AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, I'm watching the Disney version of Beauty & the Beast as I'm writing this, so hopefully that's a good thing! Enjoy and as always, please review. Also, If any of you are interested I just posted a short chapter of a new Rumpelstiltskin and Belle story, that you all may find quite interesting if you like the concept of a story taking place in the fairytale world where Rumpelstiltskin goes from Dark One back to…well, you'll have to read to find out. (:

GOLD ON THE CEILING

The room was small, though he'd needed nothing more than a bed, his time was spent elsewhere. In fact there where nights he would not return to the charmingly small bed and breakfast, there was a nostalgia to the place, as if the proprietor was attempting to recreate a bit of their old world within the small building. But with nostalgia was memories and with memories there was pain, and Captain Hook had not spent twenty eight long years in search of a portal to this world to drown his woes in the comfort of a deep mug in a pub.

At least, not every night.

He leaned against the bar in the diner; it seemed to function as the town's pub once the sun went down. He had a large lazy grin spread across his face as he watched Ruby poor him another glass of rum, a swarthy expression of the utmost mischievous intentions toyed with his lips. One hand pressed into the mess of black hair and staring, unwavering at his prey, his dark bedroom eyes hungrily stalking Ruby as she prepped his unnecessarily fancy rum based drink.

Ruby placed it onto the counter in front of him, the glass making a small thudding noise and she held her hand around the glass a little longer than necessary to give his gaze time to look back up at her. She was all red lips, dark eyes, and dark long hair, the Captain gave her a wolfish grin.

"You're a persistent, lass." He stated.

"Would you have noticed me otherwise?" she questioned, feigning innocence, as if any man would miss the tall leggy woman in a skirt that was so short it was just barely socially acceptable. Not even taking into account the color of the skirt, which screamed whore, but a wholesome whore, she was Red Riding Hood after all. She did have a certain bit of class, well sort of.

Hook laughed heartily, "Point taken," he took a long gulp of the drink, hand still grasping the glass he pointed a finger at her, a thought occurring to him mid gulp, he placed the glass down with a finality that let Ruby know even before she glanced down, that it was empty. "You would have made a good-"

"Pirate?" she questioned before giving him a chance to answer, he chuckled at her poignancy but continued, "No, I was going to say barmaid." He tilted his head slightly, waiting for his words to sink in and recognition dawn on Ruby's face. Her expression darkened, giving Hook a glimpse at the creature she truly was, she rolled her eyes and let the tension and anger out of her shoulders and stalked away to help a customer across the diner, giving him a sarcastic smirk as she left.

"Making Friends?" a voice deadpanned from behind him.

Hook just looked up and laughed, "Sherriff Swan," he then turned to her and placed both elbows on the counter behind him leaning back and raising his eyebrows suggestively at her. "We've got to stop meeting like this, people will start to talk."

"People already talk." She stated, un-amused.

He pushed himself off the barstool, throwing a crumpled five dollar bill onto the counter for Ruby and strode past Swan, the captain's duster flapping slightly behind him as he exited the Diner. Emma's frown, if possible, deepened as she turned on heel and followed him out.

It was a clear night, stars in the sky, shining diamond white in a sea of sapphire and cerulean, with not a cloud in the sky to blemish the beautiful scene.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Hook said, having stopped on the sidewalk to stare up at the sky, hands in the deep pockets of his overcoat.

"You're drunk." Emma said, jogging slightly down the steps from Grannies to catch up with him, arms crossed and hands rubbing the exposed flesh of her forearms. It had been warmer that day, so she hadn't worn one of her signature blue or red leather jackets.

"It reminds me of being at sea, it's a wonderful feeling.." he said, an air nostalgia hitting him like a freight train. It was in this moment Hook realized it wasn't just the Bed and Breakfast, but the entire town, it had subtle reminders of their homelands everywhere, regardless of how drunk a man made himself, he had to remember, it was most likely part of the curse, of course.

"What is?" Emma asked, walked slowing towards him, beginning to shiver slightly and wishing he hadn't decided to leave the Diner.

"The feeling and adventure of uncertainty, of adventure and the winds," at that word he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply as the air around him turned to wind and caressed his face and hair, the autumn air whipping about them ever so slightly then dissipating again. "…the winds that could take you anywhere, the freedom, Emma." He turned around to face her, she was only a few feet from him, eyebrows furrowed and shaking, he stared at her unmoving, waiting for a response he knew was coming.

"Yeah, I think I know a little about that."

A smile slowly curved Hook's lips, but it wasn't a swarthy or playful smile he usually wore, but a small one, almost warm? He took the short strides to Emma and rolled his shoulders back and slid off his coat, sweeping it around her shoulders.

Emma's eyebrows popped up in surprise and she let one hand grasp a lapel of the old heavy coat, her mouth hanging open just for a moment, she regained her composure after a moment and responded in barely concealed disbelief, "So now you're going to be a gentleman?"

"I'm always a gentleman." He countered as he leaned in, pulling the lapels closer to her neck, as to combat any cold air against Emma, he lingered for a moment as Ruby had done to him earlier in the bar. His nose almost touching Emma's as she stood, once more surprised into baffling silence by the continually unpredictable pirate, staring into his dark bedroom eyes. Killian Jones tilted his chin slightly and his head, his breathing just a tick faster than it had been before, Emma had a peculiar effect on him.

"But there are times…" he muttered quietly, hands still gently grasping the lapels of the coat, as he stepped closer and closed the space between him and Emma. After a moment of ragged nervous breathing Emma found her voice, "Times when, what?" she breathed in exasperated frustration, her blonde locks of hair curling over her face in the wind. Killian smiled and took one hand from the lapels he still grasped and lightly brushed the hair from her face, with delicate fingers and then let his hand rest against the side of Emma's face, letting his thumb rub absentmindedly against her flawlessly snow white skin.

"But there are times, Miss Swan…" he paused for a moment, leaning in unfathomably close now, his lips an inch from Emma's and when he spoke they grazed her lips, "when I am a scoundrel." And just for a moment did he kiss Emma.

And for a moment, Emma remembered that free feeling, the wind in her hair and then unending sky and the rise and setting of a sun and a horizon with endless possibilities.

….

The following morning Emma leaned against the kitchen counter, stuffing a slice of toast smeared with grape jelly into her mouth as she listened to the bright and cheerful banter of her roommates. Emma was in her usual laced up brown boots, jeans, plaid shirt and red leather jacket. Hook's coat was tucked safely away in the trunk of her car, as too avoid conversation on a situation she still wasn't sure if she wanted to discuss with Mary Margaret and Belle.

Belle was wearing a pair of high legged tan boots, skinny jeans, and an adorable teal sweater top that snugged all the right places of her petit curvy body. Her russet hair was in loose curls that fell down her back as she took a sip of orange juice and laughed loudly at Mary Margaret's story.

Snow White was also in jeans, but she wore a pair of fur boots and a cream colored oversized wool sweater, her short dark hair and red lips as beautiful as the day Prince Charming had broken the curse upon her.

Eventually Belle stood up grabbing her plate and attempting to grab Snow's, who refused to allow Belle to clean any dishes normally, much less her dishes as well.

"So what are you up to today, Belle?" Emma asked nonchalant as she grabbed the keys for her car as she headed to the door.

"Oh, the library as usual. Perhaps I'll go to Grannies for lunch." She smiled warmly.

"Hey, if you go to Grannies could you pick me up a hot chocolate?"

"Of course! Maybe I could just get us both something and we could have lunch together at the station." Belle considered out loud, Belle had always been considered to be very odd and back in their world did not have many true friends to call her own. Lately she had been brimming with happiness and excitement at the concept of making plans and spending time with Emma and Snow.

"Yeah, sounds good. See you around one-ish?" Emma said halfway out the door.

"At one!" Belle stated enthusiastically, Mary Margaret waved goodbye to Emma as she closed the door and began to make her way over to the sink to clean her own dishes.

"You know Belle, you can't avoid him forever. Believe me, I would know, I once tried to avoid Charming and-" Snow made a mock grimacing face as the memory always made her smile.

"He always seemed to find you?"

"Always." Snow smiled, looking up from the sink and across the room to Belle who was pulling her white pea coat off the coat hanger by the door.

"I know, it's just, I feel awful you know, for reacting the way I did. I mean I needed my own place anyway, but I just walked out on him, no explanation. I shudder to think what he may even think of me now, he must hate me." Belle finished, her blue eyes furrowed by eyebrows laden with worry.

Snow shut the sink off and walked across the room to Belle, grabbing her purse from the kitchen table and a pink scarf from the coat rack next to Belle, she placed a comforting hand on Belle's arm and simply said "True love can overcome anything, Belle."

….

The endless ringing of the bell above his door was driving him mad, he was in no mood to be in the pawn store today, Gold had half a mind to just close early and call it a day.

It had been over a week since he had seen his Belle.

Rumpelstiltskin ran a tanned and calloused hand threw his ragged mess of brown hair, tinged ever so lightly with grey. He was in a black suit, pink dress shirt, and black tie, he loosened the tie, fidgeting as his mind obsessed over Belle.

If he could just talk to her, but no, he did not deserve to talk to her, though he appeared to be curse free and human, he was not. He was still a monster, with a fetid twisted ghoulish soul that deserved no kindness, and certainly love, god, her love.

The thought of Belle nowadays was less of a heart flipping sensation and more of a heart gripping pain, an anguishing reminder of his mistakes and loss.

"Rumpelstiltskin!" a small dwarfish man yelled as he practically kicked the door open to the small establishment. He charged in like a bull with rabies.

"I want my axe!"

Rumpelstiltskin's eyes narrowed, but ever the businessman he slithered around the glass display cases and pulled up a long box from behind a case, setting it on top he opened it to display the axe.

"Of course, Dearie you can have anything you desire, for a price of course." He trilled, and there it was that dark one clause that made the gluttonous selfish desires of the dark one pry up from the crevices of his mangled soul.

"No, no price 'stiltskin, I'm just here to claim what's mine!" he growled matter of factly as he snatched up the axe and began to stroll out of the shop. The sheer gall the dwarf had, to turn his back to the dark one, made Rumpelstiltskin's rage explode.

Before Grumpy's hand was even on the door his face was slammed into the door, an impish giggle bubbled from the shop owner's lips as he held the small man against the door harshly. There was this terrifyingly abnormal strength to the normally crippled shop owner that made all of the Dwarf's courage almost shrivel up and die.

Rumpelstiltskin twisted him around and then slammed his back into the door, hands gripping the front of his shirt as he leaned in menacingly, "Fine! You want your axe?!" his teeth barred like some great growling beast. Rumpelstiltskin flicked his wrist and the axe that the dwarf in surprise had dropped from the Imp's sudden attack was now clasped firmly in one of Rumpelstiltskin's hands, he continued his enraged banter, "You can have it! . !" he raised it slightly, toying with the dwarf.

"Well?"

The dwarf was silent, staring silently in slightly quavering defeat at the face of the dark one, a victorious grin began to twist the imp's lips.

"I thought as much." Rumpelstiltskin quipped mockingly, wrinkling his nose slightly as he dropped the dwarf and stepped back, the axe was gone – no doubt magic'd back into its rightful place within the shop. Rumpelstiltskin leaned against one of the display cases, his twisted limb aching horribly from the sudden attack he'd made on the dwarf.

Grumpy exited quickly, leaving Rumpelstiltskin alone, he flipped the sign to closed and limped painfully back to his cane and into the back room in search of pain medication.

Since deciding to work with Regina and constant practicing of magic that followed, he was starting to regain a lot of his power, but at a cost. It seemed his body in this world was almost completely human, making it very difficult to practice magic for any length of time or use it for that matter. It wore him out immensely and caused his war worn limb to ache worse. His temper had been uncontrollable, though that being due to magic or the stress between him and Belle, he was not completely sure.

He was sitting at the bench next to his spinning wheel, having successfully found and taken some Advil. He cowered there in defeated, in silent reflection of his own human and beastly weakness alike. His worn, nibble fingers beginning to ply at the wheel, spinning wool and straw together, mindlessly his hands worked. Lost in his thoughts he almost did not hear the phone ring, luckily it was on the table directly behind him, so he simply turned around and picked up the receiver.

"Yes?" he asked rather tersely, having been pulled from his revere.

"Gold, this is Emma."

"Yes, I noticed."

"Then I'm sure you're aware that we need to talk." She stated.

"How is the search for Cora going?" he deflected, Emma ignored his response and continued.

"Look, I can either go down to your shop and take you into the station by force or you could just hobble down here yourself, your choice."

"What unnecessarily descriptive options you have given me, Miss Swan." He sneered into the phone, attempting to cap his anger towards her remark towards his leg, he rubbed his knee absentmindedly.

"You know I have a feeling that the image of you being pulled in for questioning in hand cuffs in front of the entire town is not exactly something you'd want, am I right?"

"Indeed not." He responded matter of factly his extremely Scottish lilt infecting his voice as he began to stand.

"So?"

"Alright, I'll be there in half an hour."

He hung up the phone before she had time to respond.

….

Emma pulled drawer after drawer of her desk open, after another pathetic and failed search she slumped to her elbows on the desk. Glancing at the clock across the room she frowned and her stomach growled, Belle was thirty minutes late. And Emma having expected Belle's presence for lunch had not bought anything from Grannies for herself for later, so now she sat in silence in the police station alone, but more importantly without food.

She was about to give up on the beauty when she heard hurried steps and then like magic Belle appeared with a flustered but happy expression and a brown bag of food.

Emma jumped from her seat and hurriedly made her way around her desk to help Belle pull the contents of food from the bag.

The first thing Emma grabbed was a chicken salad sandwich, one of her favorites, she immediately stopped her pillaging of the brown paper bag and ripped the plastic wrap off the sandwich and shoved almost half into her mouth, her mouth bulging with food as she attempted to chew without the assistance of a drink.

Belle laughed as she watched her friend eat, "Are you okay?"

Emma swallowed, "Just starving." Emma remarked taking another hungry bite, she then leaned over the bag and looked for a drink, with her free hand she fished out a small individual can of Crush orange soda, she looked at it a moment then looked at Belle an eyebrow raised.

Belle was eating strawberries from a small Styrofoam container, her deer wide blue eyes looked from the can to Emma's bewildered expression, she then smiled rather wildly, "Isn't orange soda the most wonderful thing in this world next to iced tea?"

At this Emma laughed and took a swig from it, she passed it back to Belle, who took a swip herself.

"You certainly are an odd one." Emma said smiling in her rather boyish way.

"I've heard that one before." Belle said jokingly, she then set down the strawberries. "By the way, where is the restroom?" she inquired, rather awkwardly.

Emma pointed back to the hallway she'd entered from and said between mouthfuls of sandwich, "next to the soda machine" and "you can't miss it".

Almost as soon as Belle went to the restroom did the town scourge limp in, finely dressed in a fitted tailored suit as usual.

Emma took another swig of orange soda and walked from her office out into the main room with the vacant deputy desk and jail cell in front of her.

"Gold." She said, narrowing her eyes as she leaned back onto the desk. He simply curled both hands around the top of his cane as he stared at her, exuding a sort of serene domineering atmosphere around him.

"Miss Swan." He remarked in return, in his usual Scottish deep breathy voice. "What can I do for you?"

"You can start by telling me why you almost beat the life out of that man in the alley last week."

"What?" he responded in feigned surprise. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Cut the crap Gold."

He took a step closer to Emma, not unlike the closeness she'd had with Hook the night before, though the difference was in this Closeness to gold she felt a very sinister, almost dangerous threat to his presence.

"Remember who you're talking to, Dearie."

"I wasn't scared of you before and I sure as hell am not scared of you now, Rumpelstiltskin."

"You know, you're either really brave or just stupid, but either way I like you Miss Swan."

Emma stared, eyes narrowed and arms crossed, he continued, circling her as he did.

"That's why I'm going to give you a little warning, Dearie." He stopped behind her, the breathe of his words hitting her neck and making her hair stand on end.

"There are things you can't even begin to understand about the world you come from. And that, specifically includes me," he growled his voice harsh and unmeasured. "The unfortunate accident that befell Mr. Smee is what happens when a deal is not upheld."

"So it was you."

"I never said that, Dearie!" his voice began to thrill with impish, no devilish glee. "But a deal is a deal, and well-"he laughed to himself at his next thought, "let's just say bad things tend to happen to bad people."

"Is that a threat?" she turned around to him sharply.

Rumpelstiltskin pushed the blonde hair from his face and toyed with a strand playfully as he responded, "Observation." He smiled wickedly, his large dark brown orbs mischievously waiting for her response.

Emma pulled away and then turned around to him, a few feet away again.

"What are you up to?"

No longer amused by games or deflection, the pain in his knee returning he narrowed his eyes and simply said, "You know Miss Swan, my business is well, my business. Try and get in my way," he paused, letting his eyes rake over her slightly, sizing her up and gaging her response – she gave nothing up and stared stony faced.

"Well let's just say the last thing you will need to worry about is Henry's wellbeing."

"Rumpelstiltskin?"

Rumpelstiltskin's heart jumped to his throat, as he turned and saw Belle standing in the room a look of confusion on her face. Emma looked from him to her and back again, she started to take her leave but stopped, "We're not done here, Gold." She said and then made her way out of the station to give them space.

Rumpelstiltskin stared at Belle, his mouth moving slightly, trying to find his voice, his leg throbbed and his palms became sweaty and suddenly the room itself was sweltering. He was having an internal panic attack, how much had she heard? Why did she look so disgusted? Had all his fears this past week been true?

He dropped his cane suddenly, the sound on metal on the tiled floor broke the silence like a shattering glass, he fumbled with grasping the desk behind him for support.

Instinct took over Belle; she was at his side in seconds, helping him to stand up.

He placed a hand on her shoulder; a look of feeble uncertainty furrowed his brow. Belle gazed upon Rumpelstiltskin, ever the coward, his heart beating uncontrollably, scared at what she might say. It was in these moments that he felt like that man he'd once been before with Milah.

He glanced at his supine and slender tanned fingers on her shoulder. Calloused though they were, they were not strong hands. He was taller than Belle, but wiry and unsatisfyingly feminine in his delicate features and then his overbearing cowardice on top of all that, he just wanted to sink away from her.

This of course was an internal battle, as soon as that look of uncertainty flashed across his face he replaced it with the crocodile stoniness of his younger days back in fairytale land, though without the scales of course.

He pressed his hand against her shoulder pushing her away slightly, letting her know he was fine and to let go, she bent down and handed him his cane. He took it from her in silence, unable to make eye contact, the impish deflection she'd experienced back in the dungeon of the Dark Castle now etched upon his face.

"Don't do that." Belle said, strongly.

He turned to her, finally looking at her face again. "What?"

"You're doing that thing you do when you're scared."

"I'm not scared, Dearie."

"Rumpelstiltskin, stop it! You promised me you'd be more open with me and I'm trying too, what you're doing right now isn't fair." She said angrily.

"Life isn't fair Dearie, if it was, I wouldn't exist." He quipped.

"Ok," she said deciding to play along. "Your right, I suppose life not being fair would also be you beating up some man in an alleyway almost to death?" she turned the strong statement into a question, disbelief cradling her voice.

There it was, she had heard everything.

"Belle, he broke a deal."

"So you decide to kill him?"

"He's not dead."

"That's not the point!"

"Then what, pray tell is the point, Dearie?" he responded quippingly with his trilling impish voice.

"Because this isn't you anymore!" She yelled desperately.

"Oh it's me, Dearie! Always has been always will be!" He chided in his dark one thrill, wagging his eyebrows suggestively as he stepped closer to her.

Belle stepped back from him, shaking her head slightly, the man she fell in love with was him, but something was darker and keeping Belle from getting through to him. The most terrifying thing was, for a second his eyes looked all black and his skin seemed gold again, just for a moment, like the darkness in him was so powerful it was over powering the curse and seeping through.

AUTHOR'S END NOTE: holy crap that was long, I typed that for four hours straight, it is now 6:42am and I am exhausted, sorry for any spelling errors. But guys, it going to be a while before these two get there happy ending. Review please!