A/N- A short piece that popped into my head after 3x08. It was begging to be written down.
Belle stumbled as she walked down the street, clutching onto Ariel for support for once instead of the other way around.
"Belle? What is it?" Ariel asked in concern, brow pinching in worry. Belle's friend put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"I-uh," Belle swallowed back the bile rising in her throat. There was something not right, she could feel it. Fear was settling into the pit of her stomach and tears pricked behind her eyes. She didn't know the specifics, but she knew one thing for sure. "It's Rumple. Something's wrong."
Her wide eyes turned to Ariel as true realization hit her. Rumple was hurt or sick or... dead. But it didn't seem that her friend grasped this concept as strongly as she did since Ariel just squinted at Belle. "But he said he would see you again, remember?"
"Yes, but," Belle sighed and finally steadied herself, standing as tall as a woman facing defeat could, "the future isn't always what it seems." And oh, how she knew that was true. Falling in love with a "beast", being captured by the woman who helped you realize your true love. No, the future never turned out how you pictured it.
Belle turned toward the shore, trying to see the ocean past the buildings in her way, to where she had last held him in her arms and kissed his lips. All she wanted was to be with him, wherever he was, whatever he was doing. Fate, however, was determined to keep them apart. So with a sigh, she did the only thing she could do, the only thing she ever did. Kept pressing forward with the hope in her heart. "Come on, let's go to Granny's."
And Belle strolled along the peaceful streets of Storybrooke with Ariel, listening patiently to her friend babble about her and Eric's reunion and the life they had quickly settled into together. It seemed that she was listening intently, and while it was true that Belle's mind was in Storybrooke, her heart was in Neverland, weeping over the box she had sent to keep her true love safe.
And if the dread in her stomach was any indication, Belle was beginning to feel that what she had said before was true: she was no hero.
Thoughts?
-princessmelia