Cyril was beginning to regret some of his choices. Chief among them was that, while Chris and Belle apparently hadn't had sex, he'd apparently shown her a really good time after the fire escape incident. This was exacerbated by the fact that he'd downloaded an app that let him text her himself from a fake number rather than entrust Chris with any sort of written communication, so she'd texted early in the morning to say good morning and compliment him. It was not a great way to spend the morning, and yet he was still texting her from the diner at lunchtime.
"What could possibly be so interesting, Gold?" Regina Mills asked from her seat at one of the nearby tables. "You've been staring at your phone for half an hour now."
"Nothing," he replied, locking his phone quickly and shoving it in his pocket. "Just some...business."
"Well that's not shifty at all," Regina said, obviously having not believed a word of what he said. "Be sure to tell business I say hello."
"Don't you have anything better to do than interrogate me?" he asked. "Where's your family?"
"I'm meeting Emma here for lunch," Regina replied smugly. "And Henry is in school. Because he's ten, and that's where children go during the daytime."
Cyril was trying to decide on a retort when Emma walked in and joined her wife at the table. He turned back to his phone and started reading through Belle's texts to 'Gaston' because he was a damn masochist when he suddenly felt fingertips on the back of his neck and recoiled so strongly he almost threw his phone.
"Surprise," Belle said from behind him with a little giggle. He spun to face her as fast as he could, but she was already sitting on the stool next to his with a huge smile on her face and all he could do was stare.
Cyril knew Regina was shooting him a smug look and he was sure anybody watching could tell he had a crush on the librarian, but he couldn't actually do anything to stop looking at her like an idiot.
"Did I scare you?" Belle asked, still with that smug little smirk on her face.
"You startled me," he replied, although it wasn't entirely true. He was more shocked than anything, nobody ever touched him, and he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt something as intimate as fingers on the back of his neck. "You'll need to get a lot more threatening before you could possibly scare me."
"I'll just have to try harder then," she replied cheekily. "How have you been? I haven't spoken to you in days."
She'd actually been texting him all morning, but he was the only one who knew that.
"As good as can be expected," he said. "Nothing particularly exciting has been going on, but in a town this small that can be a very good thing."
"That's true," she said. "But still, I'd like to think you had something nice going on in your life."
"Oh?"
"I like my friends to be happy."
It was nice to think about being friends with her, although it had all gotten so damn complicated lately. He wished he'd said no to Chris Gaston when he'd asked for so much help seducing her because being involved was torture, but he still couldn't bring himself to extricate himself from the situation. He was a complete jackass, but he was obviously getting something out of this and he didn't want to think about what it was. The world was full of fools, and he was chief among them.
Belle suddenly perked up and it took Cyril a moment to register that Chris had come into the restaurant and was approaching them. He hadn't had time to tell Chris about his text messages yet (they'd been planning to meet up after work) so this was not precisely good news.
"Hey," Belle said in greeting as the other man approached. "What are you doing here?"
"I had some time before work and some stuff came up I needed to tell you," he said, glancing at Cyril who could feel his blood pressure rising with every second this conversation went on. "Can we talk privately?"
"Yeah, sure," Belle replied, getting off her stool. "I'll be right back, Cyril."
He watched closely as they left the building and stood outside one of the windows talking. Chris couldn't be telling her the truth, could he? Of all the boneheaded ideas, that one could ruin everything. Belle didn't look upset, though. She seemed disappointed, but she hugged Chris and gave him a lingering kiss before returning to her seat at the counter
"What was that all about?" he asked and hoped he'd kept the nervousness out of his voice.
"Oh, Chris has to go back to his old town for a few days to clean out his storage unit. Apparently he left some stuff behind and now that he's settled he wants it."
Thank goodness, Cyril's secret was still safe. And he had a few days reprieve from witnessing anymore public displays of affection. Things were actually starting to look up.
Belle didn't mind Chris being gone so much, it turned out. She missed him, but Ruby had accepted an invitation back to The Rabbit Hole and Belle really enjoyed the company of the other woman. They were already a couple shots into the evening when she realized Cyril was there. He was looking uncomfortable, but she was just so excited to see her friend that she pulled her knees up onto the stool and waved him over to where they were sitting.
He saw her and started to make his way over, and she only tottered a little bit as she got down off her stool and sat again. She was fine, definitely not drunk, and very happy to see him.
"Hey!" she said as soon as he was within earshot. "I didn't think you'd be here tonight!"
"I hadn't planned on it," he replied. "But apparently something went wrong with the air conditioning in the back office and I had to look at it."
"Isn't it kinda late for that?" Ruby asked him.
"I had a full day of other work," he said. "And I couldn't precisely check first thing in the morning."
"Get a drink with us!" Belle said, trying to flag down the bartender.
"Oh, I don't know if I should," he said, looking between Belle and Ruby. "You two seem like you've got a good handle on the evening."
"No, stay!" Belle said, fully aware that she was whining a little bit. She just really wanted to hang out with him. "It'll be so much fun!"
"Yeah, you should stay," Ruby added. "You don't have plans, right?"
"I didn't," he admitted. "I suppose I can stay for a few drinks."
Belle was feeling floaty and happy, and she was so thrilled that he was sticking around for a little while.
Belle was having such a good time with Cyril. Ruby ended up leaving an hour or so after he joined them because she had work the next day, but to be honest Belle had barely missed her presence. He was just so funny and easy to talk to! Belle had lost track completely of how much she'd had to drink, and she was sure it was probably way more than she should have had, but she was just enjoying the night. It had been too long since she'd done something like this.
"How have you never seen My Fair Lady?" he asked as he sipped on his drink. "It's a classic!"
"I don't know, neither of my parents were ever big on musicals. I've read The Pygmalion though."
"Audrey Hepburn is beautiful in it," he said. "And, of course, you can't beat Rex Harrison either. I can lend you my copy if you'd like."
"We can watch it together," she said. "I do like musicals, I just haven't gotten around to it, you know?"
Belle smiled and took a deep breath and suddenly she felt really tired and it was so easy to lean over and put her head on his shoulder.
"The alcohol just hit me," she said. "I don't like this."
"You'll be okay," he said and she nodded because that was all she could manage at that moment.
Her eyes felt heavy, and she didn't want to fight against it so she just closed her eyes and breathed. There was a loud banging and she jolted back upright to see the bartender standing there.
"No sleeping," he said. "Keep your eyes open."
Belle nodded, but she was leaning against Cyril's shoulder again soon. It was just so much more comfortable than being upright.
"I think I'm drunk," she murmured. "I dunno if I can stay."
"Yeah, I think you're probably done," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders and guiding her to her feet before standing up as well.
"What are we doing?"
"I'm walking you home," he said. "I don't know if I trust you not to spend the night in a dumpster if I let you do it by yourself."
"You're so nice," she replied as he led her out the door. It was so nice to spend time together with her friend.
Cyril knew he was drunk, but Belle was far drunker. She was swaying and stumbling as they walked down the street towards her apartment. Each stumble elicited a giggle, and each giggle had her looking at him with a huge smile on her face. It felt warm and comfortable, and he liked it. She was looking at him and he was looking at her, and then suddenly she pitched forward. He reached out as fast as he could and grabbed her arm, yanking her back into him as she fell.
She slammed against his chest and he had to take a step back to counterbalance the weight of her, but as soon as she was steady on her feet again she started laughing and hugged him.
"You're so nice," she said as she pulled away. "You're so nice to me."
He barely had time to miss the sensation of her so close when she had her arm through his and was practically pulling him down the street with her.
"Can I ask you a question?" she said after a little while.
"Sure," he replied. "What's up?"
"What's wrong with your skin?"
Even with his buzz, the question still felt a little bit like getting slapped. He never forgot what he looked like, but sometimes it wasn't on his mind and having it brought to mind with the reminder that of course she'd noticed that he looked different was just a subtle twist of the knife. Still, it wasn't something horrible and shameful and it wasn't something he could ever hide.
"It's called lamellar ichthyosis," he said. "Basically, my body makes more skin cells than I shed so it builds up. It's not contagious, it just requires some special attention."
"Oh, is that why you always wear long sleeves?"
"Yeah," he admitted. "It cuts down on the worst of the questions and stares."
"I'm sorry if I made you self-conscious," she said, leaning into him. "I was just curious."
"It's fine," he replied. "I know it's ugly."
"It's not ugly," she said, almost sounding offended on his behalf. "It's just different. Some people like different – I like different."
She liked different. He wasn't really sure what to think that meant, but it soothed the worst of his hurts to hear it.
"I wonder why I haven't heard from Chris tonight," she continued, taking out her phone and looking at it. "Usually he texts me by now."
Except Chris' texts came from Cyril and of course she didn't know that. He hadn't sent her anything all evening because he'd been so caught up in spending time with her. It was all so screwed up now.
"How are things going with him?" Cyril asked in an attempt to distract her.
"So good," she replied. "He's been sending me these messages since he's been gone and they're so beautiful. He says he misses me every morning when the sun comes up and at night when it goes down. He asks me what I'm thinking and feeling and seems really interested in what I tell him. I think I'm falling in love with him."
Cyril felt shaken to his core by her confession. Belle was falling in love with Chris – or at least with the imaginary version of him that they'd constructed for her. What was he even going to do with that knowledge, and how were they going to work their way through it?
"You're such a good friend," Belle mumbled and nuzzled into his shoulder sleepily. "Don't tell him I told you anything, okay? I don't want to mess this up."
"Yeah, of course," he said. "I won't say anything at all."