Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time, Beauty and the Beast or the characters:
Theme: a wilting rose upon a cursed dagger.
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Belle strode through the castle exploring as she did every day when she wasn't cleaning. She came to a large set of stairs which lead to the mysterious West Wing of the castle that Rumpelstilitskin had specifically banned her from entering. However, curiousity and her thirst for knowledge won out and she climbed the stair case entering the castles west wing.
As she wandered she came across a room full of broken furniture and trashed items. On one wall there appeared to be a portrait, however, the canvas was horribly torn and the subject of the painting was unrecognisable due to the damage. Near a pair of double doors out onto a balcony was a pedestal with a glass case. Belle wandered over and saw a cruel looking dagger on display on the pedestal. On one side of the blade she saw Rumpelstiltskin's name engraved in the side of the blade, but on the other side of the blade was an engraving of a rose.
Bell was in awe of how beautiful the rose looked engraved on the side of the cruel dagger bearing her masters name. She watched in shock as one of the rose petals appeared to fall off the rose and vanish as if the blade itself was wilting.
"But how can a rose engraved on a blade wilt?" wondered Belle aloud.
"What are you doing in here Dearie" asked Rumpelstiltskin. Belle gulped in fear, despite the fact he had yet to raise his voice his tone terrified her. "I asked you a question dearie," he said.
"I was curious" she replied meekly.
"About a place in my castle that I had specifically forbidden you from entering Dearie?" asked Rumpelstilitskin in that same dangerous tone.
"I'm sorry, it's just you gave me no reason as to why the west wing is forbidden," Belle replied.
"And you think that I owe you an explanation about my castle which you are only the cleaning maid" he asked rhetorically.
"I'm sorry I'll be going," she answered as she headed to the door.
"Dearie, in the east wing is a library, the books are dusty, be sure to clean all of them," he replies not looking at her instead focusing on the dagger. Happiness bursts into life as she imagines all of the books that might be in this library and hope that he may have already forgiven her for trespassing.
He listens as the door clicks shut and her eager footsteps fade as she almost runs to the library. His attention turns back to the dagger as he counts the rose petals still on the rose engraved on the daggers blade. He lets out a sigh, another petal gone and the rose looks even more wilted and sad. The rose engraving on his cursed blade continues to wilt. A stark reminder that he doesn't have long before the curse of 'The Dark One' becomes permanent and not even true loves kiss would be able to reverse it.
He turns to the door that Belle had exited through, wondering, if something could bloom between them.
"No, nobody could ever love me," he says quietly to himself as he turns away from the cursed dagger and it's reminder of his limited remaining time to break the curse. It was the one thing he truly feared, the day that the rose on the daggers blade wilted and there were no more petals. Because then he'd be cursed for ever.
Unless he found love before the rose on the blade wilted, he would forever be a beast.
No Happy Ending.
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Hey, my first OUaT fanfic.
I'd just watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast and loved how the Beast was given until the rose wilted to find love and I felt that the rose should be incorporated somehow into OUaT. That's why I decided that a rose could be engraved onto the blade opposite Rumpelstiltskin's name as a reminder that he had a limited amount of time to find love before the rose wilted, that way, even cursed as the Dark One he had time to seek his own happy ending.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Your Loveable Tiger