A/N: Hi peoples! This is my first fanfic. I got obsessed with this ship so I thought I might share my ramblings with you people. To warn you, I don't think this is very well written and please excuse all spelling and punctuation mistakes.

Disclaimer: I'm not getting any money for this, because, sadly, I don't own Once Upon A Time, if I did Ariel would have been in the first episode and Rumplestiltskin would be seen every week.

Odd

He didn't really need her, Rumplestiltskin thought. The castle took care of itself; there was no need for a housekeeper. But there was something about her, the king's daughter, that interested him. She didn't turn away in disgust or show any anger or hatred towards him in her bright blue eyes, truth was, she seemed more curious than anything.

"My price… is her," he said pointing at the girl. The king whispered "no," as the girl's fiancé said loudly "the young lady is engaged… to me."

Rumplestiltskin twittered at the knights idiocy "I wasn't asking if she was engaged, I'm not looking for love, I'm looking for a caretaker for my rather large estate," he carefully enunciated his words in the wrong places and he used grand gestures just to creep out the people in the room, make them think he was crazier than he actually was. "It's her or no deal."

"Get out!" the king roared "Leave!" the Dark One simply shrugged, as he walked out he noticed that the dull knight pushed the girl away from him, as if to hide her, he would have laughed at the thought but the girl stopped him.

"No, wait, I will go with him," she said defiantly. Rumplestiltskin clapped his hands in glee as the idiotic knight said "I forbid it," but the girl rounded on him and said "Nobody decides my fate but me, I shall go."

"It's forever, dearie," the imp warned, he was nothing if not fair.

"My family, my friends, they will all live," she clarified.

"You have my word," he said with a mock bow.

"Then you have mine, I will go with you… forever."

"Deal!" Rumplestiltskin quivered with glee at the thought of a new deal being struck.

"Belle-Belle, you cannot do this" the king said to his daughter "Belle, please you cannot go with this… beast," the king looked at Rumplestiltskin in disgust as the Dark One let out a mock gasp of surprise, he knew he was a monster, he didn't need this stupid king to tell him so.

"Father… Gaston, it's been decided," said Belle, putting on a brave face.

Rumplestiltskin walked up behind her and said in his high pitched voice "You know, she's right, the deal has been struck," that left the war room in a rather grim atmosphere as the imp said "Oh, and congratulations on your little war," then he walked out with the beauty as the battle being held outside of the castle suddenly subsided.

"Where are we going? What's your home like? Is it large?" Belle plowed on without waiting for any answers, Rumplestiltskin couldn't figure out how one person could have so many questions. At one point she had asked the same question for the fifth time and he blew up at her, and told her to be quiet. She was silent for a grand total of ten minutes before she started her rapid fire of questions again. Well, this is better than talking to yourself, he thought. Now that could make you go crazy.

When they finally got to the Dark Castle Rumplestiltskin thought it was a blessing. He grabbed Belle by the arm and ushered her into the main hall, he hardly gave her any time to look around at the magnificent room before pulling her towards the stairs leading under the castle. "Where- where are you taking me?" she asked.

The Dark One smirked "Let's call it… your room."

When they got to the dark, dank room Belle looked at him in surprise, "My room?!"

"Well, it sounds a lot nicer than 'dungeon'," he shoved her into the room and locked the giant, thick door on her.

"You just can't leave me in here," Belle shouted as Rumplestiltskin quivered with glee. I can do anything I want, he thought as he left the dungeon.

The next day he let her out of "her room" so could tell her her duties. He was surprised to find that the girl didn't seem to harbor any hate for him, she followed him almost happily as he led her to the kitchen.

While she was serving him tea, Rumplestiltskin began telling her what her chores would be. Of course, almost none of it was true, all she'd really have to do was the laundry and cooking, and other than that the castle pretty much took care of itself.

While he was telling her all of her many "chores" he wondered what would be enough to unnerve her, she was far to calm for a woman who is being forced into his servitude, so he added "Oh… and you will skin the children I hunt for their pelts," the second that came out of his mouth her jaw dropped in surprise and the teacup she was holding tumbled out of her hands as she was still trying to process such a horrible request.

"That one was a quip," he said with an annoying grin, "Not serious."

To his surprise Belle smiled at him as she went to retrieve to fallen teacup. Who would ever smile at him, he wondered.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Belle said, turning the imp's attention back to her. She was holding up the cup she had dropped, "but it's- it's chipped. You can hardly see it," he looked up at the cup, there was a shard missing in the lip, it was barely noticeable. He didn't know what possessed him to say it, but he did, "Well, it's just a cup."

Over the next couple of days Belle spent a lot of time familiarizing herself with the Dark Castle. She went from room to room and back again, trying to figure out where everything was.

By the third day with her there Rumplestiltskin noticed that she was coughing, almost uncontrollably so. It was at the point of annoyance when he realized that it must be the dampness of her cell that was causing her to cough. He would have dismissed it, she would get used to the dampness, but she sounded so pitiful every time she slipped into a fit of coughing.

So that night before she could go to "her room", the imp took her by the arm and led her down to the servant's quarters.

Belle was tired and confused when he opened the doors with a flick of the hand and presented the room to her, "Do you want me to clean it?" she asked, then Rumplestiltskin smiled one of those stupid, impish grins that made her want to laugh and reminded her to be wary at the same time.

"Well, you could do that," he said in his annoying, high voice, "But I was rather hoping you'd sleep in it," then he let out a giggle that made her laugh too. She looked into the room, it wasn't big, but it had a bed with a mattress and she wanted nothing more than to jump into it and get a restful night of sleep.

"Thank you so much," Belle whispered, and then she headed into the room. Rumplestiltskin closed the door behind her and walked back down the hall, wondering why her "thank you" made him feel so good.

The Dark Castle was alive, or at least as alive as an inanimate thing can get. It would communicate with Rumplestiltskin if there was someone in the house or if someone was coming close to it and a whole matter of things that could only matter to the Dark One.

Since Belle arrived at the castle had been tracking her whereabouts and relaying them back to the imp. After a few weeks he realized that she hadn't ever been to the library. It hardly surprised him, the door to the room was hiding in a corner behind one of the staircases, it was almost unnoticeable.

Belle walked into the main hall, while he was spinning, with tea. "Have you been to the library in your time here," he asked Belle, turning away from his wheel. Belle's brow furrowed, but he noticed a spark in her eyes when she said, "We have a library?"

"Indeed, we do, I'll show you."

He led her to the double doors, when he opened then he heard a gasp come from the girl beside him. She was staring at the room in awe, he looked from her then back to the room, it didn't seem all that wonderful to him.

"Where did you get all these books," she asked breathlessly. Rumplestiltskin looked at her confused, "The same way you get yours, I suppose," he said. Though that was probably very untrue, some of the books he got from deals but most of them were collected from those whose deals ended poorly. He was happy to see that Belle was ecstatic about the library, he left the room so she could enjoy the books alone, plus he had potions to brew anyway.

Belle had never seen a library so large, not even in her father's castle. It was a giant room and every inch of wall was taken up by floor to ceiling bookshelves, each overflowing with tomes.

She began exploring; she had nothing else to do that day, and despite whatever Rumplestiltskin told her she had realized that the castle cleaned itself. She found a small section of books; these must be the ones he reads, she thought noting the bent spines. By the time she realized she should be cooking dinner Belle found five books she wanted to read.

Belle hurried in making and eating dinner. She couldn't wait until she had the chance to get lost in a whole new world through her books.

Late that night, while the Dark One was still spinning, the castle told him that Belle was in the library. That was odd, he thought, usually by this time Belle was in her room either sleeping or getting ready for the next day. He went to go see what she was doing.

He leaned against the doorframe leading into the library, Belle didn't hear him open the door, she was too engrossed in her book to notice much of anything. He watched her expression while she read, it changed slowly from happiness to anger to shock then back to happiness again. Rumplestiltskin smiled to himself, how had he gotten such an odd caretaker?

He walked across the room, she still didn't notice, and he stood behind her. He would have made his presence known or told her to go to bed, but he wanted to know what was so good about her book. He began reading over her shoulder, at some point he changed his position so that he was sitting on his knees and reading over her shoulder.

They sat there for a long time. Belle never knew that Rumplestiltskin was there until he read something that made him laugh out loud. She jumped out of her chair as if it had electrocuted her, and then turned to him. He stood up too and absentmindedly smoothed his shirt as Belle tried recover from her panic attack.

"You nearly scared me half to death!" she shouted accusingly at him.

Rumplestiltskin smiled at her, but it wasn't his usual impish grin, it was softer, almost human, "Sorry, Belle, I was only reading," Belle took at deep breath, she wondered if she would ever get used to the Dark One's strangeness, probably not.

"Well, next time you can make yourself known and I can read to you," she said. He thought about her words for a moment, and then broke out into another grin.

"It's a deal then," he said with his usual giggle. Belle shook her head as she left the room.

"You're so odd," she muttered, just loud enough for him to hear. He was thinking the exact same thing about her.

A/N: So there it was, if you guys liked it I'll add more chapters, actually I'll probably do that anyways, I hoped you liked it though.

PLEASE review, if you know what I mean.