It's Bath Time, Dearie!
Another "Chocolate" verse tale
Sequel to the "Chocolate Effect"
If there was one thing that Belle and Rumple Gold's tiny baby girl, Carina, loved as much as chocolate, it was bath time. Rumple, knowing how sensitive a baby's skin was, had designed a bath bomb that combined essential moisturizing oils and lotions as well as sweet honey, rose, and chocolate fragrances along with minute glitter particles. When placed in a bath of warm water it fizzed, bubbled, and filled the bath with its sweet, lush, relaxing scent. Best of all, the oils anointed the baby's skin better than a handful of lotion, and soothed and sealed both scent and moisture into the delicate petal-soft complexion.
Soon bath time became the favorite time along with dinner in the Gold house, and Carina would giggle and wave her arms and legs whenever her papa announced, "It's bath time, dearie!"
Sometimes she would get so excited, several objects around her would turn into chocolate, though Rumple would always turn them back later. When she was old enough to understand, the elder magician vowed he would teach his precocious minx necessary control over her magic. But for now he and Belle would take things in stride. And be careful when they took her places other than his shop or Bae's apartment that she wore a small necklace of delicate golden links which inhibited her ability, so Belle could shop with her without worrying about leaving a trail of transformed chocolate objects behind her and making the 5 o'clock news.
Tonight, Rumple told Belle to relax with her book, she was currently reading Ivanhoe, while he gave Carina her bath. "Are you sure you don't want me to help, sweetheart?" she asked solicitously, though she was currently ensconced upon the sofa with her feet tucked under a soft caramel mocha colored afghan he had knitted for her out of mohair. A cup of her favorite chocolate mint tea was at her elbow and a plate of Godiva chocolate cookies also. Thus fortified, she prepared to dive back into the world of disinherited knights and mysterious forbidden romance between Ivanhoe and Rebecca of York.
"No, Belle. You just relax and let me give the little imp her bath," Rumple assured her, a smile of utter and unconditional love stealing over his lean handsome features. At least Belle thought them handsome. Rumple, on the other hand, thought himself only ordinary. He approached the swing where Carina was swaying back and forth like Rock-a-bye Baby, and picked her up crooning in his irresistible velvet-soft voice, "It's bath time, dearie!"
Carina squealed in delight and waved her arms, her eyes, which were still that smoke-blue shade, crinkling. A smile appeared on her cherub face and as Rumple held her against his shoulder, the baby happily drooled all over him.
Belle peered over the top of her book and waved. "Have fun!"
"Oh we will, won't we?" Rumple cooed to his daughter, and carried her into the bathroom.
He placed a thick terry towel down on the counter, waved a hand and the bath water began running. Then he began to sing as he undressed the baby, tickling her and blowing kisses and raspberries upon her tummy.
"Oh Carina! You've come to steal my heart away, Carina!" He was singing the song which bore the same name as his daughter's and had been sung by Sophia Loren in the famous romantic comedy with Clark Gable called "It Started in Naples", which he and Belle had watched again last night.
Laughter bubbled from his three month old daughter as her papa played and sang to her and made ridiculous faces at her. The soft beige and gold tiles grew steamy from the warmth of the water, as the oval shaped tub filled with water.
Carina grabbed her papa's nose and giggled insanely.
"Oh no!" Gold cried in pretend dismay, covering his nose with a hand. "You've got my nose! What'll I do?"
His daughter smirked just like a certain imp long ago.
"Now I baf to talk like dis!" Rumple cried, imitating what he would sound like with a head cold. "But—all madik comes wid a price, dearie!"
Then he lowered his head and playfully nibbled and blew raspberries on her tummy, causing her to giggle hysterically.
When her flailing hand grasped his nose again he laughed and said, "All better! Now how do you like those apples?"
In the living room, Belle smiled as she read, thinking that listening to her husband and daughter with their nighttime bath ritual was even more entertaining than Ivanhoe and Rebecca falling in love.
Gold carefully removed the infant's diaper, and wrapped her up in a soft cloth, because once he had forgotten and ended up getting christened when the baby peed on him . . .and his Ralph Lauren silk pajamas.
He snapped his fingers and the bath bomb, called a "Dearie bomb" by Belle, plopped into the water and began fizzing.
Gold carefully trod over the thick bath mat, which was a cream color, his baby securely held in one arm, the other leaning on his cane. He knelt and pulled Carina's huge pink bath sponge to him. The bath sponge was large enough to hold the baby and had an indentation for her to be placed in and holes for her feet.
Soon a delectable sweet aroma filled the bathroom and Rumple carefully placed the baby into the sponge seat, which was designed to hold her in the water. Carina kicked her feet and splashed her papa as he gently washed her hair and body with a microfiber cloth with his tearless baby soap.
Once that was done, they were free to play, and Rumple pretended to be stricken when the baby splashed him, covering his face with his hands and wailing, "Oh nooo . . .I'm me-e-lting . . .!" and sinking below the tub onto the fuzzy mat for a moment.
Carina squealed and splashed.
Rumple popped up a few seconds later, giggling, only the giggle was not like the high pitched one of his former Dark One persona, but deeper and lower, and filled with honest amusement. He dabbled his fingers in the bath water and sang as he playfully splashed his baby girl, "Oh do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, oh do you know the muffin man, that lives on Drury Lane?"
As he sang, he made the frothy bubbles become muffins that danced along the surface of the water in front of the sponge, and Carina screeched excitedly and tried to grab them with her pudgy fingers, her eyes sparkling just like her papa's.
The "muffins" vanished with a pop—then Rumple sang about Mary Quite Contrary and her garden. "How does your garden grow?" he asked in a high squeaky voice. "With silver bells and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row."
As before, his magic transformed the bubbles into colorful shapes—of silver bells, cockle shells, and pretty maids—that bore a strong resemblance to Belle, all in a row.
At each thing he conjured, the baby would scream in delight and splash like crazy, so that now her papa was very wet . . .his fine linen Armani suit soaked as if he'd been caught in the rain, and water droplets dripped down his face and were caught in his hair.
Neither of them seemed to mind in the slightest.
Belle could barely concentrate on her book because of the mirthful shrieks coming from the bathroom, and finally she set it down and rose, coming to stand in the doorway to see just what was going on in the bathroom. The sight that met her eyes caused her to cover her mouth with a hand, lest she disturb them with her spontaneous burst of laughter.
She knew that no one in Storybrooke would have ever believed the sight of the coldhearted Mr. Gold, the imp who made deals for a price, could ever be this carefree, fun loving, affectionate and—happy. For Rumple was truly happy as he played with his baby, his eyes crinkled up in delight and his face wore a grin that stretched from ear to ear. The happiness shone from every part of him, from the way his hair dripped water and from the relaxed pose he had sitting upon the bathmat, unmindful of the water on his clothes or the soapsuds glinting in his hair. You could hear it in his voice as well, it echoed in his soft burr, and blazed out of his expressive eyes.
Then Belle realized something. Here was a side of Rumple no one in Storybrooke had ever seen or would see, except for Moe. All of them assumed that Gold, cursed or uncursed, was a cruel coldhearted man. They didn't know—nor did they care—to see the real man that Belle, Bae, and Rhee saw here in New York. The man who would—and had—given his soul to be devoured by darkness for the love of a child. Who could take such simple delight in giving his baby a bath. Who could laugh and play like a child and take joy in just being with his infant daughter.
No one would ever know the real Mr. Gold, she thought. In a way, she pitied them. Yet in another way, she wasn't sorry at all. When he had been living in Storybrooke, people had never cared to speak to him other than to make deals or get his help with problems. No one had ever approached him to just be friendly, or to talk, or even to offer their services. They had only come when they needed something. Otherwise, they didn't want to know him. Part of that could have been because of his cursed reputation, but part of it, she thought was sheer selfishness. When he returned to move to New York, people had sneered and called him coward, treating him like dirt beneath their shoes, despite the fact that he was no longer the Dark One.
Yet when the Dark Curse had broken, and they had remembered who they once were, Gold had not sneered at them. He had not mocked Charming for being wishy-washy David Nolan, who couldn't even make up his mind about what woman he wished to have. Or meek and mild Mary Margaret Blanchard, the schoolteacher who had ruined her own reputation by having an affair with a then married man. He had simply accepted them.
Belle's hands clenched into fists abruptly. Then she forced herself to relax. What was done was done. This was, after all, why they had made the decision to leave, to start over, to have a new life without the ghosts of the past haunting them. So both of them could be proud of themselves, could have family who cared for them, and could live a life where they were happy and not continually reminded of their past failures.
Be happy, Belle. For you now have the something they never will—a husband who loves you, and a life free of strife and anxiety, without worrying about being attacked by the next power hungry crazy villain. You have a wonderful family, a beautiful baby, who you can watch grow up and become whatever she wishes, irrespective of class or social status. A home that is safe and a good job, where you owe nothing to anyone. Best of all though, is that Rumple is finally happy, with the one thing he wanted most—a loving family who accepts him for what he is.
For she realized now what no one in that insular town ever had—that they had all misjudged Rumplestiltskin. His becoming the Dark One had not been, as they all had thought, even herself at one time, for power, but to protect his only son, and his greatest wish was not for power at all, but a family who loved him and thought him worthy of being loved. But for his family he would do anything—and unlike those who promised "anything" but really didn't mean it, Rumplestiltskin meant what he said. For him his family came first, before all else, even himself.
Belle knew that there had been times when she hadn't understood or appreciated that little fact, but she did now.
She watched in unadulterated glee as Carina splashed her papa and clapped her tiny hands together, then shrieked as Rumple retaliated by tickling her as he sang Itsy Bitsy Spider. She wished she had brought her iPhone with her, but then supposed that some moments were meant to be preserved only with the imperfect lens of memory.
As if he could feel her gaze upon him, Rumple turned and asked casually, "Come to join us, dearie?"
Belle sidled up to him, then she pointed at his sopping wet clothes and hair and teased, "You look like a drowned rat, Rumple!"
"Really, dearie?" he smirked. Then he flicked a finger, a devilishly wicked sparkle in his cocoa colored eyes, and Belle found herself drenched by a tidal wave of bathwater.
"Oh! Rumplestiltskin! You—you imp!" she pretended to be angry, but as soon as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she burst out in uncontrollable laughter.
"Oh . . .oh . . ."
Rumple and Carina laughed also, as Belle dripped water onto the rug, even her shoes sopping wet, and smelling heavenly, like rainwater, honey, and cocoa.
Rumple cocked his head and chanted, "Oh dearie me, look who's all washed up!"
"Wretch!" she mock-scolded, and swatted him playfully on the back of the head.
He stuck his tongue out at her and Belle nearly forgot that there was an infant still in the bathwater and almost shoved her husband into the bathtub while assaulting him with kisses.
Just as their little game was about to escalate to more heated love play, they heard a cough behind them and Bae queried, "What in hell happened to you? You fall in?"
Rumple and Belle spun around, blushing hotly, like two teenagers caught making out by their parents.
"Hurricane Carina happened, Dad," Rhee interjected, wearing an almost identical grin to Rumple's.
Carina giggled and Bae shook his head. "No way. Papa was leaning over and he slipped. And then Mama tried to catch him and they both ended up in the tub. Right? C'mon, admit it!"
"Not telling," his father singsonged.
Bae rolled his eyes. "I'm right. I know I am. Aren't I, sweet pea?" he crooned to his baby sister.
Carina just smiled charmingly.
Rhee looked heavenward. "D-a-ad! I'm telling you, Carina splashed them and got them all wet."
"Swan may, don't be ridiculous. She's a baby. How could she do that?"
"She's got magic, that's how."
Her father snorted. "Right. Next thing you'll be telling me that there really is a man in the moon, Rhee!"
"OMG, Dad!" The small sorceress hit herself in the forehead.
Bae gave her a smug look. "The baby splashed them. You'll have to come up with something better than that to pull the wool over my eyes, Rhiannon Gold! I wasn't born yesterday. I—"
Just then a wave of water cascaded all over him as Carina splashed him, copying her papa's trick from earlier.
"What the—" Bae gasped, staring at himself in astonishment.
"Youwere saying, Bae?" Rumple sniggered.
His son just groaned while Carina giggled hysterically along with Rhee, proving that bathtime with little magical dearies was a neverending treat for the whole family.