Summary: A postcard from Belle and Gold's honeymoon.

Note: For Esin of Sardis, who wanted Belle to achieve her dream of visiting Trinity College library, and Joylee, who wanted to see some of the honeymoon.

Barmbrack

"Can I open my eyes yet?"

"Have I said you can open your eyes?"

"I know where we are, Gold."

"I have no doubt of that, my darling. It's the principle of the thing. I want your first view of it to be magnificent."

Belle smiled and held onto Gold's arm a little tighter. When he had blindfolded her as they left the hotel that morning, the final morning of their honeymoon before they flew home the next day, she had known immediately what he was doing, where he was taking her. Their walk had been slow – the lame leading the blind, as Gold had jokingly put it, but without visual distractions, Belle had had time to reflect on their holiday and ruminate on their ultimate destination.

The first day of their honeymoon had not been at all productive. They'd spent the majority of it in one hotel room or another, living off room service and each other with a short interlude whilst they got to their airport, got their plane and got to the other hotel. The second day, Belle had been determined to do some sightseeing, so they had gone out and taken in the city.

Dublin was a beautiful place, and the weather had truly held out for them. They had wanted a city break; Gold was not one for hot climates and long-haul flights, and Belle knew that she would go out of her mind just lying on a beach for a week. She liked having places to explore, lost secrets to discover, museums, libraries, hidden gems. Dublin seemed like the perfect place. When Jones had found out they were headed to his native land, he had given them a long list of tourist attractions that they might want to visit. On closer inspection, it had turned out to be a list of various different breweries and distilleries, with a note saying that he would be most disappointed should they return having omitted a visit to the Guinness storehouse.

Jones was going to be disappointed. Neither Belle nor Gold could stand Guinness. They had, however, visited the Old Jameson distillery, and Gold had conceded that for all he loved his Scotch, the Irish whiskey was 'not bad', which was about as high a praise as he would give.

(It hadn't stopped him buying a couple of bottles to take home with them, though.)

They had been to the Titanic museum, seen the grand staircase and argued about the factual inaccuracies of the film. They had gone for long walks through the old streets and stopped on benches for ice cream when Gold's knee had decided it had had enough of walking. They had been to the museums and the galleries and the theatre, and they had made love on every available surface in their hotel room.

There was one place they had not yet been, and Belle knew, as her footsteps echoed in a large room, that this was where she was.

Belle had always wanted to visit Trinity College library for as long as she could remember. She'd told Gold that on their first date, but it wasn't something that they often dwelt on. She'd mentioned it in passing when Dublin had been mooted as a honeymoon location. When they had arrived in the city, Belle knew that she would not be leaving without having set foot in that library, and now that it was the last day and she was blindfolded and she could smell the distinctive scent of dusty old books in the air, she knew exactly where she was.

"Ok. Open your eyes."

She felt Gold's arm slip out of her hold and a moment later, her blindfold was removed.

The famous Long Room of the library was even more beautiful than the pictures had made her believe it, and for several minutes Belle could do nothing other than stand in the centre of the vaulted room, gazing around her surroundings in wonder.

"I've never seen so many books in all my life," she breathed.

"You like it?"

Gold's arms came around her waist and his chin rested on her shoulder. Belle leaned back against him.

"Oh yes, I love it. It's so beautiful."

Gold pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. "I'm glad."

"I could live here," Belle whispered. "I could spend a year here and I don't think I'd get through all the books."

Gold chuckled.

"I think you underestimate your ability to devour literature, my dear," he said.

Belle twisted in his arms to kiss him properly.

"Thank you. It was a lovely surprise."

"Despite the fact you knew exactly where you were going?"

"Because of it." It was true. Knowing where she was headed had not dampened her enthusiasm; if anything it had added to it. Being able to open her eyes onto the magnificent interior as if she had been magically transported there had made the experience all the more breathtaking.

Gold let her go and Belle moved away to the nearest shelf, wanting so badly to ghost her fingertips over the spines of the books there, to take one out and immediately lose herself in the tales that it told, but she was unable to. Even if the shelves had not been cordoned off to protect the oldest works, she didn't know how she would be able to choose a tome.

Besides, she knew that if she started reading something, there would be no stopping her, and there was so much more to discover. She wandered along down the length of the room, basking in the beauty of the library as the summer sun streamed in through the windows, casting the shelves in their best light and catching the dust particles hanging in the air; adding to the sense of stepping into a bygone era.

Libraries were functional places, as a librarian Belle knew that better than most. They were valuable stores of knowledge that might otherwise be lost. In the age of technology, with so much information available at the click of a mouse or the push of a button, Belle found it all the more worthwhile remembering that there were some treasures that the internet could never hope to match. She had handled manuscripts and books from ages past at the library where she worked, and the feeling of reverence that she had felt would never leave her. She felt it again now, as she made her way through Trinity College library. These texts were more than just books, they were part of history, part of the way her life had been shaped.

But functional as they were, that did not mean that libraries could not and should not be places of art as well. Magnificent works need magnificent surroundings. That was what she had said to Gold all those months ago, when she had first told him of her dream. What better way to honour the volumes that had given humanity so much than with a beautiful safe resting place?

Presently, Belle looked around for Gold. He was standing in front of one of the busts that flanked the bookshelves, his head on one side.

She went over to him.

"He looks familiar," Gold said to her, nodding to the bust.

"He's Plato," Belle pointed out.

Gold looked at her and raised one eyebrow.

"Be he Plato or not, he still looks familiar." He tilted his head slightly in the other direction. "I know who it is. He reminds me of my grandfather."

Belle rolled her eyes and slipped her arm back through his. "Come on," she said. "I want to see the Book of Kells before we leave."

The Book of Kells, a lavishly decorated manuscript dating back to the ninth century, had been on display in the Old Library for almost two hundred years, and it was to be the oldest text that Belle had ever seen. Despite its age, it was still in good condition, and Belle gazed at the displayed pages in awe. Yes, this was what libraries were about. They were more than simply a place to house old and dusty books until they were no longer required. They safeguarded history, culture, the fabric of life itself. Things like the Book of Kells could never be superseded by technology. Images might be available on computer screens, but nothing would compare to the real thing, to being so close to a chapter of the past.

Belle was reluctant to leave the library, having spent the entire morning there, but she did so with a smile on her face. She had achieved a lifelong dream, and far from feeling a sense of disappointment that it was over, she felt happy. The library had more than lived up to her expectations, her fantasies, and now instead of flimsy dreams, she had solid, tangible memories.

She squeezed Gold's arm a little tighter. The fact that he had been at her side made those memories all the sweeter.