A Brief Flicker of Light - Part One


Belle had always considered herself a fairly talented judge of character. Perhaps it was all of the mysteries she'd read as a child that had helped to form up her key sense of intuition. In general, she could tell when a person was lying or hiding something and it was one of the many reasons that her father had liked to keep her near his counsel - not on it, per se, as women in her land were not expected to be quite such clever thinkers - to tell when those around him were being less than honest. Her first impressions were almost always spot on.

Her first impression of Rumplestiltskin had been terrible. He was every bit the monster that the rumours had said and she'd even begun to wonder if his quip about skinning children was really a joke at all. He was vile and evil. He spoke of life and death in a flippant manner, without a care for those he hurt and even less for those that he exacted his prices from. He was cold hearted and she'd been certain that his soul was stained darker than any other in the land.

Then the first layer had peeled back. It was a thin layer and hardly provided a clear view of the man beneath the monster, but it was a start. It gave her hope, and hope was a handhold to allow her a grip to begin to pull back layer by layer. It was a smile here and a joke there. One thing built on another and over the months, between the guards that he had long since put up for himself, she managed to find in him something like a shadow of humanity. She thought, given time, she might find more than just a wispy trace.

Belle had lost count of how many months she'd spent in the Dark Castle when he'd first informed her that they - not just he - would be taking a trip down into the village that rested at the bottom of the Forbidden Mountain. She'd only left the castle once since her arrival - that terrible, nerve-wrenching trip that had been their chase after Robin Hood that had first sent her on her search to find something deeper in him than the darkness that he presented to the world around him - and by the time he was actually ready to leave she'd worked herself up into an excited state.

"Don't get your hopes up, dearie," the Dark One told her. "The village is plenty dull. I'll need you to gather some things while I handle business there."

"Aren't you afraid I'll run?"

He quirked one eyebrow up. "Will you?"

"Of course not. We made a deal."

The smile was quick but it was true. She'd learned to tell the difference by this point. The smiles he gave to those that came to the castle ready to strike a deal with him were wide and put on, never reaching those strange, snake-like eyes of his. The ones he gave her, though - and they were very rare - warmed that cold gaze just a little and the smile was just a bit shy. She wondered, sometimes, what he'd been before he'd become this. Surely there was a story there, yet he hadn't told her any of it. She'd asked a time or two, of course, but he'd carefully danced around it and all of his usual walls came up and the facades fell neatly into place. He was a master showman and she would have to be patient. They had forever, after all, so there was really no hurry.

Belle had never seen a servant other than herself in the castle. It remained relatively clean if she worked at it or not, but no one ever helped her in her chores. She'd left it a week, once, without touching a mop or duster. It hadn't been any cleaner or any dirtier than it would have been had she scrubbed at everything as if her life depended on it. She wagered, though he would never admit it, that Rumplestiltskin used magic to keep his castle clean. That left her with the question of what she was really doing there, but the answer had become simple enough over time: he was lonely.

Because there were no other servants, the coach that he took on occasion had no driver. The horses were well groomed and friendly, always allowing her to pat the side of their necks affectionately, but she never saw a stableboy. Regardless, they were ready and waiting for them when she stepped out of the castle, the cloak that he'd provided to her fit around her shoulders and she was pulling her gloves on as she walked. The weather would turn warm soon, but there was still a nip in the air, leaving her chilled as she crossed the grounds. Rumplestiltskin seemed unaffected by any sort of weather change, and was waiting rather impatiently for her.

"Hurry up then," he grumbled. "I was about to leave without you."

"You wouldn't have," she answered him even as he extended a hand to balance her entrance into the carriage. For all the rumours, for all the horrible things said about him, he had been nothing shy of a gentleman at all the oddest of times, even if he was busy fussing and complaining about something she'd done. She still remembered the way he'd simply removed the sheriff's tongue in Sherwood Forest when he'd insinuated that she was anything less than a lady.

"And why's that?"

"Because you know how much I'm looking forward to this and you wouldn't want to spoil it for me."

He snorted, but didn't deny it. Instead he tapped the roof of the carriage with his open palm and the horses started forward, taking them down the path and towards the village at the base of the mountain. Belle watched the scenery pass by with wide, curious eyes. She hadn't bothered to pay too much attention on their last outing, as her mind had been working furiously for a way to talk him out of his murderous intentions while trying to remain calm and collected on the outside. Now she had a chance to marvel at the beauty that surrounded them. The snows were melting and spring was just around the corner. The time when life started peeking out of winter's last attempts to crush it had always been her favourite time of the year. It gave her hope when she had none. No matter how cold and bleak life might seem, there would be a time of warmth to follow it.

She turned, finding him gazing out the opposite window. He'd been quiet that morning at breakfast and when she'd tried to ask about it he'd brushed it off with a giggle and a quip. That generally meant that it was a heavy enough subject that he didn't want to speak with her on it. Perhaps something that was troubling him or something that he was putting a great deal of thought into. She had no way of knowing. Whatever it was, though, he seemed to be thinking on it again.

"What sort of business do you have in town today?" she asked, catching his attention now.

He stared at her a moment, those strange eyes focused on her. "And why should I tell you?" he snapped instead and she found herself laughing rather than insulted.

"Because it's polite to answer a question when you're asked. Didn't your mother ever teach you that?" The words were said with a smile, meant as a tease, but he shrugged.

"I never knew her."

The smile faded and Belle leaned against the window. "I barely knew mine when she died. What about your father?"

The Dark One stiffened. "I'm not here to discuss family histories," he growled. "Should have left you in the castle."

She'd hit a nerve again, she knew, as he slammed his open palm against the roof of the carriage and the horses slowed to a stop. "We can't possibly be there yet," she said, looking outside. They were further than she would have thought, but still not within the village.

"Perhaps the walk will busy your thoughts a bit more and you can leave me to mine," Rumplestiltskin said as he stepped out of the door. Despite his obvious irritation with her he still offered a hand for balance as she stepped out after him and she nodded her thanks.

"I'm sorry, if I struck a nerve."

"Drop it."

Belle pulled back at this. His voice had been more of a hiss than anything that resembled the playful tones. She'd heard him use it to intimidate truly dense lords and ladies that came begging for his help and offered nothing but trinkets in return. He never seemed to have a great deal of patience stored away, but when it ran thin he could become a true terror. When she'd first arrived, the wild, angry tantrums had seemed both absurd and frightening, but by now she was sure that they hid something much deeper and she knew she really had struck on something best left alone.

They walked side by side. He never insisted that she walk behind him like a real servant might, or bothered with anything that she'd seen lords require of their own servants as she'd watched them growing up. Once he had tired of keeping her in the dungeons - the game wore thin when she came down with a nasty cold, and while he'd brushed off the fact that he'd carried her up to a room and built a fire for her as not wishing to lose good help to a chill, there'd been something almost kind in the way he'd cared for her - and given her the room she currently slept in, he'd provided her with anything she could possibly want, and had even given her her own library. She'd seen servants growing up and this was not what she'd expected, and she wasn't sure if it was his own eccentricities or if he simply didn't know what to do with a servant. It made her curious as to his upbringing. While she could hardly see him as being from the peasantry classes - though he mocked her books, she'd seen him deep in study and had a wide range of knowledge that likely would have baffled the uneducated class - she could hardly think of him as having been raised by some lord or lady in a castle. Perhaps he'd been the son of a sorcerer.

"Were you schooled in magic before becoming the Dark One?"

Rumplestiltskin's gold eyes flickered to look at her, but he didn't turn. "What makes you ask that?"

Belle sighed. The man was incapable of giving a straight answer. "Because I don't know much about Dark Ones. Is it a title? Are there more of you?"

"No."

"No to which one?"

It was his turn to heave a heavy sigh. "You are insufferable, do you know that? I'm leaving you behind next time."

After a few moments of silence as they continued to walk, Belle had resigned herself to herself to being left to her curiosity, but he began to speak again, his voice holding a little less of the usual sing-song that coloured it. "No, I was not schooled in magic in my life before. Yes it is a title, and I'm the only Dark One."

"How's it passed down?"

He looked at her now, his eyes guarded and cold. "You kill your predecessor."

Belle nearly tripped over a loose stone along the path. "You… killed him?"

"Put a knife through his heart, yes."

"How can you be so nonchalant about killing the person that taught you everything?"

Rumplestiltskin snorted. "He didn't teach me anything, dearie, save one thing: never make a deal you don't understand. That's about the only useful knowledge he left me with. Now, you're not along for the conversation, you know. You'll need to gather a few things while I attend to my business." He flicked his hand and a list appeared. Belle took it, eyes skimming his scrawled handwriting and she thought she recognized a few ingredients for potions that he brewed.

"Will these all be here?"

"Yes, they should be. There are a surprising number of sorcerers in this area and so they keep it well stocked."

They were coming up to the village now, the sounds of people could be heard just off in the distance and Belle could smell bread baking. She pulled in a deep breath, reminded briefly of home. "How long do you expect to be? I'd like to take a look around, perhaps pick up a book or two…?"

The Dark One rolled his eyes, but there was no real malice in the expression. "Yes yes, I'm sure you'll have time. Just get done what I'm sending you to do first. The shop is just-" He stopped suddenly, his expression changing within just flashes of a second from confused to curious to perhaps just a little afraid before he hid that one very quickly.

"Rumplestiltskin?" she called, reaching out to him as he suddenly listed dangerously to his right. Belle let out a startled sound as she caught him, keeping him from falling fully to the ground. They'd just been walking. She could see nothing that would have caused the reaction, and as he struggled to balance himself - carefully avoiding putting too much weight against his right leg for some reason - she saw the golden scales that made up his skin begin to recede, taking with them his black claws and leaving human hands in their wake. She couldn't bring herself to speak again as she watched it happen and he stared in the same fashion, just as shocked as she was.

He straightened suddenly, trying to pull away from her, but his leg didn't want to hold his weight. He stumbled and landed hard on his knees, and when Belle sank to the ground with him to do whatever she could to help, she found wide, dark eyes full of confusion and not just a little fear. There was a man beneath the beast and he was looking directly at her. She could see the resemblance, but in many ways he was very, very different. "What's happening?" she asked carefully.

"I don't know," Rumplestiltskin gasped, his voice lower than it usually was. "There's no magic here. That doesn't make any sense. It's like… someone's put a kind of barrier to cut the town off."

"Is this what you really look like then? Do you wear some sort of… mask?"

He snorted, holding his hands up for inspection. "All magic comes with a price, dearie, and my curse does tend to show my darkened soul on the outside."

Belle blinked at him. He'd never referred to his magic as a curse before and she'd never assumed that it was. It made sense, she supposed, from what she knew of magic, but it was still strange to hear him so honest about it. She reached a hand to him. "Can you stand? Did it hurt you?"

He refused to look at her now, dark eyes fixated on the dirt below them as if he were trying to find a way to spin a lie that she might believe. He loosed a long breath at last and his resolve to dance around the truth seemed to leave him. "My ankle," he said, "was badly broken many years ago. My magic takes care of it."

"You can't walk on it without it?"

"Not without something to lean on."

"Well, I don't have any sort of walking stick for you to lean on, but I'll help you. Perhaps its best if you rearrange the meeting place of your deal and we look elsewhere for your ingredients. This is either highly inconvenient or someone was trying to be clever."

"Very clever," Rumplestiltskin murmured as he let her help him up. He didn't seem happy about it, just resigned, and she realized he really was leaning heavily on her as she wrapped his right arm around her shoulder. "Look."

The dome over the area hadn't been visible from the outside, but it was shimmering on the inside. She reached forward and felt a tingling sensation pass through her arm as she reached through it. "Can't we just leave?"

"If we could, we'd be going now," he assured her. Instead of explaining, he simply reached out to the same place she had and instead of his hand moving through the barrier it pressed up against it as if it were glass, sending sparks upward and he pulled his fingers back as if they'd been burned. "I'm trapped here."

"Without magic," Belle murmured softly.

His eyes widened just a bit and she could see the thoughts running through them as if he'd spoken them out loud. He'd always been a bit weary of her, as if he weren't quite sure if he should trust her or not and likely fell on the side of not. They'd fallen into a strange sort of companionship over the months, but that had been while she was bound inside his castle with little hopes of escaping. Even if she had managed to persuade the gates to open up and let her out, it would have broken their deal and he would have reversed whatever he'd done to save her home. Now she could just drop him, leave him broken on the road just outside of the village, and she could run. He wouldn't be able to escape it and he'd be powerless to come after her. It was an option and he knew that, but certainly not one Belle was considering. "I'm not leaving you," she assured him after a moment. "We'll find a way to get out of this."

He seemed to consider her words for a moment before finally accepting them. "Best we go on into the village. Don't draw attention to us and we might be able to find the source of this curse."

"You think it's a curse?"

"I think I should have been able to sense it long out. The fact that I didn't is as troubling as the fact that we're now inside of it."

"But you can get us out, right?"

"All spells can be taken apart if you find the loose end to pull at."

"Is there always a loose end?"

He offered her a smile that she knew well, and for the first time this man that she'd helped pick up off the ground and the Dark One she knew resembled each other a bit more. "All spells can be unravelled unless I'm casting them. Come on. Let's see if we can get a feel for what's happening."


He should have seen it coming. He should have felt it, Seen it, and known it, through and through. If this was indeed a trap laid for him, it was a clever one, and if they'd simply chosen the wrong time to visit the village during a trap laid for another sorcerer… Well, his luck never had been very good, he supposed.

Rumplestiltskin tried not to lean too heavily on the small woman that had offered to help keep him upright, but he'd forgotten just how painful his right ankle could be. He could feel every step all the way up through his leg and down into his toes. She had wrapped one arm around his waist to keep him upright and the closeness was becoming uncomfortable, but there was no other way. No one seemed to pay them much notice as they stumbled into the main section of the village. People were milling about and a man with a bread cart nearly took them off their feet in his haste. Things seemed to be going along quite normally, and why shouldn't they be? He'd never known another sorcerer to take up residence in the village - no, people like him tended to have strongholds in the darkest, most dangerous parts of the mountain - so the people there might not even realize that a spell had been cast.

"Do you need to sit?" Belle asked, startling him out of his thoughts. She was looking up at him and he did what he could to relax the strain he could feel pulling at his features.

"No, not just yet. There's a small tavern connected to the inn that we should head to."

Belle choked back a laugh. "You want a drink? Isn't it a bit early?"

"It's an excellent place for conversation and travelers will be coming down for an early lunch by now."

To her credit, she looked a little embarrassed and Rumple felt the first pain of guilt at it that he had in some time. She was a sweet girl and hardly belonged cooped up in his lonely old castle with only a monster for company. She could have left him when she realized that her escape was only a few steps away, but she'd chosen to help him. He still didn't understand the reason, but he promised himself that he'd do something to repay her for it. He wouldn't let the rush of his curse filling him back up when they escaped change his mind.

"What should I call you when we get there?"

"I'm sorry?" he asked, startled out of his thoughts by her question.

"You said a few moments ago that we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves. I would think that if the people of my town miles and miles from here know your name, the people of this village know it well." She paused and he could feel those clear blue eyes studying him. "Did people ever call you by a nickname… You know, before you became the big and terrible Dark One."

There was a hint of teasing in her voice and Rumplestiltskin glanced down at her, ready to fire back with a quip of his own, but it died on his lips when his eyes met hers. She was smiling at him in the way that she did and often it made him nervous that she was going to fling her arms around his neck in a thank you for something. She wouldn't now, he hoped, lest he drop straight back to the ground for the lack of warning. He cleared his throat, banishing the harsher words and breathed out a name that very few still used for him. "Rumple."

"Rumple," she repeated, testing it out and it seemed to pass. "I like it."

"So glad it meets your approval," he grumbled as he nodded towards the inn just ahead. They stepped inside to find it already busy and it took some looking before they found a table off to the side and she helped him down into the chair. He couldn't contain the small sound that escaped when he eased his weight off of his bad ankle and he bent down, fingers touching his boot over the area. It was swollen now, he knew, from the unusual amount of pressure it was being put under and the old injury was eating at him.

"We're not going to get very far like this," Belle murmured and he found her staring at him again, arms crossed and a frown tugging at her painted lips. "Would wrapping it help at all?"

"Perhaps a bit."

"And ice."

"I don't have time for all that, Belle," he growled. "I just want to find out what the hell is going on so that we can get home."

"Well, you're going to make time, because we'll never get anywhere if we have to sit every five minutes."

Rumplestiltskin felt an irritable protest building, but he snapped it off. Funny how much easier that was to do with his curse cut off on the other side of a spell. He felt both free and cornered all at once, and if he wasn't careful, Belle might regain her senses and just leave him there to fend for himself. If she did then he would be right back to where he was: the village coward limping about, only in a different village and quite possibly with someone trying to make it easier to kill him.

"I'm going to go over to the shop and get some things and be right back. I'll keep my ears open for anything that might be useful on my way there and back and you can listen here."

"Fine."

She smiled and it reached her eyes. "And maybe some lunch? I hardly had time to eat his morning with you ushering me out the door."

"You were too busy asking questions to eat. That's hardly my fault."

"It is when you don't answer them," she said sweetly and was out the door, leaving him sitting at the small, corner table alone.


Belle waited until the tavern door closed behind her to break out into a grin, the laugh following it as she excused herself around a man in the road. This was an entirely new side to her employer and she was certain that she liked it better, even if he was a bit grouchy because of it. He just seemed more… human like this. There was something about those dark eyes that made she kept wanting to study, but he'd catch her in it, she knew. He'd catch her in it and then he'd call her on it, and wouldn't that be embarrassing?

The store wasn't difficult to find and she ducked in, speaking briefly to a plump woman behind a counter about several things that they'd need and Belle thanked her as she waited. A few others were moving about, looking at the different herbs put up for sale and various assortments. She'd wondered if there was anything else that could be done other than add support to the old injury - he'd said it had been badly broken many years before, but as far as she knew it was nearly impossible to injure him as the Dark One, so did that mean it had come before that? - but the thought was cut short as the woman returned and Belle dug the money out of the folds of her skirt.

The streets had grown busier in the early afternoon, people moving this way and that and the little village certainly hadn't looked this big from their place on the mountain side. Children played in the street and Belle had to sidestep a flying kickball. One boy shouted an apology and she smiled and waved as she moved past. She'd promised Rumplestiltskin that she would listen for anything of use, and she felt like if she didn't find something to bring back to him he might think she hadn't put any effort into it at all. Still, she didn't want to leave him alone in that little tavern and by the time she was pushing the door back open she had found nothing of any use, at least not to them.

"Anything?" he asked as she sat down.

"I found out that they overcharge for eggs, the baker has a habit of selling stale bread to people he doesn't like, and that if he's not careful, one little boy is going to put a kickball through a window, but if anyone was trying to lure the Dark One here for some sort of terrible plot, I'm afraid they're not being very vocal about it along the main street." She glanced around, smiling a thank you to the waitress that brought their food. "What about you?"

Rumplestiltskin looked more put out than before she'd left, if that were possible. "Nothing of interest. I did go ahead and reserve a room for you in case we're stuck here through the night."

Belle blinked owlishly at him. "That was… thoughtful. Thank you. Did you get one for yourself as well?"

"You know I don't sleep," he answered automatically.

"I know you don't sleep much," she countered as she took a sip of the tea they'd been brought. "I know I've caught you dozing once or twice." He shrugged and her smile broadened, even as her voice dipped down so that only he could hear. "And you're human, right? You'll need sleep."

He looked directly at her now, those dark eyes catching her own and she felt her breath catch. The look was intense and very, very brief, but it left her continuing to stare at him even after he'd broken eye contact. "Perhaps," he murmured after a long moment.

Belle wasn't sure if it was the realization or the fact that neither of them had found anything yet and he could very well be one of the most impatient beings in all the lands, but Rumplestiltskin simply closed down at that point. He wouldn't look at her, wouldn't speak unless spoken to, and when he answered, he never said anything more than was required to respond to the question. He barely ate what had been put before him, picking at it until she reached out, her fingers touching the top of his hand and he froze as he so often did when she made any sort of physical contact with him. "Let's go up to the room, get your ankle wrapped, and we'll see about broadening our search," she offered sensibly.

The room was tiny, but that actually seemed to help as Rumplestiltskin was able to use the sparse furniture to limp to a more seat on the rickety bed. It creaked terribly as he sat on it and he glared irritably as if he could spook it into complying with his silent wishes. Belle found herself smiling at him and set her satchel down on the mattress, pulling out an assortment of supplies, and crouching down to the floor to get a better angle for it. "I didn't know what you'd done to it, so I just told her that you'd twisted your ankle and it was swollen. Here, let me help you get the boot off-"

"No," he hissed and she pulled back instantly from the tone he used. When she dared to look up at him she saw how tense he was, already pulling the injured leg up to himself and away from her. "There's no need," he said after a moment. "I'll take care of it."

"I'm not going to hurt you, you know," Belle huffed. She waited, not rising from her place until he slowly straightened his leg back out and gave her the briefest of nods. "Thank you." She worked carefully to ease the boot off and felt him tense several times a bit more than he already was. He said nothing, though, and one glance showed his fingers gripping the edge of the bed like he meant to put a hole through it. Finally the boot slid off, as did the sock, and she rolled his pant leg up so that she could wrap the joint.

Belle paused, her eyes fixated on the terrible scarring that she hadn't expected. She'd never seen it before - why would she? - and had no idea what to expect. A bad break is what he'd called it, but this looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it and shattered it. The scars were jagged and terrible, the bones looking like they had never been set right, therefore never healed right. She must have stopped breathing, because when he spoke in a low, strained voice, she felt the breath release all at once. "Quite a spectacle, dearie, but I'd appreciate, since you were so insistent, if we could get on with it."

"What happened?" she breathed out the words, looking up and finding those dark eyes just as guarded as the gold ones were any other day.

"Life. Let's get on with it. I have better things to do than sit around this dull little town longer than we need to."

Belle nodded, reaching for the bindings and wrapping them as tightly as she dared to give him some support for their afternoon of mystery solving. When she finished, she started to roll his trousers back down into place but he reached down and caught her hand in a rare, intentional touch and it was she that froze this time. "Why don't you wait outside? I'll be along in just a moment."

She didn't dare trust herself to speak. He hadn't wanted her to see the scars and he most certainly didn't want to talk about them. She'd forced herself into a very private matter and all she could do at this point to make amends was to to give him a moment alone. So Belle nodded and stood, turning to leave without another word.


He had no idea what had come over him to allow her to see those scars. He rarely looked at them himself, though they were better hidden under the scaly skin that his curse provided to him. It caused them to fade into the back of his mind along with the pain from the old wound and the memories that it always brought. Milah, Bae, and his many, many failures. He'd failed as her husband and as his father, he'd failed as a soldier and as a human being when he'd chosen to sell his soul as his only option for saving the son that he'd lost anyway. Not for the first time, a small thought flickered into his mind and wondered what he was trying to accomplish by keeping Belle with him. He needed to turn her out, but he kept telling himself that he'd needed something precious as payment to end Maurice's silly war. He hadn't expected that she'd cause so much trouble.

Rumplestiltskin pulled in a deep breath and put his clothing back into place, easing himself up so that he could test the brace. It wasn't perfect, certainly, and it wasn't as if it would ever hold him without something to balance against, but it would make it easier to move than it had been. Belle was clever and practical and she hadn't run when she could have. He couldn't wrap his mind around it. When he'd sat down at the table to wait and listen, he'd thought there was a good chance that she wouldn't come back. Perhaps her kind soul had been appeased by getting the poor cripple to a chair so that she wouldn't leave him on the side of the road, but then she'd remember that monster that had stolen her from her family and she'd run. She'd come back, though, once again, and he couldn't quite understand why. He wasn't sure he wanted to understand why, because without that terrible, dark little voice whispering ideas into his mind - when had it become so frightening to rely on his own thoughts? - it was starting to pull away at the darkness that always cast a shadow over every part of his life and clear the way to allow her light in. That's what she was, he realized, a flicker of light in all of his darkness, and that was more frightening than anything.

No. He couldn't let himself think that way. That was not why he'd wanted her there and that was not how this would end, because that would only end badly. It only ever ended badly for him, at any rate. Cora had shown him that. He'd sworn the night that he lost Bae that he would love no one else until he found his boy and his failings in keeping that oath had ripped terribly at what was left of his soul. He couldn't even afford to think that way.

So he steeled himself before pulling the door open and limping his way towards the stairs. She was waiting at the bottom, glancing up and he thought she was trying to hide something as well. Pity, most likely, for a man that should never be pitied. His shattered ankle had been his own doing. There was no mercy from that.

"You coming?" she asked, forcing a smile.

Rumplestiltskin felt his chest tighten. "Of course," he managed, thinking that his voice sounded at least partially normal. He made his way slowly to the bottom of the stairs and she looped an arm through his.

"You said you didn't want to draw attention. This way you can lean on me if you need to, but it's not quite so obvious."

He nodded, not trusting his voice again as they made it out of the inn and tavern. Belle was chattering on about what she had thought looked like some kind of festival that was being set up for that evening in the main part of town. There were plenty of people there, both setting it up and watching it, and if they hoped to overhear anything they could do so there. Rumple didn't argue, but his attention did waver from his earlier thoughts as he could almost feel someone watching them. He couldn't shake the notion as they continued, but Belle seemed entirely unfazed by it, pointing out the different attractions as if they were a couple on a stroll through the little town.

Finally he stopped and Belle looked up at him, cut off mid-sentence and worry flooded through her expression. "Is your ankle hurting you again?"

"Never really stopped," he admitted softly, "If you don't mind, I'm going to hold off of it just a moment."

"Do you want me to stay here or would you prefer me to-"

"Yes, that'd be best," he said quickly. "I'll manage."

"You'll… call out for me… if you need me, won't you? I won't go far."

He leaned in close to her ear, speaking lowly to her. "Don't let this face fool you, dear. Magic or no magic, I'm still who I am."

"I know," she murmured, sounding a bit shaken by the reminder.

"Good. Go on now."

It hurt to watch her go. When had that become painful? He didn't want her right next to him for what he was planning, though, because he had no way to protect her. His quick and clever mind might be able to work him out of a scrape, but she'd likely be the price to pay for that. He didn't dare risk her in it.

Rumplestiltskin pulled in a breath. "You've been watching me for some time now, dearie. Can I help you with something?"

The young man that he was referring to snorted, taking a confident step forward. "I almost didn't recognize you, Dark One."

"That's interesting, because I certainly don't recognize you." He gave a casual shrug. "Usually if people try to take a swing at me, I at least know the face. Especially if they get close. Just who are you?"

He was tall and lean, with shortly cropped hair and dark skin and eyes. He was well dressed, but perhaps not quite a nobleman. Certainly from a well respected family. Military, perhaps, from a nearby kingdom, though he didn't wear a uniform. This was a personal call then. He offered a thin smile that was anything but friendly. "I'll make sure you remember just who I am," he growled out. "Now come on."

Rumple snorted. "Excuse me? You think I'm coming with you? And why would I do that?"

"Because if you don't, my brother is going to bury an arrow in that pretty thing you had on your arm just a few minutes ago, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say the Dark One might be working through some feelings for her."

The world stopped suddenly and he turned to look at Belle, happily oblivious to the danger. She was chatting with a girl about her age that was helping to set up the festivities and looked to be asking her about the village. He followed the man's line of sight up to a roof where another man stood with a hood covering his face and a bow ready in his hands.

"Very well," Rumplestiltskin found himself saying. He couldn't fight these men off from where he stood and Belle wasn't a price he was willing to pay, so he felt the man grab ahold of his cloak and tug him along roughly, his ankle giving every few steps that he was pulled.


TBC