Belle woke the next morning to sun light blaring on her face, her eyes blinked opening for a moment before closing again. As she leant forward to stretch the book fell from her lap with a loud thud.
"Oh your majesty, I didn't see you there" the familiar voice of Mrs Potts made Belle open her eyes, she looked at her with a slight stern expression "Sorry, Oh Belle, I didn't see you there" Mrs Potts spoke again sending the brunet a small smile, one Belle returned.
"No matter Mrs Potts" Belle stifled a yawn as she sat up from the arm chair and smoothed down her now crinkled dress "I'm going to go out for a while, I should be back by breakfast, if I'm not, our guests can eat without me" Belle informed her old governess.
"Of course" Mrs Potts nodded "I'll tell Albert to saddle up Philip for you" Mrs Potts said more to herself than to Belle.
Belle shook her head and a small smile grace her features "No need, I think I'll walk"
An hour later Belle found herself walking through fields that she hadn't been too since before she had been Queen. The last time she'd walked there had been after parting with Rumple, he going off to war and she to face her future.
She wore her favourite Blue and white dress and floral cloak, she let her hair down, out of its usual pile of curls of atop her head to the natural curls that cascaded down her back, pinned back slightly to keep the hair out of her face.
The sun had just fully risen, giving everything around her a bright yellow hue as she reached the destination she'd wanted. She now stood under the bridge on castle street, not far from her home.
She took a deep breath, the river bank was not far so the air had a refreshing, earthy, salt smell to it. Belle now felt more awake than she had in years. She slipped the cloak from her shoulders and let it hit the ground behind her. She then bent to the floor and slipped off her boots.
The brunet beauty then walked the short distance to the river bank ahead of her where she began to walk out into the water until the water lapped around her ankles. She felt like the old belle, just in that moment she felt like the young women she really was.
After a few seconds Belle walked out of the river edge and back up the bank where she found herself staring face to face with the column of concrete, the slab of concrete that had been crumbling and one day replaced.
She stumbled towards it, her feet cold and wet now sticky with sand, the ground hot beneath her feet as she tiptoed. The shore hadn't changed much since the day, since the last time she'd seen her once beloved Rumplestiltskin before he'd been shipped off to the front while she was yet to be Queen.
A younger Belle sat on the sand bank under the bridge not far from her home, the night was cloudless, stars shone in the night sky. She pulled her dark purple cloak tighter around her as a strong sea breezed past through her.
She heard a scuffle from the undergrowth, she turned and couldn't help but gasp as she saw that the man she loved had finally arrived. "I began to think you weren't coming" she confessed as she approached him.
"I was lucky to get away" a younger, more human looking Rumplestiltskin took her hands in his and held them close to him, letting a small kiss ghost her knuckles.
Belle smiled at him lovingly with those big blue eyes that made the humble spinner weak at the knees. Made him want to abandon his obligation to fight in the ogre wars, to take this beautiful princess and just run off into the hills, build a tree house in the woods and live happily ever after.
The princess moved her hands from his before hugging him to her, tucking her head under his chin, he wrapped his arms around her back and held her close before burying his face in her brown curls. How he would miss her, think of her during the long dark nights he feared were ahead.
"When do you leave?" Belle asked him, her voice quiet and muffled as she spoke into his raggedy brown cloak.
"We move out at dawn" he told her with a heavy heart.
"I wish you didn't have to go" she confessed, she knew that there were many women, wives, fiancés and even lovers that encouraged the men they loved to fight for their lands but Belle wanted Rumple to stay with her, he didn't need to fight to prove how brave he was, she knew it already.
"Aye so do I….But I'll be back before you know it" he tried to not only comfort her but also to comfort himself.
"You promise?" Belle asked him, her blue eyes reaching up to meet his brown.
"I swear, I'll return to you" he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Belle closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the smell of straw that seemed to cling to Rumple, from all of the straw he spun all day into wool. "Then we can have our happy ever after?" she suggested stifling a yawn.
"It's a deal Sweetheart" he smiled at her dreamily, closing his eyes too. He doubted, even if he were to return that they would ever actually be able to be together. Belle was a princess, he was pauper, he had nothing to offer her and her father would allow Belle to marry such below her station. She deserved more, a rich prince who could afford to buy her the world.
"Lets put it in writing" Belle all of a sudden jumped up from her place beside him, he automatically missed her warmth.
"Belle, I don't understand….What are you saying?" he asked as he fumbled to stand on his feet.
"You said it was a deal" Belle squealed "A deal that we would be together in the end" she continued.
"It was a figure of speech" he explained.
The brunet beauty shook her head "It wasn't….Or at least I didn't want it just to be….lets put it in writing" she suggested.
"But Belle….." Rumple began to speak but the beauty covered his mouth with her ever so delicate hand.
"You know how much I love the power of words" she smiled at him coyly as she fluttered her eye lashes at him.
Rumple sighed, he never really stood a chance against her anyway. "We have no pen nor paper" he told her with mock sorrow, clutching a hand over his heart.
Belle began to look around the small beach around her for some sort of substitute, then she began to laugh. Before he could ask her what was wrong she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards one of the concrete pillars that held up part of the bridge which had recently began to crumble at the foundation but Belle knew that earlier in the day had begun to be filled in.
The man watched as Belle picked up a stick and then turned to him "We write it in the concrete" she suggested before beginning to etch the 'B' in her name into the still wet concrete.
A few seconds later She thrust the stick into his hands, with a slight shake he wrote 'Rumple' next to his true love's name. Belle then looked at their work proudly "It will be there forever" she smiled before turning to him and reaching up to kiss him on the lips, her hands going to grip his brown floppy hair tightly.
"I love you" she confessed when they broke apart and she snuggled into his chest.
"Aye….And I love you" Rumple admitted, his eyes becoming watery with tears that he just had to blink away. Neither couldn't help but feel that this was all more of a goodbye than an I'll see you again.
Belle shook away the memory with a swift movement of her head, the pillar was now in front of her. Their two names still sat side by side in the concrete, she traced her name beside his with the pad of her finger.
As she did so a shiver ran up her spine and within a blink she found there rest a hand atop hers on the concrete, a breath against her neck, a chest against her back. Everything ever so present. "Rumple" she mumbled before turning to look at what he'd now become, at what the darkness had made him.
"I'm surprised this is still here" he admitted in a small unlike the dark one's voice almost like the man he'd been all those years ago.
"I told you it was forever" She gave him a small smile. Rumple didn't know if she meant the words in the concrete would be there forever or did she mean that her feelings for him would last forever, oh it must be the first, there was no way of the latter, despite how much he wished it would be so.
"Yes….well" Rumple realised how close he was standing to her, how he could feel her body heat against his. He stepped back.
"Why are you here?" She asked him, her voice bitter, the past was never sweet to look back upon.
"I transport by thinking about who I want….I mean need to go to and I appear beside them" he explained, hoping that she wouldn't notice his slip up about wanting to be with her.
"So you thought of me?" Belle raised an eyebrow at him.
"Aye" Rumple nodded letting a slighter of his old brogue past his lips.
Rumple and Belle found themselves drawn to one another, stepping unconsciously closer, eyes flicking down to the others lips. Their lips were millimetres apart until a high pitched screech made them jump apart.
The Queen and imp turned to see where the offending noise had come from. They found that on the other coast line not far from them stood Snow and Charming. Both stood off the shore, the water flowing around their ankles. Charming was splashing water at his true love making her screech more as they acted like any couple in love should.
Belle sighed at the sight meanwhile Rumple rolled his eyes. "What they have is true love isn't it?" Belle asked the dark one after a moment.
"I do believe it is" Rumple mumbled "But why would he want to be with her….to be hunted by the queen because of her"
A smile graced Belle's face "The flaws don't matter when you truly love someone" she said almost dreamily.
The Imp once again wasn't sure if there was a double meaning behind what Belle was talking about. "Love is weakness" Rumple grumbled not realising how his words sent daggers through the Queens heart. "I shall be back this afternoon" he told her before disappearing once again in a cloud of glittery, purple smoke.
Once he was gone Belle turned back to the piece of concrete with their names on it and let a tear roll down her cheek before whipping it away. She loved him, she would love him forever yet he would never feel the same.
….C\_'/…..
Belle hadn't stayed much longer at the bridge. She was now changed from her favourite blue and white dress to a more regal, charcoal grey with black embellishments and long black netted sleeves. This dress hugged her curves, never having been a fan of those large, bell shaped dresses unless for a ball. Her hair was half up, half down.
She was walking the halls, checking the flower arrangements, mostly Roses as they were her favourite. Mrs Potts approached the Queen after a while.
"Ah Mrs Potts, tell Agnes that I adore the flowers she picked" Belle smiled at her old governess.
"I will do your ma….Belle" the older women said with a nod of her head.
"Is something the matter?" Belle asked feeling the tension in the air.
Mrs Potts swallowed a lump in her throat "The Queen is here" she admitted, her voice wavering .
"The Queen…What Queen…Who?" Belle asked in confusion.
"Queen Regina" The older lady whispered in a hush tone.
"But….Snow….The others" Belle began to panic. Her heart racing, her breathing erratic. She clutched a hand to her heart as the minor panic attack began.
"Don't worry the dark one dealt with them" Mrs Potts put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Dealt with them!" Belle looked at Mrs Potts with wide eyes.
"Oh no, not like that, he whisked them away when he arrived to tell us that Regina was coming"
"Good" Belle let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding. "And He…."
"Went with them, wherever it was he sent them in a cloud of that smoke" Mrs Potts sounded rather impressed by the dark one's powers "The Queens in the throne room waiting for you" she added.
Belle nodded before composing herself. Putting her iron walls back up. "I'll deal with her" she mumbled before making her way down the large stare case then to the throne room.
She pushed open the double doors with a large thud, hoping to make some sort of entrance. The brunet looked around for the evil queen and was shocked to find her sitting on her throne. "I believe that is my chair" Belle almost growled at her.
Regina gave Belle a smug smile as she got up and walked towards her, wearing a skin tight, all black dress , with spiky feathers around the collar and her hair spiked up at the front and curled at the back. The very image of evil. "My dear that is no way to talk to a guest" Regina sniggered.
"You were not invited, your not a guest" Belle told her sharply as the Queen looked her up and down.
"A tiny little thing for such an infamous heartless Queen" Regina shook her head, she'd imagined the feared Queen of Avonlea to be taller, wear bigger dresses, not a rather short, skinny little thing "And black really isn't your colour" she added.
"You came here to give me your opinion on clothing?" Belle asked.
The evil Queen all but laughed at her. "Cutting to the chase" just like someone else she knew. "A little birdie told me that you" Regina pointed a long finger nail into Belle's chest accusingly. "Are harbouring a criminal I want".
"I don't know what you're talking about" Belle told her without even flinching.
"You and snow white's band of morons are planning to destroy me!" Regina yelled at her yet Belle didn't react.
"If your quite done of accusing me of things that you have no proof of, please leave my home and kingdom" Belle stated as she motioned to the door.
The evil Queen huffed "I'm giving you two days to give up snow white and her gaggle of followers before I take them by force"
Belle took a deep breath "As I stated before I don't know anything about this…Snow white person, nor her were abouts, but you've threatened my home, my kingdom, don't think we won't be ready for a fight, you will lose"
Regina growled at her "Just because you've made a deal for the dark one for his help doesn't mean you can defeat me" she told her standing over Belle as to intimidate her. "I know his weakness"
"His weakness?" Belle asked, her voice wavering a little at the mention of the man she could not help but love.
The raven haired women couldn't help but grin, so she'd hit a nerve at mentioning the Imp. "Yes he has an obvious weakness and if needs be I will destroy it to destroy him" Regina almost cackled before turning to leave, opening the doors to the throne room with her magic "Oh and by the way dear, I'd cover up all the mirrors if I were you, you never know who might be spying on you" she called over her shoulder before leaving Belle alone.
The brunet Queen looked at the large mirror that hung on the wall opposite to where she stood. Was Regina saying that Rumple watched her through the mirrors? Was he watching right now? How long had he been doing such a thing?