House flies and white lies

A few weeks later, Belle (almost) back to her own self flitting around the castle with a book (with a lot more precision than 'before') and him being distracted by her and not spinning, Rumplestiltskin felt his plans were working out quite well. Snow White was currently on the run but had met Replacement-James (whom she had nicknamed 'Prince Charming', joy) and fallen in love with him, and said Prince 'James' was getting married. Midas' daughter was moping because she wanted Frederic back (affected by the power he had gifted to her father all those years ago). And the little Red wolf was very close to telling her friend to find one 'Rumplestiltskin'. So things were going well. Of course they were only going well if you ignored the fact that a certain blue-eyed beauty was becoming more and more irritable, and had a habit of breaking things when angry. Her magic was getting away from her, leaking through the tears in the seams of her control. It was much like what had happened to him when he got the power, except unlike him she was fighting it. She didn't need it like he had, had no plans for it in the future. And without creating a purpose for her magic things were going to get difficult for her. To have a purpose she needed to pick a direction, and that required a significant event to take place because of her magic. The easiest thing would be take a life, but that was most assuredly the wrong direction. Especially for his little Belle. But she seemed to be leaning closer and closer to it, and that was something he had to fix. He had no doubts in his mind that, had they dealt with Cinderella this week, that pesky Fairy Godmother would be dead and not 'missing'.

Speaking of Fairy Godmothers... "Belle, dearest. I need you to disappear yourself. We have a visitor." She raised a skeptical eyebrow at the nickname but did as he asked anyway (his dagger was hidden away upstairs, he didn't like the way it gave Belle chills) and vanished herself. She had asked him, once, how it was he became aware of certain things, and he told her it was a combination of the Sight and the fact his castle really liked him. Not seconds after Belle's smoke cleared, free to be blue whilst in the castle, a shining blue light appeared in mid air. He sighed. Anybody but this vulgar creature. The light grew bigger until a little blue gnat was floating before him, a stern expression on its face. Fine, her face. The Blue Fairy scowled at him, an expression poorly concealed by her mask of sincere pity. "Come to make a deal, dearie?" He knew she could sense a disturbance about him, but as long as he kept her distracted she would never notice the Dark One was sat at the table at not at the wheel... "You know I don't make deals with the likes of you, Rumplestiltskin." She spat his name like a curse, and he raised a hand to his chest as though her words wounded him. "Well then what brings you here, little housefly? I don't like insects in my house." He leaped of from his stool with a sudden movement and made as though to swat her. Much to his delight, she flitted away with horror and disgust.

"It seems the Fairy Godmother patron to the family of King George has gone missing. I demand to know what you've you done to her!" Well look at little miss superiority-complex. "I haven't done anything to her. But I'm sure if you look about you'll find her." He gave a mocking grin, gesturing to the air, and Blue scowled again. She became fully human sized so she could prod at his chest, and he wondered how creatures who so blatantly displayed their own chests could ever be considered connected to goodness and purity. Some of Regina's dresses showed less cleavage, and people called them vile. The dresses. Ahh... Anyway. "I know you had something (prod) to do with it (prod) Rumplestiltskin." (prod) He raised his eyebrows. "Prove it dearie! Now, we both know that's not the only reason you're here." He didn't, actually, but it was fun to creep her out and act like he knew all her secrets. She gazed at him loftily, and he got the feeling she believed she knew one of his. She sniffed. "I thought you might have died, but clearly I was mistaken." His eyebrows raised higher, straight into his hairline. "And why would you think that dearie?" She glowered, and he bared his teeth at her in a feral grin. She sniffed again and said "I was summoned to the Dusted Jellyfish about six months ago by the Dwarves. It seems they'd captured a very powerful sorceress. One with the skin of the Dark One. Apparently one of the villagers saw her get chased off a cliff by a 'dark woman'. They fished her out and chained her up when they saw what she was. They dislocated both her arms and she barely batted an eyelash. It was only when one of them went to pull out her teeth that she reacted. And then she disappeared." She finished speaking, motioning for him to try and challenge what she said.

"Well as you can see, dearie, I'm not dead and I'm still the Dark One." She tilted her head and gave him an exasperated expression. He grinned like he was proud of himself. "I can see that. But I know for a fact that girl was the Dark One. I want to know what happened." He rolled backwards on his feet and then forwards again, contemplating. "True Love's Kiss." That took her completely by surprise, and she actually stumbled back a few paces. Now she looked like a goldfish as well as a jellyfish. "Well... what happened to her?" He pursed his lips, as though this were a difficult question. Then he grinned. "Why I, stabbed her with the dagger, of course!" Now the gnat audibly gasped, hand over her heart. When she'd calmed herself, fury still writ across her face, she said "I truly did not believe you could make yourself more horrifying, but you have. First Baelfire and now this poor girl." He scowled at the mention of his son. "You really are an evil monster Rumplestiltskin." Then she shrank herself with a huff, and flitted away into a beam of light.

She crept up to him after the miniature fairy had gone, the one she had seen at the tavern. She put her hand lightly on Rumple's shoulder and he flinched, turning to look at her. "Are you okay?" He nodded at her mutely. "How does she know what happened to Baelfire?" He winced and rubbed his leg, his focus when he experienced bad memories. "She was there... Her fault" His voice, barely more than a whisper, and his gaze, lost in the distance. She pulled a sympathetic expression and said "I can tear her wings of for you if you'd like?" He winced, like that hurt too. "No thank you Belle. Go back to your dungeon please." He sat down with tired eyes and she scowled as she collected her magic around her. It was only when she got back to her cell that she realised he had called it the 'dungeon', and not her room. He'd also said it was hers. And please. And he'd referred to the loss of his magic as 'True Love's Kiss', and not 'the actions of a spiteful minion of Regina's out to get my power with poison kisses'. She smiled. Progress.