#lost fics things

Honestly I’m surprised it took this long to Rumbelle it.

II

“My library tried to kill me.”  It wasn’t until they were across the street, leaning heavy on a brick wall that Belle had enough air to spare for speech.  It wasn’t until then that she began to connect the last few days into something that made sense.

Except that it didn’t.

“You really are a wizard.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your library.  The demon bound inside the book that’s on a shelf in your library tried to kill you.  The book I asked you to give me two days ago.”  Gold clenched his cane in his hand, the wood smooth beneath his skin but the energy dull.  It had taken everything he’d had in reserve to get them both out of the library alive.

“I’m going to ignore the fact that you’re blaming me for not believing something that sounded like a bad horror film plot because you just saved my life.  How did you just save my life?”  Belle reached for the cane in his hand; Gold pulled it back.

“It doesn’t matter.  You should go home now.  I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come back to work.”  Gold didn’t know what it said about his life that the brunette who had held his hand as they’d run and was now smiling at him in far too friendly of a manner unsettled him more than the demon that would like to cut out his heart so it could be free.

“You’re going back in there.”  Belle tilted her head to one side, observing him.  Smiling still, and he wondered just what she had to smile about.

“Not tonight.  I need to gather a few more supplies.”  He’d been in too much of a hurry to prepare properly when he’d realized just what kind of trouble Belle was facing.  He also needed time and moonlight to re energize his cane.

“Well my apartment is over the library so I’m assuming that I can’t actually go home tonight.  I don’t know anything about magic but I’m a quick study and I know how to read Latin.  Is magic really in Latin or is that more of a Hollywood thing?”  Gold’s heart sunk when Belle headed for his car, waiting patiently next to the passenger door.

“You’re not coming home with me,” he groused.  He didn’t need her asking him questions, distracting him.  Distracting him a lot, he conceded to himself.  If he was going to get his point across he really needed to stop staring at her.  “Don’t you have a friend you can stay with?”

“Probably, but not one that’s going to help me get rid of a demon.  Would you rather I hired you?  If I was your client you’d have to let me come to your office, wouldn’t you?  The card you showed me said you were a PI.”  The was a tear in her sweater where she’d gotten caught on the corner of a bookcase a few minutes ago.  Gold found himself fingering the scar in the fabric.  He could fix it, at least.  Maybe it would distract her enough that he could leave.

“People pay me to make their problems go away, not to lead them into danger.  You’re not safe with me,” he told her truthfully.  There was a reason he didn’t have any friends.  Well, not any friends except for Mal, and she was a non corporeal entity tied to her own skull.  And Detective Swan but only on their better days could she even remotely be called a friend.

“I don’t know who I can trust.”  She knew he never stayed in the same place more than one night, and yet he answered the door to his house when she knocked.  She’d half expected to find the door locked, but there’d been nowhere else to go.

“You’re soaking wet.”  His hand slipped around her wrist.  An hour ago the same touch from the man she’d thought was her father was binding.  Gold’s skin against hers felt like the only part of her body that was warm.

“It wasn’t raining when I started walking.”  it hadn’t occurred to her to stay with her car and wait for a tow.  She’d only been driven by two thoughts, to get away, and to find him.

“You need a hot shower.  I’ll have tea ready when you get out.”  he guided her down the hall to the bathroom and turned on the water before leaving her alone.  She barely had time to notice anything as they walked, but there were pictures of a young boy with a mop of curly hair hanging on the wall.

“My husband tried to kill me.  The man I thought was my father has been lying to me my whole life.  My boss's boss is using me as a pawn in a corrupt and illegal scheme.”  The shirt he’d given her was only a little too big, the cuffs falling down to cover part of her hands.  They might have covered her hands completely if not for the mug she’d wrapped her fingers around.  “I feel like I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole, and the only person I might be able to trust is a known criminal and liar.”

“I’ve never lied to you, Belle.”  It was one of the few charges he could defend himself against, though with most people he wouldn’t care.

“I don’t know why I believe you.”  She took a sip of her tea, mostly out of a need to do something with her hands.

“Your best interest matters to me more than anything else.  More than my own freedom or safety.  I will do everything I can to keep you safe.  Anything.”  The last sounded as much like a threat as a promise.  Belle thought of Gaston’s bleeding nose and bruised face after they’d fought, her father’s stubborn insistence that he hadn’t done anything wrong, the growing file she had on Blue.  She thought of the crime scene photos she’d seen on people who had crossed Gold’s path.

I’m doing this off of watching the preview, I haven’t seen the movie.

II

After he’d locked himself in his room the day before Belle was nervous about returning to the Benton estate.  The butler was his usual stoic self when he answered the door, but to her relief she was directed to the library where 'master Carl’ was using the computer.

“I picked up some cherry tarts from that bakery by my flat.”  He was facing her, the chair that normally sat behind the desk pushed aside to make space for his wheelchair.

“I’m the one that should be plying you with treats.  I owe you an apology for yesterday.”  He was smiling, almost the same smile he’d worn before they’d come across the footy game in the park, and his ex girlfriend sitting in the stands.

“We all have bad days.”  She meant to reassure him with a squeeze of her hand on his arm, but when she leaned forward she saw the computer screen and froze.  It was a site for cruises, and they all had one thing in common.  They ended in Switzerland.

“I hoped...”

“Nothing’s changed, Belle.  Not when it comes to my future, or lack of one.  I never lied to you.”  With a single click of the mouse the screen went black.

“You can have a future.  We can have a future, together.”  She hadn’t had a chance to tell him, the day before, about her fight with Gaston.  About her realization that she’d only been settling for something she thought she was supposed to want, instead of someone she loved.  Like him.  “Carl...”

“You’re going to have a future, Belle, and it’s going to be everything it should be.  You’re going to travel the world, and make a difference in the lives of people.  There’s an entire world out there for you to find.”

“Everything I want is right here.”  The bag holding the cherry tarts slipped from her hand.  One fell out, breaking on the wooden floor, splattering her shoe with drops of red.  When she bent to pick it up she felt the warmth of his hand on her chin, and looked up.