Dark…light...dark….light

Each click of the button caused a great change in the rectangle. Belle had never held magic in her hand and it delighted her. With just a touch of her finger she could scan across multiple screens covered with different pictures. One of them being that of herself that he had taken the night before when explaining the phone to her. She was in a nightgown, her hair tied up on top of her head and her face clean. Holding her knees to her chest, she had given him a wide smile when he asked her to look towards the phone. To say the least, she was quite surprised when he showed it to her. She had tried to do the same to him, but he told her that he wasn't feeling up to a picture at the moment. It would normally take an artist weeks to paint something that looked as lifelike that this little rectangle could take in a second.

Belle found this smartphone to be the one of the most interesting things in this new world so far.

With more exploring, she discovered the names of hundreds of people in a scroll. Some names she recognized. Most she did not. All were labeled as the new world's name followed by the old worlds. She found one example as being 'Archie Hopper-Cricket' which made her cock her head to the side. After the names were a series of numbers and she pondered what these could mean. She swiped her finger across the word cricket and found it opened up a new screen of a little version of what Rumplestiltskin called a 'phone' and a faded noise was coming through.

Belle suspiciously looked at the device and held it up to her ear. It became quite loud and annoying and she held it away. She accidently hit another button and it caused the faded noise to become as loud as when she was holding it to her ear. There was a moment of confusion before the noise ended.

"Mr.…Gold?" The voice answered.

Belle screamed and threw the phone onto the bed she was sitting on. The voice had surprised her but then she remembered that Rumple had explained what a phone was and what its purpose was. So, instead of being rude, she picked up the phone and whispered a soft 'hello,' into it.

"Who is this, I can't hear you?" The man sounded worried. "Are you alright?"

Belle bit her lip, knowing she was not supposed to be playing with the phone. Rumple had told her that she was supposed to call using the red phone next to the bed if she needed anything, but when she found this rectangle on the table by the door the curiosity got the best of her. He must have accidently left it there and figured no harm would come from a little snooping. Now she had accidently called a cricket.

"Hello!" She yelled into the phone, knowing that the man must be far away and couldn't hear her.

"Whoa, whoa, you don't need to yell,' the voice hushed. "Just tell me who you are and where Rumplestiltskin has you hidden."

"I'm in Rumplestiltskin's bed, but don't worry!" Belle yelled again into the phone. "He will be home any minute!"

The man suddenly rambled on about how he would get Charming and be right over to recuse her. Clenching her jaw, she became nervous about the man's promises and instead of speaking to him, she did the only thing she knew would make the voice disappear.

She tossed the phone out the open window across the room.

Only managing to give a sign of relief before a loud 'ouch' was heard below the window, Belle jumped up and ran to see who she had hit. Once again, karma was a harsh mistress. Rumplestiltskin was holding his phone and rubbing a bump that was already forming on his forehead.

"Sweetheart, don't mind me asking, but what are you doing?" He called up to her.

"I was…talking to a…cricket," She winced. "Sorry about your head."

He looked down before putting the phone to his ear. She watched him explaining something before pressing a button and glancing back up to the window.

"Meet me downstairs," He turned and started walking towards the front.

Belle cursed to herself as she ran down the stairs. She did not fear him but didn't want him to be upset. They had just rekindled after so many years that she did not want to fight anymore. He was already waiting there when she reached the bottom. She was greeted with a tight embrace and a long kiss. This she enjoyed.

"I should probably go over the concept of a phone again," He said as he pulled away from the kiss.

"I say we do that," She teased as she ran her finger down his chest, "After we take a bath in that big tub of yours."

"Oh, do we need one, Darling?" He whispered.

"Not now, but we could." She pulled her lips to his again.

It was then she remembered why she had looked at the phone in the first place. Abruptly breaking the kiss, she grabbed the phone from his hand and pushed the camera button again. Rumple tried to grab it from but she wiggled away enough to give it time to open. Belle turned to him and smiled.

'May I take a portrait with you," She asked.

"Oh…Belle, I'm not one for pictures…"

She looked down and gave a soft sigh. Not being one to pout, she learned from the night before that acting a little disappointed tended to let Rumple loosen up and try new things. Sure enough, he broke.

"Fine, fine, but only one." He said and put his arm around her.

Jumping up and down, she handed him the phone and wrapped her arms around his neck. He counted down to three and clicked the button. The screen turned black for a moment before their picture arrived. There stood Rumple, his smile wide and toothy and his eyes looking down at Belle as she gave him a surprise kiss on the cheek. She was wearing a blue robe and he was still in his suit. The sun was shining just enough through the stained glass that it caused speckles of red and green to shine behind them. It comforted her seeing him looking so much in love with her as she was with him. Rumple smiled at the picture and returned the kiss on the forehead.

"Now…where were we?" Rumplestiltskin smiled and they started up the stairs.

a/n: Belle wasn't in episode 2.2, so this was just a little oneshot of what I thought she could be up too while her love was away.

BTW: anyone else notice how...well...lovely Rumplestiltskin looked and sounded in this episode or was that just me?