A lonely heart, and a lonely hunter
Belle
Sometimes, a late night walk around Storybrooke could calm Belle so much it felt like nothing was wrong; it seemed that being outside calmed her darkness as much as it had in the Enchanted Forest. She basked in the peace and quiet, admiring the gentle water of the docks, greeting Pongo on his walk, and watching Miss Gans attempt to capture the park's waterfowl on her canvas. She was approaching her Library once more when the blissful silence was broken:
"If you don't care, why are you so upset?"
"I'm not upset!"
"If you were..."
The rest of the conversation faded out of earshot, but Belle turned a corner and found the entirety of Storybrooke's law enforcement unit (all two of them) arguing outside Worthington's Haberdashery, the shop where Giselle worked. She grimaced as the two continued down the street, approaching where she was stood right outside the Library door. She twisted the key again, attempting to get inside but failing. They had stopped just at the edge of the road when she turned, and she caught the moment the Sheriff lunged forwards and caught his Deputy in a kiss. After half a moment she shoved him away, and the brunette could only stare in shock as the argument continued. Then the Deputy stalked off, and Sheriff Humbert was left alone in the middle of the street. The Library doors finally fell open under her weight, and Belle tumbled inside.
She was awoken hours later by snuffling at her door that she heard through her open window, and she fell out of her bed and stumbled over to her cluttered bookcase, mostly filled with books pilfered from the Library. She reached her hand behind a particularly thick book, the entire works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and gently drew out a small pistol. She silently moved down her stairs and glanced around the darkened Library searching for the intruder. At finding none she unlocked and opened the door slowly, shocked to find a great white wolf standing outside. It lowered its head to her, a bow?, and then wandered inside. Belle followed, planning to shoo it outside (or shoot it), but it went right up the stairs to her apartment, through to her bedroom and leaped up to settle at the foot of her bed. The brunette frowned at the odd behavior, and reached her hand out to the top of the wolfs head. When it didn't react she gave it a light scratch, and then knelt down to look it in the eyes. Oh. It has heterochromia.
"Hey, wolf?" It blinked at her. "Are you... from the Enchanted Forest?" It licked her hand. "I'll take that as a yes." Hoping the creature was as tame as it appeared, and that it would not attack her in the night (could she die in this realm), Belle gently inserted herself under the covers, and slowly fell back to sleep. She awoke to a heavy weight on the chest, and the wolf's fur invading her nose.
After letting the young wolf out for a run (a male wolf he was, which she learned when he rolled on his back so she would rub his belly), Belle washed up and set off for Granny's Diner, wondering if she would ever see the animal again. Leaving Granny's hours later after another staring contest with Mr Gold, this time over lunch, Belle was headed to the Library once more when she came across the Sheriff looking distressed and heading towards Mifflin Street. He had an odd look in his eye, a familiar sort of clarity that she couldn't quite place. She watched him go, but went back to work all the same. But less than an hour later she saw him dash back passed the Library, with the Saviour in tow. They were both following the white wolf from earlier. She followed the two... three as discretely as she could, hesitating when they arrived at the cemetery. She watched as they went inside Regina's family tomb, worry increasing as the Mayor herself appeared. The Queen and the Sheriff began what seemed to be an emotionally charged conversation, and after a moment the Queen turned on the Saviour... and punched her square in the face. The blonde fell to the floor, and Belle smirked when the woman immediately leaped up and struck back. Serves you right, you witch. Swan and Humbert left together, but Belle and Regina remained, the latter entering the tomb at last.
Belle turned to leave after the door closed, but just as she reached the wrought iron fence at the edge of the graveyard, she felt a great sense of foreboding. She knew she was still connected to the curse, the way she had been when Rumple had needed instant updates on Snow and Charming. Was something happening? She leaned forwards, hands on her knees as she attempted to regain her breath. Then a cold, wet something hit her hand, and she found herself face to face with the red-eyed wolf. It raised its head and howled and the moon, and she knew she had been right; something was wrong. She turned immediately and ran back into the heart of the cemetery, her tall heels getting caught in loose dirt before she abandoned them all together, leaving them beside a grave. The wolf beat her to the tomb, and Belle glanced at his fur covered face before she reached out a hand and pushed open the door. Before it was even fully open the wolf was gone, into the tomb and down the secret staircase the great stone coffin inside seemed to conceal. What? Belle snuck after the creature, making it halfway down the stairs before she saw the beast, hackles raised, facing a beast of a different kind. There, not fifteen paces away was the Mayor, the Evil Queen, with a throbbing red mass in her hand. Is that... a heart? Whose heart is that?
She didn't have time to consider her own question. With a low growl the wolf leaped, and with a gasp the Mayor dropped the heart to better defend herself. As the two bodies collided they fell into a mass of boxes, one hitting the dark woman on the head. Belle saw her chance, and darted down the stone steps to grab the heart before Regina gathered her wits and fought back. After a brief stumble the glowing heart was in Belle's hand, and with a shrill whistle to her partner in crime (was it a crime?) she dashed back up the stairs as fast as her short legs would allow. And then she was racing the great white wolf out of the graveyard and across town, shoe-less feet beating hard against the unforgiving concrete. Several times Belle paused to regain breath, getting less than a moment before the wolf had turned back to hurry her onward. They got back to the Library as fast as they could, and it felt like both long hours and mere seconds to the exhausted woman.
But even the sirens sounding outside the Sheriff's station couldn't drown out Regina's parting words still running through Belle's head.
"You're going to pay for interfering, peasant! I'm going to find you, and then I'm going to destroy you!"
The brunette collapsed against the Library doors, ending up on her knees with the wolfs head in her lap as he panted. She gently raised the beating heart in her palms; she would find out who it belonged to, and then find out how to return it to its owner. She fell asleep like that, even though the night had barely begun; with a wolf leaning on her, a live heart in her hands, sirens in the background, and desperate sobbing in the street.