-Flashback chapter-
Rumple looks to me as we sit at the table. We were just about to head to bed when he gives me a slight look of shock and smiles. The giggle that comes from his mouth causes me to smile back at him.
"Come Dearie. Big things are being set in motion." I put my cape on and transform into my parrot self, landing on his outstretched arm. I then make my way to his shoulder, and we travel in a cloud to his destination. Once there he sits in a nearby chair, and he puts a finger to his lips to have me keep quiet. I do as he suggests and look around the room we are now in. A large room with an enormous bed. The decorations are a bit gawdy for my taste. I turn my head around to see a woman by a large open area behind us. It is still dark out. The moon is shining bright, so most of the room is still fairly well lit.
"Rumplesh-stiltsk," The woman's words cause me to look at what she is holding in her hands. The book of spells, but I thought he said he gave that to someone named Cora. "Rumpleshtiltskin, I summon thee-"
"That's not how you say it, dearie." Rumple corrects her. I bob my head in agreement once she realizes she is not alone. "But, then, you didn't have to say anything." She cautiously moves so she can see Rumple's face. I turn my head to follow her actions.
"What are you?" That's fairly rude. I begin to squawk to let my distaste in her question be known.
"What? What? What? My, my, what a rude question." Rumple speaks the words I wish to. His right hand reaches up to smooth my feathers. The touch is calming. He turns his upper body to face her directly. "I am not a what." She realizes her mistake and grasps at her necklace while looking down at the book in her hand.
"I'm sorry. I don't really know what I'm doing." She apologizes.
"That much is clear." Rumple agrees as he stands from the chair. "Allow me to introduce myself." He walks to an open area in front of the woman. "Rumplestiltskin." He rolls the 'r' as he bows before her. He stands up and I nudge the side of his head. "Ah yes, and this beautiful bird is my dear Ava." The woman grasps at her skirt to curtsy.
"And I'm-"
"Regina." Rumple interrupts her. "I know."
"You do?" She asks him. Some confusion causing her brows to pull together.
"But of course."
"Because of my mother, Cora." It makes sense why she would have the book then. "You taught her." Both of them slowly stand up straight from their polite greetings.
"My legend precedes me."
"People say I look like her when she was younger." I never knew Cora when she was younger. To be quite honest, I have never met the woman. I would not be able to pick her out of a crowd if I wanted to.
"Really?" Rumple asks as he steps closer to her. He takes a good look at her face. "I don't see it." I can tell she liked Rumple's words, almost relieved in a way. "No, that's not how I know you."
"Well, how, then?" She asks as he begins to walk around her. I see her grasp the book closer to her chest, looking for some sort of comfort.
"I knew you long ago, dearie." He begins to clarify. "It's been some time, but I knew this day would come." He stops to stand behind her and lean towards her left ear. "I've been waiting for it. And I'm so happy we are back where we belong."
"And where's that?" She asks as he continues his circle around her.
"Together." He speaks. I click my tongue and beak in agreement. She looks a bit uncomfortable, but I decide to flap my wings enough to hop over to her shoulder. Rumple leans back a bit, and Regina tenses her shoulders. I nuzzle her cheek and her shoulders relax ever so slightly. "Oh, yes. I know everything about you, my dear." Rumple walks a little bit away from her. "I held you in my arms. You were younger. More portable." He turns back around to look at us. "There is much history between your family and me. History both in the past, and in the future."
"Then, can you help me?" Regina asks as she steps closer to him.
"Possibly, yes." He answers. I begin to zone out a bit as I gaze upon the face of my love. We do not get out much, especially not at night. The light of the moon just barely reflects off of Rumple's skin. It is just so hypnotizing, like the stars in the night sky. I do not wish to take my eyes off of him. "You seek power?" His words break me out of my own thoughts. "The death of your enemies?" He steps closer to us as he continues to guess what she wants from magic. "The death of your friends?"
"No." She answers with some disgust in her tone. "I don't want to hurt anyone."
"Hard to believe you're from the same family." He comments. "So kind. So gentle. So...Ooh. Powerful. Just like my Ava." He reaches up and it looks like he is about to caress Regina's cheek but angles my way instead. He runs his left hand down my front feathers. He holds his hand down by my feet as I step onto it. "You could do so much if you just let yourself." He tosses his arm up and I jump off and transform into myself. My cloak's hood covers my face. I reach up and remove it from my head to see Regina's face light up in wonderment. Her eyes bright and mouth slightly agape. Her expression soon falls as she begins to turn away.
"But I don't know how." She says.
"There was a point at which both of us could not dream of ever having power like this, Regina." I tell her as I walk up to her. My hand gently touches her shoulder.
"Well? Let us show you the way." Rumple tells her. I turn her to see a large present that he has made appear in the room.
"How did-"
"Magic." Rumple and I interrupt at the same time.
"It can set you free." Rumple adds.
"I don't want to do that." Regina says as she shakes her head. "Use magic, that's what she does. I don't want to end up like her." She is referencing her mother. They must have a rocky relationship. I send Rumple a concerned look.
"No, no, of course not." Rumple replies. "But that's the beauty of my gift. You don't have to. It'll do it for you."
"What is it?"
"A portal. A passage between lands." Rumple answers as he walks closer to the gift. "This is a portal to a specific annoying little world." He makes his way back to us. "Useless to me, but for your purposes? Perfect. You're unlikely to ever see her again." Regina thinks about Rumple's words for a few seconds before stepping towards the gift. "All she needs is a little push. The question is, can you do it?"
I turn back into my parrot form, and we leave her with that last thought. I do not want anything bad to happen, but when I go along with Rumple's plans, I know I have to trust him. Everything he does is to get to what we both want in the end...our family together at last. When we reappear, we are outside the castle on a high up balcony. I turn back into myself and wait for him to explain.
"Don't think I didn't notice you staring at me back there, Dearie." I feel my cheeks heat up at his words. My hands grip the hood of my cloak and pull it even farther over my face. A little giggle escapes him, and it sends a shiver down my spine.
"Perhaps your eyes were deceiving you." I say just above a whisper as I look down to the ground. I feel his hand pat the top of my head.
"No need to be shy about it." He gently pulls back my hood and I cover my face with both hands. "Tsk, tsk. That's not fair. How are you allowed to stare at my less than pleasing features, but you won't let me glance upon your angelic face in the moonlight for a single moment?" The smooth tone and his gentle touch on my wrists surprise me. His thumbs rub soft circles on my wrists, and I slowly take them away from my face. One of his hands lets go of me and lifts my chin to look at him. "There you are." I feel my cheeks get even warmer than before. "Now, what held your stare back there?"
"Since we are outside in the moonlight, I could guess that you already know what I was staring at." He lets out another giggle. "Also, I do not know how you can say that your features are less than pleasing when I find them quite beautiful." I try to avoid eye contact by looking up to the stars.
"Is that so?" he asks.
"In this lighting especially."
"The darkness?"
"No!" I look back into his eyes. "You know that is not what I mean." I reach my right hand up to his cheek. The skin rough on my own. "I mean in the moonlight." I gesture to the big orb in the sky with my eyes. "You seem to sparkle like the stars that give interest to the dark blanket of the night sky. I could gaze upon you for hours on end, hypnotized by it until the sun comes up."
"And once the sun comes up...what then?" I can feel us beginning to come closer together. "Stars can't be seen in the daytime."
"That is true, but that is when the whole sky is the brightest. Nothing hidden. I know the real you, Rumplestiltskin. The man behind the thick skin of the Dark One. Your heart is the most beautiful thing about you." There is a short pause just long enough to realize how close we had become. Lips only a breath apart.
Then, there is no space between us. It is something I could not have imagined. The soft and slow kiss causes us both to close our eyes. The feeling is mind blowing. I feel as if tiny explosions are going off everywhere in my body, tingling at every point we are touching. It takes a minute to break apart from each other. When we open our eyes I gaze upon him once again, expecting to see the sparkle of the moonlight hitting his skin. The only problem is...his skin was not sparkling. It was as if I had been transported back to our village during the Ogre wars.
"Rumple, what's happening?" His brows knit together, and he brings his hands up to touch his face. They still held the skin of the Dark One. He feels his face and immediately rushes inside without saying a thing. I rush after him.
"No!" I hear him shout. It stops me in my tracks. "No, no, no,no, no." The volume gets softer with each word until I hear shattering glass.
"No." I say to myself as I bring my hands to my mouth. I finally decide to continue to find him. My feet automatically lead me to him. He is sitting against a large frame that had a looking glass in it earlier today. He looks almost limp, and I can hear a faint whimper as I get closer. "Rumple." The whimpering stops and he wipes at his face. "Please say something." I try to get him to answer me as I crouch down to get a good look at his face.
"Why is everything taken from me?" He whispers, more to himself than me. I reach out my hand and lift his chin up so I can see his face. It is back to the thick Dark One's texture. The tears coming from his eyes break my heart. I wipe away the streams and bring his head closer to me so I can kiss his forehead.
"There are other ways to show affection, my Love." I tell him as I lean my forehead against his. He does not reply. "Look at me, Rumple." He finally looks at me. "This is but a bump in the road of our relationship. We have waited this long. We can wait until we achieve our goal. Success is right around the corner."
"How can you be so sure?" His voice cracks. It takes me back to when we first met. To when he helped me through the roughest times of my life.
"There is always hope. Like a light in the darkness."
After Regina's wedding day we waited for her on a secluded pathway outside the grounds of the castle. Rumple told me that she was able to actually conjure up enough resolve to be rid of her mother. In my parrot form I rest on his shoulder and nuzzle the side of his face. He reaches a hand up to smooth my feathers. We have been trying these past couple of days, comforting each other in ways that will not get rid of the Dark One's power. The clip clop of a horse's hooves brings our attention back to the road in front of us. It is Regina.
"Leaving, are we?" Rumple addresses her. She looks around before answering.
"That was always the plan." She replies as she dismounts her steed. She walks closer and reaches into one of her bags to bring out the spell book. "Here, a gift." She wants to get rid of it. "I don't want it."
"Oh, can't be a gift, it was mine to start with." He says as he takes the book back. She turns to get back on her horse. "Before you go..." Rumple says to stop her. "Answer me this," She turns back to us. "How did it feel?"
"I love my mother." Regina starts.
"But that's not what I asked, dearie." He stops her with a finger held up. "How did it feel to use magic?" I can tell she is trying to resist what we all know to be true. I can even agree that it is an amazing feeling.
"It doesn't matter. I'll never use it again." She replies a bit more directly.
"Why not?" Rumple pushes for the real answer as she turns away from us again. She takes a deep breath before turning back to us.
"Because I loved it." She admits just above a whisper. Rumple's smile grows as he lets out one of his giggles.
"You've discovered who you are." He tells her. "You could do so much now, if you let me show you how." The last part of the sentence he says in a singsongy way.
"Through magic." She says.
"Through many things." Regina smirks at his words before stepping just a bit closer.
"And what do you get out of it?"
"Someday, you'll do something for me." He answers her very valid question. Everything is a deal. "Let us guide you." He offers the book back to her. She takes another deep breath before grabbing the book but not quite taking it yet.
"And I won't become like her?" She asks.
"That, dearie, is completely up to you." Rumple tells her. It really is in her own hands at this point. He lets go of the book so she will have to take it. I click my beak with happiness as I flap my wings a bit.
A/N: My hope for this story is to write at least 1 chapter per month. I have been rewatching the series, and it brought my mind back to this creation of mine. I am sorry if this was a bit clunky. I am getting back into it after a good long while. At least we got to know what Rumple and Ava's first kiss was like. Let me know what you think. I always loved reading your comments.
