Chapter Text
The roses had grown back again.
“That’s the fifth time this week!” Rumpelstiltskin growled.
Someone was messing with his garden and he wanted to know who.
Rumpelstiltskin didn’t want roses. He didn’t even want a garden. All he wanted was to be left in peace.
Yet every time he had tried to take a calming walk through the barren wasteland that should have been his grounds, he found that the rose bushes that he had very enthusiastically incinerated with a fireball the day before had grown back.
The growth wasn’t being caused by a natural infestation of any kind. Someone was very purposely sneaking onto his grounds and regrowing them each night. Rumpelstiltskin was not used to being so thoroughly tricked.
He decided he would hide in the garden that night and see who the culprit was. Feeling pleased with his plan, Rumpelstiltskin let out a high-pitched giggle and sent a round of fireballs at the offensive flowers, smirking as they went up in flames and smoke.
That night, immediately after dusk, he hid himself along the garden’s stone wall where the shadows would keep him hidden as well as any magic could. He leaned against the wall and waited.
And waited.
He was halfway asleep when the tiny flutter of wings roused him. Rumpelstiltskin blinked his eyes a couple times and tried to focus in the dark.
For a moment, he thought he had imagined the sound, but then a streak of brilliant white light shot past him. The light made a circle around the dead roses before finally settling on the charred remains of a rosebush.
It was a tiny fairy.
Rumpelstiltskin hated fairies.
This fairy was female and had long chestnut hair that fell down her back in soft waves. Her dress was a golden yellow that stood out in the night while her silvery blue wings actually gave off a shimmering glow.
He didn’t recognize her, so he knew she wasn’t part of Blue’s inner circle. This fact did nothing to raise his opinion of her, however.
Creeping out of his hiding place, he was getting ready to scare the pixie dust out of her when he heard it.
Sniffling. The fairy was crying over the dead rosebushes.
Rumpelstiltskin rolled his eyes. A sentimental fairy was hardly going to deter him. He took a step closer, accidentally stepping on a dead leaf which let out a barely noticeable crunch.
In the stillness of the night, however, the sound was deafening.
The fairy rounded on him, her wings flapping agitatedly. Her gaze fell on him and the ferocity within her eyes was so intense, that even though her whole body was no bigger than his hand, Rumpelstiltskin found himself taking a step back.
“How could you?” she yelled, her voice no less powerful despite coming from such a tiny person. “I’m trying to help you, you stupid man!”
Rumpelstiltskin was speechless. No one had dared talk to him that way for years, perhaps decades even. He tried to sneer back at her, but his voice came out a bit less intimidating than he had hoped.
“Do you know who I am, fairy? I’m the – “
“Yes, yes, the all-powerful and evil Dark One, I know.” She flew closer to him, coming within inches of his face. “That doesn’t mean you have the right to kill my flowers,” she scolded.
“But it’s my garden.” He tried not to wince at how petulant he sounded.
“Well, you don’t do a very good job of taking care of it,” she huffed. “It’s barely even a garden. It’s more of a wasteland.”
“I like it that way,” he snarled. He wasn’t even sure why they were having this conversation. Hadn’t he been about to scare her away with a fireball just minutes ago?
Rumpelstiltskin couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was something strangely intriguing about the little fairy. She should have been terrified of him, yet here she was standing – for lack of a better term – her ground against him. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her tiny wings beat a staccato through the air.
The two simply glared at each other for a while, both trying to stare the other one into admitting the error of their ways.
Or at the very least, trying to see who would blink first.
Growing tired of this game, Rumpelstiltskin was the first to break the silence. “Now look here, dearie. These grounds belong to the Dark Castle and the Dark Castle belongs to me,” he said, gesturing at himself with both thumbs. “Now that means you’re trespassing and I am well within my rights to blow you to fairy smithereens if you don’t vacate my premises immediately.”
Her only reply was a “harrumph.”
Rumpelstiltskin could feel the annoyance begin to creep into this voice. “Go away.”
“No.”
He began gesturing with his hands exasperatedly. “Look, I know you fairies aren’t the brightest creatures in the forest, but this,” he gestured all around them, “is mine. So you can take your little self back to whatever Hell realm the Reul Ghorm presides over and leave me in peace.”
She snorted. It was the first time he had ever heard a fairy snort. Rumpelstiltskin shook his head of the thought. Snorting or not, she needed to go.
For a moment, he thought his words had finally sunk into her tiny fairy brain. She began to fly away from him and he was just about to congratulate himself on his victory when she lowered herself onto the nearby rosebush again and began picking up bits of charred rose petals.
“What do you think you are doing?” he spat out.
She didn’t even give him the courtesy of turning around, addressing him over her shoulder as she continued to work. “Tending to your garden, of course. I should have thought that would have been obvious.”
“You do realize I will keep destroying your flowers, don’t you?”
“And you do realize that I’ll keep bringing them back? Honestly, you’d be better off just accepting my help. It would save you an awful lot of work.”
A headache was beginning to form somewhere deep in his skull and he pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping to alleviate the building pressure.
“What do you want?” he asked.
His tone was even and calm, though it had a hint of resignation to it. She turned around this time, looking him directly in the eyes as she spoke.
“I want to stay here,” she said. “In your garden.”
Of all the things he had expected her to say, Rumpelstiltskin had not expected that.
“What would you want to do that for?” he asked in disbelief.
She looked down at her bare feet, one of which she was dragging back and forth in the ashes of the plant.
“Let’s just say I don’t want to go back to Blue’s Hell realm.” Her voice was quiet and for the first time Rumpelstiltskin had to strain his ears to hear her.
“Not a fan of the fairy queen?” he sneered.
“No,” she admitted. “She’s not really a fan of me either for that matter.”
The tiny seed of an idea began to sprout in Rumpelstiltskin’s mind. He had operated for many years under the philosophy of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. And as it happened, there was no one he considered his enemy more than the Blue Fairy.
As much as he didn’t like the idea of a bad-mannered fairy flying around his grounds freely, the chance to learn more about Blue – her strengths and, more importantly, her weaknesses – was too good an opportunity to pass up.
“Perhaps we could arrange a deal, little one.” He gave her his best shark-like grin.
But instead of inspiring the usual fear, the fairy only beamed back at him, her inner happiness displayed by the outer glow that began to form around her.
“You’ll let me stay?” she asked, seeming awestruck by his words.
“I suppose my grounds are rather in need of a gardener.” He began to strut around the area in front of her, gesturing flamboyantly as he took on the persona of the dealmaker. “Just because I’m a beast, doesn’t mean my estate has to look monstrous.”
The fairy giggled. Rumpelstiltskin turned his head around quickly, his eyes wide in surprise. “Well – as I was saying,” he faltered momentarily, thrown off by her strange behavior yet again, “I will let you stay here and tend the gardens as you see fit. But in return, you must help me with something.”
Her eyes narrowed for a moment and for the first time that night, she regarded him warily. “What is it?”
“Just a favor, which I will collect in time,” he said nonchalantly. He had hoped she would be so grateful to stay that she would agree to his conditions immediately. But based on the skeptical look he was receiving from her, he very much doubted she would.
“My brain may be small, but it’s not non-existent. I’m not agreeing to any deal with the Dark One until I know the exact details.”
He grumbled a bit under his breath, but finally gave in, trying to keep his resentment towards Reul Ghorm from coloring his voice and failing spectacularly. “I require some information about the Blue Fairy.”
The little fairy actually had the audacity to roll her eyes at him. “Well why didn’t you just say so in the first place?”
She gave him a big smile. “It’s a deal, Imp.”
Rumpelstiltskin blinked, more than surprised at her easy acceptance of his terms. However, he wasn’t about to complain and give her a chance to change her mind either.
“I think this should be a very beneficial arrangement for both of us, Miss – “ He faltered for a moment, realizing he didn’t know her name.
“My name is Bluebelle,” she said with a solemnity that didn’t befit such a ridiculous name in Rumpelstiltskin’s opinion. “But you may call me Belle.”
He gave her a deep bow which she returned with a curtsey, her bright blue eyes sparkling with happiness.
“Well then Belle, welcome to the Dark Castle.”