Belle was cleaning, of course, what else could you really expect her to be doing. Sometimes she had her nose buried in a book, but most of her days would be spent cleaning. She wasn't too worried, eventually the rooms would be clutter free and all that would be required was an occasional dusting and maybe wash the floors.
Going through the boxes in what appeared to be an old ball room, she wasn't sure as there was very little room to actually dance due to the vast amount of objects and things that were shoved in there, her hand brushed against something sharp.
Hissing silently, she stuck the cut finger in her mouth, the scratch painful but not to disastrous. Carefully looking for whatever had cut her, she came across a small, round box, with its glass legs pointing upwards, one of them shattered and creating a sharp edge.
Easing it out and avoiding damaging her person any more then already, she turned it over, keeping it level by placing the broken leg on a thin book, and carefully looked at it.
It was a music box. She had seen some before, her father had given her mother's old one to her on her tenth birthday, but this one was different. It was made of what appeared to be gold, and covered in thousands of little jewels. The top was glass, just like the legs, and lifting it carefully revealed a tiny little couple held together forever in a frozen dance.
She didn't have time for this, she had to keep at cleaning, but she wound it up, and smiled when it trilled the music notes, not to loud, but sweet and echoing.
And then she began to dance.
It wasn't really a dance, more of little hops, a few skips, and lots of twirling, but it is the only word that could be used to describe what she was doing. Her arms outspread, head pushed back towards the ceiling, she laughed and laughed.
And then stopped at the sound of footsteps.
They were walking away, but she hurried to the doorway where she heard them coming from, and rushed out to see the source of the footsteps.
"Rumpelstiltskin?"
He froze, and turned to her with his impish grin.
"Yes dearie? What is it?"
She bit her lip. She had lived in the Dark Castle for barely a month, and they had exchanged few words, but she wanted to get along with him. He couldn't be all that bad, he had saved her village, and beside, he didn't ask anything from her incredibly cruel.
"Would you like to dance to."
He stared at her, before grinning.
"I don't think you'd like to dance with a monster like me, dearie. I've been told I have two left feet."
"Nonsense. And I wasn't asking you to dance with me. You can dance on your own, just like I was."
He seemed stumped, and she giggled quietly, rushing over and taking his arm, leading him back to the cluttered ball room.
"But if you ask very nicely, maybe I'll dance with you later," she flashed him a smile, and he chuckled, not one of his usual. This one was deeper, and sounded more human then imp.
And so they danced. Her with her odd little hops and skips and twirls, and him on her edges, bobbing up and down and the occasional wild arm movement. They never did dance together that day, but the music box made it to where he kept his treasures, just in case she ever did want to get that dance from him.