Rumplestiltskin thought that if she didn't see them, then she wouldn't know, and if she wouldn't know, then they'd have a fair chance of being miles away when morning came and the Dark One awoke to a missing dagger and the compulsion to stop a war. In hindsight, that had been his first poor idea, but how was he to know that after finally finding their way to the Dark Castle's library, rumoured to shelter that infamous artefact, they'd stumble upon the Dark One herself, nose stuck in a book and a perpetually steaming cup of tea by her side.
It took some time for her to lift those inhuman eyes from the pages and look at them, and, with every passing second, terror coursed through Rumplestiltskin as he stood frozen to the spot, staff clutched in hand and a trembling Bae tucked to his side. He shouldn't have brought the boy with him, but the wee thing had insisted, if his papa were to take this journey for his sake. How cowardly of him to concede, to risk his son's safety only to draw strength from his bravery.
"Visitors," the Dark One finally purred, "Who should know better than to disturb my reading time."
"We… we thought you'd be sleeping this late at night, milady," Bae whispered, and Rumplestiltskin winced. His son's straightforwardness was not something the Dark One would approve of.
"M-my name is Rumplestiltskin, milady. And this is my son, Bae." If names indeed held power, then he could at least give her a minute, long-overdue sign of good faith. He just hoped it wasn't also a means to turn them both to dust.
"Baelfire," the boy took a small step forward, extending his tiny hand in greeting.
"Why are you breaking into my castle, Baelfire?" The Dark One asked and waved her hand, a small candy cane appearing in Bae's outstretched palm. The boy gasped, then wiggled his nose and eyed it suspiciously before speaking.
"My papa and I hoped that if we had your dagger, we could get you to end the Ogre War. So that I don't get called to arms and my papa doesn't get to see me die…"
"W-what are you going to do to us?" Rumplestiltskin croaked, his shaking hands coming to rest upon his son's shoulders.
"You needn't be so frightened, Rumplestiltskin, I won't harm the boy. I'm not as dark as people say, but I'm not as light as to let this little trespassing go, either. You've come here to steal from me, now you have to shoulder the consequences. So I'll make you a deal."
"A deal with the Dark One, papa?" Bae looked up to meet his father's eyes, but they were focused on the Dark One instead, wide and frantic.
"I will end the war, if that is your wish, and I promise no punishment will befall you or your son for your faulty breaking and entering, but you see, I am in dire need of an apprentice and…"
Rumplestiltskin blanched. "But I'm barely a lame spinner, I cannot…"
"Not you. Your son. Your kind-hearted, innocent son," the Dark One whispered as she moved closer, stopping just short of touching the boy. "What do you say, Baelfire? Do you know your letters, for I could teach you, and you'd be able to read all the books in my library. Would you like that? To learn things beyond your wildest dreams, and do what you haven't even begun to imagine possible. And, in exchange, you… you would teach me to be kind again. Kind like you have been just now, when you offered to shake the hand of a monster."
"You… are not a monster," Bae breathed, eyes locked with the Dark One's. "You're just… overpainted," he added, looking her over. "Like me, when I fall into the mud and take the long walk home so it dries up and turns into scales, and I pretend I'm a dragon. It takes longer for my papa to get me clean again."
Rumplestilskin groaned. The Dark One giggled.
"Can my papa stay here, too?" The little boy's voice wavered.
"He can," the Dark One nodded, looking over at Rumplestiltskin. "You will probably need your personal scale remover."
Bae beamed. "And I don't get to go to war?"
"No, child. No more war."
"Can we stay, papa? Please? Let's stay with the dragon lady."
"But you will teach him dark magic…" Rumplestiltskin managed, his mouth dry as parchment.
"I will only teach him some magic. How he'll use it will always be his choice. You've just barged in here to save your son's life with dark magic, how is that any different from what I'm proposing?"
"Papa?"
"Yes, Bae," Rumplestiltskin sighed. "We can stay."
"Excellent! The deal is struck."
Since that very first day, she had been Belle to Bae. She had insisted that her name suited her far better than 'dragon lady', and eventually Rumplestiltskin stopped calling her Dark One, too. It happened around the time she first invited him to take their tea together. His hands had shaken so badly that he had dropped his teacup. It chipped, and he was terrified she would forfeit their deal and throw him out, separate him from his boy, but she just laughed and called him Crumblestiltskin, and Bae snorted from behind the book he was studying by the fireplace. She was just Belle after that.
Belle wasn't unreasonable, although her temper flared sometimes, and when that happened, she locked herself in her library. She seemed sad more often than not, and Bae was the only one able to banish some of that sorrow away. Rumplestiltskin could understand Belle at that, for Bae was his only reason for smiling, too.
Although that wasn't entirely true, not anymore. With each passing day that he managed not to make a mess of things, with each flower bed that bloomed after his devoted tending to the gardens, when Belle didn't chastise him for bringing a fresh rose into her library every morning, when he managed to cook something tolerable and she would join him and his boy for dinner in the kitchens, when she beamed at him as he hobbled back from town with the book she'd requested and another, tucked safely inside his cloak, as a surprise, Rumplestiltskin found himself smiling.
She was more than just Belle the night she sneaked into his chambers and seated herself by his side at the spinning wheel, offering him a cup of tea. The wheel too had been a gift from her, after he'd confided about his nightmares. She had woven a dream catcher in the spokes.
"Is this…"
"Spiked tea, yes," she grinned. "I thought the alcohol might still those shaking hands of yours, lest you perish all my fine porcelains," and where he might have heard a warning only months ago, now he recognized her teasing for what it was, and saw the warmth in her eyes. She had the same look when she gazed upon Bae.
"I'm glad we came here," Rumplestiltskin blurted before he had the chance to doubt himself, before the light of the one candle in the room became too bright and the sound of his voice terrifyingly loud.
"I could have dealt for you, Rumple," she whispered, looking down at her teacup. The cup he'd chipped all those months ago. "Just as easily as I did for Bae. You're as kind-hearted as he is," she smiled.
"You don't have to deal for me to have me… here, helping you make the right decisions. That was what you wanted from us, wasn't it, Belle? To help you be a better you."
"It was, yes. But now…"
"Now you don't want us anymore?"
"No, no, not that! I just… I think that now I want… more."
He kissed her then, soft and warm like the wool slipping from his fingers as he did so, because it was the only 'more' he could or wanted to give her, willingly and wholeheartedly, and it wasn't much at all, but when he pulled back and saw the faintest sparkle of blue, human eyes beaming back at him, he knew that, for her, it was enough.
"Was… was this because of the rum I put in your tea?" Belle asked breathlessly.
"No… I've been meaning to do this for quite some time. The concoction merely served for courage."
"Oh."
"Although I think I am now more intoxicated than before," he quipped, and Belle snickered.
"Well then, you should probably get some sleep. We've promised Bae more happy magic in the morning," she pointed out as they both stood up from the wheel, and she swatted Rumplestiltskin lightly on his bum before making her way out of the room.
"Well, if that wasn't the last straw," he said, eyes shining, and lunged for her.
In hindsight, breaking into the Dark Castle has been his best idea yet.