*gleefully flings chapter*

*sprints back into the shadows*

Overwrite

Belle's attention drifted once again, and her breakfast was growing cold.

Rumpelstiltskin nudged her gently. "Sweetheart? Belle? Are you alright?"

"Hmmm?" He could always bring her around. "Sorry. I was thinking again. Did we, um… did we drink a lot of tea there?"

"You mean at my castle? Yes, I suppose we did." Rumpelstiltskin held up his cup. "Why?"

"Oh." Belle rubbed her forehead. "I seem to remember also drinking liquor. And driving a car. We didn't have cars."

"No. Carriages. With horses."

"And there aren't horses everywhere here."

"Only at the stables." He set down his cup and abandoned his breakfast. The last few days had been hard. Only a week since the curse had lifted, and her mind was beginning to sort through the debris. "Belle?"

"You know how you have memories? Ones that don't belong to you." She held the sides of her face. Rumpelstiltskin thought she looked like she was holding her head together.

"Yes. I feel like I have two lives."

"I think I have three." Belle sighed with a shake. "And my memories of two of them aren't very nice."

Without a thought, Rumpelstiltskin shoved his plate aside and hauled himself out of his chair and held her. "Then we'll have to replace those with good ones, won't we?"

…

Belle decided she liked kissing. Kissing was an excellent way to dispel some of the habitual cold that crept into her from remembered cement walls or the ringing in her ears from loud phantom music. There were many kinds of kisses and when her Rumpel asked her which she liked best she laughed and told him she hadn't decided yet.

There were quick kisses good morning that became something a little slower once they'd both visited the bathroom. She usually woke him by kissing his cheek and jaw, feeling the night's stubble and rubbing her lips against it because it felt so different. Or she'd draw his soft hair aside and kiss the back of his neck until he relented and kissed back. When they'd both freshened up, they'd linger before making breakfast.

She never saw the way his eyes trailed after her, especially when she wore her soft gray nightgown.

Then there was the kiss over tea. She brought it to his office, or the coffee table, or wherever he was and always managed to plant a kiss on him somewhere between adding milk and handing it over. She especially liked any kiss where they were both standing and had been apart for more than an hour or so. Those times called for the 'big hug' kiss. She wrap her arms around him and make sure he knew she was still there, and in no hurry to go anywhere.

The plan was working quite well, and she'd deemed it important that they should kiss in every room of his house. Then probably do it all over again just to make sure they'd done it right. Maybe in every place in town, just so every terrible or confusing memory could have a pleasant counterpart.

"Rumpel?" She called from the living room. Any time an unpleasant memory surfaced, she sought him out. It was about six days into her plan, and she was in need of a fix. He didn't complain, but any zeal he had for random lip pressing had obviously begun to flag.

"Closet." She found him hanging up his suits, just back from the cleaners, as crisp and perfect as a row of new books on a shelf. He normally kept them in a particular order, but at the distress on her face he hung up the lot in a quick move and came to her. "Is it bad?"

"Yes. Awful." She started plucking at a loose string hanging from her shirt. "When I was in the hospital I sometimes I thought I was back in your dungeon." She hung her head low.

Rumpelstiltskin caressed her arm. "Oh, Belle. I'm so, so, sorr-"

"Those were the really good days."

He dropped his hand from her like she'd burned him. "I… I don't…"

"Just let me kiss you, Rumpel." Belle leaned up to him and put her arms around him.

He leaned back, a quick hobble to brace his weight properly. "No."

She stopped pulling at him. "No?" Belle searched his face for a hint of rejection or disinterest.

"No, Belle." He tugged her arms from around his neck and set them at her sides. "No, I would like to kiss you."

Belle mouthed words silently, her eyes beginning to water with frustration. "But, I thought we were kissing together?" She reached out to him and held his forearms. "Is it not good? Am I not doing it right?"

Rumpelstiltskin steered her backwards. "Oh, sweetheart. If only you knew how much the last few days have meant to me. But," her back bumped into the wall by the doorway to the closet, "If we are to replace such nasty memories with good ones, it seems we need to up the ante." He released her brought a hand to her cheek while bracing his weight against the wall with the forearm. "And while I appreciate your enthusiasm, I would like to try a different approach to your favorite pastime."

He was all around her, but only touched her cheek. It made Belle's head fuzzy to have him fill her vision and surround her at the same time. The claustrophobic space only made him more overwhelming.

"Rumpel?" Belle whispered.

He had leaned forward, just enough to barely touch his lips and the tip of his nose to her other cheek, causing her eyes to flutter closed. Once he moved, he left behind a tingly path. His soft breathing and occasional sighs made flutters erupt in her belly and warmth spread across her skin. When he was by her ear, he traced the outer rim and exhaled.

She sucked in a gasp.

His lips curved against her.

"How do you like my approach so far?" Rumpelstiltskin rumbled into the tender place behind her ear.

Belle's eyes stayed closed and her breath struggled to find purchase to make sound with. "You still haven't kissed me." Even in her own ears her voice sounded needy.

He pulled away from her neck. "You're right. I haven't." To emphasize what he wasn't doing, he pressed his body closer to hers and brushed his lips along her forehead. Instead of the full bodied, crushing hugs she gave him, he stood and let them share the same space. Well-timed inhales meant he would feel her entire body against his torso, which was happening more and more often.

Belle was getting excited.

"Do you feel that, Belle? The heat rising up your chest, the way your face burns and your knees aren't sure how to keep you up?"

She swallowed. He could hear it. "Yes."

He slid his hand down from her cheek to her waist. "Do you feel your stomach flip every time I touch you?" He flicked out his tongue to brush her ear.

Belle moaned. "Oh, yes."

Rumpelstiltskin nearly gave up just for that sound, but if he was going to play, he was playing the long game. He was already demonstrating how much he was enjoying himself.

"And what else are you feeling, Belle?" He drew his path so he could feel the bridge of her nose under his lips as he spoke. "Tell me."

"I'm…I…" Belle sputtered. The wall pressed at her like it obeyed his demands to hold her up, his upper arm was by her head, his hand was spreading across the curve in her back and he was everywhere with his voice and his nose and his lips and they were just out of reach and…

Belle arched against him. Rumpelstiltskin breathed in sharply as her body pressed against his in a wave that started mid-thigh. He clutched the wall and couldn't help gripping her as she ground herself against him, then pushed her breasts against his chest, then he grabbed the doorframe when she did it all one more time with greater intent.

When they'd both backed off and opened their eyes again, Belle was flushed bright pink and his clothes were disheveled. He'd also managed to knock the ones he'd just hung up to the floor in an effort to stay on his feet.

Belle half stumbled out of the closet and into the bedroom. She licked her lips and gazed at him with glossy eyes. "You still haven't kissed me."

Rumpelstiltskin stepped out behind her after a quick adjustment to his dignity and stared at her. She looked delicious- all wild curls, pink cheeks, sparkling with want, and completely without the haunted thoughts that brought her there in the first place. He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip and admired his handiwork.

"You're right. I haven't yet."