The tea was done, and he excused himself to get it for her, preferably quickly so he could continue to answer her questions…and continue to experiment with touching her. He'd kept his hand at her back as they'd talked, and he'd liked it. He'd liked the way he felt every place they touched down to his bones and in his heart as well. He liked touching her. He wanted to find out where else he liked to touch her. So far, he'd held her in his arms at the well, touched her back just now, grabbed her hand on the way to the shop, even put a reassuring hand on her shoulder once. What was there to explore next? He didn't want to overwhelm her, not with information and not with him, but…he wondered if he could find another excuse to kiss her again, to hold her to him, or at least pull her closer as they talked.

What would she like, he wondered. He didn't have a lot of experience with women, but centuries ago, Margery, a woman from his hometown, had told him that he always needed to listen to her, to do what she liked and not do what she didn't like. He suspected she liked the touching, as he recalled how many times she'd touched him in the castle. But kissing…did she like that? Would she mind if they tried it again? Did he have to ask, or should he just try it again? Asking would be appropriate and gentlemanly; consent was important in this world, and it was important to him. But she certainly hadn't asked so long ago when they'd been at the castle, and he hadn't asked at the well.

He had a lot of questions on his mind, but the moment he heard the bell on the front door ring, his thoughts dissolved into something else, someone else, entirely.

Ah…they'd finally arrived.

Hours after they said they would, and without Henry in tow, the Savior, Emma Swan, and her parents were finally here. Now that he thought about it, Henry was probably one of the things that had delayed them in addition to whatever was happening out there. Though the absence of Henry was a bit unnerving, he imagined that they'd only exclude the boy if they assumed something bad was going to be happening. He certainly had no battles to fight with the Charming family at the moment, which could only mean they had one to fight with him. And Belle was hiding out in the back, practically frightened of her own shadow.

Fabulous.

"What can I do for you?" he asked politely, closing the lid to his teapot as Emma stopped in front of him and glared. She looked tired. No doubt she hadn't slept in nearly as long as he had, but anger seemed to be fueling her well enough. It could be an effective tool for channeling power.

"What you can do, is tell us what you did," she stated.

He smirked. "I'm sorry. You're going to have to be more specific."

"You know damn well what we're talking about," David shouted as Mary Margaret crossed her arms.

"You double-crossed Emma, you, uh, took your…potion from her," the former Queen explained with all the timidness of Mary Margaret.

"And did who knows what to this town," David accused with all the confidence of his former self. Interesting how memories could affect the personality.

"And, worst of all, you risked Henry's life," Emma finished for them.

"Well, that is quite a litany of grievances now, isn't it?"

"Maybe I don't need answers. Maybe, I just need to punch you in the face."

He let out a chuckle. "Really, dearie?" he questioned, gathering his cane to walk around his glass cabinet. A Queen who was still a schoolteacher, a former amnesia patient who was suddenly a Prince again, and a Savior who was seeking revenge for her family despite having them all gathered closer together than they had been in decades. Quite interesting reactions. "Allow me to answer your questions with some of my own, alright?

"Did your dear boy Henry survive?"

Emma crossed her arms in front of her chest and squared her shoulders, narrowing his gaze at him with a look of upset. "Yeah," she breathed unhappily.

"Is the curse broken?"

She narrowed her gaze as a muscle in her mouth ticked. It was the only answer he'd receive, and they both knew it.

"And let's see here Miss Swan, how long have you been searching for your parents?"

There it was again. Another muscle twitch at the mention of the word "parents" She'd only answered one question, but suddenly it was all becoming very clear to him what this was really about. For Emma, at least. She'd gotten rid of Henry for fear of violence that she'd threatened against a man that her parents would have warned her was like signing her own death wish, and yet she was doing it anyway. She'd come here knowing that she would lose whatever war of words she had in store for him, so then why bother. Why come here at all if she didn't really want answers? Could it be to avoid talking to the two people behind her? It must have been a strange thing for her to go from having no family except a small boy who believed in fairy tales to realizing that your parents were not only around and your age but had given you up to save an entire realm. He could understand looking for an outlet, for a distraction aside from dealing with that. Fortunately for her, if they didn't know it yet, and since the Wraith hadn't come up in their accusations, he doubted they would, they would soon have plenty of distraction.

"Looks like you're reunited," he pointed out with a coy smile. "Seems like, rather a punch in the face, I deserve a thank you."

"Twist my words all you want," she snapped. "What was the purple haze that you brought?"

He smiled as he shrugged, feeling terribly excited for the answer and even more so for their response. "You know…magic."

"Why?" Mary Margaret questioned.

"Not telling."

David opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get it out, he heard a loud noise from outside that rocked the earth they were on, sending the others staggering. On instinct, he channeled his magic and kept his balance. The crash didn't scare him, and his reaction only made him smile. He'd channeled magic without trying, on instinct…he was getting stronger. It was coming back to him. That was good.

"What the hell was that?" Emma questioned over her shoulder as her parents ran to the door and looked out the window. Outside he could hear car alarms blaring as lights flickered and sparks flew. But he didn't need to look any closer to know what was going on. The wraith would have lain dormant for a while after he summoned it. In addition to being a creature of the night, it existed on magic and power and it would have needed to learn to cope in this world just like he did. It appeared that it had finally learned. And now, in search of Regina, it would do what all Wraiths did…create chaos.

"That…is my gift to you," he stated, finally answering one of Emma's questions. "That...is going to take care of Regina."

There was another violent shake, and more noise and wind kicked up outside of the shop. He used more magic to keep himself stable though he felt it ebb a bit this time. He breathed through it as he reminded himself of his new mantra-it was like a muscle; the more he used it, the better he'd get.

"Emma, come on," Mary Margaret called.

"We need to go take care of this," David added as Emma continued to glare at him.

"We're not done," Emma whispered in a menacing voice. Considering who he was and who she was and which of them had power and knew how to use it, he found it really rather entertaining.

"Oh, I know," he answered. "You still owe me a favor."

A flash of a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth before she turned to leave with her parents. The noise of the outside world, of the wraith, finally passing the street roared in for a moment but faded when the door closed. The valiant heroes off to save the day, again! It would have been a sight he was happy to revel in until…

He turned back to what he'd been doing and saw the teacups out. Two teacups. Not one.

Belle…

Uh-oh! Trouble! I can't really blame him for that; he's been single and alone so long that it would be easy to slip back into old habits and ways of thinking—I kind of thought of it as the reverse of what happens after someone dies. You know, after someone dies, you have a period of time when there are moments that your brain will forget for a moment. I remember after my grandmother died, there were a few years where something big would happen, and I'd have a moment of "I can't wait to go home and call and...oh...right...dead." This is the opposite. He's going to have those moments of "I am the Dark One, I am the night, Belle would hate this if she were here and could see...oh...right...alive."

Thank you, Alarda, for your reviews on the last chapter! I hope you enjoyed the opening of this chapter and getting to witness Rumple turn back into the pile of mush he was in the castle. Yeah, he's older than her and a bit more experienced, but he's never really been in a healthy relationship. Margery, mentioned above, probably comes the closest, and even then, if you read those fictions, you know it was really only friends with benefits. So it's fun putting Rumpelstiltskin, Dark One for over two hundred years, into the mindset of a teenager with his first crush thinking, "What do I do? Where do I touch her? Can I touch her? Does she want me to touch her? Should I kiss her? Do I ask first? Do I just go for it? What's an excuse I could make to touch her again?" That was fun for me and I hope it is for you too! Peace and Happy Reading!