Sometimes having magic could be such a burden, especially to ones liver. Rumpel lay on his bricked patio with an arm over his face, covering his eyes from the bright light. After two and half bottles of whiskey, he had decided that he wanted to lay under the stars. Hence why at ten o'clock in the morning, still feeling the effects of being drunk, Rumpel was lying on his patio. It was so simplistic. Nothing to bother him. Just him, the stars and whiskey. What more could he want?
He licked his lips and his arm fell from his face to lay beside his head. Rumpel watched the clouds move across the sky. It was such an easy life being a cloud. They formed; they drifted with the wind and then they were gone. No heart to torment. No love ones shouting at you in the middle of the street. Airing all your dirty laundry, which was a lie, for everyone to hear. He did not care that everyone heard. The fact that she believed it was enough to kill him.
Rolling onto his side, Rumpel cushioned his head with his arm and closed his eyes. The pain he saw in her eyes was rawer that anything he had seen before. He had seen a hint of it once before, when she had confronted him about doing things with the Evil Queen. Not as strong as it was yesterday. Seeing as they were not together at the time was probably the reason and that she had been seeing Will Scarlet at the time.
"Father!" A yell came from inside Rumpel's house. Rumpel ignored it, just like he had when his phone had rung too many times to count that morning. He did not want to know. It just caused him pain. He never had this trouble when he lived on his own, believing that everyone he loved was either dead or lost to him. Loving people made you weak and it hurt.
A pair of hands pulled at Rumpel's open shirt before grabbing Rumpel's shoulder to turn him to lie onto his back. "Father!"
Opening his eyes, Rumpel found Gideon leaning over him. "Hello, son."
"What are you doing on the floor?" Gideon looked around the patio, seeing the evidence of his father's evening activities.
"I just had a drink." Rumpel said in a singsong voice.
"A drink or two." Gideon mumbled, pulling his father up into a sitting position. Rumpel's shirt draped open at his sides, showing his bare chest where the shirt parted. Rumpel did not care how he looked. The one person it mattered to hated him.
"What's happened?" Gideon questioned as he touched his father's face, looking at all the dirt that was in his father's hair.
"Well, son," Rumpel began, taking on the voice of his alter ego. "You see your mother thinks I'm up to no good. She thinks I'm banging red riding hood. Though, okay in the past, when I thought your mother was dead I may have thought about it, but no more. Only eyes for your mother."
"What!" Gideon held his father by his shoulders.
"Yep." He nodded at his son but stopped when everything started spinning.
Gideon frowned. "Why does she think that?"
Rumpel gestured between them. "You're little secret. Your mother has… a super power." He laughed stealing Emma's saying. "She can sniff out a secret plot. Except! Your grandfather… God that's weird calling him that, since I'm older than him."
"Father, what about grandfather?" Gideon shook his father.
"He's told your mother that I ordered roses and that Ruby was at the cabin when he delivered them." As he spoke, the thought began to sober him. "She saw Ruby and me together, but it was nothing. It meant nothing. But she's took it to mean that Ruby and me are having an affair."
"This is all my fault." Gideon said, dropping his head in guilt.
Rumpel shook his head and used his hand under Gideon's chin to tilt his head back up. "Hey! No, it's not. As long as you had a good time last night, it's worth it."
"Father, your relationship with mother is probably over because of me." Gideon said shaking his head at himself.
"It doesn't matter." Rumpel clasped Gideon's face between his hands. "As long as you get your happiness, I am willing to pay the price." Gideon's shoulders dropped at his father's words. "Anyway, did you ask her?"
Gideon looked up to his father. "Yes."
"And?" Rumpel urged, his thumb subconsciously stroking his son's face.
"She said yes." Gideon said while a smile swept across his face. Pulling his son towards him, Rumpel squeezed his eyes shut and hugged him, his heart bursting with joy for him. The two times he had asked a woman to marry him, it was only the second time that had filled his heart with joy and excitement. Rumpel was grateful to whoever, that his son was able to feel the same sensation that Belle had given him when she had said yes.
Gideon pulled back from his father. "I need to go and speak to mother. I need to sort this out."
"No." Rumpel said sternly. "You will not. You are going to spend the day with your fiancée."
"But, father!" Gideon exclaimed. "I can't be happy knowing I've done this to my parents."
"You didn't do anything, son." Rumpel tried to smile at his son. It looked more like a grimace. "We'll sort it out. We always do. Don't worry about it."
"I do though." Gideon confessed, his eyes staring at the bricked patio.
Rumpel shook his head at his son and patted him on the shoulder. "Help me get up. Time I sorted myself out."
Gideon grabbed onto the hands that Rumpel offered towards him and pulled his father up into a standing position. He took hold of the opportunity and hugged his father. Rumpel sighed into Gideon's shoulder, stroking the back of his son's head to sooth him. It did not matter. The love Rumpel and Belle had was endless. He knew that now after all their history. If it were strong enough, then it would prevail no matter what was thrown at them. Even if she had the wrong end of the stick, it would all sort itself out.
"Gideon," A small voice came from the patio doors. "The tea is brewed." The two men parted from their hug to look at Lilly standing in the doorway. She looked bewildered standing in Rumpel's patio.
Rumpel did his best to smile at the young woman and walked over to her saying. "Congratulations."
Her smile blew him over for a second. She was so happy. As he went to step pass Lilly, she must have misinterpreted his intention and slung her arms around his neck to hug him. Rumpel froze. Slowly he put his arms around her, telling himself she was going to be family and he had to get used to this show of affection towards her. Lilly kissed his cheek and then withdrew from their hug to hug Gideon as he came into the house.
Rumpel stripped himself of his shirt and threw it to the counter. "I'm going to have a shower and get changed."
"Do you want some breakfast?" Lilly asked, looking at him expectantly where he stopped on the bottom step.
"That would be lovely." He told her and climbed the stairs to his bedroom. His door was wide open as he entered his bedroom and he closed his door behind him. There was no reason for him to shut the door when it was only him living in the house, but with the kids downstairs, he thought better of it. Rumpel entered his bathroom and turned on the shower, leaving it to get warm.
Undoing his pants, Rumpel let them fall and stepped out of them, his underwear following with his socks behind them. It was too bad it was not that easy to strip yourself of your past. If he could change, anything from his past, it would be all the secrets he had kept from Belle. Then hopefully, she would not be so distrustful of him. Rumpel could not get over that she could believe that he would have an affair. For nearly thirty years, he had held a torch for her, keeping their precious cup with him all that time.
He stepped under the spray of the shower and stood there, leaving all his thoughts outside of the shower. With the nice quiet time alone in the bathroom, Rumpel was able to wash and dry himself before thinking anymore about Belle. Returning to his bedroom just left him seeing different memories of them together. He dressed quickly to escape the torment and returned to the lovebirds downstairs, who were serving pancakes and bacon onto three plates.
"Ah!" Rumpel mumbled. "That smells delicious!"
"Take a seat at the table!" Lilly instructed as she put the pan in the sink. Rumpel entered the dining room to find it laid out, ready for breakfast. He sat down at the head of the table and took a sip of the orange juice that was waiting for him. The two lovebirds entered the room and Lilly placed a plate in front of Rumpel. His eyes eagerly ate up the sight of the food in front of him.
"I hope you like it." Lilly said gingerly, sitting down to Rumpel's right with Gideon taking the seat to his left.
"Sweetie, it looks fantastic." Rumpel told her and reached over to squeeze her hand. "Thank you." Her cheeks blushed at his thank you. They happily chatted as they ate, sharing some of the details from the previous night with Rumpel. He was so glad it had all gone how his son had wanted. It made the pain in Rumpel's heart lull hearing the excited lovebirds, reminiscing about their evening.
A phone started ringing. Gideon dropped his knife and fork onto his plate with a clatter, quickly pulling the phone out of his pocket. He looked from the display to Rumpel, swallowed and answered the phone.
"Hey, mother." Gideon said, leaning back against his chair. "Not yet. We're just having breakfast with father." His eyes widened at the voice on the phone. "Okay. Calm down. I will come by later." Gideon shook his head and rested his elbow against the table. "Yes, okay. Bye."
Gideon left his phone on the table, pushing it further away. "I don't know whether I want to go home."
"Go home." Rumpel said as he ate and sipped at his orange juice. "Don't treat her any different. We'll sort it out."
"She honestly thinks you would cheat on her?" Lilly asked as she laid her knife and fork on her plate.
Rumpel took a deep breath. "It's my fault. There is many things, I have done in our past that I'm not proud of. A lot of it has caused deep scars. Seeing something with your eyes though, is more convincing than what you feel or believe sometimes."
"Why don't you just go to her then and sort this all out?" Gideon pointed the question to Rumpel, gesturing with his hand that held his drink.
"Because, son," Rumpel could not help the smile. "You will learn that your parents are both very stubborn. I am not going to chase her around Storybrooke. I have been there and done that. She won't listen to me." He said finishing his food. "She needs to sort this out on her own."
"I'll talk to her then." Gideon said, repeating what he said earlier on the patio.
He reached for his son's hand and squeezed it tightly. "You are not going to say anything to her. Neither of you." Rumpel looked at Lilly as he spoke. "Just give her some time. It will all be fine. She'll learn the truth at your party."
"That's a week away! You're going to let her think for a week that you've cheated." Lilly exclaimed.
"She'll either calm down and come and talk to me," Rumpel sat back into his chair. "Or she will learn the truth then. I'm telling you both, it'll be fine. Anyway," He said before tapping his hand on the table to change the subject. "What do we have planned for the weekend? Picnic in the park? Rowboat on the lake? Day at the beach?"
Gideon chuckled. "I thought you said you only did what felt right at the time. Those are very romantic suggestions."
Rumpel gave his son a knowing smile and finished the last of his orange juice. The two laughed at him, but Rumpel did not care. Inwardly he was worried but he would not let his mask drop for them to see it. He had told himself last night that he was not going to her. He was not going to beg for forgiveness for something he had not done. If she loved him, then she would see the truth. She had to see the truth.