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“I can’t believe you actually brought magic here.”
“It was necessary.”
Belle turned, disgusted, and glared at him. “No it wasn’t. You’re going to turn back into puppetmaster, just like you were back home, and we could have been happy here, Rumpelstiltskin. Now what are you going to become?”
“We can still be happy here. I just needed a little magic for us to be happy,” he said.
“Give me one reason why that’s true.”
He met her eyes and said, “So Regina cannot hurt you ever again.”
Belle’s gaze softened. “She can’t hurt me anymore. I’m with you again.”
“She locked you up for twenty-eight years!” He screamed. “I won’t let this stand!”
She looked at him with a desperate look in her eyes. “Promise me you won’t give in to your hate.”
He stared at her. “Regina will pay for what she has done to you.” He turned to walk out of the forest.
“Don’t do anything you’ll regret later, Rumpelstiltskin.”
He stopped and turned back to look at her. She hadn’t moved. Laughing, he said, “I won’t regret hurting Regina, trust me, love.”
“Would you regret losing me?”
His eyes widened as he looked at her. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Belle walked up to him and laid her hand on his cheek. “Don’t allow your hatred for her because of me turn you into a monster.”
He scoffed. “I already am a monster.”
“I’ve met worse,” she smirked and walked away from him, towards Storybrooke.
“What are you saying?”
She laughed again. “I didn’t just mope around crying over you after you made me leave your castle.” She smiled up at him. “I can take care of myself.”
“I hope so. I’ve just started a war,” he said, grasping her hand as they walked through the forest.
“I can handle war.”
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “And what is it that you cannot handle?”
She pursed her lips and met his gaze. “Don’t break my heart again.”
He smiled at her, raised her hand to his lips, and kissed it.
“Never.”