~Belle~

Belle sat on the stone edge of the waterway under the bridge. Her boots sat next to her as her feet soaked in the cool water. She took a small bite out of the biscuit she had bought for her breakfast and sighed.

When she had woken up that morning Ben had been gone already. She groaned inwardly as she remembered the night before. While she had been glad that she hadn't been flat out drunk, she had still been a bit tipsy, maybe even a bit loopy. Reflecting on last night made her realize that she had been a bit out of character for herself.

After taking a finishing her biscuit she dried her feet and slipped them back into her boots. After making sure they were snug, she stood up and went back up the stairs. She looked around the market square, wondering if Ben had possibly come back from wherever it had been he had gone. She shrugged when she couldn't spot the blond haired man and walked toward the old quarter.

"Well, I might as well walk around and relax while he's not around," she said quietly to herself as she almost skipped away.

~Ben~

Ben grinned as the Queen laughed at his tale; he'd left the Belle sleeping in the tavern to give him a chance to see his friend and the Queen of Albion.

"That is quite a story Ben," she said before taking another bite of her breakfast. She had invited him to breakfast so as to give them time to tell each other what's happened since the attack of the darkness. "So what else has happened since then?"

"Well, I met this young woman in Mistpeak. She and I are actually traveling companions at the moment. Although, she wasn't too thrilled with the idea when I first decided to travel around with her," Ben said as he leaned back in his chair.

"Oh really? Where is she?" Queen Percy asked.

"I left her at the Tavern, she was still asleep," Ben said with a shrug as he bit into a piece of bacon.

"Well, that wasn't very nice," The queen said with a chuckle.

"Heh, she'd have probably done the same. After all, I didn't even get a hello or introduction before she punched me in the jaw when we met.

"Always making friends, eh Ben?" the queen spoke with laughter.

"What can I say, I'm a friendly and charming person," Ben laughed.

"So, what's her name?" the Queen asked.

"Belle Lockwood," Ben said, pausing to take a sip of some juice that had been served with breakfast, "She's quite tough really, and very stubborn for the most part, has an almost twisted sense of humor that usually gets me hurt. "

"She's attractive, isn't she?" the queen asked with a small smirk appearing on her lips.

"Well, yes. But, that hasn't done me any good either. She used it against me in Mourningwood. She lured me in then bit me on the nose and ran off laughing," Ben said, rubbing the bridge of his nose from the memory. He became slightly embarrassed as the queen laughed at his misfortune.

"You should bring her to dinner tonight," the queen said, catching Ben off guard.

"Wait, what?" he asked in disbelief.

"I'd like to meet her. And I have too many small court issues to deal with today to get out and meet her. So you should bring her back to the castle for dinner so that I can meet her," the queen said, unaffected by his disbelief.

"Oh, okay," he said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, I have to go to the throne room now and take care of some matters. Take Care Ben, Dinner is at 7:30 tonight," The queen said as she rose from her spot at the table.

"Yes, alright; Take Care Queenie," Ben said as he got up from the table. He walked out of the castle and made his way back down to the market district. He went to the tavern to find that Belle had left and was now nowhere to be found.

~Belle~

Belle stretched out on the sand, enjoying the afternoon sun on her skin. She had gone to the shoreline in the Bowerstone Old Quarter to relax and forget about all her worries in the world. She hadn't even realized that she had dozed off until the loud sound of water splashing startled her awake, making her quickly sit up to see what had caused the splash.

She was surprised to see Ben, come up to the surface near the end of the dock.

"Ben? What are you doing?" She questioned, wondering how he had even found her or where he'd been.

"Going for a swim! Weren't you going to jump in eventually?" he asked and he backstroked across the water.

"What? No, I was just relaxing on the shore is all," Belle said as she walked onto the dock.

"Well, why not?" he questioned.

"Why not what?" she replied curiously.

"Go swimming, it's nice and relaxing. I'm not asking you to strip or anything. Just take off your boots and hop in!" he said cheerfully as he swam up to the dock.

"No thanks, I'll leave the swimming to you, I'll just go back over there and lay in the sun again," she said with a half-hearted laugh and walked back down the dock.

"You'll eventually get in the water, just wait!" Ben said as he pushed away from the dock.

"Uh huh, sure thing there Finny," Belle mumbled to herself. She sat back down on the sand and watched as Ben swam around in the water. After a few minutes she decided to lie back down and peer up into the big blue sky. She had been thinking of something before she had dozed off. She had been thinking of visiting the village she had grown up in. It was a small place and she would love to see how her old childhood friends where doing. She closed her eyes as she thought on when she would go see them. "The only problem with going there is Ben, I'd rather visit Silverpines alone than have a traveling companion with me," she thought, and then she heard some splashing of water as Ben stepped out of the water.

She opened her eyes and sat up to see Ben walking up to her. He was standing in front of her in nothing but the now wet trousers he had been swimming in. He was grinning wickedly at her and that scared her half to death.

"Ben?" she questioned.

"Time to swim!" he said as he reached down to grab her.

"What!" she almost screeched as she quickly scurried backward and out of his reach. He stepped forward and grabbed her arm as she tried to make a dash up the hill.

"You heard me," he said as he wrapped an arm around the back of her thighs and draped her over his shoulder.

"I don't want to swim Ben, please, just let me stay on the shore," she said as she struggled to get away from him. She felt him slip her boots off and he began walking towards the water. She struggled harder to get out of his grasps, but he seemed to have a good grip on her.

She heard the swishing of his feet moving through the water then looked down to see the shallow water and the waves as they reached the shore, in a moment of panic she screamed loudly, "I CAN'T SWIM!"

~Ben~

Ben froze as he heard Belle scream. He set her down in front of him and looked at her for a moment in disbelief. "You can't swim?" he asked, questioning what he had heard. He watched as Belle hesitantly shook her head.

"I never learned to swim," she said.

"You've never been swimming," he said in disbelief.

"Nope," she said, looking a bit embarrassed. He watched her for a moment, but she simply stared down at the crashing waves at their feet. He didn't know really what to say, he'd learned to swim from a young age, and actually enjoyed it.

"I'll teach you!" he spoke up suddenly as she began to move back toward the shore.

"What?" she asked obviously caught off guard.

"I'll teach you how to swim, it's not too difficult," he said as he swept her up bridal style and began walking out into the water.

"What? Wait, no Ben. Please, I don't care to learn to swim, it's not that big of a deal," she argued and struggled against his grasp. She stopped when they got to deeper water and actually gripped his shoulders, as if she were afraid to fall in. He waited for the water to get up to his chest to stop. She was clinging to him completely now, afraid of falling into the water.

"It's alright, you can still stand on the bottom here," he said with a chuckle and without warning let go of her legs. She let out a gasp and her arms wrapped around his shoulders. "Seesh, you really are afraid of the water aren't you?"

"When you can't swim the only thing you can do is drown," she responded, looked at the water nervously.

"Yeah? Well, it's alright, I'm here to get ya if you need me to," he said. "Now you gotta start kicking your feet - ow! I didn't say kick me!" he exclaimed as he looked down at her. She was glaring up at him, obviously not very happy.

It took him a while but eventually he was able to teach her to swim well enough that she could swim by herself. She wasn't perfect at it, but she could keep her head above water. To get good at it she would just need practice.

"So, what were you doing out here anyway?" he asked suddenly, watching her as she stopped swimming and put her feet on the sandy bottom.

"I was just relaxing, enjoying the day. And you? " she asked nonchalantly as she looked up to the blue sky.

"I came looking for you," he said leaning against one of the supporting beams of the dock.

"Oh really, and why is that?" she asked as she made her way over to him.

"Because I- whoa," he said as he caught her after tripping on something along the bottom. They laughed a bit then he stopped when her hazel eyes met his blues. They seemed to slow in the sun light, and he had to admit, she looked beautiful the way she was. Her hair stuck to the side of her face, wet from swimming and her hazel eyes gleaming up into his.

He slowly dipped his head down, his eyelids only remaining half open as he got closer to her face. He doesn't know why, and he probably never will, but she closed her eyes and leaned up to gently place a kiss against his lips. He pulled her closer to him as the kiss became deeper; their tongues fighting for dominance in the kiss.

After another moment their kiss ended and he took in a deep breath and looked down at her smiling, "You're completely unpredictable, you know that?"

"Yeah, that's a good thing in this case though isn't it?" she asked with a smirk.

"Yes, that is a really good thing in this case," he said as he pressed his lips against hers again, already addicted to her taste.

Author's Note: Hey, sorry this took so long. (It took way too long, ha.) I started it a while ago and then it wasn't until I got sick that I finally sat down to finish it, so my bad. So I finally gave you all that kiss you were hoping for probably back in chapter 7. If I'm feeling up to it, I will get started on the next chapter later today. But at the moment my only plans are to go to the doctor and then come back home and rest. Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading and being patient.