Belle was a balm for his soul. He'd known that he supposed. She'd had the ability in the Enchanted Forest to calm him, to make him smile when he felt tortured or worried. She'd had that ability, but he'd ignored it when they'd been together in his castle or else tried to pretend like it hadn't been there. Now, he found himself craving it.
When he'd first come home for lunch, he'd felt guilty and disappointed in himself. He'd been depressed at the thought of not having her around, of being a dark stain on her, body and soul. But when they made their way down to the kitchen, and he began to make them some sandwiches, he felt warm just having her around. She was like the sun coming out again after a hurricane. Even if all she was doing was watching him as he moved around the kitchen, he felt like he could breathe as he never had before. His lungs felt clearer, the air inside of them felt fresher. It was easy to forget about what had happened with Dove, to forget everything he'd seen on the way into town, about locating August Booth and just focus on her.
He used the last bit of good bread he had and some fresh meat and cheese he'd summoned from the grocery store to craft their lunch and vowed to get more before he came home tonight. Mostly she was quiet and just watched him as he worked, but then she pushed him aside after he finished the first and offered it to her and instead made her own. She asked him about the microwave about what it did and how it worked, then the coffee maker, and then the stove. She offered him a challenge in having to describe simple everyday things he'd never thought of before. He'd rather enjoyed their hour, the entertainment he'd found in answering her questions, but by the end of it, he could tell her head was spinning. She was blushing and shaking her head as she looked around the kitchen like it was an untamed world she had to map out and master on her own.
"Hey," he whispered before pulling her to him and kissing the top of her head. "We'll get there. Trust me, soon enough, this will all be second nature. We'll make dinner together tonight; that will help. There is no better way to learn than through experience."
She nodded, smiling up at him. "I'll see you later then."
"Indeed you will, though…" he sighed as he pulled away from her. He was about to leave again and was reminded of how he'd found her when he'd come home in the first place, what he'd assumed about the asylum giving her drugs to calm her. "Try to rest, but don't sleep," he advised. "You'll feel better when things are normal. When days are days and nights are…"
"When days are busy and nights are ours," she finished for him with a suggestive smile that made him question if he really needed to go back to the shop. He did. He needed to locate Booth. He knew who his son was, and with Emma gone, his greatest chance of finding him was with the puppet. But pulling away from her was difficult. Leaving her at all was difficult when she folded herself against his chest and held him just as tight as he held her. He was going to have to figure out how to balance this life, balance getting his son back, and enjoy whatever time he had with her so he could die happily.
"I have to go, but I'll be back before dinner. I love you."
"I love you, too."
He kissed her once more, then managed to make it back to the shop only because he refused to look back the entire way.
Booth, he had to turn his attentions to Booth. They'd had a deal. He'd told Booth he could get Emma to believe that he'd get the Curse broken so that Henry would wake up. In return, Booth would tell him where to find his son. He wanted Emma to take him there for several reasons, not the least of which the Seer kept insisting on it. Still, having a location, a phone number, even just a name would reassure him, give him something to hold onto as he made plans for leaving town to find him and waited for Emma. He was ready. He just needed the puppet.
He tried to call first, but the mechanical voice on the phone told him that the number he had for him at Granny's Bed and Breakfast had been disconnected. He didn't panic. Half the town was without power. If the Bed and Breakfast had been knocked out too and no one had reported to work, as he suspected from the large crowds that were still gathering around the town, it might be a while.
It was the only number he had for Booth, so instead of calling again, he simply walked. Down the street to Granny's he went, glaring at anyone who dared to look at him as he hobbled along. He didn't like what he found at Granny's. The lights were off. The door was locked, but a window had been broken. More than one window. He waved his hand over the locked door, and it clicked before swinging open for him.
The place was dark. Allowing his senses to extend outward, he heard no heartbeats, and that was fine. It meant Widow Lucas and Ruby were out somewhere. And Booth, well…if he was a puppet, he didn't need blood anymore, so there was no reason to hear a heartbeat. But when he made his way upstairs, he found that the room was wrong. Ransacked, it appeared. It was different than it had been the last time he'd been here. There were some clothes strewn about, but his personal effects appeared gone, mostly. More importantly, the bed he'd left the puppet upon was empty.
"Oh, you can't hide that easily, boy…" he growled. He used his magic again. He focused on Booth, on the dark-haired man who knew Baelfire, and had his magic take him there. He ended up in the middle of the forest. Something had gone wrong. Or else magic not working as it previously had was to blame. He tried again but only wound up in the same place. Out of curiosity, he went looking for Marco, assuming that if the puppet was alive or awake, he'd have gone out in search of his father. Oddly enough, he did find Marco. He found him in his garage, sitting on a stool, his head in his hands, crying. Booth was nowhere in sight.
He spent the day searching. He looked all over Storybrooke, everywhere he could think to look, but he never found Booth. More than once, he tried to use his magic. Each time he always came back to that same place in the woods. There was something special about it. He knew that. The magic worked when he wanted to go other places, and yet every time he tried to appear before Booth, he kept coming back to this place. That meant one thing…Booth had done something. Booth had cast a spell either to bring him here when someone tried to locate him, or he was here but covered with a spell of some kind.
He growled. He growled and sneered and shouted into the woods as the sun began to go down. He was angry. He was frustrated. He wanted to kill someone, namely a little wooden puppet who knew too much about this world and him. But magic always won in the end. He'd get his price out of him, one way or another, today or three years from now…he'd get what he was owed.
Angry as he was, he drove home on auto-piolet, driving around the masses wandering and screaming in the street, around the small fires and shards of glass he saw in the road. He was distracted, so much so that he only remembered Belle and the fact that he needed to bring food home for her so they could make dinner together once he turned onto his street. His magic was tired, he'd gotten a lot out of it today searching for August, but he managed to summon food from the grocery store into the trunk and retrieve it.
He tried to tell himself to calm down, to not be in a bad mood and breathe, but he felt like blackness as he walked up his steps. He'd been hoping to return home knowing something about his son. Instead, all he knew was that August Wayne Booth was a-
The minute the door closed behind him, he heard footsteps on the stairs. He dropped the bags he'd been carrying and braced himself as she rounded the corner and found her way into his arms again.
A balm for his soul…
She made today better. She made his failure disappear. She made him want more than revenge.
He was careful when he kissed her. He wanted more than the pecks he'd given her earlier but less than something that would lead them upstairs. He'd only restrained himself at lunch because he needed to go back to work. Now that he didn't have to leave, he needed to practice restraint. She'd be hungry, and she really did need to learn how to use the kitchen if she was going to stay here.
When they broke apart, they took what he'd brought, or summoned, home. He taught her what he could, trying to pick out every little detail, assuming that she knew nothing and would tell him if she did know something. Plastic, Styrofoam, refrigeration, those were all new words to her as they unpacked meat and vegetables, boxed food, and frozen food. He'd told her earlier that frozen food wasn't as good in the microwave, but he'd still summoned it so she could get the practice using it for herself. Chicken, a side of pasta, and frozen broccoli, they moved around the kitchen together as they cooked. She asked questions, wondered where he kept things like pots and pans, glass containers, and each time he answered her questions and then watched her work. Admired her work, was probably more accurate. She always was a smart one, and she'd always been a good cook, or at least she had been once she'd gotten some practice. It was ironic to him. He'd told Dove that morning that this new form of magic was like a muscle; the more he used it, the more it would come back. Belle might not have magic, exactly, but it was clear that some things were coming back to her, muscles and instincts working that hadn't worked in decades.
She dazzled him.
And as they ate, he felt the stress of the day lift off his shoulders. She was his sun again, chasing away the clouds that had haunted him all day long. Even when, against his protests, she began to do the dishes. He didn't like her filling that role of "servant." He didn't want to see her in that way ever again, and he didn't want her to feel like she had to do chores either. But when she lit up after using the garbage disposal, he couldn't help but smile. She was learning, not serving. And she was enjoying every bit of her education. So, he taught her more.
Just to watch her eyes widen and her mind work, he found the soap under the kitchen sink and put a bit into the dishwasher, explaining how to measure as he went. Then he shut the cap and let it close before teaching her how to start it on a delay so that they'd be asleep by the time it came on.
"They seem clean now, but trust me, by morning…they'll sparkle."
"Really?" she asked excitedly.
"Well," he sighed, reminding himself that with no other experience, all she had to set her expectations were his own words. He didn't want her to be disappointed. "Not sparkle, not really, but they will be even cleaner than they are now."
"And it does it on its own? Throughout the night?"
"Yes, but it only takes a couple of hours. I just prefer to do it at night. When I awake the next morning, it's easy to unload it and put everything back where it belongs."
"Can I do it?" she asked quickly. He could see her excitement, he knew why she was asking, but the thought of her doing chores around the house while he went off to work and searched for his son…it was too much like old times. He hadn't brought her here to be his maid. He'd brought her here because he loved her, and after what she'd endured because of that love, she deserved to be taken care of. She should spend her days reading, not doing chores.
"No, Belle…you don't have to do that. Not anymore-"
"No, I want to," she argued. "Just…just until I learn my way around. Experience is the best way to learn, isn't that what you said."
"It was indeed," he muttered. Perhaps he'd spoken far too soon. Maybe he shouldn't have used those words exactly.
"Please," she insisted with a gentle smile. "I want to. It'll give me something to do while you're gone."
He wanted to growl at the thought of that. He hated the fact that he'd ever used her as he did in the Dark Castle, to begin with. But if she truly wanted to do it, and it would only be a few minutes out of her day…
"I'll leave it for you then," he conceded.
She beamed. Well, at least it made her happy. That was something.
"Do you normally go to bed now?"
Her question seemed to suck the air out of the room. Suddenly he noticed how quiet it was in the kitchen. And he couldn't help but realize that though she'd asked him about going to bed with confidence, she was twisting her hands in front of her nervously, and her cheeks were red. He swallowed hard.
"It's a bit early," he commented, looking at the clock. He'd brought her home late last night, and after dinner, there had been nothing to do but go to bed. Tonight, they had time, though the way the sun set early this time of year, he could certainly see how it would trick her mind. "Sometimes I do something else until I'm tired…"
She smiled, her blush deepened, and she pulled her hands apart before she shrugged. "I uh…I wasn't exactly planning on going to sleep first."
Oh, fuck.
She'd meant it to be suggestive. Any woman saying those kinds of words with that blush and that look in her eye would have sounded suggestive. She sounded completely irresistible. His heart was fluttering as blood rushed through his body and into a certain body part that made it clear he was perfectly fine with her "suggestion."
But after last night, after she'd confessed she was sore, and they'd spoken…he didn't want her to feel forced or like it was expected. If he was honest, he'd be happy just to hold her for a few hours before she slept. He'd be happy to clean out one of the guest rooms for her now that his magic was working and give her some privacy.
"Are you sure?" he questioned, trying to breathe. All day long, he'd felt like the Dark One. Suddenly he had her feeling like a human all over again, shaking and utterly unsure of himself. "Are you positive?!"
She didn't answer him, not with words. Instead, she moved slowly over to where he stood then smoothed her hands slowly up his chest and around his neck in a way that made him think he might not make it to bed if she wasn't careful. Damn…she was a fast learner now, wasn't she?
"Why is it so hard for you to believe…" she breathed before leaning her head against him so that he could kiss her forehead. His arms finally moved around her. "I just want to be close to you."
Oh, he nearly broke right then and there. Today had been…less than great. First dealing with Dove, then trying and failing to find Booth, learning nothing about his son but knowing that the person he needed to get back to him was in another realm, and then there was their talk just before lunch. That part hadn't particularly been bad, but it had been embarrassing in its own way, and he wasn't exactly keen to relive it.
But, when she tightened her hold on him, he felt everything melt away into something that he wanted, something he'd longed for longer than he could explain. She wanted to be close to him. He wanted to be close to her too.
He gave her a gentle squeeze before releasing her and accepting their fate, accepting whatever their relationship was and where it would lead them. Then he placed his hands on her neck and kissed her. Once gently, then again slowly, and finally passionately. He listened to her groan into him and didn't resist, didn't pull away because he saw no reason to.
"Then…" he whispered gently before kissing her one last time, "we'll go to bed now."
This is another of the chapters that were added post-publication to Moments Seen and Unseen. This one is more suggestive than sexual, but that's not why it was originally put in Exile. It was removed because, from Belle's point of view, it was just more of the same, a repeat of her learning stuff. It slowed the story down to keep it in. But, here it is. And really, in this fiction, aside from slowing things down, it actually sort of works well with the story. Because we've been seeing things through Rumple's perspective, it doesn't feel as much like a repeat as it did in Moments. And really, I love this chapter for Belle because after the first episode of "she's not dumb," this chapter really shows her intelligence and independence as she begins to learn. She doesn't take much instruction here before taking things over for herself. It's been less than forty-eight hours, and she's already mastering the kitchen and showing him, "Hey, I can make sandwiches myself, thank you!"
Thank you, Grace5231973 and Alarda, for your reviews on the last chapter and for not running away from the chapters that explore the more adult situations. Whether you feel it's a repeat or not, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter too. I liked adding August Booth and their deal into the story. And even more, I liked it because it was one more reason to imagine August getting up and running into the woods. He did make that deal with Rumple in the last fiction to help him find Baelfire. But I don't think he actually wants to. So I liked the idea that one other reason why he got up and went to hide in the woods was that he was trying to delay Gold finding him and enforcing the deal they made. Where he got the magic to hide from the Dark One himself, when Mary Margaret will be able to find him so easily on her own later...who knows? It's August. He knows people. Peace and Happy Reading!