As the time went by and life took its course, the beauty and the beast only grew more found of each other with every passing day. Another two children were born to them, first a boy named Aiden that later received the nickname Chip, when at age of two he fell on the gardens and made a scar on his left arm, being taken inside by his worried mother, that tried to stop the bleeding in his cut while called desperately for her husband. Rumplestiltskin appeared and used his magic to heal it, leaving the boy with only a thin line as a mark to remember that day.

"See," Belle had whispered to him as Aiden slowly stopped sobbing. "It's not broken, just chipped."

"Aye." Rumple agreed, wiping the boy's tears. "Our little Chip."

The nickname stuck after that and when Chip was six, they welcome to their family a small blue-eyed girl, with impish skin, that was called Colette, after her deceased grandmother. And, what once was a quiet huge castle to shelter only one man, now was a home full of people. Mrs. Potts had found help in the kitchen with their new maid, Agathe, that stayed permanently there after the Dark Realm was freed and a butler was added to their household, Mr. Dove, who was a tall, intimidating man, but who also had a warm heart and constantly amused the children.

Baelfire, meanwhile, spent his time traveling between the realms with his wife Emma after she abdicated from her rights to the throne, leaving it to her little brother, Prince Neal and occasionally – or better saying, when Regina allowed -, they took Henry with them.

But as much as that sounds as a happy ending, was just a happy beginning, because there was too much yet to come.

15 years later

It was late night and the corridors of the Dark Castle were quiet, the whole family sleeping peacefully, or at least most of them. Sixteen-year-old Rose crossed the hallway with her heart tumbling in her chest, the quiet as possible not to wake her little siblings and knocked at Gideon's door repeatedly with urgency.

"Just a minute!" Her brother's voice came from the other side of the door, moments before it opened, showing a twenty-year-old Gideon in which's arms, she threw herself on, letting her breath calm down as his fingers ran through her curled hair. "It's alright, Rosebud, I'm here. Was it another vision?"

"Y - Yes."

Dragging her inside, Gideon closed the door behind them, leading his sister to the messy bed, and only then she seemed to realise that he was half-dressed, wearing only a pair of black trousers.

"Oh, did I interrupt you?" Rose questioned, looking around in an attempt to find the dark-haired boy she was so used to see with her brother. "Is Roderick here?"

"No, relax. He was gone an hour ago."

Rose slipped inside the bedcovers, without even asking for permission. It was completely normal by now that she would run to her brother's chambers whenever she had a nightmare that predicted something awful, because she had done this since she was very little. Their parents always kept their door locked during the night and, as much as they never let her down and calmed her during a lot of her crises, she found comfort in Gideon's voice too and most of the time, she preferred to lay by his side and him sing her to sleep.

At this point, Rose wasn't even sure anymore of when it came their thing, but it always seemed to be there. She grew up having her brother as her personal hero and the bound the two of them shared, she didn't have with any other of her siblings, not with Baelfire that was the oldest one nor with Chip and Colette that were the youngest.

"You need to tell mama and papa about him before any of them found out and kill you for the lie." The girl said, looking up at him.

"I'm not lying," Gideon started, leaning against the pillows, "just keeping quiet for a while. And don't you dare coming with this when you sneak around to meet Roland in the woods whenever you can."

Rose rolled her eyes. "They know Roland their whole life!"

"Not as your suitor."

"He is not my suitor." She insisted, because Roland could mean a lot to her, but she wasn't expecting to marry him or anything else. They were too young for that and, when she was to choose someone to permanently be her partner in life she wanted to be so in love that even after years, she would still look at him the way her mama looked at her papa. Like she would never fall for someone else. "And take care with what you say, I'm an innocent lady, brother!"

"I would never doubt that." Gideon assured her, a frown forming on his green-gold face. "Actually, you can tell Roland that if he ever disrespects you, I'll choke him to death."

"A perfect knight, huh?"

"A perfect sorcerer, actually." He answered with a smirk.

"Papa would be proud to hear your threat."

"What can I say? He trained me very well."

"This is your new way of distracting me from my visions?" She inquired.

"Sorry. What was it about?"

A shiver passed through her body at the remembrance of it and she shrunk. Rose's visions were always very vivid, making her feel like she was in the place the people she dreamed about were, but it was always worse when it came of someone she knew, not just a random person that had a bad path to face and these past few times her sleep had been interrupted by the visions, they were about someone very close to her.

"The same thing it had been for the last few months." Rose answered.

"Lucy?"

"Yeah." She agreed. Ever since her nephew Henry's only daughter was born, those images of her future bothered Rose but, lately, and more specifically after Lucy's mother disappeared, they had become more constant and dark. And she hated to admit but she was fearing for the little girl's life. "I hate those powers."

"Magic always comes with a price and you pay a lot more than anyone." Gideon whispered, his green-gold fingers tracing her arm up and down.

"Gid?"

"Yes, sweet?"

"Can you sing for me?" Rose asked.

With a grin passing through his lips, Gideon nodded clutching against his sister. "Always."

As she laid her head against his shoulder, Gideon's husky, deep voice filled the room in a sweet lullaby their father had sang to them ever since they were born, the same one, their whole family used to soothe children for decades. It didn't take long for the siblings to fall asleep in each other's arms, warmed by the flames crackling in the fireplace, protected by the spells casted around the castle and knowing that whatever the future brings, the Dark One and the Dark Lady would do everything they must to keep their children safe.

Author's Note: If you are interested in keep going with this verse, I'm now writing a follow up called The Dark Children, so you can click on my profile and take a look at it.
Thank you all for your time. You are amazing.