Rumpelstiltskin and Belle had left the counsel room a few minutes before, and now the two were strolling down the garden, hand in hand. He kept stealing kisses, keeping them chaste, but she didn't mind it at all. She initiated a few of them herself.
"I can't believe this happened the way it did." Rumpel said in wonder, looking at Belle adoringly. "Me either." She admits, laughing softly. "I was so angry when Papa said it would be Gaston… But then you saved him, and he changed his mind, and now everything's wonderful." She sighs happily.
"I didn't save him." Rumpelstiltskin argues, laughing. "I just held him until he woke." Belle rolls her eyes, pushing against his side. "In his and my eyes both you saved him." She retorts softly. And she thinks in this moment, everything is perfect. Her husband to be is someone she can argue with, but at the end of the day, everything is going to be alright. She's happy.
"Whatever you say… wife." Rumpelstiltskin says slyly, and Belle turns to him, her face lit up like the village in winter.
"I love you." She whispers, and Rumpelstiltskin's heart stops. He covers her mouth with his, and cups her chin. "I love you too, Belle." he vows, pulling her closer as he kisses her in a way she's never been before.
It's soft, not at all like the hard and half-attempted seductive kisses Gaston had been planting on her as she tried to persuade him to let her into the council room. It's everything to her. Rumpelstiltskin himself is everything to her.
After a few moments, the two break apart and Belle nuzzles her head into the crook of his neck. She has never felt this safe before. It's a lovely feeling, and one Belle finds she could very much get used to.
When she voices this to Rumpelstiltskin, he chuckles lowly and says perhaps she should get used to it. That earns him another kiss, this one even more soul-searching than the last. Her hands cradled his neck, stroking the hair at the nape.
He groaned, and pulled away as she tried to deepen the kiss. Before she has a chance to wonder what she'd done wrong, he's looking at her with wonder in his eyes. "What?" she asks, shyly.
"How can you possibly not know what you do to me, my Belle?" Rumpelstiltskin asks her in shock. Belle giggles, and bashfully bats her eyelashes at him. "I'm sure I have no idea what you mean, my Knight." she returns.
He pecks her nose, then drags his lips to her cheek, ghosting over to her ear. "Yours, as you are mine." he whispers. It makes her shudder in the most wonderful way, and she can hardly believe it, that this knight is hers.
"I love you, Rumpel." She says again, because she can. Because now it's free to mean everything. And that in itself is an amazing thought. "I love you too, m'Belle." he promises, kissing her forehead tenderly.
"Possessive idiot." Belle says affectionately, giggling at him. "It's always your Belle." she explains at his confused look. Rumpelstiltskin looks at her, grinning devilishly. "Well aren't you?" he challenges her, and oh, the look in his eyes makes her want to melt. "Of course." She says sweetly. "I've always been."
The two walk around the garden for most of the night, talking and laughing as they'd always done. But one thing was different - they now shared kisses almost every sentence. Punctuation marks left them, no longer needed when they could just as easily kiss each other to end the conversation and bring it to the furthest part of the other's mind.
It's perfect.