Rumple came to a halt so quickly he nearly collided with Neal; Spinning around to face the other man, Rumple’s face was twisted with fury, the glow of the hunter’s moon above highlighting his expression with red-orange slashes of light.
“Regret? Regret? You think I don’t regret?! I’ve been drowning in regret from the moment I let you go, Bae! If it’s one thing I do well, the only thing I seem capable of getting right, it’s regretting!” The man spat fiercely, though his anger seemed more centred towards himself than his son, “I regret letting you go…that one, terrible mistake, that split second I’ll regret for the rest of my days! I regret the pain that brought you, because I know that same pain. But you won’t listen to me when I tell you why I don’t regret taking the Dark One’s powers! It was for you! To save your life! Nothing else!”
Rumple seemed to shrink away at Neal’s last utterance, his shoulders slumping in exasperated defeat. He just couldn’t make him see!
“Tearing apart everything we—…we would have had nothing if I’d stayed the way I was! Weak, crippled, small! No matter how hard I tried to protect you, to shield you from danger, I’d be swept aside like I was nothing. You don’t know what that’s like, when all you want is to protect your family but you physically can’t. Strong in will, but not in physical strength….it’s frustrating, it’s breaking, it’s…gods, what’s the use repeating myself?! You don’t listen, you don’t want to see it from my point of view! It’s easier just to hate me, isn’t it? I should know! I’ve done plenty of that myself!” The man let out a hissing sigh through clenched teeth, looking up at the fiery moon above them, which seemed to paint everything below it in a strange, golden hue, “Not that I expect you to believe that either! You know what, I wish for once, just once, you could see what I saw, feel what I felt, and maybe then you’d believe me!”
At Rumple’s last, desperate plea to his son, the wind suddenly roared about them, whipping up the autumn leaves at their feet and soaring in two column around the pair and up into the burnt-orange glow of the large hunter’s moon above.
As suddenly as it had started, it stopped…
The pawnbroker looked around him, confused as he watched the leaves fall back down to settle silently on the ground. It wasn’t until he looked at Bae that he gave a start, nearly falling backwards into the leaves from the shock.
"…B-Bae?”
"The only thing you’ve been drowning in from the get-go is self-pity!”
As the man’s words became harsher and harsher, agitation between the two of them grew, like roots of pestilent weed growing deeper by the second, until it had tangled itself around their hearts and wound them into such a state of mind that neither of them would be able to pry themselves loose from it anytime soon. Neal was positively furious and could not understand how on earth his father could ever say he did not regret taking on the powers of the Dark One, as he thought it had ruined everything, while Rumpelstiltskin was of the opinion that it had at least kept his son alive. But at what cost?
When the man started his plea, Neal scrunched his nose and scoffed at him. Why should he even wish to see things from his father’s point of view? Everything had gone to waste because of that exact point of view, there was absolutely no reason for him to even attempt to wrap his mind around Rumpelstiltskin’s reasoning. Oh, but he would soon fall victim to it. He would have no choice but to see things through the eyes of the Dark One.
As the wind swept about them in a sudden inexplicably unnatural way, Neal could only turn his head one way, snapping it back moments thereafter to gaze upon his father. He could pinpoint the exact moment when the powers hit him—because they came at full force. It was a surprise that he was still standing after such a blow, but he willed himself to stay on his feet.
For a moment there, his eyes were glazed over by a pure, pitchblack, before they returned to their regular state—or at least their regular color. There was nothing regular about the younger man anymore, even his overall appearance had changed. But what made for the most frightening change of all was the expression in his eyes…an expression of a man overcome by power. And what he would do with these powers, no one would be able to tell just yet. One thing was certain, though; he did not look the least bit amused.
“You do not get to call me that. It’s Neal now.”
