oh no, fic

[zippytheavenger.livejournal.com]

I come bearing fanfic. You are welcome.

Moments Spent Elsewhere


Part 1
Fandom: ABC's Once Upon A Time
Author: zippytheavenger
Characters: Belle & Rumpelstiltskin
Length: Hell if I know
Warnings: None that I can think of
Summary: A meandering, aimless fic focusing on scenes and moments from Belle's imprisonment in Casa Rumpelstiltskin.

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In novels Belle had often read scenes that opened with the hero waking up after some catastrophe or bizarre incident and believing, for but a moment of dream-addled, sleep-edged assumption, that they are safe at home in their own bed, and whatever happened before was just a nightmare. Belle had to envy them, for the instant she woke she knew, by the smell of fresh straw and the chill of damp stone, where she was and that she would never leave. She would have killed for that one cruel, sweet, wonderful moment of respite and endured the disappointment of its fleeting gratefully.

Her eyes felt burnt and swollen like bee stings, and her head was pounding from last night's indulgence of crying herself to sleep. Sitting up and rubbing the dried salt from her cheeks, she vowed that that would be very last time she let herself be so weak. Her new life, if it could be called that, began today, and in it there could be no weakness, no tears. She would not give her captor the satisfaction.

Belle sat awake in her cell, shivering with her arms around herself. Her shoulder-baring silk gown was utterly inadequate at staving off the morning's chill.

She could see beads of mist clinging to the leaf-shaped iron bars in the narrow windows. She could hear riots of birdsong. She could smell mist.

Belle could not have said how long she sat before the door to her cell swung open of its own accord to admit the master of the house. He entered with quick, nimble steps as light as a sparrow, and Belle made herself look at him. Direct sunlight did his appearance no kindness, highlighting the gritty texture of his mossy skin and flashing in his reptilian eyes.

He smiled, showing rotten teeth. "What a glorious morning it is. I trust you slept well."

Belle glared up at him through the disheveled hair hanging in her face. "As well as one can sleep locked in a prison."

"Don't think of it as keeping you locked in…" He dropped to one knee to look her in the eye. When he spoke next, it was with growling intensity. "Think of it as keeping me locked out."

Belle started, recoiling and drawing in a quick, hissing breath. Her heart was suddenly galloping in her chest.

Rumpelstiltskin stood up and emitted a giggle that sounded high and gleeful and all wrong for him, as if he had stolen it out of some child's throat. "That perked you right up, didn't it?" He turned toward the door and motioned for her to follow him. "Come along, it's time for breakfast."

Belle followed him out into the corridor, and realized that while her cell had been cold, at least the small space had been able to retain some heat. Out here, with the wide rooms and long halls and tall ceilings, it was absolutely frigid. Belle hugged herself and tried to keep her teeth from chattering. Her breath puffed out in clouds of steam. How would she survive the coming winter with nothing but straw to keep her warm?

If Rumpelstiltskin noticed her discomfort, he clearly did not care. He strolled down the twisting halls, his boots clicking on the marble floors. He seemed so blastedly cheery that Belle expected him to start whistling a merry tune any moment.

Belle drew in a breath, tried to calm her shivering, and asked in a tone that strongly hinted that she would poison him, "What do you want for breakfast?"

Rumpelstiltskin did not so much as glance over her shoulder. "Hmm? Oh, I never eat in the mornings. Too much to do."

"But you said-"

"That is it time for your breakfast." He stopped at a corner, turned, and fixed Belle with mocking, crinkle-edged eyes. "I'l bet you worked up an appetite, spending half the night sobbing like a wee babby."

The cold was momentarily forgotten. Belle's face went hot and her fists clenched. She would have loved nothing more than to swiftly and solidly punch him right in the teeth. "You were listening outside my door."

"Please." He place a hand on his heart, as though offended. "I don't have to. I know about everything that goes on in this castle. Everything. You catch my meaning, dear?"

Belle nodded. There would be no poison in anybody's pancakes today.

She wasn't sure what she meant to have said when she opened her mouth, but she was honestly surprised at what came out of it. "Why am I here?"

"You've forgotten already? And you were so eager to come along last night…"

"I mean," Belle felt the chill again and held herself tighter. "Why did you want me?"

"Ahhh…" Rumpelstiltskin tucked his hands into the pockets of his jackets and regarded her with head tilted sideways, like a bird. "Well, I didn't want you particularly. You see, when certain people get into the habit of ruling, they start to get all manner of odd ideas. Ideas about who they rule, and who rules them. They start to lose their discretion, you see, start entertaining funny notions about slaying monsters and cleansing scourges and freeing the dear wee peasanty-folk from their fearful…fears."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"I'm getting to it. Now, this place could do with a fair bit of sprucing but you, clever young thing that you are, know that that isn't the sole reason I answered your father's little summons. I could have snatched any peasant girl out of any of the surrounding kingdoms and no one would have said boo about it. I could have a whole battalion of scullery maids if I wanted one. But what would that tell people? 'Watch out, the monster will come for your daughters in the night! He'll spirit them away to his lair and do who-knows-what with them, the poor things!' And then those certain high-minded people I mentioned would only be reinforced in that silly notion of theirs, you see? It'd only encourage them. But, I thought, what if I should take away one of their own? Imagine, some dainty, delicate daughter of the kingdom down on her wee pretty knees, scrubbing my floors. I think that'd do a treat to remind these certain people of their place, now, wouldn't it?"

Belle narrowed her eyes. "That's it? You brought me here just to embarrass and intimidate my father?"

"Yup."

She clenched her jaw tight and looked away.

"Oh, my lamb," Rumpelstiltskin's smile grew some inches wider and several shades nastier. "You weren't thinking you were here because you were…special? Were you?"

Of course she had. Of course she had thought that, at long last, she was removed from her familiar surroundings and her familiar context and she might finally prove to someone (that someone may well have been herself) that she was not just the Magister's daughter, that she could at last be allowed to define her own identity. And of course she had been wrong.

Rumpelstiltskin made an odd little noise, something like a grunt but with a little too much squeak, to indicate that he had lost interest in the subject. He turned and gestured down the hall off to the left. "The kitchen's off in that general direction. A smart girl like you ought to have no trouble figuring out what is kept where. Help yourself, eat your fill, and when you've finished, I'll take my tea in the dining room."

With nothing further, he sauntered off down the hall to the right, leaving Belle alone, shivering at the crossroads.