First I'd like to say that all mistakes made here are entirely my own, and I apologize profusely for them. This story will be three chapters, each longer than the last. It will be a Red Beauty fic that I have written for my friend Christine who asked ever so kindly, and with that enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time, nor am I affiliated with the show, and am gaining no profit from creating this story.
Belle was tired, dead tired, and if she was being truthful she was also a bit tipsy. She was not having a good day in the least, or a good week to be more exact. Ever since she had gotten her memories back Rumple hadn't left her side, or let her leave his side, the man she had once found to be the love of her life was becoming nothing more than a thorn in her side that she could not get rid of no matter how hard she tried.
As she sat on the stool by the counter at Granny`s, sipping on one of those delicious iced teas, she couldn't help but think back to this mornings events, that had left her feeling the need to fill her evening with a drink that left her feeling particularly numb.
Earlier that day
"Rumpel please," Belle began once again, "I just want to go back to the library to make sure all is still in order."
She had been cooped up inside of Rumple's pawn shop for an entire week and it was beginning to take its toll on her.
"Belle, sweetheart, I still haven't found that damned pirate and I will not have you gallivanting around this town unprotected, only for him to catch you while you are alone." Rumpelstiltskin explained to her once again.
Belle was having none of it anymore, she wanted to feel free for once in her life, not to feel like someone else was controlling all of her actions, to not feel like a prisoner once again.
"I'm going Rumpel, it's my life to live," she argued, "I will not be cooped up like a bird in this place anymore."
"Belle!" Rumepl started.
Belle continued on, not turning back to look at the man. "I'm going, and that's the end of that, and I do not wish to have you shadow me as I know you wish to."
As happy as Belle was that Rumpel has respected her need for privacy, she couldn't help but feel even more alone than she had before.
She looked across the room, eyes passing over all the other customers inside of the diner, waiting to be served diner, and as always her eyes landed on the one woman she had been trying to ignore for the better part of a week, Ruby.
Belle sighed, she felt so very conflicted, as much as she liked to believe that she was still in love with Rumpelstiltskin, her heart has started to yearn for the woman who had become one of her closest friends, and unbeknownst to anyone but the two women themselves, the person who had managed to get her her memories restored.
She could feel Ruby's eyes on her, but she dared not turn to meet the other girls gaze. Belle fished a few bills from her purse, dropped them onto the counter in front of her and took her much needed leave from the diner.
As soon as she had taken a step outside into the cool brisk air, she noticed two things, for one it was much later than she first assumed she realized as she looked up into the darkening night sky, and also that she may have had one too many of those tempting drinks as she stumbled her way towards the library.
Belle had no intention of returning to Rumpel this evening, or tomorrow for that instance.
It had taken her the better part of twenty minutes to travel the short distance between the diner and the library, trying to keep her balance the entire walk had set her back quite a bit. When she had finally reached the library doors is when she realized she had forgotten her purse, which housed her keys, back at the diner.
She sighed, she was not having any luck these past few months, and just once she wished she could have at least one thing go her reached out to grab the doors handles, praying to any god that would listen, that she wouldn't have to make her way back to Rumpel's home.
"Thank you." She whispered into the night as soon as she felt the door give no resistance to her pulling and granting her entrance inside. Instead of reaching for a light switch, Belle locked the doors behind her and stumbled her way through the library towards the stairs that led to the small loft that lay on the second floor of the building on top of her beloved library.
She all but dragged her body into her room, threw herself into her bed, rolled herself into the blankets until they cocooned around her, granting her a sense of protection, and prayed that sleep would come easily to her this night, that she would not be forced to toss and turn all throughout the night.
Unfortunately her luck had run out at the library doors, so she lay there tossing and turning, while staring at the roof above her she began to listen to the quiet sounds of life outside her bedroom window. She thought of the man she willed her heart to love once again, pleaded with herself to remember why she had fallen in love with the man in the first place, but every thought soon took form of the beautiful child of the moon who worked as a waitress, the girl she had wished she had met decades ago, back before she had met Rumpelstiltskin.
Her heart constricted painfully as her mind raced with memories she wished she could put an end to. With tears steadily flowing down her face, Belle finally fell into a restless sleep.