A/n : It's time to finally have a chapter from the one, the only, Rumpelstiltskin! *hears the Dearies Screaming in the distance* Also, according to Google Translate "gràdh m 'anam" is Scots Galiec for "The Love of my soul." Enjoy the fluff!

"Besides, you didn't need to be saddled with the Village's Broken Doll, do you?"

Rumpelstiltskin always hated nicknames, ever since Pans' Shadow dropped him in front of his Aunties cottage.

Orphan.

Crybaby.

Then after he did what he had to do to insure he lived to see his son.

Coward

Weakling

Pathetic

After he took on the Dark One's Curse

Monster

Devil

Crocodile

Insults, Rumple believed, were always the first weapons any human learned and could be harnessed with finesse

"Moon?'

He always hated nicknames, until Lyra decided that he, herself and Bae all needed them.

*The FrontLands, Enchanted Forest, long before the Dark Curse is Cast*

He, Lyra and Bae had just come back from traveling to a market a few villages over. He would have gone himself but spurred on by hunger and the freezing cold that seemed to happen quicker every year. He'd made too much for only himself to carry.

He tried arguing with Lyra, knowing she'd insist on accompanying him every time he went to sell his wares, if she's discovered how badly he'd been treated.

Lyra was an oddity in his life, he thought.

She stuck by him when he came back for the war, introduced him properly to him son. (Milah couldn't even look at him after she'd heard him got himself sent home, a Deserter.)

She helped with plant-based remedies for his leg.

She never, not once, called him a coward, or a weakling.

He could never fathom what loyalty kept her at his side (although he secretly suspect that it had something to do with the boy she was currently walking with, heads bent and giggling, occasionally sneaking a peek back to check on him.)

Yes, it was a very good possibility that Lyra stayed because of Bae but, Rumple never had the courage to ask her, afraid he'd jinx the little family they were if he did. So, he kept he's mouth shut.

Lyra and Bae had been whispering back and forth the whole walk home, His son nodding agreement or scrunching up his face and sticking out his tongue, depending upon what Lyra whisper in his ears.

Once the sets their individual load down in a corner of their hut (much smaller, Rumpelstiltskin noted, then what they left with. Perhaps brining Bae and Lyra along was a good thing, he reluctantly acknowledged.)

Bae ran up to his poppa, tugging on his hand to make him sit down, while Lyra made her way over to the fire, checking on the (Mostly water) soup they had put on for supper before they began their journey earlier this morning.

"Poppa, Lyra and I were talking, and we have something to tell you." Bae said in excitement. His son was never excited anymore, with Frontlander starting to disappear and a rumor of a Second Ogres war flooding through the village.

"What is that, Son?"

"So, you know how all the other villagers are Meany stupid-heads and call you all those mean

names?"

Rumpelstiltskin winced when he nodded, hoping somehow Bae would be not be old enough yet to determine that the word used to address him by the other villagers were far from kind.

"Well me and Momma Lyra were talkin' and we thought that we should each gives each other nicknames. It'll be like a cool secret club!" Bae crowed excitedly, seemingly bursting with energy despite having walked a fair bit earlier today.

"Really," Rumpelstiltskin looked at Lyra as she stood up from checking the soup, having seasoned it with what little herbs she could spare from her kit.

"Yes. I thought it be nice to have a name just for you that was not given out of malice." Her jaw tightened, indicating that that she did indeed hear the whispered taunts directed at him earlier, despite his valiant effort to hurry both her and his son along before the bullies could start on either one of them.

"That's lovely. What do you think Bae? Do you want to be first?"

"Hmmmmmmmm…" Bae put his finger to his chin and tapped thoughtfully. "How about Stars for you Momma?"

"Huh," Lyra replied, gathering her herbal medicines to work on Rumpelstiltskin leg. As she sat down on the floor of the hut, she looked up at Bae.

"Why would you say I'm Stars?''

"Because you guide people home. Even in the darkness, all someone would do is to find you and follow your light back home."

The spinner belatedly realized he'd spoken out loud.

He saw Lyra beaming at him and she whisper a soft "Thank you" before going about her task of helping relieve the pain in his leg.

After a few moments, Lyra Look up at him from where she sat and said "So if I'm to be stars, then you, Rumpelstiltskin, have to be our Moon. The bright light despite being surrounded by darkness. Sometimes broken, sometimes whole, but always present. Especially the fact that the stars don't look that neat without the Moon."

"Yeah! Momma Lyra's Stars and Poppa is the Moon. What about me?"

Bae bounced excitedly.

"Well," Lyra stated, "If I'm Stars, and your Poppa is the Moon, how about you be…."

"The Sun" Newly-christened Moon rapidly filled in "It brings warmth and light to everything and everything about it and that's what you give us. Warmth and light."

Lyra nodded emphatically.

"So, we're Sun" she pointed to Bae, "The Moon" She looked up at him, making sure to set his bad leg down gently on the hard packed earth floor of the hut. "and the Stars." She paused a moment to consider the names "I like it!" she finally declares with a definitive shake of her head. "Yes, I think those will do nicely."

A sudden touch on his hand startled him out of his thoughts.

"Moon, are you alright?"

Lyra gazed at him with concern

and love Rumpelstiltskin noted surprisedly.

"Yes. I'm fine. I was just thinking about the day that you, our Sun and I all gave each other our nicknames. Your are NOT The Village's Broken Doll. You are Lyra, our Stars and MY Soulmate."

Even he noted the possessive tinge of his last spoken sentence.

Lyra didn't seem to mind. If anything, she looked shocked. "You- you mean you want me as your Soulmate? You're not going to reject the bond?"

The Dark One knew what happened if a Soulmate consciously rejected the bond. As rare as they were, there were legends of Soulmates rejecting each other. In the stories, the Mate who got rejected literally died from a broken heart. The Mating bond's magic, which had been originally meant for two souls, not just one, overwhelmed the heart until it finally gives out.

He looked to blue eyes shining with emotion, and his heart gave a twinge at the thought of rejecting this beautiful, brave, stubborn, amazing gift of a human in front of him. The woman who never gave up on him, who had apparently loved him so much, she was willing to die, so he wouldn't be trapped.

"Never, gràdh m 'anam."