Once Upon A Time

Rumpelstiltskin couldn't keep his eyes off his new wife as they stood in front of the cleric and as it was announced they were married he realized how really really rushed this was.

His mother had died when he was a child, and his father didn't believe in talking about things like this. He had no idea how to be a husband. He didn't even know if he wanted to marry her for her or because he was desperate to ease some of the loneliness he'd felt since his family was gone.

What if it went badly? What if he failed? What if this was her way of getting over the trauma and when she recovered, if she hadn't yet, she realized what a mistake it was and left him?

What if he was left alone again?

Dagian felt him looking at her and returned the gaze. She smiled warmly and tightened the grip on his hand.

And the loving gaze she gave him, the first emotions she really showed outside of grief made him forget every doubt he'd had going into this.

He would learn. They could be happy. He wasn't stronger than anyone here but he was excellent at reading people. He could figure this out.

Present Day

Mr. Gold had done all he could to have control of his wife's ending for the curse. At the time he designed it, he'd been so angry with her and her abandonment of their family that he considered her nothing more than property that he'd earned when she gave her vows.

His anger had subsided since they'd been transported into this reality, but the feelings of betrayal. He didn't regret what he'd done; it made sense in his mind. She'd married him, and she'd made her vows. That was one thing. But since she couldn't stand being married to him in the Realms because of what people thought of him being the town coward, so the idea of her being married to him and being the town outcast because of it made sense in his mind.

It was a wonderful revenge.

And he didn't think of it as taking advantage of her in any way. The memories were changed a bit, but it was still similar. He'd saved her life. She married him because of it. There was nothing false about her memories, so there was nothing false about her feelings. They were all her own.

And whatever those feelings were…he still wasn't sure. Sometimes she acted like she wanted to try to be in a loving relationship despite his reluctance to and her denials about it. Other times she acted bitter and lonely and tried to distance herself from him. Maybe it was part of the curse. He didn't know.

Nor did he know where her headaches came from. The agony that she went through the days they hit her were what started the healing process in his anger and hate towards what she'd done. The first migraine that'd hit her lasted for three days. And the pain she'd been in…it should've been satisfying but it wasn't. It'd let him know that while it wasn't love, there were feelings that he still had for her.

"Honey," Dawn said as she came down the stairs, "Honey, it's two in the afternoon and I can't take another hour in that bed...

"And what do you expect me to do about it?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said and lay next to him on the couch. He had to turn on his side so that she could fit on here as well. HE didn't understand why she wanted to be down here, the bed was far more comfortable than the couch. With furniture like this it wasn't a wonder he only chose one day out of the week to lay around.

She used the arm that he'd been propping himself up on as a pillow.

He wrapped his other arm around her waist, "Do you feel any better?"

"I can hear some noises without feeling like my face have been slammed against the wall."

He shrugged, "That's an improvement I suppose."

She muttered and pulled the blanket he'd had over her shoulder.

He adjusted the blanket over both of them and kissed the back of her head, "Does this mean you forgive me?"

"Hmm. No. You just make a far better pillow."

He shook his head. She wasn't going to make this easy. Well he wouldn't enjoy it as much if she wasn't a challenge.