Rumpelstiltskin had been sleeping rough. He hadn't had an easy time of it after leaving Storybrooke. Belle had banished him with nothing but the clothes on his back and the cash in his pockets. It had been enough to live on so far, if he didn't pay to sleep anywhere. It bought him a toothbrush. A cane much less impressive than the one he'd left behind. Food, though he had next to no appetite for it. It wouldn't last him much longer. He was dirty, cold, helpless and hopeless in a world where he held no power and nobody knew his reputation. He had a vague idea forming of what he should do next, but no idea how to go about it or if it had any chance of working. He had run the gauntlet of emotions after he had been forced over the town line by the woman that he loved. Fear was the most immediate in that moment, of course. He hadn't thought she'd really do it. Not after all they had already made it through. Not with the kind of person that she was. It was the moment she choked out "I know" that he realized she meant it. That was when the fear started rolling through him. No amount of begging was going to change her mind in those last seconds, but he tried. He had stayed crumpled on the ground for a very long time. It had felt like hours but likely wasn't. He hated that he couldn't see back across the line. He knew she could see and hear him, but she was lost to him there. He liked to think that she had left after he had crossed...that she hadn't stayed and listened to him continue to beg and plead and cry onto the cold, hard road.
Now when the days ended and the road sounds had died down, he replayed those minutes over in his mind. He imagined how it could have been and if there were anything he could have tried to change her mind. It always resulted in restless dreams or nightmares about his past, fears for his future and insane scenarios where impossible dangers threatened himself or Belle. He expected no different this night as he marched his way back a few yards into the woods that lined the road. Leaning his cane against a stump, he sat with his back against a large tree, bad leg out in front of him with the other bent. He took a deep breath of cold air and closed his eyes, beginning his nightly ritual of mentally tracing the lines of his wife's face. He momentarily forgot the cold...
Rumple stared up at the stars, challenging his mind to pick out those which would make the outline of the face he loved so much. It was easy. He could pick her face out of anything if he tried. He could imagine her voice. Her scent. The touch of her hand on his knee or her arm looped casually through his.
"Hey" said a voice softly, from behind his tree.
He held his breath. Counted to five. He had been thinking of her. That was all.
"Rumple?" Footsteps in the leaves came around from behind him. His heart jumped into his throat as she stepped out in front of him. She wore the same coat she had worn that night two weeks before, but underneath was a black blouse and houndstooth skirt, black tights and red shoes. Her dark hair was down and loose, framing her beautiful face in the moonlight under the trees.
He couldn't do anything but stare. He was frozen in place, not daring to believe. "Belle?" His voice was a whisper, almost a whimper.
She looked down at him and nodded, "I found you...I've been looking everywhere." She knelt in front of him, smiling gently.
He shook his head a little to clear it "But the town line, Belle...why...what is this?" He wanted desperately to reach out, touch her hair and hold her. But he just stared at her.
"Rumple, I was wrong. I was upset with you. What you did and tried to do was evil, but the beast is not all there is in you. I see the good man, and I want that good man back." She leaned forward and placed her hand on his bent knee. "I need that man back" Her blue eyes were overly bright with the beginnings of tears. "I've been so worried. Anything could have happened to you, and it would have been my fault..." She turned slightly away from him to hide her face.
Her touch sent warmth through his leg and into the rest of him. She wanted him back. She had been wrong. She needed him. Yes, he had done bad things, but she was taking him back. It didn't matter how she had found him. It didn't matter that she had left Storybrooke. The anger and resentment he had buried beneath his hurt and lonliness melted away as a tear made its way down Belle's cheek. She wanted him back, and he wanted to go with her. The rest didn't matter. "I'm here, Belle." He reached out and covered her hand in his, using his other to wipe away her tear. "You don't have to worry." He turned her face back toward him gently with his fingertips and looked into her eyes. There was something else in them now, aside from guilt and relief. They searched his face and came to rest on his mouth for a moment before snapping back to his eyes. "Belle?"
"Rumple..." There was something in her voice and the way her lips parted slightly as she gazed at his that turned the warmth inside him into a burn.
He swallowed hard as he slid the hand on her chin back behind her neck, his fingers in her soft hair. It was cold outside. They were in the elements. He had questions...but he couldn't remember them. All he could think of was the feel of her hand on his knee and the warm softness of her hair as he gently pulled her closer. She offered no resistance. Instead, she moved in closer and pushed his bent knee to the side so she knelt between his legs before closing the distance between them with a soft kiss. She paused for a moment, lips barely apart from his, and held his face in her hands. "I missed you" she breathed.
"I'm here" he reassured her again before pulling her in for a deeper kiss. He felt her relax into him even as his own heartrate quickened. Now that she was here, now that he had her in his arms again, he couldn't let her go. His fingers tangled in her hair as his other hand moved to her waist. Their teeth clacked together and Belle's hands linked behind his neck as he kissed her hard, as though he wanted to devour her. His tongue explored, tasting her, running across the roof of her mouth as she softly groaned at the sensation. The hand at her waist slid up between coat and blouse, his thumb finding the lower edge of her bra through the thin fabric. Belle broke away from his desperate kiss to breathe, resting her forhead against his, eyes closed, her hot breath intermingled with his own. He watched her face intently as he moved his left hand back down to her waist and then up the front of her, softly cupping her breast before sliding up to her neck and the top button of her blouse. He removed his other hand from her hair and began unbuttoning her top. He got through three buttons before Belle leaned back and shrugged off her coat and helped him to unbotton. She was beautiful there, settled between his legs, leaning back slightly, blouse open exposing the black bra beneath, moonlight shining off of her skin. He admired her for a moment before reaching forward and grabbing her by the waist, pulling her back toward him and sealing their mouths together again. She gasped as he bit her lower lip. He dragged the blouse slowly back and down her arms but stopped before removing it completely. Her bra was one that clipped in the front, and she whimpered into his mouth when he hesitated, fingers hovering above the clasp. The sound and vibration sent a jolt through his body that settled in his groin. He unclipped the bra and pushed it back and down her arms to join her blouse. "Oh, Belle..." He whispered, cupping a breast in each hand and running his thumb over her left nipple. Her head fell back with a little moan.
With surprising strength for his appearance, he shifted Belle over so that she straddled the thigh of his good leg, her knee just touching the crotch of his trousers. She settled herself more comfortably, grinned, and leaned forward. Instead of his lips, she went for his cheek. She left a trail of kisses down to his jaw line and then up to his ear. When she gave him a playful nip on the earlobe, he pinched the nipples he had been gently massaging between his fingers. She gave a soft cry and ground against his thigh, her knee nudging the bulge in his pants. He growled and moved a hand from her breast to her leg, where he moved it slowly inward, up and under her skirt. Rumple found himself frustrated by the tights she wore. He paused only a moment to consider the cost of the clothing before bringing his other hand down to tear a hole in them. Belle giggled, but it turned into a moan as Rumple fingered her through her underwear. He couldn't see, but he was willing to bet the fabric was black. Always coordinated, his Belle was. He smiled as her breathing hitched and she involuntarily rocked against his thigh. He was enjoying just watching her, feeling her respond to his attention, but his own need was growing and his trousers were feeling uncomfortably tight.
"Rumple..." she whispered, "let me touch you. I need to touch you..."
She could have easily shrugged out of the bits of blouse and bra that held her hands behind her, but he knew she hadn't for his sake. She knew what he liked. But he was also feeling the desire for touch...for her hands on him. He nodded wordlessly and trailed wet kisses over her shoulder as she pulled her arms free. Immediately, she grabbed his face and nearly stole the breath out of him with a hard, deep kiss which she ended by sucking his tongue into her own mouth. It was his turn to gasp then as she slithered a hand down his chest, pausing only a moment to graze her nails over his nipple through his shirt before hooking her fingers into his belt. He continued his attentions to her while she rocked against him, his unoccupied hand digging into the flesh of her hip. Her cheeks were highly colored now as she fondled him through his trousers, dragging her nails against his straining erection through the thick fabric. She leaned forward with one hand tangled in his hair, her head against his collarbone, other hand working on him thoroughly through his pants. She was trembling against him, making small noises that were muffled in his shirt. "My beautiful Belle..." he breathed into her hair as she cried her orgasm into his chest and her hand worked him feverishly through his clothes as her climax shook her.
Raggedly, she shuddered his name, "Rumple..." and looked up at him shakily, her eyes dark with sated desire, and it was enough to push him over the edge.
He had held off as long as he could. Even through layers of clothing, it had been difficult to do, but he had been determined that she be first. The look in her eyes, the hand on him squeezing and pulling and rubbing, his name falling shakily from her wet, red lips... he clenched his teeth, holding on to the hand that she had in his hair. His brown eyes bored into her blue ones as he bucked into her hand. "My..." his orgasm tore through him like a lightening strike and he tightened his hand on hers as she bit her lip "...beautiful..." lightening struck again, making his eyes roll back and he couldn't help closing them while he rode out the rest of his release "...Belle" he sighed as he lazily opened his eyes long moments later.
"Belle...?" He had opened his eyes to darkness. To the quiet of the forest. To the chill of a cold night alone in the woods with his own hands in his hair and resting on a damp stain at his crotch. Slowly, his brain caught up as his body cooled down. He pulled his hand from his hair and fell ungracefully to the side, away from the tree. "Belle!" he called out. Nobody answered, and he dragged himself to his hands and knees, looking frantically through the trees, squinting to try and make out any sign of her. "No. No, no, no...NO! BELLE!" He shouted into the wind and collapsed into the carpet of dead leaves and pine needles. He rolled onto his back and stared through the branches toward the stars, feeling tears prickle in his eyes as he saught out her face in the sky. "My beautiful Belle..." His voice broke on her name. For a brief moment he was happy. He'd had his Belle. She had been there with him, had forgiven him and had wanted him back. And now...now all he had was the silence of the woods and a wet stain on his trousers.