It happened again. Would it ever stop? Maybe one day, maybe never. She was angry, he was angry. It was a never ending loop of anger and distrust. What would it take to put them back where they were supposed to be? She needed to break his curse, and he had to help her. She didn't trust him, though. Not that he expected her to, but she wouldn't listen either. Hence the anger. She was endlessly stubborn, and irrefutably impossible. How could he get back in her good graces when he expected her to throw away his advice. How could he push her where she needed to go if he couldn't keep her close enough? He didn't need too much trust, just enough to move comfortably. It was too hard when he was walking on cracking ice. There was no 'one wrong step' if even standing still caused the ice to break and drop him down the side of a cliff. Why did she make it so hard?
How did he expect her to trust him when he kept so many secrets? He was always doing something shady or creepy. His smile alone was enough to make her back out of something. What could she do against someone infinitely smarter and stronger than herself? If it was a fist fight, she would be all in to it, but it wasn't. It was strategy. She had always been bad at it. She relied on her gut and nothing else; it always worked before. This wasn't like other times, though. With him, anything out of place could get her hurt or even killed. She could bargain with her freedom, but she wasn't ready to bargain with her life. There was always too much trust in his plans, in everything. Him telling her who to go to for advice or help, that she could do. When he needed her to trust him, though, that was very different. How could she? He kept giving her reasons not to. What was the point trying to get close to her if he would just break her friendly conceptions of him. Did he want to look like a monster? What did he want from her? She had to wait. Until they had what they needed, she would wait.
He knew she was being influenced by everyone around her. Their opinion of him was rubbing off on her. He hadn't done anything untrustworthy to her, per se, but rather to the people around her. It was just how he worked. It wasn't his fault that the deals they made always backfired. He actually told them 'read the fine print', but they never listened. It was only fair they got what they deserved. After all, if you're willing to give something up, should you have it in the first place? How did no one see that it wasn't his fault? Not that he cared that much, their one dimensional view of him suited him quite nicely. She didn't see it that way. She just couldn't see it from his point of view. It was the Charming in her blood. Her hero complex both helped and hurt his cause. He didn't know how to deal with her properly. Everything about her looked concrete, but the closer you got, the more you only saw glass. Her perception of reality was so easily broken, it was getting her to see it that was the problem. Her bravery and fear met in her mind. It was a fierce battle, he could tell. Each took turns winning. Her fight or flight instincts usually picked flight, though. That was a definite problem. The only thing keeping her in place was her kid. How long would that last? He thinks, maybe he could have had something with her. A friendship, a romance. But, they are evidently missing the one important key to having a relationship. He watches her walk away. She's going to leave. He can't stop her. Or maybe he could, but did he want to? It just makes him sad to think about a chance that slipped through his fingers. She walked out the door in one brisk movement. Will she come back? Can he fix it yet again? Maybe, just maybe, one day they will have something, but until then, he was alone. He would be alone, he would wait. Until the day his boy was back in his embrace, he would be patient. Until then, until he could be close with her, they needed something.
They needed trust.
Emma & Rumplestiltskin