The Best Tea Cup is Chipped Book 1

The Village

"Rumple!" exclaimed Belle as the smoke cleared to reveal the disappearance of the Piper and the Hatter.

"Calm yourself Belle they'll find themselves outside their cottage not a swamp," said Rumple and Belle relaxed slightly. She'd never expected that he'd harm them but Rumple did have a dark sense of humor and she wouldn't have put it past him to drop the pair somewhere mildly inconvenient.

"I'll trust you to be telling the truth on that," she said wryly. Rumple took on a look of mock offense.

"I'll have you know I NEVER lie. I may twist or omit portions of the truth but you will not hear me outright lie. It's bad for business." Belle laughed

"Good to know. Although you have been omitting the fact that you do actually have friends from me." Rumple scoffed.

"If you are referring to Pip and the Hatter the first is a useful business partner and the second a necessary nuisance."

"They teased you and nobody got turned into a toad. For you that's a blatant expression of friendship," countered Belle with a smirk.

"Since when was not turning someone into an amphibian the bar for friendship?"

"Well, with you the parameters for everything normal need to be adjusted," replied Belle with a shrug. Rumplestiltskin looked like he didn't quite know what to make of that.

"What I'm more interested in is what you and Pip discussed." Belle was about to answer when an idea came to her and she gave him a mischievous smile.

"Hmm. Not telling."

"What?" asked Rumplestiltskin looking a bit affronted.

"Well certainly not for free. Aren't you the one saying everything comes with a price."

"Now you're just being impertinent," argued Rumple

"Or maybe I've been spending too much time with you. Either way you certainly aren't getting that information for free." Belle had an idea of what she might ask for and she knew the longer she held off the more not knowing would drive Rumple up the wall.

OUAT

"Now you're just being impertinent," Rumple replied as Belle refused to tell him the content of her discussion with Pip. He also attempted to how attractive Belle was when she was being mischievous. Her troublemaking causing her blue eyes to sparkle.

"Or maybe I've been spending too much time with you. Either way you aren't getting that information for free." Rumple for his part was far too proud to give in to her request. Surely, she'd come around or he'd trick it out of her.

"Fine. It doesn't matter all that much anyway," he told her ignoring the smug look on her face.

"Of course, it doesn't," she answered in an infuriatingly indulgent tone.

"Well, now that's cleared up perhaps you can clean up the tea set. The Hatter always makes a mess when he's here." He said changing the subject.

"Certainly," answered Belle clearing away the tea things and taking them down towards the kitchen. As she departed Rumple did his best to push the idea of her conversation with Pip out of his mind.

OUAT

Belle knew she shouldn't enjoy stringing Rumple along quite as much as she did but really how often was it that one had one up on the Dark One. Over the following days he continued to ask her at random times about the conversation as if hoping to surprise her into an answer.

He was clearly growing more frustrated with each failed attempt as evidenced by the way he spun more obsessively than usual. That alone almost made Belle take pity on him. Almost.