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With the last patches of snow completely dissolved on the jagged cobblestones, springtime has arrived in Misthaven. Life would begin anew for the enchanted realm as magical creatures would arise from their long winter slumber ready to be summoned by a needy human or spread their magical properties in their wake. For the Dark One, spring meant replenishing his supplies for all the spells that needed to be concocted for the next deal that would have been presented to him.
In the three centuries Rumplelstiltskin has been the Dark One, the Equinox always would drive him mad as it meant more interactions with fairies, deals with those who have romantic notions or a large chance Baelfire would insist in accompanying him on his travels as the comfortable weather would provide the boy to interact with the children in the area. While Rumplestiltskin would not deny his son anything, the amount of playmates became a heavy topic overtime as there was the fear his enemies would discover one of his many secrets and use it against him. A compromise was reached where the sorcerer placed a charm on the boy knowing his whereabouts and automatically be summoned whenever it was time to head back to the castle. However, the past year this became a difficulty for both to try as many of Rumplestiltskin's travels required him to be gone for many days even weeks on end. Both could tell this was on an easy solution where in order to make it up to Baelfire, Rumplestiltskin would come back with exotic trinkets and a vast amount of sweets producing the boy to towards having a high motivation in his spinning and alchemy lessons. While Baelfire did not fully appreciate always being left alone in a large castle most of the time, he understood his father's motivations as it allowed him to spend time reading all the books in the library or continue with his sketching.
After spending three frustrating days in Arendelle not being able to come to terms with the sister of the country's introvert queen, Rumpelstiltskin transported himself home exhausted and grateful to not having been caught in the rain. With a snap of his fingers, the great hall became laminated with fresh candles as well as the fireplace grew a fresh fire. Rumplestiltskin was about to sit on his spinning wheel when he noticed Baelfire sleeping close the fireplace wrapped up in his favorite sheepskin blanket. Careful to not disturb the boy, the sorcerer picked him up and wished him good night as he placed him in bed. He went back downstairs to spin for a few hours until the imp became too tired to concentrate, he retired for the evening realizing that there would be a talk with Baelfire in the morning regarding the state of the castle's dust intake.
The next morning, Rumpelstiltskin woke up sensing something had not been right. He couldn't make out the aura but it felt similar to a fairy which began to annoy him as his barriers could never fully block fairies but many knew crossing into the Dark Castle was the closest they would come to suicide. Not taking any chances, the sorcerer transported himself downstairs still in his nightgown ready to invoke a colorful punishment to the burglar until he immediately realized what he was witnessing causing whatever bouts of drowsiness to have still be in him to have vanished.
The entire downstairs of the castle looked cleaner than it had ever been during its entire existence. There was not a speck of dust in sight and the floors were thoroughly scrubbed that they were easily mistaken for mirrors. The kitchen even has been relabeled and fully stocked with the appliances put in their places.
As he headed towards the great hall, the window were perfectly cleaned with little streaks, towards the fireplace lay stacks of firewood next the mantle, the rooms were bright and cheery with the drapes opened and the scent of strawberries coming from the freshly cleaned curtains and cushions.
Who did this? What are they gaining from this? How dare a fairy touch what belonged to the Dark One? Were some of the many questions that circulated in Rumplestiltskin's head that he didn't notice Baelfire arrived downstairs until he felt a tug on his nightgown.
Baelfire wrapped himself so tightly against his father nearly knocking him over. "I've missed you papa, when did you get back?"
With the blink of an eye, Rumplstiltskin's clothes transformed into his signature leather attire followed by summoning up a purple smoke to appear out of his hands taking the form of a large red box tied up in a bow. "Last night and it appears that I was not alone" he handed the present to Baelfire who anxiously tore ribbons up opening the box to find a white Scottish terrier staring directly at him. Baelfire picked the puppy up leading it to start directly lick his new master's nose.
Rumplestiltskin couldn't help but smile seeing Baelfire laughing as the puppy clung to him. "Thank you papa, I promise I will take good care of him."
The boy ran back to his room with his new friend leaving the sorcerer to carefully inspect any damaged conducted by the unwanted guests. From all appearances there appeared to have been nothing stolen, drastically altered or replaced. Rumpelstiltskin was not someone who was going to thank the unwanted guest for the housekeeping which did annoy him whoever it was thought they had any right to set foot into his castle without permission. He did suspect perhaps Baelfire might have known who it was which would explain why the boy had not noticed anything, the last part Rumplestiltskin inspected before heading up to the tower been seeing the spinning wheel recently polished with a fresh basket of straw ready to be used.
Baelfire was going to be receiving a long talk afterwards…
Throughout the next two weeks, it became evident Baelfire was not aware of the mysterious guest as Rumplestiltskin would continue to wake up each morning to find not only the rooms back to their proper state once again but other rooms within the second and third floors of the castle began to slowly develop life into them.
It started to cause the sorcerer to be unease in his own house as he placed double the barriers but this lead to much of the garden becoming inaccessible for Baelfire as he wanted to spend most of the afternoons there playing. Baelfire chose stay silent during this time as it did provide for Rumpelsiltskin to spend more time in the castle to the point of exhaustion. In order to help his father, he spend more time in the library researching how to best confront a fairy, he was sure it was not Rheul Ghrom who was involved but it appeared whoever it was did not mean any harm where the boy decided to give an offering towards the guest as a way to thank them for their services.
This did not sit well with Rumplestiltskin…
"Asking a guest to nicely leave isn't going to get them to stop."
Willfully ignoring his father, Baelfire continued to beat the eggs "If they have been tidying up for the past two weeks then chances are they probably don't mean any harm. Maybe this person wants to tell us something"
"Sneaking in the middle of the night and leaving before dawn is not exactly being forthcoming."
"Neither is being a grouch" Baelfire quietly said but his father heard him and took the bowl from the boy's hand transforming it into a newly baked strawberry pie. Baelfire felt a little better when he placed the dessert into the stove top.
"Alright head off to bed, I will make sure this guest does know that you are thankful."
Now Baelfire nervously looked at this father, "I mean it papa. Please don't hurt them" the boy pleaded until Rumplestiltskin made sure he gave his word then transported him into his room. He began to look at the sky as it started to darken, he hoped that Baelfire had proven him wrong.
Several hours passed as Rumpelstitlskin waited to see the mysterious guest somehow make an appearance. He already went through at least a day's worth of straw followed by pacing around the dining hall.
What is taking them so long!?
To make sure there would be a sighting, Baelfire arranged for the puppy to chew up some of the furniture and leave track marks all over the floor and carpets. He did give Baelfire credit for creativity but it still was not enough to wait for the night and nothing to occur. It was not as if the Dark One was losing sleep since he would spend many nights fully awake without it affecting him but this matter began to be a waste of time as he started pacing back and forth once again causing the floor to creak from the force of his walking.
Suddenly the window latch began to be unlocked leaving the Dark One to cease his pacing and blend into the drapes without being seen. He was ready to get some answers from this fairy even if it might mean breaking his promise to Baelfire. As he was ready to summon a spell, the creature slowly crept into the castle first looking around to see if the coast was clear. He finally got a better glimpse when the creature jumped into the table allowing it to be seen under the light of the full moon.
It revealed itself to be a Brownie with striking blue eyes.
The Brownie got down from the table then looked around the room making a disappointed noise as she saw the state of the dining room. "I thought Baelfire and that puppy were not this messy. Oh well back to work…"
She summoned a rag and dustpan to her command and started to clean up the living room. Rumplestiltskin could not help but be amazed as he was watching this creature looking so happy and humming as she carried her feather duster around the track marks around the couches leaving them completely spotless.
Who is she? What is she? Brownies normally resided in the lakes near Goblin City which was on the other side of the realm from the mountains where the Dark Castle resided. It left Rumplestiltskin with an ill thought perhaps the brownie was one of Jareth's spies.
This would be too strange to be one of his pranks.
She then appeared to have stopped, giving herself a praise by coating the room with a pink dust which caused the scent of strawberries to form. From a closer inspection, the coating gave the room a shine which meant she wouldn't come back to castle in a little while. He started following her as she slowly crept from the dining hall into the kitchen. It appeared she noticed the pie waiting for her in the stove still persevered with the freshly baked aroma. She took the treat, inhaling the aroma taking a bit of the crust savoring the taste allowing her to enjoy the taste.
"Enjoy your dessert dearie?" The Brownie was startled when she saw Rumplestiltskin appear before her. She had rumors about his ruthless deals to his flamboyant manners, but the Brownie couldn't help but show disdain and fear the creature in the same light.
"Oh...I-I" her tongue became frozen when Rumplestiltskin took away her feather duster.
"Do you have a habit of breaking into other practitioners domains and clean them up?" Who are you? What do you want?" He went closer to her staring at her to find her eyes weren't blue at all but a lighter shade to cerulean.
She began to stammer, "My name is Belle, I-I'm a part of the Oberon clan where every spring we scatter around Misthaven." At this point, Belle started to scoot back towards the wall "Some acquaintances in Goblin City said that it would be fine for me to seek the Dark One as he enjoyed the company of fairies, I thought if I spruced up the place then you would let me stay."
Belle nerves began to show as she stared into Rumplestiltskin's more closely, he wasn't from all accounts furious but little expressions such as a finger twitch and an eyebrow raise gave Belle alarm for suspicion.
"Please don't kill me..."
She pleaded hoping he would listen as she closed her eyes in worry. Rumpelstiltskin looked at this creature with bewilderment. She had more human features than goblin which could have mistaken her for a fairy but she still had the distinct trait of a Brownie with unusally large eyes that looked more expressive and pointed flat ears she tried to cover behind her chestnut hair. Her clothing was nothing more than a light blue drindl with a peasant shirt and shockingly barefoot which Rumpelstiltskin thought strange as this creature was upset at the track marks Baelfire and Chip made.
"No he can't and won't kill you." Both Rumplestiltskin and Belle turned around to find Baelfire in his nightgown exerting confidence.
"Bae, you should be in bed now."
"I couldn't sleep papa, worrying about what is happening so I went to the library and found that once a Brownie eats given food, they are bound to that house until they are no longer needed. Since Belle ate the pie I baked, she's staying" Baelfire showed his father the book on fairy type creatures with the chapter on Brownies. He started to see his father's responses go from uninterested to a microsecond of annoyance as his nose begin to twitch. The imp closed the book with a force allowing the noise echoing the room leaving father and son staring at one another each with a smirk on their faces.
Got you papa.
"It appears Baelfire is correct" trying to hold back his annoyance from speaking looking towards Belle, "You are welcome to stay until you no longer needed. BUT...if you interfere in any way with my spells or business then out you go dearie!"
"Yes sir" Belle smiled happily enjoying her new hosts even if one of them was being mean.
Baelfire took her hand intending to take her to a room all while Rumplestiltskin heading up to his room, sulking as he was outsmarted by his fourteen year old son.
"Wait until you meet Chip, he's going to love you although he loves everyone."
"That would be the dog I occasionally saw?"
"Yes the same. Don't worry about papa, he's not going to do anything to you because he always follows his promises. Here's your room for the time being" Baelfire opened the door showing Belle a somewhat dusty guestroom with a simple wooden bed and wardrobe, Belle went up to the bed jumping to see the mattress seeing it was surprisingly more comfortable than it appears along with the pillow displayed in goose feathers.
Belle got out of the bed hugging the boy, "Thank you so much Baelfire"
"Not a problem, I hope you are comfortable here."
"I believe will, the room just need to be spruced up but everything is fine. After three days of being up I would like to get some sleep if that is alright?"
"Oh yeah sure, good night Belle sleep tight"
"Night Baelfire"
Baelfire closed the door heading to his room snickering at the idea of placing Belle's in the room next to his father's.
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Over the next several weeks, Belle became a fixture at the Dark Castle resulting in being the occasional playmate of Baelfire and housekeeper. The only rule she needed to follow would be to not enter the tower unless under supervision or permission as Rumplestiltskin made several remarks about how the aura of dark magic would knock her out of the castle. Deciding to humor and seeing how Baelfire was not happy with his remarks, Belle decided to listen and continue to contribute.
At this point, Rumplestiltskin began to count the days until Belle was finally able to leave; at first he was fine with the idea of Baelfire having a full time playmate who wouldn't bark at all hours but it became apparent having a fairy as a houseguest became more trouble than what he had thought it would maintain.
What Baelfire had failed to mention was that Brownies were well known for being pranksters as Belle's methods of entertainment while doing the housekeeping resulted in minor but frustrating incidents. Either the tea would have a strange but harmless taste than the regular substance placed in the jars or certain items being in different parts of the castle. While harmless pranks, they tended to place the Dark One at odds with the Brownie as she and Baelfire would giggle over a private joke when it became apparent something would occur. Usually when Rumplestiltskin would confront Belle about something going wrong, he would find her in the library reading from the collection with a nonchalant expression of having no idea what he was talking about.
Occasionally Belle would apologize and make it up to the imp by either baking a sweet or pick up fresh straw for the spinning wheel.
"You can never understand how much I appreciate you letting me stay here" she would always say to him. This left Rumplestiltskin puzzled as Belle never gave a details about her life other than living in Goblin City and the stories she would tell about her childhood to Baelfire after dinnertime when they all were in the sitting room.
For an active creature, Belle kept to herself in much about which did give the Dark One a reason to suspect whenever Belle would stumble into the gardens after everyone was asleep for a few hours during the night.
He watched her walking around near the lake placing flower petals of whatever flowers she decided to pick sometimes roses, irises this time daisies then carefully put them in a jar filled with water then place then on the water as she began to swim. She would only keep her peasant shirt which could have been mistaken for a nightgown. Afterwards she would lie down in the rocks letting the flowers in the water touch her and stare at the direction of the moon. She would stay silent throughout this time while taking one flower from the choice still in its stem and put it in her head and stare at the stars until it she decided to clean up and head back into her room. All this time she would continue to have a smile with an occasional hum.
While odd, Rumpelstiltskin was going to judge at her strange nighttime activities as long as there had not been any sacrificing or endangerment towards his son involved. Although he would have liked it better if she wouldn't act as though she has something to hide because it does cause him to be suspicious.
"You are welcomed to sit down, I won't bite." She proclaimed leaving Rumplestiltskin to appear visible in front of her. He took his cloak placing it on the ground sitting down next to her seeing her staring at the sky with some of her hair blowing into her face due to a cold breeze.
"Is there a reason as to why we are sitting outside when there's a warm fire in your room to use in drying off?"
"Sometimes I get homesick and want to be in the water for a little while. I didn't think I was bothering anyone"
Now Rumplestiltskin felt guilty at seeing Belle's blue eyes become expressive where he thought she would start crying. "No-No, you aren't…bothering anyone. It's none of my business but why don't you just go home if you have to through all of this trouble." Her silence as she turned her face towards the other side gave her away
She was banished…
"Papa never approved of my affection for humans so he arranged a marriage for me with the son of a neighboring tribe. He thought marriage would finally stop me from 'lollygagging' as he put it, but what papa failed to let me know was that Gaston's father gave him a contract for my hand in marriage but when I refused, father banished me."
All Rumplestiltskin could do was listen and thinking malice thoughts towards Belle's father. He could understand being abandoned by family as his own father trade youth for his own son. "I'm sorry this happened to you."
"It's fine, although my younger sister who had a giant crush on Gaston volunteered to be his bride; so papa got his alliance and everyone is happy. Meanwhile, I've spent the last three years going traveling all over the Enchanted Forest." Belle began to worry she might have talked too much as she felt herself bordering into tears causing her to hold her scaly companion's hand. "I'm really fine, I just try to have hope everything will turn out alright at the end."
He can see her eyes were turning red with tears coming through even if she chose to hide them from him.
They sat together for a while listening to the crickets chirping and the night breeze blowing through causing Belle to shiver leading Rumplestiltskin to hold her close until she started sleeping while placing her head onto his chest. He listened to her breathing for a while until he carried her back inside finding Chip on the bed completely comfortable and annoyed he was told to move off.
"You're worse than a cat". He gently placed Belle onto the bed and tucked her in. At that moment, Rumplestiltskin could see how peaceful Belle looked as she slept, the moonlight gave her skin a glow which enlightened the scales on her arms and legs into a white shimmer.
Sleep well, little angel.
As he placed a kiss on her cheek, Belle began to shift on the bed causing Rumplestiltskin to have given her a kiss on her lips that went on longer than he wanted but was happy Belle had not awoken. Rumplestiltskin immediately transported himself back onto his room followed by cursing into his pillow until exhaustion finally took him.
Just another month and then she will leave.
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Over the next few more weeks, the Dark Castle looked different than before with laughter from Belle and Baelfire although it cause Belle to work longer in fixing up as Baelfire began to use the living room as his own playhouse. It meant Rumpelstiltskin not have to deal with everyone for a majority of the day as he began mixing stranger ingredients for even more elaborate spells. The downside became whenever he would receive a message from any of his associates about a deal they wanted or a favor to cash out. This meant Rumpelstiltskin would be away for days a time where wanting to come back to the castle finding a warm fire with everyone snuggled together in domestic bliss motivated him in drudging through whatever meeting would occur.
Although while the Dark One was at home, he would need to carefully dodge away from Belle's magic as her pranks became more frequents and her magic started to become unpredictable. The worse came from his room turned into a splash of pink swarmed in daisies with Belle originally trying to sort the sheets. How did laundry folding equal the nurseries of Equestria? He was grateful Baelfire knew about simple blocking defense or else the boy would have fallen prey to some it even though he was sure Belle might have been suggested by Baelfire to try her magic to have supposedly have a grasp of it. She would always apologize, claiming it was an accident followed by staying in her room for several hours as Rumpelstiltskin pretending not to hear Belle sobbing onto her pillow.
His guilt didn't help whenever he drank her tea, if it was possible to ask her for the recipe without fearing losing a limb he would only have a week left to know. Trying to figure out a way in convincing Belle to stay was not going to be easy as the situation could not have gotten worse.
Then it did…..
"Rumple! I need to talk to you now!" proclaimed Regina as she bolted open the doors of the great hall finding Baelfire, Chip and Belle taking tea together looking perplexed to see the uninvited visitor. Regina looked up and down at the boy and goblin having a scrunched look on her face as she looked at Belle's face wanting to laugh at how her ears appeared. "Little person and….whatever you are. I need to see Rumplestiltskin right away" She sat down on the table crossing her legs as she looked at the portraits "and don't try to waste my time, I haven't gotten all day to waiting around as though he is some hack magician."
Belle wanted nothing better than to knock down the loud mouth harpy onto the ground and turn her into a mouse but she knew it was not her place to judge whatever association Rumplelstiltskin had, even if they were rude. "Would you like some tea ma'am?"
Regina looked back at Belle puckering her ruby lips, "Ah so the troll does speak, yes bring some tea. Might as well be entertained for a little bit."
A thought then crept Belle's head "of course ma'am. Come on Bae" Belle looked at Baelfire suggestively until he understood what she meant following her into the kitchen while asking the puppy to follow him. Balefire began to notice Belle storming into the kitchen looking for items throughout the cupboard"
"Do you need any help?"
"Go boil some water, I'm trying to find the seasoning" she kept looking on the sugary and herbs section but nothing was found until she heard a throat being clear coming from Baelfire who looked at her holding a bottle of wasabi sauce.
"Looking for this?"
"Yes, thank you" snatching the jar away from the boy. "The nerve of her, who does this woman think she is coming over and acting like she own the place in bossing us around?" pouring over the oranges, crushed ginger and dried lemon leaves into the wasabi sauce."
"That's Regina in a nutshell, she either acts like the world is entitled to give her something just because her childhood sucked or believes she is perfectly just in what she does that she doesn't feel any guilt in someone else's life might be ruined as long as she is happy.
Belle finished up getting the tea ready, "Well how about we take her down a peg?" Both and Baelfire were smiling as he began helping her in having the spread prepared. Several minutes later, Belle came out of the kitchen complete with cucumber sandwiches and tea. Regina looked back at the serving girl still perplexed at her.
"What did you offer to tie yourself down to Rumpelstiltskin? Poor thing, it must be hard in being…" she looked at Belle up and down as Belle poured her tea "….well you.."
That did it. Belle was thanking herself for not knocking or throwing anything down as Regina would not hold up on how her appearances were nothing to be proud of. Brownies usually looked more like a mixture of goblins and elves were Belle had a fairy mixture due to some strange genetic mix up in her family. While it never bothered her she wouldn't completely look human, the constant stares sometimes made it awkward for her to stay in one place too long.
"All I offered was my loyalty and services to serving the castle and its master. That is all I can ask for your majesty." Belle bowed directly to the queen then took her leave when Rumplestiltskin arrived to meet with Regina. She headed off to the garden already making the arrangements to leave but annoyed she was not able to get the satisfaction of seeing Regina have serve mouth pains for several hours but laughed as she heard the first bouts of screams.
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Already the sun was beginning to set and Rumplestiltskin felt every passing day was another one in which Belle would start to leave but he wasn't sure how to convince her stay. She wasn't going to be their maid forever and he wasn't sure if she even wanted to stay to begin with. Baelfire cared about her even to where sometimes he would find them together snuggling close, it had begun to break Rumplestiltskin's heart in seeing how fast time was going. After his encounter with Regina, Belle had all but disappeared until he realized Regina was beginning to complain about the temperature and her mouth being in pain with sores appearing all over her face. He couldn't help but laugh while reassuring the queen he not only had nothing to do with her latest predicament but assuring her some lavender lotion would ease her face in a couple days but he might have forgotten to mention it would leave Regina with scars for a last a month but if she somehow was responsible for Belle's hiding and Baelfire's silence then would just have to thank them later.
He knew exactly what to tell her as he found one of her flowers being used as a bookmark. Rumpelstiltskin had less than a day left and to his luck, he knew exactly where Belle would be. Not bothering to run, the Dark One headed transported himself into the lake outside the castle finding a cloak and dirndl laying on the rocks with his little goblin swimming in the water performing her nightly ritual of placing the petals this time roses into the water.
Belle swam around in circles trying not to aim for the rocks as the floor started to shallow. She had not wanted to leave even when Baelfire assured her his papa was not angry over what happened to Regina, she wasn't sure what to believe but she had not wanted to take a chance and be banished once again.
"It's cold out here sweetheart!"
The voice caused Belle to shiver as she turned around finding Rumpelstiltskin holding a large towel for her. She got out from the water taking it from it began to try off, trying her best not to blush. "Thank you. Listen Rumpel about what happened yesterday…."
"What did happen yesterday?" trying his best not to make it obvious he knew what she was talking about.
"Nothing….never mind, I thought…its fine." She jumped up with the Dark One catching her as they embraced for a kiss. Belle was never sure if the concept of True Love existed until now as she felt safe, happy and home.
"Please stay?" kissing her again "I may have extended another invitation but the choice is yours." He then placed a finger over her lips "don't say that you think you will burn everything up or cause another explosion. I will teach you to control your magic and I will try to take you and Bae around my travels more often…please stay?"
As he took his finger away, Belle lunged back for another kiss surprising the Dark One with her smile which illuminated her eyes further. "I don't know, how long will the invitation hold up?"
"It's forever…."
"Forever it is"