[November 16th] [Once Upon a Time] No One Mourns the Wicked

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Title: No One Mourns the Wicked
Day/Theme: November 16th - Because there are some things that deserve, whatever the rest of the world may think, to be mourned
Series: Once Upon a Time
Character/Pairing: Rumpelstiltskin/Belle
Rating: K+/PG

Last year I wrote a story after the season 3A winter finale as a way to bring Rumpelstiltskin back after the battle with Peter Pan. (Please Come Home for Christmas) I always wanted to write some other stories in that verse I created, even after seasons 3B and 4A rendered it completely AU. I'm rather unhappy with the way Rumpel has been portrayed ever since the 3A finale, so I've decided to maybe pick up my idea of writing other stories set after the one I wrote last year. So basically, everything after the 3A finale hasn't happened here (and won't happen).

I may come back later and add more if I think it needs more; right now I was just trying to meet the deadline since I found the prompt was perfect.


By Lucky_Ladybug

Belle’s lips were pressed in a thin line by the time she and Rumpelstiltskin were standing on the porch of his mansion and he was fumbling with the key to unlock the door. He limped inside, reaching to switch on the light in the entryway, and Belle immediately followed him in and shut the door.

“It’s good to be home again,” Rumpel mused, slipping the keys into his pocket.

“Is it?” Belle said quietly.

He turned to look at her, her somber and wounded tone not lost on him. “Belle?” He peered into her eyes, trying to discern the problem. “What’s wrong?”

Belle sighed and turned away, throwing up her hands in despair. “Sometimes I wish it were possible to really leave Storybrooke,” she said. “Wouldn’t it be nice to go someplace where we aren’t known and make a completely fresh start?”

He leaned heavily on his cane. “Was it our trip home that brought this on?”

She looked back to him. “Everywhere we went, everyone was alarmed, tense, even angry. It would be understandable except for the fact that you saved all of them when you died. None of them even care!”

“That’s to be expected. But do you know we can’t leave?” he asked. “The rules might be different now that you and the rest found another way back.”

“They are,” Belle said. “But would you want to leave?”

He paused. “It would be a problem to go and leave all of those artifacts unattended to, wouldn’t it,” he mused. “I don’t trust anyone in town to handle them well. If we were gone, I have no doubt that the shop would be raided within the week.”

Belle shuddered at the thought. “. . . Most of the people in town are all hypocrites,” she said with uncharacteristic bitterness.

“I’ve known that for years,” Rumpel said, somewhat flippantly. But he sobered upon seeing Belle’s continuing seriousness. “What’s been happening while I’ve been gone, Belle?”

Belle took a deep breath. This was something that had been building over the last few weeks. Now that Rumpel had noticed, she didn’t think she could keep it in any longer. She didn’t know that she wanted to.

“I always knew that the townspeople didn’t like you,” she said. “I couldn’t even say that in a lot of cases they weren’t justified. But I was expecting more gratitude from them after you saved all of us from . . . Peter Pan.” She hesitated, not sure whether to use that name or to bring up the truth about the boy that they both knew.

Rumpel considered her words and nodded, slowly making his way to the couch. “I’ve known them longer than you have,” he said. “I knew there wouldn’t be much gratitude, not even from the supposed pure hearts who run this city now.” He sneered, then gazed into the distance. “I wasn’t doing it for any of them, but for you and Bae and Henry. Emma too, I suppose.”

“I know.” Belle sat next to him. “But they clearly have a double standard. They despise you so much, and yet they can worry about The Evil Queen and her feelings.”

“It really doesn’t bother me so much about myself,” Rumpel told her. “What I find unforgivable is that because of their feelings towards me, they extend it to you as well.” He gazed at her. “Did anyone show you kindness?”

“Ruby, of course,” Belle said. “I suppose she and I are both outcasts in a way, although she’s been better accepted of late. When she’s around. Being able to leave Storybrooke has caused her to travel farther and farther away at times.”

She fell silent, thinking. “The Blue Fairy expressed condolences. But she didn’t say anything about the one way you could come back, as we both know.” A bit of bitterness slipped into her voice again.

“And then Emma and Henry are missing,” Rumpel frowned, concerned for his grandson and Neal’s love.

“And as far as we know, they still don’t remember anything,” Belle said.

“What about that precious Charming couple?” Rumpel asked, the mocking in his voice obvious.

Belle shook her head. “They’ve stayed away. They didn’t come around even once. Of course, their main priority is where Emma and Henry are, but if they’ve even stopped to realize that Emma and Henry wouldn’t be alive to find without what you did, they haven’t said anything.”

“Did anyone come around just to bother you?” Rumpel’s eyes flashed and Belle knew exactly what he meant.

“No,” she said quietly, trying to reassure him. “No one has. Not even Hook.”

He tried to relax. “Good.”

Belle hesitated. “Rumpel . . .” She trailed off, not certain she wanted to ask yet knowing she wanted the answer. It had been troubling her ever since the heartbreaking events that she had believed had left her love dead. “Rumpel, why did you feel that you had to die in order for Pan to die?” It had never made sense to her. Rumpel had not had a deathwish; he had told her shortly before that final confrontation that the only path he was interested in was the one with her. Obviously he had believed that, for some reason, his death would seal Pan’s.

He hesitated too. “I found a prophecy about the Eternal Youth,” he said. “Apparently Pan wasn’t the first to choose that path. The prophecy said that whenever an Eternal Youth is driven by powerlust to kill to stay young, the only way to permanently defeat them is for someone granted immortality by whatever means to slay them both.”

“And you were the only one you knew of who qualified,” Belle finished quietly. “I wish you hadn’t found it necessary to do it, but I’m grateful you did. And I’m even more grateful that there was a way to get you back.”

He gazed at her, his awe unable to be concealed. After being rejected by his father and his wife, it stunned him every day that Belle truly loved him. Sometimes it seemed an impossibility, something he would wake up from and discover a dream.

“I’m sorry you and Bae suffered,” he said, quiet as well. “I never wanted that. But I couldn’t let Pan do what he was planning to.”

She smiled sadly. “I know.”

She moved closer to him, taking his hand. She would never tell him the full extent of her pain and sorrow over the past weeks, not wanting him to feel worse for what he had done, but it was true that the way the townspeople had treated her had dug deep. She had wanted some sort of comfort, but hardly anyone had been willing to even try to give her any.

And more importantly to her, no one had been grateful for Rumpel’s sacrifice. It was true that he had done many terrible things in his quest to get here, to this time, to find Neal. But Belle still felt that when he had struggled to throw away his intense fear of death and go through with it to eliminate a very real evil that had been going to kill all of them, it should be appreciated far more than it was. As far as she was concerned, the town had shown its true colors after that incident and she had no desire to associate with 99.9 percent of the Storybrooke population.

“Belle . . .” Rumpel suddenly laid his hand over hers. “If you really want to leave, we’ll find a way to do it.”

She looked to him in amazement. “But what about the shop?”

“It’s not really the shop that’s important, but what’s in it,” Rumpel replied. “Maybe we can pack it all up and take it with us.”

Belle leaned back into the couch. “Then the people here wouldn’t have a way to get anything if they needed it,” she mused.

“They’d have to find other ways to solve their problems,” Rumpel said.

Belle smiled a bit. “You kind of like being the only one they can turn to, don’t you?”

“Sometimes,” he admitted. It certainly gave him a level of power he had never enjoyed before taking on the mantel of the Dark One—a mantel that had now been removed due to his unselfish act of giving up his life to destroy Pan.

She stared into the distance. “They weren’t happy to see you back, but they’ll be coming around again before long, wanting favors from you,” she said.

“And they’ll have to pay for them, just like before.” Rumpel was enjoying this moment of peace. There had hardly been any time to relax over the last months, what with the flurry of activity surrounding Hook, Cora, Greg and Tamara, Lacey, and Pan. There would probably be something new before long. This moment was a treasure.

Belle felt likewise, although since she had experienced weeks of believing Rumpel was dead, she was certain that she would feel that any moment with him was likewise a treasure, whether in times of peace or not.

“Maybe we can help Bae look for Emma and Henry,” she said.

Rumpel nodded. “My guess would be that they’re in Boston or New York. But those are large cities. It could take a while.”

“We would both go, though, wouldn’t we?” Belle sounded almost urgent now. She did not want to be left behind again.

He looked to her. “I suppose I could cast a shield around the shop while we’re gone. I may no longer be the Dark One, but I still have the knowledge of the spells I’ve learned through the ages.”

Belle smiled. “A shield would be just fine.” She paused and sobered. “As long as the price wouldn’t be too high.”

“Not as high as for other types of magic,” Rumpel replied. “There shouldn’t be any problem.”

Belle hoped not. That was the last thing they needed.