This is going to be part of a series, I do hope. There are some .gifs for it over on my tumblr, which is wondertwinc. Also, this was a word prompt fill for 'magic, fire, water & sabotage'.


is it worth the wait

The door to his home is open. Another thief, he believes, but he hesitates when he sees a glimpse of a familiar face just beyond the open door. She doesn't even really look at him.

"Henry told me you'd be here," she states quietly. Her voice carries, however, and it sounds just as it did before all those years ago in the halls of the Dark Castle.

He opens the door a little more, taking a single step inside. "Belle?"

The look on her face is bittersweet as she fingers some of the trinkets sitting in a chair. "Isobel here. Not Belle."

It is only then that she looks up at him and he can see the exhaustion in her eyes. He is too far away to see much, standing just inside the doorway, but Mr. Gold almost believes he can make out the lines of a dozen scars lining her shoulders in a gruesome design. Her hair is a golden blonde, not the same auburn he has grown to dream of. Her eyes, while blue, are darker than before and she does not smile.

He doesn't even shut the door behind himself as he walks into his home, turning the corner instead of going straight. Looking at her hurts, and so he can't. He is only a few steps around the corner when he hears her behind him, her steps quiet in comparison to the constant tapping of his cane.

"You can't just walk away," she states, rounding around some things. He doesn't pause, doesn't hesitate, but there is a flash of another place and another time when she walked away and left him standing in the dungeon.

Somewhere behind him she stops. "Rumpelstiltskin, you will look at me," her voice crackles like fire and he stops.

Names are power and he feels it rush down his spine like a bucket of cold water. It's a shock to the system and his hand grips his cane so hard that his leather gloves protest.

"You're mistaken, dear. I am Mr. Gold-"

Her laugh cuts him off, skitters across his skin like magic and wraps around his heart.

"You are Rumpelstiltskin no matter which world we are in. You are the Dark One," her voice grows quiet for a moment and her next words are barely above a whisper but just as strong as steel, "and you are the man that I love."

Belle, because that is who she is at the core of all things, wields her words as one would a dagger. She stabs directly into the heart of the matter and twists until even their breathing is silent. He shook her. He shook her and screamed at her and threw her out like trash. Rumpelstiltskin forsook her to protect himself and now she is here staring at his back and proclaiming her love as if all of those things didn't happen.

Mr. Gold turns to look at her, just over his shoulder, but it is more than enough. She can see the emotions reflecting in his eyes and she stakes a step forward with her head held so very high and her blue eyes burning.

"And you love me, you selfish, stupid, ignorant man. You love me and even now you're too much of a coward to say it," her words cut and bruise, as she well intends.

Rumpelstiltskin would snarl at the accusation and toss it aside. Mr. Gold grins to show off his teeth and feels a deep ache in his knee. "My dear-"

"I swear to god Rumpelstiltskin if you deny it I will cut your bloody heart out," she snarls and there is something so very vicious about her words. He has a feeling that somewhere in the past those very words were used against her. He wonders if she has scars from it all.

There is a stand-off in the living room of his home and magic thickens the air and it's not entirely his own doing. His beauty has learned a thing or two in her absence and when he pairs it with the hollow shadows that line her face he has no choice but to back down. She could do him in with a single word and she very well knows it.

This time the grin on his face carries no malice, only pain. "Would you like a seat, dear?"

Belle shakes her head as she steps closer, winding her away around the many objects that litter his home. Overflow from the pawnshop, of course, but she doesn't seem to take notice of any of them. She is staring right at him and his eyes can find no purchase other than her face. Her hand is cool against his burning skin and he leans into the touch, exhaling.

"Say it."

This close he can count the differences with ease. Some he noticed before, like her hair and her eyes, but now he can see more than the obvious. He can see the faint pale line running along the right side of her jaw to disappear just behind her ear. There are shadows under her eyes, so soft he barely notices them. He inhales and her hand presses hard to his skin, bringing his eyes back to hers.

"Rumpelstiltskin."

She has scars on her wrist, barely concealed by the bracelet she wears. It looks as though something has dug into her skin over and over until there was really no skin there to be spoken of.

His words come out choked. "If you already know, dearie, then why-"

There is a mirror behind her, propped up against the wall. It catches his eye and in it he sees her reflection, and in her reflection he sees ruin.

"Because love by omission is not love, it is cowardice."

He sees ruin on her back in a map of scars and burns and damage that is so faint in color it's hard to see. There is magic in the wounds, hiding them from sight and he knows it was Regina and she will burn for it.

"Belle-"

"So help me if you don't-"

Her words are swallowed by his lips and she doesn't seem to mind as her hand moves to tangle in the hair at the base of his neck. This is nothing like the kisses he has dreamed of. It is just as soft as their first, but it is so heavy that it threatens to swallow them both.

It ends with a sigh.

Belle is looking at him and the kiss has done nothing to fix this. He has kissed her before and tossed her out like garbage and she believes it could happen again. He believed that loving her in silence was a favor to them both, but he sees better now when his judgment is not clouded by thoughts of sabotage.

She opens her mouth and he shakes his head. It's now or never and losing his resolve at this point in the game is not an option anymore.

"I want to love you, Belle. I want to-"

"Then love me."

His cane clatters to the floor as his fingers knot in her hair and their lips collide.

Belle is his only option, and he just has to reach out and take it.