A Kiss

I wrote this for a DeviantArt challenge I'm participating in. We're challenged to write something about our favorite pairing every day. Characters belong to ABC.

Belle was lying ever so still, her face far too peaceful for all that had happened. Rumplestiltskin stood as frozen as stone beside the bed, a sentinel made of nothing.

Belle's auburn curls were splayed in a gleaming river across the pillows and over her shoulders, framing her palely beautiful face. Her rosy lips were parted in the slightest of smiles, frozen in time and completely untouchable. High cheekbones, unlined brow, the smoothest of complexions. Belle was the epitome of beauty, especially now, in this ugliest of moments.

Her eyes were closed, shut against the sight that would surely have torn her gentle heart. Rumplestiltskin recalled their brilliant hue- the same shade as the waters of a warm bay, the sky at noon. The most glorious of blues, the light that had kept him sane. It was gone now, hidden behind those closed windows, those locked doors.

Rumplestiltskin could only gaze down upon his beloved, the one who had seen his beast and had loved him all the same. She was the only one who could ever look him in the eyes and see not a monster, but the man within.

Now, she would see nothing.

A single tear slipped from the eyes of the sentinel, sliding down his cool cheek. Like warm water over ice, the tear melted his hard skin, frozen heart. Just like Belle's smile had once done, now this tear did.

Rumplestiltskin whispered two simple words, filled with ages of sorrow, a grief that ripped at everything he was, had been, would forever be. Belle had changed him time and time again. She was the force that refused to leave the beast untouched. She had shifted the immovable multiple times.

These words were worth eons of every emotion, every apology, every choked breath. They had been whispered so many times, and every single time it was too late. Never had Rumplestiltskin wished for another chance harder than he did now.

But still, these powerful words were too little too late.

And Belle would never hear them.

"Forgive me," he begged in a voice that would never again lift in joy or ring out in thankfulness. Everything he had was gone now and he had nothing else to give.

The broken beast bent then. The sorrowful sentinel leaned down. With lips that had for so long yearned for this, the tortured tragedy kissed the most precious thing he had ever had.

Another tear landed upon Belle's cheek.