A/N: Ah man. They had to give us the episode that gives the fandom the most feels right before Finals Week. Luckily, I'm all done as of today! So let's celebrate with a new chapter, eh? I seriously don't know where this stroke of ambition is coming from, but I am rolling with it. Hope you all are too. Thanks so, SO much for all the love already. I really do appreciate it. Makes me wanna keep writing!
Chapter Three
Your mouth is poison.
Word of Zelena's demise traveled quickly through Storybrooke after Emma and Regina came to pay Rumplestiltskin a visit after finding the cell in the sheriff's station empty. It was only hours after Belle had left, and he was laying prostrate on his bed, clothes wrinkled and heart shattered. The knock on the door was the last shred of reality he was hanging onto.
Emma knew immediately that something had gone awry, and when Rumple peered at the Savior as he swung the door open, he only gave a ragged sigh.
His gaze shifted to Regina, and he couldn't place her reaction as upset or relieved.
Instead of trying to decipher it, he averts his eyes to the ground, to his shined shoes, and sighs once more.
"If you're here to inquire about Zelena and absolutely tear me apart, I'm afraid there's not much more damage that can be done to me," he offers.
"Belle?" Emma guesses, a little stunned by his openness.
He gives a sad smile.
"She's my conscience."
Regina grits her teeth and says, "I don't agree with what you've done. At all. She was the most wicked being we have ever come in contact with, but she was still my sister. However, I understand your reasons."
He's taken aback by how forgiving she's being, and it almost upsets him.
"Trying to be the hero still, Regina?" he chides.
But Regina and Emma both see the pain in his eyes. Regina has seen that look in the mirror—that same conflicted, sorrowed face that feels that all hope is lost. She understands the willingness to do anything for a child.
"Tell us what happened," Regina states.
So he explains the events with Zelena—being sure to leave out any mention of a proposal—and is barely able to make it through every gory detail without heaving.
It's three days later when Ruby notices that something about Belle is off. She noticed the first time when she came into Granny's the day after the announcement of Zelena's death was made, and she sat by herself in a corner, a book unopened on the table. She would see Rumplestiltskin come in usually about an hour after Belle had left, a similarly sullen look on his face. Nothing added up—why weren't they there together?
Ruby's just getting off her shift as Belle is half-way through a hamburger, and she almost seems to be gazing wistfully at the burger, as if there's some sort of treasured memory hidden within it. Ruby takes the liberty of sitting down across the table from her friend.
Belle breaks her stare with the burger at the sound of a chair screeching against the tile floor and encounters Ruby's inquisitive face.
Ruby wastes no time asking all the questions that Belle doesn't want to answer.
"What's been up with you the past few days? You've been awfully quiet."
Much as she wants to lie, the words come pouring out of Belle before she can even stop them. Keeping what had transpired bottled up even for a matter of days was nearly impossible. The dam broke, and Belle tearfully began to explain.
Belle doesn't lead with the proposal. She starts by telling Ruby everything that happened after that. It's only when she's emotionally spent, tears clinging to her cheeks and letting go to fall onto the table in front of her, and some patrons are not-so-surreptitiously glancing over at her and Ruby and whispering, that she closes her eyes, seals the world out, and barely chokes out:
"The most damning part of all this is that just hours earlier, he proposed."
Ruby sputters out the coffee she's sipping and starts hacking. There's a burning in her lungs, and she can't tell if it's from the coffee or from the fact that her heart is breaking for Belle.
"Oh, Belle," Ruby offers, reaching her hands across the table to grip onto her friend's. "I am so, so sorry."
Belle just shakes her head and stares out the window, a self-deprecating smile on her face.
"It's fine." She's playing it off, and Ruby knows it, wants to yell, Bullshit, its fine, but she's going to let Belle grieve in her own way for right now.
"So what now?"
Belle lurches just a bit as she responds, the memory and that unshakable optimism and hope within her trying to take hold, and she just. cannot. let it.
"I told him to fight for me. We'll see if he does."
Ruby's heart lifts just a bit at that. She's the love of his bloody life. Surely they would find a way to work it out? As weird as Ruby thought the relationship to be at first, Belle and Rumple were unusually cute together. And Ruby saw the way that he looked at Belle when she wasn't paying attention—like she had hung the moon and stars and was a radiant jewel to always be treasured. Despite how much he was failing her now, she wanted to have hope for the both of them.
Ruby gives Belle's hands a squeeze before pulling them both to their feet.
"What do you say you, me, and Mary Margaret go have a little girls' night? The two of us were going to go out for a drink, but I think tonight calls for some ice cream and chick flicks."
Belle just gives her a grateful smile and follows her out.
He's gone a week without her now, and he's quite sure that he's losing his mind. She had left her mark on the pink house while he had been away for the past year. He washed the sheets almost every day now, but every time, the scent of her perfume still lingered just a little bit.
She's left several books behind, and there are items in his refrigerator that only she would have purchased—a gallon jug of iced tea, so much ice cream in his freezer (it was her favorite modern world treat), and all sorts of other confections that tempted her insatiable sweet tooth.
He hoped that meant she wouldn't be gone forever. That she had left things behind were a sign from her that this was temporary. Either that, or she was in such a rush to leave him and despised him so greatly that she had cared to take only necessities.
But regardless, the only way she was ever going to come back was for him to win her heart all over again. And he wasn't quite sure how.
Which was how he ended up in front of the Charming family's apartment complex and was soon knocking on the door, which opened to a shell-shocked Mary Margaret, clutching her newborn son tightly to her chest. She's grateful for her arms around her son because any freedom to lunge at him for hurting Belle may have been satisfied had she been in the capacity to do so.
"Mr. Gold, I—I… is this about rent?"
He sighs and rolls his eyes. Not everything in his life is about hounding his tenets.
"No, dearie. I can assure you that of all the properties I keep, yours is very low on my list of concerns for whose rent is in on time."
She puffs her lip out and just looks confused, can't decide if that's a compliment or if he's just annoyed.
"Right," she goes with a neutral answer. "Well, how can I help you?"
"I need to speak to your husband."
It clicks a little bit for her in her head. She knows that Gold has confided in David in the past about Belle and roundabout-ly asking for dating advice. She quirks just a bit of a smile, and there's an unspoken deal happening between them. She'll go get David, and she won't say another word or prod him into telling her what this is all really about.
Mary Margaret retreats and about thirty seconds later, David is striding toward the door, a knowing look on his face as well.
"Dating advice?" The Prince asks, feigning a smug look.
Rumple just sighs and begrudgingly nods.
"Something like that."
They stroll over to Granny's for a cup of coffee, mostly in awkward silence until they get there.
It's not until they sit down that he's finally decided how he wants to start.
"I proposed to Belle."
David flashes him a genuine smile.
"Well, way to go, Don Juan! Congratulations! So what do you need? Wedding planning help?"
Rumple's lips form a thin line, and he counters, "Not exactly."
Rumple explains what happened, desperate to not get emotional in front of this man—his friend and confidant, he reluctantly admits inwardly, and suddenly David understands why Mary Margaret looked so exhausted and forlorn coming home the other night from hanging out with Ruby and Belle.
"So you need a plan to win her back? Again?" David inquires when Rumple has finished.
He grits his teeth again.
"Something like that."
David nods, and he's suddenly very pensive. And then he breaks the silence again, like he's had an idea.
"Belle deserves to be treated like a queen. You can't just give her words. You have to give her action."
Rumple sits up straighter, deep in thought, until after a few moments he quickly rises and ushers David out with him.
"I think I have my first idea."
Belle's been careful enough to avoid seeing Rumple anywhere for the week that they've been…what could she even call it? Apart? Separated? Broken up? Were they broken up?
She turns the key into the door of her apartment and as she removes it, she peers up to see bright color everywhere. Blushing pinks, deep purples, crimson reds, sunset oranges, bright sunny yellows, and so much deep, emerald green punctuating it.
There are flowers adorning what seems like every possible surface in the living room—placed all along the TV, strewn about the coffee table and cabinets, across the couch. Rose petals polka-dot the carpet. And in the middle of it all are two very guilty looking men who appear to be arranging tulips on a mirror at the start of her hallway.
Prince Charming and her Dark Prince.
In her apartment.
Arranging flowers.
Her heart softens just the smallest bit before her shock gets the best of her.
"What the bloody hell are you doing here?"
David shrinks back immediately and stutters for words while motioning to Rumplestiltskin.
Rumple's already moving toward her carefully, hands up in a sort of surrender, but before he can speak, she goes on.
"You break my heart and my trust and that's not enough for you so you break into my apartment?"
He's stunned, a little bit defeated, and so, so helpless and desperate to get her back.
"I want to fight for you, Belle. I know words aren't enough."
"So you think you can buy me back with a flower shop?" she replies sharply.
He swallows any anger he feels and focuses on being calm. Focuses on the blue eyes in front of him that he wants to look at him lovingly and not disappointed and hurt.
"No," he whispers. "You're not something that can be bought, Belle. I couldn't give you all the libraries in the world to make up for this. I couldn't put enough flowers on your walls. I couldn't take you to the most exotic places and romantic dinners and have it be close to enough for you. And I know these words now probably just sound empty and cliché, but I want you to know that I mean it. You deserve to be treated like the royalty you always were. I want to shower you with the love and affection that I haven't always gotten the chance to. So I figured I could start here."
She reluctantly goes over to a bouquet of roses that makes its home on her kitchen counter. Her curiosity gets the best of her, and she picks them up, breathing in the scent of the blood-red petals.
She gives him a pointed look, quirking her eyebrow and looking deadly serious.
"None of these are Gaston, are they?"
And for the first time in over a week, Rumple flashes a genuine smile.
"No," he replies simply.
She shows a hint of a smile before her mouth disappears behind the flowers again, no doubt trying to hide any evidence that she's just the tiniest bit charmed.
And then it hits her. Flowers. There are flowers everywhere. There's only one flower shop in Storybrooke, and—
"How did you get all these?"
Rumple sees the wheels turning as she makes the connection. He had to have gotten them all from Belle's father's shop.
"He knew. At least I think he did. He didn't ask, and I didn't say. But I didn't beat him up if that's what you're wondering. We were completely civil. It probably helped that I had Mr. Nolan there to mediate."
She purses her lips and barely smiles again.
"Well," she sighs. "I think its best that you two go now. Thank you, though."
David, who's been hiding down the hallway, listening intently but trying to stay out of sight, clutching a few daffodils, rounds the corner and smiles a bit.
Rumplestilskin just nods his head toward Belle.
"Enjoy the flowers."
She sees them out without another word.
But she doesn't ask him to give her his key to her apartment and the library.
He thinks its progress.
So does she.
A/N: Dawww. Yay for hope! Question/comment for y'all: So canonically, the time portal was opened and yada yada and they're going to deal with that in the finale. Honestly, I don't know I want to really touch that. Personally, opening the time portal and having people go back in time (or whatever they plan on doing with it in the finale), just doesn't appeal to me. I don't feel like it does anything for the storyline, and I've had enough of curses and people forgetting each other for awhile. Ya feel? It's getting a little overdone for my tastes. So if I did incorporate it, it would probably be brief, but it might add a little action here. So gimme feedback on whether or not this is something that you'd like to see or not see on your reviews please!
