Hello everyone - this is my new collection of Short Stories, all concerning the life of Belle and Rumple in Storybrooke and the Enchanted Forest.
As we are all waiting for 2x19, I thought this could be nice.
I hope you'll all enjoy it!

Title: The Lady of the House
Place: Strorybrooke
Rating: K/K+
Subsiries: none

The Lady of the House

It was already afternoon when he walked down the Syncamore Lane, one of the more expensive streets in Storybrooke. The sun was slowly washing away the grayish clouds in the sky above him but not yet shining through. Whole Storybrooke was waiting for spring to start but instead snow and rain came down nearly every week, dying the town – and landscape – brown and white and gray.

When he reached the house he had been going to, he checked his phone again to see of someone had tried to call him. He then entered the yard through the little gate and went up the stairs to the door. He knocked twice and a third time but then found, that the door was not locked. It startled him for a moment. Emma had told him that his father always used to lock the door, especially when he was not there.

"Anybody home?" Neal asked loudly into the floor of the house. No lights were on but it was still early enough to only use daylight.

"Hello?" he asked again, stretching the last syllable of the word.
As no one answered, he closed the door behind himself and walked in. He saw two kinds of shoes placed on the floor next to the door: A pair of black gent's shoes and another pair of brown heels that surely did not belong to his father.

"Father?" he took of his shoes with his feet, leaning against a wall. He walked into the great living room on the ground floor but no one was there. He wanted to leave again when his glare fell on the dining table. About eight high stacks of books were placed on it, some stretching as high as a meter.

"Good Lord…" he murmured taking one of the books in his hands.

"I thought I heard someone!" a lovely voice said behind him in the floor. He turned around.

Belle was wearing blue skinny jeans and a black pullover that was much too big and probably his father's.

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to sneak in."

"Ouh no, it's fine, this is your father's house so feel welcome to hop in whenever you like." She smiled widely.

"You are Belle." He said, placing the book back on the table and gesturing to her with his right index finger.

"Indeed I am."

"And you are talking like my father." I observed dryly.

Belle laughed affectionately and came a little closer.

"We haven't been introduced yet really." She stretched one hand out and shook his.

"So it is true. The old man really found someone to love."

"That is the short version of the story." She said.

"And the long version?"

"Is evening filling." She said with a smile to the ground. He saw her blush.

"You were part of a deal?" Neal asked grinning, seeing her blush a little more.

"I was. But there's really more to it. Anyway, how can I help you?"

"I was… I was actually looking for my father, you happen to know where he is?" Neal answered, scratching his neck.

"He's at the shop, but he will be home soon. Would you like to wait here and have some tea?" she offered with a gesture to the kitchen.

"You have coffee too?"

"Somewhere we probably do."

We.

Neal watched the young woman while she prepared a little tray with two cups and a small plate for cookies. It was a pretty tea set. White cups with a golden fringe and blue branches. She made a kettle of Tea for herself and also prepared coffee for him. She seemed to be used to preparing and arranging tea on a tray, he thought while watching her.

Belle then carried the tray to the living room and placed it on the white table in front of the couches.

"Please." She offered to him and also sat down herself.

Neal first did not say anything but merely sipped his coffee and ate some of the chocolate cookies.

"What are the books for?" he asked eventually after a few minutes of silence.

"Oh I just assembled all the books in the house here and putting them upstairs in a shelf so they're all together."

"Arranging a library?"

"Not quite. We're thinking about renovating the basement to make it look a bit like our old home, the books will go there if we ever find the time to really do it." She smiled and emptied her cup. Neal gasped.

"So you two also lived together back in our land?" Neal he requested unbelievingly.

She took a moment to answer the question and seemed to be thinking hard about it or at least how to put the words.

"Yes, we did. For a while at least." She smiled but there was also something sad in her eyes.

"How long?"

"It must have been about six or seven months, maybe a little longer. I came to him in late autumn and left in summer." Now her face grew even a little sadder.

"Why did you leave?"

"You are quite curious!" She replied and grinned again, "But I think this is a story your father should tell you some time."

Neal nodded.

"I did know about you though." She crossed her legs on the couch.

"You did?"

"Yes, I found a boy's clothing in one of the rooms of his... place and asked him. He made me a deal to tell the story."

"Oh, I am so sorry for that!" Neal pressed his hands together, "He is terrible when it comes to his deals." But Belle assuaged him.

"No, no, I dealt with your father nearly every week; the deal about you was just… our last one."

"What exactly did you know?"

"Just that he had lost you and your mother and that you loved you very dearly."

Neal swallowed hard.

"I actually don't know how to call you. Rumpel always refers to you as 'Bae' but Emma uses 'Neal'. So, what should I call you?"

Rumpel.

"Neal's fine." He said.

"Nice. So, Neal, would you like me to call your father?" She asked, rising from her place on the couch.

"Call whose father?"

He had actually been at home for a few minutes and waited in the floor as soon as he had seen his son's shoes on the ground and his beloved's voice in the living room.

"There he is." Belle smiled widely at the sight of him standing in the door dropping of his coat and welcoming her with a kiss. All the sadness Neal had seen on her face had vanished in a matter of seconds.

"I leave you two alone down here if that's alright." She grabbed some of the books from the table, "I still need to get these upstairs."

She turned around once more, already standing in the doorframe.

"It was a pleasure to finally meet you Neal; I hope to see you around more often."

"The pleasure was mine, and thank you for the coffee." He smiled and waved his hand.

When he heard her steps above their heads he looked at his father, grinning widely.

"She calls you Rumpel."

"And she leaves the door unlocked after being abducted and shot." His father shook his head and sighed.

"She's a wonderful woman, if you break her heart I'll be gone in a minute." Neal said with an honestly threatening voice.

"Believe me, I'm the one who is afraid that she leaves on day."

"She won't, if you don't give her a reason to."

Father and son kept quiet for a moment listening to Belle's soft steps above them.

"So, you and Belle, how did that happen? She told me you lived together back in our land?"

"We did."

"Was she your housekeeper?" he asked jokingly, gesturing towards the tea tray and saw his father clearing his throat and looking down.

"Oh no, not seriously father! She looks like a princess; she couldn't have been your housekeeper!" Neal added almost furiously.

Mr. Gold stayed quiet again for a second and looked at the bunch of red roses on the table before he smiled.

"What shall I say? She is and has always been the Lady of the house."