Prologue; The Kiss That Changed All
Around and around went the spinning wheel.
The motion of this rotating wheel had a calming effect on Rumplestiltskin, in turn causing the wheels in his own head to slow down. It was as if the man had begun trying to hypnotize himself, attempting to forget events which had occurred that day. Try as he might, however, it was particularly difficult for him to relax while his heart was aching.
Belle had kissed him.
He still couldn't get over the fact it had happened. For a split second he even believed her action had been one out of her care for him. Yet, how could she love him?
Nobody loved him. It was most definitely a trick that had been pulled on him by the Evil Queen. And now, because of this, he would have to get rid of his cleaning maid. He had wanted to give Bell the boot immediately, in fact, but had been unable to do so at the time. He should've let her go right away, and yet...
...a part of him wanted to hang onto her, this peculiar girl who had attempted to worm her way into his black heart.
Restless, the Dark One would eventually find himself leaving his spinning wheel, pacing within his room. He glanced to a table once, looking toward a strange invitation for a party that had arrived for him sometime that morning. He hadn't looked at it yet, distracted by events from that day. He picked up the invite, but yet again was distracted by another thought.
"She didn't get any dinner," he muttered to himself, grinding his teeth.
"She can starve for all I care."
Five minutes after thinking this thought, Rumple was on his way to Belle's locked room carrying a tray of food. Dammit, why was he bothering with this? Especially considering the fact that even after caving into giving Belle dinner he could've just magically spawned some food into her room without going to see her himself. He was out of his mind. This wretched girl was driving him mad.
Abruptly arriving to Belle's room, Rumple through the door open and dropped the tray of food to the floor wordlessly, along with the invite to Wanda's party that he had completely forgotten he was holding onto.
"Eat. Before I change my mind," he hissed.
It had been hours, by that point. Hours upon hours, dragging on as though it were months upon months as opposed to a time period that hadn't even surpassed that of a day. Whatever it was, it was akin to ages for Belle French, locked away in the dark with nothing but her thoughts and tears. She had been so close.
He had been so close. So close to giving up the darkness, to moving on from his past and starting new. The result of her kiss proved that her love was reciprocated, but unlike her, who had no qualms with that fact? He just so happened to have many. To be held back, afraid of losing his power. For love or otherwise.
The feeling this induced, the more Belle thought it over, was maddening. It was balanced in the scale, equal in pain and heartbreak and even frustration alike. Why he couldn't just give it up and let go was beyond her. Even with all of that power, with all of that knowledge, he still failed to see that the two of them could so easily be happy. Together. Without magic, without fancy titles, without mansions or roses or--
When the door to her room- or cell, rather -was flung open, Belle gave no reaction, her gaze slowly lifting from where it had been fixed on her hands to instead regard her captor. There was something in her eyes that wasn't there not long ago. Something that had only surfaced after the kiss shared with Rumple not long ago. Or, rather, the rejection that followed shortly after it. It was a simple emotion, really, one that everyone possessed at one point or another.
Pain.
Most in her situation would wear a mask of fear, perhaps even horror outright, at the vision of the Dark One standing before them. Not to mention being his alleged prisoner. But Belle? She felt no such thing. All she had ever felt for the supposed monster before her was love, tied from a knowledge that, with some guidance? He could become a better man. She had tried to give him that. That chance, that offer, that guidance to a better life. But he had been too afraid. He still was, now. She could see it in his--
A loud clang snapped her out of it, causing her to flinch as her eyes averted from the man she loved, instead glancing to what he had dropped before her. A tray of food. Of course he would give her the silent treatment, after what had transpired. He was too afraid to even utter a word to her, save for that little demand. It was honestly something that earned her sympathy, but she couldn't give him that, now.
However, the Dark One's fear was not all she noticed. No, something strange had come with his delivery of food. Something that seemed horribly out of place, among the dreary room in which she lived. Slowly, with curiosity, she took the object into her hands with delicate fingers, eyes flitting over it all the while. And what she saw made her eyebrows furrow, her eyes lifting to meet the man before her's with confusion.
"I... I don't understand. Is this some sort of joke?" she inquired, boldly ignoring his own command.
"Who's Wanda? And why are you giving this to me?"
A mistake.
This woman was driving him to make mistakes now. Rumplestiltskin glanced downward when Belle would question him on the invite, now remembering that he had accidentally brought it with him on his way to take the girl a plate of food.
"It's nothing!" he snapped, quickly yanking the invite out of her hands.
"As I said, eat your food," he stated before gesturing to himself.
"I have nothing else to say to you." As far as he was concerned, he shouldn't have even come down to see her. The only reason he really had was because he was worried for her, and deep down in the part of him that was still human, regretted what he had done. He knew in his heart that Belle really did love him, but saying that her love was just a trick made it easier for him to give into his fear and push the girl away from him.
The man turned to leave afterwards, giving the door behind him a slam. In his frustration, he didn't even bother to have Belle's door locked. Instead, he stomped off, heading for the library he had given to the girl.
Inside the library, Rumple fully intended on storing away the invitation, putting it away to gather dust. He didn't really want to go to this party.
Or, wait, maybe... he
did want to go to this party. Wanda was knowledgable about different kinds of power that wasn't available in the Enchanted Forest. Maybe she would be capable of helping him to locate his son. And, perhaps, if he went to this party it would help him take his mind off this problem with his cleaning maid...
With these thoughts in mind, he agreed to go to the party, instantly triggering the magical transportation that would take him to the party's location. The magic presence filled the room, drawing in the Dark One.
If she was startled by his sudden swoop to take the invitation from her upon her drawing attention to it, she didn't let it show, instead just staring at him and swallowing hard as he scolded her.
"I'm not afraid of you," she stated plainly, once again ignoring his own words in favor of speaking her mind.
"You can shut me out all you like, but that won't change anything--!" she called after him, even as he stormed away and the door slammed behind him. She could feel tears stinging at her eyes, but she wouldn't cry. Not here. Not now.
Looking down to her food, she pursed her near-quivering lips, eventually pushing the tray away after taking but a few bites. She was hardly feeling hungry right now, and she doubted she would be for a while now. All she felt was sickness of the heart, and remorse. But she had no intentions of merely sitting here for the rest of her days, feeling sorry for both herself and Rumple. So she decided to take matters into her own hands.
With that sentiment, the princess climbed to her feet, lifting her dress as she crept towards the door. Hesitantly she raised a hand, cautiously testing the knob and... Finding herself surprised to find it wasn't locked. Yes, it opened with ease, a fact for which she rejoiced. On light feet, she crept out of her cell, tiptoeing through the mansion to head to what had come to be her sanctuary here: the library. Even as she realized that Rumple was headed the same way, by the sound of his footsteps just ahead, she continued. Maybe she could find out what was going on with that peculiar invitation.
When she arrived at the entry of the room, she peered through the door, noticing that Rumple was still in the middle of the room. Fortunately, his back was turned, but she wasn't going to risk being seen and promptly hid against the doorway with bated breaths. What was he doing? He clearly had something in his hands, and she intended to find out what it was and what he intended to do with it, whether it was merely the invitation or not. So it was with great caution that she peered out from the corner, slowly creeping in in attempt to get a peek before, well, things got crazy. In a blur, there was a burst of magic, sucking in the man she loved and leading her to break her attempt at silence with eyes widened in horror. "Rumple!" she called out, rushing forward only to be sucked in as well.
---
Before Rumplestiltskin could prevent Belle from following him, the magical transportation had already sent him to the place where the party had begun. He didn't even hear the girl call out his name before he was sent off, not realizing she had followed him. He arrived just in time to see Wanda greet the group. When she mentioned a feast, his mind couldn't help but drift to thoughts of his favorite food, meat pies, causing him to wonder if any such item would be available to them.
Before he could have a chance to ponder his thoughts further or even speak with Wanda, the sorcerer spotted the sight of his delicate maid appearing in this new location as well. He turned to her, a flicker of anger flashing in his eyes that would quickly be masked by what he really felt upon seeing Belle: panic. The girl was now here with him, at an unknown place. For all he knew, it could be dangerous here.
"You-- What the hell are you doing here!?" he exclaimed, rushing to Belle so that he could grip onto her arms and glare into her eyes.
"How did you--" The man cut himself off, quickly answering his own question that he had just begun to ask. He forgot to lock her cell. He had been so frustrated that he had actually forgotten that very important detail before leaving her.
"You insolent fool," he hissed, squeezing her arms. He didn't squeeze her hard, but with enough pressure to show Belle that he wasn't happy at all.
"Why would you follow me into a place you know nothing about? You could get hur-- in my way," he said, correcting himself in a quick attempt to try and covered up how worried he actually was. In fact, his heart was pounding. Deep down, he was the same timid man who had a deep fear of losing anyone else that mattered to him just as he had lost his son Baelfire.
Upon arrival in the new place, Belle was left in a daze, uncertain what had happened. The bright lights didn't help, her climb to her feet impaired by the way it made her vision blur, leading her to stumbling somewhat. She tried to recover, raising one hand to her eyes to try to shield her eyes from the light in attempt to aide this effort, blinking the spots from her vision. But before she could make much progress, she let out a yelp as she found her wrists being grabbed by Rumple, her gaze locking on him as she tried to find words.
"I-I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, sincerely apologetic despite struggling to fully even comprehend what was being said to her.
"I didn't-- I thought-- Where are we..? Who are these people?" she choked out, looking around with confusion and slight panic. Just what was going on, anyways? It was clearly some sort of party, but she didn't understand what it was about, or recognize a single face in the crowd. She was so overwhelmed, in fact, that she didn't even try to break free of Rumple's grasp at first. Soon enough, though, she managed to recover enough to attempt such a thing, yanking and twisting her arms away before thrusting them down at her sides in frustration.
With composure somewhat regained, and frustration resurfacing at the words from Rumple, Belle huffed.
"If I'm such a burden to you, perhaps I'll just find my own way," she stated defiantly. Fortunately for her, that was around the time that the host of this rather peculiar event made herself known, stepping in and guiding the odd lot into a grand dining room. With one last daring, defiant look at Rumple, she turned heel, dress swishing about her as she stormed off to join the rest. She wasn't going to let him control her. Unlike him, she wouldn't let fear rule over her. No, she would--
...Oh.
A lot happened. To the still slightly disoriented Belle, it was hard to take it all in, but she noted a fight wrapping up and a proclamation that there were missing parties here. How could that be? Surely an honorable host would keep close eyes upon her guest... Though she knew not if this woman was honorable. Hell, she didn't know the woman at all. But she shook it off, the safety of those present a priority to the noble woman. And so thus the search received a new member; one who happened to be rather adept at tracking.
"May I ask who it is we're searching for?" she inquired to the others, well aware that she kinda had to know the objective if she was going to assist.
@SearchParty
[Thank you to @Klutzy Ninja Kitty for collabing <3 Sorry for the delay]
