Fandom: Once Upon a Time

Pairings: RumBelle

Summary: Once Upon a Time a curious mermaid makes a deal with the Dark One to save her kingdom of Atlantis. But as she learns to live on land, she also learns to love Rumpelstiltskin, even though her heart is still in the ocean.

I know the last thing I need right now is to start a new series, but I could not help it. So this AU was inspired by midstorm on tumblr, and she is amazing. Please go check her out.

Without further ado, please enjoy the first installment of The Mermaid Deal.

Belle knew that what she was doing was against all the rules that her land and people had. As she swam to the surface and her hair arose out of the water for only the second time in her life, a large part of her mind screamed that she should get back down and go home to their underwater palace. Sure, it wasn't great there right now, but it certainly wasn't as bad enough for her to go against all the rules that her country and people came up with.

Yet Belle knew the real truth, that life down there wasn't as it appeared, that they were suffering enough from the wars with the other sea creatures and the people were suffering. She had snuck out herself and gone down to the hospitals and watched as people came in suffering from war wounds, diseases, and famine. It was too much for her to deal with, she had come up with a plan instead that would help everyone.

Long ago in stories that were much older than herself, and even her family, there was the story of a man, who was more described as a beast. Still though, this beast could grant any wish, do anything with magic, as long as you could offer him something that he wanted. Belle had read that in some cases there were even stories of him taking the first born child.

She put a hand on her belly when that thought entered her mind, Belle had always desired kin, but if that was what it took then that was what it took. She would not hesitate to give anything for her people. The old tomes had depicted this beast with a thirst for blood who sometimes took without even giving back, and she hoped that this time he would be more in a giving mood than a taking one.

The stars were bright that night, on an ocean where no ships sailed. Belle looked out cautiously for any boats, but she saw none. She knew well how to dodge boats, but the sailors on them were anything but kind, and they always seemed to have some weird fascination for mermaids like her. The only boat that did worry her was a red boat with white sail, but she hadn't seen that boat in years, and she doubted that she would see it again.

Shaking her head, Belle dipped down in again into the water as she took off, looking for the certain rocks that when she would be daring and come out like this in the middle of the night, she would go and rest and read under. Tonight, those rocks would be the place where Belle asked for him.

In all her books, it said that she would have to just say his name three times, and then hopefully he would appear. His name was long and complicated, but she had no worries about being able to pronounce it. Rumpelstiltskin was his name, though her thoughts were lazy, and in her mind Belle had taken to calling him Rum. She hoped that in his presence it wouldn't slip and make him mad.

The rocks appear in the distance, and Belle smiled. Despite how long it had been since she had traveled to the surface world, how long she was away, those were always going to be her rocks, and that was always going to be her spot to read and visit. Not even her beloved father had visited there, and why would he? He was the one who put the ban on going to the surface, placing it there many years ago when Belle was still little.

She hauled herself up on the rocks, climbing up and shaking off droplets of water as she moved and got to the tallest rock, her favorite place. It was the most visible spot to see during the day, but at night her rocks were almost invisible, unseen to the sailors that had a knack for crashing into them. Belle smiled slightly as she finally made it to the top and pulled out of her bag, her books, her few precious items, and a shiny rock that she had found on the bottom of the sea floor as she was on her way here. It had been too pretty for her to pass up. She had hoped to make a necklace or earrings out of it.

Her book, which one of the surface dwellers would think would be destroyed by the water, was perfectly intact. The water didn't have an effect on the pages at all, instead the water simply rolled off the pages and cover as if it was covered in something to protect it. When Belle had asked her father all those years ago why the books were like that, when the surface dwellers couldn't bring books, he had said that long ago a magician had come and placed a spell on the books so that they wouldn't get ruined by the water. Whoever that magician was, Belle was thankful for him.

Belle took a couple moments to relax, to stare at the stars and play with her stone and read a couple of her favorite pages from the book. Her favorite story was one where Rumpelstiltskin would turn straw into gold for a poor girl in return for her jewelry, and finally for her first born child. It was her favorite story because it was the only one that put Rumpelstiltskin in a somewhat good light. To Belle, it was the only story where the other person had what was coming to her. Belle thought that the woman in the story was too cocky, and almost demanded Rumpelstiltskin to do those things for her, instead of asking like what Belle was going to do.

When her story was all read and done, Belle still didn't call out his name. Instead she started a game, she took her stone that she had found and threw it back into the water. Then she would dive down, and try to catch it before it hit the bottom. Belle did this for a while until during one throw she lost sight of her stone and almost lost in the dark, and had an internal panic attack at losing her stone.

Finally when she calmed down from her panic attack and couldn't think of anything else to do, she flipped her book open to the page where it first spoke of Rumpelstiltskin. With one final deep breathe she called out three times, the name of a beast who could either save her life or leave her to her own problems.

"Rumpelstiltskin."

Please let me know what you think about it so far! I would love to hear your thoughts about it.