Belle grunted, sweat beading on her forehead, her lips parted and cheeks flushed.
"Come on," she groaned, her breath coming out in short little gasps. "Please!"
She held her breath, her teeth gritted, her focus completely concentrated on one thing.
She twisted around one last time, pulling at the zipper on her dress before giving a frustrated sigh.
This was no use. There was no way she was getting the zipper up.
With another frustrated groan, she threw open the bedroom door, crossing the hallway and bursting in to the guest room.
Rumple was standing in front of the full length mirror hanging on the inside of the closet door, perfecting his tie knot when she barged in.
He turned, startled at the intrusion before letting out a squeaking noise he'd never cop to making if asked.
"What are you doing?" he gasped, covering his eyes and whirling away from her. "I can't see you! It's bad luck!"
Belle just rolled her eyes.
"We can't get married today," she said frankly.
That made Rumple look at her, his dark eyes suddenly stricken, his hands falling limply to his sides.
"Wh-why not?" he stammered out.
Belle was quick to grab his hands, squeezing them reassuringly.
"We can't get married today because I'm too fat to fit in my dress."
Rumple looked confused for a moment before Belle gestured to the half done zipper at her back.
"You're not fat," he said patiently. "You're pregnant."
"I'm 47 months pregnant, Rumple," she whined, dropping his hands and stepping away from him. "Why do we have to do this now?"
"Because you didn't want our child to be born in sin," he quipped.
Belle rolled her eyes. "We've been living in sin for a full year. It doesn't matter if we're married or not. This isn't the Enchanted Forest, no one is going to think any worse of me if I'm not married to the father of my children."
"Granny might," Rumple needled.
"Granny can burn!" Belle exclaimed, before covering her mouth, horrified by what she'd just said. "See, I'm an irritable mess. Don't you want to wait and do this when I can actually look nice in a wedding gown?"
"You look beautiful," Rumple assured her.
"You have to say that," Belle sulked. "You're my once and future husband."
That surprised a laugh out of Rumple and Belle glared at him.
Rumple moved forward, cupping Belle's shoulders with his hands and stroking them down her bare arms.
"Look at it this way," he reasoned. "As your once and future husband, don't you think you can trust me on matters of your appearance? I've seen you in a wedding dress twice now and you're even more beautiful today than you were the first time."
Belle couldn't help but smile.
"You're sweet," she said. "But it doesn't change the fact that I can't zip my dress up so we can't get married. Do you want me to walk down the aisle with my entire backside exposed?"
"Not particularly, no," Rumple said. "Do you have something else you could wear?"
Belle glared at him.
"Do I happen to have another maternity wedding gown just hanging in my closet?" she asked sarcastically.
Rumple frowned slightly. "It doesn't have to be a white dress. You know technically white is for –"
"Finish that sentence, I dare you," Belle cut across him.
Rumple held up his hands in surrender, backing away from her slightly. Belle just sighed again. She didn't want to snap at Rumple today of all days. It was supposed to be their wedding day and not just that. It was the uniting of their family once more, the two of them, Gideon and the baby girl she was carrying in her belly. Today was special, and she was going to ruin it.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "But maybe we should have waited until after the baby was born to do this again. I promise I won't be so hard to live with once the baby is out of me."
Rumple shook his head.
"I want to marry you," he said with a shrug. "I want you to be my wife again. I want us to be a family. I couldn't care less what you wear. We could get married in our pajamas for all it matters to me."
Belle stifled a giggle at the mental image of her impeccable fiancé standing out in the back garden shoeless in his silk pajamas. But she wanted to look nice for their wedding. She wanted to wear a wedding gown.
"Turn around," Rumple prompted. "Let me see what we're working with."
Belle did as she was bid, turning her back to Rumple and lifting her hair out of the way of the zipper. Rumple's fingers trailed down her exposed spine and she gave an involuntary shiver. Another thing to blame on the pregnancy hormones she supposed. Once the exhaustion of her first trimester had worn off, she hadn't been able to get enough of Rumple. Luckily he'd been only too happy to help.
"I can fix this easily," Rumple said, fiddling with the fabric on the back of her dress.
Belle shook her head. "I don't want magic involved on our wedding day. You fix my zipper and the entire wedding canopy will fall down around our heads during the ceremony. It comes with a price."
Rumple smirked and pressed a quick kiss to her shoulder. "You forget dear, in another life I was a spinner. I'm quite handy with fabric."
He crossed to the guest room closet, rifling through it for a moment, before surfacing with a sewing box.
"Turn back around," he said, making a circling motion with his finger.
"Are you going to sew me in to my dress?" she asked. "That means you'll have to rip me out of it later."
"Well were you planning on wearing it again after tonight?" Rumple returned cheekily.
"Probably not," she admitted. "But I don't want to have to tear it to get it off."
Rumple sighed, stepping back and looking at Belle critically.
"Well, if you want me to let it out, you're going to have to take it off."
Belle balked.
"Why?"
"Because I can't do it while you're wearing the garment. It'll only take a moment."
Belle fiddled with her hands, biting her lip.
"What?" Rumple asked.
"I can't wear a bra with this dress," she said. "All I'm wearing underneath it are my panties."
Rumple smiled, shaking his head slightly at her modesty.
"Well, sweetheart, accounting for your current state, believe me when I say I've seen it all before."
Belle just rolled her eyes. "No, I just know you. I'm not going to strip naked in front of you when we have to be out on the back lawn in front of our nearest and dearest in a half hour."
Rumple laid a hand against his chest in mock outrage. "Are you implying I have no self control?"
Belle arched an eyebrow. "Not when I'm naked you don't."
Rumple shook his head. "Take off the dress, Belle. I promise I won't throw myself at you, but we're running low on time, sweetheart."
Belle giggled, shimmying out of the dress and holding it out to Rumple. She crossed her arms against her naked chest, feeling cold at being so suddenly exposed.
She didn't miss the way Rumple's eyes roamed over her appreciatively. She was happy that her belly didn't seem to make her less attractive in his eyes. She'd missed out on most of her pregnancy with Gideon and in her darker moments she was almost glad. Pregnancy was hardly as glamorous or beautiful as some would have you believe. She didn't have to worry about the weight gain, the sore joints, the stretch marks, or the back pain the first go around. Adding in that the fairies had healed her up after Gideon's birth and it was almost as though she'd never been pregnant at all. But she also knew that every ache and every annoyance of her ever-changing body was worth it. She and Rumple finally got to experience one of life's biggest moments together. She wouldn't change that for anything.
Rumple sat down at the desk in the room, pulling the dress across his lap and setting to work at letting it out. Luckily she'd only outgrown it by about half an inch, just enough that the zipper wouldn't budge, and there was enough extra fabric to work with.
His hands were nimble, flying so fast Belle almost suspected he was using magic anyway, despite her protest. Rumple finished a stitch with a flourish, bringing the thread up to his mouth to bite the excess off with his teeth. A thrill went down Belle's spine at that. And she couldn't quite believe she was getting turned on by Rumple sewing. She clamped her thighs together, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"All done," Rumple said after a moment, standing up and holding the dress out to Belle. "Try it now."
She pulled the dress on over her head, turning her back to Rumple and allowing him to pull the zip up. Miraculously, it fit.
"Perfect!" Belle exclaimed, twirling to face Rumple.
"Absolute perfection," Rumple repeated. Belle blushed. She didn't think he was talking about the dress.
He reached for her hand, pulling her closer and cupping her cheek.
"You are breathtaking, Belle."
"Thank you," she said, straightening his tie before smoothing her hands across his chest.
"You're welcome."
Rumple bent his head as if to kiss her, and Belle wanted more than anything to let him. But something made her hold a finger up to his lips, stopping him.
"Don't you think we should wait until we make it to the altar? I mean technically speaking you shouldn't have seen me in my dress yet. I don't want to jinx us too badly."
"We're getting married in our own backyard with a grand total of ten people in attendance. It's hardly a formal ceremony."
"You're the one who panicked when you saw me in the dress," she pointed out his earlier outburst.
Rumple shrugged. "If you think it's alright, so do I. I think we've had our share of bad luck. Only good luck from now on."
Belle narrowed her eyes at him. "Rumplestiltskin, that almost sounded optimistic."
"You must be rubbing off on me," he said, pulling her as close as possible with her belly between them.
"Do you know why I wanted to get married here, in the backyard?" Belle asked, realizing she'd never really expressed her reasoning. She trailed her hands up to Rumple's hair, combing her fingers through the fluff. It wasn't quite as long as it once had been, but he'd stayed true to his promise of growing it back out for her.
"Convenience's sake?" Rumple guessed. Belle shook her head.
"This is where I decided I wanted us to be a family again," she said. "A couple years ago now, at Gideon's third birthday party. It's when I first started thinking about wanting another child and wanting that child with you. I wanted you back, even if I couldn't quite articulate it at the time."
Rumple smiled, his eyes bright. "I love you," he said softly. "And I can't wait to marry you again."
"I love you, too," she said, tightening her grip in his hair and bringing him down for a kiss, damn if it was unlucky or not. They made their own luck now and nothing would ever tear them apart again.
Their lips had just barely brushed when there was a sudden knock on the door courtesy of their five-year-old son.
"Papa!" Gideon's little voice called through the door. "Dr. Archie is here."
Rumple stifled a groan before placing a light kiss on the tip of Belle's nose.
"Hold that thought," he said, taking a step back from Belle. "That's my cue."
"I'll see you out there," she said a little breathlessly. Despite the fact that she'd loved Rumple for decades now, despite the fact they had a child and one on the way, despite the fact they'd married each other before, she felt a little nervous.
"I can't wait," Rumple said with a wink. He opened the door to the sight of Gideon in his own little suit, dark blue just like his Papa's. There was a pink peony pinned to his lapel and he looked at them both with wide eyes.
"Papa you're not supposed to see Mama!" he said emphatically. "It's bad luck!"
Rumple just shook his head. "Our bad luck is over, Gid," he said, ruffling the boys hair. Then he strode off down the hall to meet Archie and their few guests.
Gideon turned to look at his mother, a smile breaking across his little face.
"Wow, Mama!" he exclaimed. "You look pretty!"
"Thank you, baby," Belle said, holding her hand out to her son. "Are you ready to walk me down the aisle?"
Gideon stood up straighter, tugging on the hem of his little jacket. He looked just like a mini Rumple and Belle couldn't help but smile.
"Yep," he said decisively.
Belle rested her other hand on her belly, feeling her daughter squirming around inside.
"It's time," she said to them both. "Let's go be a family."