A loveless Princess, a lonely Prince

It was some time before he was able to make a deal that pertained to his curse again. Snow White was becoming increasingly cruel (as was Belle, with no serious way to expel her building magic), and Charming was going through a lot of trouble to find her. But soon enough Snow turned up in the Dark Castle, dragged along by a grumpy dwarf that damn near gave Belle a heart attack when he entered the tower room. He had been peacefully spinning, and she reading whilst shooting glances at him, but that would have to wait a while. He remained stood at his wheel, nonchalant, as the dwarf began shouting accusations, Belle having picked up a very dangerous potion to approach the Princess with. Of course Snow was meddling with the potions too, rifling through the fragile bottles, disinterested. He stared at his cabinet. He was so close to bottling love. If Belle still loved him, he could have tried bottling that.

Putting that out of his mind he focused on the raven-haired beauty. She wanted to kill the Queen, and he could help her with that. He picked up the Thief's bow, handling it carefully, and passed it on. It had only ever missed its mark once (and honestly he had done that on purpose). She would take down her target. If nobody stopped her.

Sure enough, mere hours later, an over confident Prince strode through the doors, calling out "Rumplestiltskin!" He sighed. All this prancing about was making him tired. He appeared behind the man as he disturbed the still-warm tea set on the table in the entrance hall. "Still dressing like a Prince, I see." That was a very nice cloak. It would make a nice blanket. He walked into the point of the sword, trusting Belle to blunt it (which she did) as the 'Prince' made pointless requests, somehow coming to the conclusion he was Heartless-Snow's True Love. Only about as much as he was Cora's!. He knocked the sword away as he had Gaston's, a "nyah!" quick to leave his lips. The false Prince needed a way to find his Snow White, and so he provided one. He took that nice cloak (and hair) as payment. The words he spoke to Charming were true, though. If his love started down that path, there would be no getting her back. It applied to both of their loves. Unfortunately, Belle had to make the choice of 'light or dark' with no intrusions, or it wouldn't count. He rubbed his forehead. When had life become so complicated? Oh yeah. When he kissed her. He rolled his eyes. He reached out to Belle with his mind, told her to track Snow's progress with the Queen. Under no circumstances was she to intervene or make herself known.

She found Snow White in snowy woods, trekking to the concealed location Rumple had provided for her. Robin's bow was in hand, and it didn't take her long to find a safe place to rest in. She was testing the bow's string, observing the the way she would have to go to reach the Queen's future path when a gloved hand clamped over her mouth. She fought off her attacker, the tactless Prince Charming, and tried to shove the man away from her. Very effective, when he was twice her size. Belle rolled her eyes. Then the lug kissed her, and Snow screwed her eyes shut. Belle fluttered her fingers. She remembered when Gaston had forced a kiss on her after their engagement was announced, his lips rough and forceful and his hands wandering until her (now dead) maid had appeared. She involountarily growled. Snow looked up from glaring at Charming, and Charming looked up from his new vantage point among the tree roots. They searched for the sound, their gazes suspicious, but upon finding nothing returned them to each other, wary of the potential for beasties in the wood. Or at least Snow was wary; Charming was now unconscious.

She watched them for several hours more, bored to death until Charming finally came around to find himself tied to a tree. In that time she'd done all she could to creep the 'fairest of them all' out. Cool air on the back of her neck, clouds of breath where no one was breathing, odd sounds from all around. The Princess was skittish by the time her love was conscious, and about ready to knock someone out. He struggled against his bonds, very well tied, and Snow was shocked to find he called himself 'Charming'. He claimed their love for one another but Snow retaliated with poisoned words. Belle hope she would kill the Queen. Then she wouldn't have to. She left, abandoning the horse she came on to a slow death in the cold. Commanded by the dagger to trail Snow, she set termites on Charming's bonds (that didn't count as intervening, right? Besides, this would be fun to watch).

The next morning, as they watched the 'Evil Queen' parade through the forest, Belle threw small rocks at the back of Snow's head. Just a few more minutes and the hag should be dead. Perhaps she should stop distracting the person with the bow? Probably best, since the rocks were getting steadily bigger. Killing Snow would definitely count as intervening. Snow fell from the sky and Snow trekked through the woods, Belle disturbing both kinds. She soon reached her concealed location, calmed her breath, nocked the arrow, drew back the string released and... Dammit Charming! The arrow pierced his shoulder and Snow abandoned the bow to run to him. Belle followed, severely agitated. He spoke words of love like Rumple never had (NO ONE COULD EVER, EVER LOVE ME!) and she sighed as his breath puffed out before him. Snow's expression moved from angry to bewildered as her love came back to her, and Belle scowled. Why did the Princess deserve to find true happiness, but not her? Charming clutched his shoulder and Snow comforted him and then, she kissed him. Fate really did not like her.

But not those two either, it seemed. King George's army approached them, forcibly separating them from one another. Belle smirked as James was thrown into a cage on wheels (ignoring the bad memories and pretending to be indifferent when Snow was back handed. She had memories of that too), and watched as he was carted away from his love. She told him she would always find him, and she could see that becoming their catchphrase. She followed Snow home despite this being the end of the mission, and the next day watched her trudge into a little cottage. She appeared inside, unseen (it was difficult to transform her own shape and maintain Rumple's scales, and she had no idea if he was with anyone right now. He had been using his collection of wands to transport himself and complete smaller deals), and watched as Snow apologised to Dreamy and his brothers. She was glad the Dwarf was well, but wondered what became of his lady love. Perhaps she was as disgusted by him as Rumple was her? She sighed as they each embraced her. No one, not even Rumple, had willingly touched her since all this began. And she felt bad contaminating him with her presence, and had hugged him only once.

After Snow White and the seven Dwarves had left, Belle transported herself to the tower room to find Rumple dropping hairs into a vial. They glowed, he grinned. He had bottled True Love. His uses for her were running out.