#i support him in his terrifying endeavours :V

[artnerd1123]

Welcome to the Magnificent Emporium experience. For your safety For the children’s safety And for those around

R̩̙̰͎͔͡u͏͖n͉̠̳.̵̬̙͎ ̨̪

((x))

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Roll With It

Rated: T

Roll With It

Roller Derby Grudge Match this weekend: Storybrooke Princesses v Hyperion Hyenas

Gold shook his head as he stared at the sign in the window of Granny’s diner. It wasn’t that he had anything against the sport of roller derby in and of itself. He just didn’t see why it had to be so dangerous and he especially didn’t see why Lacey French had decided to choose it as her main hobby.

He didn’t care about Lacey for herself, of course. That would be preposterous, and anyone who put forward such a notion to him would receive short shrift in return. No, he was simply concerned that if Lacey received an injury whilst competing in roller derby, then she would be unable to perform her duties in the shop and he would have to go through all the tedious processes of hiring someone to replace her.

Oh, who was he kidding? He couldn’t bear it if Lacey were to get hurt, and he’d sooner get run over by ten angry young women in roller skates than actually admit that to her.

“Hey, Mr Gold. Are you coming on Saturday?”

Ruby came over with his take-out order and for a moment, Gold was completely disorientated, his mind having been caught up in a cycle of increasingly dire scenarios involving Lacey being carted off to hospital.

“Mr Gold?” Ruby rustled the paper bag containing his burger and fries and Gold finally came back to himself and grabbed it off her. She nodded towards the poster. “Coming to see the Princesses score another victory over our arch-rivals? We’ve been in training for months for this. We’re going to annihilate them.”

Gold was all too aware of their training regime, as Lacey had kept asking for time away from the shop to go to extra practice sessions. Gold had made various snide remarks about her priorities and her having a death wish, but ultimately he had always let her go.

He shook his head. “It’s not really my thing, dearie.”

“Ah, come on, it’ll be fun! We need all the support we can get! Don’t you want to cheer Lacey on?”

“I have no desire to encourage my assistant to do anything that might cause her to leave my employment with a broken neck,” Gold snapped. “Good day, Miss Lucas.”

He left the diner before Ruby could say anything else, and he did not turn back to see the wry smile on the waitress’s face.

Lacey looked up from the inventory books as Gold came back to the pawn shop with their lunch.

“Ruby’s been touting for ticket sales to the big match, I see.”

Gold looked down to find a flyer for the match sticking out of the top of the paper bag. With a muttered curse, he grabbed it and screwed it up into a ball, launching it at the bin with rather more force than necessary. Lacey, sitting several feet closer to the bin, just watched it as it fell short and rolled under the counter. She raised an eyebrow.

“Well, I guess that answers my question of whether you’re going to come and support your best and only assistant in her sporting endeavours.”

“You won’t be my best and only assistant if you end you end up in traction as a result of this,” Gold muttered. Lacey laughed.

“Are you worried about me, Mr Gold? Concerned for my safety?”

“Yes. I mean no. That would be ridiculous. Good help is hard to find these days, that’s all.”

Lacey sighed and went back to the books, taking a bite from her burger. “Yes. Ridiculous. Of course.”

They didn’t speak for the remainder of their lunch break, and their conversation afterward remained strained for the rest of the afternoon. Gold got the distinct impression that he had said something wrong, but he couldn’t quite work out what it might be.

It was only once they were closing up for the night, Lacey about to head off for the final practice before the big match, that the question crossed his mind and was out of his mouth before he had chance to rein it in.

“Why do you do it, Lacey?”

“Do what?”

“Roller derby. Why do you do something that’s so risky? Is it the adrenaline rush?”

Lacey smiled. “In a way, I supposed. But that’s not the full reason.”

“So, what is it?”

“Honestly, Mr G, if you can’t figure it out on your own, I’m not sure that you deserve to know.”

She left him stunned in the twilight, disappearing off towards the sports centre, and it took Gold several minutes to come back to himself. He was going to have to get to the bottom of this.

It was obvious that Lacey herself wasn’t going to give him any more information. To that end, Gold decided to make a return trip to the diner and speak to the one person who knew Lacey better than anyone, except Lacey herself, of course.

“Morning, Mr Gold,” Ruby called from behind the counter as he entered on Saturday morning. “You know we’re only open for breakfast as Granny and I’ll be at the match later. What can I get you?”

Gold perched awkwardly on one of the counter stools and ordered coffee.

“So, what brings you here bright and breezy on a Saturday morning then?” Ruby asked as she poured. “Rent isn’t due till next week and I know you’re not really here for the coffee. You’ve made enough disparaging remarks about it in the past.”

Gold looked down at his mug. He certainly wasn’t here for the coffee and he had no intention of drinking the one that Ruby had just poured for him, but he needed some kind of legitimate excuse to talk to her.

“My guess is that you’re here for conversation.” Ruby leaned on the counter, a wolfish smile creeping across her features. “Lacey told me all about your chat last night. I thought you might come looking for an inside source.”

“Well?”

“Well, what do I get in return?” Ruby grinned. “A deal is a deal, Mr Gold, and it needs two interested parties. What do I get out of this? Tell you what. If you drink that mug of inedible sludge, as you so memorably described it last week, I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

With a begrudging sigh, Gold took a gulp of coffee and grimaced. Ruby grinned.

“All right. Now we’re getting somewhere. So, you want to know why Lacey does roller derby, am I right?”

“Yes. She gave me to believe that there was a reason other than the adrenaline rush.”

“Well, I would say that there are several reasons. It’s great exercise, for a start. She’s always panting and dripping with sweat afterwards.”

Gold shifted uncomfortably on his stool. That was definitely not an image of Lacey that he needed right now. Ruby just smirked, and Gold was certain that she was doing it on purpose.

“Aside from that, it’s a great way of releasing pent-up aggression and distracting oneself from certain romantic and sexual frustrations.”

The aggression Gold could well believe. They bickered enough in the shop that Lacey probably needed violent contact sports so as not to break any of his stock. Or him. But…

“Romantic and sexual frustrations?” His voice should not have sounded so squeaky.

“Yes. You know. When you spend your working life in very close proximity to someone that you really like and want to jump their bones, but they’re so unresponsive to your messages that you think they’re either being very polite and wilfully ignoring you, or they’re actually an idiot. You need some way of distracting yourself from those… urges.”

For a long time, Gold didn’t say anything. It was all he could do to keep breathing normally as he processed what Ruby had just told him. Lacey fancied him. Lacey had… sexual frustrations regarding him. He’d often thought of her in the same way, but he’d never believed in the slightest possibility of those feelings being reciprocated.

“Drink up, Mr Gold.”

Gold drained the rest of his coffee without even tasting it, and he left the diner in a daze. He was definitely going to have to do something about this new information, and to do that, he was going to have to brave the roller derby.

Havin sat through the entire terrifying match, unable to cheer the princesses on to their victory due to his heart beating in his mouth the entire time, Gold vowed that he was never going to watch roller derby again for fear of it giving him a heart attack.

Still, he had to do what he had set out to do, and he remained in his seat near the back as the players came off the track to meet their family and friends and receive their well wishes. He saw Ruby catch Lacey’s arm and point up at him in the stands, and Lacey grinned as she undid her skates and came up towards him.

“I believe congratulations are in order,” he said as she reached him.

“Thank you. We absolutely smashed them, but then, we knew that we would. So, you came after all. I thought that you didn’t hold with all this.”

Gold thought about giving some witty remark, but they’d been reading each other wrong for so long that honesty was probably the best policy by that point.

“I was worried about you,” he admitted.

Lacey smiled and kissed his cheek. “That’s nice to know.”

“And, I, erm, I know why you do it, now.”

“You do?” Lacey raised an eyebrow, wanting him to say it.

“Ruby mentioned certain romantic and sexual frustrations. I was wondering… Maybe I could also be an outlet for these?”

Lacey didn’t answer, and Gold could not say anything else because then she was pulling him in by the lapels, kissing him full on the mouth with all the force and determination that she’d shown against the opposing team out on the track. Gold was all too happy to concede defeat.