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“Want to roast some chestnuts?” Belle pulled out a small muddy parcel from among the straw in her basket. “Marie’s oldest took Matthew along to collect them while we waited for the bread to bake, and now he’s excited about eating his haul. Or, well,-" she smiled "-it’ll be the first thing he asks for after his nap.”“Sure,” said Rumpelstiltskin, putting a finger over the line he was reading to mark his place. “After dinner?”Belle shook her head. “Only if you want the detailed recount of where he spotted each nut and how he beat Tad to it.”Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow. A child of four didn’t outrace another twice his age.Belle laughed, brushing a hand over his shoulders as she spoke. “Tad doesn’t mind that the little ones have their fun. He got twice as much, anyway.”The lumpy package came right under his nose, obscuring the text he was studying. Chuckling, he obeyed the wordless command and set down his book to take the fresh chestnuts instead. “Need help, sweetheart?”“Please.”He thought of waving a hand to part the nuts from the spiny burrs, and then shell them, but Belle had seated herself beside him, ready to share the work. A pair of leather gloves and a thin, sharp knife were summoned instead.His own skin didn’t need protection, and his nails were tough enough for the job.Belle still kept an eye on him as he worked through his first nut, alert just in case he’d overestimated his body’s resilience. Eventually, she focused on her half of the small mound.Rumpelstiltskin watched her, letting his fingers deal with the repetitive work with little thought on his part. Instead he basked in their quiet domesticity, in the certainty that Belle enjoyed his company and had sought him out not for his power or his knowledge, but because she trusted him to take time from his work and help her.Laboring in tandem at a small chore, for the benefit of a child under his roof, wasn’t new; and yet, with Belle humming a happy folk song under her breath, it felt like it.“We could go outside,” he found himself proposing out of the blue. “When the boy wakes. Make a bonfire, a big one. Bring down a blanket to sit on. Hm?”Belle glanced at him, wide-eyed but already grinning at the idea. “Sounds wonderful! I’m sure Matthew will love it.”“It’s the boy’s first harvest,” Rumpelstiltskin said, knowing as they left his mouth that he had said these exact words before. “Let’s celebrate.”Belle, however, didn’t scoff or roll her eyes at his absurd need to make a fuss for a childish feat. The chestnut currently in his hand crumbled at the sharp, unwelcome memory of a different set of blue eyes glaring at him with scorn; but Rumpelstiltskin took a deep breath and continued. “We’ll take something to eat, too. Might as well have dinner while we’re at it.”Belle nodded. “What a great idea. Thank you, Rumple.” She reached across the table to tug on the lacy ruffle at his wrist, always so fond of physical contact. “I wouldn’t have thought of it.”Rumpelstiltskin shrugged.“Maybe another time we can invite a few of the village boys.”That made him wrinkle his nose. “Shepherding dragons sounds more restful.”Belle giggled. “They’re not that bad. If you ever came with me—”Rumpelstiltskin shook his head, taking his hand away from her grasp to shake a finger at her. “Make your friends if you will,” he told her. “It’s good for the boy to have a few playmates. But make no mistake in thinking their parents will thank you for bringing the Dark One into their lives.”After living mainly within the walls of the Dark Castle, Belle’s boy was very shy around strangers; but the nearest village was familiar enough. The children there had known the baby Belle would carry from stall to stall on every market day, and they counted him as one of their own despite the rumors that circulated among the adults about his paternity. The innocent friendships had flourished as the children grew from toddlers into small boys, and it had opened the door for Belle to make some tentative overtures of her own.If memory served, Marie was a widow with three children, the oldest only eight years old. Fallen into hard times after her husband’s passing, she and Belle had bonded over the pitfalls of housekeeping when one hadn’t been raised to the task and, Rumpelstiltskin suspected, also over their single-handled raising of little boys.People were quick to suspect him of ignoring his own child, but they would cry and holler if he tagged along during Belle’s visits.“I think that if they knew you, they’d get to like you,” Belle said optimistically. “Just like I did.”Rumpelstiltskin laughed. “I hope not!”“Rumple…”He’d stood and marched over to stand behind her before Belle could say another word. “I know you like me,” he said, lowering his voice to a giggly whisper, followed by a quick kiss on her earlobe. He laughed, the sound now softer, as a deepening blush showed her understanding of the twist he’d given to her innocent words. “And I like you very, very much as well.”Belle tilted her head to the side, inviting a line of quick kisses along her neck, then remembered their task. “Rumple,” she interrupted his quest, “we’re not finished.”Rumpelstiltskin capitulated without complaint, but trailed a hand along her hair wistfully before he walked back to his chair. “Tonight."“We’ll be busy.”“Oh, yes,” he promised. “We’ll roast those, eat, then put the boy to bed.” He brought up a finger at each point in the list. Teeth showing as he grinned, he wiggled the last two fingers as he continued, “The fire and the blankets, we can keep for a while longer.”Belle, still blushing, nodded.They resumed their work, though now there were more stolen glances mixed in.After a while, Belle decided to speak up. “You don’t have to distract me, you know,” she told him after a little thought. “It’s all right if you prefer to stay by yourself. I just don’t want you to feel lonely.”Rumpelstiltskin paused and stared, disconcerted that Belle might still worry that he found her lacking. “You’re here.” He waved between them, trying to encompass not only themselves but the life they made together even with something as simple as a snack for her child. “Believe me, love. That’s all I need.”
The End
21/12/18