Synopsis: Belle French lives alone and she likes it that way. She’s lived alone ever since the terrible car accident which killed her mother and claimed her eyesight. Belle spends her days painting, in complete solitude, until one day she wakes up and hears movement outside. Somebody has moved into the cottage next door. She had grown comfortable in her solitary existence until Mr Gold crashes into her life. Now her future is uncertain, like a blank canvas, waiting for her to apply the paint and decide what kind of story she is creating.
Note: I managed to update in two weeks this time! Thanks to everyone that sent prompts in on Tuesday, I really appreciate it 🙂 In this chapter @bookwormchocaholic prompted “Maybe Belle tries to leave and go somewhere and gets disoriented.”
Warning: I probably should have put this on the other chapters as well. Deals with depression and anxiety.
On Tumblr: Chapter One, Chapter Two
Belle slept
badly. Unusually she managed to get to sleep relatively quickly, which didn’t
happen often. Most nights, the moment she laid her head on the pillow, her mind
started racing. During the day she had distractions, she could lose herself in
painting if nothing else. However, at night, when she was trying to sleep, her
mind became a battleground.Last night,
just a couple of hours after she went to sleep, Belle woke up. She had a drink
of water and tried to settle but she was wide awake. When she had gone to bed,
she had been happy, but in the dark of the night, that happiness turned to
fear. After all, Nick had left quickly after she had touched his face.The fleeting
hope she’d felt disappeared, and Belle started wondering if he’d left because
he’d been uncomfortable, and had just been too polite to say anything.
Intellectually she knew it was paranoia, but she couldn’t stop her mind from
imagining scenarios. She pictured seeing him, and him yelling at her, or even
worse just being cold and dismissive. Then Belle pictured never seeing him
again, as he just decided not even to bother saying goodbye.That moment when you thought you had subscribed to a wonderful story on AO3 but then you see an update you missed and you hadn’t and LOOK AT MY LIFE CHOICES. Okay that’s fixed now.
I love this and everyone should be reading it! Will we be seeing some more of Nick’s POV with regards to Belle and maybe his own issues? (Of which I am sure there are many if Neal had to order him on vacation.)
Wow thank you so much!
I did only update this morning so you didn’t really miss it and you didn’t have to comment here and on AO3 but thank you so much! 🙂 Yes that will definitely be covered. Not all in one go obviously but we’ll start to delve more into Gold’s feelings, understanding of the situation and his own history etc. in the next chapter.
I’m so glad you liked it!! Thank you 🙂
I was so happy when I saw this update! Poor Belle, I just want to wrap her up in a hug.
I love the way that this is developing, it’s really beautiful, and I can picture the little cottages and the lavender fields so vividly!
Heh so can I … but then I stole the description from the inspiration aesthetic that prompted this fic. At least I think I did, I wasn’t actually looking at when I wrote that part *checks* … erm nope actually that doesn’t match the picture, clearly I formed a new picture in my head.
Awww I love that you were happy for the update! I don’t think Belle would appreciate a hug right now but Gold’s working on it, he’ll hug her for you later 🙂 Thank you so much for commenting!