Chapter Four: Bae, Meet Belle

Bae and his father never spoke on the way to the house, though upon their arrival, Bae gazed at the vast sight before him. His father owned a large home, perfectly comfortable for him it seemed.

"I have another guest. Her name is Belle. Just be nice," Rumpel said, turning away to unlock the door. His son was intrigued by this new girl, surprised his father hadn't killed her yet as he had a tendency to do with the other maids.

When they entered the house, Baelfire found it nearly as bad as the pawn shop, if not worse!

"What are you going to do with all this stuff?" Baelfire asked, sighing. "Seriously Papa?"

Rumpelstiltskin didn't say anything, partially because he really didn't have a reason other than sentimentality to keep all this stuff, and much of it wasn't really worth anything to him. The items were tokens of past deals, or they were things that once laid around the dark castle.

Belle came downstairs, her cotton dress flowing along behind her and her long brown hair, red ruby lips, and gentle blue eyes caught Bae's attention. This was no ordinary maid...

"Oh! I didn't know we were having a guest," Belle said. We?

"Belle...this is Baelfire..." Rumpelstiltskin presented, but Bae felt he should introduce himself.

"I am Baelfire, but please, call me Bae," the boy extended his hand.

"Belle," the girl introduced herself. That's when Baelfire looked back to his father, and that's when he saw it. The way he looked at her...

His father had a girlfriend! Bae smiled, thinking Rumpel couldn't be too bad if he picked up a girl since Bae's disappearance.

"Nice to meet you," he told her, going up the stairs. "I'll be staying a while."

"Why don't you help him establish upstairs Belle? I'll check up on you momentarily," Mr. Gold said, walking away into the other room. Belle looked at Bae, telling him to follow her up the glass spiral staircase.

Bae held everything on his person that was cumbersome otherwise, but he explained that he still had a moped to retrieve outside the shop. Belle introduced him to the room next to hers.

"Here you are," Belle said as Bae set some stuff on the bed, including a hunter's knife.

"Thank you. Hey, Belle," Bae replied. "How did you meet my-Rumpelstiltskin?" Bae thought to catch himself in mid sentence, just in case.

"A deal," Belle said. "It's complicated."

"All right, I'll be honest with you," Bae told her, and she looked at him in a rather confused fashion. He couldn't hide himself, for he didn't want to seem more of a stranger here than what he already was.

"I'm Rumpelstiltskin's son," Bae said. Her eyes widened and her eyebrows lifted. A gasp escaped her gentile lips. "And, if you don't mind me saying, you two seemed perfect for each other."

Belle was speechless, astounded at this young man's observation, and how quick he picked up on small details. Bae smiled at her again, telling her that he honestly didn't think his father would ever settle with anyone.

"He said he lost you," Belle said. "He told me...a long time ago."

"Well, I guess he found me again," Bae countered, quickly, not wanting to talk anymore about the subject. "I'm looking forward to getting to know you."

"Same here," Belle replied. "It's been so long, how old are you?"

"I'm 16, affected by that curse apparently everyone just got over too."

Belle didn't question this too much, she merely accepted things as they were now, and that Rumpelstiltskin's son was right in front of her. Bae went out of the room, ready to go and retrieve his moped from outside the pawn shop. He ran into his father on the way down the spiral staircase.

"Getting the moped," he said, rushing down the stairs before his father even had the chance to say anything.

"Bae!" Rumpel called, and as the boy turned around he threw a set of keys at him. The boy's reaction was far better than previously anticipated. "Lock up, please. Silver key."

There was only one silver key in the entire set of bunched keys on the ring, the rest had an emblem of a different gem on each. Bae smirked, his father was trusting him. He nodded, running out the door.

Rumpelstiltskin watched the boy leave, closing the door behind him.

"Your son...he's amazing," Belle said, and Rumpelstiltskin turned to see her at the top of the stairs. Rumpelstiltskin held the ball in front of him, looking down at it.

"I know..." was all he said as he made the rest of his way up, and then he kissed Belle's forehead. "I'm a very lucky man."

Regina glared, seeing the kid walking back to the pawn shop; however, she realized he hadn't been inside the entire time. She wondered about this kid, and before he mounted his blue moped again as he'd come, she saw him fiddling with the locks on the shop's doors. When he came back around, he took off towards Mr. Gold's house.

She thought about this, the smart woman she is, and she knew that something was up with this boy. Mr. Gold trusted him to lock up his shop. Who was he to him? Mr. Gold wouldn't even let Belle come out of that house sense he got her back unless she was with him. So, how could this boy, just coming to town, all of a sudden have Mr. Gold's respect?

Unless...unless he was blood.