They went over to the Public Gardens to meet Belle. She had a book bag with her.
"Check it out!" she said pulling a book out of the bag. "For you Killian. It's Make Way for Ducklings! See! Just like the statues." Belle pointed to the bronze statues of the mother duck and her ducklings walking in a line in the park. They looked exactly like the ducks on the cover of the book.
Killian took the book in his hand and his eyes went big. "You mean they're real?"
"Uh, huh," said Belle with a smile. "They were based on real ducks that lived in this very park!"
"Thank you," said Killian without prompting and Neal beamed proudly.
"That was really nice of you Belle," said Neal. "Totally unnecessary but super nice."
"Hold this Daddy! I want to see the ducks!" said Killian. He gave his dad the book and ran out to pet the little bronze duck statues and climb onto them.
"Can you take our picture?" Belle asked, thrusting out her phone.
Gold went to take it, thinking she wanted a picture with Killian, who was indeed the cutest of the three Golds now assembled on view in the park.
"No silly," said Belle to Gold. "I want you in the picture, not taking it!"
Gold handed the phone to Neal. "Yeah, just promise me this isn't going on Facebook or Twithead or any of those other internet places, okay?"
"What, embarrassed to be seen with me?" cooed Belle.
"More like for you."
"Aw shuddup," said Belle and gave him a little thump with her purse.
"Come on, closer together," said Neal waving his hand at them.
Belle bent down in front of the bronze mother duck in the front and Gold stood awkwardly behind her as Neal took the photo.
"There, done."
"Cool, oh let me see!" cried Belle and rushed over to Neal to look. "Thanks! This is great."
Gold sidled up to her and tried to peek over her shoulder. "Can I see?"
"Sure," said Belle and handed the phone over as Neal gave her his own camera so she could take a picture of him and Killian by the ducks.
Gold looked at the picture as Belle instructed a fidgeting Killian to hold his pose for just one more second.
"Belle! Belle!" exclaimed Gold frantically.
"What's wrong?" she asked as she snapped off a few more pictures of Killian and Neal.
"Belle, you have to delete this! Where's the delete button on this blasted thing?" "I am not deleting it. It's a perfectly good photo. What's your problem with it?"
"I look like a dork in it," protested Gold.
Belle started to laugh. She had never heard Ian Gold use the word "dork" before. He sounded like an embarrassed teenager from the 1980s. "Oh tish and pish!" she exclaimed.
Where did she get these expressions from? he wondered.
"You do not look stupid and I'm not deleting it. It's the only picture of you and me together that I have."
"Then I'll delete it myself, now give it to me so I can figure this infernal machine out."
"No way!" she cried trying to hold it out of his reach.
"Belle!"
"You are extremely vain man, do you know that?"
"I am not vain—I just—"
"What?"
"In the picture—I have- I have a weird expression on my face."
"Really?" She zoomed in and scrutinized the image further. "No you don't, you're just smiling."
"Yeah that's it, that's the-"
"Gold, that's not a weird expression, that's just what people do for pictures."
"Uh… not all people."
"Wait, do you mean to tell me…you don't smile for pictures?"
"Um…maybe? I'm just not a super smiley person I guess?" he huffed feeling slightly freakish.
"Hmmm, well I think I know how to change that," said Belle with a naughty grin. Then her hands leapt out at him, seemingly of their own volition and before he knew it he she was tickling him!
"What the-?" Then Gold started to giggle. It was strangely high pitched, which made Belle laugh all the more as she kept at it.
"Aaah! Stoppit! You are a crazy woman, you know that?" He was soon laughing so hard he could barely take a breath.
At last they both collapsed on a nearby park bench, still laughing breathlessly. Gold scooted over to the other side of the bench where Belle couldn't reach him. "I'm filing for harassement! You're crazy, you know that?"
"I know," she said with lowered eyelids and turned to watch Neal taking more pictures of Killian.
With her attention diverted he took the opportunity to get some payback, as he poked her in the ribs with the tip of his cane.
"Hey, stop that," she said and brushed it away.
He angled it out of the way and poked her again.
"Hey! That thing's dirty! It's been all over the streets of Boston with you and that's just today!"
He ignored her pleas and poked her again, though paying attention not to touch her clothes with it, so they wouldn't get dirty.
"Gah! Stop it you silly man!"
He grinned slyly at her, quite enjoying himself now. "Why don't you come over here and make me," he said and gave her another gentle poke for good measure.
This time she was too fast for him, although perhaps it was because he just held it there a little longer than he had before, just to see what she would do.
"Oh that's it!" she shouted and grabbed the stick before he could withdraw it. She pulled him towards her along its length, until they were sitting beside each other on the bench.
"Help!" he cried theatrically.
"Ha, I've got you now!"
"Ah ha!" he grinned. "Little did you know, that was my evil scheme all along! Now the tables are turned!" he laughed as he pounced on her, launching an all out tickle attack that left Belle nearly horizontal on the bench and Gold gasping for breath through his laughter.
Minutes later they heard someone clear his throat. "Uh Dad, maybe not in front of the boy?"
"Oh, hey, Neal, sorry, uh, what was I thinking?" said Gold and sat up instantly from the position he'd been in which had been nearly on top of Belle. He scooted over to the other end of the bench and tried not to meet his son's eyes.
Belle sat up and patted her hair back into place, blushing fiercely.
Gold glanced over at her, pointed and gave a slight cough.
Belle looked down to see that the buttons on her blouse had somehow popped open during the tickle fight exposing the top of her lacey blue bra and quite a lot of bosom. She blushed fiercely as she quickly did the buttons up.
"Yeah, thanks guys." Neal smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. "C'mon Killian let's go look at that tree over there."
"I don't want to look at a tree Daddy!" piped up little Killian, unaware of why all the adults seemed so embarrassed. "I wanna stay with Gran'pa!"
"Son, trust me, this is a very exciting tree," said Neal as he put a hand on Killian's shoulders to turn him away as they walked towards a very ordinary looking tree.
Once he saw that Neal and Killian had their backs turned, Gold glanced slyly over at Belle. She wasn't looking at him, still busy fixing her top. With a smug little grin he poked her with his cane.
"IAN!"