*smashes the need button*
I can just imagine his wait… wut? face when he realizes she’s dead serious. It’s got all the things we need: marriage of
inconvenience, possible bed sharing shenanigans, Dork One, and of course panty melting smut.WANT
I really need this
Why would Belle ask for such a random and yet specific quality? Either she’s targeting Rumple (seems unlikely as his skill wasn’t well known, Avonlea offered him gold for his help), or she doesn’t think it’s possible and therefore she won’t have to marry anyone. That also seems unlikely because Cora was only the previous generation and I highly doubt she was allowed to stop spinning when she got married. I’m sure King Xavier’s kingdom did very well for itself thanks to all that gold. It makes you wonder why King George’s kingdom was so bankrupt, perhaps because King Xavier’s kingdom had driven up the prices for everything?
But back to the prompt. Why would Belle specify spinning for gold? Maybe someone like Regina put the idea in her head? Either Regina thought it would amuse Rumple to play with the nobles (as the prompt suggests) and never imagined Belle would insist on going through with it, or Regina thought it would be amusing for some reason. Perhaps Avonlea was a key trade point and she thought it would weaken them for a takeover, perhaps she thought that Belle might offer Snow sanctuary and acted preemptively. There’s lots of possibilities and I find Enchanted Forest politics fascinating oops.
This would be quite interesting of course after Rumple finds himself falling in love with Belle, and then discovers Regina’s part in how it all got started …