I would like to note before anything that I was a Rumbelle shipper. But guys, this past half season really made me fall out of love with the ship, despite how much I love Beauty and the Beast.

Oh, my Cursed Storybrooke story is coming I swear. I just wanted to see where the season has been going and then, due to the timing, I had to write Rumple and the Hood family out of the story to keep continuity. So, it will no longer contain Rumbelle in the story so yes, that's all.

Also, OCC at times. I think. I haven't written these characters before so I don't really know if I'm portraying them in the right way.

Summary: Belle meets the infamous Will Scarlet after he breaks into the library again. What follows is a journey that allows Belle to see that maybe, just maybe, she can have her second chance. Scarlet Beauty.

A New Love

Belle couldn't handle them talking anymore.

It had been four long devastating weeks since she had stood at the townline, holding the dagger that had her beloved name's, forcing the same man, the man that she thought had changed, over the townline and he was forced never to return again. It had been the worst decision that Belle had ever done. She had forced him over the townline without his cane, for without magic, his limp was back and he had crumbled to the ground.

She had stayed on the other side of the line until he managed to drag himself to a ditch and found a stick to use to walk to the station. Emma had joined her by that point, apparently coming from the mansion on the edge of town. Henry and Regina were in the car, waiting patiently as Emma stayed with Belle. Finally, after he had long since hobbled away, Emma dragged Belle to her feet and escorted her home.

She didn't go back to the mansion or the Gold household. Emma had, almost knowingly, dropped her off at the library and helped her get inside the apartment. Emma didn't say anything as she left, only to come back an hour later with her clothes from his house.

"Thank you," Belle had whispered.

"No problem," Emma told her, placing the suitcases by the door. "I didn't get everything, though. I just grabbed what I thought was yours."

"I understand," Belle answered, looking out the window towards the town.

"Do you think he'll stay gone?"

"No," Belle admitted.

"I was thinking that too," Emma admitted, digging her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "I'll be back in the morning."

"Emma, you don't have to-"

"I know," Emma replied, turning towards her. "But there was a time when I went through a breakup that ended up with me being in prison. I wished that someone was there for me at that time. I can only imagine that you in a few years would feel the same."

Belle only nodded, taken aback almost, and Emma left the room, thudding down the stairs. Belle heard the swift of the lock, only barely, before the tears overcame her and she cried herself to sleep.

Now, it was four weeks later, and Belle was sitting at the bar at Granny's, waiting for her hamburger, fries, and an iced tea to take back to the library. It was what Belle had been doing that past four weeks. No one had really told her to do it but Killian had asked for her help in finding possible ways to free the fairies. He was feeling guilty about being forced to capture them in it and had asked for her help because he "was bloody rubbish at stuff like this".

It was the reason that she was sleeping against one of the bookshelves when she was shaken awake by a soft hand. She opened her eyes to see someone crouching over her. She couldn't see much of his features due to his head barely blocking the overhead light but she knew that he was wearing a black leather jacket and a fleece shirt. She could hear the accent that she couldn't identify when he spoke, "You can't sleep like that, love."

"Who are you exactly?" she questioned, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

He told her his name without a pause, or at least Belle believed he did because a loud car passed by on the street and she didn't hear it. "Come on, I'll take you to your bed."

"What?"

"Relax, I won't do anything," he replied, leaning down and scooping her up in his arms. She felt herself being moved around, bounced against his chest as he climbed up the stairs towards the bedroom, and she could feel the heartbeat through the leather jacket he wore.

"How'd you get in here?" Belle questioned, her head falling backwards.

"Same way I did last time," he replied, turning so he could get through the door. Belle felt herself being dropped on the bed, gently, and something being draped over her. Belle tried to sit up as he moved across the bedroom and closed the door swiftly behind him. Belle could feel her eyelids grow increasingly heavy. Maybe it was because of the plush of the bed or the smell of the forest that wrapped around her.

But the moment her tiny arms gave away and her head landed against a pillow, Belle was back into her dreams of her mother and father.

Belle woke up when sunlight hit her face.

She staggered out of bed, changed hurriedly out of her wrinkled clothes. She caught sight of the leather jacket that was where she had been sleeping as she pulled on her blouse. She crossed the room as she buttoned up the blouse she had chosen and picked it up in her hands. It certainly wasn't Killian's jacket, she would've known if it had been Killian who had carried her up to bed.

The jacket smelled vaguely like the forest mixed with the scent of what had remained with her perfume from the day before. The smell was a perfect mixture, two perfectly even halves, and Belle looked towards the stairs where she could hear snoring. She didn't even bother to put on shoes before she bounded down the stairs.

She found him in the fantasy genre, using a nature spell book as a pillow and clutching a copy of Through the Looking Glass. Belle quietly crouched down beside him and leaned over him to get a good look. She reached down and gently wiggled the 228 page book out of his grasp. He made a noise, turning over to face her, but was ultimately still asleep.

Belle looked at him. He was the man who had broken into the library a couple weeks ago, before Ingrid and her spell happened. She had walked in, surprised to find him on the ground, clutching the same book. Did he rip out one of the pages too?

Belle leaned back, crossing her feet beneath her, and opening up the book. She found a ripped page somewhere near the middle and Belle looked towards him in confusion. She placed the book down, her questions would have to wait until he woke up. She reached around, bracing his neck, and pushed the nature book out from underneath his ear. She quickly replaced it with his leather jacket and he made another noise as though he was trying to wake up, this one wasn't as strained as before.

Belle attached a sticky note onto the book before putting it back in his arms and heading towards the kitchen where she was going to make tea as she waited for him to wake up. She didn't have to wait very long.

"You called?"

Belle turned as she put the tea bags into the kettle. She turned, almost surprised that he had even stayed. He stood in the doorway, holding up the sticky note with her scrambled handwriting that read I have a question in a blue pen. He had put on his leather jacket once again and was looking at her expectantly.

"Yes," she answered. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"Whut?" he questioned. Belle laughed. His eyes were beginning to look like they were going to bulge out of his skull. "I broke into the library. Again."

"Really? That was you?" Belle questioned.

"Sarcasm is not funny right now, trust me I'm the King of Sarcasm," he told her, placing the book on her small dining room table. She smiled, moving the tea bag around in the boiling water. "Why would you be asking what I wanted for breakfast?"

"Because, I don't think I've ever seen you eat, unless it was pouring whiskey into coffee" she told him. "And you did carry me to bed when you could have done something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, kill me?" she supplied. "Please, just let me repay you. Will Scarlet."

Will Scarlet never agreed to the breakfast but Belle had sat him down and cooked him breakfast because she could. They sat for hours talking about the book and travels, but not necessarily the stuff that was bothering them, and after that, Will Scarlet came back every Wednesday.

"Belle?"

Emma had phoned two week afterwards, telling her that Will had gotten into a drunken fight at the Rabbit Hole about the Red Queen or something. She sounded like she was in the middle of the scuffle, trying to fight Will out the door as he was yelling to somebody, and was yelling at Killian or David about the other guy.

"I think you should meet us at the Rabbit Hole," Emma managed to get out as she was breathing heavily.

Belle, who had long since changed into a pair of shorts with a scratchy fabric and a blouse, had hurried out in the bitter cold with only a light jacket to fight the chilling temperatures. She had made it to the Rabbit Hole a good five minutes later to find Will on the side of the road, sitting still in his leather jacket and jeans. He looked up as she approached.

"Where's Emma?"

"Inside," he supplied as she sat beside him. "Another fight broke out so I told her that I'd stay here and wait for yeh."

"And you stayed."

"And I stayed," he answered. "I figured that you would beat me senseless if I left while you faced the cold."

"I wouldn't do that," she replied. He shrugged off his leather jacket and placed it over her legs. Belle looked over at him. Will was messing with his thumbs almost mindlessly. Belle had noticed him doing this before, back in one of their dinners at the library. He was thinking and what ever he was thinking about, he didn't really want to talk about it, she figured.

But it was really bothering him now.

Belle reached over, placing her hand between his, stopping his movement entirely, and looking at him, meeting his copper brown eyes with hers. He took her hand in his own, lacing their fingers together, placing her hand between the warm pools that were his own. They sat there for several moments as Belle leaned against Will's shoulder and after several moments, she felt the weight of his head on her own.

"I tore out that piece of paper because I was in love with her," Will said, suddenly, shocking his companion. Belle nodded, only slightly because of the fact that his head was still on hers. "That page in the book. It had her on it and I only broke in to read the story again. And then I was ripping it out as I read and I read until I fell asleep the last time."

"What happened to her?" Belle questioned.

"We were ruling Wonderland as the White King and Queen and all she really, truly, wanted was the power over the people," he replied, his shoulder shaking against her cheek. "It didn't matter what I did or the amount of stuff I went through to get her back, she was still power hungry and that was what caused me to come back here to Storybrooke with the help of the White Rabbit."

Belle stayed silent.

"There was a girl named Alice who I helped find her true love again but she doesn't know what happened after she left, just that we ruled briefly as the White King and Queen. It'll be what she tells her daughter but it won't be true," Will whispered. Belle squeezed his hand tightly.

He went through something like she did. No matter what we did, Belle thought, we couldn't change them into something good. Belle sat up, turning to Will, who stroked tears off her cheekbones that she didn't known had fallen during his story. His copper brown eyes were brimming with tears and Belle could see the truth floating inside of them.

She didn't realize she was leaning forward, and he was leaning forward with her, when the door opened with a very loud bang!

The two backed up, quickly as Emma walked out, embracing Killian, who seemed to be trying to stop the bleeding of a cut on his forehead.

"Who knew that the guy had a bloody knife?" Killian groaned, as Will stood up. He extended his hands towards Belle, who gladly took them after draping his jacket over her elbow. Will held his hand in hers as Emma allowed them to walk back to the library, after a formal agreement from Emma who trusted Belle.

The brunette bookworm had slipped on Will's jacket about halfway home before reweaving her fingers with his own. Will looked over at her as they crossed the street and headed towards the library. Will stopped underneath the single orange light and turned towards Belle, who was smiling up at him.

"What?" he questioned.

"I'm glad that you told me what happened," Belle answered.

"I'm glad that you listened," Will told her.

"Seriously," she told him, squeezing his hands in hers. "Thank you for telling me. It's exactly what I needed to hear."

"How so?" he questioned, confused. His eyebrows were furrowing together making him appear like a lost child. Belle had to bite her lip to keep her from laughing.

"I needed to hear that I wasn't the only one fooled by someone I love," Belle explained. "You went through the same thing."

"Everyone was fooled by Rumplestiltskin, Belle," Will told her, gently. "Emma, Hook, hell even me, we were all fooled by him."

"I should've known," Belle whispered.

"You couldn't," he answered.

"Will, do you ever think you could love again after she did to you?"

"Yes," he replied, without hesitation. "Everyone can love again when they meet the right person. I mean, just look at Robin and Regina. He lost his one true love and she did too. Then they met when she returned to the Enchanted Forest and now here they are, together, or they were together."

"Maybe they're a bad example," Belle noted.

"Alright, Emma and Hook," Will said. Belle didn't need any explaining for that one.

Hook, Killian, she corrected, had long since been fooled by her husband, Rumple, when he was trying to find a portal to find his son. While collecting the bean, he came across his ex-wife who was said son's mother. Enraged that she was with a pirate, or some other reason that he didn't tell Belle, he had killed her right in front of Hook after severing his right hand. He drifted through Neverland and went back to the Enchanted Forest where he met Emma, a woman wronged by his ex-lover's son, and the rest, as they say, was history.

Now, Killian and Emma, some two years later, were at a beautiful part of their relationship after even traveling back in time thanks to the Wicked Witch of the West, Zelena.

"I hit the nail on the head didn't I?" Will questioned.

"Yes, you did," Belle answered. "Good night." She stood on her toes to kiss his cheek but she had gotten the angle wrong on accident, or maybe it was on purpose, or maybe Will turned his head at the last minute, or maybe one of the other billions of possibilities that led to Belle's lips landing on Will Scarlet's for the first time.

Belle hadn't had a kiss like it (well maybe she did back in the Enchanted Forest but that ended with her being thrown into the dungeon). Will was gentle and sweet, his hands unhooking from hers and one moving to brace her neck while the other slipped between the fabric of the leather jacket and the blouse to wrap around her and pull her to him. She felt one of her hands instinctively go into his black hair while the other one wrapped around him, pulling him closer to her.

His lips were foreign but not in a bad way. As they kissed, Belle began to realize that he had done this over countless times before, which struck her odd considering he didn't have many friends in Storybrooke as far as she knew. Her arms connected around his neck and his hands laced together at the back of her waistline, pulling her chest tighter against his own and almost raising her up off the tips of her toes.

Finally, they pulled away, their chests heaving against one another as they hurried to try and slow their heartbeats or their breathing or something that could make this situation any calmer than it was. Belle looked up at Will and his intense copper brown eyes and smiled, one that, for the first time in weeks, reached the irises of her pale blue eyes. He smiled in return, his cheekbones zooming up to meet hers.

"I'm glad I got to see that smile."

Then, he kissed her again, their lips meeting awkwardly due to smiles but Belle didn't mind.

While Belle and Will weren't official immediately, Emma could tell. Will was drawing Belle out of her work that she had been dedicated too for almost a month now. Belle seemed happier too, a constant smile on her face. It wasn't the fake one that she had been putting on since she had banished her husband, it wasn't the one that didn't show up on every nook and cranny on her face; it was the one that gave her features an entire new look.

Emma believed that Belle had known all along that her husband was still a beast.

She believed that while Belle wasn't conscious of the fact that she knew, she believed that Belle knew instinctively in the core of her being but refused to acknowledge it ever existed and that she was making it up. Emma believed this because she had done it too with one of her other boyfriends after Neal. She had been so happy when she had gotten out of that relationship.

Emma liked the effect that Will was having on Belle.

But most importantly, Emma loved the effect that Belle was having on Will.

Since the two had began spending time together, the complaints about Will had gone down tremendously. Granny was reporting that he never came around for a drink anymore and the bartender at the Rabbit Hole said that he hadn't been in all week. Emma decided not to say anything when she found Belle and Will exchanging a tiny kiss, a peck, while they waited on Killian who was deeper in the library.

The people didn't talk much anymore.

Mary Margaret talked about how excited she was that the two had gotten together. Regina thought the same saying that Belle "could do better than the imp". Charming was relatively surprised to find that Will was good with children when they met up for dinner with Baby Neal.

Of course, the silence didn't last too long. It never had been really since it was Storybrooke, Maine and Rumple returned with three ladies by his side.

"Those are the three women who kidnapped me to get the gantlet," Belle had told Emma as they stood in the Sheriff's station, looking down at them. Will crossed the room and wrapped an arm around her.

"Don't worry," Emma told her.

"I've still got this you know," Belle pulled the dagger from her boot. "I won't control him, Emma, I can't do that."

Killian and Will looked like they wanted to protest but Emma understood, bracing her shoulder and Belle slipped it back into her boot once again. She leaned into Will's embrace, turning to hold onto him. Emma caught sight of Rumple looking up as Emma pushed them away.

Emma caught sight of Belle smiling up at Will before kissing him and it caused Emma to smile.

Belle hadn't been happy since she had banished Rumple but she was happy now and, somehow, the entire town seemed to have brightened up.

And that is my Scarlet Beauty story. Hope you enjoyed!

A Cursed Storybrooke is coming back, I swear.