Summary: She'd rather marry a man with many layers than a one-dimensional prince charming.
Inspired by the line, "I was a child and she was a child in this kingdom by the sea", taken by the poem Annabel Lee by the remarkable Edgar Allan Poe, this is part one of two. The first part is Belle's. The second is Rumpel's. The two oneshots revolve around child-Belle and child-Rumple, and their dealings with concepts like True Love, fairytales, happily ever afters, and princes in disguise. I hope you like it!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything you recognize.
In This Kingdom by the Sea
I'm like a kid who just won't let it go. Twisting and turning the colors in rows. I'm so intent to find out what it is. This is my Rubik's Cube… I know I can figure it out. [Rubik's Cube by Athlete]
The girl's name was Snow White.
Queen Carlotta and King Leopold's daughter, the little princess with a heart of pure gold from the neighboring kingdom. King Leopold's Kingdom was huge, far bigger than the merchant king Maurice's small seaside castle and the string of towns and villages he overlooked, but Queen Carlotta, King Leopold, and little Snow liked to visit the lands of Avonlea often.
They liked to watch the wild, ebbing waves of the Enchanted Sea, to go on boat rides with the locals and make friends with the merfolk who lived in the waters. They liked the scour the vast, overflowing marketplaces, full of silks so soft and foods so rich the markets in their own kingdom couldn't begin to compare.
But most of all, Carlotta, Leopold and Snow loved to visit King Maurice's castle.
It was a tiny, cozy estate compared to Leopold's palace, but it was beautiful in its own right, full of twisting, curving vines, looping through iron-wrought gates that sat on a hill overlooking the ocean on one side, the kingdom of Avonlea on the other. Carlotta and Leopold liked the estate because they were good friends with the merchant king Maurice and his queen, Celeste.
Snow liked it because it meant she got to play with her best friend, Belle.
Due to their parent's close relationship, Snow and Belle had been friends since birth. Despite the fact their kingdoms were miles apart; they made time for each other as much as they could. Every winter, Belle would travel with her mother to the faraway lands of Leopold's palace to take part in the yuletide celebrations, and every summer, Snow would do the same, travelling with her whole family to visit her best friend and swim in the waters of the Enchanted Seas of Avonlea.
It was one of these summers, many years before Lady Celeste was taken by ogres on a carriage ride through the forest, leaving her daughter with nothing but a pearl necklace to remember her by; many years before a devious imp would come around and leave a certain beauty breathless; many years before Queen Carlotta fell to sickness and left her husband and daughter with holes in their hearts and memories in their heads; many years before an evil queen was carved from a lovestruck miller's girl, that Belle and Snow discovered the concept of "true love".
Of course, every child in both of their kingdoms, maybe even in the realms beyond, knew of the powerful, unadulterated magic that was True Love's Kiss. It was the ultimate curse or the ultimate blessing, depending on who you asked. It could break your heart and leave you broken in the dark, or it could save your life (lessons both of the little princesses would learn, in their own time, but that's another story for another day).
The two eight-year-old princesses had taken their rattiest, dirtiest cloaks and had convinced Marisol, Belle's fourteen-year-old nursemaid, to help them sneak out into the thrall of the world outside the palace. The two girls had done this only twice before, taking the guises of young peasant children and pestering the busy, bustling marketplace as it prepared for the annual summer festival.
"Let's go to the bookstore," Belle said, tugging Snow's hand when they reached the middle of the market. They had only two, maybe three hours at most, to scour the grounds and to stay out of trouble before anyone began to notice, and Belle always loved to spend at least one and a half of those hours holed up in a bookshop.
Snow smiled and rolled her eyes. She was used to Belle's bookish nature, and was by no means against it (she loved books too, though probably not as much as her blue-eyed best friend). "Alright," Snow said, following Belle obediently to one of the shops, pulling her cloak tight around her. The air was unnaturally chilly this summer afternoon, and Snow shivered as a breeze ripped past and tossed her hair around. She hadn't been expecting the chill.
The princesses sighed when they entered the shop, but for entirely different reasons. Snow sighed because the fire crackling in the corner was beginning to seep through her skin the second she walked through the door; Belle sighed because she was finally in her safe-haven, her little hovel of books.
The shopkeeper, an old man who went by the name of Eduard, smiled when he saw the girls enter. "My ladies," he said warmly, bowing low at the two children. The girls giggled and curtseyed back. "Back already?"
"I finished my book!" Belle told Eduard excitedly, taking out the fairly-thick book and placing it gently on the desk.
Eduard's eyes widened, while Snow merely rolled hers and giggled again. "Already?" The old man sounded incredulous, but impressed.
"She couldn't put it down," Snow piped in, "I had to play all by myself, she had her nose in that thing practically all night!" She pouted, but grinned when Belle mock-glared at her.
The blue-eyed princess turned back to Eduard, clapping her hands together and giving a little twirl. "She's right; I couldn't. Far off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, a prince in disguise!" Her eyes gained a glazed, dreamy look, and the bookseller smiled.
"If you like it so much, keep it," he said, holding the book back out to her.
Belle gasped, clutching the book close to her chest. "Thank you so much, sir!" she dipped into another curtsey. Snow had wandered away, across the small, one-room shop, browsing the child's stories.
"It's not a problem, my dear," Eduard said. Belle slipped the book inside one of the pockets sewn on the inside of her cloak. The bookseller smiled down at the little princess—it always overjoyed him to see the bright, wide-eyed look that overcame the little girl's face every time she saw a book. It was refreshing to know that she would not become narrow-minded or one-tracked in her way of thought, like her father. King Maurice was a kind, generous man, but he was also prideful and narrow in his thoughts. "So," Eduard began, when Belle took a seat by the fire, opening up her new book. Snow was on the other side of the shop, browsing odd titles and squinting at gold-embossed spines. "What was your favorite part of the book?"
"Oh, I wouldn't be able to decide," Belle said thoughtfully, flipping mindlessly through the tome. Snow, having finally found her reading choice for the day, plopped down beside her with a large leather tome in hand. "When she finds out he's her prince, I suppose."
Snow, having read the book Belle was talking about, only giggled. "Mine was when they got married and lived happily ever after."
Belle frowned. "Well, that was nice," she said, "But I don't think it'd be that easy. Real life's not always full of happily ever afters." Ah, so perceptive, the strange little princess Belle, Eduard thought, blinking in abstract surprise at the little girl. She was older beyond her years, he thought.
Snow sighed and flipped lazily through the pages of the book in her lap. "No, but it would be so nice if it was, wouldn't it? Conquer the world, save the world; find your prince charming, live happily ever after."
"Ah, but then life would get predictable," Eduard said from behind the counter.
Belle grinned. "Exactly. Take the prince, for example. If you didn't know beforehand, you'd be just as lost as the princess was! With the way he treated her, the way he talked to her… you'd never guess that he was that dashing, daring, brave prince in disguise." She sighed dreamily and turned the page. "I always liked things that were beyond the human eye."
Snow, now curious, smiled over at Belle. "What do you mean?"
Belle shrugged. "I like… I like things that are layered. Mysteries to be uncovered. When I grow up, I'd rather marry a man of layers than a one-dimensional knight like—like—"
"Like Gaston?" Snow asked, a smirk tilting her lips up.
Belle repressed a shudder. "Yes, like Gaston." Gaston, the duke of the Northlands' dreadful little boy and her future husband. Belle dreaded the day they were to be married. It would be like being someone's trophy—an object to be shined, polished, and shone off. No real use to it.
Belle's eye caught the sun, sinking in the west, and she gasped. "Oh gods, we've probably been here for hours!"
Snow's head snapped towards the sky and she yelped, standing up and shoving the book she'd been reading in one of the bookshelves. "I'm sorry, Mr. Eduard, we have to go; our parents are going to be so angry! Goodbye!" The young princesses smiled and gave quick curtseys before flying out the door, their cloaks flying behind them.
Eduard smiled and shook his head.
"Belle?"
Belle snapped her book shut. The only book she'd thought to take with her before leaving her father's estate, the book she'd been cradling in her hands that fateful day in the war room. This book had given her courage, through everything. She didn't need courage now, of course. But a good story was always cherished, especially on a night as dark and as stormy as this.
As if to prove her point, lightening flashed outside, and thunder boomed.
"Rumpelstiltskin?" she replied, turning her head slightly. The fire in the hearth before her had turned to dimly lit embers, and the storm outside was her only lullaby. She hadn't been able to sleep, so she'd dragged herself out of bed with her beloved book, and had taken her place beside her employer while he spun into the night.
"I'm going to bed, dearie," the imp said. She couldn't see his face, but she could feel his eyes on her, deep and dark and whiskey brown. "Aren't you tired?" Translation: aren't you going to bed, too?
She smiled tiredly. "No. Too restless. Storms make me restless."
"I can make you a potion for that," he offered, coming up to sink in the armchair beside her. He snapped his fingers together and the fire roared back to life, chasing away the chill of the storm outside.
She shook her head, entranced by the flames. "No. Thank you, though."
"Where did you get that book?" he asked her, after a few beats of silence, taking note of the book in her arms. It wasn't from the library he knew she frequented when she thought he didn't notice.
"My father's estate."
"I know that, dearie."
She grinned. It was tired and worn, but stunning. "The bookseller, back home. Eduard. I've always loved this book; he gave it to me as a gift, when I was a child." Her eyes misted over, remembering that day. She remembered everything, from tricking Marisol to get her and Snow out of the castle to the conversation about one-dimensional princes and layers to running back and getting a good tongue lashing by both of their mothers.
Rumpelstiltskin watched her. "You miss it?" It was more of a statement than a question.
She shrugged. "If you'd have asked me ten years ago, I would have said yes. Now?" she smiled. "It's everything I could've wished for."
He almost snorted. "Excuse me, dearie? That's quite possibly the last answer I could have expected. You're a caretaker to a beast."
"You're not a beast," she murmured, arguing against him before she even really thought it through. She could sense his shock at her statement, but she didn't dwell on it, deciding to continue. "And, well… it's true. What did I have back home? A father who treated me as though I was a prize to be won, and a fiancé who acted as though he were the winner of said prize. And my best friend—" She sucked in a breath and stopped short, blinking away the stinging in her eyes. Snow. Her sweet, beautiful best friend Snow White, pushed into hiding because of something her stepmother did. Belle had never met the queen in person, Regina, but she knew her best friend, and Snow was no murderer. She'd been pushed into the arms of the Dark Forest, or so Belle had heard, the months after Snow's escape and the weeks before the beauty's deal with Rumpelstiltskin.
Belle took a deep breath and lifted her eyes to meet Rumpelstiltskin's. "My best friend… wasn't exactly available, when I decided to deal with you."
"At least here," Belle began again, changing the subject, "At least here I get some excitement. You know, with all the enchanted necklaces and bewitched shoes and arrows." Rumpelstiltskin flinched at her mention of the arrows and she giggled, pointing a finger at him. "What? What is it? Are you ever going to tell me what happened when I was under that bewitchment?"
Rumpelstiltskin giggled madly and stood in a sweeping motion. "Some stories shouldn't be told, dearie. Some stories shouldn't be told. Anyhow, I'm off to bed." And with that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke before she could say anything more.
Belle pouted and leaned back in the armchair. "One second he's asking me about my life, the next he's laughing his head off. Such a mystery, that man," she mumbled under her breath, biting back a smile as she traced the cover of her book.
Yeah. Happy Thanksgiving, those of you who celebrate it! xD anyway, this kind of popped into my head randomly. Wouldn't it be cool, though, if Snow already knew Belle? I mean, maybe they would, right? It's possible. They were both princesses, and… well, yeah. That's their only similarity, really, but maybe they met at a ball or something? Who knows. But in this universe, they were besties until Snow became a kickass princess/thief/fugitive and Belle became Rumple's caretaker. So… yeah. Also, I tried to keep it canon by mentioning Belle never met Regina in person. She knew who she was and what she'd done to Snow, she just didn't know who she was that day on the road. They'd never met face-to-face.
ALSO, I realized that at the end of the first part, when they were children, they didn't really sound like children. When I was writing it, I kind of got the young-teenager vibes. But hey, they probably had to grow up fast. So, yeah, anyway.
Please, reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome!