(Rumpel's POV)
Her dress was sweeping across the ground, her eyes aglow in the light as she marveled at the lights. She was so beautiful. Her dark hair hung in long, lucious curls, smile crossed over her lips, pearly teeth revealed in a bright smile. She laughed, staring at the lights that lined every hall, every wall, every corridor, every room. Her laugh was sweet and soft and innocent, much in the way that she was. Sweet and soft and innocent. But do not mistake her sweetness for weakness. Do not mistake her softness for brokenness. Do not mistake her innocence for ignorance. She had seen the horrible things that I had done, the beast that I had been, the beast that lurked within. She was not weak, or broken, or ignorant. She was strong, fierce, and brilliant. She just was good at maintaining an innocence that other people around here didn't have.
And she was beautiful.
The colorful lights played in her light blue eyes, a blue that didn't make a big deal of itself, but a blue that truly deserved to be noticed. They were alight with joy, a joy that I myself had never truly felt. I was a broken man, a man who thirsted for more and more power, a man incapable of being content. I had never felt the joy that danced in her eyes right then, the joy that only someone truly happy with their life could feel. And I wondered how she could be so happy with me as a husband, how she could be happy with someone who lied to her so often. Who hurt her so often.
I was lying to her about the dagger. I had dragged her away from her family and her kingdom. I had broken her spirit. My self-hatred and my need to push everyone who could ever possibly care about me away had landed her in an asylum for 28 years. I had caused her so much pain and suffering. I had not only let her see the beast within me, but I had forced it upon her, forced her to see the man that I could be, the worst of me.
And yet, she still loved me. She still loved me for what was good, even though the bad certainly outweighed what she loved. She didn't know how deeply that truth went, didn't know how much I had betrayed her, how much I was laying on the line, and for what? Power. Of course. But even still, she loved me. And I had to believe that she would love me even if she knew. She was, of course, one of the people who forgave the people she loved no matter the crime. She would always love me the way that I loved her. We were, after all, married.
Until death do us part.
I hoped, anyways.
But right then, I don't think that it mattered. I don't think that, as she swayed along the floor, marveling at all that I had done for her, for us, for our new life here like this... I don't think that my past and present and future mistakes mattered to her at that moment. I was fairly certain that the only thing that would matter to us in this brief, beautiful moment in time were the lighs and each other.
I had decorated the entire house with lights and ornaments, Christmas flooding through the house like a tidal wave. We had never celebrated a Christmas together, not really, but this was our first one together, the first one as a married couple that we now were. Married. That was such a lovely word. One that seemed to suit us well. It was a strange word that hadn't tasted right on my tongue until now, until us. But now it flowed easily, like the way that she was walking toward me in her elegant gown and sparkling eyes.
"Rumpel?" She whispered with a laugh disguised inside of her words.
"Hello, darling." I whispered. I wanted to say it with a light heart, but it came out heavier than expected. Quieter.
"What is this? What did you do?"
"We've not been living together long in this new land of ours. I don't believe that you have seen my... Festive side."
