Darkness. The word symbolizes many things; treachery, evil, malice, hate, monster. Darkness is a terrifying unknown that can obtain the unstable brink of an endless pit to an awaiting dragon lurking in the sable shrouds. The unctuous forming of the syllables creeps like oily fingers over the heart and squeeze until the organ bursts in palpitating terror. The word darkness conjures a multitude of vile, evil images that spring to the mind like howling ghost newly arisen from their crypts.
The one thing about darkness most tended to overlook, however, was loneliness.
In all the realms in all the time creatures had strode the soil, there was one place that was never lonelier - the Dark Castle. Erected from magic in a dale of solitude betwixt the icy, wintry mountains the Dark Castle was the epitome of lonely. Darkness lay heavy in the shadows and every molded crevices of the keep that formed the citadel. Knaves and arches were festooned with the aura. The very foundation was shored with loneliness that crept like mold into the striations made by time.
No other place begot such stark solitude and demanded singularity. Not even the unmarked grave of some nobody lay lonelier that the fortress of the Dark One.
Normally only quiet rang out about the lonesome stronghold, but today the forlorn, halls of the Dark Castle were filled with a novel noise that rang about the stones; humming.
Pulling at the gold entwined cuffs of his umber and gold tunic, the Dark One admired himself in the mirror. Though he barely allowed any mirrors to be uncovered, he made special allowances for a special day.
He looked rather dapper, if he did say so himself. With high black boots adorned with silver and gold buckles, his favorite black leather pants, his gold shirt with the mild ruffles, and his special greatcoat stitched of dragon skin, he looked the wealthy monster he was.
In fact, he tugged on the lapels of his coat once and stood tall with his shoulders squared, slightly striking a pose as he hummed to himself, he looked quiet the decent beast tonight. And why not? Tonight was a special one.
A high pitched laugh chirped from his throat at the thought. Turning on his heel, his flourished his hand through the air and the blanket fell back over the tall mirror like a ghost engulfing the tall furnishing.
His boots thudded softly over the polished wood, then the rich carpet in the middle of his great hall as he ambled to the wide table in the center of the frequented room. Lazily picking up a folded, partially singed note from the otherwise barren table, he unfolded the epistle with a calm ease.
His gold and dark eyes scanned the letters, his nose only mildly irritated by the smell of blood and smoke. "Ogres… gold… dying," he murmured some of the words aloud, only half interested.
Swiping the epistle laden hand through the air he banished the letter like a sullied rag. Tendrils of damson magic sprang from his palm and coiled about the note like hungry serpents over a mouse before fattening into oily purple clouds and shredding leaving nothing in his talons.
The letter was like many he had read before; people were in need, a travesty had taken grip of some kingdom and nothing short of a miracle would save them. As always he had taken at least an hour to go and personally assess a situation and spy upon the nobility or whoever was head without their knowledge. Mostly he did such to prospect something of value they could give him before he decided if he wished to waste his time and magic.
The bumbling king was truly in peril, the Dark One had noticed, but more importantly the monarch had a lovely looking daughter he probably cherished.
A wicked smile carved the Rumpelstiltskin's face. So… predictable the noble types were. They never thought to actually hide their most prized possession but flaunt them, thinking nothing of what was truly dear to them until suddenly they could be put upon the table in a bargain.
Well, the Dark One chuckled, if the king truly wanted his kingdom, he would simply have to part with the daughter. Though he barely dealt in the taking of humans that were not babies, he would have another allowance for the day. The day was a special one after all. Besides, he would reap the full benefit of such a fortuitous barter, solving a problem he had long tried to deny.
Though he was the Dark One, loneliness was a thing magic could not cure in such a straightforward manner. Loneliness was a great part of darkness. A thing, Rumpelstiltskin decided to rectify and now was just such an occasion.
Tugging on his favorite jacket one last time, the fiend strode happily to the double doors that would lead to his black carriage. A smile weaseled upon his lips as he passed through he lonely darkness. The low whistling had stopped thought something else now filled the halls. Nearly beneath his breath the Dark One sang. The low, falsetto tune seemed to chuckle as he trilled the eerie harmony that filled the ever lonesome halls.
~8~8~
"Almost… almost…. There!" Belle exclaimed victoriously as she adjusted the last thin slice of almond. The golden brown piece lay near perfect with the others that flanked the almond, telling Belle that her work was finally done.
A warm smile that stretched from ear to ear traced her lips in utter happiness. Sweet success gleamed like heated syrup in her sapphire eyes. Licking a dab of honey off her index finger, a little laugh burbled past her smile at the scrumptious taste. Sweet success indeed.
After all the secrecy and planning and the painful hours trying to concoct her project she was finally done. Above that, even, she was satisfied that she had gotten away with her machination all without him knowing.
Taking a step back the beauty wiped her hands on a faded yellow apron she had found those first few weeks in the castle. Reaching back she hurriedly undid the strings and peeled the flour dusted article off her blue dress. Quickly rolling the item into a ball she placed the apron in a chair and turned away from her creation.
Giddiness bubbled like a fizzy spring in her stomach. She squirmed bodily as though trying to slip from her skin. Her heart galloped happily, her nerves a trill.
Oh he would be so surprised.
Strictly forcing the loftiest of her excitement down with the practice only a noble could know, at least for a moment, Belle composed herself. Serenity thinly glazed over her joy like a thin piece of ice ready to be cracked with a feather.
Forcing herself not to look back at the table in the great hall, the beauty clasped her hands before her and took a deep breath. Steadying her nerves she forced the smile from her face. "Rum would you please come down to the great hall," she managed seriously.
Though he was nowhere to be found, he could always hear when someone called to him. There had been time she had even just whispered his name and he had come to stand right beside her if just to make her start in surprise, his impish grin wide and playful.
That sort of thing normally earned him a playful swipe to his shoulder, but there was no need of that now.
Immediately magic flared through the air at her summoning. The sweet and sour scent of his power lingered faintly in the musty air, telling of his arrival. To Belle the soft touch of the magic was akin to a lighter, setting her excitement up in a conflagration once more. The ice that veiled her energy melted moment by moment reveling the eager woman beneath as he descended by the winds of magic
Purple smoke shredded in the draft and in a hearts beat the fiend stood before her. Clad in a thick, black apothecary apron over his brown leather clothes, the Dark One still cut an odd figure as she had seen the first night in her father's castle.
Odd, yes, there was no denying that, but she had grown used to him, thinking nothing of his strangeness.
A look of curiosity mingled with faint hints of perturbed annoyance donned the fiends face as he stared at her. No doubt he had been deep in the midst of some experimental potion making.
"What is it, Belle?" He wiped a scaled talon over the thick apron, his fingers streaking the garment with a waxy green fluid. "I'm rather busy, and shouldn't you be tending to your chores?"
Normally he never minded her calling him. Usually both their work was at an end and he was simply wandering about and she trying to decide on a book when she spoke his name. However whenever she called to him in the midst of work there was often importance which was why, he told himself, that he dropped everything to come to her like he would no other.
Belle winced a bit inwardly with his perceptive words. She would have a double load of work to do on the morrow and he looked a tad annoyed at her interruption. Still, she had planned for the right moment, she was certain of that. Any more time and he would have caught on to what she planed.
Swallowing hard the beauty flashed a brilliant smile at her master. "Do you remember that time I asked you when your birthday was?"
That had been long, long months ago when they had been only joking. He, of course, had refused to tell her, but the thought had stayed with her for many a day until she decided upon the perfect recourse.
Eyes narrowing, though not in anger, the fiend slowly nodded. "Yes…," the beast remarked warily, his senses not sure where her words were leading. He could never be sure about much of anything with his Belle.
"Surprise!" Belle moved away from the table revealing an exquisitely made honey cake.
Put on an ordinary silver platter, the cake stood in the middle of the table like a mouth watering center piece. The cake consisted of three layers all drenched and soaked up with the sweetest honey, for Rumpelstiltskin only stocked the best in his larder.
The cake itself was spongy and moist, filled in every porous with sweetness and honey mixed with a bit of cream. A golden hue suffused the cake and bits of honey comb and toasted almonds sprinkled the top and sides.
Blinking owlishly, Rumpelstiltskin simply stared at the cake then back at the woman. Surprise indeed! The cake smelled delicious and certainly looked just as scrumptious but shock rocked him to much too even think much about the cake.
No one had ever done something so nice. In all the time in all the realms a captive, surely had never done something so thoughtful for their captors.
Staring at the fiend nervously, the beauty felt jitters take her nerves, rattling them like toys. Her fingers fidgeted nervously with one another anxiously, unable to be still as she met his penetrating gaze of black and golden eyes. "Do you… do you like it?" she queried, her voice wary.
He would have had he still not been in shock, he thought for a moment, deciding not to speak such words aloud.
"It looks wonderful and delicious, Belle," Rumpelstiltskin coughed politely, ending his silence. He didn't want to be rude to his Belle, even in his shock. Untying the apron, his apothecary forgotten for the moment he tossed the thing over a chair, leaving only his leathers.
By the look of the sweet she had worked hard, extra hard he supposed, for the clandestine nature of her endeavor couldn't have been easy. He would have been ruder than he had ever been if he simply walked away without sharing in her efforts a bit.
"Cut some slices will you?" Rumpelstiltskin eased down into his favorite chair, his features veiling his shock that still settled upon him.
No one, to the monster ever beamed so proudly. Her entire self seemed to puff as though cherishing those simple words.
Belle grinned happily at the request before scuttling around to gather two saucers already stacked on the table. Plucking up a knife she proudly began to cut into her creation. A thick knife slid with little trouble into the gooey cake and she began to dole out two large slices.
A nervous grin came to the fiends lips as she plated a piece and set the sweet treat before him along with a fork. Aromas of honey and cake and toasted almonds swirled gloriously through the air, filling the hall with a tantalizing perfume of baked delights.
Though the scent was enough to make him drool, the fragrance only heaped on to his awe. He still couldn't imagine why someone would do something so nice for him.
Taking up his fork to disregard his awkward smile, the fiend dug in. There were only three people to ever know he had a sweet tooth and Belle exploited his weakness every chance she could. She didn't play the weakness on him often, just enough to be a pleasant ending to a dinner now and then.
Bliss entered his mouth as he ate. His tongue exploded with sweet, sticky flavor that very nearly made him forget his shock.
She really had gotten good the kitchen.
Belle laughed lowly as she sat on the edge of the table, eating a piece of cake. For all the evil and malice within him, the fiend looked like one big child sitting with a piece of cake in front of him, scarfing down the treat. He licked the honey off his fork and picked up every crumb that got stuck to the plate of his hands.
In some ways, Belle felt privileged, for no one, she wagered, ever saw him at such ease when he wasn't acting the cruel, careless Dark One, but simply a man enjoying a piece of cake. A regular, ordinary man.
"Excellent, Belle," Rumpelstiltskin praised as he licked up the last crumb. Wiping his hands on his trousers he sat back in his chair. "Truly excellent." The fiend lapped a dab of honey from the curb of his hand he had missed. "The cake nearly took away my shock that you guessed right."
Right? Belle paused there, her smile fading a tad. The word struck the beauty as odd. What did he mean by right?
Brow wrinkling into thin lines, the beauty placed her equally as empty saucer down by the cake. "I don't quite understand what you mean."
"You know," he drawled in his impish way, satisfied now with his sweet tooth sated. "I was surprised that you managed to figure out the date. You'll have to tell me how sometime. I always thought you clever, now cleverer than I realized."
Of course Belle had always been cunning, but he never thought her wise enough to trace his date of birth. How she had connected the dots would be an interesting thing to hear someday.
Surprise of her own sparkled like faceted gems in Belle azure eyes. Now that was incredible to hear. "I didn't know the date Rum, I…." She took a deep breath to stymie her surprise.
"What?" he queried, his wariness, he thought dead, coming back by an inkling. Had she truly guessed randomly or…? Pain clenched his heart as the realization struck him. The sweetness on his tongue turned to bitter poison as the memory flooded back to the forefront of his mind.
Shrugging, Belle turned her head away from the master of the castle. Her feet kicked in a thoughtful swing as she gathered her words. "It's the… um… anniversary of the day I came here," she admitted softly.
The pain of that day would never go away when she thought of the moment, but she was not a woman to sit around sinking in morasses of morose and melancholy. "I thought instead of dwelling on that, I could turn the day into something wonderful and nice; a birthday for you, every year with a cake." She refused to let the day mark something terrible. She refused to.
Curse his foolish tongue! Rumpelstiltskin hissed at himself, kicking his foolish thoughts and uncaring. He had lived so long years and days and dates meant little to him. Oh he celebrated his birthday sometime, but he never made a habit of it. If he remembered in time he would but little else.
Belle however had wanted to celebrate his birthday and he inadvertently bestowed a revelation upon her!
Heartless lout that he was, he should have remembered! He should have let her have the day instead of her thinking of celebrating her master's birthday! He should have given her leave to wander further from the castle, away from him, or even a letter to her papa! Instead he had let that date of her captivity, his birthday, slip his mind.
"Belle… I…," the words dribbled off. What could he say? To much had already been spoken, truth revealed. Clearing his throat he stood up from his chair. "The cake was delicious. Thank you," he remarked lowly and prepared to harness magic to seal himself up in his apothecary for a weak and curse himself a witless fool.
He would not have cared were she any other person. The day he had brought her to the castle he had expected hate and sobbing from her and equal uncaring from himself. How could he have known he would have grown to enjoy her company? To detest when she was sad? To never want to cause her any pain?
Curse himself twice, but he had done all those now in one fail swoop by forgetting the reason he had brought her at all! In truth, remembering why she was there became difficult at time. She fit so perfectly into the Dark Castle with him it was as if she had been there from the start with him.
"Rumpel," her lovely voice filled the silence, though she spoke quietly. She turned to him, her head faintly canted to the left in her eternal inquisitiveness. "Was I… a birthday present?"
Did he dare?
Nodding his head, the fiend's face marked a faint grimace. "You were," he admitted evenly, his normal impish pitch subdued. "The first birthday I had celebrated in two hundred and forty three years."
She would be furious with him now, he knew. A heroic sacrifice for her family, giving up a life she had lived in luxury and rank, to be a birthday gift; a whimsy most people got as new cloaks or flowers or puppies.
"Why?" she couldn't help but ask. There was no accusation in her soft voice only curiosity mixed with a sliver of hurt that cut into him worse than any sword.
A tsk-tsk fell from his mouth as he retied on the apron. There were something's she could not know. How could he divulge his hatred of loneliness, to want, to desire, to crave some noise and activity in his bereft home?
"Why?" she queried again.
"Because." The fiend secured the knot. "Because I wanted something nice. I like to surround myself with the best. I'm sorry you found out this way. I never meant to tell you."
That answer would have to suffice, he sighed inwardly and began to summon the magic. She would be angry now, he knew, there was no stopping that. Who wouldn't be angry at such a thing?
"Rum?" His nickname came out in a question and the fiend flinched. Her wrath was about to hit him.
Bracing himself, he forced himself not to run. At least he could afford her that mercy, an outlet for her rage. "Yes Belle?"
Pushing off from the table she turned around and began to collected the dirty plates and utensils. She didn't look up at him, her face hidden. "What type of cake would you like next year?"
Shock was not a thing Rumpelstiltskin was used to. One was rare but two in one day was unheard of! "What?" The words came in a soft hiss of surprise.
Placing the dirty dishes together, Belle took a step away from the table. With a few swipes she dusted off her dress and looked at him, her eyes still filled with kindness and gentleness. "I asked what kind of cake would you like next year?"
"Belle," he fumbled to make sense of her ever surprising demeanor. Why was she not angry? "You don't have to celebrate the birth of your captor. I would give you the day if you but ask."
On a day that would cause her pain, he didn't deserve to be celebrated. He deserved to be loathed.
A soft smile crept upon Belle's lips alighting his heart. Padding over to him she laid a hand on his chest. "I did this because I believe good always triumphs over the bad in life. A birth, even yours, is a blessing. I would like to celebrate that instead of something sad. I may not know your reasons, but I'm glad I guess right."
"You're not angry with me?" He felt he could barely breathe with her hand on his chest.
Belle shook her head again, tendrils of her amber honey hair swirling our from her ribbon "No matter what reason you brought me here I saved my village. That is enough."
How could she be so utterly understanding? How could she be so wonderful and tender?
"That one reason," Rumpelstiltskin revealed softly to answer her question. "That's one reason I chose you." Placing a hand on her right cheek, a smile slowly crossed his lips. "You're special to me, Belle. Very special."
~8~8~
A/N: I wrote a Belle Birthday sometime ago and never got back to it. It was supposed to be a two-shot, but this one isn't slightly humorous so it's separate. Also, it's good to be back.
Disclaimer: I do not own OUaT.