Headcanon
Rumpelstiltskin (Fairytale Land):
1. Doesn't really know how old he is. After losing Bae his focus was on building the curse, not 'living.' Best he can figure it's been more than three centuries and less than five.
2. He never knew what love was until the midwife put an tiny Baelfire in his arms.
3 His knee injury came from a battle in the Ogre Wars. When it healed 'enough' he was ordered to return to the front lines. He ran the opposite way instead
4. His wife never warmed to being a mother. Shortly after Rum returned from war she told him, calmly, that she was leaving and she was not taking the child with her. When Rum begged her to stay, to think of the son he loved so much, she told him that if she was forced to stay she'd end up tossing the boy in the river. It's the only time Rum raised his voice to his wife.
5. He went hungry on days when there wasn't enough money to buy food for both himself and Bae.
6. On the tenth anniversary of Bae's leaving Rum got drunk. He did so again the next night, and the next, spending a year completely pissed.
7. He hates faeries more than any other creature.
8. Animals are wary of him.
9. He was getting very close to finishing the curse when he took Belle. When she kissed him the thing that terrified him the most was that he knew it was love. The curse called for the heart of the thing you loved the most. He'd been safe until then, because he loved nothing but the boy that he was trying to find, but if he loved Belle then he would be able to use her to cast the curse. He threw her out because he was afraid that if he let her stay he would either kiss her again and give up all hope of finding Bae, or he would give her up to find Bae.
10. The Dark One lives until he's stabbed with the knife, so no matter how long he goes without eating (he forgets a lot) or how injured he gets he can't die.
Gold (Storybrooke):
1. His back garden is a wild untamed place. It's also full of roses; 28 bushes, to be exact, one planted each year.
2. There are things in his shop that he will not sell, either because they belonged to Bae or because they have magic in them.
3. This world is not as empty of magic as The Blue Fairy told him it was. (Or as Regina thinks it is) You just have to understand the way magic works.
4. There's a fairy wand in his cane.
5. He's got a serious sweet tooth.
6. He can leave Storybrooke.
7. He hates nuns.
8. Once he knows Belle is alive he will do anything to protect her.
9. He absolutely loves knowing everything about who the people of Storybrooke were, and imagining how their true selves would judge their current actions.
10. On his very darkest days, and only those days, does he allow himself to drink tea from his chipped tea cup.
Rum/Gold and his children:
1. Gold doesn't let himself get attached to the children he finds a home for, but there was something about the orphaned baby girl that made him hold onto her for an hour longer than he should. Maybe it was the fact that Regina said her mother had named her Nadia before dying. Hope was something he had precious little of.
2. For the first month after losing Bae, Rum carried one of his shirts tucked inside his cloak. When he realized that the clothing had stopped smelling like his son and now carried the scent of the Dark On he raged, and tore apart almost everything in his home.
3. There's a room in his pink house for Bae, with his old clothes in a drawer and new things hanging in the closet.
4. He feels guilty about falling in love with Belle, because maybe he would have saved Bae already if not for that.
5. He's tempted to say 'fuck the legal system' and just kidnap Nadia and use his influence to make it stick after the fact. Only knowing that Belle wouldn't like it stops him.
1. Doesn't really know how old he is. After losing Bae his focus was on building the curse, not 'living.' Best he can figure it's been more than three centuries and less than five.
2. He never knew what love was until the midwife put an tiny Baelfire in his arms.
3 His knee injury came from a battle in the Ogre Wars. When it healed 'enough' he was ordered to return to the front lines. He ran the opposite way instead
4. His wife never warmed to being a mother. Shortly after Rum returned from war she told him, calmly, that she was leaving and she was not taking the child with her. When Rum begged her to stay, to think of the son he loved so much, she told him that if she was forced to stay she'd end up tossing the boy in the river. It's the only time Rum raised his voice to his wife.
5. He went hungry on days when there wasn't enough money to buy food for both himself and Bae.
6. On the tenth anniversary of Bae's leaving Rum got drunk. He did so again the next night, and the next, spending a year completely pissed.
7. He hates faeries more than any other creature.
8. Animals are wary of him.
9. He was getting very close to finishing the curse when he took Belle. When she kissed him the thing that terrified him the most was that he knew it was love. The curse called for the heart of the thing you loved the most. He'd been safe until then, because he loved nothing but the boy that he was trying to find, but if he loved Belle then he would be able to use her to cast the curse. He threw her out because he was afraid that if he let her stay he would either kiss her again and give up all hope of finding Bae, or he would give her up to find Bae.
10. The Dark One lives until he's stabbed with the knife, so no matter how long he goes without eating (he forgets a lot) or how injured he gets he can't die.
Gold (Storybrooke):
1. His back garden is a wild untamed place. It's also full of roses; 28 bushes, to be exact, one planted each year.
2. There are things in his shop that he will not sell, either because they belonged to Bae or because they have magic in them.
3. This world is not as empty of magic as The Blue Fairy told him it was. (Or as Regina thinks it is) You just have to understand the way magic works.
4. There's a fairy wand in his cane.
5. He's got a serious sweet tooth.
6. He can leave Storybrooke.
7. He hates nuns.
8. Once he knows Belle is alive he will do anything to protect her.
9. He absolutely loves knowing everything about who the people of Storybrooke were, and imagining how their true selves would judge their current actions.
10. On his very darkest days, and only those days, does he allow himself to drink tea from his chipped tea cup.
Rum/Gold and his children:
1. Gold doesn't let himself get attached to the children he finds a home for, but there was something about the orphaned baby girl that made him hold onto her for an hour longer than he should. Maybe it was the fact that Regina said her mother had named her Nadia before dying. Hope was something he had precious little of.
2. For the first month after losing Bae, Rum carried one of his shirts tucked inside his cloak. When he realized that the clothing had stopped smelling like his son and now carried the scent of the Dark On he raged, and tore apart almost everything in his home.
3. There's a room in his pink house for Bae, with his old clothes in a drawer and new things hanging in the closet.
4. He feels guilty about falling in love with Belle, because maybe he would have saved Bae already if not for that.
5. He's tempted to say 'fuck the legal system' and just kidnap Nadia and use his influence to make it stick after the fact. Only knowing that Belle wouldn't like it stops him.