It's Always Sunny in Storybrooke!

CHAPTER 1

Belle blearily looked around. Something had woken her up, she just wasn't sure what. She tugged at the blanket in annoyance.

"Rumple, stop being such a blanket hog," she complained sleepily. Rumple mumbled something about bears and buried himself further into the blanket.

An insistent knocking came from downstairs. Belle gritted her teeth as she swung her legs out of bed and pulled on her robe. Who would be making house calls at—she checked the clock—nine thirty? Is that it? Being married to someone considerably older than her was starting to show its drawbacks.

The shadowy figure in the doorway pounded again, more urgently this time. "All right," she crossly, swinging the door open. Hook stood on her porch, wearing his kicked-puppy expression. His eyes were unusually shiny and his bottom lip was trembling ever so slightly. Belle slumped against the doorway sympathetically.

"Oh, honey...what happened?"

"I, uh..." He frowned with the effort of holding back tears, listlessly bumping his fist against his leg. "I think Emma just broke up with me."

"Oh, honey," she repeated sadly, opening the door wider for him. "I'll make us some tea."

* * * * * *

"Tell me what happened," Belle said, setting the tray down. She sat down on the couch next to Hook and started pouring tea into two cups.

"Well," he said shakily, still not allowing himself to shed his tears, "we were at Granny's today. She showed me something called 'meatloaf'. I didn't like it much, but after that... it was nice. I was making jokes, she was laughing..." He shrugged. "I thought things were going well. And lately, we've been spending lot more time together than usual , so I thought—oh, thank you. Two sugars?" he interrupted himself as she handed him his tea.

"Two sugars," she nodded.

Hook took a careful sip. "Thank you," he said politely.

Belle smiled. "So... you've been spending more time together...?"

"Right, so we've been spending so much more time together, so I thought it was a good time to ask when she wanted me to move in—"

Belle choked on her tea. "You what?"

"I asked when she wanted me to move in," Hook repeated patiently.

Belle closed her eyes exasperatedly. "Oh, my God," she sighed, her head falling into her hands.

"Was...was that wrong?" Hook sounded confused. "Should I not have done that?"

"Ooh, you really shouldn't have," she said, shaking her head emphatically.

"Oh..."

Belle slowly lifted her head. Hook watched her, looking so helpless and lost, it broke her heart.

But she had to tell him.

"Hook," she said gently, "you know... you have a tendency to come on a little strong."

"I—?" He cocked his head, surprised. "Really?"

"So strong," she said, shaking her head.

"But..."He frowned, struggling with the words. "I mean, we're soulmates ... and stuff."

"Well, okay, let's—let's take it easy with the....soulmates," Belle said hesitantly. Hook looked confused.

"But we are," he insisted. "I'm positive."

"Mmm...really? You sure?" Belle said, scrunching her face up dubiously. "I mean—how long have you guys even been dating?"

Hook blinked. "Oh," he said finally. "Oh, that." He scratched his nose. "Uh, we haven't... exactly...er...done that whole—"he waved his hand—"dating...thing...per se."