"Damn those butterflies," Rumplestiltskin cursed as he brushed himself off. The Blue Fairy wasn't going to pay him for the spell he gave her, so he had to take his payment himself. Fairy dust in exchange for a spell to bring wood to life, a fair trade, but the blue butterfly wouldn't give it to him, saying it was too precious to give it to darkness. That was why he had wanted it!

After stealing a pouch of dust and getting thrown from fairyland, Rumple grumbled as he climbed up the stairs to his laboratory. He needed this dust for his curse, the Blue Fairy knew that. That was probably the reason she wouldn't give it to him. Damn her, he was getting his son back. It was her fault her was gone and she wanted to keep him away from his son. Oh how he hated that fairy...

He added the dust to his creation, having a decent amount left over. The scroll shimmered and a few more words appeared. Now there was only one thing missing: true love. True love was the most powerful magic of all and was going to break the curse in 28 years. Rumple rolled his eyes.

"Twoo wuv..." he muttered. Love was ridiculous. It didn't exist, not for him. He was not capable of love, and no one was capable of loving him... Unless...

His eyes fell to the bag of fairy dust. He remembered when Regina was his pupil that she had trusted a fairy and let the dust lead her to her true love. She hadn't taken this risk and met him, of course, but if the fairy dust could lead someone to their true love, then...

No. No, he was not going to fall for stupid fairy tricks. It was not possible. He was a monster and there was no love for monsters... but there was still that man deep inside wanting to know if he would ever be loved. Before he knew what he was doing, he reached for the fairy dust and cast the spell. A trail of fold fairy dust appeared before him, and he followed, cursing himself all the way.

The tail led him to a place rather new to him. It was being invaded by the ogres, and now he faintly remembered receiving a letter from this place, being offered gold. He scoffed. He made gold. It was useless to him. He was after more precious objects. Turning himself invisible, he peered into the window of a large castle, where the trail of gold went into. The room was rather empty of furniture, just a large table with battle tactics and a worn out red throne. There were about six or seven knights there, on taller than the rest, and the king, who was dressing in red and fur. But the one who caught his attention was the one that the gold dust was pointing to.

She was... beautiful. She had rich chocolate colored hair and pale pure skin. Her dress was golden, like the dust, like the gold he spun. Here eyes were the bluest he had ever seen, like they were two oceans contained int two tiny orbs that shone with wisdom. He kept double checking the golden dust trail. This, this beautiful, innocent creature, was his true love?

He continued to watch her through the windows. Being the only woman in the room, she was strong and brave, yet soft when she comforted her father. She was carrying a book, so she must be well red and intelligent. Oh, gods, she was perfect. There was no way in hell she could ever love him, but she she was perfect.

In that moment, he knew exactly what his price would be.