AUTHOR's NOTE: In honor of national coming out day, I feel like I should tell you guys something. I am an introverted, insecure, socially awkward, confused but most likely heterosexual (also somewhat asexual), teenage nerd. So now you know.

When do actors stop acting? Rumple wondered to himself. When they step off the stage. But if all the world's a stage, Shakespeare said, then it never really stops. We just act as different characters, different versions of ourselves, maybe not even noticing that we are doing so. There are so many aspects of a person, so many different traits and emotions to exhibit, so many expectations to meet, so many masks to put on.

He had always believed that real people were characters, but never quite imagined that in the way Regina proposed.

A dark haired boy in a velvet purple vest stepped out of room 241. While pretending to drink from the water fountain, Rumple watched the younger boy and smirked to himself. He does have my eyes, and my superior dress sense.

It seemed strange to think of this boy, who was only three years younger, as his son. It seemed stranger still to become attached to someone whom he had never actually spoken to.

Regina wanted Rumple's help. She wanted to break the curse, to put everything back to the way it 'should be.' Why should she be able to decide how things should be? Why did he have to be a supernatural being plagued with misfortunes? Why couldn't he just be a high school student? With no tragic backstory, and no curse, and no dead son.

Because this isn't real, Regina had told him. It seemed real to him, he protested.

Of course it does, she had shot back. It's like when you're dreaming. You don't know that you are dreaming until you wake up.

Rumple didn't want to wake up, but already he was starting to notice the little things, the blurred memories, the general confusion over the identity of the principal, the lack of teachers' first names, the nun that stalked him. At a certain point, he could no longer deny that something strange was going on, and as Regina offered the only explanation, he had no choice but to believe her. That didn't stop him from trying reconnect with Baelfire. Rumple didn't remember his son now, but he knew that once he woke up, not speaking to his son would be the thing he most regretted. But how could he even begin a conversation?

Hi, you don't know me, but I'm your father in another world. Yes, I know that I'm only three years older than you and you already have an actual father, but it's the truth! Wait, no! I'm not crazy. Come back!

No. Bad idea. But becoming a stalker was hardly a better one.

After school that day, Rumpelstiltskin walked outside. It was a calm, peaceful spring day, the perfect time to confront his own stalker. He walked slowly down the sidewalk near a patch of trees that would make great cover. Eventually, he heard it. The faint rustle of leaves. He spun around quickly, hoping to see the figure, but no one was there.

"I know you're there," he called. I'm not supposed to, and you might erase my memory, but before you do, I have a few questions. You can give me that, can't you?"

Suddenly one of the trees transformed into a woman who smiled at him. It wasn't necessarily a warm smile, nor did it seem to have any cruel intention. He knew enough about masks and acting to know that this woman was trying to appear nicer than she really was, which made her even more intimidating.

"I will answer one question for you," she spoke with a cold and unemotional tone, like she was a judge. There was something else, though. Something almost motherly, but it was so faint that it was barely detectable. "But understand that what I am giving you is not a reward for your own deeds, but a punishment for my own."

Rumpelstiltskin knew that he had to say something, anything. But he also knew that the moment he asked a question, he would not be able to take it back. He kept his mouth shut and the woman's lips formed a cruel smile.

"Good, I knew you were intelligent. I will come back here in one week. You have until then. If you are still her in two weeks, I will erase myself from your mind for and you will not see me again."

He blinked and she was gone. Rumpelstiltskin was left alone, still not sure whether he imagined her or if this was some strange part of the dream. Either way, he had a feeling that Regina knew exactly what question to ask.

How do we break this curse?

He just hoped that he would be able to abandon his own desires for the greater good.