Title: "In His Own Trap"
Author: Kat Lee
Rating: G
Summary: He's trapped in his own trap.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: 244. That's the number of stories that were sitting on my hard drive collecting dust because I lack the energy and time to take care of them as I once did. My betaing pattern has always been to write, then type up if written on paper, the story, read it aloud to my beloved Jack and our children, editing as I go, and then finally format and post. Sadly, this part is simply taking too much of my time and energy, and my beloved Jack and I have too little time together in person these days to be able to keep up with my stories. So what to do? Give up writing? I actually considered it for a while, tried to make excuses to myself other than the large number of stories collecting cyber dust on my computer, as to why I lacked the energy and Muse to write new tales. And then, with the turn of the new year, I decided to stop running and face the problem. The problem is, quite frankly, that once one gets so bogged down in formatting and editing that writing is no longer a pleasure but the actual posting of those writings becomes a hassle and - egad! - work, it's time to cut something out, and that will never be the writing process. So, in short, yes, there will be mistakes in this tale. Yes, it's missing about half of the header information I usually include. But I wrote it for pleasure and am posting it in hopes of sharing that pleasure with others. Do with it as you will.
She found him there, standing at the edge of the forest with a troubled look upon his handsome face. She smiled at that thought. She would never have believed she would one day think him handsome when she'd first agreed to go with him, but he was the most handsome man she had ever known. He'd say it was because of what this time had done to him, but Belle knew better.
Even in the dark days at the castle, before she'd fallen in love with him, when his skin had still been strained thin and dark from his overuse of magic, there had been something handsome about him. Oh, all the other girls would surely agree that he didn't have Gaston's looks, and Belle thanked God he didn't for he might well have had an ego as big as the hunter's if he had. Her Rumple surely wasn't a nonegotistical man, after all, but he had a good heart and soul, despite all he'd suffered and done. They glowed through in the handsome man she saw before her.
She guessed at his thoughts as she watched him and darkness gathered around them. Suddenly cold, she wrapped her arms around herself and broke the silence. "I don't want to go," she said softly.
She was surprised by the way he shook his face, clearly startled by the sound of her voice. Could he really have not known she was there? But then he smiled, and though there was still a touch of sadness to his sweet smile, it eased her out of her surprise. He walked to her, multi-colored leaves crunching quietly underneath his booted feet, and wrapped first his jacket around her and then his arms.
She loved the feel of his arms around her; she'd never felt so safe or warm as she did with his arms around her. Still, she would not, could not, forget what she'd witnessed him contemplating. "Tell me we don't have to go," she said as his dark eyes turned back to the forest that bordered the other world. It was really the rest of the world, Belle knew, but to her, it would remain the outside world, the other world, the world that didn't have magic and where they didn't know who they were, where she didn't know him. "Tell me we don't have to go," she pleaded.
"We don't," he said quickly and quietly. "There were just so many things I wanted to show you." And she would have been there, safe from Regina, safe from being taken away from him, safe from his own bouts of mystical rage.
He could tell his agreement pleased her as she pressed closer to him with a little smile curving her graceful lips. Her fingers clung to his shirt, but she still shivered. He'd made her shiver in the past with fear and regretted every one of those occurrences, but this shiver, he knew, had nothing to do with him. She was scared of that other world, scared of what it would do to them, of how it would make them forget each other and their love.
Rumpelstiltskin's thin lips twisted. He'd never allow that to happen, but it was ironic really. After all this time, all that he'd done, all that he'd worked diligently for, he had trapped himself. If he could escape from this land, from Regina and others like them, and, if necessary, even from magic itself, he might be able to be the man his sweet, beloved Belle deserved, but as it was, he could not escape from the evil he himself had wrought.
Belle watched him with concern in her dark brown eyes before reaching up and laying a hand on his cheek. Her hand was as white and soft as snow, as a Princess' flesh should be. It was never lost on Rumpelstiltskin how ironic it was that some one as pure not just in looks but in heart and soul, as well, should love a beast like him. He'd thought it impossible once, but now he knew she loved him as much as he loved her, if not more. After all, how greatly could a monster love? He loved her with all of his heart and soul, but he knew they were dark and twisted and she deserved better.
"It's going to be all right," Belle promised him, and the warmth of her hand on his cheek sent tingles racing throughout his being. "Besides, I don't want to see the world. I just want to be with you."
Rumpelstiltskin released a high-pitched and shrill giggle before he could stop himself. Oh, how he wished those words were true! She did want to be with him, as he wanted to be with her, but she wanted him to be a man that he did not think himself capable of being as long as they lived in this world with its evils. He silenced, clasped her hand that caressed his cheek, and took it to his heart. He didn't think he could be that man, but he would do everything within his power to become the man she truly wanted.
He smiled, trying but failing to keep a glimmer of his instinctual wickedness from his grin and eyes. "Of course, it will all be right, dearie," he said as he hugged her and turned from the realm that would make her forget all about him. "Of course it will." He only wished he could believe his own lies as he led her home.
The End