Another one! This is a bit shorter, but complete. I think.
Disclaimer ; These stories are the result of me being awake at 1:00 am and as such I don't earn any money from them (or any thing else, really). Once Upon a Time does not belong to me. Pity.
Rating ; K+
Words ; 620
XxXxXxX
He really spends too much time on that wheel, Belle muses to herself.
She is dusting some of Rumpelstiltskin's collection in the Great Hall. The trinkets and baubles are fascinating, especially to a nature as naturally curious and adventurous as her own. She has often wondered about the stories behind each piece, and how each came to be a part of a collection that is the result of three centuries of deal making. But she has studied the collection before, and now the same curiosity leads her thoughts to the man ( for she refuses to believe he is anything else) who sits at the spinning wheel in the corner, both his skin and the gold he spins glimmering in the light from the now-open window, forever at the task of spinning gold that has no value to him whatsoever.
To forget, he had said.
Yet he refuses to tell her what exactly it is that he doesn't want to remember. What memory could be so painful that he has spun gold enough for twenty lifetimes just to keep it from his mind?
In her life before the Dark Castle, she has heard a million stories of the Dark One. It is said that he steals babes in the night, kills without remorse, feasts on human flesh. And he certainly does not regret any past actions.
In her time here (has it really only been a few months?), she has seen more sides of him than he has shown to anyone in a long time. She knows, now, that these stories are just that; tales woven by people to warn away from something they do not understand,( she didn't exactly believe the tales, even before, but now she is sure).
She is getting off-track, she realizes, as she replaces a vase on a pedestal, and sneaks a quick look at him as he works. He either doesn't notice, or chooses to ignore her. She doesn't really mind. While she loves their conversations, at the moment she wishes to concentrate on the puzzle she is trying to solve.
Where was she? Oh yes, regrets. He must regret something, to want to forget it. She can see how the wheel might help; she herself loves the soft, rhythmatic, almost hypnotic sound that often lulls her to sleep. She wants to know what it is that he regrets so, and is startled to realize that it isn't merely curiosity. She wants to know so that she can...comfort him? No-one else, all across the vast realms, she knows, would feel the same. Her Papa would think her crazy, were he to know what she is thinking at this moment But even as the doubt rises in her mind, she knows her earlier thought to be true. Strange and odd she might be, but she cares for the Dark One (no, for Rumpelstiltskin), and if the time ever comes that he should trust her enough to tell his tale, she will do everything in her power to comfort him.
That is a promise.
XxXxXxX
OK, what is it with you guys and reviews? How long does it take to write a review anyway?
Hate it? Then say so. Like it? A little praise wouldn't hurt. Somewhere in between? A word or two would still help.
Thank you,
D.O.
