An AU of an AU fic I’ve only referenced and not written. Is that even allowed? I mean I thought perhaps I’d gone too far when I wrote a sequel to a fic I’d not written yet. Besides which AU version did you want?

1) Where Belle thinks Gold has feelings, agrees to his ‘just sex proposal’ and then afterwards tries to talk to him about it. He denies he feels anything towards her, because he thinks she doesn’t have feelings. It’s possible he’s quite rude as a self-protection thing. Misunderstandings ensue and outright misery.

2) Where Belle thinks Gold has no interest in her beyond scratching the itch with someone discrete. Gold thinks that Belle only agreed for much the same reason given the hours that they both work, and how difficult it must be for her to have a relationship because she works so much. They both secretly love one another and massively pine while pretending they don’t care, and that it’s just about the sex.

I have no idea how to resolve either one off the top of my head. At some point they need to be honest but it’s working out what triggers that confession and reconciliation. What do you think? The second scenario is a little bit similar to two other AU’s I already have.

The first is the Business AU (Sweet Masquerade) where basically it’s just sex and they are both fine with that but the longer they are together, the more intimate it gets and feelings kinda emerge gradually. Because it’s a gradual thing it feels natural and there’s no big ‘realization’ moment, they just sort of slowly share more of their lives until they have a relationship as well. Maybe one day one of them remarks on it, but it’s not a big thing. This is 99% headcanon as I’ve only written that one little oneshot, and I don’t have any actual plans to write anymore in this verse, but sometimes I write more anyway when prompts happen.

The second is coincidentally the fic I haven’t written, where I wrote the sequel first. It’s GoldenLace and I’ve actually almost completely outlined it, I just haven’t written it but I will (I mean it’s all planned!). It’s just sex, and then when they realize they are getting too close, by mutual and unspoken agreement they stop seeing one another. Then by accident a few months later they bump into one another, admit how badly they missed each other, and start up again. They still don’t talk about the future much but they have dinner and talk about themselves/likes and dislikes etc. in addition to the sex. Then one day their relationship is made public, and that’s when they admit the feelings.

I have a long list of things to write but I’m happy to add to it, if you tell me what you’d like 🙂