A flash of purple appeared amidst a sea of gold as Rapunzel performed her morning chores of dusting her collection of books, washing any stray drops of paint that may have fallen while she filled the walls with every dream she ever could have conceived in her mind, and of course, brushing her impossibly long hair that trailed behind her.
Clouds and flowers…the ones she saw from her window…adorned the walls in the form of her paintings. In them, she stood among them, smelling each flower, basking in the sunlight…in them, she was free. She was in the middle of filling what perhaps was the last bit of empty space she had on the wall, humming a tune quietly to herself, when a voice interrupted her.
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair," Rumplestiltskin exclaimed in a sing-song voice. Rapunzel spun around, tossing her brush into her box of paints.
"Very funny, Papa," she said with a teasing roll of her eyes. She turned back to the painting, quickly pulled a curtain over it, and hopped down from the mantle on which she'd been sitting, her hair landing in a heap at her feet. Rumplestiltskin looked from the girl to the curtain with curious suspicion.
"Hiding one of your masterpieces? That's not like you," he assessed as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, reappearing almost immediately up on the mantle and pulling the curtain back.
"No, Papa, wait—" Rapunzel said, reaching out towards him, but she was too late. The painting on the wall depicted a nighttime scene, thousands of bright lights filling the dark blue sky, and Rapunzel sitting atop a large tree, admiring the lights with a smile on her face. "Papa, I was going to ask you later, at dinner. But tomorrow is my birthday, and I was hoping that you could take me to see the floating lights." She kicked nervously at the wooden floor, unable to meet his eyes.
No matter what, she'll learn the truth. And she'll hate you for it. The Evil Queen's words echoed in Rumplestiltskin's mind, and for one brief moment, he experienced genuine fear. Fear of losing what he had surprisingly come to cherish in his time spent with Rapunzel. Fear of being alone yet again. But he quickly shook any doubts away, reminding himself of who he was, the power that he possessed, and more importantly, the role that Rapunzel was destined to play in the future.
"I've told you that you can't leave the castle. This is the only place where you're safe from all of the evils that this world has to offer. The only thing that matters here is power, and once they find out you have it, they'll do anything to take it from you," he said, a well-rehearsed speech that Rapunzel knew by heart.
"And the Evil Queen, who comes here often? What about her, Papa?" she asked, defiance bright in her blue eyes. Rumplestiltskin froze for a moment, as if he saw something in the girl that he had never expected.
"She is…a necessary evil that I am fully capable of protecting you from, should the need arise. But it won't," he said with absolute certainty.
"Papa, I'm not a little girl anymore. I know that you're called The Dark One. I know that everyone makes deals with you when they don't have anywhere else to turn, and you help them, but for a price that you name. And I know about the young woman who used to live—"
"Enough!" he interrupted with a roar. "You aren't stepping foot outside of this castle, Dearie, and that's the end of it!" He turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door and leaving Rapunzel alone, her eyes quickly filling with tears. He stomped down the stairs, glanced at the chipped cup in the corner of the dining hall on the pedestal where he kept it, and with a wave of his hand, threw open the front doors and left, the force of the slamming of wood back into place behind him shaking the entire castle.