#askataleasoldeastime

[ask-thedealmaker]

The Daring & The Lost | Rumplestiltskin and Belle {AU}

The schoolhouse was a one-room little stone cabin in town, comfortable, with clean glass windows and a well-thatched roof. It was one of the nicer buildings in town and Rumplestiltskin almost felt wrong, hobbling in there. He'd never gone as a child, the spinners had taught him all he had needed to know--significantly less than Bae was learning, he was glad to see. Soon his boy would be able to read faster than he ever could, and write more clearly. 

If he would only go.

He'd suspected that Bae had been going down to the docks instead of to school since he'd been coming home with dampened clothes--and he only wished he could pretend that his son had been swimming all day.

He didn't know where else to turn. He'd been raising Bae on his own for years now, but not like this. His son was hurting--he'd told him his mother was dead, what was he supposed to expect?--and he didn't know how to fix it.

He remembered stories of a kind, blue-eyed schoolteacher from a younger, happier Bae, and he figured if anyone could help him, she could. And if she didn't want to help him (he could hardly blame her if she didn't) she had several valid excuses as to why she was associating with him. Couldn't say that about the neighbors.

"H-Hello?" he called softly, twisting his staff in his hands. "Hello?"

[ask-thedealmaker]

Do you still have my chipped cup?

Of course. It's still perfectly capable of doing its job, isn't it?