Notes: So, I'm new to this particular fandom. I fell hard into it and became a HUGE fan of Rumbelle. Beauty and the Beast is one of my very favorite Disney movies, so the fact that it pulls from it makes me so happy. Anyway, I'm just exploring the two a bit. This will be a series a very short one-shots.

Somedays

"Do you dream?"

His hands paused, the wheel stilling almost immediately without his touch. He didn't look at her initially, strange golden eyes still fixated on his paused task, as if he were trying to work his mind around the words. He'd been alone so long, perhaps he simply wasn't used to questions. No one dared asked the Dark One anything that wasn't absolutely necessary.

Finally, his eyes slid over and Belle could feel her entire face heat up. No quips, no laughter. His silence made her nervous, as if she'd trampled into forbidden territory. "Well, I'm not even sure that you sleep, to be honest. You're always spinning at night. Until all hours."

The blank expression melted away, replaced by a sly grin that bared discoloured teeth. It was a smile that was never meant to put others at ease. "Been watching me, dearie?" he drawled.

"No. Well..." She hadn't thought her face could grow any redder, but if the heat from it was any indication, it'd managed.

Rumplestiltskin burst out laughing, his giggles bouncing off the stones of the so-named Dark Castle and Belle frowned. She hadn't meant to become the source of his entertainment that evening, certainly not at her own expense. She hadn't been watching him, per say, but she'd noticed. It was hard not to, truth be told. He was the only other soul in the castle and if he made even the slightest creak at the wheel it bounced all around. Perhaps that's why he'd been so put out with her crying when she'd first arrived. She could only imagine how that must have traveled.

The laughter had subsided now and he'd stood, still smirking and his hands danced as he spoke. Strangely, the playfulness of his tone did not match the words that left his lips. "Hoping to find a way to slit my throat, dearie? I'll tell you what, even if you caught me asleep it'd do you little good. Don't you remember you thieving friend's arrow?"

"That's not it at all!" Belle argued. She wasn't sure she'd given her feet the command to move, but move they did and she was standing in front of him, fingers lingering on one hand and stilling the waving motion almost as quickly as her voice had stilled his wheel.

He didn't move - he barely looked to be breathing for that matter - and she tightened her grip so he wouldn't squirm away from her. "I wouldn't wish any harm on you, no matter what you think," she whispered. "I was just curious is all."

He blinked, looking suddenly uncomfortable at the physical contact and he pulled his hand free. "I rarely sleep, therefore I don't dream."

"Do you not have to sleep?"

"Not often." He paused, and an expression she recognized as the mask he so often donned flitted perfectly into place. "Too busy terrorizing the common folk, you see."

Belle found herself laughing, despite knowing it wasn't entirely untrue. "You've done good things too. I know that my village isn't the only one you've saved."

Rumplestiltskin hummed softly to himself, waving off the statement. He never accepted a kind word from her, usually ignoring it if not outright refuting it. It was his mask, she'd come to realize, and one that was perfectly constructed. Well, almost perfectly. It seemed to crack nearly to shattering whenever she touched him. So she took a risk. Without warning she wrapped her arms around his neck, just as she'd done when he'd spared Robin Hood's life. He froze, golden eyes wide and body entirely rigid in her tight embrace.

"I don't believe you that you don't dream," she informed him without letting go. "If you sleep, you dream. Perhaps someday, you might even trust me enough to tell me one of them."

"Monsters don't dream, dearie," he murmured softly, voice as taught as the rest of him.

"Well then, good thing you're not a monster," she answered and placed a kiss on his cheek. She didn't give him time to respond - not that she really expected that he would - as she ducked out of the room. Someday he'd trust her with it and as time continued on, she found that she was perfectly happy to be there when that someday came.