Summary: Belle slaps Rumplestiltskin.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Once Upon A Time.
Rating: T
Pairing: Belle and Rumplestiltskin
SHOWING HEART:
Belle couldn't believe she had just done what she had. Her hand shook and her palm stung from the force of the slap she had just delivered to Rumplestiltskin. In truth she hadn't meant to, she really hadn't, but her hand flew to his face of its own accord. He had been trying to shock her, to get a response from her. Belle knew that now. Rumplestiltskin was looking at her with a mixture of shock, amusement, and the smallest amount of anger playing in his eerie amber gaze. Belle would've had the good sense to be scared, but right now she was too damn mad. "How dare you talk to me like that!" She raged. "I came with you of my own free will." Belle digging herself right back into the dungeons; she knew it. "That should garner me a modicum amount of respect."
Rumple didn't know which emotion he react to first; anger, amusement, or the shock. She had hit him. Belle had actually struck him. Yes, it was true he had been egging her on, trying to push her into response. He hadn't really known why he was doing this, but she had hit him as the end result. Even now from the force of her blow his cheek stung and his jaw ached. Rumple brought his hand up and rubbed at his cheek as he flexed his jaw to work away the ache. "You certainly are a brave one," He mocked. "No one would dare hit me, let alone a noble born lady like yourself," Was that a note of respect he heard in his voice? It could have been.
"You drive me to violent acts," Belle stared him down. "You don't have to shock people. They already know how evil you are. Why reinforce it?" She just kept right now. Did she really have a death wish? Was she so self confident that he would not kill her? Belle hoped he wouldn't. Secretly, she thought he liked to be challenged. It thrilled him. She could see a man lurking behind the ferocious beast he showed to the world. Belle was working to draw him out. She wanted to know the heart of the man. It was a mystery why she cared at all.
"If I don't perform dark magic every once in a while, curse a few people, and make outrageous demands in payment they forget who I am," Rumple gave her a shrug.
"No one could forget who you are." Belle sneered. "How could they? Evil like yours doesn't fade. It scars the land and the people. The very air around you is infected with darkness." She looked over his shoulder to the tapestry hanging on the wall. When she had come here, she had been mesmerized with all of the things, now they were just there.
"Then why do you stay?" Rumple asked. The question had been lingering on his tongue for weeks. Several times he had left the dark castle and in all that time she had had plenty of opportunities to run. Yet, she didn't. She had stayed.
"Because, I made a deal with you, and I honor my word." Belle shrugged just as he had, but she knew he was searching her eyes for the truth behind her words. The truth was, she was afraid to return home after leaving with the Dark One. What would her father think? What would he do?
"Is that the only reason, or do you wish to continue to deconstruct me milady?" He mocked.
"I'm no lady, I'm just the help," She rolled her eyes.
"Yes…" Rumple looked her up and down. She still wore the golden gown he had brought her to the Dark Castle in. "But you don't look like the help, not in that dress."
"It's all I have, if you remember," Belle crossed her arms; a defiant stance.
"Then we'll get you a change of clothes." He stated as if he were talking about the air.
"You would do that?" Belle questioned. "Why?" Should she just accept this change in him? How long would it last? Belle dropped her arms and stared at him.
"Call it a whim, a passing fancy…." He waved his hand. She was staring at him. It was starting o unnerve him.
"So you do have a heart." Belle said. He turned to her, stepped closer nearly making her step back. She wouldn't step away from him. She wouldn't back down.
"Yes, I have a heart," Rumple took her hand and placed it on his chest. With magic she brought forth the beating to thump against her finger tips. Belle gasped but did not draw her hand away. Her eyes held his, never wavering. In his heart he started to feel something stir.
TWO WEEKS LATER:
Rumplestiltskin was bored. He moved around the main hall while he listened to some young prince prattle on about a deal he wished to make. It was annoying and Rumple didn't like to be annoyed. "Why should I make this deal with you?" He asked. There was nothing special about the Prince, nothing tying him into the delicate web he as weaving for future events to happen. As the young red head continued to speak, Rumple heard the slightest trace of a yelp on the air of his silent castle. Belle?The prince forgotten Rumplestiltskin followed the sound down to the kitchen where he saw Belle on her hands and knees and the old companion that had come with the prince standing over her with I hand held back for another swing. Rage filled him at the sight.
Belle's eyes were drawn to the entrance of the kitchen where she saw Rumple standing; a murderous fury in his gaze. She was frozen at the ferocious sight of him. Slowly she shook her head back and forth as she tasted blood on her lip. The man had come down to the kitchen to fetch wine for his Prince, at first he had been nice, but then something changed and Belle was wary of him. She had tried to make her escape, nearly had made the door when his long arm sot out trapping her. He leaned in close to her and tried to kiss her. Belle bit his lip and then her hit her. It must have been her yelp of shock/pain that brought Rumplestiltskin down here.
"Belle, come here," He held out his hand to her. "It's ok. You can come here." Rumple made his voice gentle so she wouldn't be more startled than she already was. Cautiously she got up; the fabric of her blue corset scraping the stone as she rose. Turning his gaze from her, he looked at the roughened features of the man who had accompanied the prince. "What did you think you were going to do to her? She's my servant and off limits to the likes of you." Rumple kept his voice controlled, but the rage was present in his words. "Is there a brain in your thick skull? Do you not know how to treat a woman?!" rumple arched his brow waiting for an answer. When none came he continued. "No man should ever hit a woman as gentle as this one."
Belle came to his side knowing the image she was to project. Protectively Rumpelstiltskin's arm came around her shoulders as she did her best to look like a gentle little lamb that was now a startled rabbit ready to run. To add to the act she made her bottom lip quiver as if the threatening tears. "Don't kill him…" She pleaded. The quake in her voice was real. Belle couldn't handle too have someone's blood on her hands.
Finally the man spoke, "She's just a woman, a slave in pretty clothes. Practically worthless."
"Worthless?" Rumple repeated conveying deadly intent. "Then, you truly as dumb as you look. Do you know who I am? I would hope so."
"You're the Dark One." The man answered.
"Yes, and you should know well what I am capable of." Angle his head he whispered to Belle, "Retire to your room. I will not have you witness this." For a moment her hand tightened on his arm, but then relaxed.
Belle looked up into his eyes, shivering at the rage she saw there. "Don't kill him. They are things worse than death." She wasn't proud of it, but he wanted the man to suffer for what he had done to her. Reluctantly she left Rumple's side and hurried up the steps to her room. As she fled the kitchen she swiped her hand over her bottom lips. Pain blossomed and crimson painted the back of her hand. The sight of her blood increased her pace until she was safely behind the heavy wooden door.
A LITTLE WHILE LATER:
Belle paced back and forth waiting for the telling foot falls of Rumplestiltskin as he approached her room. As the minutes ticked by she grew more and more concerned as to the fate of the two men who had come to the Dark Castle. Would Rumple really kill the one who had struck her when she had asked him not to? What would he do? She racked her brain trying to figure it out when the click of the latch caught her ears and she spun to face him. He was standing in her doorway with a basin and a clean cloth. In that moment all the strength she had keeping her on her feet fled her and she crumbled to the ground. Her body shook.
Rumple set the basin aside and went to Belle. Not caring how she perceived him any longer, he pulled her into his arms allowing some of his strength to fill her. He could feel her fear; feel the way her heart fluttered. Rumple knew that Belle had never felt like that in all of her life, not even when orgres attacked her village. "You're safe now," He promised. As long as she lived in his castle she would remain so.
"You didn't kill him did you?" Belle asked, her voice quivering with the tumult of emotion churning through her. Out of need she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest trying not to feel the softness of the leather vest he wore against her cheek. She tried not to notice the way he rocked them back and forth either. "Tell me you didn't…"
Rumple rested his cheek on top of her head, "I didn't." He really hadn't killed them. It was the sight of Belle's bloody lip and her whispered pleas that stayed his magic from murder. "The man who hit you, I turned him into a fish." Rumple said. "I dumped him in the moat. If the man is luck he'll turn back on the next full moon. Though, I think there may be a barracuda in there…" Rumple scrunched up his forehead trying to remember what aquatic life swam in the waters of the moat.
Belle pulled back over come with the sudden urge to giggle, "A fish?" She questioned. "You turned him into a fish?" Rumple nodded and she smiled. "Dare I ask what you did to the Prince?" She was just glad that he hadn't killed. It would have tormented her to know that she was the cause of someone's death.
"Do you really want to know?" Rumple asked gaining his feet and pulling Belle from the stone floor. He was pleased to note that her hands no longer shook, but he would have to do something about her swollen lips after he cleaned the blood. "I turned him into a frog and sent him back to his kingdom with a curse." He motioned Belle to sit on the bed while he went to retrieve the basin and cloth.
Belle sat on the bed bringing her legs up under her. "And what is this curse you placed upon him?" She shouldn't be indulging him. She should be questioning is motives to punish the Prince when he hadn't had anything to do with the way his manservant had treated her. But she knew what Rumple would say so she refrained.
"He can only be turned back when he receives true loves kiss," Rumple chuckled, "Though, how likely will it be that someone will kiss a frog?" He giggled drawing a smile from Belle. But soon she hissed in pain as her the cut on her lips re-opened and started to bleed again. He dipped some of the cloth into the warm water before he brought it up to gently dab at her lip. "This shouldn't have happened to you."
Belle flinched at the touch of hot water to her wound. "But it did. It's not your fault," She said looking at him. The rage was gone to be replaced with remorse. "You can't protect me all the time." She lowered the rag to dip it back into the warm water. Before she could raise it his hands covered hers. And there, in his eyes, she saw something that she hadn't seen before. The darkness that had been in his gaze was slowly falling away when he looked at her.
"I should be able to," He rationalized. "But, when people come here seeking audience with the great Dark One," Rumple rolled the 'R' of great for dramatic effect. Then is face turned serious, his eyes were the ones to plead this time, "I want you to stay within arm's length." He sighed deeply, "This way I can protect you better."
Belle had the split instant where she was going to decline, to argue that she didn't need protection, but the image, the feeling, of the man's hand connecting with her face still her tongue with the refusal. Instead she nodded her agreement. She saw relief and happiness flood his eyes while his features remained ever serious.
Rumple lifted is hand to her lip calling on his magic so he could heal her, but Belle shied back from him then. She was still leery of his magic and he couldn't blame her. "I was just going to heal you lip. That all," He assured her.
"You can heal people?" Belle asked. She had never seen him do that before. "I didn't know dark magic could do something that good." He said nothing in return. Instead he lifted I hand again, glowing purple, and moved it slowly over her lip. Belle wasn't sure how to describe the sensation. It was different than anything she had felt before. When he took his hand away she licked her lips not feeling a single stab of pain. "Thank you."