Sevysev prompted: "one last meal together"
Stand Her Last
The crows have sent their warning; Gaston comes tomorrow. He is riding towards the castle even now, and as far as castles go, Rumpelstiltskin's isn't very big. The siege will be short and bloody. It is one wizard against an army of Gaston's thieves.
And Rumpelstiltskin will do nothing.
Belle stands in the kitchen, staring at the fire, and despite this, she is so cold she cannot feel her fingers.
"Run away with me," she'd pleaded. "Leave the castle empty. We'll figure it out. We'll make it."
But Rumpelstiltskin had laughed, ear-piercingly bright. "And leave all my lovely books behind? I rather think not, dearie"
She could read the lie in his eyes, so he hid those from her. He said sweet things, platitudes, and that he'd like to have one last supper at her side.
But Rumpelstiltskin will do nothing. And Belle is standing before the fire, but her body is deathly cold.
She is angry, she realizes, when she catches herself contemplating how far she'll need to take the fire before he cannot stop it burning his castle down.
She had not been angry when her father tried to sign her away in a contract with Gaston. She had not been angry when he later bartered her life for peace. She had not been angry when she came here, locked up in a darkened castle with a man who called himself a monster, alone with her own awful thoughts for hours on end. She had not been angry when she fell in love. She had not been angry when she told him, when he shook her and screamed and swore that he could not be loved. She had not been angry, then.
But Rumpelstiltskin will do nothing, and she is livid now.
Belle turns and walks from the kitchen. She strides through the hallways blind, because she cannot see through her rage, her hate, her terrible dreams all come to fruition. She finds his armory, his dragon's hoard of magical trinkets, and she locks herself inside.
Belle emerges an hour later in dark leather armor, a sword in her hand and a dagger at her side.
A dagger with a name.
Rumpelstiltskin will do something. Or tonight, they burn together.