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"AU Cora stayed with Rumple but he still made the deal for belle"

"You will fetch me straw, bring me tea each evening and tend to each and every need of your mistress, Cora."

Her blue eyes quickly shifted to her new master, startled at the mention of a mistress. Someone had fallen in love with him? This...beast?

She said nothing of it, but she couldn't help but wonder. Who was this woman and did she truly love him?

Her new mistress, Cora was beautiful. She sat draped across a well cushioned bed of sorts facing one of the large windows that stood in the dining room, watching the imp enter with cat-like eyes.

Belle immediately felt a dislike for her.

"What is that?" she spat, eying Belle with disdain.

"Our new slave," Rumplestiltskin replied easily, ignoring her refusal to point out Belle with a more humane word.

"Is she mute?" she woman snapped, her eyes flicking back to Belle as she lazily stood, sashaying over to grip Belle's chin in her hand, her long nails digging into the girl's cheeks.

"I'm Belle, daughter of Lord Maurice," she spoke loudly, fearlessly. This woman wouldn't instill any fear upon her. Belle would make a terrible servant if she meekly bustled about, terrified of crossing paths with her mistress.

"Brave little thing, pretty too..." she murmured, tilting Belle's face this way and that. "I'm Cora, the leash holder of that beast," she tilted her head towards Rumplestiltskin, his back immediately stiffening from her choice of wording. A kind smile spread across Cora's lips, her eyes suddenly welcoming. "You intend to serve us?" she softly asked the girl.

Belle couldn't help but smile, surprised by the woman's change of heart. "Yes, if it means my family and village will remain unharmed..."

She was shoved to the ground before she could resume speaking. Belle stared up at the woman, lips parted and blue eyes wide.

Cora glowered with rage, looking to Rumplestiltskin with a scowl. "I don't want some pretty little thing flirting about with you," she hissed, moving towards him.

"A deal is a deal, dearie," he replied coldly. "There's no going back, you of all should know that."

Cora slapped him, claws bared.

Belle tearfully looked up to see the deep scratches on his face, oozing with blood. He refused to heal them and the girl didn't understand why.

Nor did she understand why Cora kissed him after that.

They don't love each other, she reflected with a sudden burst of inexplicable joy. If they had, his curse would have faded.

He was the Dark One, after all. The girl had read her fair share of stories of his curse.

He threw her into her dungeon after she managed to recover and stand, leaving her to sob alone as she did each night after she attempted to clean the castle.

Finally, one night he entered, eyes blazing with irritation. The scratch on his face was replaced with another set of scratches, freshly bleeding.

"Your crying is disturbing my mistress," he spat.

"If it bothers her so much why doesn't she come down to tell me herself?" Belle retorted, mouth furled into a frown.

"If she came down, dearie, she would kill you," he sneered, a pillow appearing in a plume of purple smoke. He threw it to her and Belle swore she saw a split second of guilt in his eyes.

"T-Thank you," she stammered, clutching the pillow to her chest. "Maybe I'll actually get some rest now," she spitefully added, hiccuping softly.

"Oh no, dearie. It's simply to muffle your cries," he hissed, turning to leave.

"She hurts you," Belle blurted out, her hand outstretched towards him.

He stopped completely, slowly turning to peer at the girl. "That she does," he agreed quietly.

"Why do you let her? You're the most powerful being in these lands," the girl insisted. "You won't even heal the wounds!"

"I care for her," was all he said in an emotionless tone before exiting.

Belle stood, jaw grit. Liar.

Then the crash came.

Her mistress had left while Rumplestiltskin tortured his new prisoner, claiming his cries gave her a headache.

Belle frowned as Rumplestiltskin told her this, irked by the woman's cowardice.

She was brave, unlike Cora. She reflected upon this as she freed the prisoner, as she faced Rumplestiltskin's wrath.

"Do you even KNOW what she will think of me?" he spat down at her as she clutched her book to her chest.

"She's never thought much of you to begin with," Belle coolly replied. "You're just a slave to her. If she cared, she wouldn't hurt you! She'd treat you like a man!"

He simply yanked her from the room by the arm after that, dragging her to his carriage.

Nobody had ever truly cared for him, and if they ever had, they must've been gone for a long while now. She reflected upon this on the carriage ride to find the thief called Robin Hood.

Rumplestiltskin clearly would've killed her if her words of truth had bothered him. He would've killed her if freeing Robin Hood had bothered him, and yet he insisted that good help was hard to find.

He even went on to further prove himself wrong by refusing to allow this Sheriff of Nottingham to have a go with her.

At this, Belle was sure there was something beyond a beast in there. She saw a man, crouched and beaten by Cora.

And yet he didn't see this.

There was a flicker of hope for the girl when he quite obviously missed the thief on purpose, claiming to have "missed" when the bow was enchanted so that it was impossible to do so.

Her words had sunk in. She'd truly broken through his barrier.

And so she hugged him. It seemed to be the right thing to do.

He stiffened completely, not used to such compassion. Belle wanted to cry for the poor man. Did Cora not show him the correct kind of love? Or did she simply show him lust?

Belle had little time to wonder as she was ripped from his arms and thrown against the ground with such force that her breath left her.

"What do you think you're doing, you pathetic, sniveling whore?" Cora spat at Belle, eyes blazing. She must've followed them, otherwise she wouldn't have known of their leaving the Dark Castle at all. Had she been suspicious?

"Showing him the sort of kindness you fail to give," Belle boldly replied, her mouth furling into a disgusted snarl.

"I gave her a chance for you," she turned on Rumplestiltskin, her nails bared. "Now, you'll have to kill her yourself. That little whore things she can make you feel human, make you think you're even close to being a man?" she scoffed.

Her hand was raised, she was going to hurt him. Again. "You aren't a man, you're a beast and you're my-"

Belle stood in an instant, catching the woman's wrist in her grip. "You won't hurt him anymore!" Belle heatedly declared, only to be tossed back against a nearby tree, her head whipping out and cracking against the wood. She felt warm blood pour from the back of her head, coating her back as she gave a groan.

"Fine, Rumple, fine. I'll do it myself," Cora spat, walking towards the whimpering girl.

Belle desperately looked to Rumplestiltskin, who had been strangely quiet the entire time. He didn't wear a defeated expression, but a bewildered one, his gaze on Belle.

What had he realized?

Cora thrust a hand towards Belle's exposed chest, but it never reached her.

Rumplestiltskin had appeared behind the woman in a flash, his hand shooting through her back and out of her chest, gripping the croon's heart.

He yanked it out, a gleeful grin on his face. "I taught you better," he spat. "To keep not only your heart," he trilled, giving the blackened mass a squeeze that made the woman fall to her knees. "But my heart?"

He shot his other hand into the woman's back, a black, glowing mass in his hand.

When Belle squinted, she swore she saw a trace of red.

He pressed his own heart back into his chest, giving a relieved breath as he let his eyes drift shut, opening them with a new sort of ferocity.

He squeezed Cora's heart, reducing it to ashes.

Belle fell to the ground in an instant, giving a soft grunt as she struggled to raise her head.

She felt herself being rolled over, followed by a numb sensation replacing the pain that was present at the base of her skull.

She was lifted against a wiry chest, her eyes fluttering as she focused her sights. Rumplestiltskin looked down upon her as he held her against him, eyes smouldering with an emotion that Belle wasn't aware he could feel.

"Thank you," he softly murmured, a hand hesitantly tracing her cheek.

Belle blinked, her brow furrowing with confusion. "She's dead? She...had two hearts?"

"I loved her once, foolishly," he quietly admitted. "She played me, made me believe her feelings were true. She took my heart, placed it with her own. That way, she always had me under her control."

"And now that she's dead...now that you have your heart..." Belle trailed off.

"I am free to do as I wish," he looked upwards at the skies as the sun shone down upon them.

The sight was something Belle would always remember, the first sensations of warmth, the first realization of freedom.

Her hand fell upon his cheek, her eyes twinkling. "You're free."

"I am," he agreed, a faint smile on his lips. "Let's get you home and in a proper bed, shall we?" he looked to her for assurance.

Belle nodded eagerly, resting her head against his lean shoulder. "We shall."

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