Rumpelstiltskin gazed at the pink wisps gliding around inside of the vial's glass; His eyes couldn't help but to shift along with the wisps' movements in pure awe and captivation. This is love looks like. I'd almost forgotten its beauty... Oh, Rumple, what are you saying, love is never this magical for long. Soon enough it'll just fade away like everything else. Part of his heart ached at the sight of the glass, as it reminded him of the love he once lost. A frown crept onto his face at the very thought of her gentle, delicate face. He sighed.It had been his fault, just like it had been with Bae.
A ringing of a bell interrupted his memories, sending him into a frenzy to hide his newest poccession. He pocketed the vial and hurried to lock up his empty chest. "Are you Mr. Gold?" What a stupid question. Everyone in this town knew him as such, and whoever the voice belonged to must have been playing stupid. As if he'd buy that nonsense.
"Yes I am," he half-spit out, "and I'm afraid the shop's closed-"
His eyes widened at the sight of the girl. She wasn't just any old customer. That was Belle. His darling sweetheart, Belle. She- How could she be here? His jaw dropped in disbelief.
She continued to speak but her words were not comphrehended as Rumpelstiltskin eased closer and closer to her. How was this possible? It has to be a deception. A sense of fear and wonder plagued her eyes as she went on and on. Eventually, her lips stopped moving as she stared up at him in confusion. He grasped ahold of her arm softly. She was tangent; this was no hallucination. "You're real," he babbled out in amazment. "You're alive."
Tears began to tease his eyes as the reality sunk in. Belle, his beloved Belle, was alive and a mere arm's length away. His thoughts turned to the day he was told of her 'tragedy'. Regina, that devious excuse for a human, had sat there and watched his heart break in front of her own eyes. She had taunted him with his beloved's death and felt no remorse for her actions that day. His voice darkened, "She did this to you?" Of course he already knew the answer as he began to formulate revenge in his mind.
She did not answer, but instead replied, "I was told you'd protect me."
It was this simple request that drove him off the edge. His heart laced itself together as tears of joy streamed down his face. "Oh, yes!" His arms wrapped her tiny stature, which had shrunken even more since their last encounter, most likely from malnourishment. His embraced tightened as more tears rolled down his face, because now nothing mattered. There was no curse, no magic, nothing to keep him and his eternal true love away from one another.
"I-I'm sorry. Do I know you?" His mind raced back to his memories of them in his castle from the day they met to the time she chipped his teacup to the time she'd fallen right into his arms trying to pull down his curtains to the final day when he had thrown her out. He recalled what a horrible mistake he'd made by letting his anger run his decisions. He checked back out of his thoughts and gazed into Belle's stunning blue eyes.
"No, but you will." His heart shattered once again of the burn those words left in his chest. He fought back tears for it wasn't the time for crying. It was the time to be brave for Belle.
She was his, he would be hers. That would be how life would forever be from now on. He would not let her slip through his figners once again.