After the pick me up Belle had given him, Rumpel stood next to their bed with a backpack on the bed, stuffing clothing into it. He was going prepared, taking pairs of everything. You never knew when to expect the unexpected, like falling into a stream or getting covered head to toe in mud. Nothing that would give Rumpel any thrill if it happened to himself. Now, if it was to happen to Hook…
He zipped up the bag and bent over to check the laces on his boots. The boots were still stiff as he walked, due to the fact he had only worn them a couple of times when they had been at their cabin. It had been a few months since they had visited the cabin and taken walks in the woods. Belle had wanted to remain nearer to town in case something happened. Worried that another pregnancy was going be robbed from her. Rumpel could not blame her for that, he was just as worried as she was, especially as this was going to be the first time he had witnessed a lover go through all the stages of pregnancy.
In a dark corner of his mind, it still troubled him that he had never been able to be there for Milah when she was pregnant. Not that he would have known what to do at the time and probably run off at the first sign of trouble. With Belle, it was different. It was always different when it came to her. This time around, he had been to every doctors and hospital appointment. He had held her hand and gazed lovingly at her when they had first seen their baby on the monitor. He had sat with her when she was restless, soothing her aching back and feet. Let her shout at him and never retaliated, even if she had shouted at him for leaving his dirty towel on the floor of the bathroom. This was their pregnancy.
Smiling at the thought of their child, Rumpel lugged the backpack onto shoulder and left their bedroom to traipse down the stairs. He stepped off the last step to see Belle washing up the breakfast dishes, gazing out of the window. Rumpel carefully dropped his bag to the floor by the counter and ambled over to her.
Belle was unaware of him. She had not heard him due to the earphones from Lilly's iPod in her ears. It had become her new thing to listen to music whilst doing things or reading her books. Rumpel took the moment to lean against the kitchen island behind him, observing his beautiful pregnant wife in front of him, her hips swaying in time to the music. He was so lucky to have her in his life. Imagining life without her was something he could not do. Rumpel just wished she had been in his life from the start, making him the man he was today back then.
Pushing off the island, he stepped closer to her, keeping a small distance between them. Delicately he traced his fingers along her forearms to her wet hands. Her body pressed back against him as his fingers laced into her hands and drew her arms around herself, pulling her further against himself. Rumpel brushed his lips over her neck and smiled knowingly against her skin as she moaned at the pleasure.
"You're evil, Rumpel." She said with her fingers tightening on his.
He tugged one of the earpieces out of her ear with his teeth and then whispered into her ear. "I love you so much it hurts."
Rumpel hung onto her when she became heavy in his arms, her knees weakening underneath her. She turned her face to look at him. Seizing the moment, Rumpel kissed her softly on her cheek and rested his chin onto her shoulder.
"Gideon will be here soon." She told him, looking back out the window. "Try and have a good time."
"I'd rather stay here with you." He said with his voice muffed by her shoulder.
"You'll be back before you know it." Belle managed to free one of her hands from his and reached up to touched his face. He turned his face and kissed her neck before releasing her, only to turn her to face him. She pulled the other earpiece out of her ear and dropped it to the counter as he turned her.
"What exactly is stopping me from going out there with them and just teleporting back here?" Rumpel asked with a cheeky grin.
"Nothing. But you're going to be a good boy." She instructed him, her hand gently stroking his face.
He raised an eyebrow. "But, Mrs Gold, you only bring the naughty side out of me."
"That's even more reason to on this trip with the boys, keep you away from me!" Belle laughed at him.
"But I can't help myself! You're so addictive!" Rumpel lowered his lips to her ear. "I'll have to pay you a visit tonight and get my fix."
Belle was smiling at him when he lent back and said to him. "As long as you bring peanut butter and mint ice cream."
"Eh?" The confusion was evident on his face.
"I've been fancying it all morning." She confessed to him.
"Okay." Rumpel said unsurely. They heard the front door open and voices came into the house before the door shut again. He did not care who it was, he held onto Belle as long as he could, straining to look over his shoulder to see Lilly, Gideon and Henry come into the kitchen from the hallway.
"Where have you been?" Gideon asked with a hint of worry in his voice, his hand gesturing towards his parents. "We've been looking everywhere."
Rumpel smiled thinking fondly of the memory of Belle and him in her bed, when Gideon had confronted them about their whereabouts, as Gideon could not find them at the Charming's party. "I've been here with your mother. You couldn't have looked everywhere, Gideon."
Belle giggled into Rumpel chest, probably remembering the same memory, as Gideon spoke with his finger pointed at Rumpel. "Don't you try and be clever with me."
"I'm not trying, son. I just am." Rumpel chuckled and relaxed his arms around Belle, letting them rest on her hips. Lilly and Henry both began to laugh at the exchange. In that moment, Rumpel knew that all his thoughts he had pondered over last night were fruitless. The happiness he had at that very instant was enough to show him it was worth living his life.
"I give up." Gideon muttered, throwing his hands up in exasperation at his father.
Henry shook his head and then stilled his head, pointing at his grandfather. "Hey, Grandpa doesn't know, does he?"
"Know what, Henry?" Rumpel asked, slumping back onto the kitchen island behind him, Belle followed with him to lean against him with her hands on his chest.
"After you left, Hook decided he was going to try your technique." Henry emphasised the word technique with his fingers in the air.
"Technique?" Belle asked with a frowned, looking at Rumpel.
"Err…" Rumpel's eyes went wide. He had assumed Gideon had already filled her in on the evening's events.
Henry smiled at Belle. "Yeah, Grandpa was showing us his technique with the ladies."
Hesitantly, Rumpel risked a glance to Belle through the corner of his eye. Her blue eyes were staring at him. "Did he now?"
"He was way better than Hook!" Henry exclaimed whilst missing the pointed look Belle was giving Rumpel. "So, anyway, Hook went over to these girls and was trying Grandpa's conversation technique. He got turned down!"
Rumpel's smile was wide, hurting his cheeks, as he thought of the look on Hook's face when the women had refused to give him their number. Hook was everything that women had wanted back in the Enchanted Forest. He was good looking, charming and witty. Whereas Rumpel was the opposite. He would admit that he was not bad to look at, but he had been far from charming and witty. As he had told the boys, conversation had always been his strongest weapon against a woman. In this realm, Rumpel was the victor with the women.
"So, let me get this right." Belle held his chin between her thumb and forefinger and turned his face to look at her. "You, the one who didn't want to go out last night, was chatting up women at the bar?"
Rumpel licked his lips nervously before he spoke. "I… It… It was just a simple deal. I didn't go over there because I wanted to."
"It's my fault." Henry tried to come to Rumpel's rescue. "I had been talking to Hook about picking up girls."
"I don't know which is worse. The fact that you were chatting up a woman and getting her hopes up that she would ever have – my – handsome husband. Or, that you guys were using them as objects to satisfy your deal." She said, looking from Rumpel to the other two men in the kitchen.
"Hey!" Rumpel looked to the clock in the kitchen. "Look at the time! Gideon, if we don't leave we'll be walking through the woods in the dark to get to our campsite." He said as he gave Belle a kiss on the cheek and squeezed passed her, grabbing his bag by the counter as they vacated the house.
Lilly laughed at the three men leaving, as Belle said. "See you guys tomorrow!"