He'd just about thought he'd finally got it right. She was so happy against his side that she had practically purred at his words, and he expected they'd fall asleep just like this, just like they always did.

And then she moved. She moved so swiftly and deliberately that for a second he wondered if she'd already fallen asleep and was reacting to a nightmare. But instead of flinging herself up and off of him while screaming and breathing hard, she rolled onto her stomach and angled her body so she could look right at him with a gaze that was so serious he felt his blood freeze in his veins.

"You can't keep everything to yourself, Rumple. You can't be afraid to tell me things! You can trust me with anything!"

"I know that," he answered, biting his tongue when he sensed the irritation returning to his voice. He'd only just fixed one problem he didn't need to fix it again, no matter how wonderful the reward might be. Besides, he knew. He did know that he could trust her. The fact that he trusted her was why he found himself wanting to tell her about his son. He needed to tell her about Bae. It was time to tell her about Bae, and he knew that. It was just that every time he tried, the words never seemed to come out. He wasn't good with secrets.

No, that wasn't it. The problem was that he was too good with secrets. He was a vault! Secrets and scheming and planning, that was what he did best, better than anyone he knew! What he wasn't good with was sharing those secrets. How could he be? Ever since he'd shared some of those secrets with Cora and she'd used them against him, he'd never told another soul. He'd lived a long time in secrecy. It was no wonder he couldn't get the words out…he hadn't had to for years. That was the secret, he needed her to know that just as much as he needed her to know about Baelfire.

"But Belle, I need you to understand…I'm not used to telling people what they want to hear. I've perfected doing the exact opposite for centuries and breaking that habit, doing what you ask…doesn't come easily anymore. I've depended on no one but myself for as long as I can remember, and I'm not used to having someone I can trust, someone who won't betray me."

"I understand that," she nodded before reaching for his hand and holding it secure between her own. "But you're also not used to this."

She kissed his palm tenderly before moving her cheek to rest in it, and, oh, he knew. His stomach fluttered at her gestures and looks, his desire to touch her and hold her grew stronger every time she touched him and held him, and he knew it! She was right. He'd had romantic feelings before, he'd had romantic relationships, and he had romantic relations, but he'd never had all three of them so perfectly wrapped together in one woman one he craved so much.

He had to tell her. Cora and Milah had burned him in the past with their ambition and secrets, using his own ambition and secrets against him to get what they wanted. But Belle was different. He could tell her, and she'd be different.

But still, the words didn't come. The silence stretched on between them, the perfect amount of space that he needed to tell the tale of why they were really here and where he wanted to go, and why he'd been so angry today. And yet, nothing came out of his mouth. Fear kept his tongue paralyzed. And regret meant he couldn't look away.

"Make me a deal."

The hum of interested Dark Ones waking up in his mind drowned out the silence. Her voice, those words, carefully chosen words, words that she knew he wouldn't be able to resist piqued his interest as she'd known they would, though probably not for the same reasons. She wanted a deal with him? She didn't need it. Whatever she wanted, she'd have it, he'd go to the ends of the Earth if she required him to, but the fact that she'd lay beside him and insist on a deal…it was amusing to him. But to the Dark Ones he shared a mind with, those words were catnip.

"What is it that you want?" he asked, removing his hand and pushing hair over her shoulder. That was a mistake. Without her hair in the way, his vision was good enough to provide an unhindered look at her breasts again. If he hadn't wanted to give her the world before, he did now.

"I want you to trust me."

Frustration overwhelmed him. The Dark Ones hissed. They didn't make deals for such things as "trust." Money, magic, jewels, flesh, they'd trade for anything…except a state of mind. Even they knew that there wasn't enough magic in the world to make someone "trust." Like love, not lust, trust had to be earned. Otherwise, it was just blind obedience. And besides, even if it could be traded for, there was no deal to be made. He couldn't make a deal for something she already had.

"I do trust you," he reiterated. Just because he couldn't get the words out, just because he couldn't seem to tell her, didn't mean that he didn't trust her.

But when he opened his mouth to tell her, to explain, he found her hand at the side of his cheek, one finger delicately over his mouth as she stared down at him. "I wasn't finished," she stated with insistence in her voice. "I want you to trust me, to tell me about your life, and to answer me truthfully when I ask a question. Can you do that?"

Yes! Yes, he could!

But again, when he opened his mouth to tell her this, all the things he'd told her since she returned came flooding back into his mind. He hadn't been entirely honest in their relationship thus far. It wasn't just Baelfire he was keeping a secret. It was the state of the town, who had been responsible for the Curse that got them here. Hell, he hadn't even confessed his guilt at not coming after her when Regina took her yet. Some of those things he regretted. He wanted to tell her about Bae, he wanted to apologize for not coming after her, for believing Regina's lies. But he also wanted to keep her safe. If she asked him about town and he told her, then she'd want to come with him, and he wasn't sure he could protect her out there yet. He wasn't sure how she'd react to knowing he'd set all the wheels in motion to make this Curse possible. He was confident that this fantasy he was living in with her wasn't going to last forever, but he wasn't ready for it to end yet. He wasn't ready for her to leave him again. So if she was asking him to be honest, to tell her the truth…then no, he couldn't promise that.

He hadn't been aware that he'd looked away from her until he felt the bed beside him shift, and he felt her skin graze against his. When he looked over to find her, she planted her mouth on his in a deep kiss his body responded to immediately. She moved closer over him, and he let his hands pull her closer as they worked…

But the damn voices wouldn't go away! They were smart! Just as smart as he was, smart enough to see through her rouse. She was trying to distract him, using sex to pull his head out of the clouds. As much as he wanted to roll over and teach her how to really distract him from the subject at hand, this wasn't a discussion that the Dark Ones wanted to let go of so easily. They never did when there was a deal that was neither made nor rejected on the table.

"Deals work both ways, dearie," he answered in a menacing tone when she pulled away. "You have to have something that I want."

"I do," she answered before he could tell her that he was rejecting her proposal. Her words had the other Dark Ones holding their breath, practically salivating as she moved her fingers over his hair. The way she wriggled her body over his was what had him practically holding his breath. Heaven help him if she'd just move her hip a little bit to the left!

"And what's that?" he managed to choke out.

"Privacy."

Privacy. She wanted honesty, and the return was privacy. Well, if those didn't seem to contradict one another…

"You give me honesty, and in return, I promise not to bombard you with questions from your past, no more than three at a time."

"One in a single day."

"Two."

He hadn't meant to barter with her, not when he had no intention of taking the deal, but bartering was something that came naturally when it came to deals. And besides, he was beginning to see a flaw in her thinking that he could exploit. He knew that she thought she'd learned how to deal with him in the castle, but obviously not, and the idea of doing what she asked, of making a deal where she could ask him any two questions about his past in a single twenty-four hour period, and he'd have to answer honestly, be bound to answer honestly…that was no deal. Accepting it was unthinkable but turning her down was just as unthinkable. She'd see through it and wonder why. She'd want answers, and if she left before he could figure out how to protect her…

There was a loophole that he could exploit, one that made no deal while making her think a deal was made, one that allowed him a way around what she wanted. It might be cruel and manipulative, but exploiting that loophole was just as much for her safety as it was for his sanity.

"Honesty or nothing," he stated, applying the first layer to see if his trick went over her head. He wasn't promising lies. Quite the contrary. He was promising honesty or no lies; "nothing."

She nodded sadly in response, an agreement to the deal she thought they were about to make. But that was the second trick, the second loophole he was about to pull her gladly into. There couldn't be a contract in place if she didn't realize there was no deal.

"So...do we have a deal, Rumpelstiltskin?" she asked, shifting over him again. Damn that knee of hers!

She made it easy to reach up and pull her mouth down to his, to kiss her and touch her until she forgot he hadn't answered or assumed that their contact meant "yes" when no verbal agreement meant their "deal" was null and void.

He wasn't proud of what he'd done, wasn't celebrating it as a victory, though he suspected that one day when she discovered his trickery, she'd think he did. Later that night, when she fell asleep like always, his actions kept him awake, the puzzle at the town line tormented him in a way it didn't with her, and though he kept his body still for her, he felt like he would die if he didn't expel the energy welling up inside of him. Hours later, he politely asked her to roll over so he could use the bathroom. When he came out again and saw her sleeping soundly, he kissed the top of her head, using magic to push thoughts of Regina out of her mind, then left.

He found himself wandering down to where the night had begun, out the back door, down the storm doors, and into the basement again. With a sigh, he tapped the wheel in front of him, then gave it a small casual push to send it spinning. Another night with Belle. Another day without Baelfire. He blew the breath he was holding out of his mouth as he sat down at the table where he'd laid a few of the items he'd found and brought here out before him, a worktable with no work to be done. What a conundrum that was, considering that from where he sat there was nothing but work to be done-work he hadn't expected.

To leave Storybrooke was to leave behind Rumpelstiltskin forever, to become Mr. Gold entirely, forget about the Enchanted Forest, about Belle, about Bae…it wasn't an option. Becoming Mr. Gold again on the other end of the town line had some implications he could figure out. It was likely, more than likely, that it happened because there was no magic beyond the town line. The world didn't have magic, just Storybrooke. He hadn't planned on that. He'd planned for the Curse to break entirely, that he could take himself and his magic and go find Baelfire! He'd figured that magic might be weak or work differently here as it settled, but this?!

He hadn't planned for this. In fact, he'd never much thought beyond ever breaking the Curse and bringing magic to this land to craft a plan for this. Everything had always been about getting to the Realm Without Magic, bringing magic to it, and then leaving to find Baelfire. He had made no plans for after that. He had no plans for what he'd do or even say to his boy. Because of the Seer's prophecy, a boy who would lead him to Baelfire and be his undoing, he figured that his time would be limited. He assumed that he'd spend whatever he had left with Baelfire. But now with Belle…

He blew out another breath and dropped his face into his hands, rubbing them over his skin, places she'd kissed only hours ago despite how he'd behaved and the fact that he'd lied to her yet again and how he'd failed to tell her about Bae. Belle was another problem, a wrinkle in a plan he wasn't prepared for.

Belle couldn't go with him over the town line. She wasn't like him or the rest of the town. If he reverted back to Mr. Gold, it wouldn't be good, but he'd survived as Mr. Gold for a long time and probably could again, but Belle was different. From her nightmares, he knew that what she would revert to was nothing; no him, no her, no family, memories, no name or past, just…nothing. He couldn't risk taking her anywhere near that line now, not knowing what might have been on the other side. But for him…

He couldn't give up. He'd masterminded all this, gotten this far. The Seer was saying it was going to happen, and she was never wrong. So, he could do it. He could make arrangements to keep Belle safe from Regina and get over that line. If the Seer was saying it was going to happen, then there had to be a way to break the Curse, truly break it so that he could deliver magic to this realm entirely. There had to be a way he could retain his memories and find Baelfire.

Retain his memories…maybe that was it.

Maybe he didn't need to break this Curse. Maybe he just needed to find the right loophole. He needed a way to leave Storybrooke and retain his memories. He just needed time, time to figure out the magic, time to find the loophole, time to exploit it. He had time. He had patience. With Belle at his side and Baelfire within reach…he had as much time and patience as it would take.

RC's comments, and even Rumple's one comment in a later season, about Rumple being "addicted" were really handy in chapters like these. We know that Rumple isn't an honest person. We know that he tells lies and gives in to making deals even when he shouldn't. We understand it when he's dealing with people like Regina and Hook and the Charmings, but when dealing with Belle, that always makes it a bit more difficult to understand and explain. We know he trusts her, or at least he believes that he trusts her, so why keep up with the lies, with the dealmaking, why keep being deceitful? I treated it like an addiction. He doesn't mean to do these things, truly he doesn't. I believe that he wants to be honest with her just as much as an alcoholic wants to be sober, but after so long, it's an instinct and a habit for him to do these things. Breaking those instincts and habits, well...not so easy.

Thank you, Grace5231973 and Alarda, for your reviews of the last chapter. I'm delighted that you enjoyed it, and I'm hoping that you are going to enjoy this peek inside of Rumple's mind during this time too. These chapters are essential to getting Rumple's character down, so I hope you'll agree with the inner workings I have going on here as well as how I'm trying to move the story forward. Belle vs. Bae should be getting a bit more prominent. And we finally have this idea of him finding a loophole to leave the town entering into his mind. I know this section seems slow, but it was necessary for me to advance the story and accommodate the timeline. I can't wait to hear your thoughts! Peace and Happy Reading!