Chapter Text
Rumpelstiltskin had only started to pay attention to the girl the moment she deviated from the script. Until then, she had been the weakness of the fool who'd called for the Dark One and hadn't even the riches to pay for his help. A pretty thing, he supposed. But most importantly, the perfect piece to play in this room of men who automatically arranged themselves to shield her.
Of course he'd asked for her.
He was Rumpelstiltskin, and Rumpelstiltskin always asked for an impossible price.
Of course she had been supposed to faint at the offer, or at least tremble in fear as she hid herself behind that looming hulk of armor who'd called himself her promised.
But the little lady had done none of that. Instead she had come forward, bound herself to Rumpelstiltskin's service, and in that same breath she had almost made the Dark One look the fool. Because he had not expected to get her so easily, with no more an effort than a few words on his first visit. The father should have played up to the insult offered, refused the help his town so dearly needed and shouted that his daughter was not a sacrifice to be thrown at the likes of him. And the lady should have claimed that she'd rather bury a sword in her chest than go with him as nothing but a servant.
The honor of the nobles was such a sensitive creature. Let the blood run, hear the cries of the widows and the crunch of bones in the night. But keep their pride intact. Fools, the lot of them! Rumpelstiltskin had offered this same deal dozens of times, and dozens of times it had played out in the same manner. The Dark One was sent back empty-handed, hearing nothing but protests and insults before he left.
His answer had always been the same: grin at them, make a bow... and leave them to the ogres. Waited until word spread to the town outside the war room, to the grieving and the hungry, to the people terrified of the monsters beating down their thin defenses. Peasants cared about the pride of their betters in times of peace, but when they stood as fodder with nowhere to run?
Rumpelstiltskin knew that even the lowliest man took matters in his own hands when there was no hope. They broke into great castles. They made weapons out of thin air, and pointed them at those in power. Rebellion was in even the tamest of hearts, and all it took was the threat of horrible death, of their children suffering, to turn it onto action.
Foolish lords. Prideful lords. They deserved to feel the ire of the people they'd failed.
Rumpelstiltskin would have laughed when Maurice's hand was forced. When weeks or months later he was invited back, and oh so politely offered to take the girl.
The look on their faces when he demurred! It always thrilled him. No, no. Thank you, but no. Considered it better. Won't do after all, what's the use of a housekeeper when magic did the job so well? Oh, and good luck with your little war!
It would have been lovely.
He could always have gotten rid of the ogres in another year or two. He really couldn't abide their filth for long.
But the girl had accepted his deal. She had defied father and beloved (or not-so-beloved, as he'd find out later), stepped forward, and Rumpelstiltskin had had no choice but to walk away with her.
And even as he'd shoved her into a dark dungeon that night, he'd thought, still a little surprised at the turn of events, well, and what comes next? and when he hadn't found an answer, he'd laughed in sincere amusement for the first time in years.
It had been too long since he'd crossed ways with a true unknown; his sight skipped her, there was no further clue in his visions, and none of the threads he'd spun so diligently in the last years touched her. The girl was nothing, utterly useless in his quest, and yet - and here was her true worth, make no mistake - she had managed to catch him unawares.
In a world he'd already seen end, tumbling into the unexpected was more satisfying than any treasure. He never understood what had stopped her nightly weeping, and the small smiles that fleeted at him mystified him.
A mystery. A riddle. A gift for someone who had planned his life in this realm to the last second.
He would keep her, yes, and unlike the men in her old life, Rumpelstiltskin would never let her slip away.
The End
16/04/16