Title: The integrity of your revolution
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Denise Levertov
Warnings: AU during season 1; references to extended confinement
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 365
Point of view: third
Prompt: Once Upon A Time. any. Sometimes it helps to forget where we come from
"Rumpel?" Belle murmurs, hesitantly reaching toward him.
"Oh, Belle," he says gently, angrier than he has ever been in all his years.
He wishes - but Regina is dead already, and at the hand of one she never truly considered a threat. That will have to be revenge enough.
What he must do now is focus on Belle. Baelfire will understand, surely - he was always such a better man than Rumpelstiltskin.
.
Belle is... confused. And quiet. How long did Regina have her before the curse? And then 28 years in the cell - as far as Rumpelstiltskin can determine, she has no memories from Storybrooke, so at least there aren't two lives warring in her. But 28 years (at the least) of solitude and darkness... it makes him want to weep.
But he cannot weep. And there is no one in this godforsaken place he trusts except for the dratted hatter, so he waits for nightfall and then brings Belle to the hatter's door.
.
"Hello, sweetheart," Jeffrey's son says, smiling at Belle. She smiles back, so she must remember all the talks they had while Rumpelstiltskin had plotted in the corner. "Would you like some tea? My daughter's trying a new blend."
"Yes, please," Belle whispers, gazing around in wonder.
"I'll just fetch her, then," the hatter says, slowly stepping toward the door. He pauses and turns back to say, "Belle. It will be hard to come back to yourself, if you want to. But you don't need to. You'll have friends either way."
Rumpelstiltskin holds his silence as Belle seems to – settle into her skin. She nods before wandering over to the couch, where a tablet has been left. "What is this?" she asks, fingers barely touching it, glancing towards Rumpelstiltskin.
"The passcode is the day I brought Grace to your castle," Jefferson says, stepping through the doorway.
"It's called a tablet," Rumpelstiltskin says. "While we wait for our hosts, I'll show you how to work it."
The woman the Dark One fell in love with is still there, but even should he never again see more than glimpses of her, Belle is still before him and he'll love her the same.