Disclaimer: I neither own nor profit from these characters/ stories.
On the nights she can't sleep, Belle takes walks.
When she was young, she wandered her father's estate with a candle, treading familiar corridors and winding through garden paths she knew so well that sometimes she walked them with her eyes closed. Then came the wars, death, and desperation, and in one fateful fit of bravery she traded everything away to save them. Her nocturnal wanderings were confined to a dark, foreign castle, skittering around like a mouse in the moonlight. She got into many dark corners in those days.
Then came twenty-eight years where she didn't wander at all.
Things were different now, but Belle still had trouble sleeping sometimes, and on those nights she took walks.
One early spring night, she wandered from the quiet little loft above the library, along lamp-lit streets that were slowly becoming more familiar to her shoes. The night air was pleasantly cool, and she shrugged comfortably in her jacket. In front of some of the homes and shops along the way there were boxes of flowers, folded and closed like secrets against the night.
She walked towards the park, taking the route with the wide and well-lit streets she had found nights past. This was still a a new place to her, and she was not ignorant of its dangers. She was cautious, even if she carried the little cylinder of "mace" that Ruby had acquired for her in her jacket pocket.
Belle liked to walk the little path that wound between the trees and to the benches around the gazebo. There were fewer lights in the park, so she didn't see the shadow until she was almost upon it.
"What are you looking at, sister?"
Belle started. "Sorry! I didn't know if you were awake." She took a step closer, peering at the lump on the dark park bench. "Or alive, for that matter."
"Yeah, well, I'm doin' fine." The figure unfolded himself, revealing a scruffy beard, an oversized coat, and slouched hat. He produced a paper-wrapped bottle and took a long swig. Even from her distance, Belle recognized the reek of cheap spirits. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked up at her with hard eyes. "What're you still doing here? Go home, little sister."
"I just wanted to make sure you were alright."
"Peachy," he said bitterly, taking another drink. "Go home, sister," he repeated. "Don't you know I'm a bad man?"
To his surprise she plopped down on the bench next to him and lifted the bottle from his hand. "I've seen worse," she said, taking a long pull. She swallowed with a sputter and coughed violently. "Oh gods," she said hoarsely, "What is that?"
The man beside her grinned wickedly. "The cheap stuff."
"Tastes more like horse piss." Belle sniffed the mouth of the bottle dubiously.
"Give it back then, sister."
"No, wait – I need something to get that awful taste out." She took another drink, screwing up her mouth as she held the bottle out to him. He accepted and tipped it to her briefly.
"You're something else, sister." He took a sip and peered at her closely. "Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?"
She looked away. "Not from town."
"C'mon, I know I've seen you around."
Belle looked at him sideways. Something about this man did seem incredibly familiar. "Did we meet once…back there?" She faltered, still unable to talk about that place, their former lives, without hesitation. It still seemed like a mad dream, especially on dark nights like this.
He didn't share her hesitation. "You were that girl from the tavern!" He pointed the bottle at her.
"The dwarf in love!" she remembered. "I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you at first. What happened?"
He snorted. "I know I was never a looker, but come on, sister."
Belle blushed, greatful that the dim light of the streeplamp hid the color on her cheeks. "I meant with your love."
"Like you said – love doesn't last forever." He took another swig. "I'm Leroy, by the way. Or Grumpy."
"Grumpy?" she repeated quizzically. The name didn't match the hazy snips of memory she was dredging up.
He shrugged. "Charming was already taken." He offered her the bottle, and her hand paused on it a long moment while she laughed.
"I'm Belle," she finally managed, taking a drink, her voice heavy with smile. "Just Belle."
"No wonder."
"Mmm?" she aked, around another mouthful of cheap liquor. He lifted the bottle from her.
"Belle. It means beauty. Just 'cause I didn't pass high school don't mean I didn't pick up a few things, mon cheri." He managed a sort of half bow and Belle giggled again, grabbing for the bottle.
"So what are you doing out here so late, besides flattering impressionable young ladies?"
"Reprising my role as the town drunk." He frowned at her. "Although at the rate you're going, sister, you're gonna give me a run for the money. Ease up."
"I can handle myself," she huffed.
"Right. Which is why you're out alone, drinking in the dark with a stranger."
"We've met twice now – we're not strangers." She took another long pull and handed the bottle back. Leroy accepted and looked hard at her.
"You remind me of her. Snow, I mean. Couldn't scare her off, either."
"Well believe me," she said, nudging him with her elbow. "I've been around far scarier people than you."
"I never did ask why you were alone in that tavern."
Belle looked away. "No, you didn't." She was quiet a moment. "I, uh, didn't have the chance to meet Snow here…before…"
"You will, little sister. Soon." He lifted the bottle, offering a toast to the night sky. "She's coming back. We're getting them back."
"Of course you will! I've been to the mines – I know you and your brothers are working very hard." She put her hand on his arm. "You're doing all you can."
"Yeah well, sometimes it don't feel like that." He shook her hand away. "We were supposed to serve the princess. Protect her. And we couldn't. I lost her. I lost her like I lost my brother…" He quieted himself with a long drink. "You're not a very good drinking parner, little sister," he said quietly. "I'm supposed to forget all this."
She took the bottle from him. "This doesn't really help. It just makes the nights a little easier."
"You're too young to know that, sister."
Belle toyed with the paper around the bottle. "You'd be surprised."
"What are you doing out here, anyway? Don't you have someone who'll be missing you?"
"Not now. I live alone." She gulped at the liquor and gave a weak smile. "First time in my life."
"But you were on your own back then, weren't you?"
"That was different," she said softly, offering him the bottle. "Dreamy."
He grabbed the bottle and shrugged away from her. "That ain't my name."
"I know."
"That dwarf lived a lifetime ago, sister."
"I know," she repeated quietly, her eyes far away. He looked at her a moment, then pushed the bottle toward her as a peace offering. She accepted with a sad smile.
"So what were you doing out there alone? You weren't always by yourself."
"No….When I left my father I went to say with….someone else." She couldn't bring herself to say his name, not now. Not here in the dark. She lifted the bottle again with slightly trembling hands. "We had a falling out, he told me to leave, and I did. I was trying to get back to him but couldn't….not before the curse."
"Y'ever find him?" He asked, lifting the bottle from her.
"Yes…. But then I left again, and now I live alone."
"Takes guts to leave like that, especially more than once." He was thoughtful for a moment and passed the liquor to her. "I had seven brothers – I never lived alone a second of my life till the curse. Don't know if I could do it."
"Seven?" she sputtered. "No wonder you come out here for a little peace and quiet."
"Yeah, sometimes I just wanna hear myself think." He accepted the bottle back from her and looked at it thoughtfully. "And sometimes I don't."
"I understand." She nodded in the dark, wondering how to describe in words the moment when her cozy apartment stopped feeling like a retreat and started feeling like a cell. At least now she was free to come and go as she pleased. "I should get back," she said aloud, abruptly thinking of how late it must be. She pushed off the bench, staggering as the liquor seemed to hit her all at once. Leroy threw an arm out to steady her.
"You okay, sister?" he grinned. "You're not gonna make me do the right thing and get off my comfy bench to see you home, are you?"
Belle started to shake her head, but that made everything else shake so she stopped. "I am fine." She blinked unevenly at him. "I am perfectly fine, but I would be honored if you were to accompany me, good sir." She managed a strange sort of curtsy while still holding on to his arm, then looked up at him giggling.
Leroy grinned and hauled himself to his feet, only slightly steadier than she had been. "Lucky I like you," he said, tucking the paper-wrapped bottle back into his jacket. "I wouldn't do this for just anyone, y'know?"
She slipped her arm through his and did her best to paint a serious expression on her face. "I am truly honored."
He frowned at her, though without any real feeling behind it. "Alright, sister. Which way?"
Belled looked up, getting her bearings in the dim park. She was suddenly aware that she was just a few streets from his house. She could be there in a few minutes. She could walk up the stairs, knock on the door, and she knew he would open it without question. Undoubtedly he would tease and laugh at her drunkenness, and if she wasn't entirely sure what would happen after that, she had a few ideas.
Leroy bumped her with his elbow. "You okay? I didn't think you were that bad off…"
"Oh, sorry." Belle shook her head and blinked a few times. "I was thinking. It's this way." She pointed toward the library. It would be easy to walk back to that dim and elaborate salmon-colored house, to laugh and spend the night…but she didn't want to go to him at night if words would fail them in the morning.
The two made their way in comfortable silence, Belle focused on the tramp of their feet in the quiet streets. Her feet, while working, seemed pleasingly not her own. In a few minutes they were in front of the library.
"This is you?" Leroy craned his head to look at the clock tower. "Huh."
"Thank you," Belle said, releasing his arm. She paused with her key in the lock and looked back at him. "I didn't know Leroy, before. He may have lived alone and been the town drunk, but that's not you anymore. All I know is a kind dwarf with a good heart that I keep meeting in dark places."
He snorted, stepping back a pace so that his face was in shadow. "Sometimes I wonder what your standard of comparison is." She frowned playfully at him and he waved her off. "Oh, leave an old man alone. Go to bed, little sister."
Belle gave him one more smile over her shoulder as she shut the door. Leroy turned and started back toward the house he shared with his brothers. At the end of the block he turned left, leaving half a bottle of 80 proof in the trashcan on the corner.