Ch. 12
Things continued to go well for quite a while.
Rather, Belle forced them to go well. Everything in Rumple's home environment was carefully controlled. She doubted that he realized this - the amount of effort she was putting in to keeping him happy.
Yet as time wore on, even her best efforts were sometimes met with discontent.
It mostly started when Rumple hit the five month mark, give or take.
His pregnancy was definitely obvious, now. It seemed like one morning he had woken up and suddenly had a belly. Needless to say,he wasn't pleased. Belle had managed to calm him down by reminding him that he was still gorgeous, that he still had his clothes from before the spell, and that they would likely fit. And they did, but still, it clearly annoyed him.
The comments from the other townsfolk didn't help much. Rumple did his best to cover up with baggier clothing, but there was only so much that could do. Belle had suggested telling the truth, but Rumple shot that down, fearing that someone might try to hurt the baby. Instead he opted to snap back. He'd nearly made Red cry one morning when she gently suggested that maybe he'd prefer a salad over the cheeseburger that he had ordered.
On the bright side, the morning sickness had ceased entirely. On the down side, it had been replaced with random cravings, hot flashes, cramps and more frequent mood swings.
Belle was doing her best to cope with it. She reminded herself daily of how hard the pregnancy was on her husband and how lucky she was that they could even have a child.
When he would moan and groan Belle would brush it off. So what if she'd had a long day working? Rumple was worse off than her. When he would scold her for doing something wrong, she pushed any anger down. He had a right to be upset, didn't he? Men were not meant to bear children and here he was doing it for her - of course he might get upset.
Every day, she repressed her feelings, putting on a smile. It would be over soon. Four more months. One hundred and twenty days. Not that long. Not that long at all.
00
Belle once again had to remind herself of this one Saturday morning.
She had made waffles for breakfast. They hadn't eaten waffles in quite a while and she was craving them.
Just as she was finishing up cooking, Rumple came into the kitchen, wearing his baggiest set of clothes. Belle was used to this. She didn't say anything about it. Rather, she smiled at him and served him his plate of food, then sat down next to him to eat her own.
After taking a few bites, Belle noticed that Rumple wasn't touching his own food.
"What's wrong? It's not poisoned," she joked.
Rumple glared at her.
"How is it that you can run an entire library yet are unable to properly make a waffle?"
Belle raised an eyebrow.
"I'm sorry?"
"The waffles. They're burned."
Belle looked down at his plate, then her own.
"They look fine to me. A tiny bit dark but they're not burned."
Rumple pushed his plate away and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Fine," Belle said, not bothering to hide her annoyance. "What would you like to eat, then? Do you want me to make another batch?"
"No, because you'll ruin that too."
"Alright," Belle said, "Fine. That's fine. I'll tell you what, you can go make your own breakfast. I'm going to go read and enjoy mine."
Belle left the kitchen and headed towards the sitting room where she'd left the book that she was currently reading. Seconds later, Rumple appeared in the doorway.
"What is it that you want?" Belle asked.
"I want a proper breakfast!"
"And you can go make that yourself since you're so picky this morning!"
Rumple shook his head, "After all I've done for you, you can't even -"
"Stop." Bell cut him off, "Just stop there. I don't want to hear it. I'm going to go to work now."
She placed her plate on the end table and picked up her book before walking out the front door.
00
The library was particularly quiet that day. Belle used it to do some sorting and filing and then went on to read her book. The entire time, though, all she could think about was how rude Rumple had been that morning.
She'd been trying so hard, and his complaint was realistically stupid, but she felt bothered by it.
It seemed like lately all he did was complain. Whether it was what to watch on Netflix (they'd gotten their own account) or who was getting the last slice of pizza (which Belle always offered to Rumple because he clearly wanted it, though for some reason it made him mad).
It was getting tiring. They hadn't even been intimate in the past month! She's tried once or twice to get Rumple in the mood, but he kept giving excuses like being too tired or too sore. Too sore from what, she wasn't sure, since he didn't do much more than sit around all day. Working at the shop wasn't exactly physically taxing.
Then there were the errands that he had her running. They mainly involved making or buying him food at random hours.
Belle cringed when she thought of that. Rumple's food choices as of late were weird, to say the least. He'd had this weird thing for tacos with chocolate sauce. That was bad, but the ice cream with ranch dressing was even worse. He'd also developed this odd craving for key lime pie, which was fairly hard to come by.
Belle sighed.
This was a gift. Their child was a gift. Rumple was giving her a gift. She should not get angry at Rumple.
She repeated this to herself a few times, doing her best to let those points sink in.
Maybe a night out would help. It had helped last time, and if she let Rumple know in advance where she was going, he probably wouldn't freak out as he had previously. She could get her mind off things and relax for a bit.
Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.
00
Later that evening, Rumple stripped down to take a shower. He was still in pain from cramps and hot showers tended to help it.
As he waited for the water to warm, he looked himself over in the mirror. He couldn't say that he liked the sight before him.
When he had been physically older, his weight hadn't really bothered him. He assumed that it had to do with the stress of all that had happened, that maybe he had somehow compensated by eating more. Now that he looked younger, he felt more vain.
He rested his hand on his stomach and he felt the baby kick. He had been doing that a lot, lately. Keeping Rumple up all evening kicking. The kid might grow to be one hell of a fighter if he was as strong as Rumple thought he might be.
Belle had not said anything. Nonetheless, he felt too embarrassed about his appearance to let her see him naked.
'Be logical', he told himself. Belle had loved him when he was older and heavier, she surely loved him as he was now.
Maybe he would try for it later that evening. Give Belle a nice back rub and see where it went. Maybe that would ease the tension between them.
Rumple got into the shower thinking that everything would be fine.
00
That thought was smashed when Rumple, now dressed in his pajamas and t-shirt, made his way downstairs to find that Belle was all dressed up. Really dressed up, actually.
"You look nice," he said, unsure of why she was wearing a short skirt and such a tight shirt at eight o'clock at night.
"Thank you! I'll be heading out soon. I was waiting for you to finish up in the bathroom."
"Oh. I wasn't aware that you had plans for the evening."
"Taryn called! She wants to hang out tonight, just for a few hours." She looked Rumple over, "You can come along, if you want, but you may want to change your clothes."
"And where are you two going?"
"It's not just the two of us. Brian and Jacob are coming along too. We're going to The Rabbit Hole to play a few games of pool."
"I see." Rumple could feel his heart sink. "Well...I wouldn't want to drag you down. I'll stay here."
Some part of him expected Belle to laugh and reassure him that he wouldn't be dragging them down, but that wasn't what happened. Instead, she simply smiled.
"Thank you," she told him, giving him a peck on the lips. "I won't be out too too late."
Rumple nodded and watched as Belle walked towards the front door.
"I'll see you later," she called out.
"Yes… I'll see you later."
00
Rumple was tired, but he couldn't sleep. It was now midnight and Belle had yet to return home.
Since he couldn't sleep he decided to spend some time on the internet, trying to figure out who this Jacob fellow was. He'd heard the name before - Jacob Evans. Apparently he'd been a blacksmith in their homeland. It wasn't long before he was able to find the man's profile on that Facebook website that Belle seemed to enjoy so much.
The man was gorgeous. There was no denying that. Rumple didn't prefer the same sex, but if he had, Jacob would've been the type that he'd be drooling over. Shoulder length thick blonde hair, a muscular body and handsome features. Jacob's profile stated that he was twenty nine - much closer to Belle's age than he was. He a firefighter with the town's fire department and was single, too. Great. He was handsome, single and a hero.
Rumple shut the laptop. He couldn't stand looking at Jacob's face any longer. Belle was probably out with him, now, having a good time. Jacob was probably flirting with her - or worse, maybe he'd already done that and they were having relations. That would explain a lot. Why would Belle be interested in having sex with him when she could get it from someone so much more attractive? Even in his true youth, he'd never been nearly as handsome as Jacob was.
Rumple frowned and checked the clock again. Twelve thirty. He considered using magic to see where Belle was and what she was doing. He'd refreshed that ability after the last time she had gone out. But, he decided against it. It would be wrong to do that, he told himself. He should trust her.
Then one am came around and Rumple gave in.
00
Taryn was leaning heavily on Brian as they walked along the street. Belle and Jacob followed behind, Jacob holding Belle's hand. They'd just left The Rabbit Hole and Belle didn't trust the blonde not to fall over, seeing as how drunk he was.
"That was a good time," Taryn announced, loudly. "So fucking good."
"You're smashed," Jacob called out.
"So are you!"
Belle chuckled. Her friends were funny when they were drunk.
Right then, she heard the clock tower strike. It was one in the morning. She knew she ought to get back home soon. Thankfully, Jacob's apartment wasn't too far off.
"Brian, can you get Taryn home? I'll walk with Jacob."
"Yeah, we're fine," Brian answered.
"Great. See you later!"
"Laterrrrr!" Taryn called out.
Soon enough it was just Belle and Jacob.
"So… you're gonna take me home?" Jacob asked, holding Belle's hand a little tighter.
"Yes, I am."
"That's nice of you. Y'know, you're real pretty. You should come upstairs with me."
Belle smiled.
"You're not so bad yourself, and I'd be happy to help you get up the stairs..."
That was where Rumple turned the vision off. He couldn't take watching what was obviously to come. He felt sick just thinking about it.
Meanwhile, Belle and Jacob continued to talk.
"But?" Jacob asked.
"But that's as far as I'll go. I'm married, you know."
"Aw, come on. He won't know!"
"As handsome as you are, I must remain faithful to my husband."
"But he's disgusting! You can do so much better!"
Belle took a step back and glared at him.
"I love Rumple very much!"
Jacob looked at her for a minute, trying to judge whether or not she was serious. Apparently she was.
"Sorry," he finally said. "If you love him you love him."
"It's fine," Belle replied. She once again took his hand, "Let's just get you home."