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"What are we going to tell Gideon?" Belle asked, worried, as Rumple lifted the still, sad form of Gideon's hamster from its cage.
“We are not going to tell him anything,” her husband immediately answered, dropping the dead animal back to the cage and making his way to the door of their son’s bedroom. “I’m off to buy another one right now.”
Belle’s eyes widened looking between the hamster and Rumple for a second before she reached for him, grabbing his arm and making him turn around to look at her.
“What? No, we can’t do this, he will notice!”
“Belle, he is five and these things are all similar,” he pointed out. “The important right now is to have another one here when he comes back from school. Now, you go pick our son and I’ll go find another hamster, alright?”
He brushed his lips against her very gently, giving such a firm reassuring look that Belle almost believed he could really simply swap the dead pet for a new one and Gideon wouldn’t have to go through the heart-breaking feeling of loosing his little friend.
“Alright,” she agreed with a sigh.
Then, she followed him outside, but going to the school as her husband went to the pet shop. Belle’s heart felt heavier in her chest with the guilty for what they were doing and pain for knowing that maybe it wouldn’t work and her precious boy could find out what truly happen and suffer. And gods, there was nothing more painful than seeing Gideon sad.
When she picked him at school however, the boy was all cheerful and happy, talking about his day with his friends and the interesting story his teacher had read for them. Belle faked a smile for him all the time and, as soon as they arrived their house, Gideon immediately dropped his backpack on the hallway and climbed up the stairs, jumping like a bunny.
“Papa? Are you home?” He called, walking through the corridor where the bedrooms where set and stopping by the opened door of his own just to find Rumplestiltskin there, standing near his desk. “What are you doing in my room?”
His father jumped in place at the sound of his voice, his face going white.
“I thought I had left a book here last night,” Rumple lied. “Apparently not.”
Gideon walked towards him, taking a look at the desk, where his hamster’s cage was usually set and furrowed at the little pet inside it, because it was very different from the one he had seen just that morning.
“What happened to Fudge?” Gideon inquired. “His fur wasn’t black.”
Rumple held onto a breath. He looked at the doorframe in which his wife was leaning on with a look of “I told you” on her face.
“Maybe he is like a chameleon.”
“He is not a lizard, he is hamster,” the boy rolled his eyes. “This is not Fudge.”
Belle sighed, and started: “Gideon…”
“No, no,” Rumple interrupted her. “The truth son, was that I was trying on some new spells and I ended up changing his fur accidentally.”
Gideon arched both eyebrows at him with disbelief. He was always amused by the way his father wanted to protect him from every little thing in this world and this didn’t seem to be changing so soon.
“Oh, you did?”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. Do you want me to try fixing it?”
“No,” he shook his head, “that’s alright.”
Taking a last look at the hamster, Gideon left his bedroom sighing deeply as he glanced down at the floor, hearing the sound of his mother’s healed shoes echoing in the corridor behind him.
“Gid?”
“Fudge died, right?”
Belle picked him up from the floor – which was becoming a greater effort with each passing year – and went downstairs hugging him close and petting his back, as if she could take any bad feeling away from him like this.
“Yeah, I’m sorry, sweetie.”
“Can I bury him later?”
“Of course,” she answered, reaching for the couch and letting herself fall into it with Gideon on her lap. “I’ll ask papa to dig a hole on the backyard.”
“No, I can do it,” Gideon immediately said. “I don’t want papa to think I’m sad. It’s better if he thinks I believed the thing about the spell.”
A small laugh left her, because even when he was just facing the first loss of his life, Gideon, as good as he was, still thought about other people’s feelings over his own. And that was priceless.
“Aren’t you sad?”
“I am,” he whispered.
“Oh, babe, I’m so sorry for Fudge,” she said, placing a kiss on his forehead. “But you won’t lie to papa. Lying is not ok.”
In that moment, Rumple appeared in the living room, having already taken off his suit jacket, waistcoat and tie. It was one of his best looks for Belle, very relaxed and comfortable, but yet, still very classy.
“Someone wants pasta for dinner?”
“Papa, can we call the new hamster Gumball?” Gideon questioned, sliding from his mother’s lap to stand in front of his father.
“Ah, uh… Sure,” Rumplestiltskin answered, astonished. The boy gave him a big smile and then rushed back upstairs, leaving him to face his wife with a puzzled look on his face. “He knows.”
Belle giggled, shaking her head as she stood up and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“I’ve told you. He is five, my love, not a fool.”