#avatoh | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

worryinglyinnocent · 6 years

Text

Fic: Fins and Scales

A @maydaymenagerie fic for @avatoh! I hope you enjoy.

Summary: Rumpelstiltskin is summoned by the merfolk to find their missing princess Belle. When he does find her, however, she shows no signs of wanting to return to the seas, and instead strikes a new deal with him, one that brings Rumpelstiltskin far more than he bargained for.

Rated: E

=====

Fins and Scales

It was shaping up to be a perfectly ordinary day until Rumpelstiltskin found the conch shell on the Dark Castle’s steps, and he rolled his eyes. The merfolk really needed to find a more efficient method of contacting him than just throwing shells out of the water and hoping that they stuck. True, they did always hit their mark, but if he hadn’t happened to have left the castle via the front door that day, then it could have been rather a long time before the message was discovered.

Still, that was the method that they had used since they’d started sending him messages, and whilst some people were willing to move with the times and change their ways to suit, the merfolk were not among their number, preferring the status quo at the bottom of the sea. Perhaps they saw the world above so infrequently that they just didn’t know how much it was changing.

Maybe he was being uncharitable, but since Rumpelstiltskin knew that the merfolk did have the ability to walk on land if they so chose, he thought that if their message did have any degree of urgency in it then it would have been delivered in person.

He grabbed the shell and brought it back inside the castle, setting it on the table in the main hall and looking at it for a while. There were just as many kingdoms under the sea as there were above it, and just like on dry land, the rocks and foliage changed with the environment. Rumpelstiltskin recognised this particular style of shell; it had come from the depths of Maurice’s part of the ocean, and that in itself piqued Rumpelstiltskin’s curiosity. Lord Maurice was not one for asking for help from the world above, preferring to keep merfolk and land-dwellers firmly separate, and for him to ask for assistance from the Dark One himself was even more unusual.

Finally, curiosity getting the better of him, Rumpelstiltskin picked up the conch and put it to his ear, listening to the lapping waves of the ocean inside. After a moment, the message began, and Rumpelstiltskin’s brow furrowed. It sounded like complete gibberish, like someone talking through water, the sounds all distorted. Messages from the merfolk like this were usually intelligible even if they didn’t echo quite right in his ears. Presently a voice spoke clearly.

“Ahem, sir, it’s upside down.”

Another distorted word, and then Maurice’s voice spoke.

“Oh, right. I see. Ahem.” He cleared his throat with a great degree of self-importance and began his message proper. “We seek the assistance of the Dark One in a matter of delicate state importance. It appears that the heir to our throne has been kidnapped by scale merchants and we require assistance to find her and return her to the ocean as soon as possible. This is a matter of extreme diplomatic delicacy.”

Rumpelstiltskin put the shell down and raised an eyebrow. It was not unheard of for scale merchants to kidnap unsuspecting merfolk in order to strip the scales off their tails and sell them for use in potions. Merfolk fin scales were a precious commodity and Rumpelstiltskin used them himself in some of his most potent brews, but it was generally easier to make a deal with a merperson and provide something they required in exchange for scales willingly given. They were always best when used fresh, like anything else.

There had not been a case of a scale merchant kidnapping for a very long time, and it seemed strange that they should not only resurface now, but resurface and capture the heir to Maurice’s kingdom out of all the merfolk that they could take. Surely the crown princess would be kept safe within their stronghold. Most of the merfolk that the scale merchants took were found at the peripheries of their societies, not right in the centre. How could such a high profile kidnapping have taken place?

There was definitely more to this case than met the eye, and Rumpelstiltskin sighed. Whilst common sense was telling him that he probably ought to leave well alone and let the notoriously secretive and isolated kingdom take care of its own problems, the fact that something was not as it seemed was intriguing him more than any of the deals he’d taken in recent weeks. A cerebral challenge certainly wouldn’t go amiss.

Maurice hadn’t specified what he would give in return for the location of the missing princess, so Rumpelstiltskin would have to make inquiries about remuneration before he went any further. Maurice’s kingdom was sizeable but by no means the richest of the underwater lands, so perhaps some interesting bargaining could take place.

It was the diplomatic nature of the request that worried him slightly. Generally speaking, land dwellers did not get involved in merfolk politics and vice versa. Then again, he was the Dark One, and political niceties had never yet stopped him from getting right in the middle of some juicy scandals if he thought that there could be a deal in it for him.

He put the shell back to his ear in case he had missed any part of the message, but there was nothing new to be heard, apart from the strained urgency in Maurice’s voice. Yes, this was a deal that it would be better to make sooner rather than later. The merman certainly seemed to be desperate enough.

Rumpelstiltskin took up the shell and made his way up to his workroom and the stores of herbs he kept there. Taking down a large jar of opaque green glass and shaking it, he made a face. He was almost out of kelp, and depending on the nature of this deal and what might be required from him in the search for the princess, he would probably run out before long. Maybe that could be his price. Kelp was always a pain to grow and tended to wilt under the care of anyone who was not by nature aquatic.

Still, he was going to have to use it if he was going to get to the bottom of the case. He gathered up the jar and the conch, stowing them in a leather pouch, and disappeared from the Dark Castle in a cloud of inky smoke, taking himself to the coastline in a matter of moments and procuring one of the small sailing boats that was moored up there. He always preferred to get as close as possible to the underwater kingdoms before diving in. Swimming had never been a favourite pastime of his.

Once he reached the approximate location of Maurice’s stronghold, he eased the stopper out of the jar of kelp and shook out the last few leaves into his palm, tossing them into his mouth and making a face at the sour, salty taste. Still, however bad it tasted, it was a better alternative than drowning or attempting some other kind of magic that would allow him to breathe underwater. Kelp had been cultivated centuries ago by the merfolk in order to allow them to walk on land for brief periods, assisting with trade and dealing with the land dwellers. When it was discovered that it worked both ways, it became a valuable commodity, one that Rumpelstiltskin always seemed to be in short supply of. It really was rather strange how many people came to him for help in communing with the merfolk, and he had no idea why. The seaweed wasn’t greener on the other side, and the kelp didn’t produce any lasting effects.

He supposed that it was to do with the mystery and legends of the merfolk and an insatiable desire to see them close up, first hand, in all their scaled glory. One of the fishermen’s favourite pastimes in the taverns on the sea fronts was to make guesses as to which of the people walking around by the water’s edge might actually be a merperson, as once they took kelp and their legs formed, they were indistinguishable from humans, despite the pervasive legends that they all had green hair and mottled skin. They’d probably tried to push that myth themselves as much as possible to avoid anyone looking too closely at them when they were disguised on land.

He felt the scratching of the dry leaves beginning to take effect in the back of his throat, and he took a deep breath on instinct before diving out of the boat and into the water, pushing through the murky depths towards the stronghold that he knew to be at the bottom.

The water seemed darker than usual, but Rumpelstiltskin was too focussed on swimming to really pay it much mind. Usually, once one had gone deep enough not to be seen from the surface, then the algae and other plant life found in the depths would begin to glow and bring light to the merfolk’s otherwise dim world. Indeed, on the other occasions that Rumpelstiltskin had visited the various underwater kingdoms, he’d found his path lit by myriad weird and wonderful creatures, and there was no danger of getting lost in the labyrinthine sea currents.

This time, however, there was nothing, just the faintest glow of the stronghold that never seemed to get any closer no matter how far he swam. Maurice had the reputation of being secretive, certainly, but this complete darkness seemed suspicious even for him. He certainly wasn’t expecting any visitors, except perhaps Rumpelstiltskin himself.

The waters were choppy, as well, and hard to swim through. Rumpelstiltskin could feel himself tiring and he only hoped that he would be able to make it to the coral citadel and back to the surface before the kelp’s effects wore off. There were several old wives’ tales about merfolk getting carried away enjoying themselves on land and suddenly and unceremoniously having their tails reform when their kelp wore off without them realising how long they had spent out of the water. Rumpelstiltskin had never seen it happen himself, but the idea definitely didn’t surprise him. Unlike a merperson on land, however, who would just be slightly inconvenienced by being unable to move about and would have to rely on some kindly bystander to help them back to the water, a human’s kelp wearing off whilst they were in the underwater world would have a far deadlier effect.

Finally the light seemed to grow, after he’d been swimming steadily downwards for what seemed like an age and more, and Rumpelstiltskin found himself entering Maurice’s stronghold. Two guards armed with tridents came out to meet him, looking suspicious, but once they recognised his face, they let him pass without a word, guiding him through the haven towards the centre, where the merfolk nobility were gathered with Maurice.

“My Lord,” one of the guards said. Rumpelstiltskin gave a low bow as the chief merman turned to him, although the effect was somewhat marred by the fact he kept floating a couple of inches off the sea bed. He really did hate doing deals underwater.

“I see you received my message, Rumpelstiltskin.” Maurice came over to him with a great deal more grace than Rumpelstiltskin was able to display, and he waved away the rest of the people who were gathered in the place. “I was hoping that you would come. This really is a very strained situation that we’ve found ourselves in. If Belle isn’t found, then it could spell disaster.”

“As anxious as I am at the fate of your crown princess who has been kidnapped by malefactors as yet unknown, I do fail to see how this is such a political disaster. I mean, you do lose face with your neighbours, having your daughter kidnapped from the stronghold right under your nose. It doesn’t say a lot for your security.”

Maurice looked rather uncomfortable, and Rumpelstiltskin was more convinced than ever of there being something else at work.

“Well, perhaps the part about her being kidnapped wasn’t entirely truthful,” he said sheepishly.

“So she left of her own free will?”

“Yes.”

“You have proof of this?”

“She left a note to tell us that she hadn’t been kidnapped. The problem is that we don’t know where she headed after she left the stronghold.”

“I don’t suppose you have any idea why she would leave in a hurry giving you no indication of where she’s gone?” Rumpelstiltskin asked, not making any effort to hide the sarcasm in his voice. Merfolk who had been cooped up in strongholds for their entire lives without the chance to stretch their horizons were naturally going to get itchy fins and want to explore the world above the water. It was a common enough story.

“Well, this is where the political aspect comes in,” Maurice began awkwardly. “I did mention that it was an extremely delicate matter in my message,” he added. “I trust that I can have your discretion in these dealings?”

“When it comes to dealing with the Dark One, dearie, trust is something you really shouldn’t give away,” Rumpelstiltskin said slyly. “Besides, we haven’t made a deal yet. You’ve told me what you want from me - in the vaguest of terms - but I’ve yet to receive anything in return for my not insubstantial services here.”

“What would the price be for finding my daughter?” Maurice asked. Yes, he was definitely desperate.

Rumpelstiltskin held up the green glass jar. “I’m out of kelp. I used up my last grains to get down here to see you, so I hope you’ll appreciate my need for more if I’m to assist you any further.”

“Of course, of course.”

Maurice motioned to one of the guards who had remained at the entrance to the stronghold and issued instructions for a large batch of prepared kelp to be brought. Rumpelstiltskin inspected the quality and gave a satisfactory nod. That would keep him going for a while now.

“So will you find my daughter?” Maurice pleaded.

“Yes, yes, I’ll locate your princess for you. But first, I’d really like to know what’s at stake if I should fail in my quest. You see, if the princess left of her own accord, then there’s no guarantee that she would want to come back, you see.”

Maurice sighed. “She’s probably run away to avoid her impending marriage.”

“I see. One of those situations.” Rumpelstiltskin shook his head. “When is the ceremony due to take place?”

“One week from now. Her betrothed is the heir to my neighbouring kingdom; they’re not yet aware that Belle is missing. The story of the scale merchants has been spread in case word of her disappearance spreads beyond our borders.”

“I see.” Rumpelstiltskin paused. “There’s more though, isn’t there. A jilted fiancée is certainly a diplomatic nightmare, but you’re genuinely afraid of the consequences should your dear Belle not be found. Yes.” Rumpelstiltskin looked around at his surroundings, wading in a very ungainly manner towards the table in the centre of the stronghold. There was no getting around it, although Maurice quickly swam around to try and intercept him. It was definitely a war table. Maurice and his mermen were preparing for some kind of conflict.

“I noticed that your kingdom was very dark on my way down,” he said casually. “Everyone in doors with the lights off, staying safe from any wayward attackers that might come as a pre-emptive strike. The waters are disturbed indicating recent violent activity on your boundaries. Unless I’m very much mistaken, you’re preparing for a war, Sir Maurice.”

Maurice sighed, sinking into his chair with an air of defeat.

“The other kingdoms have been circling for a while now,” he said. “The marriage arrangement between Belle and Gaston is a peace treaty. If she fails to honour it, then I dread to think what will happen to these waters.”

“I see.”

Things were becoming clearer in Rumpelstiltskin’s mind. An arranged marriage between two parties, neither of whom were likely to have had any say in the matter and one of whom had had the good sense to get out whilst they could. A marriage that, should it not go ahead, would quite likely doom Maurice’s small kingdom.

Why did people always think that marrying people off was the resolution to conflict?

“Tell me, Sir Maurice,” he began. “If you truly think that a union of your two kingdoms is the only way to prevent a war, why do you not marry this Gaston yourself, rather than forcing matrimony on your daughter?”

Maurice’s mouth opened and closed like a fish for a while, completely unable to think up a suitable response to Rumpelstiltskin’s taunt. As amusing as it was to watch him flounder, Rumpelstiltskin knew that his time was running out and he had no desire to use up any more of the precious kelp that he’d just received as payment in order to keep needling the lord.

“Is your daughter aware of the possible consequences for your kingdom should she fail to honour her marriage contract? From what I’ve heard of her already, she seems to have a sensible head on her shoulders so I am assuming not.”

Maurice shook his head. “No, Belle is not aware of the peace treaty tied into the betrothal contract.”

“I think that might have been a slight oversight on your part if you wanted to stop her running away,” Rumpelstiltskin pointed out. “Nevertheless, I will find your daughter. You have my word of that.”

“Thank you.”

Rumpelstiltskin grabbed his kelp jar and swam away from the coral. He really didn’t like dealing with the merpeople on their own territory; it was very hard to be graceful and intimidating when you had to wade through the place on legs that were not designed to work their best underwater, and he had no desire for the merfolk not to take him seriously because he looked ridiculous whenever he visited them.

He returned to the boat just as the effects of the kelp were beginning to wear off, and he looked down at his sodden clothing with distaste, drying himself off with a wave of his hand. It was hardly a trivial use of magic, he reasoned, since he didn’t want to catch his death of cold before he could get back to the Dark Castle. For a long time, he lay in the bottom of the boat, getting his breath back from the tiring swim up from Maurice’s lands.

Belle had left the stronghold to get away from her arranged marriage. If she had any sense, which, considering she’d decided to take matters into her own hands and escape the life that was being dictated to her and she’d left a note, she seemed to have, then she would have headed straight for the one place that Maurice would be very unlikely to follow her: land. Even inside the stronghold with no contact with the other waters, it would be hard to miss the signs of a society on edge and she wouldn’t have sought refuge in territory belonging to other underwater royalty.

Land was definitely her best bet. Rumpelstiltskin realised that he should have asked Maurice if she’d taken any kelp with her, and he was annoyed with himself that he hadn’t. Still, working on the principle that she had taken to land, it would be fairly easy to track her down. She couldn’t stay in a human form forever, so as soon as she made land, she would be looking for a body of water to get back to, a river or lake where she could lie low and stretch her fins.

The only problem, of course, was that there were quite a lot of rivers and lakes in the Enchanted Forest and he didn’t want to have to go and visit all of them.

Rumpelstiltskin directed the boat back towards the shoreline, still pondering how best to find where the runaway might have gone. If she didn’t want to be found, then she’d be staying inland as much as possible, so she’d probably be moving between lakes, rather than rivers that would eventually open out into the seas and allow merfolk to, if they had enough determination, swim upstream to get her. It was rare for them to leave the sea, preferring salt water to fresh, but considering the stakes, Maurice might make an exception if it meant getting his daughter back and forcing her into a peace treaty. Idly, Rumpelstiltskin wondered what Gaston thought of the arrangement, but he soon dismissed the notion. Gaston was not the one who had run away, therefore he was probably completely content to be suddenly thrust into matrimony with the conspicuously absent princess.

He reached the shore again and decided that it would be best to return to the Dark Castle before he began the next stage of his task. He was going to need a very large map.

She couldn’t have that much of a head start on him, although merfolk could move remarkably fast on land considering it wasn’t their primary habitat. Rumpelstiltskin thought that it must have something to do with the water pressure being so much heavier at the depths they usually lived at; by the time they got out into the open air they must feel so light they were in danger of floating away.

He sat back in his chair, looking at the large map of the Enchanted Forest that was spread out over the great hall table in front of him, large crosses marked through the lakes that he had already checked. He had begun near the coast and fanned out, coming further inland towards the mountains and the Dark Castle itself.

It would have been perfectly easy to find her with magic. All he would need would be an item of her possession and a simple lost and found potion that would direct him towards her. It could have been over in a matter of moments, and he might yet resort to that. For the moment though, he had no desire to return to the sea, and he thought that it might do Maurice good to sweat for a day or so. It served him right for using his daughter as a peace treaty without her knowledge.

He leaned forward and surveyed the map again, tracing his fingers over the lines of the rivers and the outlines of the lakes. There were areas at the edges of the map that had not been charted properly and it was possible that Belle had gone in that direction, but Rumpelstiltskin didn’t think it likely. She would want to stick to known areas for fear of running into something that she couldn’t handle, or of running out of water. He’d never known what happened to merfolk if they regained their fins whilst still on land without a nearby body of water to jump into, but he assumed that it wouldn’t be pleasant for them.

There had been no reports of a mermaid sighting near the sea, so she was obviously concealing herself well.

A sudden thought struck Rumpelstiltskin and he pin-pointed the exact area on the map where he believed he would find his runaway. A lake far away from communities that might recognise her as a mermaid and make enquiries; a place with the same cold and heavy water that could be found deep in the ocean where she lived, a home away from home where she could lie low for a while. It was quite a way from the sea, but if she’d managed to hop on a carriage travelling along any of the main trade routes, she could have made it in good time.

And if she had come out of the ocean with something in mind other than simply running away from her arranged marriage, then this would be the perfect place for her to come.

Rumpelstiltskin jumped out of his chair and grabbed his coat, heading out of the Dark Castle and through its grounds, down towards the lake at the very edge of the property. It was so wonderfully ironic that after being called in as a last resort by Maurice, Rumpelstiltskin would find his daughter practically on his doorstep.

Well, provided that his hunch was correct. As he neared the lake, there were no obvious signs of it being inhabited by a mermaid. Still, they were by nature underwater creatures. If she was comfortable in the depths then there was no reason why she shouldn’t be able to stay there for a very long time. It wasn’t as if she had to come up for air, after all.

Rumpelstiltskin sat down on the bank, the jar of kelp beside him. He really didn’t want to go for a swim to investigate his own lake. Maybe there was another way he could find out if Belle was there. There wasn’t all that much for merfolk to eat in the lake; she’d get rather bored of the same vegetation.

A small part of him kept needling, telling him that he had absolutely no proof that Belle had ended up in this particular lake of all the lakes that she could have ended up in. Technically he had no proof that she had even made land. It was just a hunch, one that so many years of deals and dealing with human nature - and indeed merfolk nature - had taught him not to ignore. If there was one thing that Rumpelstiltskin knew, it was people. If she came ashore, then Belle would be alone and she would, at some point, be desperate. Even the merfolk knew who to go to when they were desperate, as Maurice had just proved himself.

Rumpelstiltskin grabbed a pebble and skimmed it over the surface of the lake, watching it sink in the centre. If there was anything in the lake then perhaps he could annoy it into showing itself. Admittedly, throwing rocks into the depths might not be the most sensible of ideas considering that he had never been sure himself what was lurking in there, but he figured that a fireball to the face would deter even the most irate of water dwellers enough to buy him enough time to get away.

There was no sign of anything stirring in the depths, so he skimmed another pebble, watching it sink below the surface in the centre of the lake. Still no response, not even an angry fish. Rumpelstiltskin was privately beginning to lose a little faith in his theory that Belle had ended up in his own lake, although if asked he would never have admitted it, and he picked up a final pebble. Third time lucky. If there was no sign of any activity after this one, then he would give it up as a bad idea and return to the castle for stage two of the plan.

Before he could throw it, however, he noticed something in the middle of the lake. The top of a head and a pair of eyes were watching him from above the waterline. As soon as he looked over, however, they vanished below the surface again, leaving no ripples, no indication at all that the water had been disturbed. That was a disadvantage to dealing with merfolk. If they were in the water and he wasn’t, then they could sneak up on him unannounced with ease. At least there was no chance of him being snuck up on from behind, and with the pebble still in his hand, he focussed his gaze on the lake, trying to work out where the mermaid - provided that it was the mermaid he was expecting and not some other more sinister creature from the deep that he had managed to disturb with stone skimming - would pop up next.

He would admit to being rather alarmed when she surfaced silently right beside him, again only lifting her head out of the water enough to show her eyes, and he almost dropped the pebble on her head in surprise. Having let out an ungainly squawk of alarm, he shook himself, tossed the pebble over his shoulder and tried to pretend that the entire thing had never happened.

“Can I help you?” he asked politely.

The mermaid rose in the water a little, up to her scaly shoulders. If this was indeed the runaway princess, then Rumpelstiltskin could quite see why her father would want to get her back. She was very pretty, with long dark hair and blue eyes that matched the colour of the scattering of scales he could see over her skin. Yes, she would certainly make quite the catch for the person she had been betrothed to. Ironic really. Usually wars were started over beauty, not ended by it.

“I don’t know,” the mermaid said. It was definitely Belle, she shared the same accent as the others in Maurice’s kingdom. “I’ve come in search of the Dark One.”

Rumpelstiltskin jumped up to his feet and bowed low. “You have indeed found him. And who, may I ask, are you?”

Belle gave a little smile. “Names have power.”

“They certainly do.” He liked her already, not that he hadn’t felt a definite admiration for her ever since he had learned about her flit from the stronghold. She would certainly be interesting to match wits with.

“I get the feeling that you know my name already, though,” she said. “Since you knew I was here in the lake. Unless, of course, your dropping pebbles on my head was entirely random. Since you brought kelp with you, though, I’m not convinced.”

“You’re a shrewd one,” Rumpelstiltskin remarked. “It’s rare for me to find one of your kind who comes ashore to speak to me. You usually prefer to stay within your seas.”

“I think a lot of us are afraid of exploring the world of the land-dwellers,” Belle said, a cheeky grin on her face.

“But not you, Crown Princess Belle of the Marchlands Stronghold?”

“Not me, Rumpelstiltskin. I told you that you knew my name already.”

“And it appears that you know mine, as well.”

“Oh, I think more people know your name than you think.”

Rumpelstiltskin sat down on the bank again.

“So, what is it that you seek?” he asked. “We may as well get down to business, since we both know who we are. What is the deal you want to make?”

A permanent life on land, perhaps, to get her out of her betrothal. Can’t get married to a merman and live in the sea if you’re a human. It wouldn’t be the first time that merfolk had wanted to make such a deal, and he wondered if she fully accepted the consequences of a permanent change of species.

Belle shook her head. “I don’t want to make a deal.”

“No-one comes to see me without a deal in mind, dearie.”

“I don’t want a deal,” she pressed. “I want advice on how to get out of a deal, actually.”

Rumpelstiltskin chuckled. “Made a deal you didn’t understand, Princess?”

She glared at him, blue eyes narrowing, and there was steel in her voice when she spoke.

“I wasn’t the one who made the deal,” she said. “I’m just the one who has to live with it now that it’s been made.”

“I assume that you’re talking about your engagement to the no doubt dashing Gaston, prince of your father’s neighbouring kingdom.”

Belle scoffed. “‘Dashing’ is hardly the word that I would use. Boring, oafish, boastful and arrogant, yes. Dashing, definitely not.”

“I see. You’re opposed to the match.”

“I have no desire to get married to someone not of my choosing. I have even less desire to get married to Gaston, of all people. I’ve made my opinion of him perfectly clear to my father many times, and look where that got me.”

“Yes. Swimming in the Dark One’s lake trying desperately to get away from matrimony whilst your father spins unconvincing stories of your kidnap by scale merchants.”

Belle raised an eyebrow. “Is that really the rumour he’s spreading?”

“Oh yes.” Rumpelstiltskin leaned in a little closer. “I think you may, by now, have worked out how I know your name and your circumstances.”

“My father asked you to come and get me.”

“In a manner, yes.”

“I’m not going back.”

“I never said you had to.”

“My father made a deal with you.”

“Yes,” Rumpelstiltskin said levelly. “Your father made the deal. Not you. I am not in the habit of forcing young ladies to go to places against their will when they’ve made no deals to that effect.”

Belle’s eyes were still narrowed, sizing him up, testing his veracity and trying to work out if there were any loopholes in his words that would have him bundling her up into a sack and sending her back to the ocean at a moment’s notice. Seeming to have judged him to be benign, she pulled herself up onto the bank beside him, leaving her tail dangling in the water. There was a silver shimmer to the blue scales now that she was out of the water and he could see her better, and Rumpelstiltskin noticed that she had a delicate reed pouch tied around her waist. No doubt it held the kelp that she’d used to gain legs and get this far on land.

“Isn’t your deal with my father to retrieve the runaway daughter and return her, contrite, to face the rest of her miserable life under the sea?”

“No,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “That might be what your father wants, but if that’s what he expects, then he should have been more careful about how he worded his request.”

Belle looked at him, intrigued. “So what is the deal that you made with him?”

“I said that I would find you,” Rumpelstiltskin said.

“I still fail to see how that differs from my interpretation.”

“Well, from my point of view, my part of the deal is complete.” Rumpelstiltskin picked up the pebble that he had tossed aside and skimmed it over the surface of the lake. “I have found you. You’re right here. You can’t deny that you’ve been found.”

“No, I suppose I can’t.”

“If your father wanted me to find you and bring you back to the sea, then he really should have been more specific about that,” Rumpelstiltskin mused. “People so often forget the importance of wording.”

“So you’re not going to take me back?”

“No. I have found you. My task is complete. You’re free to do whatever you wish to do now. Whether you choose to go back of your own accord is another matter.”

“Considering that I came to you looking for advice on getting out of the arrangement, I’m hardly going to return to honour it of my own free will.”

“What about if I told you that the safety of your father’s kingdom is in danger if you don’t return to honour the marriage contract?”

“What?”

It was clear from her reaction that she had not known about this before. She was horror-stricken, looking back over her shoulder towards the open sea, many miles away now.

“I take it from this that you were not aware that your father has disguised a peace treaty with his neighbours as a marriage contract for you?”

“WHAT?”

Rumpelstiltskin had seen a lot in his many years in the Enchanted Forest and on excursions to other realms, but he didn’t think that he had ever seen anyone quite as incandescently furious as Belle was at that moment.

“I can’t believe… How could he… That’s blackmail!” She smacked Rumpelstiltskin on the arm with webbed hand and surprising strength. Rumpelstiltskin grabbed his arm, rubbing the sore spot, and he inched away from her in case she hit him again.

“Whatever happened to the old adage of ‘don’t shoot the messenger’,” he muttered.

“So you might not be tasked with actually returning me to my father but you’re going to make sure I go anyway!” Belle yelled.

“No-one is making you go anywhere,” Rumpelstiltskin pointed out.

“I can’t leave my people to be slaughtered because my father was stupid enough to write my hand in marriage into a peace treaty!”

“It is, as you say, your father’s stupidity, not yours.”

Belle just gave him an incredulous look. “You really don’t get it, do you? There are hundreds of merfolk in that kingdom and they’re going to suffer because of this. If the only way for me to prevent a war is to go back and get married, then that’s what I’m going to have to do, isn’t it? I can’t just leave them to go to war because I think that what I want is more important than their wellbeing.”

“You’re very willing to sacrifice your happiness to ensure that your father suffers no consequences for his actions,” Rumpelstiltskin observed.

“Are you even listening to me?” Belle exploded, and considering she was sitting down on the edge of the lake, her body language was still ferocious. Merfolk could move through water silently and without making any ripples; they were that in tune with their surroundings. Belle’s tail, however, was not just making ripples but huge great foaming waves that were disrupting the surface of the not insubstantial lake and splashing Rumpelstiltskin head to toe. “This isn’t about my father! I couldn’t care less whether he suffers for his actions or not! How many times do I have to tell you that there are innocent people down there! My father will stay holed up in the stronghold, he’s safe!”

She was so vehement and passionate in her defence of her people; it didn’t matter that a minute ago she had been vowing never to go back and fulfil the contract, now that she knew the dangers involved, she had put aside her own desires, determined to help her people no matter what. She’d make a good ruler; Rumpelstiltskin thought, before realising that if she was married off into Gaston’s family as a peace offering, she’d no longer be crown princess of Maurice’s realm and she’d never get the chance to lead people in her own right.

“Perhaps that’s not the only way that you can help your people and get your father out of the sticky situation that he’s managed to get himself into,” Rumpelstiltskin said. The more he thought about it, the more a plan began to form in his mind.

“How?”

“Well, we’ve already established that my deal with your father has been fulfilled,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “So any deal that you make with me yourself would not stand in opposition to that.”

“You want me to make a deal with you?”

“No-one comes to me without a deal in mind,” Rumpelstiltskin repeated. “It might not be the deal you originally came to make, but if you think hard enough, I’m sure that you can think of something. Just be careful with your wording.”

Belle was silent for a long time, looking out into the depths of the lake. Rumpelstiltskin wondered what she could see in there that he couldn’t see himself.

“What would you want from me?” she asked eventually. “I know that a deal requires give and take on both sides.”

“That would depend entirely on what you want from me,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “All magic comes with a price, and it’s not one that I pay lightly. The greater the magic, the more precious the payment I extract for it.”

“Can you prevent a war between my father and Gaston’s?”

Rumpelstiltskin tilted his head on one side, pondering the various different methods and outcomes he could employ. He’d stopped wars before in his time, indeed, he had been rather famous for it back in the time of the first ogre wars, but preventing one before it happened was far more difficult and a diplomatic nightmare.

“That depends,” he said. “You’re going to have to be a bit more specific.”

Belle rolled her eyes. “Is there a way for a peace treaty to be made that doesn’t involve me having to marry Gaston?”

Rumpelstiltskin snapped his fingers. “Now you’re talking. Peace treaty, no marriage. Yes, I think that can definitely be arranged.” He giggled, tapping his fingertips together. “Are you sure that you don’t want to come back to the sea to witness your father’s expression when I break the news to him?”

Belle shook her head. “No. I’d rather not tempt fate. Besides, we haven’t made the deal yet. You haven’t told me what you’d want from me in return for facilitating a peace treaty.”

“Well, no merperson can deny that their fin scales are extremely valuable to sorcerers like myself. And they’re far more potent when given willingly by the owner of the scales, rather than taken forcibly by scale merchants.”

Belle nodded slowly, still cautious. “How many do you want?”

“I am currently in need of five for particularly difficult potion,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “But if I were to require any more in the future, I would hope that I could call upon your assistance to provide them.”

Belle ran a hand over the smooth scales of her tail, bringing it completely out of the water and stretching it out on the bank.

“I supply you with scales as and when you need them, and in return, you facilitate a peace treaty between my father and Gaston’s.”

“Yes. But remember that the deal is open-ended, dearie. You would be agreeing to provide me with your scales forever.”

“So presumably, you would want me to stay close by.”

“Not necessarily,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “Just as long as I always knew where to find you.”

Belle shook her head. “I don’t think I would take kindly to being tracked like an animal.”

“In that case, you would have to stay here. You’re welcome to the lake, and if you want to explore the land, then there’s the kelp to give you legs for a while.”

Belle looked down at the jar, and out across the lake. It would certainly be different for her, stuck in a lake when before she’d had the entirety of the open sea.

“My people would all be safe?” she asked.

Rumpelstiltskin nodded. “You have my word.”

“Then you have mine. Five scales for your potion now, and whenever you need them in the future. You won’t track me, but I will always come back to the lake.”

“And how do I know that you won’t run off?” Rumpelstiltskin asked.

“I think the prospect of war back home is enough of a deterrent, don’t you?” Belle said icily. “If I have to trust your word, then I think you should trust mine.”

“I always keep my word,” Rumpelstiltskin said. He was almost offended; he thought that was one of the things about him that always preceded his reputation, but apparently not in this case.

“And I always keep mine, as long as it hasn’t been given for me.”

She opened the little reed pouch around her waist and took out a pearlescent knife made from a shard of oyster shell, and she very carefully prised five little scales off her fin. The skin below was pink, but it didn’t bleed. Rumpelstiltskin snapped his fingers to summon a vial for them, and she tipped them in, but did not give them to him, instead holding out an elegant webbed hand for him to shake.

He took it.

“The deal is struck.”

Belle handed over the vial with her fin scales and looked at him expectantly.

“So, are you going to do something about the peace treaty now?”

“In good time, my dear. There’s no threat imminent at the moment. I’ll head out later this evening; I’ve found that merfolk tend to be more agreeable to listening to reason once darkness falls.”

Belle thought about it and shrugged. “I guess we are.”

She placed the shell knife back in her little pouch and took out a small bag shaking out a couple of grains of kelp into her hand and swallowing them.

“What are you doing?” Rumpelstiltskin yelped.

“Well, you’ve got the scales you want for now, and if you’re not going to go out and see my father until the evening, then that leaves us with the entire rest of the day to occupy ourselves,” Belle said plainly. “If this is going to be the place where I’m based for the rest of forever, then I want to take a look around the place from slightly closer up than just looking at it from the lake, and since I have the ability to do that, I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”

“I suppose I can understand that,” Rumpelstiltskin began, but he gave a shrill squeak of alarm as Belle’s body began to transform, her tail splitting painlessly into legs and the scales that covered her receding into human skin. Very lovely, very bare human skin that she wasn’t showing any signs of feeling uncomfortable in. He quickly looked away, and he heard Belle chuckle as she got to her new feet.

“Honestly, Rumpelstiltskin, anyone would think that you’d never seen a naked woman before.”

“I…” He turned back to her indignantly, realised that she still didn’t have any clothes on and that now she was standing up he could see even more, and looked pointedly out over the lake.

“There’s usually a little bit more warning,” he muttered. Belle just laughed, light and musical, and he had to admit that it was the first time he had heard her sound carefree throughout their entire interaction. Before she had been wary, indignant and angry, but now that she had the assurance that her people were going to be safe, a different side of her could come out.

“You trust me,” Rumpelstiltskin stated.

“I know seven different ways to drown you slowly,” Belle replied blithely. “Not trusting you and not being scared of you are completely different things. I may not trust you yet, but I don’t fear you.”

“I can’t decide whether you’re very brave, or very foolish.”

“A bit of both,” Belle replied enigmatically. “You can turn around now, you know. I’m decent.”

Rumpelstiltskin duly turned around. Belle was wearing a short tunic made of a filmy, light-blue material that barely managed to scrape the definition of decent, but he was determined not to make a fool of himself in front of her again, not when she had proved to be such an interesting conversation partner. She was definitely going to start laughing at him soon.

“Where did that come from?” he asked. Belle tapped her reed pouch.

“It’s sea silk,” she said. “It folds up very small.”

With that, she started picking her way away from the lake, up towards the dark castle, and Rumpelstiltskin scrabbled to keep up with her. She was very confident on her legs considering she hadn’t had all that much practice on them yet, but there was the occasional wobble in her ankles when she put her foot down, and Rumpelstiltskin found himself darting out to catch her elbow whenever that happened. The first time she snatched her arm away, but the second time she let him guide her.

“I think it’s down to the lack of shoes,” Rumpelstiltskin said sagely, although he knew that it was nothing of the sort and he knew that they both knew that, but Belle just gave a huff of laughter. “I’ll get you some if you like, if you’re planning on making more trips on land.”

Belle opened her mouth as if she was going to protest, then shut it again and gave a slow nod.

“I think I’d like that,” she said eventually.

They spent the rest of the day going around the castle and the grounds, until Belle had to return to the water and the sun began to set, and Rumpelstiltskin knew that it was time for him to go and fulfil his end of the deal that he had struck with her. Taking the jar of kelp with him, he made his way back to the shoreline and stepped into the same boat that he had taken out into the deep waters before when he had made his first trip to Maurice’s kingdom.

It was just as dark and murky as it had been before, and the tension in the disturbed waters was even more palpable than it had been previously. Rumpelstiltskin smiled to himself slyly, if things had escalated so much, then Maurice would be eager to agree to his proposal. And as like as not, so would his expansionist neighbours once Rumpelstiltskin had put his plan into action.

He reached the stronghold and the guards let him through without question this time. Maurice was pacing the room, in as much as a merman could pace, casting glances over at the war table every few moments.

“Well?” he said anxiously once he saw Rumpelstiltskin approaching. The Dark One bowed; he was really going to have to practice bowing underwater if he was going to get many more calls from the merfolk to solve their problems.

“I have found your daughter,” he said.

Maurice gave a visible sigh of relief, but then his brow furrowed as he looked around.

“Where is she, then?”

“Oh, she’s not here,” Rumpelstiltskin said flippantly. “She’s inland, she’s found herself a nice little lake to live in.”

“We made a deal!” Maurice exclaimed. “You said that you would find her!”

“And I did find her,” Rumpelstiltskin pointed out. “I found her in a lake. As far as I’m concerned, the deal is fulfilled. You asked me to find your daughter and I did just that. No mention was made of me bringing her back here to you. You ought to have been more specific.”

“Can you bring her back?” Maurice asked desperately. “If you want to make a new deal then we can give you more kelp.”

Rumpelstiltskin wrinkled his nose. “No, I think I have more than enough kelp to see me through for a while thank you. And besides, I have already made another deal, and I do believe that any deal you make with me will negate the one already made. It’s a first come, first served system, dearie.”

“What other deal?” Maurice asked. “Do you even understand the precarious position that you’ve put me in here by returning without her?”

“I rather think that you put yourself in this position actually, Maurice,” Rumpelstiltskin said. There was a hard edge in his voice now, and Maurice noticed it immediately. This was no longer the trickster speaking, but the maker of hard and fast deals that no-one dared to try and get out of. The merman didn’t try and argue the point, and Rumpelstiltskin continued.

“I have made a new deal with your daughter.”

“She’s betrothed to Gaston!”

Rumpelstiltskin rolled his eyes. “Not that kind of deal, dearie. Honestly, heads in the gutter, the lot of you. I can assure you that marriage is not on my list of priorities at the moment. No, your daughter, who, I might add, has far more common sense than you do, has made a deal that will ensure your and your people’s safety, so I would be grateful to her if I were you. Gratitude doesn’t usually take the form of making someone marry someone else against their will as part of a giant political cover-up.”

Maurice looked abashed. “So what do you receive in return for this peace?”

Rumpelstiltskin tutted, wagging a finger at him. “You don’t get to know the ins and outs of someone else’s deal, dearie. Now, since the choppy waters around signal that time is of the essence, shall we hammer out the details of a peace treaty that doesn’t revolve around matrimony?”

He clapped his hands together and instantly the seas around the stronghold became much calmer than they had been before. The guards who had been on duty at the entrance looked down at their empty hands which had, until a moment ago, been holding long, sharp spears.

“Instant disarmament is one of the best ways of resolving conflict, don’t you agree?” Rumpelstiltskin asked Maurice benignly. “So much less bloodshed and shouting involved. Now, just one more piece of the puzzle missing.”

He snapped his fingers and another merman appeared in the stronghold, completely disorientated and looking rather distracted. This must have been Gaston’s father and the other participant in the ongoing aggressions. The two merfolk looked at each other, then at Rumpelstiltskin, then at the war table.

“Well go on then,” Rumpelstiltskin said impatiently. “Are we going to negotiate a peace treaty or aren’t we? I’d like to make at least some progress before this kelp runs out and I have to report back to Belle that her father failed miserably at basic diplomacy.”

Maurice and Gaston’s father both looked rather cowed, and within a few minutes, discussions had started in earnest. Rumpelstiltskin gave a satisfied smile. It never ceased to please him just how much could be accomplished by sheer audacity.

He turned to leave, confident that even if an agreement wasn’t reached today, then the lack of armaments on both sides would keep the peace until it could be reached permanently, and Maurice came over to him.

“Wait, Dark One, before you go…” He was still looking sheepish. “Is Belle all right? Is she going to come home?”

Rumpelstiltskin considered the question.

“I leave that entirely up to her,” he said. “Although, I must admit that her reaction when I told her just what was at stake and how you’d managed to place the entire fate of the kingdom on her head without her knowing it, well, it was a beautiful thing to behold. To be honest, I think it might be better all round if she doesn’t come back for a while, Maurice. She certainly doesn’t seem to be in a forgiving mood right now.”

Maurice’s shoulders slumped, and he went back to the table where discussions were still underway. Rumpelstiltskin left the stronghold. Belle would be free to come back to her father if she wished, as long as she still upheld her end of the deal and provided him with the scales he needed when he needed them, but he got the impression that she would not be returning for some time. She had already made no secret of her desire to explore, and there was a lot of world out there to be explored. She was headstrong and independent enough to survive out there, and she always had the Dark Castle lake to come back to as a base. If she had the sense to run away from her marriage and follow her own path, then she would definitely be fine on her extended adventure now she had the opportunity to truly follow it.

Rumpelstiltskin was surprised when he returned to the Dark Castle to find Belle inside it, sitting on the table in the main hall swinging her legs, and he tried and failed miserably to show it.

“How did you get in here?” he exclaimed.

Belle shrugged. “For an all-powerful sorcerer you really don’t have any concept of locks. Anyone can walk in.”

“No they…” Rumpelstiltskin tailed off. The castle was enchanted not to admit intruders whilst he was away from it, but since he had effectively made the castle and its grounds into Belle’s new home, it recognised her as a resident and would let her in as and when she chose.

“So,” she continued, her voice expectant. “Were you successful?”

Rumpelstiltskin nodded. “As promised, your father and the rest of your people are safe.”

She smiled widely, jumping off the table and making her way towards the doors.

“Thank you. I guess I’ll see you around, Rumpelstiltskin.”

She darted in and pecked a kiss of gratitude against his cheek, and Rumpelstiltskin could only stand there, dumbfounded, as she slipped past him, out into the grounds and back down towards the lake.

It was definitely the beginning of something. Rumpelstiltskin wasn’t quite sure what it was yet, and he wasn’t altogether sure that he liked it, but he knew that with the introduction of Belle into his life, things were going to be very different.

The first thing that Rumpelstiltskin noticed was how much time Belle spent inside the castle. She always went back to the lake at sundown to rest her tail and sleep in the depths, but more often than not, he would find her inside at some point during the day, either investigating all the human nicknacks that he owned, or stealing cookies from the kitchen. He was beginning to regret introducing her to human foodstuffs, but he had been correct in thinking that lake vegetation wasn’t going to sustain her forever. He wouldn’t have minded as much if she hadn’t decided that his favourite cookies were also her favourite cookies, and she kept taking the last one.

He had completely underestimated the merfolk’s capacity for enjoying the sweet treats that were unavailable to them under the water, and he accepted that he was going to have to stock up on cookies for the foreseeable future.

All in all, though, disappearing food aside, Rumpelstiltskin quite enjoyed having Belle around the place, and she had proved useful to him in more ways than simply providing the odd fin scale for his potions. Her knowledge of the underwater world and all the magics that were in place there far outstripped his own, and all the various legends - true and otherwise - of powerful sea witches that Rumpelstiltskin might want to form alliances were very good to know should the need to take sides ever arise.

He had become so used to catching glimpses of her around the place that when he didn’t see her for a couple of days, he began to get worried. He knew that he shouldn’t really worry too much, after all, he had told her that she could leave the castle grounds as long as she always returned to the lake, and it was perfectly natural that she would want to explore the wider world. Still, he wondered if perhaps the reason was because she had run out of kelp. With her being out of the water so often, she must have been eating up her supply pretty quickly.

Rumpelstiltskin looked over at the glass jar that held his own stash, and sighed. It was a precious commodity and he really shouldn’t be sharing it when he had no idea where his next deal might come from or where he might be required to go with it, but at the same time, he had to admit to himself that he missed Belle. Maybe it was time for him to go and visit her in her underwater domain for once, rather than them only ever meeting on dry land.

Taking the jar with him, Rumpelstiltskin made his way down towards the lake, getting halfway there before turning back and going to retrieve the cookie jar as well. She couldn’t very well eat the cookies under the water, but perhaps he could persuade her to sit on the bank with him for a while. He missed the little conversations they had, sharing details of life on land and under the water and getting to know each other’s cultures and stories.

He reached the lake and settled on the bank, and in an impulsive move, he took his boots off and dabbled his toes in the water. It was cool and refreshing, and for a while he could well see why Belle had agreed to stay in the lake. The scenery was beautiful, and he didn’t take as much time to appreciate it as he always used to.

“Oh, hello there.” Belle’s head had popped up from below the surface a few feet away from him and she looked surprised to see him there. “I wasn’t expecting you to come down here, Rumpel. What brings you to my humble lake?”

“Technically it’s my lake,” Rumpelstiltskin protested. “And I don’t think it’s at all humble, thank you very much.”

Belle just giggled. “You haven’t answered my question. Were you missing me?”

“Of course not!” Rumpelstiltskin was incredibly flustered; he’d only just managed to admit to himself that he missed her, he couldn’t be admitting it to her as well. “It’s actually been very quiet and peaceful without you sneaking around the castle knocking over the suits of armour.”

“That was one time! I didn’t know that it was going to move on its own. Naturally, I was startled!”

“Excuses, excuses. Anyway, I haven’t missed you stealing all my cookies.”

“Is that why you brought the cookie jar with you?” Belle asked, eyeing the treats. “Getting withdrawal symptoms of having all your cookies stolen?”

“No, I was more concerned that you might be having withdrawal symptoms having gone for two days without any sugar, considering the amount that you’ve been eating over the past few weeks.”

Belle laughed, but nevertheless, she pulled herself up onto the bank beside him and snaffled a cookie, nibbling it delicately.

“So…” Rumpelstiltskin began, creating ripples in the water with his feet as he tried to phrase his question casually. “What adventures have you been on these past few days whilst you haven’t been eating my cookies?”

“Oh, I haven’t been anywhere,” Belle said. “I’ve been right here in the lake the entire time. I guess I must have lost track of the days. I’ve been busy working on a new project.”

Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow. “A new project?”

“Yes.” Belle finished her cookie and grabbed the kelp jar, holding it out to him. “Come and see.”

“Can’t you show me from here?”

Belle rolled her eyes. “No, or else I would have done so. Come on, it’s not like there’s anything in the lake that’s going to eat you. I’ve spent enough time in here to have worked that out.”

“You might eat me,” Rumpelstiltskin protested, and Belle just shot him a look.

“I’ve been living here for months and you haven’t noticed that merfolk are vegetarians?”

“You might be the exception that proves the rule!”

It was a stupid argument, one that wasn’t really an argument but just an excuse to needle each other in the easy way that they had developed over the past weeks of interactions in the castle.

“Just come on,” Belle said, sliding back down into the water and holding out a hand to him. “You’ll want to see this, I promise.”

Not entirely convinced, Rumpelstiltskin nonetheless swallowed a grain of kelp and jumped into the water after Belle.

The water in the lake was much clearer and nowhere near as deep as the open sea had been, and it was easy to see where Belle made her home, on the lake bed in a little alcove decorated with pebbles and shells and some other implements that he recognised as having been taken from the Dark Castle, and it was cushioned with reeds and other plants from the lake. She’d certainly made it her own, and it made Rumpelstiltskin smile to see how she had accepted this as her home and made it into her place.

“Do you like it?” Belle asked.

He nodded. “It’s very you.” It did remind him of her, with the eclectic collection of pretty things that she had found on her expeditions around the castle and grounds.

“I’m glad you approve of my redecorating. But that’s not what I brought you down here to see. Come on, it’s not too much further.”

They continued to swim along the lake bed, away from Belle’s home, and then Rumpelstiltskin saw what he was supposed to see.

Belle had created a little underwater garden, dividing the sandy lake bed up into squares with various little sprouts poking out.

“I thought that this might be of particular interest to you,” she said, pointing out some bright green shoots in one corner. “Soon you’ll have as much kelp as you need, without having to make deals with the other merfolk to get it.”

Rumpelstiltskin just gazed at her handiwork for a while. He would see why it had taken her away from the castle for a couple of days.

“It’s wonderful, Belle,” he said.

She beamed. “I’m glad you like it. I’ve got water vervain and willowreed as well, and soon there’ll be lilies. The seaweed didn’t take, it needs salt water.”

“Where did you get all these sprouts?” Rumpelstiltskin asked.

“I brought them with me,” Belle said simply. “I didn’t know where I might end up when I left home, so I decided to bring a little bit of home with me, so that wherever I made my new home, I would always have a little part of my old one to remind me.” She paused, and she looked over at Rumpelstiltskin with a smile that was a little shyer than usual. “I’m glad that my home ended up being here with you.”

“You don’t want to go back to the sea? To your father?”

She shook her head. “I’ll go back and visit him, at some point. When I’m not quite as angry with him. But really, I don’t think I’ve ever had any desire to stay in the sea. I’ve spent most of my life in the stronghold and there’s so much more world out here to discover. I’d rather stay here in the lake and use it as my base for exploring the rest of the world.”

“So, you’re happy here? With me?”

Belle nodded. “Yes. I would say I was happy. What about you? Are you happy with a mermaid living in your lake and stealing all your cookies?”

“Maybe not the cookies.”

“But you enjoy the company?”

The trouble with being in the water and significantly less mobile than the mermaid who was designed to be in the water was that he couldn’t really gracefully get away from her. Every time he tried to avoid the question, she simply swirled up through the water beside him again.

“It’s a big castle for just one person,” she said sagely. “You know, I think that when you made that deal to get me to stay here, you were lonely.”

“Having company has been… pleasant,” Rumpelstiltskin admitted. He didn’t have his own loneliness in mind when he had first made the deal, but now that he thought about it, he had grown to enjoy Belle’s company more and more, to the point where he had sought her out in the lake in order to enjoy her company again.

Belle smiled, and she brought one hand up to touch Rumpelstiltskin’s face. The feathery webbing between her fingers tickled his skin, but he didn’t flinch away. Here in the cool water, her usually cold hands felt warm to the touch, and he was still marvelling at the change when her lips pressed against his, a little tentative, with the air of just seizing the moment and going for it.

He returned the kiss readily. He hadn’t even realised until this moment just how much he had wanted to kiss her, but as he did, everything began to fall into place. He had been falling in love with her, and he either hadn’t noticed or had subconsciously pushed the thought to the back of his mind. It was impossible. They were two entirely different species, for a start.

But they were still kissing, and Belle’s arms were around his neck, pulling him closer, and he found himself kissing his way down over her jaw and neck, feeling the texture of the light scattering of scales on her skin against his lips. It couldn’t work, and yet he really didn’t want to stop kissing her.

Eventually he pulled away, as much as he could with Belle’s arms still around him, and he shook his head.

“Belle, I, you, us… We can’t.”

“Why not?” Belle asked. “If we both feel this way, which I think we do, then why can’t we do this?”

“I’m a human.” Rumpelstiltskin looked down at himself and his own strange skin. “Well, as good as one. You’re a mermaid. We’re slightly biologically incompatible for a start. We live in different worlds. You’re meant for water. I’m meant for land. We could hardly have a life together.”

“Isn’t what we have already a life together?” Belle asked. “We don’t have to spend every moment of time together to know how we feel about each other.”

It was a very good point. Despite their differences, they still spent time together, both in the castle and out here in the lake. There was some adaptation involved, and a lot of kelp, but soon, thanks to Belle’s garden, they would have a steady supply of that, and it would help them to live in each others’ worlds together.

“You’re right,” he said. He wished he didn’t sound so surprised by the fact, but he was more surprised with himself for not seeing it rather then with Belle for suggesting it in the first place.

“And as for biological incompatibility, well, I think I might have a solution for that,” Belle continued.

Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

Belle shook her head. “Not yet. In a little while. Let’s not move too quickly.”

Rumpelstiltskin had to agree. It was a revelation in itself, there was no need to complicate things any further by moving through the stages of this brand new relationship at a breakneck pace. It was probably best to let them get used to the idea of being together and the logical challenges that they would face before becoming more intimate. Although, the thought that they would become intimate at some point in the future stirred a little frisson of excitement in Rumpelstiltskin’s veins, one that he had not felt for a very long time. The very possibility of finding love again, even in these most unusual of circumstances, was new to him, and whilst he couldn’t help thinking that everything would go horribly wrong like it had done in his previous relationships, the fact that Belle seemed so confident about their ability to adapt gave him a little bit of hope that perhaps wouldn’t have been there previously.

She was certain that they could work things out, and he already knew how headstrong and determined she could be. If she thought that they could make this relationship work, then they would be able to make this relationship work.

He kissed her again, and Belle welcomed him readily, and they stayed locked in their underwater embrace until Rumpelstiltskin felt the effects of the kelp wearing off, and he had to return to the surface. Belle followed him up.

“I’ll see you in the castle tomorrow?” he asked as he pulled himself out onto the shore, waving a hand to dry off his clothes.

Belle smiled.

“Of course. I wouldn’t want to miss my daily dose of cookies, after all.”

Rumpelstiltskin rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, disappearing the jars he’d brought with him back to their respective homes.

“Good night, Belle.”

“Good night, Rumpel.”

There wasn’t too much change to their routines after that momentous decision was made. They would still meet up in the castle, or Rumpelstiltskin would go down to the lake, and they would still spend that time together when Rumpelstiltskin wasn’t out dealing, but now there was far more kissing involved, and far more hugs and gentle touches now that their feelings were out in the open and being explored to their fullest potential.

Although he was more than happy to wait until Belle was ready to move their relationship forward, Rumpelstiltskin still found himself wondering precisely how it was going to work. He loved Belle, he loved kissing her, and he wanted to make love to her, but the logistics of it seemed to be impossible to reconcile.

True enough, when Belle was out of the water, she had legs and all the necessary bits between them, like any normal human woman had. After all, he had seen her naked human form when they had met that first time. The issue was that it was not Belle’s true form, and he didn’t want the experience to be strange or in any way lesser for her because she was not in her natural form, especially as he knew that this would be her first experience and he wanted to make sure that it was a good one for her.

Merfolk were not meant to keep their legs for a long period of time, just as humans were not supposed to remain underwater for extended lengths. It seemed that having a satisfactory intimate relationship would be completely impossible.

He didn’t mind if their relationship remained celibate. There were many other ways for them to express their feelings for each other without the need for anything of that sort, but he couldn’t help noticing that there was a brightness in Belle’s eyes, and in addition to the cookies, some of the Dark Castle library had been going missing, turning up a couple of days later with slightly damp-stained edges. Belle had been consulting various works, and looking at the books that she had been consulting, she definitely seemed to be interested in pursuing further passions than they already shared.

There wasn’t anything particularly special about the day that it happened. They had been sitting in the main hall, taking tea together, Belle sitting on the table as was her habit. She liked to swing her legs as they talked, and Rumpelstiltskin realised that it was the same motion that she moved her tail in when she was sitting on the banks of the lake. One thing led to another, and before Rumpelstiltskin could protest, Belle had dropped off the table into his lap, her arms around his neck and her mouth on his, her kiss deep and fierce and possessive. Rumpelstiltskin could only melt into it, pulling her in close and opening his mouth readily for her. There was a cheeky little smile on her face as she broke away.

“I think I’m ready now,” she said.

“Ready for what?” Rumpelstiltskin asked. He was still a little stunned from the force of the kiss, so he thought that he could be forgiven for being somewhat slow on the uptake.

“To show you how the biological differences between our species shouldn’t be a problem.” Belle slipped off his lap and held out a hand to him. “Are you coming?” She paused. “I know that we could do it here, in your bed, and maybe we can do that next time.”

Next time? They hadn’t even had a first time and Belle was already thinking about a next time. Somehow that made the pressure just a little bit more present.

“I just think that it’ll be better in the water,” she continued.

Rumpelstiltskin gave a slow nod, and took Belle’s hand, letting her pull him up out of his chair and lead him out of the castle, down towards the lake. The sun was high in the sky in a clear afternoon, and the surface of the water was perfectly calm as it glittered in the light.

Rumpelstiltskin came to a sudden realisation and turned back towards the castle.

“I forgot to bring the kelp.”

“You won’t need it,” Belle said. “We’ll stay in the shallows, you won’t need to go underwater.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m very sure, Rumpel. I don’t think I’ve ever been more sure of anything in my life.”

They had reached the bank, and Belle toed off her shoes before slipping out of the sea silk tunic that she wore when she was on land. Rumpelstiltskin had gifted her a few more items of clothing to wear whilst she was out and about exploring the human world, but she always tended to come back to the simple tunic whilst she was around the castle and its grounds.

Her human form was lovely, and she turned to him without any degree of embarrassment. Now that Rumpelstiltskin could look at her at leisure and up close, he could see the faint silvery lines marking her skin which showed where her tail and the other scaled patches on her body would normally begin. It gave her beauty an otherworldly feel, and reminded him that Belle was so much more than a human in that moment. She giggled, watching him gawp at her unashamedly, then reached out to begin undoing the buttons on his waistcoat.

“Now, I’ll admit that I don’t know quite as much about human courtship rituals as I do about those of my own people, but I have read enough to know that you’re wearing far too many clothes for this, Rumpel. I really think you’ll be more comfortable if you take them all off.”

Dumbstruck by her confidence but nonetheless incredibly aroused by it, Rumpelstiltskin let Belle undress him, her fingers working his buttons deftly and his waistcoat and shirt swiftly being discarded. She fumbled on the lacings of his trousers; sometimes he forgot that she was used to having webbing between her fingers and they were not as flexible as they might otherwise have been, and he used a touch of magic to divest himself of the rest of his clothing. His cock was half-hard already, and Belle running a featherlight finger along his length had him twitching eagerly, ready for whatever might come next.

“Come on in,” Belle said. She slipped down into the water, scales shimmering over her body and her tail forming almost as soon as she entered the lake, but she kept her head above water, paddling until Rumpel was in the water as well, crouching in the shallows, the water up to his chin. The cool water was a nice contrast to the warm sun, and he didn’t think that Belle could have picked a better time or place for their first time together.

Before he knew it, Belle was back in his arms, kissing him with a passion that promised much more of the same to come. Her hand came back down to his cock, and the delicate touch of the light webbing on her hands was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. Rumpelstiltskin threw his head back with a groan; if she kept this up then he was never going to last long enough for them to get anything done, however Belle was going to do it.

“Belle,” he gasped. “Belle, my love, how are we going to do this?”

“Have you never wondered how merfolk make love to each other?” Belle asked.

The question brought him up short, because he had never given it any thought at all, and he couldn’t see why he hadn’t thought about it. It was certainly true that both male and female merfolk had tails and no visible genitalia, but he’d focussed so much on the logistical problems caused by him being a human and Belle being a mermaid that he hadn’t given any thought to how Belle might interact in this way with her own kind.

“No,” he said. Belle gave him a little smile.

“Don’t go anywhere,” she said.

With that, she dived under the water, and was soon gone from sight, down into the depths of the lake. Rumpelstiltskin wondered what on earth she could be doing down there, but then she was back, a few strands of bright green vegetation in her hand. Rumpelstiltskin recognised it for what it was; fresh kelp pulled straight from her lake bed garden.

“I don’t suppose you’ve noticed that when we take kelp to get legs, we always wait until we’re out of the water before we take it, have you?”

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head.

“It has a slightly different effect when we use it underwater,” Belle said. “There’s a reason why it’s such a staple commodity in merfolk communities. No matter where you go in the seas, there will always be a constant crop of fresh kelp growing.”

She sank beneath the surface again and through the clear water, Rumpelstiltskin saw her swallow the kelp.

The change was gradual at first, and he didn’t really notice it, but then it became clear that something was happening to Belle’s tail. Rumpelstiltskin took a deep breath and ducked his head under the water so that he could see better, and he almost gasped and choked at what he saw.

Belle’s legs were forming from her tail, just as they had done on land, but they were still scaled like her tail was, with fins instead of feet. He had to come up for air, but everything was falling into place now.

Belle surfaced again, and came in to kiss him deeply, wrapping her arms and fins around him. Rumpel chanced to skim his hands down her scaled sides and dip between them, finding Belle’s sex, a strange mixture of smooth and scales but ultimately a familiar shape. She gave a moan of arousal as he touched her, running his fingers along her folds and finding her entrance, dipping inside to find her warm and slippery.

“Oh Belle,” he breathed, kissing along her neck and shoulder. “You’re exquisite.”

“So are you,” Belle replied. Rumpelstiltskin was half-tempted not to believe her, he knew what he looked like and the water wasn’t doing anything to obscure that, but the wonder in her voice was genuine, and the compliment stoked the fire that was already running through his veins. He kissed his way back up to her mouth and she captured his lips once more, her hands coming down to his hips beneath the water. She was rutting up against his hand, and Rumpelstiltskin shifted in the water to keep his balance and be able to keep touching her. Aside from the texture of her skin, she was formed in just the same way as a human woman, and as he rubbed his thumb over her swollen clit, the little gasp she gave made him certain that she was feeling all the same sensations as a human.

“Is that good?” he asked, wanting to make absolutely sure. “Do you like that?”

“Oh yes, Rumpel, yes. I like that a lot. Do it again, please.”

He rubbed her pearl again, and Belle moaned, her fingertips digging into him, and her fins quivering on either side of his body. He pushed a finger up inside her channel, continuing to rub her. She was still so slick and slippery inside, despite all the water around them; it must be an adaptational quirk, and it was one that he was very grateful for. Belle moaned again, her forehead dropping down against his shoulder as he kept on touching her, and he guessed that she must be getting close.

“Feels good,” she panted, “feels so good, please don’t stop, please, Rumpel, please.”

“Whatever you want, my love.” Rumpelstiltskin pressed another finger up inside her and Belle keened, her hips rolling and the edges of her fins creating ripples in the water as she moved.

He felt the moment that she came, clutching at his fingers and squealing with delight as she rode out the high. For a while after he pulled out he just rubbed at her gently, and Belle panted against his shoulder.

“You know, I’ve been reading about this, but nothing really prepares you for the real thing,” she murmured.

Rumpelstiltskin gave a huff of laughter. “No, I suppose it doesn’t.”

She stayed flopped against him, safe in his arms, for a few more minutes, but then one hand trailed down his chest towards his cock, stroking him back to full hardness again.

“Feels good?” she asked. Rumpelstiltskin nodded, speechless, biting his tongue to try and stop him coming there and then in her hand. The texture of her skin, the light scaling and the delicate webbing, really was something else, unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

“That feels very good,” he said.

“Do you think that it would feel better inside?” Belle asked. There was a cheekiness to her voice, but when Rumpelstiltskin finally managed to open his eyes and look at her, there was a little blush rising in her usually pale face, a touch of pink behind the smattering of blue scales there, and she was biting her lip.

“If you want to, then I am sure that would feel heavenly,” he said.

Belle nodded, wrapping her fins around his body again and letting him take the lead, grabbing his cock and lining them up.

She did feel heavenly; hot and tight and slick all around him. With the buoyancy of the water, he didn’t have all that much leverage to thrust, and he held onto her hips.

“You move, sweetheart. You set the pace.”

Belle nodded, her hips beginning to roll a little, and Rumpelstiltskin closed his eyes. He didn’t think that he had ever been this close to a woman when they’d been intimate before, either physically or emotionally. Belle was clinging to him like a limpet, her arms and fins wound tightly around his body and her face buried in his neck, pecking messy little butterfly kisses to his skin, and he never wanted her to let go of him.

Her pace was slow, staying at a level where she was comfortable with him inside her, and Rumpelstiltskin could feel his orgasm building in the depths of his belly, everything so achingly drawn out and languid, like the sweetest torture imaginable. He was so very close, teetering on the edge and desperate for release but at the same time never wanting it to end.

“Belle!”

It did end, though, with both of them holding onto each other so tightly it was a miracle that they were able to let go. Neither of them spoke; there wasn’t anything to be said that couldn’t be conveyed with kisses and caresses at that moment. At length Belle unwound her fins, and Rumpelstiltskin slipped his softening cock out of her, and he noticed that her tail was beginning to reform into a single fin.

“I guess that’s definitely one way to overcome the biological incompatibilities,” he said eventually, and he felt Belle smile against his skin where she was curled up against his chest.

“I told you that there was a solution,” she murmured.

“You did indeed.”

“And it’s not the only solution,” she said. “Now that we’ve done it once, I think there might be all kinds of creative solutions that we can try. The books you have in your library are very informative, and there are several things I’d be interested in adapting to our particular situation.” One hand snaked back down to his cock again. “I imagine it must be quite the sensation to be kissed down there by a woman who doesn’t need to come up for air.”

Rumpelstiltskin gulped at the prospect of Belle using her mouth on him, and underwater no less. It was certainly something that he wasn’t going to say no to if she decided that she wanted to try it. He wondered if he could return the favour; there was nothing to say that they both couldn’t take some kelp and enjoy themselves in the depths of the lake.

In fact, the more he thought about it, the more the wealth of opportunities that their unique situation gave them presented itself. Instead of limiting them, it would give them all kinds of things to explore that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to if Belle had been a human.

It was with a little reluctance that he had to extricate himself from Belle’s arms and get out of the water for fear of turning into a prune, but the sly little smile on Belle’s face as he knelt on the bank to kiss her au revoir told him that as soon as she had recovered, she would be following him into the Dark Castle to continue their exploration.

Despite the rather unusual start to their acquaintance, and despite the undeniable difference in their species, Rumpelstiltskin knew that the love they shared was genuine, and it was one that they were going to enjoy for a long time to come.

#may day menagerie #avatoh #rumbelle fic #maydaymenagerie #rumbelle #Rumpelstiltskin #Belle French #mermaid!Belle

52 notes · View notes