Eleven Reasons why Rumpel and Belle are certain they love each other.
11 Reasons General theme: Eleven Reasons why Rumpel and Belle are certain they love each other.
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Character/s or Pairing: Rumpelstiltskin/Belle
Prompt: 2-Skin/Sense of touch
Title: Remembering
Rating: Gish
Warnings/Disclaimers: This series isn’t mine and the only offensive thing you might find in here are spoilers.
A/N: Sorry, I know this was kinda unoriginal. I promise I'll start inventing my own scenes and interactions soon. I already have two Belle-centered ones in my head. Yippee!
Lacey can't remember much about herself; she only remembers her name because that is what the nurses address her with--even though even that doesn't sound right to her. She has a few memories of parties and drinking binges. Many that she can remember, though, are of unhappiness. The nurses told her when she came (or at least as far back as she can remember) that a friend found her on her apartment floor with an empty pill bottle tossed on the ground next to her. That was the reason she was here: she had become so unhappy she had tried to kill herself, and she was stuck in the asylum, so the nurses told her, to make sure she doesn't try to kill herself again.
But the nurses don't actually do anything but give her food and "medicine". Otherwise Lacey stares at blank walls all day and wonders why she has trouble remembering who she is.
She can't even remember the reason she is unhappy, only that the black cloak came down upon her.
Lacey has one clear memory though. it is that of a man, one like no other she had ever seen, a green man. The man's skin is verdant, scaled and shimmering. His face is close to hers and he looks scared and confused. And then she remembers leaning forward and closing her eyes.
If Lacey closes her eyes she can still feel his kiss on her lips.
The memory ends there. Her kissing the green man. The raw lips looked just as bumpy and scaly as the rest of the man's face, but she can't remember if it was unpleasant to feel such malformed skin on her lips. She can only remember the hesitant pressure placed upon them. It is the softest kiss she can ever remember sharing with anyone.
She doesn't find the green man in any of her other memories; everything else is a blur of booze and camels, pool and poker. But Lacey is certain that she loved this strange man. Why else would she kiss lips belonging to such a hideous face?
---X---
The man her rescuer sent her to see, this Mr. Gold, looks vaguely like her green man. His skin is normal though, and his hair isn't curled. But when he speaks she has a feeling she's heard his voice before. And something odd happens when he hugs her. Her stomach flutters.
But she can't remember him.
He leads her by touching her, taking her by the arm and escorting her out to the woods. He tells her he's going to protect her, he's going to help her, and out in the wood there is something to provide him with the means to do so. Lacey has to be stupid, deranged, to follow this man she doesn't know, to go with him. Yet she knows somewhere in the pit of her gut that she can trust him, that he is a man of his word.
Mr. Gold limps and he's obviously older than her. But she knows that, at least, she loved him. Why though, is a mystery undo itself. As well as why the memory she believes is of him displays him with lubricant skin.
Lacey follows him deeper and deeper into the forest, stumbling every once and a while. Every time she does so, Mr. Gold looks back at her with worry in his eyes, as if she would be hurt, or simply not there. But he only ends up saying: "Keep going, this is very important. You'll see dear."
She continues walking, but then, suddenly, something, like a gust of wind, hits her. That wind fills her brain with memories of a sorcerer she loved and her time locked in a castle. "Wait!" The wind, as it departs, takes with it her blurred visions of drugs and drinking.
And suddenly she remembers why she loves Mr. Gold, the green man.
"Rumpelstiltskin." The name rolls off her tongue like it had been waiting to be uttered for a very long time.