Hello everybody! Ok, as I said earlier, I have a new fandom - Once Upon a Time! :D And I have to say that it's really amazing. Yesterday I watched the last episode of third season and I was really happy when my both OTPs kissed. My first OTP is Hook and Emma and the second one, that I love more, is Rumbelle. So I decided to write some fluff for it (hopefully). Hope you will enjoy, and please forgive me my grammar mistakes, or spelling errors or anything that would sound a bit weird, because I'm not native speaker and just 15. Sadly :(

Enjoy! ;D

Story: Not Alone
By: Mischel

It was already about 4 o'clock in the morning and Rumpelstiltskin was still in the great hall of his Dark Castle, spinning the straw into gold on his spinning wheel. He couldn't stop, he loved it. It helped him to forget. Forget everything, about his son Baelfire, about how long he lived, how many horrible things he has done. But this was his life. Alone in the great Dark Castle, unloved and unloving. He was an enemy of love. Love had only brought him pain.

But even when he didn't want to stop, he wasn't sleeping in two days, and that was enough even for the Dark One. He sighed and slowly stopped his endless spinning. The gold stopped falling into his flat bowl on the ground and the straw stopped turning around on the spinning wheel. The sound stopped, and he felt even more alone than before. The great hall of the Dark Castle was dark and hollow, only with him inside.

Slowly he stood up and decided it was good to rest at least for one night. Or a couple of hours, because it was almost morning. He didn't know why, but somehow he didn't want to use magic to simply appear in front of his room. Maybe he wanted to go up the stairs as a human, because that was what it was reminding him of. That once he was a human. And even when Belle refuses to believe that he still is a monster, he is. Even when she always says that he is still a human under the cover of the Dark One. In his heart, she always said, was still good.

To get to his room, he had to pass Belle's room. And because he grew used to his lovely maid, and maybe, maybe he liked her in some way, he stopped in front of her door. He somehow wanted to assure himself that she was alright or he simply wanted to see her peaceful, young, innocent face, resting on her pillow he gave her, when they returned from the Sherwood Forest.

He opened the door slowly and carefully to not wake her up and poked his head inside a bit. But Belle wasn't there, she was gone. Some strange feeling was rising in his stomach. Fear, maybe? But where could she possibly be? In this hour at night?

He went to the first room that came to his mind, using magic this time to get there sooner - her library. And when he opened the door, he had to smile. She was lying on the soft armchair in front of high window, with an opened book in her hands. She was sleeping peacefully.

He didn't know why or how, but suddenly he found himself carefully lifting her up in his arms, carrying her back to her own room. He didn't want her to sleep here, in the uncomfortable armchair, when she could easily sleep in her own soft bed, he gave her. He didn't know why he did it. But maybe Belle was right. There was a human, somewhere inside him, under the dark surface of the Dark One. Maybe she was right and he really did care.

She stirred a bit in his arms, her head snuggling gently against his chest. He looked down at her peaceful face of an innocent child. Her face was so close to his own. Closer than they have ever been. And maybe, something inside of him stirred for a moment and he wanted to lean down and... but then the feeling was gone, and he raised his head up again, opening her door with his magic.

He went inside, and carefully laid her in her bed. Then he covered her with a soft blanket, he gave her too and stepped a bit closer. She was so beautiful. He wondered how is it even possible that such a beauty could not be afraid of such a beast. How is it possible that she still could see the good in him, the human, he once used to be.

He reached a hand and gently pushed aside a little lock of hair that has fallen onto her face when he carried her here. His green, dark finger brushed a bit against her cheek and he quickly pulled his hand away, as if afraid that his single touch could harm her soft skin. But even when it seemed impossible to him, she smiled a bit in her sleep.

He stepped back, still looking at her. She really was beautiful.

He stood there at least another ten minutes, before he finally left, with a warm feeling in his chest, and a small smile on his dark, still human lips. When he reached his room and laid in his bed, he fell asleep. And for the first time in many years, he wasn't feeling alone and unloved.

*The End*