#kid!gideon

Naturally, with so many old movies in the house and with the musical soundtracks always playing in the background to whatever domestic task his mother was performing, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Gideon would inherit Belle’s love for the classics. He watched with gleeful awe as she recreated famous dance sequences in the living room (‘Good morning’ from Singin’ in the Rain was a favourite), and he was tapping his feet in time with the music even before he could walk. Belle had always held a secret hope that he’d follow in her own dancing footsteps, but she didn’t want to force it on him.

It was a rainy Friday in September when she got the first inklings of Gideon’s show business ambitions, when he came home from school in the obvious throes of distress.

“Gid? What’s the matter, love? Did something happen at school?”

Gideon nodded, his brow furrowed as if he couldn’t decide between anger or sadness; once he was sat down on the sofa with milk and cookies and Belle was settled on the floor in front of him, he seemed to have decided on indignation.

“What happened, Gid?”

“We were talking about what we wanted to be when we grew up,” Gideon said. “And I said I wanted to be a tap dancer like Fred Astaire.”

Belle’s heart leapt to her mouth, but she pushed down her excitement, because this revelation was definitely contributing to making Gideon unhappy. “Ok. So then what happened?”

“Then the other boys started laughing at me! They said that boys don’t tap dance, that’s a girly thing!”

Belle was completely blown sideways by this. She’d never even considered dancing being gendered like that before. The famous tap dancers she’d adored in her youth were a mixture of men and women.

“That’s just silly,” she said firmly. “Especially when you told them that you wanted to be like Fred Astaire, who’s very obviously a man.”

“I know that!” Gideon exclaimed. “And the teacher said that too! But then at break, they said that Fred Astaire didn’t count because he’s only in old films, and that these days, tap dancers are all girls!”

Belle resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the ridiculous notions that some kids had had put into their heads, and for a moment she seriously considered gathering all the parents of Storybrooke together and making them sit through her entire musical collection, over 500 hours of it in total.

“Good grief. They have a very narrow-minded view of the world, Gid, and I pity them. If you want to be a dancer, then you can go ahead and be a dancer.”  

Gideon’s face lit up. “Can I really Mom? Will you teach me?”

“No, love. I don’t know enough to teach you.” Gideon’s face fell, but then brightened when she continued. “We’ll get you some proper lessons with a professional at the dance school in town.”

Ever since he’d been born, Belle had been saving for dance lessons for Gideon. Well, she told everyone that it was his college fund, which it would have been if this moment had never occurred. Now, she could put that fund to good use.

“That would be brilliant, Mom!” He paused, deep in serious thought. “Would there be other boys there, though? I don’t want to be the only boy.”

“I’m sure that there will be other boys there, but we’ll see when we go along. Shall we take a look on Saturday?”

Gideon’s response was a huge hug, which Belle took to be a definitive yes.

X

As soon as Miss Mal, former ballerina and current principal of the Storybrooke Dance School, showed them into the room where the beginner’s tap dance classes were taking place and Gideon saw that he was not going to be the only boy there, Belle knew that she had lost him. He was in his element already as the teacher invited him to join in with the class even though he didn’t have tap shoes yet. Belle was just content to watch him, until Miss Mal took her through into her office to sort out the paperwork for getting Gideon enrolled.

On their way to deal with administrative matters, they passed the other mirrored studio, this one set up for ballet with a barre running around the edge, and Mal stepped inside for a moment to speak to the teacher. The class was young, elementary school girls taking their first steps to the tinkling piano music coming from the corner by the door. Belle glanced across at the pianist, a small, thin man with greying hair and dark eyes. As he caught her gaze, she smiled, and he gave a minute smile back before his face flushed bright pink and he turned his attention back to the music, studying it with intensity even though Belle could tell that he must have played the same tunes over and over and could probably do it with his eyes closed.

At that moment, the lesson came to an end, with Miss Mal supervising the curtseying.

“That was very good, girls. Thank you for your hard work this week.”

There was a chorus of thanks to Miss Briar for the lesson and thanks to Mr Gold for the piano, and the girls started to file out of the room. Miss Mal came back over to Belle as Mr Gold began to gather up his music. He kept his head down as he rushed out of the room past Belle, leaving her feeling rather confused and wondering what she’d done wrong.

“Don’t worry, he’s always like that,” Miss Mal said as they continued down the corridor.

No more was said on the topic of Mr Gold, but even after Belle had collected Gideon again and they were on their way home, Gideon enthusing about all the steps he was going to learn, she still couldn’t help thinking about the shy little pianist.

Over the course of the next few months, Belle tried to find out a little more about the mysterious Mr Gold, from the snippets that she picked up from Gideon and what little she overheard among the other parents. She really was intrigued by him, and the fact that he always had a smile and a ready word of praise for the kids, and indeed always had a ready smile and glance for her, but he clammed up as soon as Belle tried to actually talk to him. He had a gift of melting into the background as soon as the music was done, avoiding everyone.

So far, all she had managed to learn was that he’d played piano for the school ever since it had opened, that his son taught adult ballroom dance in the evenings, and his goddaughter was studying for a scholarship to full time ballet school.

She probably shouldn’t be so interested. He was shy and he didn’t like talking to strangers, so Belle wasn’t going to force her conversation onto him. She’d just always liked a good mystery, and all of the other staff were so chatty with the parents.

It wasn’t until the end of term show that she found any answers.

Each of the junior classes performed a piece in the little revue, held on the last Saturday of the term, showing off what they had learned to their parents. Gideon only had a small part, showing off the steps he had learned over the past couple of months, but he enjoyed his time in the limelight, and Belle’s hands were sore from applauding him. She wouldn’t change it for the world, and she would be forever grateful that something that brought her so much joy could also make her son so very happy.

After the performance, there were refreshments, and Belle was chatting amiably with the other parents, Gideon absorbed with his new friends trying to teach himself some of the steps that the older kids had performed and making a fearful racket in the process. She noticed that Mr Gold had once more vanished. Perhaps he just didn’t like large crowds. She hoped that he’d at least got a cup of tea before he disappeared, and his jacket was still lying on top of the piano on the stage so he had to be around somewhere. Belle bit her lip, wondering whether he would appreciate being found or not. They’d exchanged smiles and glances so many times, which she’d always found to be encouraging, but he was never around when she actually had the opportunity to speak to him.

Belle took a deep breath, took a couple of fairy cakes from the refreshment table, and left the room in search of Mr Gold. Once she was outside the main hall, he was surprisingly easy to track down. Piano music was coming from the ballet studio, something beautiful and complicated, a piece meant to be listened to, not danced to.

Belle peeped around the door, but the music didn’t stop; Gold was totally absorbed in it. It was only once the piece came to its coda that he looked up and saw her. He startled, a rabbit in the headlights, and Belle gave an awkward wave, holding up the cakes.

“I didn’t want you to miss out,” she said.

Gold opened his mouth to respond, closed it as if he’d suddenly thought better of it, and then took a deep breath.

“Th-th-thank you.”

With those two words, everything fell into place. Gold didn’t like to talk to anyone because he had a stammer.

“That was beautiful,” she said. “Beethoven, wasn’t it?”

Gold nodded, and he put his fingers back on the keys, playing a light, tinkling tune, his attention still fixed firmly on Belle.

“You son is in the t-t-tap class?”

“Yes. He loves it. He wants to be the next Fred Astaire.”

“He’s g-got the p-p-p…” Gold sighed. “P-p-p… Oh, you know.”

“Thank you. He’ll be so proud to know you think so.”

The music continued on, a little soundtrack to their conversation.

“Music h-helps me t-talk,” Gold said presently. “C-can’t hear myself as much. Gives me something else t-to concentrate on. The r-rhythm helps t-too.”

Belle had read about aiding people with stammers whilst she’d been training as a librarian; it tied in with helping kids to learn to read aloud. Listening to music whilst speaking and tapping out the beats of syllables and sentences were both tried and tested methods, so it made sense that Gold found comfort in playing whilst he talked.

They continued to talk for a while; well, Belle did most of the talking, but it was still a conversation, until Gideon came in looking for her. It was time to go home.

“Bye, Mr Gold,” Gideon said cheerfully.

“G-goodbye. And th-thank you.” He smiled at Belle. “For your p-p-p… p-patience.”

“Any time. Maybe we could chat agaain sometime?”

Gold nodded. “I’d l-like that.”

“You’d be surprised.” Belle leaned back as the little foot made itself known again. “Babies aren’t as small as you think. You were about so big when you were born.” She held her hands apart and Gideon looked horrified.

“How is it going to get out?” he whispered fearfully.

“That’s something for me and Papa to worry about,” Belle said. She winced as the kick came again, and took one of Gideon’s hands, placing it over the spot where his sibling’s foot was. He broke into a grin.

“I can feel it! Hello foot! Stop kicking Mama, you’re hurting her. You have to be good to Mama.”

Amazingly, Gideon’s words seemed to do the trick and the baby calmed down.

“Thanks, Gid. I think you told him what’s what.”

“Is it definitely a boy? I think I want a brother more than a sister.”

“Oh yes? And why would that be?”

Gideon gave the matter serious thought before coming out with his answer. “Girls don’t like dinosaurs.”

“Who says that girls don’t like dinosaurs?”

“Neal Nolan does. He says that’s why Robyn never plays with us. Because she doesn’t like dinosaurs.”

Belle considered this logic for a moment.

“Have you ever actually asked Robyn if she would like to play with you?”

Gideon thought for a moment then shook his head.

“Maybe you ought to try that. You might find that girls like dinosaurs after all.”

Unconvinced, Gideon got up on the sofa beside her. “I still think that a brother would be better,” he said sagely. “I’ve only thought up boy names.”

“And what would you call your brother?” Belle asked. She and Rumpel had narrowed names down to Stephen for a boy and Thea for a girl, but she was interested to hear Gideon’s suggestions.

“Optimus,” Gideon said without hesitation. “After Optimus Prime.”

Belle bit her tongue to stop her from laughing out loud at her son’s decision, as she could see that he was in deadly earnest and she didn’t want to discourage his fertile imagination.

“I’m not sure that Optimus is a good name for a human, Gideon. A Transformer, yes, but not a human boy.”

“All right then. What about Rex? Like a T-Rex!”

Belle nodded. “Yes, Rex would be better.”

“And if it turns out to be a sister after all, we can call her Triceratops!”

“Perhaps not.”

The key turned in the front door and Gideon rushed off to greet his father.

“Papa, can we call my sister Triceratops?”

Rumpel came into the living room looking slightly perplexed.

“Have I missed something?” he asked faintly.

“Gideon’s thinking up names for his sibling,” Belle explained. “It’s all right, I’ve already vetoed Optimus Prime.”

“Right.” Rumpel sat down in Gideon’s vacated space on the sofa beside her, and Belle swung her feet up onto his lap, wiggling her toes. Rumpel raised an eyebrow at her.

“I take it that this is a request for me to rub your feet.”

Belle nodded. “Yes please. Every time I try to get up, the baby starts kicking, so I’ve just accepted that I’ll be stuck on this sofa for the rest of my pregnancy and I might as well get comfortable.”

Rumpel gave a good-natured chuckle and pulled her socks off, pressing a gentle thumb against her instep and immediately making her feel better. Belle groaned with relief. Rumpel had always known how to give the best foot massages and now was no different.

“Maybe Stegosaurus would be better,” Gideon mused, coming back into the room.

“I’m not sure that naming your sister after dinosaurs is a good idea, Gideon,” Rumpel said. Gideon just pouted.

“Mama said no Transformer names, you said no dinosaur names. I just want my brother or sister to have an interesting name!”

Belle and Rumpel just looked at each other as Gideon went back to his toys (the function of the cement mixer in the proceedings remained unclear).

“Well, I can see his point,” Rumpel said. “I’m not quite sure that I agree with him, but I can see it.”

“The less exotic the name, the better,” Belle said. “I don’t want anything about this baby to be extraordinary.”

She thought back to nine months ago when she had first discovered that she was pregnant again, and the paralysing fear she had felt that something was going to happen, just as it had happened with Gideon. Although she and Rumpel were in a much stronger place than they had been before and she knew that nothing would go wrong in that respect, the paranoia still remained. Storybrooke had calmed down in the intervening five years, but with so much magic flying about, nothing could be taken for granted, including the safety of her unborn child. There had been nothing abnormal about her pregnancy so far, and she was gaining in confidence that nothing would go wrong, but that fear still remained.

The warmth of Rumpel’s hands on her feet made her closer her eyes, falling into a doze that only jerked back into full wakefulness when a tightening pain pulled through her abdomen.

“Belle?” Rumpel looked at her, concerned, and Gideon’s head popped up from behind the veritable fortress of dinosaurs that he had created.

“Mama? Are you all right?”

“I think our little Triceratops might be putting in an appearance sooner rather than later,” she said to Rumpel. “I just had a contraction. It might be nothing, but since I’m so close to due… Can you handle supper and bedtime, love?”

“Of course.” Rumpel placed a hand lightly on her stomach. “Stay safe, little one,” he murmured before kissing her bump. “Come on, Gideon. Let’s get you ready for bed. Mama needs to relax a bit.”

Although he may not have picked up on precisely what was going on, Gideon seemed to sense that something important was happening, and he followed Rumpel out of the room without a fuss.

By the time Gideon was in bed – although far too excited to sleep with the prospect of a brother or sister coming comparatively soon – the contractions were coming regularly, and Belle was certain that this was the real thing and not just Braxton Hicks. She had already called Granny at the diner to get her to come over and babysit Gideon whilst she and Rumpel got to the hospital, and now Belle was standing in the kitchen, leaning heavily on the counter as Rumpel rubbed her back.

Despite the pain that she was feeling, Belle was surprised to find that she wasn’t afraid. All the fear that she had been holding in herself throughout her pregnancy, fears that she had shared with Rumpel and those that she hadn’t, were gone. She was so focussed on bringing her baby into the world that she didn’t have space in her mind for anything else.

“I’m beginning to think that Triceratops is a good name,” she grumbled as another wave of pain hit and she scrabbled for Rumpel’s hand to squeeze. “They certainly feel as big as a dinosaur right now.”

Rumpel laughed and Belle glared at him.

“It’s all right for you. You’re not the one who’s going to be doing all the pushing.”

“Belle, my love.” He pushed her sweaty hair back from her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “If I could take that pain on myself, you know that I would.”

Belle nodded. “I know. I think that might be why I love you so much.” She knew that Rumpel could snap his fingers and make the pain go away altogether, but he had not suggested it. He knew what her thoughts were towards magical intervention at the best of times, and in this moment, so precarious and with so much at stake, it had not crossed his mind even though she could see from the little frown lines in his forehead that her pain was concerning him.

The doorbell rang and Rumpel went to let Granny in. Belle was suddenly reminded that this would be the first time that Rumpel would be present for the birth of his child, and all the memories of that awful time during her first pregnancy resurfaced without warning after she had been doing so well to put them to the back of her mind. She burst into tears.

“Belle?” Rumpel’s voice was so soft and gentle that it just set off fresh floods in her. He didn’t ask her what was wrong, just enveloping her in his arms and holding her close.

“Please don’t go,” she whispered. “I want you here. I want you to be there with me. I need you there.”

“I’m not going anywhere, darling. Now, let’s go to the hospital and meet our little dinosaur.”

“You always keep telling me to take more of an interest in local affairs,” he said as they herded the children down the street and into the town hall where Regina was waiting to give them the grand tour. The kids were a bit young to be getting into the complexities of local government yet, but any excuse not to be in a classroom was a good excuse in their eyes, so they were happy to go with the flow.

Gideon was near the front of the gaggle of children, assiduously avoiding making eye contact with his parents. He was getting to the age now where Parents Were Embarrassing, and he’d been mortified to find out that both of his were coming on the field trip as chaperones, so naturally, he was pretending that he didn’t know them.

Regina was explaining the relevance of one of the large paintings on the walls when Belle noticed Gideon and Robyn conspiring in a corner. Although not exactly an intentional troublemaker, Gideon had always had an affinity for the dramatic inherited from his father, and when he got excited, his magic had the tendency to go somewhat haywire. The last thing that Belle wanted was for all the furniture in the mayor’s office to start dancing a conga line as the result of some mischief that had got out of hand. She was glad that Rumpel was there and could nip any of that in the bud if necessary.

She touched Rumpel’s arm and indicated the two whisperers in the corner.

“What do you think they’re planning?” she muttered.

“An escape from the tedium of this tour, perhaps?” Rumpel replied. “I like Regina but she’s really not a tour guide.”

Belle batted his arm. “I think it’s all fascinating.”

“You’re not eight years old.”

“Neither are you, although I’m not quite sure that the same applies to your mental age sometimes.”

The group moved on and Gideon and Robyn saw their opportunity, sneaking through a door whilst they thought that no-one was looking. Belle and Rumpel exchanged a look. On the one hand, they probably shouldn’t abandon the group without warning. On the other hand, they wouldn’t be very good chaperones if they knowingly lost two of the children on their watch. On yet another hand, it would be even more embarrassing if one of the unsupervised miscreants was revealed as their own child.

The decision was mutual, silent and immediate, and they slipped through the door after Gideon and Robyn.

The two children were nowhere to be seen, but it was easy enough to follow the sound of giggling along the corridor, and Belle couldn’t help but smile. Rumpel just sighed.

“How did we manage to raise a child that has such a propensity for causing chaos?” he muttered.

Belle raised an eyebrow. “You’re one to talk. I firmly believe that the genes for causing chaos came from you.”

“You’re perfectly able to cause chaos yourself when you want to, my love. You completely turned my life upside down the moment you came into it.”

“Ah yes, but I turned your life upside down in a good way.” Belle slipped her arm through Rumpel’s as they followed the sound of their son’s laughter. “I’ve never heard you complain about me causing chaos in your previously not-at-all neatly ordered life before now. If anything, I removed the chaos, rather than causing it.”

“I suppose that’s true in a way.”

Belle batted his arm. “What do you mean, ‘in a way’? It is true!”

“I know that now, but I didn’t appreciate it at all at the time. Suddenly I couldn’t find anything anywhere.”

“I was amazed that you could find anything before I tidied up. The castle was in a terrible state.”

“I had a very complex sorting system, I’ll have you know.” Rumpel looked at her in mock offence. “You ruined it when you started dusting everything.”

“Rumpel, you couldn’t see half of the bottle labels in your laboratory because they were that encrusted with cobwebs. I’m amazed that you didn’t poison yourself or anyone else with the concoctions that you were brewing blind in there.”

Rumpel sniffed emphatically. “Your lack of faith wounds me.”

Belle just rolled her eyes, going up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek. She knew that Rumpel didn’t mind, and she did enjoy this easy banter with him. It was always nice to reminisce about the first stages of their relationship, before they had really realised the full extent of their feelings towards each other. In a way, she felt like they had come full circle. 

It was in those first few months together at the Dark Castle that they had really learned to be comfortable with each other, and despite the moments of awkwardness that had arisen when she had first realised that she was falling in love with Rumpel, those early days had been some of the best that they had spent together, before things had started to go wrong and only truly fixed themselves with the arrival of Gideon and their happy beginning.

They came to a stop outside Regina’s office, where Gideon and Robyn’s laughter seemed to be coming from. The sound was so gleeful and, whilst not innocent, not at all malicious. Belle was loath to interrupt it; she wanted to stay here outside the door and listen to her son at play for the rest of the day, but she knew that there would be hell to pay if anything got broken inside the office as a result of Gideon’s fun. When Gideon and Robyn got together, both of them with untapped and occasionally uncontrollable magical potential, the risk of accidents became increased tenfold.

The door was ajar, and Belle pushed it open a little further to see Gideon sitting in Regina’s chair; he would have looked every inch as if he were supposed to be there if it hadn’t been for the fact that his feet didn’t touch the floor.

“Gideon,” she said, “what are you doing? You know that you really shouldn’t sneak off like that. Especially when your papa and I are standing right behind you.”

Gideon pouted. “Robyn and I just wanted to play at being the mayor.”

It was a very subtle little shift, but Belle had become attuned to Rumpel and Gideon’s magic and she could always tell when Gideon had cast a spell without meaning to. Naturally, Rumpel was even more sensitive to it than she was, being a magician himself, and he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What have you done, Gid?” Belle asked levelly.

“I didn’t mean to! It was an accident! And I don’t know what I did! I just did it!”

“He’s made himself into the mayor,” Rumpel said.

“Can he do that?”

“Apparently so. All of the legal powers that were invested in Regina when she was sworn in to the office have now magically been transferred to Gideon. He’s mayor now.”

Gideon’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure you’d enjoy being mayor. It involves a lot of sitting around in meetings and you can’t start playing when you get bored.”

“Oh.” Gideon didn’t look at all enamoured by the idea of being mayor anymore.

“What’s happening? I felt a magic shift and I thought it had come from here…” Regina tailed off as she came into the room and saw Gideon sitting in her chair looking rather guilty, and Robyn beside him looking equally contrite. She sighed, shaking her head. “How did I know it was going to be you two?”

“I take full responsibility, Madam Mayor,” Rumpelstiltskin said.

Regina shook her head again. “I’m not Madam Mayor anymore,” she said. “Thanks to whatever it is that’s happened, I think that position now falls to the one in the chair.”

“I can assure you that the effects are only temporary. Everything will be back to normal tomorrow morning; Gideon’s magic isn’t strong enough yet to sustain any of his accidental spells for any length of time. In the meantime, I’d suggest postponing anything crucial.”

Regina nodded. “Yes, I believe I’m going to have to.” She looked over at Robyn. “I will be having words with your mother, young lady.”

“Yes, Aunt Regina.”

“Go on, both of you, Mrs Nolan will be having kittens. Just make sure that you use your new mayoral powers wisely, Gideon.”

“I will. I promise.”

“No decreeing that ice-cream should be free or anything like that.”

Gideon’s eyes lit up at the prospect of ice-cream, but a stern look from his father had him downcast again.

“I’ll be good.”

Belle and Rumpel shepherded the two children out of the office and took them back towards the entrance of the town hall to meet up with the rest of the party. Seeing the two missing children reappear with Belle and Rumpel, Mary Margaret let out a visible sigh of relief, and they began to escort the troop back to the school for the rest of afternoon class.

Walking at the back of the group with Rumpel, Belle laughed out loud.

Rumpel raised an eyebrow. “What’s tickled you?”

“I think Gideon sometimes manages to cause more chaos than the two of us combined,” Belle replied. “Still, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

They only had a few hours to spend in Gibraltar, their ship had docked early in the morning and would be leaving in the mid-afternoon, but they had seen a good portion of the small peninsula from vantage points on the rock. Belle's favourite sight had been looking out towards the border with Spain and the long straight road that led up to it. The road was bisected at one point by the Gibraltar airport runway, and the fact that the traffic had to be stopped any time a plane had to land or take off had amused her greatly. 

The Apes' Den, home to the most famous troop of Gibraltar's legendary Barbary macaques, would be the last point on the tour, and Gideon was very anxious that they should get to it before they had to return to the ship. He was looking over longingly at the little minibus that had been taking them on their island tour, and then turned back to Belle, bouncing on his heels again.

"Maybe we could go without Papa? Surely we don't need to wait for everyone else."

Belle raised an eyebrow. "I don't think that Papa would take too kindly to being left behind. We don't want the ship to sail without him because you were too eager to see the monkeys."

"But if we don't hurry up then we might never see the monkeys!" Gideon sounded utterly appalled at this prospect, and in that moment it was clear that monkeys were far more important than making sure that all of the family were present for the rest of their cruise holiday. 

"All right," Belle said. "Let's go over and get on the minibus so that we're ready to go when everyone else arrives. I think we ought to put some more cream on your nose as well, it's looking a bit pink."

"It's from the hard hat," Gideon said sagely, before racing across the carpark to the minibus. Belle hurried to keep up. Thankfully the tour guide was well-seasoned and used to fielding excited questions about the famous monkeys, and Gideon was happy to sit in the passenger seat beside him and chat. 

A couple of minutes later saw the rest of the tour group emerging, with Rumpel among them. 

"Where's Gid?" he asked as they came over to the bus. Belle nodded up towards the driver.

"Getting a lesson in primate history," she said. They moved quietly up the bus to take seats behind Gideon and the driver.

"And even though they have no tails, they're actually monkeys rather than apes," the tour guide was saying. Gideon was rapt, and almost didn't notice that the rest of the tour group had returned and they were ready to set off to meet the monkeys. A ten-minute drive took them to the Queen's Gate, where the Apes' Den and a large concentration of the monkeys could always be found. 

Belle grabbed Gideon before he could rush off the bus.

"Now, remember Gideon, although they're used to humans, they're still wild animals, so don't get too close."

"Yes," the driver added. "It's actually illegal to feed them; it encourages them to go down into the town and seek out human interaction for food. Take all the pictures that you want, but don't get too friendly."

Gideon nodded his understanding vigorously, and the three of them stepped off the bus. A large group of the monkeys was sunning themselves on a lookout point by the side of the road, not too far from where the minibus was parked up, and none of them were paying any attention to the humans crowding around and taking pictures of them. Gideon kept a respectful distance, and every time he glanced over at Belle and Rumpel, he was beaming from ear to ear. 

"Can I take the pictures Papa?" he asked excitedly, and Rumpel chuckled as he handed over the camera and Gideon went a little closer to the gathered monkeys. Not too far away there was a little family group, two adults grooming each other whilst an infant played nearby, and Belle felt Rumpel put an arm around her, pulling her in close to his side and stroking her hair where it was falling down a little from its clip. Belle smiled as she continued to watch Gideon, and she reflected at how perfectly they matched the little macaque family. A mother and a father, still devoted to each other and to their little one, letting him stretch his legs and discover things for himself, but not letting him get too far away. Not yet, at least. Gideon was a growing boy, ready for all kinds of adventures, but for now, Belle and Rumpel would always be standing just a little way behind, just in case. 

Presently the cameras clicking and the general noise of the humans standing around spooked the young monkey and he ran back to his parents, who quickly pulled him into their little huddle. Gideon took a few more photos before racing back to Belle and Rumpel. 

"I didn't get too close and I used the zoom!" he said proudly. "I got some great pictures! They're so cute!"

Belle looked up at Rumpel as Gideon raced off to show his pictures to the minibus driver.

"You know, sometimes I think that he's part monkey," Rumpel said. "In fact, he's more monkey-like than these ones sometimes. Do you think we can swap and take one of these home with us instead?"

Belle batted his arm, although she knew that he was only joking. She stayed looking at the macaque family for a long time, until they were being herded back towards the minibus ready for the trip back to the ship. She hoped that they would be all right. Rumpel squeezed her shoulders, planting a kiss into her hair. 

"Don't worry about the monkeys," he said. "They'll turn out all right. We did, after all, and if we can manage it them I'm sure they can."