Disclaimer: Only the plot and any original characters belong to me.
This story is inspired by the prompt "building IKEA furniture" for a monthly Rumbelling,
"What in the world is in that box?" Rumple asked as he watched men bringing in a box that contained pieces for furniture Belle had gotten from IKEA the day before. "When you came back with nothing, I thought that you'd had an unsuccessful trip, but apparently not. I thought you told me you were going to get something small like a chair that a child could sit in."
"Well, I was, but then I saw the bookshelves and I just couldn't resist," Belle explained. "You know how I can't pass up anything that will allow me to get more books. You're not mad, are you?"
"Why would I be mad?" Rumple wanted to know. "I'm just very curious about how you expect us to build something so large. Then again, I can always use my magic and it will be done immediately."
"Oh, no, don't you dare," Belle shook her head. "What fun would that be? The whole point of this is to build the furniture yourself and then you can have the satisfaction of a job well done."
"That's not what gives me satisfaction," Rumple told her. "Would you like to know what gives me satisfaction? The knowledge that I'm rich enough that I can pay people to do things like this for me."
"Will you at least try first?" Belle asked. "It has instructions. We'll read them and put it together and if, after say, a week, we haven't made much headway, you can use your magic or call someone for help, or whatever. Deal?"
"All right," Rumple sighed and nodded. "It's a deal." They shook on it and Rumple sighed as he surveyed the big box. "This probably won't do my suits any good," he remarked. "I'd better go change."
"What?" Belle asked in surprise. "Are you telling me you own something other than a suit?"
"Yes," Rumple nodded. "But there are very few occasions where such clothing would be appropriate. This is one of them." He then left the room as Belle tried to picture what he would look like when he came back. All of the pictures in her head were very promising, but they were nothing compared to what she saw when he came back.
A clearing of his throat opened her eyes and her jaw dropped a little.
"Good?" Rumple asked. "Bad? Be honest. I haven't dressed suitably for a good day's labor in a long time." He work dark jeans, brown work boots, and a dark blue plaid shirt rolled up to his elbows.
"Perfect!" Belle smiled. "Now, let's get started, shall we?"
But they only got as far as getting all the pieces of the bookshelf out of the box before Belle grabbed him and kissed him hard.
He was shocked for a moment as she pulled away afterward, but then paused, grinned, and chuckled. "I thought we were supposed to be building a bookshelf," he reminded her.
"I know, but I don't see why we have to rush," she shrugged. "Do you?"
"No," Rumple shook his head. "You have many bookshelves."
"Yes," Belle began playing with Rumple's hair. "One more can wait."
They kissed again, surrounded by pieces of bookshelf, until they paused to take a breath. "Okay, we should do a little bit of it today," Rumple decided. "We'll be mad at ourselves if we don't."
"Right," Belle nodded. "You make a very good point." She went off in search of tools, although she wasn't sure Rumple even had any cause, as he had pointed out, he usually paid people to do stuff like this for him.
But after a long search, she found a dusty tool box in the back of a closet near the library. "All right, here you are," she remarked, closing it and sneezing as she took it back to Rumple. "We finally need you now." She strode back into where Rumple was waiting and plunked the rusty old toolbox down beside him. "Here it is," she said. "Did you even know you had this?"
"No," Rumple shook his head. "My son comes by and fixes things for me sometimes. Maybe he left it at some point in the hopes that I'd be more willing to do it on my own."
"Well, if that's true, he must've left it a while ago, because it was awfully dusty," Belle remarked.
"Yes," Rumple nodded. "Doesn't surprise me. Okay, where are the instructions?"
Belle moved some pieces of bookshelf out of the way and then found them. "All right, here they are," she said, holding them up and waving them around. "Should I just start at the beginning?"
"Yes, you might as well," Rumple remarked, picking up a hammer. It felt good and solid in his hand and he made a few swings with it to help him get used to the weight of it.
"Uh-oh," Belle remarked.
"What?" Rumple asked. "What's the problem?"
"There doesn't seem to be any English instructions in this set," Belle remarked as she flipped through them. "I see Spanish, I see French…but no English."
"And…?" Rumple questioned. "Don't you speak French?"
"Well, of course I do, but it's not going to help us focus," Belle told him.
"You don't know that," Rumple said with a wicked grin. "Come on, give it a try."
"Oh, you're terrible," Belle giggled. But she read the first few lines in what quickly became a sultry, breathy voice, and soon, they were both looking in each other's eyes, their breathing heavy.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Rumple asked. "For all your talk about focusing, you're just as easy to distract as I am."
"I promise I'm not," Belle insisted. "I really want to get this done. But maybe…maybe it would be best if we stopped for now and continued tomorrow."
"I agree," Rumple nodded. "There's something else I would much rather do with my time. Will you join me?"
"Yes," Belle threw herself in his arms and gave him a kiss, then he carried her to their room to continue the work on the bookshelf tomorrow.
The next day, they tried to work on the bookshelf again, but the same thing happened.
"Why don't you just let me use my magic?" Rumple chuckled as Belle nuzzled his neck. "This happened yesterday, it happened today, it will probably happen tomorrow…let's not forget why we're here."
"Right," Belle nodded and went back to the directions.
"Don't read those," Rumple reminded her. "You know what's gonna happen if you do?"
"Oh, yes, I remember," Belle nodded and put the instructions down. "Right. And I really do want to get the bookshelf done. This is something we said we were gonna do together, and we're going to do it!" She then tried to lift one of the pieces and then fell down. "Okay, that's too heavy. And without the directions, I have no idea what I'm doing." She dropped the piece and it made a clunk that put a dent in the floor. "Damn!" She cried and stomped her foot.
"Can I use my magic to put the bookshelf together now?" Rumple questioned.
"Sure," Belle nodded. "How else will we put it together?"
Rumple smiled and used his magic to put the shelf together, and when she saw it, Belle nodded with satisfaction. "There you go," she told him. "That looks lovely. I need some new books."
"Yes, you do," Rumple nodded and picked her up, carrying her to their bedroom door. "Now that we have that bookshelf taken care of, what should we do?"
Belle smiled. "Well, it seems like you have some ideas. Would you like to show me?"
"Yes," Rumple nodded, going inside and shutting the door behind them. "Yes, I would."
The End