Belle was pretty sure she was already dead. Her mouth tasted stale and dry and her head was pounding. She was too scared to even open her eyes and let the light in. Even the skin of her hands was itchy and dry. She hadn't been this hungover in a long time - not since college, actually. She didn't really remember going home, but she did remember Arthur showing up at some point and getting into his car. Oh God.

She slowly opened her eyes enough to take in her surroundings. Sure enough, she was nestled into bed in the guest room she'd slept in while they'd been staying with Arthur. So he'd taken her home and put her in bed while she'd been sloppy drunk. This was mortifying. She never got drunk like that and now she was sticky and her clothes were itchy and she smelled like an ashtray. She wished she'd had the foresight to leave some clothes here when she moved back to her house afterward. She slowly rolled herself toward the edge of the bed, at which point her stomach revolted and she had to rest a minute to try to settle herself back before continuing her attempts to get out of bed.

By the time she finally swung her legs down to sit perched on the edge of the bed, she felt well enough to take a glance around at which point she saw a soft cotton t-shirt and drawstring pajama pants set nicely at the foot of the bed. He'd left her something to change into, that sweet man.

She didn't get too much time to think about how appreciative she was before her stomach did another flip and sent her running to the bathroom.

After she managed to empty whatever remained in her stomach, she rinsed her mouth out with water and stripped to climb in the shower. She knew from her previous stay here that Arthur had this bathroom stocked with little shampoos from various hotels and she helped herself to a shampoo, conditioner, and bar of soap. Just getting the makeup off and the bar smell out of her hair and skin made her feel a million times better, even if she ended up throwing up in the shower again before she got out. The worn cotton of the shirt and pants felt like an indulgence, even if she'd have to change back into her other clothes before she left at least she could be clean and fresh for a few hours.

Her stomach felt a little better - even if her head didn't - when she made her way downstairs to the kitchen.

Bae was sitting at the breakfast bar while Arthur cooked something that had her stomach lurching again.

"Good morning," Bae chirped as Belle planted herself into a seat and tried really hard to block out the light. "Dad said you were staying over but that we should let you sleep."

She nodded, wishing the movement didn't have her head cracking open again. She'd felt better in the shower but she still felt sick.

"I also said she might need a little extra time to wake up this morning," Arthur said in a soft voice she was ever so grateful for. "Your mother had a little too much fun with your Aunt Ruby last night."

He set a mug of tea in front of her and Belle would have thanked him for it if she were sure that speaking was a good idea. She tried to smile at him long enough to convey some of the depth of her gratitude, and he smiled back so she hoped he got the message.

There was a plate of toast and eggs in front of her after she'd only gotten a little ways into the coffee. Bae had bacon and pancakes as well, but she wasn't quite sure her stomach would hold for all that.

"You'll feel better if you eat," Arthur said, still smiling at her with a little knowing look on his face. "Did you sleep well?"

There was something going on and she wasn't quite sure what it was. What the hell had happened last night?

"I slept fine," she finally said, her voice feeling raw in her throat. "Thank you for leaving out the clothes."

"It's no matter," he replied, taking his own plate and sitting down on the other side of Bae.

Once she was feeling slightly more human (the eggs and toast really did help) she set about trying to remember whatever she could from the night before. She didn't remember a whole lot after leaving the bar, but she was able to begin to piece things together. She remembered being at the bar with Ruby. She remembered Arthur showing up. She remembered Ruby putting the shopping bags in Arthur's car - oh God the vibrator was still in Arthur's car. She was going to have to take a ride with that, Arthur, and Bae all together in the car in order to get home. Oh no, he'd asked her about her day shopping and she'd told him what Ruby said about orgasms. She knew she was blushing now, and she wanted the floor to swallow her up before she had to face him again.

The night was coming back to her in bits and pieces now. She remembered that he had to wake her up to get out of the car, she remembered wanting him to look at her shoes and making him take them off of her. She remembered her drunken brain deciding it was a good time to try to make a move, which in hindsight she should probably apologize for. Aside from that, it was mostly a lot of images. She remembered seeing him, and she remembered at one point he was sitting next to her on the bed, but she was having a hard time separating reality from fantasy since her memories of the previous night were shifting dangerously.

The only things Belle was one hundred percent sure of were that she owed Arthur an apology and she wasn't sure she wouldn't prefer the floor to open up and swallow her whole before she had to give it to him.

Bae was chatting away to his father who was providing all the correct interjections at the right time as far as Belle could tell, but she was kind of absorbed in her own little world at the moment. After a few minutes that felt like an eternity, Bae finally excused himself to go watch TV while his father began cleaning up after breakfast. Belle took a deep breath and looked up at him, attempting to psych herself up to apologize and ask what she'd done the night before. It wasn't working.

"Do you want some aspirin?" he asked her before she could say anything.

"Yes please," she replied, grateful for his interruption. Aspirin was a safe topic, and everything else was so scary.

He went to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle before handing it to her. She fished a couple pills out and downed them with the remainder of Bae's orange juice. By the time she looked at him again, Arthur was loading the plates into the dishwasher. His back was towards her, so she indulged herself in watching him for a little while. He was a good dad, she decided. He took good care of their son, and he'd taken care of her. She enjoyed watching him with Bae, because the amount of love he clearly had for the boy was always evident. It was something worth it to see, and even if he'd meant nothing to her she'd have loved him for that.

Belle loved Arthur. That in and of itself wasn't much, he was the father of her son and had been a great friend to her. She had begun to suspect that her feelings may run deeper than that, though. Was she in love with him? She wasn't sure she'd been in love with anyone before, was this what it felt like? This need to be near him and the breathless excitement of potential? This absolute terror of losing him?

"I think I might owe you an apology," she finally said into the silence of the kitchen. "For last night."

"Oh," he said with a little blush blooming on his cheeks. "Do you?"

"I don't really remember a whole lot about it," she admitted. "But what I do remember...I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he replied. "You were charming."

"Do you mind if I ask what exactly I said?"

"You were a little...forward," he said diplomatically. "But mostly you seemed very concerned about whether or not I knew you liked me."

There was a little bit of a teasing note in his voice, but he didn't sound like he was lying.

"Oh my God," she said, letting her face fall into her hands. "I'm such a dork, I'm so sorry."

"It was endearing," he said. "And for the record, I like you, too."

Now she knew she was blushing all the way down to her chest - she wouldn't be surprised if it was all the way down to her toes, honestly.

"Anything else?" she asked, risking a glance at him as he shuffled from one foot to the other. "Oh no, there was, wasn't there? What did I say?"

"You...might have discussed some purchases you made yesterday," he said. "And the...reasons for them. And how you didn't think that they would uhhh - help."

Oh. Oh no. No no no no. She hadn't. Had she? Apparently she had. Oh this was beyond bad.

"Alright then," she said after a minute. "If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go join a convent."

"No," he practically jumped forward to put a hand on her arm and stop her from escaping. "There's really no need to be embarrassed. It...it was nice to hear. And I don't think anything less of you or expect anything."

He sounded so desperate in that moment, as though he was the one with something to apologize for and not the person who'd given up a portion of his evening to rescue her from her own bad judgment only to get sexually harassed in his own home by a drunk woman.

Belle wasn't really sure how to reassure him that it wasn't his behavior she was upset by, or how to really apologize for her own.

"We never did talk about where we stand, did we?" she finally said, sliding back onto the stool.

"We didn't," he agreed. "But now is as good a time as any, I suppose."

"It's going to have to be," she replied. "About last night...I shouldn't have had as much to drink as I did, and I don't really remember everything I said. I definitely shouldn't have said what I do remember and I am sorry."

He nodded, glancing away as though the answers to all her questions could be found outside the window.

"Don't worry too much about it," he said after a little while. "It wasn't - you weren't a bother. I won't say it wasn't enlightening, but it definitely wasn't a bother."

"We're in a very strange place, aren't we?"

"We are," he replied. "But I think it's worth it. I'm happy with how things are, anyway."

"I am too," she hurried to reassure him. "My concern is that we have to move things along at such a strange pace. We've known each other for months, so on the one hand we've sort of skipped ahead of the getting to know each other parts but at the same time we've never really had any of the conversations you're supposed to have leading into a dating relationship."

"That's true," he said slowly. "Are you having second thoughts about...this?"

"No, not at all," she replied. "I'm just not entirely sure how to make the leap between you being Bae's other parent and you being someone I'm kissing now. We've gone someplace beyond friends but I don't really know what the rules are for this."

"Do we have to have rules for it?" he asked her earnestly. "Can't we just see where it goes?"

"Not really," she said. "We have Bae to worry about. Either this is serious and going someplace or we're risking our son's happiness for a fling."

He was looking out the damn window again with a thoughtful look on his face, though he kept glancing back to her quickly like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure how to go about it. Had she scared him off?

"Arthur?" she said after a little while. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm sorry," he replied. "I wasn't entirely prepared to skip straight from our first kiss to 'where is this relationship going?' before the first date, but I guess since we had a kid before we first met we've never really done any of this in the correct order."

She smiled at him in what she hoped was an encouraging fashion, not really sure how to reply.

"If you're asking me if I'm taking this seriously," he continued. "Then the answer is yes. An unequivocal yes, no reservations and no intention of backing out. Yes, I am one hundred percent here for this and for you. I'm not seeing other people and I'm not keeping an eye out for something else to come along. It isn't even a matter of putting all my eggs in one basket, I don't have any other eggs or any other baskets - this is it. If you're asking if I'm your boyfriend, then the answer is that I'm whatever you need me to be. If putting a name on it makes you feel better, then yes, we're dating. Barring any last minute revelations about still living first husbands or you turning out to be a vampire of some variety...I don't see a future that you're not a part of. Does that answer your question?"

"It does," she replied, taking a deep breath to try to force down the tears of happiness that were threatening to come out. "And I want you to know that I'm in the same place. I want you to be in my future - in our future, really - I don't want this to be something that goes away. If we're really going to do this, then let's do it all the way. I don't want to pretend like I'm not interested in spending the rest of my life with you just because we haven't started dating yet."

"I really don't want that either," he said, smiling at her with a relieved look on his face. "But honestly, I'd already halfway resigned myself to spending the rest of my life with you just by the virtue of having the child together. Anything else is just icing on the cake."

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead quickly before going back to cleaning the kitchen. She sipped her tea and watched him a little while longer. She knew she should offer to help, but the combination of her hangover and the sheer relief she felt at the completion of this conversation had her rooted to her seat. She hadn't planned on having this conversation, and she still had no idea what she'd told him the night before, but Belle felt dizzy with relief at the way this had all gone. He didn't think she was crazy, and he was as invested in this as she was.

She couldn't stop smiling, but - from the glances of his face she caught when he turned to steal glances at her - neither could he.