A/N: Alright, I'll be real with you, this is a OUAT-reading chapter. That's kinda why I was hesitant to update until I knew I had sufficient AB chapters ready and incoming. But it's been over a month so I'd like to give you something! Also, thanks for all new reviews and faves/follows!

Seiram: Haha! Yes, I believe you do ;D You're right about the potion causing irritability, but there is something else. But what could be frustrating her? I guess we'll find out! (Also yeah! I figure they did a lot of fun things together in their past, including mini-golf) And that's Naoi for ya, he's a bit antagonizing at all the wrong times and even he knows it. (It's a lot of chapters, so take your time! But I'll be thrilled to read your thoughts :D) Shiranai Atsune: Thank you for the review! Makes me glad you're excited for upates :D

ZainR: That Yuri&Kanade thing is more than it appears! As you will find out later. (I know what you mean, honestly I think the shadow arc is my favorite and it shows) As for Naoi, the circumstances are different between him and Yui - but not him and Hinata. He's siding with him since he knows what it's like to not want to return to a place where his parent(s) made him feel miserable. They've moved on from that life. Why go back? Especially when Hinata has the privilege of living near K&O (Naoi's very jealous). Also, that Michelle & Howie thing is the cutest comparison ever and I totally see it. ^^

Kidzin: I do agree with you on Naoi being obnoxious with the guilt trip thing. The story's in his eyes and he's got that complex about not mattering, so I gotta make him a bit biased, but that's exactly what it is - bias, deep hurt and self pity. But on the other hand, she straight up erased her memories! Wrong or not, it was pretty extreme. As an alternative to healing naturally. Now if you mean Naoi was in the wrong during their breakup then oh yeah, screw him. I adore the dude but he has no right to be all Surprised Pikachu.

I've kept you waiting long enough. Enjoy!


[Chapter 44]: Lost Boy


It was a strange feeling, the house being devoid of chaos as the weekend drew to a close, but he welcomed it, leaning against the door with a sigh. Silence except for the sounds of engines starting outside. He removed his cap and walked into the TV room to decompress.

Perhaps he could've joined them for one last group outing. He still could. Mizuzaka's mini golf course was less than ten minutes away, and it wasn't like he would have to deal with Yuri or her reignited ire. He sat down on the couch with his head in his palm and turned on the TV, not really caring what was on. It wasn't that he was in a hurry to read Yui's stupid book right away, either.

It was just…

Just as he said to Hinata. He didn't feel up to it, is all.

To be perfectly honest, he was tired. Tired of taking one step forward and being knocked three steps back. Tired of holding up his own walls and trying to suffocate his feelings, snuff them out, crush the remainders into dust. He knew that he had to do it, but it was getting harder, more exhausting… to convince others, and even himself, that it didn't affect him.

Despite how he'd treated things in the past few weeks, this – thing – between him and Yuri, whatever it was, it wasn't a game. Not something they could keep shooting back and forth at each other, or in his case laughing off and shoving aside. That much had become obvious to him since last night.

"How could anyone love a person so much that it makes them want to forget? Love them enough to lose themselves?"

"It just doesn't make any sense to me."

Just like that evening after the potion reveal at the bridge, her voice refused to leave his head. At first it was just the wistfulness in her tone that had lingered, the honest vulnerability and the same confusion he'd felt at her own choices. The reminder that she had… she had loved him that much. But now her words burned him, and at the same time made him feel cold, like the shadows from his dreams were draining his hope and cheer through a hole in the pit of his stomach.

It really didn't make any sense to her. Not anymore. She couldn't imagine loving him like that. No matter what steps they took, or what bridges he made an effort to cross or form between them, they collapsed into rubble. As if the conversation last night never even happened. In the end, she would always fall back to a mild intolerance at best. If anything she was getting weirder and more defensive, like she couldn't stand to look at him.

It really hit him at this point, that… even if this morning was just her being grouchy, the tender part of her he thought he'd seen last night was gone now. At least to him. All this childish baiting and teasing was just a pathetic distraction from a truth that frustrated him to no end.

He'd lost her, plain and simple. He'd lost her.

And without true love's kiss, he couldn't get her back even if he wanted to.

He wasn't sure how all of this had come from a single irritable morning, but it did the trick. He'd been tumbling further and further down this rabbit hole since breakfast, and as perfect a day as it was for something like mini-golf (he'd never seen the sun shine so bright), he didn't want his mood to be the rumbling depression cloud hanging above the Battlefront's heads.

Instead he let himself sulk around inside for a while, half stewing in his own thoughts and half paying attention to the news and weather and terrible feel-good TV movies. Despite his earlier claims, he was in no real hurry to read and remind himself of his situation as well as the person who started all this.

The hours certainly ticked by when you lost yourself in a depression-based television binge. Ayato eventually peeled himself off the couch and fixed lunch and then dinner, ignored some check-in texts from Ooyama, and cleaned up around the house. Anything to take his mind off of things. He scrubbed the shower. He made the beds. He vacuumed the whole house from top to bottom.

And luckily, just as the vacuum was about to bump against the bottom of the TV room couch, Ayato heard papers fluttering and remembered what was hiding below. Yui would kill him if he swept up and tore out any of the precious gilded pages. He turned off the vacuum and knelt to pull it out from its hiding spot. Strange – he could've sworn he closed it before he shoved it underneath. No, he knew he'd closed it.

Ayato frowned down at the page it was opened to. This was definitely not where he'd left off. It was, again, practically the middle of the book, with an illustration of scaly-faced Rumpelstiltskin looking deep into the eyes of another young woman. This one had a kinder and gentler face, and her brown hair fell in thick curling waves down her shoulders as she leaned in close enough to kiss the wicked beast in front of her.

Ayato recoiled in disgust. Who did this?! Was it the vacuum's suction or was it Yui? He knew she was probably trying to hint at something if it was her but this was just creepy.

Setting it on the coffee table, he was just about to close the book on its disturbing imagery when his attention snagged on the story's contents.

Belle sat upon the spinning wheel and encouraged him on with a hopeful smile. "Tell me about your son."

"I lost him," Rumpelstiltskin said. "There is nothing more to tell, really."

Lost him? Ayato furrowed his brow as he reluctantly succumbed to his renewed interest. What had happened to Baelfire? Damn it, Yui! If she wanted him to appreciate the book as much as she did, one would think she'd let him go about it without any spoilers!

Scooping up the book, he settled back on the couch and thumbed backwards through the pages until he found where he'd left off. After the gruesome ending to "The Dark One's Dagger," there was "The Pied Piper," where Baelfire's unhappiness began to grow more apparent as he was lured out into the night to a party of "lost boys" by the pipe music of the titular character. The piper warned Rumpelstiltskin when he came to find him that the pipe could only be heard by boys who felt lost and unloved, and that Baelfire might leave him like everyone else in his life did.

But that was not Baelfire's fate, it seemed, going with the Piper to a land for unhappy youths (which to Ayato sounded like a classic fairytale metaphor for death). Rumpelstiltskin ignored the Piper's deal that Baelfire could go home with him if it was something he agreed to willingly, and magicked his disgruntled son home with him instead.

Ayato soon remembered what exactly Baelfire had been trying to escape when he started the next story, "Ruel Ghorm." Baelfire was outside at play when he chased a ball into the road and fell in the path of a donkey cart. Upon recognizing him, the man pulling the cart became fearful and apologetic. And rightly so, because when the Dark One himself appeared at the scene and discovered a scrape on the boy's knee, none of Baelfire's reassurances or protests could stop his father's wrath. In a puff of purple smoke, Rumpelstiltskin turned the man into a meager snail, and stepped purposefully towards the creature.

"No, Papa, no," said Baelfire fearfully to his father, realizing at once what he intended to do. "Please, Papa, don't."

Rumpelstiltskin lifted his boot in the air, casting an ominous shadow over the creature as it feebly tried to drag itself away.

"No, Papa! PAPA!"

The snail exploded with a crunch and a terrible slimy squish, and that was the end of the man with the donkey. All the villagers turned and ran in fear from the Dark One, who put an arm around his son and took him home, as the boy now looked quite ill.

It was obvious at this point that since seizing the power of the Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin had earned another unfortunate reputation for himself in their little village, from which Baelfire suffered greatly. Ayato frowned, knowing how that could be.

However, in Baelfire's case, he still held affection for his father. When Rumple and Baelfire arrived at home, the latter spoke glumly but freely of how different and violent Rumple had become since gaining his power. He refused his father's offer of magic to heal his scraped knee, electing for natural treatment instead, and implored of him to realize he'd done enough with his power since the end of the Ogre War.

"I can't," said Rumpelstiltskin, setting aside the medicines. "I need more power, so I can protect you."

"I wouldn't need protecting if you didn't have power!" Baelfire countered.

"Well, I can't get rid of it!"

"Have you tried?" Baelfire asked of him.

"Tried?" Rumpelstiltskin took out the cursed dagger and held it up for display. "If someone kills me with this, then they gain the power. You know that, Bae. Is that what you want?"

Baelfire shook his head. "That is not what I want. I just think there might be other ways to get rid of the power. Have you looked for…?"

Presently their maid Onora entered the kitchen, and Baelfire quieted as his father frowned at her and put the dagger away.

"Well, you look for other ways, Bae," said Rumpelstiltskin, shooing Onora away after she had brought them their supper. "But don't get your hopes up."

"Papa," said Baelfire, his brown eyes bright and earnest, "if I find a way for you to get rid of the power, a way that doesn't kill you or hurt me, would you do it?"

"It is not possible."

"If it was, would you do it?" Baelfire insisted. "Don't you miss how it was?"

Rumpelstiltskin stopped ladling stew into his bowl. "Are you really that unhappy, Bae?" he asked. "I can conjure anything you desire. Name it. What do you want?"

Looking him in the eye, Baelfire gave him a sad smile. "I want my father."

At once, Rumpelstiltskin softened. Even as the Dark One, his son always managed to make him smile.

"All I want is your happiness, Bae," he told him. "If you find a way, I'll do it."

Baelfire was quite cheered to hear it. He reached out, and father and son shook hands over the table. "Good. The deal is struck."

"Struck," Rumpelstiltskin agreed, and they ate their supper.

Sometime later Baelfire accompanied his father into the woods, where they found some children at play, and Rumple encouraged him to join in while he attended to some business. However, most of the kids dropped their wooden swords and ran off as soon as they spotted him. Feeling glum and very alone, Baelfire sat down on a log and kept trying to think of a way to solve his problem. For who would want to be his friend, as long as he was the son of the Dark One?

Then a voice called his name, and his friend Morraine came to sit by him. She was the only one brave enough, it seemed.

"They're just scared of your papa, but I'm not," Morraine said warmly. "You won't let him hurt me."

Ayato faltered at this part, pursing his lips at the faint sting of nostalgia that this one small moment brought him. So Baelfire had someone like that too in his life…

Baelfire confessed to Morraine that despite his father's miraculous ending of the Ogre War, he was succumbing to the darkness more and more every day. He told her of his father's promise to change back if he found a way, but he was unsure where to look.

It was then that Morraine brightened with epiphany, and told him of an ancient being she'd heard about from soldiers in the trenches. Ruel Ghorm ruled the night and was the original power, far bigger than anything, even the Dark One. Certainly if he called upon Ruel Ghorm, the mystical being would know what to do. Morraine wished him good luck and hurried away as the Dark One finally returned – with blood all over his boots.

"Oh yes, that," Rumpelstiltskin said when Baelfire pointed out the stains. "…We need a new maid."

All because the mute Onora had seen the dagger. Baelfire knew he would have to seek out Ruel Ghorm's counsel, and fast.

That very night, Baelfire snuck out into the forest, sat down by the tree, and looked up at the moon and stars twinkling overhead. From the bottom of his heart, he called to Ruel Ghorm for help, and asked the being to make itself known to him.

By and by, a shimmering fairy dressed in blue fluttered to his side. She assured him he could help, but she could not make the Dark One the man he once was. Yet, if the boy was willing, she could send them both to a place where his father could not use his powers. A place without magic.

"Can you do it?" said Ruel Ghorm. "Can you leave everything here behind for the unknown?"

"If it means I can get my father back," Baelfire said, determination and hope soaring within him as he nodded, "then yes."

"You are a very good son, Baelfire," said the fairy. "You are the part of him that keeps him human. That little light inside of him that still glows, that's his love for you. Hold out your hand."

Ruel Ghorm gifted to Baelfire a magic bean, her very last one, then advised the boy to use it wisely and follow wherever it led him. With that, she disappeared into the night.

Baelfire ran home with the bean as fast as he could, and told his father that he had found a solution. Although Rumpelstiltskin was hesitant at the mention of Ruel Ghorm (or "The Blue Star" as he called her) and her fairy magic, noting that he would be vulnerable in a land without magic, Baelfire reminded him what he had promised.

"You made a deal with me," said Baelfire, standing up. "Are you backing out?"

Though Rumpelstiltskin was quite fearful, he remembered what he had said. All he wanted was his son's happiness. Was his power worth more than that?

"No," said the man, and followed Baelfire out into the night.

And so Baelfire and Rumpelstiltskin headed deep into the woods where no one might follow them, and Baelfire threw the bean upon the forest ground. It sparkled like magic and sank into the dirt, opening up a swirling green vortex that filled Rumpelstiltskin with renewed terror. Baelfire was hopeful and not afraid, and told his father that they must go through together. It was the only way.

"It's a trick!" cried Rumpelstiltskin, as the boy tugged him by the sleeve towards the portal. "It will tear us apart!"

"It's not! It will be okay, I promise!" Baelfire shouted over the roaring winds.

More of the forest floor collapsed beneath his feet, sending the boy sliding down the edge. Rumpelstiltskin's efforts to pull him back proved in vain. His bad leg gave way and he tumbled after his son into the glowing gaping maw. In desperation he sank his dagger into the dirt. With one hand he held on for dear life, the other tightened to Baelfire's wrist.

"Papa! We have to go through!" said the boy. "What are you doing?! Papa, it won't stay open long! Let's go!"

"I can't! I can't!"

"Papa, please! It's the only way we can be together!" he cried, struggling against his father's stubborn hold. "Papa, please!"

"No, Bae, I can't!" his father said once more.

"You coward!" Baelfire yelled. "You promised! Don't break our deal!"

"I have to!"

Rumpelstiltskin knew he could not hold onto them both. The winds of the vortex were blowing hard, searching for a soul to drag to the depths, and would roar ever stronger before the end. His fingers were already slipping by the cowardly sweat that slicked his palms.

And so Rumpelstiltskin made his damning choice. He opened his grip and released Baelfire's sleeve, letting the boy sink into the glowing green abyss with a final piercing scream.

"PAPA! NO!"

The portal closed behind him, leaving nothing but silence and a sunken pit in its wake. As the winds died down and the sounds of the forest remained, Rumpelstiltskin stared down at the pit and realized what he had done.

"Bae? BAE!" he cried out. "I'm sorry, Bae! I want to come with you! I want to come with you, Bae!"

He leapt into the pit and sifted frantically through the dirt, shouting for his boy until his throat was raw, but the portal did not open again. Baelfire was gone and there was no way of getting him back.

Or was there?

The night was getting away from him, but at this point Ayato couldn't put the stupid storybook down. He turned things off downstairs and brought it to bed with him, reading by the light of the end table lamp. Truth be told this was actually starting to get good.

After Baelfire had gone through the portal alone, Rumpelstiltskin was beside himself. He wandered through the forest calling to Ruel Ghorm, demanding that she reveal herself to him. When she came as bid, he asked the fairy how he could follow his son to this other world, only for her to reprimand him for passing up on his only chance. There are no more magic beans, she said, you will never make it to that world.

"I'll find a way. There must be other paths," said Rumpelstiltskin. "A realm jumper? A time-turner? A mage?"

"No, no, no," she said to all three, with growing exasperation. "There is no—"

"A curse!"

The Blue Fairy hesitated. "No."

"Ah!" the imp said triumphantly. "So it is a curse."

Though the fairy warned him that such a curse could not be done without a great price, Rumpelstiltskin would not hear it. He would, as she put it, sacrifice this world for the next if that was what it would take.

"I will do nothing else, I will love nothing else, I will find a way," Rumpelstiltskin vowed through his teeth. "You took my son, but I will get him back."

"I didn't take your son!" said the Blue Fairy.

"YOU TOOK MY SON!" he shouted, brandishing his dagger at her. "BUT I WILL GET HIM BACK!"

"You drove him away," she said coldly.

Rumpelstiltskin lashed out at her with his dagger in a great fury, but she dodged his violent swipes and flew away into the night sky.

"I WILL FIND HIM!" the imp snarled after her. "I WILL FIND HIM!"

Ayato's eyes were rather wide by the time he came to the end of that particular story. Something about a man like Rumpelstiltskin swearing violently that he would find his son just gave him a terrible feeling in his chest. Then again, Kimito didn't care about him half as much as Rumple seemed to care for Baelfire (strangely that thought did very little for his fears).

It was really getting late, but Ayato kept reading even though he had work in the morning. Some part of him needed to know if this imp ever found his son. But would he even be this way if he had?

Some time passed. While meeting with a man who claimed to have a magic bean for him, Rumpelstiltskin crossed paths with the pirate Captain Jones again and challenged him to a duel. He crossed paths with Milah too, who came to Jones's rescue offering said magic bean in trade for their lives. It turned out she had gone willingly with Jones that night because she had fallen in love with him.

Rumpelstiltskin demanded to know how she could abandon Bae, obviously projecting. She admitted she regretted leaving their son every day, but had been miserable with Rumple because she never loved him. Hearing this, the man looked the mother of his child in the eye – and ripped her still-beating heart from her chest (Ayato wondered in mild alarm if he still knew how to do this) before crushing it into dust. In grief and anger, Jones denied him the bean, and Rumple cut off his hand, leaving him alive to suffer.

The wrong hand, he realized too late when he pried open the fingers and found an empty palm. The pirate's ship had gone by then. He would have to travel to the next world by curse after all. If only he knew where to start.

He tracked down the Seer from his past to a little campsite in the woods. She was free and grown now, perhaps her powers had grown with her. Angry with the way her prophecy had come to pass, he strangled her with magic until she gave him what he came for.

You will find him, she said. It will not be an easy path. It will take many years, and require a curse. A curse powerful enough to rip everyone from this land. You will not cast the curse, someone else will. And you will not break the curse, someone else will.

The Seer trembled from the exertion of her magical sight. Rumpelstiltskin urged her on, greedy for all the information he could get, but she told him that even her powers had limits. Unsatisfied, he began to strangle her again until she offered him a solution: "Take this burden from me."

"Gladly," said the imp, and seized her hands. The power drained from her into him, the sight coursing from the eyes in her palms in an overwhelming radiance and cluttering his mind with images as she screamed. "I can't see anything. It's too much! It's nothing but a jumble!"

"The future is a puzzle with many pieces to be sorted," said the Seer. "In time you will learn to separate what can be from what will be."

He released her, allowing her to collapse to the ground with a gasp. "This is why you wanted to give me your power!" he said, as the images continued to swim and blur. "To free yourself from this torment!"

Like the thoughts in Rumple's head, the words on the pages began to grow too fuzzy for Ayato's bleary eyes. He could feel himself nodding off, and so close to the end of this story too. The pillow beneath his head was too comfy, the book too heavy in his hands…

"In time, you will work it all out," said the weary maiden. Believing her strength, power, and usefulness to have left her, Rumpelstiltskin turned to leave, but she called him back to her. "As gratitude, I offer you one piece of the puzzle. You will be reunited with your son, and it will come in a most unexpected way."

The imp stepped back into the clearing. "How?"

"A boy." Her voice floated out to him in a dying whisper. "A boy will lead you to him."

At last Ayato lost his battle with sleep, and as Once Upon A Time fell from his hands onto the floor beside the bed, it remained open to that very same page. To the very last lines of the chapter.

"But beware, Rumpelstiltskin, for that boy is more than he appears. He will lead you to what you seek, but there will be a price." As Rumpelstiltskin crept ever nearer to her side, the eyes in her open palms began to close. "The boy will be your undoing."

The imp lingered until she had breathed her last, and considered her final prophecy with a bemused frown.

"Then I'll just have to kill him," he said, and went on his way.


A/N: Let me just say... if you are not into OUAT, thank you for reading through all that, and I apologize for the spoilers. XD I am going somewhere with this, I promise.

Until next time!


Preview:

"What part are you at now?"

"I'll tell you after I read them."

"DON'T PLAY INNOCENT WITH ME!"

"He wouldn't survive."

"that NEVER happened."

"Maybe he chose not to believe it."

[Chapter 45]: The Pages.