LONDON ♔ i'm trapped alive and i've been burned | there's nothing left and nothing learned.

[undealt]

♬ when i first met him- julia murney

WHO || Belle and Gold [closed]
WHAT || Belle gets a message in a dream.
WHERE || Inside Belle's brain ????
WHEN || an explosion goes off in the distance
HOW || actionspam

It's been several months since anyone has heard from Auric Gold. Rumors have flown, and given the man's display of pyrotechnics on Andres, it's no wonder he's been given a wide berth, so long as he's not lighting up people for fun, and as the incidents on Andres were found to be related to a mysterious dagger and a son that Gold knows nothing about, the matter has since been laid aside, as other concerns crop up and take attention from the Knights.

It probably isn't the first time a knight has fled and it won't be the last, and there's nothing in his flight that suggests the matter need be pursued, assuming Gold will either come back on his own to face his demons or resurface whether for good or for ill. In the meantime, Gaston remains (surprisingly if you know anything about the Dark One, which even Gold doesn't) unharmed, which probably goes the farthest for pointing out that his self-imposed exile doesn't make him a threat, regardless of the truths that came out that fateful October afternoon.

He has not made contact with anyone, not even his familiar, who has been left at the castle to be taken care of by anyone who will take pity on a crocodile. In six months, no one has so much as heard a whisper of a suggestion of where he might be or when he might be coming back, or if he'll come back at all.

And then one evening, Belle goes to sleep in her bed, and as she drifts into a dream, there's Gold, a bit shabbier than he may have been when she last left him, but smiling all the same. There's a strangeness in his gaze- how he doesn't quite see her or meet her eyes, but it's unmistakably him.

"Belle," he begins, softly, addressing a point slightly to the left of her.

Comments

[untethered]

[ it's been a hard provincial life for belle. weighed down with the guilt of driving gold off, combined with the seeds of doubt planted in her by emma and nurtured still by gaston and the memory of that horrible day when he confronted auric, she's never felt so torn. every rational piece of evidence seems to suggest that she's been had, that she shouldn't trust auric anymore, that he's dangerous, and what he's done to her unconscionable.

but her heart hasn't been able to accept it. her every instinct screams against even what seems like proof, and all she wants is one last chance to find out for herself...

but any opportunity for such a chance has been denied to her by gold's disappearing act. and something stops her from chasing him down, something tells her that she can't give up her place here, has to try to push on.

it hasn't been enough, and every hollow day brings another forced smile to her cheek once she finally manages to rejoin the every day life of the castle.

all those faux expressions are gone now in her mind, as that familiar voice speaks, feeling more real than anything else she's encountered in the hazy months past. ] Auric?