The next morning the prison duty boy came down to the cells with a torch, which was put in the holder on the wall on Rumpelstiltskin's side. Well, that made sense. There was no point in putting the girl in a cell next to the caged monster when she couldn't even see what she had to be afraid of.

The girl got nothing but water again and watched Rumpelstiltskin move the bowl of bland porridge away from him. She kept staring at him, more curious than afraid and when he looked back at her, she met his eyes bluntly.

"You're Rumpelstiltskin", she said confidently. "The dark wizard."

He gave her a half-bow. Curiously enough she said it plainly, as if talking about the weather. Most people were too afraid to say his name (or they merely had trouble pronouncing it) thus he had many other names - personalized, such as the Spinner, the Imp, the Baby Stiller and the classy ones like the Demon, the Lizard, the Beast, the Sorcerer and the Necromancer. Some believed that saying out his real name would summon him or call his wrath upon the entire village of the person who dared to speak it or even cause the person pronouncing it to drop dead. Still, his true name lived around the town folk. It was mostly silly superstitions but the names did matter after all. When practicing the dark arts, all words had a meaning and a power of their own. Yet no matter how much Rumpelstiltskin enjoyed being feared, he did feel strangely pleased by the girl addressing him calmly and the way his name rolled from her pink lips.

"And who do I owe the pleasure of talking to?"

"My name is Isabelle, but my friends and papa call me Belle. I guess you could call me Belle too."

Frankly Rumpelstiltskin expected something more extravagant. The girl could be named Guinevere or Forget-Me-Not for the color of her eyes. Really, with names like Snow White and Maleficent, Isabelle seemed too plain and bland. But at the same time Belle sounded… sweet and it suited her, she was pretty after all, even though he'd think the name was intended for someone more vain.

"So are we friends now, Belle?" Rumpelstiltskin drawled, tapping his long green fingers on his chin.

She wrinkled her nose, thinking it over. Gods, the girl was actually considering being friends with the Dark One?

"If you want to, we can be", she said after a while.

"Well, that depends on what you've done to be imprisoned. You realize I cannot risk ruining my good name and reputation by choosing wrong company", he mocked.

Apparently Belle took his words seriously for her face darkened and she replied somberly:

"I've attempted to murder the Queen, Snow White."

Rumpelstiltskin's eyebrows went up so high he thought they would disappear into his hairline. This little girl tried to kill the Queen? That was definitely one of the most ridiculous things he'd ever heard. Surely, Snow White was quite annoying, singing and talking to the animals and her voice and manners would rather suit a 12-year-old girl, but he could not think of anyone trying to kill the new Queen for it. Seeing his disbelief, Belle continued the story:

"I… I was forced to! Otherwise my whole family would be in trouble. So now I'm in here until I tell them why I tried to do it and who hired me."

How adorable, Rumpelstiltskin thought. She wanted to be a hero and save her family, even if she had to cut someone's life short for it. Little did she know how murder could cripple one's soul. His task was to terrify her and to ensure she would never want to find herself in the dungeon next to him. Belle was expected to confess, and that would not be hard to do judging by how she had told him nearly everything he wanted to know in a heartbeat.

"How did you get here?" Her voice broke the train of his thoughts.

"Oh, you know, through the door, dearie."

Belle gave him a tiny smile.

"No, I mean, why did they put you here?"

"Personally, I prefer to think it was my good looks that threatened the happiness of Prince Charming. The man cannot take competition", Rumpelstiltskin said, waving a hand before his face, changing his appearance and in a moment it wasn't his face Belle was looking at. The handsome and young fair-haired boy Rumpelstiltskin turned himself into gave the awe-struck girl a big toothy grin.

Belle just stared at him wide-eyed, the little display of magic making her forget how to breathe for a second. How could he just turn himself into another person effortlessly so that no resemblance with his real face remained? Did it hurt, tickle or did his face feel like melting wax while his features shifted? She was so innocently amazed it didn't even occur to her to be alarmed by it. Belle didn't think that his using magic could mean the possibility of hurting her or doing other darker and crueler things.

"…Or it could be something to do with me trying to exercise my right for Cinderella's first born", Rumpelstiltskin said after removing his glamour.

"Why did you want her first born?"

"Because babies make an excellent roast and I do like a feast with a roast", he gave her one of the smiles that usually made people tremble with fear.

"You… you're joking, right?" She said, not quite certain.

"Oh am I, dearie?"

Belle frowned and studied his face. Why did he have to be so difficult to talk to? She'd heard some stories from her wet-nurse about the terrible creature that lived in the Dark Castle. Some legends even claimed he came into this world from an egg hatched by a toad, like a basilisk and that was why his skin was green and likely cold and slimy to touch, but none of them mentioned him being a sarcastic or word-twisting insufferable git.

"I think everything happens to us for a reason. I think it was just a misunderstanding and if you tried, you would…"

"Dearie, don't fool yourself for a second into believing I care about what you think", Rumpelstiltskin interrupted her before the girl could start speaking clichés like "there-is-good-in-you-if-you-try" or "you-need-to-be-fair-to-others". He had no intention of being counseled by some snotty-nosed girl barely out of adolescence. He made a deal with Cinderella and the bitch broke it. Furthermore, she tricked him and now he was in this cage, but he would get his way and his revenge, end of story - Besides, thinking is a bad habit for a woman, I'm sure your husband would not appreciate it.

Belle leaned back against the wall, crossed her arms in front of her and turned to face away from the sorcerer, sulking. That was probably for the best. Her sudden curiosity and chattiness made him weary and suspicious.