Once Upon A Time

by hara-leah

Once Upon a Time, they were beautiful and strong. Once Upon a Time, they were the evil-doers, the malicious ones. Once upon a time, they were magnificent. Once Upon a Time, they didn't need their children to be beautiful and cunning and powerful for them. Once Upon a Time, they didn't need to send their kids to rule the world for them, because they were already doing it themselves.

15. She Was Always Pathetic

Once Upon a Time (She was Always Pathetic)

Madame Medusa was beaten by rats. Tiny little rodents with sharp teeth and whiskers and paws and a cheese fetish. She was a friend of the crocodiles, a far more terrifying beast than any mouse, but somehow, they beat her, and while she'd always been a dirt-broke drunkard with no prospects, now she was a dirt-broke drunkard with no prospects who couldn't defeat a rat.

It was a wonder her son was even born.

No one wanted to sleep with her.

She was lucky Captain Hook was also very good at getting drunk.

Then Mikhail was born.

If she'd told him, Hook would've been over the moon (if she knew, she would've told him).

As it was, she raised Mikhail; he raised Helena (Helena wasn't hers, she didn't think).

When he got older, Mikhail ran Madame Medusa's Boutique and Pawn Shop.

Cheap labour.

How wonderful.

Mikhail was very good at driving hard bargains. He could get a person to pay ten times for a pocketwatch what he did and consider it a good buy. People would pawn off priceless magical artefacts (the Medusas weren't magick, but coveted the items anyway) for 10c a piece. The only people he couldn't cheat were they Tremains, but they stayed far, far away from his part of the Isle (even the Isle of the Lost had Uptown and Downtown, and he lived in the latter) so they had a sort of an uneasy truce.

(Later in their relationship, they'd sneak into the pawn shop, because no one expected to see the Tremaine cousins anywhere near Madame Medusa's, so they could kiss all they wanted.)

(It was only slightly weird.)

He always let Evie in (even though he knew that she was beguiling him) because she was kind and sweet and never stole (even though that friend of hers did) and kept Maleficent's daughter away.

(In downtown, they called her the Witch, and Evie the Whore and their friends were called the Thief and the Troublemaker.)

At some point, the Boutique and Pawn Shop became the secret meet-up spot for relationships parents didn't approve of.

He didn't really mind- unless they stole.

(If they stole, he had Brutus and Nero fetch the goods back.)

(They rarely failed.)

When the daughter of Maleficent (who was now seen as the mother of Mal) killed her king, he didn't rejoice. It wasn't much of a change, really.

The Pawn Shop moved.

He changed its name.

He poisoned his mother.

He went on with his life.

His mother wasn't a major villain, she was just a drunkard.

(That was okay because he didn't have a kingdom, but he had a mansion and a wife and a daughter)

{That was all she wanted.}