[center][img=http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d94/Malfoys_one_and_only_girl/Signatures/500x240RumpelxGold.gif?t=1407730156][/center]

[b]A few weeks before the curse hit The Enchanted Forest...[/b]

[i]Rumpelstiltskin reached for a cup of tea Belle had just laid out on the dining room table and brought it up, holding the underside of the teacup with his opposite hand, using it to test the temperature of the tea while he watched Belle walk around the end of the table to join him on the same side he was on. Ignoring it, however, Rumpelstiltskin took a few steps in the other direction, keeping a distance between the two of them, and then noticed that Belle took another few steps of equal distance to get closer to him. Once more, he reached his foot out and took a larger step, watching Belle behind him out of the corner of his eye to see that she was still following him. He turned around quickly to face her, to ask why she was following him, but Belle swiftly sat down on the edge of the table, swinging her feet back and forth and looking up at him with her head turned just slightly.

"Why did you want me here?" Belle asked after a few moments of silence between the two of them. Rumpelstiltskin raised the teacup and shrugged.

"The place was filthy." He replied and took a drink of the soothing warm liquid. Belle turned her head a bit more sideways, giving him a doubtful look, not believing him for a second.

"I think you were lonely." She voiced out boldly. Rumpelstiltskin lowered his teacup, watching Belle's face carefully. "I mean ANY man would be lonely." Rumpelstiltskin just wobbled his head back and forth as if to say 'if that's what you want to think,' and then sat down on the table next to her, though managing to keep a comfortable distance between them.

"I'm not a man." He said, resting the teacup on his knee and looked down at it; anything to keep himself from looking at her. Belle was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say, and looked down at the wrinkles on her blue dress in her lap.

"So I've had uh, a couple of months to look around, you know...and uh...upstairs? There's uh, a blanket; small...as if...for a child?" Belle chanced to turn her head to look at her master, wondering for a moment if this would set him off in any way, but all she could see from him was a couple of quick blinks in succession, and a slight increase in his breathing. "Was it yours? Or...or was there a son?"

Rumpelstiltskin continued to stare down at his tea, attempting to steady his heart before answering and turned his head just slightly to face her.

"There was...a daughter..." He corrected her, and then turned his face away from her once again. "I lost her, as I did her mother."
Belle's face immediately fell at the news, feelings of empathy tugging at her heart and caused her to shake her head, almost regretting that she had asked.

"I'm...I'm sorry..." She said turning her head as well so that she was looking back down into her lap again. Silence began to build, and Belle bit her lip as she found more questions starting to rise in her head, but knew she had to treat the situation delicately. "So...so you WERE a-a man once...an ordinary man..." She stated, though her tone opened it up to be a sort of question; or rather a statement looking for confirmation. 

Rumpelstiltskin didn't budge, and kept staring down at his tea, causing Belle to bend at the waist slightly in an effort to try to catch his eye by looking up at him, but still he did nothing. Belle straightened up her back and let out a quick sigh. "If I'm never going to know another person in my WHOLE life...can't I at least know you?"

Finally, Rumpelstiltskin moved, smiling just a bit as he moved to stand and face her slowly.

"Perhaps..." He said softly, drawing the word out and set his tea cup on the table where he had just been sitting and then raised a finger at Belle. "Perhaps you just want to learn the monster's weaknesses!" He chided, wiggling his fingers a bit between them. Belle tried giving him a 'really?' look, but Rumpelstiltskin made a quick sound to keep her from saying anything, and then twice more to drive in his point. Belle waited patiently for him to stop, and then gave him a soft smile.

"You're not a monster." She said indefinitely, her tone causing Rumpelstiltskin to bring his pointed finger at her back to a relaxed hand position, and then brought his hand away from her and more towards his torso. "You think you're uglier than you are! That's why you cover all the mirrors up isn't it?" Belle gestured towards the one large mirror in the room, covered in a thick square of canvas just as she had said. When Rumpelstiltskin said nothing, Belle gave him a knowing look and a quick, "Hmm?" to drive her own point.

There was a sudden rap at the door, causing Rumpelstiltskin to look in the general direction, and went to answer it, leaving Belle in the dining room for a moment. Once Rumpelstiltskin was in the main hall, he waved his hand in a horizontal circular motion above his head and the double doors sprung open, revealing a man on the doorstep with a torch in one hand, and a pitchfork in the other. He looked nervous as hell to be there, but Rumpelstiltskin waited for him to speak first.

"I-I am Sir Christopher of Halla, and you beast have destroyed my village-"

Rumpelstiltskin had heard enough. He had enough of these kind of visitors to know just where this was heading, and saved the man the trouble. Snapping his fingers, Rumpelstiltskin watched as the man was covered in a thin mist of purple smoke, quickly disappearing to reveal a single rose lying on the ground where the man had once been. With a slight smirk, Rumpelstiltskin swooped down to collect the rose, and went back into the dining room.

He kept the rose hidden behind his back with one hand, while using his other hand to shut the dining room doors with magic.
"Who was that?" Belle asked curiously, getting off of the table to walk towards him.

"Just an old woman selling flowers." Rumpelstiltskin lied, and then proceeded to pull the rose from behind his back and offered it to her as she neared him still. "Here...if you'll have it?"

Belle kept back a smile by biting her lower lip, but made a small noise of appreciation as she extended her arm to accept the flower, taking it from him carefully.

"Why thank you." She said civilly, and curtsied, and Rumpelstiltskin took a bow in response, leaving Belle to laugh a bit at the sudden turn to mimic the 'higher-class' before bringing the rose to her nose. As she turned to walk away, Rumpelstiltskin clapped his hands together and watched Belle walk to find a pair a shears and a vase in which to put the flower in.

"You had a life Belle..." Rumpelstiltskin said watching her retrieve the pair of shears from a small toolbox. "...before...all this..." He used his fingers to make small circles, gesturing towards the entire situation she had been put in, and not just the moments that had just been created that day. "Friends...family..." Belle moved from the toolbox to walk to the glass cupboard on the far side of the room, but Rumpelstiltskin kept talking. "...what made you chose to stay here with me?"

Belle turned to face him as she reached the cupboard, and gave a small smile.

"Heroism...sacrifice..." She quickly turned to open up the glass cupboard and withdrew a glass vase while Rumpelstiltskin took a seat in his chair at the head of the table. "You know, there aren't a lot of opportunities for women in this land, to show what they can do. To see the world, to be heroes!" Belle shut the cupboard, and began to walk back to the table. "So when I came for my father, that was my chance. I always wanted to be brave, I figured, do the brave thing and...bravery would follow..." She paused to snip the end of the stem as Rumpelstiltskin looked on upon her thoughtfully, starting to see his new servant in a slightly, brighter light.

"And is it everything you hoped?" He asked, adding a bit of his childish voice in towards the end of his question and turning out his hand in question at the same time. Belle took the pitcher of water setting on the tea-set tray she had laid out earlier and filled the vase and stuck the rose inside, placing the vase in the very center of the table. She let out a half-breath, half laugh before answering.

"Well...uh..." She let out another small laugh, taking a few steps towards him and sat back down on the table at an angle this time to be able to face him at the head of the table. "I did want to see the world...that part didn't really work out." She pursed her lips together, looking down at Rumpelstiltskin. "But uh, I did save my father."

Rumpelstiltskin put his hands together once more, making a slight triangle with them, tapping the tips of his fingers together.
"And what of your, uh, betrothed?"

"It was an arranged marriage. Honestly, I didn't really care much for Gaston." Belle paused, unable to keep a bright smile from coming as she then began to speak truly from her heart. "To me, love...love is layered, a...mystery to be uncovered...I could never truly give my heart to someone as superficial as he."

It was strange just how much her words stuck with Rumpelstiltskin, looking up at her and hanging onto every word as she spoke. Belle looked back at him, letting the silence in the room hang onto her words in a way that didn't just seem like silence anymore. Belle then quickly shook her head, pulling herself from her thoughts. "But um...you were going to tell me about your daughter..." She quickly reminded him.

"I'll tell you what..." Rumpelstiltskin pressed his hands flat together and turned them so that they were, in a way, pointing at her. "I'll make you a deal..." Belle straightened up, curious of his proposal. "Go to town...and fetch me some straw. When you return...I'll share my tale."

"W-wh-why-I-wh-w-yo-, w-what? Town?" Belle stammered, unsure if she heard him right. "Y-you trust me to come back?"

"Oh no...I expect I'll never see you again..." He openly admitted.

Hours slowly ticked by, and the sun that had once been so high up in the sky hand sunk below the horizon long ago, and Rumpelstiltskin hadn't taken his eyes away from looking out the window in the tallest tower of The Dark Castle. He could only hope that Belle would come back; even though she had no reason to. The promise of an insignificant story couldn't have been enough to keep her wondering, but he still had to hope.

Finally, in the dead of night, Rumpelstiltskin spotted the young woman returning back from town, a basket of fresh straw on her hip as she took the path back to the castle. His heart jumped up into his throat, keeping him from being able to breathe for a few moments as he rushed down from the tower to take up his post in the Dining Room at the spinning wheel. He didn't want Belle to know that he had been waiting for her return like a stupid, lonely animal.

When Belle finally arrived at the castle, she went straight into the Dining Room where she had last left Rumpelstiltskin. He had managed to calm his heart in the time it took her to reach the castle; spinning at the wheel always helped with his nerves.

"Oh, your back already!" Rumpelstiltskin said to her without much care nor surprise in his voice. "Good, good thing. I'm uh, I'm nearly out of straw." He beckoned her over to him with his hand and turned back to the wheel in front of him, getting back to spinning what he had left. Belle quickly made her way over to him, keeping her eyes trained on him with a small, knowing smirk on her lips.

"Hmm..." Belle reached the spinning wheel and set down the basket of straw of the floor. "Oh c'mon, you're happy I'm back!"

Rumpelstiltskin looked up at her through the spinning wheel, and tried to keep a smile off his face.

"I'm not unhappy." He admitted, earning a small chuckle from Belle.

Belle walked from the opposite side of the spinning wheel, walking behind Rumpelstiltskin and placed her hands delicately on his shoulders.

"And uh, [u]you[/u] promised me a story." Belle reminded him, leaning over his shoulder to get a good look at his face. Rumpelstiltskin stopped his spinning, looking up and over at her with a look of confusion on his face.

"Did I?" He asked.

"Mhhm!" Belle hummed, and moved once again so that she was standing by his side, emptying the grinder of the straw he had left to spin so he wouldn't be distracted into spinning more while he told her his tale and sat on the built-in seat of the spinning wheel, looking at Rumpelstiltskin expectantly and placed a hand on his knee. "Tell me about your daughter."

"Uh..." Rumpelstiltskin struggled to find his words. "I lost her. Nothing more to tell really" He finally said.

"And since then..you've loved no one? And no one has loved you?"

Rumpelstiltskin narrowed his eyes just a bit, stemming from confusion. He leaned forward in his stool towards Belle, keeping his dark eyes on hers entirely, trying to search her face for answers.

"Why did you come back?" He partially whispered.

"I-I wasn't going to..." Belle admitted quietly. "...but then, something changed my mind..."

She stared back at Rumpelstiltskin, feeling her own heart beginning to hammer against her ribcage as she slowly leaned in, inch by inch all the while keeping her eyes on him in case he moved to stop her. He didn't. Their lips met in a soft, delicate kiss that lingered for a few moments, both sets of eyelids fluttering closed as they lived only for that moment. Eventually, Belle eased back just a few inches, looking at him once more with a soft expression, as if waiting for something.

Rumpelstiltskin's skin began to grow warm, it wasn't anything painful, only a slight irritation that brought him out of the ecstasy of passion to slowly realize that something was happening.

"W-whats happening?" He asked out loud, small patches of skin on his face beginning to return to a clear, pale color and ridding itself from the 'scaly' green. Belle beamed and placed her hands gently on the sides of his head, running her hands over his hair a few times.

"Kiss me again! It's working!" Belle exclaimed.

"What is?" Rumpelstiltskin demanded, his mind coming back quickly from the foggy state it had been in just seconds before. Belle held his face in her hands, unable to keep the bright smile off her face and moved her hands down to his shoulders, rubbing them gently.

"[u]Any[/u] curse can be broken!" She whispered out excitedly. Rumpelstiltskin used his own hands and pushed Belle's off of him as he jumped up, the stool on which he stood on flying back a few feet and falling over with a loud 'thunk.'

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?" He demanded, taking a few steps away from her and pointed a finger at her accusingly. "WHO KNOWS THAT?"
The initial shock of Rumpelstiltskin's reaction caught Belle off-guard, having her stammering and searching for her words as she looked down to her hands in her lap, embarrassed.

"I-I don't know, sh-she uh, she...she..."

Rumpelstiltskin looked away from Belle, taking a look at his hands to see a few more patches of his skin returning to normal.

"She..." He hissed, turning his back to Belle and stormed across the room to the mirror that had been covered up, causing Belle to get up from the built-in spinning wheel stool to watch him.

"You...evil...[u]bitch[/u]..." Rumpelstiltskin reached the mirror and tore off the canvas that had been covering it. "THIS WAS YOU!" He yelled, pointing a finger at what looked like his reflection. "YOU TURNED HER AGAINST ME!" He moved his hand so that instead of his pointer finger pointing at the mirror, his thumb was out and pointing backwards to Belle. "You think you can make me weak? YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT ME?"
Belle tentatively crossed the room, watching him shouting at the mirror in confusion.

"W-who are you talking to?"

"THE QUEEN!" Rumpelstiltskin spun around on his heel to face Belle and pointed at her. "Your friend, The Queen. How did she get to [u]you[/u]?" He asked in what sounded like genuine surprise. Belle shook her head.

"The...The Queen? I don't-"

"I knew this was a trick..." Rumpelstiltskin said, keeping his finger pointed at her as he took a few slow steps towards Belle, and gestured both hands towards his torso. "I knew that you could never care for me! Oh yeah, you're working for her!" He gestured with his thumb again, pointing back behind him at the mirror before using both hands to point at Belle again. "Or is this all you? Is this you being the hero? And killing the beast..." He made a tight fist with his hands, his teeth gnashed together in a frightening expression matching the hatred in his eyes. Belle reached out for Rumpelstiltskin's hands, trying to take them in her own.

"This means it's worki-"

"SHUT UP!" Rumpelstiltskin pushed her hands away harshly.

"THIS MEANS IT'S TRUE LOVE!" Belle tried again. 

"SHUT THE HELL UP!"

"WHY WON'T YOU BELIEVE ME?"

Rumpelstiltskin's hands shot forward, grabbing Belle by the upper arms in a strong grip and shook her a few times.

"[u][b]BECAUSE NO ONE...NO ONE...CAN EVER, EVER LOVE ME[/b][/u]!"

He grabbed her wrist harshly, and pulled her out of the Dining Room and took the spiral stone staircase down into the dungeon. He opened up one of the doors with his free hand by using magic, and then forcefully shoved her inside, causing Belle to lose her balance and fall to the stone floor. Rumpelstiltskin looked down at her, a scowl embedded into his features before turning to leave, shutting and sealing the door with magic behind him.
He returned to the dining room where he picked up a broom and snapped off the bristle's part, leaving him with just a long, wooden stick and crossed the room to the glass cabinet that held most of his trinkets. He wailed down on the cabinet, causing the glass to shatter and the wooden frames to crack and splinter until he was unable to keep swinging. He dropped the stick down, placing the palms of his hands on the cabinet shelf at his waist and hunched himself over, sobbing quietly to himself.

Bringing himself out of that, he went to the table where their tea had been laid out for them from earlier and picked up one of the teacups. He looked at it with a frown and chucked it across the room, watching it shatter to a thousand tiny pieces against the wall. He picked up another teacup, throwing this one as well and then another, and another. With one teacup left, he grabbed it and moved to throw it, however the chip in the side of the cup caught his eye. He was drawn to it, holding it out for him to examine a bit more and remembering the time when Belle had dropped the teacup when she had first arrived at The Dark Castle. Shaking his head, he set the teacup back down on the tray and walked away.

Morning came; but Belle would have never known that until Rumpelstiltskin opened up her cell door, letting the light shine in.

"So...what are you going to do to me?" Belle asked with a dejected look as Rumpelstiltskin walked into her cell, standing over her as she remained sitting. Rumpelstiltskin raised his arm, his finger pointing to the door.

"Go." He sneered, the anger still holding harshly in his eyes. Unable to continue looking at her, he turned around so that his back was to Belle, waiting for her to get up and leave.

"Go?" Belle asked in confusion.

"I don't want you anymore dearie." Rumpelstiltskin said plainly, keeping from looking at her. "You have a fiance' to get back home to, and I no longer need you."

Belle pushed herself up to stand, looking at her master's back for a moment before walking past him to leave out the door, however her steps failed her once she reached that point, and turned to go back to him.

"You were freeing yourself!" She said hotly to him, like a mother scolding a child. "You could have had happiness if you [u]just believed[/u] that someone could [u]want[/u] you!"

Rumpelstiltskin looked at her plainly, allowing no emotion to break through his tough exterior.

"But you couldn't take the chance." Belle finished.

"That's a [u]lie[/u]!" He hissed through his teeth, but managed to keep his voice down. Belle took a dangerous step closer to him, but she didn't care, she had to get her say in.

"You're a coward, Rumpelstiltskin. And no matter how thick you make your skin, that doesn't change." Belle shook her head lightly.

"I'm not a coward, dearie." He replied almost immediately. "It's quite simple, really. My power means more to me...than you.."

"No...no it doesn't. You just don't think that I can love you." Belle corrected him, getting a cold stare from him in return. "Now you've made your choice...and you're going to regret it...forever..." Belle choked on her words a bit as she felt the tears coming to her eyes. "All you'll have is an empty heart; an empty heart and a chipped cup."

Rumpelstiltskin's face remained unmoved, and said nothing. Belle shook her head again and turned to leave, this time for good. It was time for her to put her life back in order. Only when she was completely gone did Rumpelstiltskin breath a heavy sigh through his nose, and let his eyes close.[/i]

[center]~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~[/center]

[b]Present Day, In Storybrooke[/b]

Mr. Gold lurched upright in his bed, a cold bead of sweat trickling down his neck as he took a moment to catch his breath. Putting his hand on top of the dark blue silk fabric of his buttoned-up night shirt over his heart, he felt the organ pulsing hard and fast against his ribcage, but as he steadily regained his breath, the beating eventually slowed to normal.

Blinking into the darkness of his bedroom, Mr. Gold tossed aside the heavy, down, silk comforter off of him and swung his legs over the side of the bed, taking extra care with his right leg. Once his bare feet touched the cool, hardwood surface of his floor, he reached out for his cane, knowing it's location by sheer memory and used it to help himself up.

Despite catching his breath and being able to calm his heart down, he continued to sweat, but ignored this as he heavily limped a few paces in the darkness of his bedroom to a dresser that was pushed against the wall, facing his bed. Once in front of it, he ran his hand slowly over the top of the dresser, knocking a few small things over in his pursuit but he did not stop until his hand found the glass bottle. His nimble fingers clasped the top of the bottle tightly and rose it off of the dresser.

Using the back sleeve of his night shirt, he quickly wiped away the accumulating sweat from his forehead, at the same time using his teeth to pull out the cork from the bottle and spat it out, hearing it hit the wooden floor and roll away. He raised the bottle to his lips, and took a good, long drink from the bottle, feeling the alcohol immediately beginning to burn at his throat; however it also managed to calm his nerves.

What had he been dreaming about anyway? He honestly could not remember, all he knew was that these dreams were becoming more and more frequent, robbing him of his sleep on an almost normal occurrence and practically giving him a heart-attack each time.

Satisfied, Mr. Gold set the bottle back down on the dresser and walked to the corner of the room to finally turn on the light. He took a quick look at the analog clock sitting on the dresser next to the bottle, reading 4:13 in the morning. It was still a little early, but there was no sense in going back to bed now.

It only took but a few moments before Mr. Gold was showered and dressed in one of his favorite suits, a dark grey, thin pinstripe jacket with matching pants and a deep ruby red button up-shirt underneath, complete with a matching red in color tie with embroided swirls around it with a matching pocket square. He stood before a full-length mirror in his bedroom, pressing the corners of the collar of his suit jacket down and adjusted his tie. After quickly insuring that his black dress shoes were shining spotlessly, he took hold of his cane and began the short walk down the way to his Pawnshop where he would open for the day.

He wasn't sure what it was, but something hung in the air that morning, something that put Mr. Gold in high spirits; something more than it being the day he went around town to collect his rent...