No sooner had he sent the hat away to his bag did he feel an odd chill in the air, a dramatic temperature drop that came on a wave of magic that startled him and-
The lights flickered.
Once. Then twice.
Then he found himself plunged into darkness as he summoned his magic into himself and alerted every sense he had to the space around him. The hat had been guarded by the Apprentice before. Perhaps it was silly to think that it was unguarded now, that it could be taken so easily; perhaps there was a trap that had been set, or it was a trick…
But if it were a trick, he'd expect to feel Light Magic, then same kind of Light Magic that he felt stitched around the mansion itself. The magic he felt washing over him was different from the Light Magic he felt in this place. The magic in this mansion was at a simmer, something alive and working, but stagnant at the same time, something consistently at status quo. But this…this was something brewing. This was active, powerful magic. And it had swept over him and through him as though it was nothing, as though it was unaware of his existence. It wasn't targeted magic.
Belle was upstairs. He made sure of that before he moved back over to the wall and flicked the light switch off and on again. Nothing happened. A power that didn't target him but rather the power? That would be a power that was difficult to identify from his textbooks. There was no electricity in the Enchanted Forest, to begin with, so he hadn't a clue what kind of magic interacted with the power, nor would his books. He had no frame of reference for how far-reaching it could be either. He didn't like that.
Curiously, he moved to the window Belle had stood at earlier and looked out. There wasn't much of Storybrooke to see from this direction, but he'd observed a few houses earlier that his eyes only found now with magic. It was, of course, the middle of the night, and he didn't expect to see the houses lit up exactly, but porch lights, garage lights, that soft ambient glow from appliances…it was all missing. And the night sky…it was nearly as vibrant as it had been inside the hat. It was reminiscent of those nights he'd camped outside with his father as a boy. Most people probably wouldn't think twice about the clarity of the sky but knew what that meant. A sky that clear only came from a lack of light pollution. All of Storybrooke was dark.
Because of a wave of magic?
That was…interesting.
A noise behind him caught his ear, his name hissed in the darkness. His heart raced before he turned and found…Belle. She was awake. And coming nearer to him. And he still held the dagger in his hands.
He swallowed hard and sent it away. He placed it back with his jacket, in the place where he'd hidden the false one. In another breath, he made sure that the false dagger was nestled within the scarf Belle wanted it wrapped in. He had no choice. The hat may have been weak, but it still needed a considerable amount of magic to be called forth, and if he planned to study it, then he had to keep the real one with him, at least until he no longer needed it.
"Rumple!" he heard Belle call out again in the darkness.
"Here," he called back, drawing a breath and glancing at the now-empty table. She hadn't noticed any of these changes yet, had she? "I'm here!"
She couldn't notice. He had to be sure of it, had to play the role…
She appeared like a ghost out of a Christmas Novel. A candle in one hand and the silky white sleeping gown fluttering about her as she took small careful steps into the unfamiliar room.
"Rumple…what uh…what are you looking at?" she questioned, putting away her light and moving closer to him. If she noticed that the box was gone or that the dagger had been missing when she woke, she said nothing.
"It's not what I am looking at, it's what I'm not looking at," he corrected, holding out a hand to draw her closer. "Come here. Look." He positioned her in front of him so she could see what he did out the window…and the second he put his hands to her hips and felt how thin the fabric was around her, he had to remind himself to stay focused. "What don't you see?"
She paused and took her time to look a bit at the outside world, to put together one of the riddles she hated. And then…
"Light," she answered. "There's no light. The uh…the power is out," she informed him without a hint of distress as if something like this happened all the time. Probably because she couldn't feel the magic that had fallen over the land when it happened.
"Indeed, all over Storybrooke by the looks of it. I don't see a single light or glow from the town from anywhere."
"Well…the power has gone out here before…hasn't it?"
He shook his head. "Not like this. Not when the weather is perfect, not all over town all at once." Not since the curse broke, and he'd regained his ability to feel the magic in this world.
"Hey…" she turned in his embrace and took one of his hands in her own. In the darkness, he could see her eyes straining, searching his own in the candlelight, looking for her cues. "What's wrong?" she questioned, putting a hand on his cheek so that her gown shifted against her body. "What's happening? Do you know why the power is out?"
Fuck no, but he'd felt the temperature drop. She must have felt that!
"I-I-I don't know," he breathed, trying to train his eyes on her face and not how low-cut that gown was. Fuck, they were potentially in the middle of the next crisis they'd be called upon to solve, and suddenly, all he could think about was the fact that they were still on their honeymoon, their phones off, and danger was far away for at least another few hours…
"I woke up to get a glass of water, and the power went out. It's all very…strange."
"You're worried. Does it mean something?"
"In this town…without a doubt."
But until there was something they truly had to worry about…
"And if I was a smart man, I might panic and rush out to figure out why."
Her head turned, looking him over skeptically as he let his eyes drift down the rest of her body. "But…but you're not a smart man?"
"Not tonight," he muttered, pulling her away from the window. It was impossible to be a smart man when the blood he needed for his brain was currently working elsewhere. "Not when my beautiful wife is wearing…" hands in his own he spread them wide so he could get a better view of her, of how thin the material was, how her skin was reacting to the cooler temperatures, the way the blood rushed to her face and chest in a deepening blush the more he looked… "that."
"You're trying to distract me," she whispered as a smile teased at her lips.
"Yes," he answered, pulling her forward and back into his arms. "Both of us actually, because whatever the problem is, whatever the trouble is…it can wait…"
He could not.
And so he brought his mouth down upon her own, softly at first, but the more her grip on him tightened, the deeper their interactions grew. Teeth and tongues met with lips in breathless exchanges until he thought to tear his mouth from her own and kiss the skin at her neck. Gooseflesh melding with the heat of her blush, she gasped as he held her tighter, manipulated her closer.
Marriage, as it turned out, was quite a decent distraction from impending danger. At least it was for him. The joys of a honeymoon captured his attention, and for several long minutes, refused to release it. First on the table in the room where they were, and then a second and third time in the bedroom they'd claimed earlier thanks to the assistance of his magic. His rapture of it extended even beyond the act of physical touch. She claimed his awe in a way that nothing, no magic, no curse, no hat or dagger ever had. So much so that after that third time, when she muttered "We're going to need to rest for a bit. You wore me out," he felt helpless but to obey.
He'd worn her out?! he was the one who felt as though he could barely catch his breath.
"Get comfortable then," he commented as he groped for blankets and sheets and pulled them down the bed. The air was cool even if the fire he'd reignited was warm, and they were both covered in sweat. The last thing he wanted was for her to catch cold, though by the looks over her, huddled against his chest, light practically radiating off of her, he didn't see how that was going happen.
"You're glowing…" he pointed out.
"That's because of you. I feel incredible."
"You are incredible." All on her own, her magic would exceed his any day. Something she seemed to be considering herself, perhaps.
"What are you thinking about so hard?" he questioned as he noted her lying against him with a wide smile on her face.
She kissed his chest, then smiled in his direction. "I can't get over it…I'm yours. Forever."
"And I am yours, my darling Belle. For as long as I live," he promised, making her devotion mutual.
"I get to wake up every morning and see you. I get to share a bed with you. A life. A family."
"Forever…"
"We get to do this as often as we want."
"Not being married never exactly stopped us before, my darling Belle."
"I know, but now it just seems-"
"Different," he confirmed at the same time she did. Unity in their ideals, unity in their thoughts, their bodies…this was perfect. So much more than he could ever have imagined…
"I can't believe that I ever saw you as collateral…a tradable commodity," he lamented. "I can't believe…"
"That the woman you once saw in a yellow dress in her father's palace would share your bed?" she finished for him. Yes, now that he thought about it, this wasn't exactly a brand-new revelation for him or from him, he'd told her something similar before. But looking at her now, his ring on her finger…it might not have been different, but it was new.
"More than that…I never thought that I would love that woman this much, that I'd watch her grow and learn, that she would become the most important person in my life, that she'd want to give her life to me, and that I'd want to do the same and more if it were possible," he reflected. "If you had told me I'd be lying here with you, that we'd have said the words we did to each other at that well, willing to do what we just did when I first laid eyes on you, I don't think I would have believed it."
"You would have run away screaming," she laughed.
"Probably," he lied. There was no "probably" about it…the Seer had left him hints, giving him glimpses of what this relationship would become. He'd never embraced it, never believed it. And more than once, when he'd found himself wanting to embrace it, wanting to believe it, he'd practically run away, hidden himself in his tower, or gone off to make deals or picked a fight with her. There had been a reason for it then. But now he was glad this was where he'd ended up.
"I'm glad you didn't," Belle commented. "I'm glad we ended up here. The future isn't always what it seems."
He pulled her closer so he could kiss her forehead again. He was glad this was where they'd ended up, too.
"I love you," he muttered happily.
"And I love you too. That was a bit more like what I expected a honeymoon to be like."
He laughed. "As opposed to breaking into a house and having the power mysteriously disappear? Yes, that was probably slightly closer to what normal people do on their honeymoons."
After tonight, he completely understood the reason for it. Experimenting was fun, and they'd need to add more of it to their rotation along with all the other ways they already knew they loved. A little adventure in their normal life would be necessary, especially since he could feel the end of this drawing closer and other thoughts, like the power and the hat and the dagger creeping back into his headspace. That was the thing about distractions; they were never permanent.
"Rumple…" she muttered, suddenly pushing herself up on one elbow to look down at him with concern in her eyes. "If there is no power, the shop and the library…will they be all right without us?"
That was…an excellent question. Ordinarily, he'd say "yes" right away. Magic couldn't be swayed by something electrical. But then he remembered what he'd felt as the power had gone out, the remembrance that this wasn't caused by something in the power grid or an electrical surge. This was magic. Odd magic. He couldn't say "yes" without a doubt. To truly find out the extents of the connection between magic and electricity would take experiments he had yet to run.
But to admit that out loud and bring this to a close…when she seemed so happy…
"The wards that protect our properties are magical, not electrical. I'm sure it'll be safe without us for a bit."
The problem was that since the power had gone out, it had already been "a bit."
Belle let out a sigh. "But…in some of the books I read on magic, I saw that fluctuating energy of any kind can sometimes cause even the simplest of spells, like magical wards, to fail."
That was…correct. When they were like this, it was difficult to remember that in their time apart, her knowledge of magic had grown to the point where she apparently no longer needed him to dictate the basics to her. But the fact that she'd brought it up…was she trying to get them to go?
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that it might not be a bad idea to check on the shop," she reasoned. "It's early, people might not even know that the power is off yet! If we leave soon, we can be in town by sunrise, check the wards, and make sure the shop is protected properly. You and I both know how bad it would be if someone stole something from there."
Yes. Yes, he did. And sad as he would be to walk away from their time alone for an emergency, the thing he'd taken them up to the cabin to avoid in the first place, he also didn't like the idea of sitting around while someone threatened the delicate life that he was just now starting to put together for himself.
She knew that. He could see it plain as day on her face as she looked at him. She knew exactly what she was suggesting and why. She was giving him the excuse to leave, to walk away and do what would likely drive him crazy in a few hours if he didn't.
"You are a more perfect woman than I could ever have dreamed up in all my centuries of time…" he smiled.
"Never forget it," she nodded. "And just…just promise me one thing. Someday, when life is less complicated, and we know more about crossing the town line…promise me we'll have a real honeymoon outside of Storybrooke. Promise me one day we'll really see the world."
He beamed as he found her hand and laced their fingers together. He kissed her palm and sighed in relief. "That is a deal I am happy to make."
And so we come to the end of 4x01. Of course this is not quite the end of what I would call "fluff," but they are headed back into town, back into civilization, and so the fluff will be a little less concentrated with other things, like hats and daggers and pirates, beginning to get in the way. Tragic, I know, but stick with me because I'm going to try to make this insanity make sense!
Thank you, Rsbeall12, RedboyWillson, and guest for your reviews of the previous chapter. RedboyWillson, worry not, he most definitely remembers the hat and Anna, he just doesn't have all the time in the world to relive every aspect of it in that moment. That chapter was mainly meant for his own conflict around what he was about to to but make no mistake, Anna will come up and soon enough! I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter. I hope you like Rumple's thoughts on realizing that magic hasn't really ever been studied beside electricity and so when it comes to the effects of the blackout and what could be the cause of it, he is well and truly stumped. Of course, we all know that something non-magical caused it, but it is still an interesting thought for our guy! Peace and Happy Reading!