his own, wet with the proof of their consummation. "And here we are, clearly not learning the lesson and attempting to make another one."
"Gideon and Rose are not children anymore," Belle pointed out. "They are already in age to get married and start their own lives."
The thing with being immortal is that he barely noticed the time passing, but she was right, their older children were now grown. He looked at his young wife, her tiny, lovely features perfectly conserved through the years by his magic and he traced her lips with his thumb, letting Belle suck at it.
"Do you think we should start to introduce some ladies to our boy?" He questioned, tempted to sink himself in her heat again.
"And get some suitors to our girl."
"Oh, no." Rumplestiltskin shooked his head. "Rose is too young for that, she is only sixteen and I won't be looking for a marriage to her before she is twenty!"
A laugh left her mouth. "I can't believe that we are talking about this as a business negotiation! We are sounding like my father and his men used to."
"I'm not treating this like business, I just want my children to have the best."
"So do I." She said, slipping off of his lap to stand in front of him, grabbing her gown from the floor. "But we need to get dressed now, because we are late for dinner and you were going to ground Rose for sneaking out of the castle without permission again."
"Yeah, certainly."
Waving his hand, he ended their problem, cleaning and dressing them with the help of his magic. Belle straightened her hair, stretching a hand to pull him from the chair and lead Rumple to the door.
"Do I look like I was just coupling with my husband moments ago?" The lady questioned, her cheeks flushed at the thought of their children suspecting of what they were doing up there.
"For me, you do." Rumple smirked. "I can still hear your cries echoing in my mind."
"Oh, shut up." She rolled her eyes.
They went downstairs, right to the dining hall and Colette ran to threw herself in her mother's arms by the moment she saw them coming, tears shinning in her eyes.
"Mama, Chip don't let me play with him, because I'm too young and a girl." She whined. "He says that girls don't get to play with swords."
"Chip!" Belle called in a tone of reprimand, making the boy jump at the realisation that he was in trouble. "Who told you this? Girls can play with swords whenever they want."
Shrinking, he dropped his gaze to the floor, his brown hair covering his blue eyes as he mumbled: "Swords are for knights, mama, not ladies!"
An offended gasp came from Rose, who was arriving at the dinning hall with the oldest brother by her side. "Well, I'm very good with swords, probably even better than Gideon."
"Oh, do you want to try me?" The boy asked, grabbing one of the wooden swords and pointing at her direction.
She was about to agree and get one of those for herself when Rumplestiltskin decided to intervene, as he was pretty sure that this situation wasn't going to end in a good way.
"Alright, it is time to stop, all of you." He warned the children, the four of them quickly obeying, not to anger their father, so he pointed at the young lady that was his first-born daughter. "And, Rose, you are grounded."
"What? No, papa, please I was at Jefferson's."
"Yeah, but I've said that nobody should leave the castle with this horrible weather. You are always the first one to get a flu and you know that!"
Gideon passed an arm through his sister's shoulders as she looked at him, with teary pleading brown eyes, knowing how much her father would like to surrender and just give her a hug, when she seemed so helpless.
"Come on, papa, give her a second chance." Gideon tried. "I promise you that I'll keep her around."
"Please, papa." Rose begged.
Breathing in, Rumplestiltskin told himself that the Dark One wasn't going to be dissuaded by his children that way. "You won't leave the castle until the snow melt. That is it."
Rose made an unhappy sound and Belle touched her face, muttering: "Next time, listen to your mother." She gripped at Colette's hand and was about to make her way to the dining table when she stopped to make a last addition. "You will clean the library with me tomorrow, Rosebud. And you too, Gideon."
Nodding, Gideon dragged his sister to their usual seats. "As the lady wishes."
A moment later, their two maids entered the hall, to start serving the dinner, bringing a turkey and a pan full of vegetables with them. Mrs. Potts helped the children to put the food in their plates, while Agathe served the wine for her master and lady.
"Agathe did you to that peaches dessert?" Belle asked, already wishing something sweet. "It's my currently favourite thing in the world."
"Mine too." Rumplestiltskin agreed. "It is delicious."
Blush came to the pale cheeks of the maid as she frenetically nodded, unable from taking her eyes of her master as he lifted the glass of wine to his mouth and slowly took a sip, savouring it.
"I - " she tried to started, but needed to stop and take a deeper breath before she could speak properly. "It's in the kitchen, ready to be served!"
"That's great," it was Belle who answered "thank you."
Agathe looked around to find Gideon staring openly at her with a frown and rushed to place the jar of wine in the table, making her way back to the kitchen with Mrs. Potts following her. And as soon as the door closed behind them, the chubby maid pinched her arm with all the strength she had, causing her to let out a cry of pain.
"Ouch! Mrs. Potts why did you do this?"
"For you to learn to keep your eyes away from your master!" Mrs. Potts whispered angrily. "He is the Dark One and is happily married to our lady Belle, girl!"
"I'm sorry. It's just - " Agathe swallowed, but couldn't help herself when a dreamy look crossed her face at her next words. "He is handsome and fascinating."
"And you are a maid! Do your work!"
"Lady Belle was maid too." The girl defended herself, but only earned a slap on the arm from Mrs. Potts. "Ouch! Stop it!"
"I don't want to hear you saying a thing about lady Belle or you will be back to the mines in the Dark Realm as fast as I can manage to open a portal."
"Sorry!" Agathe cried, turning her back to Mrs. Potts and disappearing through the other door of the kitchen, leaving it open for time enough for Mr. Dove to enter it.
"She is not a bad girl." The butler said.
"She is becoming one and we need to keep an eye on her." Mrs. Potts replied in a tone of concern. "Will you do it for me?"
"Anything you want."
Rose closed the book on her lap, looking down at her little sister that was curled on the bed, hair spread on the white pillows, she smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead, walking to the shelve to place the book there, intending to leave the room when she heard Colette's small voice, calling and jumped, because she thought that the girl was asleep.
"Rosie do you see any bad coming for us?"
"No, darling," she answered, coming back to her side. "Why would I?"
"Because you see bad things."
Her seer powers were something that constantly bothered her and Rose didn't like discussing them with anyone, even more if people started to ask her about her later predictions like it was some exciting thing, instead of a creepy one, but it was Colette who was asking, so all she did was to smile weakly for her, smoothing her hair.
"Yeah, that's true, but why would I see any bad coming for us?"
"I don't know." The little girl shrunk, wrapping herself more in the bedcovers. "I heard papa saying that the people are dying in the villages."
Catching her lower lip between her teeth, Rose sighed, thinking about how much the winter was cruel with most people. It was true that most her friends and family lived in castles or houses that were well constructed, to keep them safe from the snow, but she couldn't help feeling compassion for all the commoners that were suffering right now.
"It's the weather. Not everybody is lucky as us, to have a warm home and food to feed their families."
"That is sad." Colette mumbled. "I wish we could help them."
"I do too, but now you have to sleep, because you are safe and sound and nothing bad will reach you."
The door behind her opened and Belle entered her youngest daughter's chambers, wearing a long fuzzy vest above her nightgown. "How are my girls?"
"Ready to go to bed." Rose answered walking away from Colette's bed as her mother bent to kiss the top of her head.
"Sweet dreams."
"Sweet dreams, mama." Colette replied, sleepy.
Together, they left her chambers as quiet as possible, knowing that Chip was probably already asleep in the room next to hers, but Rose's mind was full of loud thoughts.
"Is that true?" She asked Belle. "The people in the villages are dying?"
"Yes, but gladly the winter is almost over." The Dark Lady answered, kissing her cheek and making her way to her own chambers. "Goodnight."
"Sleep well, mama."
Waiting until Belle had fully closed the door, Rose went down the hall, knocking at Gideon's door. It didn't take long for him to open it, with a bored expression in his face. "It was about time."
"Sorry, Colette got me." Rose said as he dragged her in. The room was cold with the breeze that entered through the windows that he didn't seem to bother to close, the fireplace had no flames and Roderick was sat by Gideon's desk with a plate of leftovers right in front of him. "Hey, Roderick. I should start calling you ghost, as no one ever sees you coming in."
Rolling his eyes, the dark-haired boy took a sip of his wine, before mumbling: "Funny as always, little beauty."
Gideon's boyfriend was a part of those poor commoners that were struggling hard this winter. His father was a fisherman that was earning no money those days and his mother had been ill for years, barely leaving the bed most of the time. They had met around five years later when his family moved to a small house near Ruby's and ever since, they became inseparable, even though the two boys only had started dating recently.
"What do you want to try today?" Gideon asked, opening the spell book he had been hiding in one of hi drawers.
"I don't know."
"It is really unfair to see you two playing with magic while I keep watching in the corner like a child." Roderick complained.
Handing the book to Rose, Gideon walked towards him to grip at his shoulder, pointing the plate with a swift movement of his head. "Eat your meal, Rod."
"My boyfriend, the gentleman."
The girl flipped the pages, until she found something that didn't seem to be destructive. "This one!"
"Yes," Gideon agreed when she showed the page for him. "that looks good."
Roderick snorted. "When the Dark One found out that the two of you stole his spell book, he is going to kill you."
A loud scream woke up Gideon and he almost fell from the bed in his hurry to get up. His heart flipped inside his chest as another scream came from one of the chambers in the hallway.
"What the hell is it?" Roderick questioned, rubbing at his eyes with clenched fists.
"Rose." Gideon replied. "Stay here."
He rushed out of his room, only getting the mind to close the door, to not let his parents see Roderick inside, before he stormed into Rose's, shaking her shoulder to wake her up from the vision. She sat on the bed, breathing fast and heavy, leaning her head to his chest.
"Hey, sweet, calm down." He muttered, smoothing her back. "Breath."
"Gid - "
"I know, just tell me what this was about."
Lifting her eyes to him, she whispered: "A King is going to die."
Author's Note: My apologize if there is something wrong with my writing. English is not my first language.