After picking up her solo order, Belle dropped off a few more flyers at the surrounding buildings next to the diner before returning to the library. She ate in peace as she wondered about the kinds of books that were familiar in this land versus the ones that have bled over from their world. So the next undertaking that she bestowed upon herself was to record all the books that were from their land and note all the books that were from this world.
So she decided to start at the back end of the library and slowly work her way forward. She came across some cookbooks that were from this world and began perusing through it; thinking fondly over the conversation she and Gold had that night about cooking. She smirked to herself as she thought about the prospects of learning and bonding with her husband over an activity they could do together. It was such a fantastic idea that she went ahead and set the book aside to check out for herself later.
She and Gold intended on food shopping anyways, so she picked a recipe she liked from the book and wrote down the materials needed and added them along with the original grocery list for the house. Nobody came to the library so she figured it safe to close early and went grocery shopping to finish out the remainder of the day.
She walked up and down the aisles of the grocery store and steadily marked items off of her list. All of sudden her stomach churned and a wave a nausea flooded to the surface. She must have eaten something funny at lunch today. Strange, she thought. She never felt this way after eating something from Granny's before. So she went down the coffee and tea aisle and picked out some ginger tea for herself, just in case it was reoccurring.
Belle finished grocery shopping and purchased all the items that were on her list. With arms full of groceries she walked outside the store and headed around the corner towards his car, placing all the items in the trunk. And like they had agreed at the beginning of the day, she entered his shop to meet him to go home together.
The door bell chimed as she entered his shop. Gold came out from beyond the curtain and smiled.
"Hey," he said greeting her with a quick kiss. "Belle I'm almost done here. Let me grab my jacket and we can go grocery shopping," he said walking back behind the curtain.
"I already went," she said following after him.
"What?" he said holding the coat, preparing to put it on.
"It wasn't exactly busy at the library today, so I closed up early and went food shopping. The food is in the car already. So I figured I'd come pick you up."
"Oh," he said pleasantly surprised. "Well," he said putting his arm through one sleeve and then the other, "let me close the shop and we'll head home."
... ...
When they arrived home Gold helped Belle bring in the bags of groceries. They immediately deposited the bags in the kitchen and began emptying the contents.
"What's this?" Gold inquired pulling out the bottle of vanilla extract and baking powder.
"Ah, yes," she began to explain, putting the eggs and juice immediately in the fridge, "I came across a recipe from a cookbook I saw while categorizing the library." She walked over to Gold and removed the items gently from his hands and placed them neatly in the spice cabinet. "And I figured, since cooking and recipes are something we both have limited knowledge in, we can learn together. I brought the cookbook home with me. We can go through all the recipes if you want and we can find out what we like and don't like."
"I would like that," he smiled. He leaned up against the counter watching her put away the rest of the groceries. It was moments such as these that he felt most happy and it was always because of her that he felt this way. She opened the refrigerator door and placed some cheese into the unit. With a loaf of bread in hand, she turned to place it on the counter and found him gazing at her. He took the bread from her hands and placed it on the countertop behind him. He walked up to her and wrapped his loving arms around her. As they hugged he kissed her head and remarked, "My wife, always thinking... brilliant as she is beautiful."
They pulled apart getting ready to kiss on the lips when another ill-timed pang of nausea bubbled to her mouth. She gently placed a hand on her husband's lips to stop him.
"I'm sorry," she said placing the other hand protectively over her mouth. "I know just ruined the moment. It's not you... I must have eaten something bad at lunch today and it's been catching up with me since."
"Oh," he replied understanding. He went ahead anyways and followed through on that kiss by kissing her forehead. "Granny's," he concluded, "I always knew her food was something suspicious."
They separated from each other as she reached for the kettle to fill up with water. "I bought some ginger tea while I was at the market. Could you grab it for me? I think I placed it in the spice cabinet."
... ...
"Ugh! This one too?!" Belle exclaimed, taking off another skirt from her body and tossing it to the floor. Gold was getting ready for work with her that next morning, hanging his tie around his neck. He turned to look at his flustered wife struggling to find an outfit.
"What's wrong?" he asked, adjusting his cufflinks.
"I've been eating too many burgers at Granny's. That's what's wrong."
"That makes two of us."
"I need to go on a diet."
"No you don't." He turned and approached his wife. "You are beautiful just the way you are," he said as he reached gently for her head and kissed it. He continued walking past her and stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom to finish adjusting the tie around his neck.
"Well, thank you, but I think I need to add exercising to my daily regimen. It couldn't hurt. Hey," she said turning to Gold, "If I started walking around the neighborhood every evening, would you walk around with me?"
"Of course," he called out from the bathroom.
"This will have to do," Belle said settling for a pencil black skirt with an elastic band.
"Why don't you just go clothes shopping this afternoon?" he suggested turning around to face her, buttoning up his vest as he exited their bathroom.
"I will," she said moving past him to use the bathroom mirror. She began adding some minor makeup to her face as she continued, "it's just the convenience of having clothes here when I need them."
"I could just conjure up some new clothes for you. I mean, you are married to a sorcerer."
"You know how I feel about magic. There's always a price, no matter how small the request."
Gold chuckled to himself at Belle's last statement. "You know, if everyone believed as you do, I'd be out of a job. I once gave an emperor new clothes."
"Did you? That must have been... revealing," she remarked humorously.
He scoffed out loud, "You heard about that?"
"I read about it. It's in one of the books that are from this land. In fact, that's what the book club will be discussing at our meeting. You're more than welcome to join. Everyone is invited."
"I'm flattered by the invitation, however, I must decline. There's probably a lot of me in those stories anyways. And I'm... just not ready to have those discussions quite yet."
Belle let out a disappointed sigh, "Alright. Suit yourself."
"And speaking of suit," he added, getting one last glimpse of himself using the bathroom mirror. He sighed out loud signaling his readiness for departure. "Well, I'm ready to go," he said throwing on his suit jacket, "are you?"
"Yeah," Belle said, heaving one last frustrated sigh as they both grabbed a few personal items before walking out the front door to head into town for work.
YOU ARE READING
Beautiful Lily
FanfictionLovestory about rumplestilskin and belle with ups and downs , and many new faces never seen on the show before !! 2ND BOOK OUT NOW IT'S CALLED THE AUTHOR !