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They had met in college, and it felt like just yesterday that he watched her study in the library. She would nibble on her bottom lip and twirl her auburn strands between her fingers, and he’d found her intoxicating at first sight. It took him months to get up the nerve to talk to her for the first time, and if it weren’t for her bold nature it would have taken twice as long for him to kiss her. She’d been the one to make the first move, sensing his shy nature. He’d been so grateful to her for that.
Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Academy for the Gifted was the most prestigious magical college in the world. He’d come from money and she from hard work, but both of them cherished every moment at the school that had brought them together. Belle was good at everything she tried and no challenge was impossible. Rumple, on the other hand, had more troubles than he could count. He would never have made it to where he was without her.
It was Belle who helped him find his passion in potions. She encouraged him and supported him in a way that no one in his life ever had before. They graduated with the world at their feet, but she was the only one that mattered to Rumplestiltskin. She was the only person he cared about and the only person whose opinion he valued. They quickly rose in their respective fields, she as a spell writer and he as a potion master.
When the time came for him to propose, he wanted everything to be perfection. In true Rumplestiltskin style, it was anything but. They missed their reservation, he stepped on her feet when he took her dancing, and the flowers he’d enchanted to shine like stars in the sky wilted before their eyes. But when he was ready to give up, Belle did what she always did– she encouraged him and lifted him up. The night may not have been perfect, but the moment he knelt down on one knee had been.
She’d been the most beautiful bride there had ever been, and though her father hadn’t always approved of their relationship he helped make Belle’s special day just that– special. Truth be told, he didn’t remember most of the wedding. All he remembered was the way she looked in the brilliantly white dress. At the reception he couldn’t keep his eyes, hands, or lips off of his beautiful bride. What need had he of anyone else when he already held Heaven in his arms?
Their life together was more than he could ever have hoped for. She was the best wife any man ever had, and was on the fast road to being the best mother as well. At least, that’s what they’d thought. Along with all of the beautiful light in their lives there was bound to be a shadow of darkness. After they found out that Belle couldn’t have children she was inconsolable. Rumple did his best to bring her from the darkness, but nothing he did brought her out into the light.
Her depression got so bad that he had taken to making her potions to help her mood brighten and help her to sleep and slipping them into her tea. It took some time and some coaxing, but eventually he got the old Belle back, but shortly after he would lose her once more.
When you live such a magical and enchanted life, you never imagine that your death will be anything other than extraordinary. A car accident is certainly not something you would imagine.
Rumplestiltskin lost his darling Belle to a drunk driver. He’d never thought of what the world would be like with her– he hadn’t wanted to. Hit with cold hard reality of that world had the potions master lost in bottle. She had been his world and his one true love. Without her he was stumbling in the dark.
Once a great mentor and leader, Rumplestiltskin became calloused and cold. He turned away anyone who might deign to get close to him and through himself so thoroughly into his work. He focused, especially, on potions and spells that might bring the dead back to life. It was a fool’s errand and yet he could not keep from looking for any way to bring his Belle back into his life. His studies brought the attention of the leaders of the magical community, who were not pleased.
After he refused to give up on his quest to find a potion or spell to revive the dead, the Leaders pulled his status and station from him. Not that he cared. Nothing mattered without her. He’d only ever gotten that far because of Belle. Now he had no one to care if he succeeded or failed.
And fail, he did. He dedicated the rest of his life to bring her back, and as he himself lay dying he knew that he had not wasted his time. Even if he didn’t find his answer, he had never given up. The only life he could have seen lived better than trying to bring back his love would be to actually have lived a full life with her.
In the last moments of his life, she was standing there beside his bed. An ethereal being shining in the most beautiful light he’d ever seen, she looked as beautiful as the day they had first met. He lifted his hand weakly and brushed his pale fingertips along her cheek, feeling the cool skin beneath his touch like silk. She smiled at him the way she always did, and as he closed his eyes for the final time he too smiled for the first time since he’d lost her.
He felt warm and stronger than ever. He had no fear and no regrets. Finally, the moment he’d waited for for so long was coming. He was going to be with Belle again– he was going home.