The breeze glided over Belle's bare arm that was clutching at the sheet covering her. It danced through the hairs on her arm, gently tickling her to wake up from her sleep. She slowly opened her eyes to see her bedside table. The rose that Rumpel had left for her seemed to be glowing in the morning sunshine. Belle did not move but looked puzzled with a foreign weight laying across her side and draped over her stomach. It was an odd occurrence. She had never awaken to this situation.
She turned her head to see the occupant behind her. Now Belle was even more confused, he never slept so why was he in her bed? With that in mind, Belle turned over keeping his arm draped over her and lay studying his face. His hair was tussled from apparently spending the night in her bed. On the other hand, did she do that last night? The scar on his upper lip always drew her attention and she still did not know how he had gotten it. She had not seen him this relaxed since his coma, though his face did not have the healthy colour as it did before her. At least he looked alive.
He looked even more alive when his eyes opened. "Stop staring at me."
"I can't help it." Belle explained and touched his cheek. "Did I miss that you can now sleep?"
"I haven't been asleep. I thought I would just lie with you while you slept. You did say once it would be nice to wake up to find me here." Rumpel said removing his arm from over her body to rub at something in his hair.
She nudged closer to him and kissed him, her hand hooking his neck to draw him to her. His hand pressed against her upper back, drawing her naked body against his own. They had reached a new high last night. A chance to grab rapture and make it their own, without anyone interrupting them. The night had been theirs to work out needs and wants of so many months apart. None of the heartache had mattered. It was just them and their release.
Their kiss naturally ended and Rumpel led back onto his back with his arm pulling her against his body. Belle's head rested on his chest and traced lazy patterns onto his skin. It felt like another life with this rare experience of waking up with him. She was never going to forget it.
They both heard the front door to Belle's apartment open and shut loudly. A silent agreement was made between them, as they both reached to the sheet and drew it up their bodies to cover themselves. As Belle tucked the sheet under her face, the door to her bedroom crept open. Their son's face slowly edged into sight from behind the door. Seeing the two of them in bed, Gideon took it as an invite to enter the bedroom and opened the door wider.
"You could have told me, you two had gone home!" Gideon's annoyance was evident in his voice. "I looked for you everywhere, mother."
"Well, you didn't look everywhere. We've been here all night." Rumpel replied with a smirk.
Gideon glared at his father. "It would have been nice to know that you had gone home."
"It just happened in the moment." Belle said. Gideon's body language relaxed. She knew she should have probably told him, but as she said, it just happened. One minute she was the loneliness person in the world and then Rumpel had made her whole by surprising her.
"I'm going to put some tea on." Gideon told them and reached for the doorknob to pull the door closed behind him.
Before Gideon took a step, Rumpel asked. "So where have you been? Stop out, did we?"
Gideon stopped with his hand on the door and looked at his father. Nothing was said. Father and son knew exactly what the answer was. Belle sat up keeping the sheet against herself with an arm across her chest and gazed between the two men in her life. It was still strange to think of Gideon as a man, but she could not deny it. He was too tall to deny it.
With a red face, Gideon left her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Belle looked down at Rumpel beside her, who had a full-blown smile. Something had amused her husband and she was yet to find out what.
"What?" Belle asked, nudging her elbow into his ribs.
He winched at the unexpected pain. "We've been having a manly chat." Rumpel said as he sat up to prop the pillow behind him to lean against the headboard. "He likes a girl in town."
"Lilly." Belle supplied with a smile.
"Oh, did he tell you?" Rumpel had a flash of hurt over his face as he spoke. He had probably thought that it had been a special moment between the two. Some male bonding.
"Gideon had mentioned her last night and gone to find her." Belle answered and added. "I got from that, that he liked her. He hasn't given me details."
The smile was back on Rumpel's face. "I'm glad he's found someone he likes. I'm not so happy its Maleficent's daughter, but I'm not going to stop him if he's happy."
"Wait a second," Belle touched his chest. "When did you two chat about this?"
Rumpel's eyes went wide before he quickly looked down at his hands. "Erm… Well, you see…"
"Woah!" She poked her finger into his chest just realising something. "Why wasn't he surprised to see you back?"
"Well… Sweetheart…" Rumpel mumbled slowly, thinking through his word choice.
Belle slapped at his bare chest. "You were back already!"
"Ow!" Rumpel could not help the chuckle at her reaction. "Yesterday morning."
"What!" Her voice was bordering on yelling. "I was moping around all yesterday and you were back?"
"I had to take care of some things before you saw me." Rumpel explained taking one of her hands between his. "I did not exactly look respectable."
"What does that mean?" Belle questioned, her eyebrows scrunching at his words.
"My hair was really long. I had this beard thing. And… I just didn't feel like me." His thumb rubbed over the back of her hand as he told her.
Belle sulked. "It would have been nice to have seen you though. He got to see you."
"Gideon only saw me because he felt me return. I didn't seek him out." Rumpel said with one of his hands cupping at her face. "He needed my assistance anyway."
"Assistance?" Belle raised an eyebrow at him.
"Who do you think got him the suit?" He asked gesturing towards the bedroom door, but more at the other occupant of the apartment.
"I thought it was very you!" She poked him again in his chest. Rumpel laughed at her and pulled her towards him, guiding her to rest against him. They sat quietly deep in their own thoughts, blissfully enjoying just being together. It made Belle reminisce about how they used to read the Sunday papers in bed together. He would come and wake her with breakfast in bed and would sit on the bed beside her as they read.
Rumpel kissed the top of her head and said. "We still need to talk."
"I know." Belle sighed and sat up to see his face. "We need to keep doing what we're doing. We need to stick together."
"No more running." Rumpel added and swept some hair behind her ear.
"There will be dark days. But if we stick together through them, then nothing can keep us apart." She said looking deeply into his eyes. It was nice to see the agreement. Belle was so used to there always being some kind of struggle between them.
His gaze went to the foot of the bed as Rumpel spoke. "You know, I've had a year and half to think about it. This conversation has played out so many ways in my head. The constant has always been that I need to remember that you love me. And I know now, even when we are having a bad time like we have been, you love me no matter what is happening."
Rumpel looked back to Belle and continued. "You stood up to fight for me. You were my hero and showed me that I don't have to fight either for darkness or light. I just need to fight for love." The back of his fingers caressed her cheek. "Fight for your love."
"Yeah, just don't fight against me or I'll pummel you like I did to your mother!" She told him playfully, lightly punching his chest.
He took the bait and laughed at her before saying. "Really, dearie?"
"Yep! You wouldn't stand a chance!" Belle smiled at him and added. "Dearie!"
"Oh, no, you can't steal my dearie!" Rumpel grabbed her by her arms and pushed her back into the bed, and leant his weight against her to pin her. Her excited scream rang in his ears but he did not care and latched onto her lips with his own. They lay there and kissed, hands wandering over each other's body.
A knock came from the bedroom door and Gideon shouted from the other side. "Tea!"
Rumpel broke their kiss to shout back. "Busy!"
They could hear their son mumbling to himself that he did not want to know and went back to enjoying each other. They had so many months to catch up on and baste in the sensations they could inflict on one another. Loving the other whole-heartedly, knowing that as much as they hurt one another, their love has the strength to keep them together.