Gold: I would burn the city to the ground if necessary.

Belle: *rolls her eyes* no you wouldn’t Cal.

Gold: *sighs* *mutters* Only because you wouldn’t like it. (Belle raises an eyebrow) *sighs again* alright and because it wouldn’t be helpful. I would do everything that was humanly possible though. I would spend every penny I had if it would help, I would hire the world’s experts. I would do anything.

Belle: I know *kisses him* but you know I’m no ‘damsel in distress’.

Gold: *fond smile* If you saw an opportunity you would save yourself. Oh I know sweetheart. You’ve saved me on occasion before now.

Belle: On occasion? How about we’re each others hero?

Gold: I like that and I love you.

Belle: And I love you.

It would not have been pretty dearie let’s leave it at that. It’s the kind of possibility that makes me wake up sick and shaking in the middle of the night.

(part 2) so she doesn’t tell him right away, but makes it clear through her actions that she feels more for him then just a way to scratch an itch. But Gold doesn’t believe her actions or words at first, thinking she’s just reacting to him almost dying and being her kind Belle self. There’d be angst and misunderstanding and she’d think he was pulling away while he hero-ed and then the climax on the roof would happen and the truth of their feelings would come out!!!

I’m sorry, I’ll stop writing your fic now >.< This idea clearly ran away with me!!! But please feel free to ignore it all.

You don’t have to apologize! Never apologize! I love chatting with you and your idea sounds great! 🙂 I didn’t have anything past “mutually pining and pretending they don’t care” and so you’ve completely solved the ‘how do we get from scenario 2, to their happy ending’.

I mean the ‘canon’ fic wasn’t all that different. They were both mutually pining idiots before Gold was kidnapped, just in the original vision they didn’t have this affair which obviously adds complications/layers to the situation. Although quite why I’m talking “canon” about the backstory for a fic which I haven’t written is quite bizarre. After all, I haven’t written it so in theory the fic we’re spinning now, could be the actual story.

Anyway, time seems to be running away from me right now. I have no idea how it got to be May. I have at least half a dozen fics I’ve promised already but I’ll certainly put this on the list. Hopefully it’ll be a nice surprise for you before your next birthday heh but given time’s disappearing act lately…

I … I’m not sure.

Without hearing how the proposition was made it’s difficult to know. If there had been any suggestion that he had feelings then I would have agreed, thinking that we could talk about it. Knowing Cal as I do now, I suspect that would have been a disaster of misunderstandings, especially if he wasn’t honest because he was trying to protect himself from being hurt.

If it had sounded like the clinical “we’re two consenting adults, it’s just a biological urge, an itch to scratch” then I hope I would have said no. Being so close to him, and yet so far away, would have hurt. From what I know now, it would have hurt us both. However … the temptation to just pretend, and also not to lose him…

Basically I’m glad it never came up. I think it would have been painful and ended badly and we might never have got it sorted, and wound up as happy together as we are.

(OOC: The angst potential!)

I was never the playboy type. I embraced the ruthless, dangerous side instead and didn’t let anyone get close. Women were a risk, not least because of the inevitable ‘kiss and tell’ articles. There were a number of fake ones anyway because people want their fifteen minutes, they certainly didn’t enjoy the lawsuit and injunctions my lawyers filed because of their lies.

Belle was always different, infinitely more dangerous but I couldn’t bring myself to fire her. I knew her well enough to know she would be discrete, and yes I did consider a short-term affair to get it out my system, and then a generous severance package while she found a new job when it inevitably ended. However, I never could summon up the courage. I didn’t want to lose her, not her smiles when I did something right, not her scolding when I worked half the night; she fit into my life and made it so much better.

I suppose I had a rather large case of denial. It wasn’t until I was taken prisoner that I admitted to myself that I’d somehow fallen in love with her. I never believed for one second that she could possibly return my affections. I resolved that if I lived, if I managed to escape, that I would never tell her. If I did then I would lose her from my life completely. I would rather have kept Belle as a friend, than not had her at all.

Fortunately for us both, there was that incident at my factory. High on adrenaline, and the rush of survival, I kissed her (although Belle maintains she kissed me) and I admitted my feelings. I tried to apologize, I wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened, but Belle wouldn’t let me. She said for a genius, I was an utter idiot. We’ve been together ever since.

When I first started working for Cal I wasn’t impressed. He had a terrible reputation and he was so rude! I resolved not to let him get the better of me but it was looking quite antagonistic. Then, just a few days after I started working for him, my perspective changed. We were on our way to a business meeting when he suddenly barked an order to stop the car and jumped out. There was a child sitting at the bus stop. He was grubby and crying. I hadn’t even noticed them but a moment later Gold’s thousand dollar jacket was around them.

His reputation was that of a cold, heartless monster but he sat there for over an hour talking with him, completely missing the meeting. He then took the boy to the hospital where he was treated for a broken arm. Gold stayed with him, paid all the bills, and then took him home. It turned out the child was being badly bullied, and another child had pushed them over which is how they were hurt. Gold set up a trust for him, paid for him to go to a different school, and not one word of it was leaked to the press. It wasn’t done for good publicity, it was just done because he could and because it was a nice thing to do.

I knew then that he wasn’t the man I thought he was, that there was more to him – a man behind the ruthless businessman. Nobody could be that nice to a complete stranger, for no personal gain, if they were actually a monster. By the time he was taken a couple of years later, yes I was completely in love with him. I’d got to know him by then, unraveled some of his many layers, and I really liked the man I’d found.

He was still my boss so I never said anything, if it hadn’t been for the Iron Man suit I don’t know if either of us ever would have. There was an incident at Gold’s factory, which is what led to him announcing he was Iron Man, and it was an adrenaline-fueled time. I saved Cal’s life and then soon after he saved mine and we kissed. He confessed he was terrified he could have lost me and I confessed the same. It’s a tale as old as time really…