Your Light, My Saving Grace

Another Rumbelle fanfic. This one was inspired by "No Light, No Light" by Florence + the Machine. Rumbelle is a ship from ABC's TV show 'Once Upon A Time.'

Rumplestiltskin met Belle’s cold gaze with a strong one of his own.

“Why can’t you trust me?” she asked, her voice filled with the inner fire he had grown to love. But at this moment, he almost wished it did not exist.

He continued to say nothing, just looking at her, willing her to understand his reasons, selfish as they were. She had grown to love him as the beast he was; could she still love him when she discovered the truth of his past?

Rumple gazed at Belle, a desperate battle raging within him, yet no sign of it showing on the outside.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked her.

Belle looked past his walls and into the darkest corners of his mind. Yet she could not read what was there. For all this time, those thoughts, plans, ambitions had grown so twisted and warped. No one but he would ever be able to understand his goals, his hopes. He therefore let her look, knowing she would find nothing.

She realized this, and her shoulders slumped.

“I just want to know you, Rumplestiltskin,” she whispered.

Rumple took a breath and shook his head.

“That’s a conversation I just can’t have tonight.”

Even as he said it, he knew that he was playing with fire. If he wasn’t careful, he would cross a line from which there was no return. And crossing that line without Belle wasn’t an option for him anymore. He’d lost her once; he couldn’t loose her again.

But she was slipping away.

He looked into her crystal blue eyes; eyes that had seen but not been repulsed, eyes that had peered deep but not drowned, eyes that had glowed rather than glowered. But now, her eyes, her beautiful azure eyes, had lost their light. As he watched, the glow faded like the setting of the sun.

A shaft of pain ripped through his heart. The brightness that had given him the strength to survive through the darkest years of his life was leaving, abandoning him. In that moment, he knew he was losing her, losing the one person who kept the flame of humanity flickering within him.

When he spoke, he heard the weakness in his voice, the despair in his words.

“Oh Belle,” he whispered. “My Belle.”

            He was defeated. He had no choice but to tell her. He could not lose the single thing that gave him strength. Rumple told her everything. He told her about his wife, his son. He told her about his deepest shame, his cowardice in the face of death. He told her about the only deal he’d ever broken, the one that had defined so much of his life. And he told her the one fact that he had been terrified above all else she should learn: that the reason he brought magic back was not for her, but for his son.

Belle took it all in, and at the end, she looked away. Rumple could say nothing, too afraid that he had lost her with the revelations she’d just learned. But she wasn’t talking, and once again, her silence reminded him of that era in his ancient life when her silence caused every moment to be torture, when every thought was focused on his belief that she was truly gone.

Finally, he just needed to hear her voice.

“Belle,” he whispered. “You know that I would do anything to keep you here with me.”

Belle looked up at his fearful words, and the expression in her features was kind. She smiled at him, stepped closer to wrap her arms around his neck. And as he breathed in relief, pulling her against him, Rumplestiltskin memorized that image, the picture of that light returning, his saving grace refusing to leave him behind.

Reviews

[Remember Courage]

This was a new story I never have heard or would have imagined. The beginning was so mysterious and vague that I was desperate to know more! Why is Rumple in love with Belle? Is Rumple cheating? There were so many questions left unanswered I was left in awe. I love how this quick scene of Rumple and Belle's love. You really did capture the kindness in Belle and the trickery Rumple has. Well done!
-Courage