queueingtocomplain said:

Adopted son verse Belle wants to look extra nice for dinner with Gold, and she isn't quite sure why.

Tri-sarah-topsaurus said:

They get raw oysters at a restaurant by the beach and she reacts… strangely. She takes a hot bath in the large hotel tub, falls asleep, and wakes up… well, wet.

endangeredslug said:

Prompt: belle dreams that instead of Bae, gold is there for her. Sexy stuff happens.

Anonymous said:

Adoption!verse: Belle dreams of Gold.

"But why can't I go with you?" Bae whined from his perch at the edge of his mother's bed for the third time that night.

"For one thing, you don't eat sea food," Belle reminded him as she put the finishing touches on her mascara." "For another thing, we're having a very late dinner and you'll be asleep before we get back."

Bae scowled, but didn't respond. She and Arthur had decided to take advantage of the complimentary childcare the hotel offered in order to go out for seafood while at the beach. Bae didn't like seafood, but would never admit to that until he was staring down a plate of fried fish and had eaten all his fries. He would have a much better time with his Game Boy and the babysitter than he would with them, which was really the only reason she thought Arthur had agreed to a night for the two of them to become friends outside of parenthood. She wanted to get to know her son's father as a human being rather than just being Bae's parents all the time, which was something they'd never done. It couldn't hurt their relationship to spend more time together.

"If you're just going out to dinner, why are you all dressed up?" Bae grumped. "You never wear that much makeup."

"Because that is how grownups dress for nice restaurants," she replied. "Anyway, since when do you care if I wear makeup?"

"You wore makeup for your date," he pointed out."

"Because that was at a nice restaurant," she replied. "I'm just trying to get to know your dad as friends, alright?"

Bae didn't look like he believed her, but he didn't have time to make any reply as at that moment there was a tentative knock on the door to Belle's room.

"Come in," she called out and Arthur poked his head in.

"The babysitter is here," he said, before his eyes settled on hers and his jaw dropped.

"Oh God," she said. "You think it's too much, too."

Belle looked down at the black dress she was wearing. It wasn't overly fancy, just a simple black A-line. The bodice, now that she thought about it, might be a bit tight but other than that it was a perfectly nice dress.

"No, no," he reassured her. "You look lovely, just...different."

"Good different?"

"Very good," he said indulgently.

Bae was looking at her even more skeptically than he had been earlier, and she popped him lightly on the head with her handbag. He let out an over-dramatic groan, flopping onto the bed and making noises like he was dying.

"Alright, mister," she said with a laugh as she stepped into her heels. "That's enough from you. Now, be good to the sitter and we'll be back after you go to sleep."

She shot a glance at Arthur, to remind him that he was supposed to be the one to give Bae his instructions about the evening. He was still staring at her dumbstruck and she was stuck someplace between flattered and worry that she was overdressed for the evening.

"Bedtime is ten pm sharp," she continued, giving up on Arthur's ability to take her hint for the moment. "And I don't want to hear that you were up all night playing games, okay?"

"Yes, Mom," Bae huffed.

Belle shooed Bae out towards the shared living area, and Arthur stepped back to give them space. The provided sitter was an energetic looking girl of college age, wearing a hotel shirt with a pair of jeans.

"Hi," she said brightly. "I'm Holly. Who is this?"

"This is Bailey," Belle introduced, nudging Bae until he stepped forward and offered Holly a handshake which she accepted.

Belle gave her a quick rundown of Bae's rules and then, just like that, they were out the door for a grown-up activity.

The restaurant was excellent, one of those beach side restaurants that was a tourist destination during the day and fine dining after dark. Between her son's distaste for dead sea creatures and her own aversion to leaving him home with strangers, it had been years since Belle had gotten to go out for any sort of sea food, and she told Arthur as much as they were seated at a table.

"Really?" he said, sounding incredulous.

"Well," she replied. "I'm not going to go out alone and Bae can't stand it, so I probably haven't had fish since he was six and I took Ruby out for her birthday. We've tried once or twice since then, but Bae can't even stand fish sticks so eventually I gave up."

"Luckily, I think we can rectify that," he said smiling at her. "What do you like?"

"Oh everything," she assured him. "It's one of my biggest regrets about motherhood."

He looked startled for a second before realizing her joke and smiling.

"I assure you, dearie, this will be worth the wait."

He hadn't been lying, ordering oysters and cocktails to start.

"So," he began, more to his cocktail than to her, "are you enjoying being here?"

"The restaurant or vacation?"

"Either. Both."

He sounded so nervous for her approval that her heart skipped a beat.

"Of course I am," she told him. "Really, if anything you're being too good to us. You don't have to do these kinds of things to make us like you."

"I like doing it," he said, shrugging. "You sacrificed a lot of things to raise Bae and you shouldn't have had to. I never had to make those sacrifices, and I can afford to spoil both of you, so I want to."

"Well," she said with a smile. "I'm not going to stop you."

She popped another oyster into her mouth, closing her eyes and savoring the freshness and the sheer indulgence that she rarely got to enjoy with a happy moan. When she looked back at him he was staring at her strangely and she averted her eyes. This suddenly felt like a date. He seemed to have picked up on her discomfort, rapidly scanning the restaurant for anything to focus on besides her. His face lit up at the sight of their food being brought out, and Belle opted not to draw anymore attention to the awkward moment.

She couldn't help smiling in delight at her dungeoness crab and he just looked at her in something akin to disbelief over his own plate which contained a delicious looking swordfish steak.

"You really don't get to go out much, do you?"

"You hadn't noticed?" she asked between bites.

"Why is that, anyway?" he was suddenly serious.

She shrugged before answering him.

"Bae's a lot of work and I don't like leaving him with strangers."

"You have a lot of friends who would take him," he pointed out. "Your friend Ruby, for instance. And clearly you do something with him during the summer so you can work. So why don't you go out much?"

She put her fork down and stared at him in shock for a second. It had never occurred to her he might question her social life too hard.

"I don't like to date," she said finally. "And before you ask, I never had a bad boyfriend or a guy who wouldn't take no for an answer. In college I was actually engaged for a little bit. I just...I don't know, I'd rather get to know someone as a person first and dating just feels like being a piece of meat at the grocery store."

"You were engaged?" he said, sounding shocked.

"And you were married," she replied evenly. "We both had lives before we met."

"No, of course," he was fumbling to apologize. "I'm sorry, I just...I had no idea. What happened?"

"If you're hoping for an interesting story you're going to be disappointed," she warned him. "I tutored George in Freshman English, and he said he wanted to take me out as thanks. One thing lead to another and we ended up dating for a year or so. He proposed before summer break of Sophomore year, and by Junior year I knew I wanted something else out of life. Then my dad died and I inherited the flower shop and I just realized that life was too short for a guy I wasn't completely sold on, you know? Bae I could be completely sold on."

She recited the story as dispassionately as she possibly could, there had been a little more to her relationship with George McNabb than she'd let on.

"I know exactly what you mean," he said softly. "Like you said, we both had lives."

"Well, what was yours?"

He grimaced, but met her gaze.

"Fair is fair, I suppose," he replied. "You already know about Milah, of course. The only other one really worth mentioning would be Cora."

He took a long drink of his cocktail and she reached out and held his hand comfortingly. He stared at her hand resting on his for a moment as though he couldn't quite understand it.

"It was a few years after my divorce," he finally continued. "It wasn't a particularly good time in my life. Cora was a beautiful woman, and we had a brief affair. Turns out, she was also a social climber and I was a means to an end. My mistake, if you want to call it that, was introducing her to people with more money and influence than I had."

"And what happened to her?" Belle prompted softly, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

"She's married now," he provided. "And from what I understand they are absolutely miserable but staying together for their child."

"Oh," she said, trying to think of something else to say. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he said. "It was for the best, really. She wasn't a very nice person and we brought out the worst in each other. I was better off once she was gone."

"Well, then I'm glad she's not here now. I'd like Bae to have a better sort of step-mother."

"She really would have been terrible," he agreed. "But I have no particular desire to expand his family anytime soon. There's no need to worry yourself on that account."

There was nothing Belle could say to that, so she just smiled at him as comfortingly as she could. He smiled back shyly and it was a few more moments before they both realized that she was still holding his hand on the table. Belle yanked her hand back so fast she was surprised she didn't spill her water, and they returned to a carefully casual conversation over their meal.

It was close to eleven when they finally returned to the shared room. Bae was long asleep, and Arthur tipped Holly for her time and sent her on her way.

"I had a great time," Belle said to him, feeling awkward again. "Thanks for doing all of this."

"You don't have to thank me," he replied softly. "You're my family now, and you're great company."

"Be that as it may, I do appreciate everything you've done for us."

She placed a hand on his shoulder and stood on tip-toes for a second to place a kiss on his cheek, her hand resting over his heart to balance her. He stiffened the moment she touched him, and she was fairly sure he didn't breathe until she had pulled away. Arthur didn't say anything, just looking at her with shock writ large across his face.

"I'm going to take a bath before bed," she said. "Goodnight, Arthur."

"Goodnight, Belle."

Was it her imagination, or did she hear a wistful longing in his voice?

She couldn't quite shake the feeling that they had crossed a line on this trip, but she wasn't sure exactly where it had been or even if she was upset about it. They had definitely gotten closer, and Bae had been thrilled having both around constantly. Oh, why did this all have to be so damn confusing?

Belle pinned her hair up, wondering how much of her troubles were related to the drinks she'd had over dinner and how much would still be there in the morning. She settled into the bath and gasped as the hot water met her skin. It settled her, though, relaxing muscles and turning white skin pink. The tub was deeper than the one she had at home, too, and Belle was able to submerge herself to her neck in the hot water. It was going to be awful going back home to her real life and her bathroom that was full of Spider-man brand body wash after this. She took a deep breath and stretched out, closing her eyes and letting the warm water ease her confusion.

She was back in her home, now, but it was cleaner than usual. Belle wondered briefly where Bae was when suddenly Arthur was there, too. He was wearing the same suit he'd worn the first time he came to dinner (the same suit he'd been wearing the time she had kissed him, she remembered), but his cane was gone.

"What are you doing here?" she said. There was no reason for him to be there if Bae wasn't as well.

"I came for you," he said and his voice had the same strange quality to it that it had earlier after she'd kissed his cheek.

Before she could ask what he meant by that, he had her pinned against the wall, his hands stronger than she had thought they would be as they moved up and down her body. She felt completely limp but it didn't matter, because he was holding her up and his lips were on hers and that was the important thing. He cupped her breasts and she gave a groan of wanting. It had been too long since she'd been touched by a man – longer than she cared to think about, really. His leg was between hers and she was surprised at how much she wanted him. She hadn't ever spared a thought to Arthur as a bed partner, and yet the idea of him here thrilled her.

Somehow, her legs were around his hips and he was grinding against her. He was panting in her ear and she wanted him so bad it hurt.

"Arthur," she groaned his name, because she didn't have words for what she needed from him.

He understood, though. Of course he would understand her, it was silly of her to have thought he wouldn't. He'd always been so good to her. She didn't know how he did it, but suddenly he was lining himself up with her and preparing to take her against the wall. There was a banging at the door, but it could wait. This was something Belle needed more than anything else.

"Mom?" Bae was calling to her through the door, and Belle was still in the tub and the water had gone tepid.

"Yeah, Bae," Belle was disoriented and couldn't quite figure out what time it was or where that had come from. "What do you need?"

"I have to pee," he whined.

"Use the other bathroom," she yelled back, covering her face and trying to calm herself down. She knew any wandering hands right now would find her wet in more ways than one, and she couldn't quite catch her breath. There was no way she was in any state to face a ten-year-old right now.

Bae whined and grumbled, but she heard him retreat from the door.

Oh God, this was insane. She wasn't a stranger to sex dreams, though they weren't exactly a regular occurrence. What was unnerving about this one, though, was that Arthur starred in it. That was entirely new. Once Belle's heart rate returned to normal and she thought she could face him if she accidentally came across him in the shared living area, she wrapped a towel around herself and darted into her bedroom.

There was still about a week and a half of this vacation left, surely it was just the close quarters that was giving her fits. Yes, that had to be it. Belle was an expert and compartmentalizing her home life from her sexual desires. It was disturbing, but not unreasonable, that the two might bleed together like this. She just had to remember who he was to her and everything would be fine. Besides, in a week and a half they would be back to their separate lives and Bae would be the only thing they had in common.