One moment was confusion and longing for something that she couldn't remember. The next was realization that took her breath away.
Love. The man she loved and had tried so hard to get back to was only a few paces away. He was human. He was vulnerable. His eyes had been full of tears when he had seen her.
You're alive. All this time, he must have thought that she was dead.
Belle slowed, her chest tightening as she assured herself that this was real. "Wait."
"No, no, we're very close," he called back.
His urgency was a tiny bit unsettling, but she could figure that out later. Right now, all that mattered was that she knew, once and for all, his feelings towards her.
"Rumplestiltskin…" She watched him pause at his true name, and could have sworn she even heard his breath catch. "…wait."
He turned slowly, his lips almost forming a smile, as if he didn't quite dare to hope that he had heard her correctly. His intense gaze bored into her, so full of conflict and emotion.
Belle made her way to him, starting to smile as she realized her dream of being reunited with him was coming true. "I-I remember."
Rumplestiltskin did smile now, and it was different than the smile she remembered. It wasn't cynical or patronizing, but hopeful and full of happiness. It was…human.
She didn't hesitate to say it because she was sure it was what she wanted. Her voice faltered and stuttered, however, as the long treasured words freed themselves from her heart. "I-I love you."
His smile grew wider as tears filled his eyes. He reached for her and she met him halfway, throwing her arms around his neck as he held her tight. She could hardly believe that he had wanted to hug her, he who had always distanced himself from any sort of physical contact with her.
Belle had dreamed of being in his arms, had dreamed that he loved her, but reality was so much better. He was so warm, and his embrace, though only with one arm, was strong and protective.
Yes, I'll protect you, she remembered him saying before she even knew who he was.
"Yes," Rumplestiltskin said, pulling her out of her thoughts.
Belle smiled and felt tears sting her eyes at that one simple word: yes. A shaky laugh pushed its way out of her mouth. He knew. He knew she loved him and he didn't think it was a trick or a manipulative lie.
"Yes," he repeated, perhaps gathering how much joy she felt at the word. "And I love you too."
His voice was rough and full of emotion, unlike she had ever heard it before. She closed her eyes as she held onto him, breathing in his scent and drinking in his presence like it was water. She needed him more than she could have ever guessed, and she never wanted to let go of him again.
"But hey." Rumplestiltskin placed a hand on the side of her head and Belle pulled away to look into his earnest gaze. "There'll be time for that. There'll be time for everything. But first…" He averted his gaze only for a moment, but when he looked back at her his expression had darkened. "There's something I must do."
Belle wondered what was so important to him and so urgent that he had to do it now, when they had just been reunited after so many long years. She opened her mouth to ask him, but thought better of it and followed him instead. She noticed now what hadn't meant a thing to her before; how he had a limp and walked with a cane, how he seemed to look older as a human than he had as the Dark One, how he had a very pronounced accent.
Not that any of it mattered; it was just so different than the Rumplestiltskin she was used to. She had so many questions for him, but he seemed intent on what he was doing.
They came over a rise and a well made out of stone came into view. It was overrun by some moss in places, but otherwise its thatched top and stone base seemed to be in perfect condition. Rumplestiltskin stopped and Belle came to stand beside him.
"What is this?" she asked, settling on the question which seemed to be the most relevant.
Rumplestiltskin placed a hand on her back as he looked at the well, and his touch seemed to travel through layers of clothing and warm her very skin. He had never purposefully touched her before, never reached out to hold her like she had wanted him to.
"This is a very special place, Belle."
Belle. The first time he had said her name. She watched his hand as he removed it from her to point at the well, already longing for his touch again.
"The waters that run below are said to have the power to return that which one has lost," he continued, turning his head to look at her as he said the last phrase. In his clever smile she could see a little bit of the old Rumplestiltskin…and that worried her.
He stepped up to the raised stone ring around the well, reaching his hand into his pocket. He pulled out a small glass bottle, a glowing pink aura shining within it, and placed it on the edge of the well.
Belle stepped next to him, watching him as he pulled a stopper out of the bottle. Her mind was swimming with confusion. She had seen these bottles before in his castle: magic. But he was human now. He didn't have magic, did he? The point of the curse being in this world, she remembered the Queen gloating to her, was that it didn't have magic.
Rumplestiltskin picked up the bottle and dropped it into the well. Belle leaned her head over the edge, looking down to see the water ripple with the disturbance.
That which one has lost. Magic? Was that what he had lost?
A forceful wind blew her hair back and a pink fog, the color of the potion inside the bottle, shot up from the bottom of the well. She stepped back and Rumplesiltskin followed, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder. Belle looked down and watched the fog swirl around her. She didn't feel any different, and everything around her still looked the same.
What was it? Why was it so important?
"Wait, I don't understand," she said as she watched the mist curl into the air.
He stepped behind her and touched her back once again. "We're in a land without magic, Belle, and I'm bringing it."
The words chilled her to her core. She didn't need to look at his face to know the triumphant smile that was there. Could it be that after all this time he really hadn't changed?
Belle turned her head to look at his expression: hopeful, with a deep lust for power in his eyes. "Magic…is coming."
Hadn't he learned by now that he didn't need magic? "Why?"
"Why?" he repeated, still smiling his old smile. "Because magic…" He turned to look at her, his eyes dancing with excitement and greed. "…is power."
Belle tried to hope, she tried to tell herself that he really had changed. Magic wasn't necessarily a bad thing, not always. And though in the back of her mind she knew she was lying to herself, she put aside her worry because now that he had brought magic back, she could talk to him and ask him everything she had been wondering.
Rumplestiltskin looked down as the fog dissolved into nothing and the forest came to life with chirping and chattering of animals once more.
"My darling Belle," he said, looking over at her with a smile.
If he was trying to distract her with the endearments, it mostly worked. It took a moment for her mind to process that he had just called her my darling. Him. Rumplestiltskin. Calling her his.
Belle turned to face him, smiling. Rumplestiltskin rested his grip on her shoulder as if he didn't ever want to fully let go of her. She noticed that now, every trace of the old Rumplestiltskin was gone. He looked at her with concern, bewilderment, and love.
"You have to tell me what happened to you."
She didn't want to remember that moment when all her hope of seeing him again had been stripped away or those countless lonely nights in the Evil Queen's dungeon. "I was abducted."
His eyes softened with pity for her, though a fiery anger shone behind them too. "Regina."
Belle nodded, steeling her jaw as she dwelled on the hatred she had for the Queen for keeping them apart and, most of all, for making Rumplesiltskin think that she was dead. "She locked me away until her curse, and I've been in the asylum ever since."
"For twenty-eight years," he said in disbelief, his accent becoming more prominent as anger colored his tone.
Belle nodded again. She swallowed hard and looked down for a moment. She remembered how lonely she had been, how she had had no idea who she was and thought that her cell had been her whole life. And yet, in the same town, her true love had lived so close for all those years. It was twisted and evil, so terrible.
"All these years, you've been here," he said, pointing to the ground. "Alive," he added with a sneer.
His anger began to make her wonder, and suddenly all the missing pieces fell into place. "Is-is that why you did this, why you wanted magic? For revenge?"
"Oh, no," he said, and yet his bitter grin made her think otherwise. "But it might come in handy."
"No." She shook her head. He couldn't be the same man, the cursed Dark One with a twisted mind. He just couldn't. "No!"
"I cannot let this stand, Belle!" His accent colored his tone more and more as his voice rose in volume. "I will not let this stand!"
She had to admit, there was a tiny part of her that was pleased he was getting angry because of her imprisonment, that he was being protective. But the larger part of her knew that this wasn't who he really was, who he really could be.
"Look," she said softly, reaching for his free hand and grasping it in both of hers. She could feel his pulse drumming in his wrist, wild and angry. She looked him in the eye so that she would know if he was lying. "Promise me. Promise me you won't give into your hate, promise me that you won't kill her." As much as she hated the Evil Queen, killing her would only be stooping to her level, and Rumplestiltskin was better than that.
He looked away from her and swallowed. He didn't say anything, so she decided to try something else, something he would hopefully be more apt to agree to. He had chosen power over love last time, but maybe now he would choose differently.
"Promise me, and we can be together."
His eyes filled with tears as he whispered, "Oh..." He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, his touch sending a wonderful warmth throughout her veins. "Sweetheart."
The endearment sent her to pieces again. She never thought that she would find him again, and certainly never thought that he could want her, that he could love her.
Rumplestiltskin nodded. "I promise."
Belle smiled, overjoyed that he had chosen her over revenge. He had chosen love.
His eyes flicked to her lips. Belle felt her heart pound in her ears, her gut clench in anticipation. His face hovered closer to hers but she didn't move, waiting for him to close the distance.
His lips were warm and soft, melding to hers as they met. Belle sighed with contentment, too happy and too blissful to have any doubts cross her mind about Rumplestiltskin. She loved him, and he loved her, and that was all that mattered.
Their first kiss, though it had been slow, had felt so fast, like it had been gone in a moment. Though this kiss was more urgent, more passionate, it seemed to be suspended in time like it could last forever.
Belle closed her eyes for a moment longer after their lips were separated, wanting to live in the dream for just a second more. But when she opened her eyes and looked at Rumplestiltskin, his eyes so full of love and wonder, she knew it wasn't a dream.
He loved her. And that was enough.
Belle lowered her head to rest on his shoulder, smiling at the thought that she had dreamt of this for so long. She pressed herself closer to him to remind herself that this was real. Rumplestiltskin's arm tightened around her shoulders as if he didn't quite believe it either.
Magic and curses didn't matter. Because, as crazy and upside down as the world might have seemed right then, it was reality, and it was there that Belle had found her true love.