Sorry it took so long. Huge case of writer's block and two jobs consuming my life. That winter finale though, killing it! I loved it! Let me know what you think and please leave a review. I love hearing from you guys.
Fairytale Land of the Past
He sat spinning at the wheel, just as he always does, Todd lay on the floor and stared up the ceiling. There was much design work put into it, many carved in frames and shapes, dazzling the place with some fascinating pieces that would remain unseen unless you had the capacity and curiosity to simply tilt your head up. That's when you would see all there was to see in all it's glory. Simply beautiful with squares and circles, looping together and wings that sprouted from carved in doves, allowing them to fly across that artificial sky that had been created for them. There was no color to it besides white, but that didn't do it any harm. Sure, it would've looked more splendid with a touch of blue there and a splash of red here, but that would make the castle appear to be too much of a church, and he knew how much Rumplestiltskin would despise living in a church, or any place of prayer. A church, temple, or shrine for the gods, they all sickened him. Every last structure that offered hope and escape from the evil in this life twisted his master's core.
"A plot, perhaps," Rumple says randomly, but Todd knows better than to question it. Rumple often had spurts of insanity; shouting out random things, doing irrational things, making plans that Todd saw no point or purpose in.
Then Todd began to think; maybe they weren't random sparks of insanity, the powerful dark magic finally eating away at his brain, but rather ... perhaps they were sparks of pure genius because, despite what he would have people believe, Rumple's wit and random jolts of insanity usually landed him one step closer to achieving his master plan.
"Yes," he continues to mutter to himself as he spins, pretending Todd is listening. "A great plot. A trick! A game. That would be perfect. She is coming soon, she'll be here. And when she is, I strike. Yes, that would be perfect."
He stops spinning and looks down at the carpet below him to mock the damned. "Never thought of that, did ya, Zoso?" he cries happily. "Never thought of it. Of course not. I'm better at this than you."
He often praised himself as well. Often confessed his brilliance to himself. Todd knew for Todd often heard him skipping about the castle, jolly and proud of his intelligence and his ability to fool those whom he comes across.
"The Apprentice of foolish old men," he continues to speak.
Todd sat up at that, unable to help himself, as usual, when it came to discussing plots with his guardian. He always grew too interested to ignore them for very long,many so perked up at the chance to hear Rumple's thoughts.
"Who's coming?" he questions as Rumple goes back to spinning. "The queen? Snow White? Who is she that you speak of?"
Rumple s,lies to himself, sinisterly, as if concocting an evil, sneaky, devious plan. Odds are, however, that he probably was.
"A young princess," he informs Todd. "A foolish young princess whom can be of much service to me."
"Many young princesses come in here seeking some form of magic that you possess," Todd reminded him. "Never for any good reason. Why is this one any different?"
"Because this one can help," Rumple speaks.
Honestly, Todd enjoyed when Rumple shared his plans with him. Not because he enjoyed hearing them all that much or being in the loop, but rather because he feared that if Rumple didn't speak to someone, he would eventually go mad. That is, if he hasn't already. That was Todd's greatest fear, going mad. There seemed to be nothing quite as scary as that, being a prisoner in your own mind. Todd would very much take death over insanity.
"This one is going to make me a deal that she cannot refuse," Rumple continues. "A deal to save someone she truly loves, and a deal that could be the difference between my imprisonment and my freedom. No longer bound to a simple object, but free from the grasp of it."
"The dagger?" Todd questioned with a raise of the brow, "The dagger is what you wish to be free of? It's just one object compared to everything else that could be imprisoning you in all the worlds. Why fret so much about that?"
"The one who created this curse," Rumple hisses, "intended for the Dark One to be free, but the good sorcerer had to tame it. The Dark One was no longer a free being, but a slave and a servant, and someone with such power as myself should never be a slave. Certainly not to something as pathetic as a mere bent dagger."
"As true as that may be, Rumple," Todd chimes in, "there is nothing that can release you from that dagger besides the dagger itself."
Rumple snickered before rising from his place at the wheel, moving over to the table where a crystal ball rested. He took a seat, twirling his scaly skinned fingers and extended black nails over the outer surface of the crystal ball, making it cloud in a fog of smoke as he summoned Todd over to witness the things that he himself had seen.
Todd approached with trepidation, unsure of what it was he would be witnessing. Rumple could be frightening at times, far more terrifying than even Todd could expect. Never would he take his anger or frustration out on the boy, but when Rumple was having a bad day, Todd knew better than to wander down from his tower and attempt to talk to him. He kept his distance, afraid the Dark One might one day pop, and there would be no Rumplestiltskin left to keep it at bay, no man left to hold the darkness in and prevent it from running wild. Rumple would no longer be Rumple, but a human incubator for the darkness that was consuming him more and more everyday.
He looked into the crystal ball, gazing upon a cherry red head girl, making her way towards the Dark Castle. There was something quirky about her, and Todd couldn't fight the small tug at the corner of his mouth when he saw her. She seemed too sweet to want to harm, too innocent to be cruel to, too loving to ever pry her heart from her chest.
"Princess Anna of Arendelle," Rumple says with his usual extravagant pronunciation of words, rolling his Rs and all. "She's coming here for a special favor, and so I will ask her for one in return."
"And that is?"
Rumple looked up at Todd, smiling still with some evil smirk that chilled even Todd's blood.
"I have a task for you, Todd," Rumple replies. "Go into town ... and find me the most desperate soul."
"How do I know what to look for?" Todd questions before heading out, to which Rumple snickered and turned back to the crystal ball.
"Anyone who reminds you of me," he says.
Somnium of the Present
She dropped the dagger back onto the table after believing she had examined it for far too long. She was just imagining the dagger had her name engraved into it. It wasn't really there. If anyone's name was to be on it, it should have been her father's. Her father has been the Dark One longer than anyone else. There was no way that she could take his place, and it seemed that everyone else was unworthy to take his place. Yeah, it may not be the best job, but he was good at his job at being the Dark One.
"There has been a mistake," Lucinda swears by herself. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?"
Jade laughs, looking to Baelfire for an audience, in which he provides, chuckling along with his friend.
"With how many times I have heard that come out of someone's mouth," Jade commented as he sat back in his chair. "Oh dear child, you must not think in such a negative way. Your mind wouldn't damn yourself in such a cruel way. You don't hate yourself that much."
"I don't hate myself at all," Lucinda argued.
"You are a dreadful liar," Jade rebutted, only angering Lucinda more. "Where is daddy's great charm? Wasn't he able to lie to everyone and get away with it?"
"My father and I are two different people," Lucinda explained with pout in her tone, "and he is the Dark One. Not me. I'm the product of a mere accident."
Jade tried to hold in the chuckles as he took in Lucinda's words, but he was doing a poor job of it, his teeth were gnawing into his bottom lip, his face was turning red, and his eyes appeared to be ready to explode from his skull.
"The product of an accident?" he repeated with a squeak. "You mean like, 'oops!'?" He began to snicker and Lucinda rolled her eyes with distaste and impatience. "Oops!" Jade hollers before bursting into a fit of laughter and even Baelfire found some part of it to be funny, chewing the corner of his mouth to prevent himself from laughing as hard as Jade was.
"Bae," Jade managed to breath, summoning his friend closer. And when Bae was beside him, Jade removed his top hat from his head and settled it promptly on Bae's. Bae was confused, at first, but all was explained when Jade calmed his laughter, lifted up a hand and knocked the hat off of Bae's head and onto the floor. Lost, Bae looked to Jade with question.
"Oops," Jade says with a smirk, making both boys burst into a fit of laughter, on the verge of death by smiles.
"All right!" Lucinda huffed. "That's enough! No more making fun of my parents and my being here."
"Just tell me something, Lucinda," Jade speaks as he calms his laughter down and takes in deep breaths. "Do you wish to know how it happened? You being here and all?"
She shook her head frantically.
"No, I don't need to hear it. I know what happened," she says quickly, stopping the conversation before it could happen. "I know how it works."
"Tripetta!" Jade hollered before turning his attention back to Lucinda.
"I wasn't going to suggest hearing it," Jade explains.
Just then, a small troll looking girl emerged from an extending room where part of the bookcase was missing, a curtain dropping over the emptiness in the shelf's place. She had untamed curly, brown hair that reached her shoulders with tiny little legs and a small white dress to cover herself. She was only a child, perhaps ten or eleven. She couldn't be older than twelve, and despite her emotionless face, Tripetta appeared to be sad.
She carried with her a tray with a crystal ball on it, walking with a fast pace, and so having experience in balancing the contents of the tray back and forth, to and from her master.
When she stood beside Jade, he removed the crystal ball from the tray and set it before him on the table, smiling sweetly at his servant and making her blush with a tint of a smile on her lips.
"I was going to suggest you see it," Jade finished his thought to Lucinda, resulting in her jaw dropping open and her hands waving away the thought frantically.
"No, no, no, no, no, no," she kept repeating as Tripetta removed Jade's hat from the ground and promptly placed it properly upon his head, making him look like himself again.
"Some tea please, Tripetta," Jade requests, "and Lucinda's scroll."
Tripetta gives a flattering curtesy before adding a, "Yes, Master Jade," to the gesture. She then slips away beyond the curtain and Jade began to fiddle with the crystal ball before him.
Shockingly, Baelfire just took a seat diagonal Jade, already looking into the crystal ball. Odd, for Lucinda thought he would share in the same expression and reaction as she; wanting no part in what Jade had intended for them to witness.
"Jade, please," Lucinda said as she rushed over to him, intending to remove the crystal ball from his grasp, "I don't need to see it!" But before she could snatch the crystal ball, a shimmer of Storybrooke appeared within it, and then, even Lucinda was hooked.
"You'd really think I'd make you sit here and watch it?" Jade asked with offense. "Ew, no. Even I have limitations. I'm not going to show you that, but I am going to show you where you came from; Storybrooke, Main, and I am going to show you what lead up to your development. Don't you want to know that?"
"Well, yes, but-"
She stopped mid sentence when she noticed hooded figures roaming about the streets of her hometown, dressed in black cloaks as they walked with hate and stride, looking for victims, on the hunt for souls, she could tell. She saw them before, she felt the pull, and she knew what they were before Jade even told her.
"Dark Ones," she whispers as she watches. "All the Dark Ones before my father."
"You are correct, dear Lucinda," Jade confirms. "You can feel it, can't you? Even just by looking back on the past. You can feel the pull of the dark magic within you and the magic they carried. You feel it, don't you?"
Lucinda nodded slightly, still amazed by what she was both seeing and felling.
"Yes," she whispers.
"That's because all the powers that all the Dark Ones before your father carried, he took. He consumed all the black magic there was to consume, and that is what started it all. Now, if we fast forward some," Jade says as he drags his fingertips across the crystal ball's surface, moving the images in great speed, like fast forwarding scenes in a movie. "Your father lied to your mother to get her to safety. Told her to go see the world, like she always wanted to. He failed to tell her that Dark Ones were taking over the town, and in order to leave the Underworld, someone had to take their place. To be sure she wasn't taken, he lied and sent her away. This is when your parents were on the verge of divorce. Your mother still loved your father, of course, but she wasn't sure if she could be with him. Where are we ...? Ah, yes! Here we go." He resumed the crystal ball's images to normal speed, and Lucinda watched it unfold.
Her father was sitting in a shop. A strange looking shop that was so much different from what they had back home, but she was often told Storybrooke was far more advanced than the Enchanted Forest. He was just sitting there, behind a table, drinking away the pain.
"This is after the ordeal, when he was certain your mother would never come back. When he thought she had left for good this time," Jade clued Lucinda in.
"He looks so sad," Lucinda commented as she watched her father, for the first time, without the scaly skin or the creepy eyes. Without his messed up hair and weirded wardrobe. In the crystal ball, he appeared normal. He didn't even look that bad, he had a nice look. A good look. A look that worked well for him. He wasn't half bad when he was himself and not cursed. Not bad at all, but something about his appearance didn't change; somber.
"He has fallen so far," Jade commented, knowing the whole story, what had happened moments prior. He knew just how hard Rumple had fallen and so fast.
Lucinda would give anything just to crawl into the image she was being shown of him and hug him. The loneliness in his eyes was bringing her down, making her depressed, and she was on the verge of tears. She began to beg with whatever higher power that existed, if one did, for someone to just walk in and at least speak to him. Or even just stand there. Something. Anything. Just so he wouldn't be alone.
And then she heard a magical sound that made her heart jump for a moment.
"Get out," he father scorned. "We're closed."
Lucinda and Rumple shared something more than just the curse in common after all. Both knew the sound of Belle's voice anywhere.
"Rumple?" she calls, causing both Lucinda and her father to perk up at the same time.
"Mom," she breaths with a smile and tears forming in her eyes. "She came back."
Jade and Bae both smiled, as well, knowing the fluttery feeling all too well.
"She always comes back," Jade said.
Fairytale Land of the Past
He couldn't just go out and inspect every living person, and so he was looking for signs that made them stand out. Problem was, no one stood out. They walked the same, talked the same, shopped with the same woven baskets. It was an average town, and one that Todd took no pleasure in being in. You adapt high expectations after living in the Dark Castle for so long. The town was something out of a picture book he had read, bland and boring and predictable. He felt a deep desire to get the hell out of there.
He looked to each and every person in the town that he passed, but none appeared to be desperate or depressed. They all seemed way too cheerful and happy, as if their lives were perfect and nothing could ruin them. Todd rolls his eyes at their ignorance, examining them all briefly in his secret hunt for a soul worthy enough to do a favor for Rumplestiltskin. Well, worthy or desperate enough.
Hope was seeming to fail, and so Todd decided to take a slight rest by the well. If he returned empty handed, Rumple would be displeased with him, and tongue lashing often resulted in extra lessons in potions, which Todd despised. But Rumple was in a good mood that day, so he began to speculate that he could return without a desperate soul today and make up for his failures on the morrow. Perhaps today he could keep Rumple content with extra straw? He was running low.
Todd contemplated with himself as a young soul approached the well with a pail, dropping it over the water hole to fill it with the fresh liquid that lingered in the ground below. Todd found him suspicious, and not because he stuck out like a sour thumb, but because of how to himself he was. This boy, older than Todd for sure, wore a rather fancy looking cloak with the hood over his head, covering his raven black hair that sprouted wildly from the top of his head. His sapphire blue eyes sprinted from one part of the town to the other, scanning the people as he began to fumble with well, lowering his bucket to fetch a pail of water.
That's when Todd noticed it. His hand, it was peculiar. It was odd. It was scaly.
Not to the point of covering the fingers and palms, but rather just the back part of his hand was ruined with the foul skin that had consumed Rumple's entire appearance. A mark that he had something to do with a curse, a mark that showed he was a desperate soul.
Todd stood from his seat on the ground and approached the boy at the well, who began to hoist the pail back up to him, water leaking from its sides as he did so. Todd was sure to do a sneak attack. So he walked behind the boy with the flawed hand and brushed his right shoulder as he did, resulting in the boy jolting his head up and looking around to his right. There was nothing there, however, and Todd knew there wouldn't be. On the other side of him now, Todd stood tall and happy, as the boy shifted back to hauling up the pail from the well, he having dropped it some.
"He has downgraded," the boy with the flawed hand spoke, and Todd's smiled faltered at the sound of that. The boy wasn't even spooked by the sudden appearance of someone standing next to him, unfazed by Todd being so close to him. "He is using you now?" the one with the flawed hand further questioned. "A word of warning kid, get out while you still can."
Todd swallowed hard and pulled his words together.
"How did you know th-"
"I've been taught sneak tactics before," the one with the flawed hand spoke, removing the pail of water from the rope and holding it in his hands. "He taught me an awful lot."
Todd bit his lip before asking the dreaded question.
"To whom are you referring?" he asked, and the one with the flawed hand smiled slyly.
"The Dark One, of course," the flawed hand one replied. "Rumplestiltskin."
"You've met him?" Todd asked as the one with the flawed hand began to walk away, and so Todd followed in a hot pursuit.
"More than met," the one with the flawed hand answered. "I take it he has moved on then, if you're in his care." It wasn't a question, rather a fact. "The real question is why you are following me? Did he tell you to come and find me?"
Todd could play the game. So as he followed, he continued in his interrogation
"Is there a reason he should?" Todd asked, to which the flawed hand one shrugged.
"Depends on who you ask," he replied. "To me, no. To him, of course."
"Why is that?"
"Broken deal."
Todd stopped for a moment. That made no sense.
"Impossible," Todd countered. "Rumplestiltskin never breaks a deal."
"He didn't," the one with flawed hand explained. "I did."
Now Todd was just too interested to leave.
"What was the deal?" he questioned the boy with the flawed hand, trailing ever so close behind him. "The one that you broke. What was it? Why did you break it?"
Abruptly, the boy stopped in his tracks and gave a deep sigh. This kid was persistent, that was for sure, he wouldn't be backing down anytime soon. It seemed the only way to be rid of him was to just give in and move on.
"He wanted me to do him a favor," he responded to Todd's question. "A big favor, and as big as most of his favors are ... this one was just too much. There was no way I could promise him such a thing. No way I was sure that I would commit to such a thing. I almost did, though ... to be honest. I almost agreed and kept our deal. I'm not sure if I should be depressed that I didn't, but part of me is."
"What was it?" Todd further dug into the life of this stranger, curious and intrigued by his tale.
"A curse," he responded. "He wanted me to get involved in this curse he had." He shook his head doubtingly. "I wasn't sure I would be able to do it. The standard was rather high, as was the price."
Todd nodded in understanding, looking towards the ground, and then remembering why he was sent out here in the first place.
"He's looking for someone," Todd muttered, peeking up at the older boy with the rotting hand.
How close he came to accepting to play a role in a curse must be why his hand had been disfigured like Rumple's. He was tempted, he made the deal, but he backed away at the last second. So close to becoming dark, a part of it lingered with him as a reminder.
"A desperate soul," Todd continued. "He needs a favor. Another deal that needs to be made. Do you know of anyone who would be willing to do such a thing?"
The boy with the pail smiled some before nodding his head with glee, setting his pail down in the grass and crossing his arms over his chest.
"I sure do," he replied, lifting Todd's spirits. It would seem he wouldn't be returning empty handed after all.
"Great! Whom?"
"Me."
Somnium of the Present
"You lied to me ... again," her mother said as she continues to watch the scene unfold, her father beginning to stutter on words before her mother pulled him to her, shutting his mouth with her own, and that is when Lucinda felt her heart melt in her chest.
"For the first time you were truly selfless," her mother muttered after she released him from the kiss. "I don't need to travel the world to know what I want anymore ..." Lucinda held her breath. "I just want to be with you." And let it out, along with a single tear as her parents reconnected their lips and the crystal ball slowly shimmered back into a silver fog.
Lucinda covered her mouth with her hand, taking it in. The look in her mother's eyes could not have been played, nor could the joy and relief on her father's face when he finally got his wife back. She breathed in through her nose, tears leaking out of her eyes as she walked to the nearest open seat at the table and plopped down into it, feeling weightless.
Jade and Baelfire said nothing as they watched Lucinda pull herself together. She needed to see it. She needed to witness the moment they shared just before she was created. There was love there. There was passion. There was true happiness. It wasn't Stockholm Syndrome as she had feared. It was something much greater than that.
Tripetta returned with a tray of tea, cups and pot all balanced on her little wooden bar with handles that she carried with ease. She set it down on the table, all remaining silent as she poured each cup and passed it to each person seated at the table, starting with Master Jade, then Baelfire, and finally, setting one down before Lucinda.
"Her scroll, Tripetta?" Jade questioned his young servant, to which she dipped her head with her reply.
"Ludlow is retrieving it, Master Jade."
"Very good," he said with a grin. "Thank you, Tripetta."
"Will that be all, Master Jade?"
"Indeed. You may go."
With one final curtsy, she picked up her tray and returned back behind the curtain, leaving the three sitting in their seats in silence.
Lucinda wiped at her eyes, her brother staring intensely at her from across the table. He himself had never seen his father look at someone the way he looked at Belle. He was overjoyed that Rumple had found love again, but displeased that even his own daughter couldn't see it like he did.
"Accident," Jade spoke as he picked up his teacup, "indeed. You were. They weren't planning on having a child, but, dear Lucinda, accidents and mistakes are two completely different things. You must not confuse the two. You were one, not both. Accident, yes. Mistake, no. You were not a mistake. You are not the product of some fling. And you are most certainly not the product of some spell for false love and nothing more than obsession. No, dear Lucinda. No matter who may tell you otherwise, you are a product of true love. Despite the past and the future and what may linger in between, in that moment, your parents were completely in love with each other. There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it."
He then brought the cup to his lips and took a sip while Lucinda fathomed his words in her head, letting it all settle. Maybe they may have never planed on having her, but maybe that was because they didn't think they would get that far. It took some twenty eight years for them to find each other again, possibly longer. Twenty eight years, at least, of being separated. A child may not have been the first thing on their minds, but it wasn't out of the question completely. It just hadn't been discussed.
"I have said," Lucinda muttered, "so many hateful things because I believed I was nothing, but a burden to them. I questioned everything; my existence, their marriage, our love as a family. I knew they loved me, but I didn't know if they ... accepted me. If they wanted me. And now, I can't even tell them I'm sorry."
She sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her hand as she curled up in her seat, becoming smaller and smaller, wishing for nothing more than to hide her existence from the worlds. She was an embarrassment to herself, claiming that she knew more about her parents than they did. What lies she allowed her head to create. She could never make up for the things she had done, or even the things she thought. She was a wicked person.
"Lucinda," Baelfire spoke, dragging his sister's eyes towards him. "I know how easy it is to question love. I questioned it an awful lot when I was alive. It is a rather difficult thing to understand and to comprehend. And it is a difficult thing to obtain. It depends on years and years of development, courage to keep it intact, strength to prevent it from crumbling, and trust that doesn't shatter. And as hard as it is to obtain love, it is such an easy thing to lose it. I beg of you, Sister, for I know what it feels like, don't lose it.
"If you have it, you have a home. And you know you have a home, because when you leave it ... you miss it like hell. I know I did."
"Could you ever forgive him?" Lucinda asked her brother from where she sat across the table, knees tucked into her chest and tears licking her cheeks. The tip of her nose was red from her sobs and her voice soft from the strain on her throat every time she sniffled. "For abandoning you? Could you ever do it?"
Bae smiled sadly, tears pricking at his own eyes. He remembered the day it happened all too well. They day he fell into the portal and his father refused to follow, the day he discovered how much his father did to find him, all the way up to the day he died. Bae remembered everything.
Bae nodded.
"I already have."
Fairytale Land of the Past
The castle was just as he remembered it when he was lead inside. All the tapestries hung in their place, the artifacts of collected jewels scattering the walls and various shelves, dust piling on the objects, and an oversized hearth aflame in the corner with a spinning wheel by the last window. Yup. Nothing about the castle had changed except for it becoming filthier than before. The place was covered in dust.
"You need a maid," the one with the flawed hand commented as he walked beside Todd into the main room.
"Already working on it," Todd confessed, having told Rumple time and time again that they should hire a maid. He always blew it off.
They entered the great room where Rumple sat, back to them at the head chair of the enlarged oak table. The boy with the flawed hand knew what to expect, however. He had been before the creature in the past. Todd lead him around the table so that he could see Rumple's face once again, and the two shared in look when their eyes met.
"The prodigal son returns," Rumple teased as the one with the flawed hand smiled.
"Indeed I have, Master," he said with a slight bow. "A great pleasure to be in your company once more."
"Here to pay your end of the previous terms?" Rumple questioned with his same playful, childlike voice that the young man had heard before. In any case, the other shook his head slightly, still grinning as he had been taught to do.
That's when things started getting weird.
"No," the young man replied with some flare to his voice that seemed practice. A style that had been rehearsed, similar to the way the Dark One spoke; playful and easy. "I've come to negotiate terms. I hear you need someone to do you a favor."
Rumple was intrigued, it was obvious by the look on his face. And when he leaned forward in his chair, he seemed to be telling the flawed hand one to go on, and so he did.
"This favor of yours, I shall do, in exchange for immunity from our last deal," he said. "Sounds fair then, doesn't it?"
It was silent for a moment, the air tense with the missing reply from the Dark One creating a huge gap between Todd and the two that conversed the terms of the new agreement. He stood back, anticipating fire and dark magic sprouting out of hands in just a few moments, but he was settled when Rumple merely smirked and fiddled with his fingers.
"No deal will grant you immunity from the one you made with me, Dearie," he replied, "but I am willing to alter the terms of that last one. That way, you complete your previous deal, and the altercations of that is what you get in exchange for doing me this favor. Deal?"
The flawed hand one held up his normal palm to Rumple, as if a gesture to put him on pause. Todd began to inwardly panic, frightened that both hands just might be disfigured in a matter of seconds.
"Depends on what those altercations are," he insisted, placing a flat hand on the table's surface and holding his weight with his arm, slouching as if a businessman attempting to get a bargain price off of a steal.
"Opportunity," Rumple replied, grabbing the young ones attention. "If my new pupil fails, you must take her place. And if I find someone else to handle my curse, then you won't have to. If I do not, however, you must. If you refuse, you know what happens." Rumple tied up the corners of his mouth before nearly singing, "Do we have a deal?"
With a slight moment of pause and concentration, the young boy nodded in agreement with the terms and offered Rumple his good hand.
"Deal," he agreed.
And as they shook, Rumple locked eyes with his former companion, recalling good times and bad, when the first deal was struck and when it was broken. This boy that he shook hands with was a wonderful student, indeed. Ashamed he backed out at the last moment. He would have been the perfect heir.
"Pour this," Rumple said as he flashed a small tube into his hand, offering it to the boy who had just agreed to the terms they made, "into the old man's tea. Think you could at least manage to do that?"
He took the bottle and examined the contents, able to tell what it was just by a quick look. He smirked before shaking his head with disappointment.
"Still going after that thing?" he asked as he tucked the bottle into his cloak pocket. "What makes you think you'll succeed?"
Rumple shrugged.
"Look at the bright side," the Dark One questioned, "if I do, then you won't have to worry about our deal."
With that in mind, the young boy dipped his had in compliance before pulling up his hood and heading towards the exit.
"I'll get it done," he assured on his way out, but was stopped by Rumple's words.
"Pleasure doing business with you once more ... Jade."
I apologize for the long wait, but hell yes! Rumple is the Dark One again! Let's go!