#Rumbelle AU

[shiftingmuse]

continuation of x {Rumbelle; Arranged Marriage AU}

Gold would return with a secondary cup still steeping, as he would sit the item down on the table near her but not directly next to her. "No, my dear, no acceptance just yet." He tells her as he stands there next to the table, holding himself up by the cane in his hand. "We need to flesh things out properly, both your stipulations and my own." The way this arrangement was going to work, if it would work at all, was by understanding one another and working together as a partnership rather than two people in love.

"Remember, even if we don't agree on all the terms, we can figure out a way to make this work. That's why we both need to discuss this and make certain everything we both want is equal." 

[notonlymice]

She's coming for you, coming for me She's nothing but trouble She's walking like me, talking like me She's my body double

— She by Winona Oak

[ace-cf-cups]

@notonlymice

if I may combine your two Cinderella moodboards/au versions, and inspired by them suggest a third AU / fic idea:

in which her mother's spirit with a little volunatary help helps Belle attend the royal ball of which she dreamed but prince Gaston turns out as dull as a stump after just a 5 minute conversation while Belle's curiosity is peaked by a mysterious stranger / neighboring realm's reclusive king

also feat. wish!Rumple as Rumple's sort-of nosy matchmaking twin (who has his own wish!Belle, the leatherclad adventuress that never ceases to amaze him with her sharp mind, kind soul and the ability to save a village, reunite True Love and make delightful pies for tea time and all of that by 5 o'clock, so he is more than happy to ensure his widowed twin-from-another-realm's happiness) and this Belle is OG Belle who has been written back into existence by Henry but for her to restore her full memories, leave the boundaries of her fairytale and truly become the Belle we know and love, she has to share a True Love's kiss with her beloved

[deepinthelight]

AU: Tess Harding & Nicholas Rush

[ace-of-spaders]

A silly little WovenBeauty AU where Tilly seeks Weaver out to inform him that there's someone new about to appear in his own family while he's... otherwise preoccupied.

( I was looking through @desperatemurph's rumbelle aus - which are things of beauty, in more ways than one 🥰 - and then this idea came to me, so here you go... it's nothing special but it made me smile 😅 )

[once-upon-a-rewrite]

My rewrite is actually so precious to me and it's been a huge impact on my writing and creativity. I just love it and the characters I started it for in the first place. My beloveds!!

[dealmxkerofgold]

Thanks to @bluebellestorybrooke and this, now all I can think about is an AU in which Princess!Belle meets Rumplestiltskin under different circumstances, ones that don’t make her his maid.

Perhaps, they form something along the lines of a friendship — Rumplestiltskin, with all his knowledge and love of books and an actually quite good sense of humor when he doesn't purposefully tries to scare you off is one of the most interesting and delightful companies Belle ever had and Rumple... he can’t quite explain even to himself why he's so drawn to her (perhaps, he saw her in a vision and knew she was important? I'm making this up because it's true, could be a good explanation as to why Rumple wanted her and gives me an excuse to have Rumple interact with Belle without any deals involved).

Perhaps, later on, when the war with Ogres reaches its peak, Belle suggests calling onto him precisely because they know each other well at this point and she knows, without a doubt, that he'll come.

Perhaps, Belle expressed her woe over being ignored by everyone at the castle, including her father, and feeling rather isolated and trapped as a result and over being forced to marry Gaston at one point and Rumple making her his price is actually him helping her escape the suffocating walls of the castle where no-one listens to her and a loveless marriage with an evil man and they discussed this prior her father calling onto him.

Imagine then him, being a gentleman ( and already head over heels in love with her ), telling Belle as soon as they are a safe distance away from her father's castle that she's free now to do whatever she wants and go wherever she wants and can finally fulfill her dream of seeing the world but Belle taking one good look at him, at this sad, lonely man who became a great friend ( and is beginning to become something much more than that ) for her and who has a big, kind heart under all the beastly exterior and smiling and saying that she'd promised him forever and that is a promise she fully intends to keep, leaving Rumple looking at her with astonishment and awe (and falling even deeper in love with her) because she actually wants to go with him? out of her own free will? and not because of some deal, not because her loved ones' lives are at stake but because of... him?

[bibliosauruswrecks]

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Abram Gold was a 16th century captain cursed to sail the seas for eternity in retribution for his hubris, only allowed ashore once every seven years.  Belle French was radio operator for the WRANS during World War II, wanting to do her part.  A ghostly encounter one night in 1944 would alter their fates forever...

[robcarlyle]

It's suddenly hot in here after I watched this Rumbelle AU...

Source (x)

This Sergei edit by @serenalyon reminded me this vid!

[smutwithplot]

This is SUUUUUUUPER LATE, but my primary on-the-go writing tool is a tablet that... Erm. Well, I lost my bluetooth keyboard for it randomly a couple weeks ago. And my laptop is a cheap piece of trash, and trying to format my notes from Notion onto AO3 via my mobile was a nightmare, BUT I JUST GOT A NEW COMPUTER, SO HERE IT IS!!!

This story is a #RumbelleSecretSanta gift for @elanorjane, who gave me the prompt of "small business, evil corporation, Christmas", and my first thought was You've Got Mail (1998). And yes, I watched it, AND The Shop Around the Corner (1940), neither of which are much of a hardship, naturally. I mean, REALLY. You will never ever EVER hear me complain about watching the incomparable Jimmy Stewart in fucking anything. So, here it is! A steamy, #Rumbelle giftshop!AU. It's still a WIP, but I'm already a week into January and haven't posted it, thanks to some technical difficulties, WHICH I'VE FIXED WITH A SHINY NEW COMPUTER!!! so, enjoy.

Three chapters are up at the moment, I have two more already MOSTLY written (one of those, “Wanna go home and check my notes for another movie quote rendition” type things), but now that I have my computer, that’ll happen. But I want to at least get it published, because BOY HOWDY IS THIS LATE.

[bookwormchocaholic]

The new questions for fic writers - 1, 8 and 16

Hello again!!! Thank you sending in these asks. :)

What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

Whenever someone in real life asks me to share something that I've written/published, I usually suggest My Brother's Keeper. It's free to read, it's a short story, there's nothing scary or graphic in it, and I have a soft spot for it. It's the most true to life story I've ever written.

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

I feel like there's a story behind the song "Am I Losing You?" by Anika Paris. One that I'd love to read.

16. What’s an AU you would love to read (or have read and loved)?

I'm a sucker for any Rumbelle AU, particularly historical or contemporary. What OUAT did to canon Rumbelle just crushed my soul, the only way I could cope was turn to fanfic and fanart. Season 7 was better, but still heartbreaking since they killed my ship off. Yeah, give me Rumbelle fanon over canon any day.

[shiftingmuse]

AUs based around books;

So The Terror wasn't really a story about love, but in the midst of its survival tale it showed some forms of love, hope, and desire. One pairing being between two men named John Bridgens and Henry Peglar. Which gave me Rumbelle vibes in its own way and made me remember the movie 'The Bookshop' which also gave me those feels.

The point of this is that I keep thinking of AUs where books bring Belle and Gold/Rumpelstiltskin closer together that isn't the whole. 'I give you a library' pov.

In the terror, John and Henry are brought together because John teaches Henry to read and write over the course of the show. John gives Henry books he thinks the younger man will enjoy and even books to help him prepare for certain parts of the journey he will face. 

It's such a poetic display of love, concern, and longing. Which both men show for each other in brief words and touches. 

The Bookshop, on the other hand, is about a woman who comes to a seaside town to open a shop. Of course there are people who don't want her to have the property and even try to get her to leave. Though one part of the story is about the shop owner and an older man who begins to come to the shop to get his books from her. Which she then begins to offer him books from other authors who he's never heard of or endulged in, and the two begin to have feelings for each other.

Though in the movie the ending is very sad after the man defends her honor, the AU wouldn't be so angsty.

I'm just taking shots in the dark with these AUs, guys. 

[notonlymice]

so it must be

[ace-cf-cups]

A year hasn't passed and I uploaded my Rumbelle ficlets to AO3 😅

[princess-ibri]

Darkside Disney Princesses: Belle

(Edit-put my original picture for her under the cut)

(So this one does rely somewhat on the backstories made up for my DisneyVerse versions of the parents of both Belle and the Beast. But I think it still has good precedent because of the whole Belle and Rumplestiltskin thing that happens in OUAT)

In the Darkside version of Belle's tale, Felipe never makes it back to the village to let Belle know something has happened to Maurice, either he gets lost in the woods, or the wolves find him again. And so Belle waits patiently for him to return. Waits, and waits, and waits…

Finally a month has passed, and Belle is desperate to find out what's happened to her father. With no way to know where along his journey he went missing though, she has no way to know where to start looking. And the town isn’t too worried about chasing after “Crazy Old Maurice”, gone into the blue.

Her own circumstances are getting dire as well, without Maurice there to bring in their little income from helping repair the villages various items, her resources are running low. She's taken in sewing or whatever small work people might give her, but its a small town after all, and the people are used to doing their own labor, and couldn't pay her much besides.

The kinder townsfolk give her what they can, but with winter coming on they've got to look out for themselves and their own families

Of course, there's always Gaston's ready offer of marriage, but Belle isn't that desperate. Yet.

Her refusals don't stop him from coming over and offering nearly every day, and they certainly spur him into making sure the town gets the idea that Belle is "too proud to accept charity, don't bother giving her any supplies"

So the winter closes in, Belle finds herself colder and hungrier, and her firewood is getting low. Finally, she bundles up as warmly as she can, and braves her way into the forest to gather what wood she can.

And in the glamor of the sudden snow, she too becomes lost within the trees.

The cold closes in around her. Deep and biting. The trees seem to twist around her, and finally she trips and falls, losing her axe beneath the snow that's piling higher and higher. She has no idea where she is or where to go, as the darkness deepens

Then suddenly, a light. Just ahead of her in the trees, flickering like a flame. She manages to stumble towards it. Following the dance of the light as it seems to lead her onwards, almost beckoning. Every bit of her is numb, but at last she makes it to the door of a ruined looking old tower. And inside, lounging by a roaring fire, is someone, something, between a man and a beast. It bears the shape of a man, but it's skin is mottled green, like the stuffed crocodile she'd once seen hanging in a church as a girl. It's eyes are black as coal, save for the irises, which shine-- like it's hair--like burning gold.

"Hello there Dearie", the being says, with a smile that glitters like a row of needles in the firelight. "Won't you come in? What is it that brings such a pretty young thing out into these dark and dangerous woods?"

Too numb with cold to feel fear, too desperate for warmth to think with caution, Belle accepts the offer, and lulled by the warmth of the fire and the being's careful coaxing, she begins to tell her tale. Her missing father, her growing desperation as Gaston drove away those who might have helped her, the dwindling food and firewood. And through it all the being listens, sympathizes, and finally, offers it's aid:

"For a price of course"

Belle is not put off by this caveat. She has read enough to know of Les Fées and the bargains they often make. She knows of the tricks and traps they lay. She also knows that at this point, she has little left to lose.

And so she agrees to make a bargain with this strange Imp

“You don’t know it, but there’s a power in you dearie. Flowing in your veins, deep down, like an underground spring. I can teach you to draw it up, so that you’ll never know weakness nor want again. You’ll be able to do all the things you ever dreamed of dearie, fulfill every wish—even finding your father”

The promise of this wished for dream above all lights a fire inside of Belle hotter than the one she sits by, but she asks warily: “And, what is it you get out of this?”

“Let’s just say that I’ll have the opportunity to pay something forward”

So Belle begins her lessons, she has always been a swift student. Drawing out the latent fairy magic that lies sleeping within her, waiting to be called forth. In another life she might have discovered it with the help of a more benign teacher. But that is not this life. And she learns to call forth her power through the lens of her fear, frustration, and anger over the willingness of that small and small minded town to so easily cast her and her father aside.

Time passes differently within the environs of the old stone tower. When Belle finally leaves, for her months have gone by, and yet as she reaches the edge of the forest, clad in a gown of midnight blue, her eyes dark as the winter sky above her, she perceives that less than a day has passed since she entered the woods, seeking wood to keep back the cold.

She has no need of warmth anymore.

She reaches out with the power she has learned to yield, seeking the bonds of blood and love that link her to her father. She sees them, feels them, faintly running through the forest. She follows them through the trees, unafraid of the wolves that once would have stalked her, and now slink away in fear at her approach.

She follows them to the gates of a vast and terrible castle, echoing with dying magic, a curse reaching completion she thinks, with the new arcane knowledge she holds. But she does not think on that, but on following the call. Through the door, along empty passages,up the winding stairs, to a jail cell atop a tower. Where lies the frozen body of her father, long gone.

Belle’s grief consumes her, feeding the cold flames of her power. She stalks through the halls, seeking the one who locked her father away, who left him to his fate.

She finds him at last, a snarling beast, crouched around a bell jar that holds a rose, with but one petal left upon it. Magic swirls about it, the center of the web that binds this place. Once Belle might have been curious, wished to learn the secrets of this place, and it’s strange enchanted inhabitants.

Now, she wishes only for revenge

The beast is strong and fierce, savage, the last vestiges of human thought quickly fading away as the curse nears completion, for he has never learned to love, nor earn love in return. But for all his brute strength, he is still only a mortal, and once more finds himself overpowered by a sorceress’s magic

When Belle leaves the castle, crumbling into smoking ruins behind her, she holds in her hands a staff, grown from the dying stem of a rose; once the blushing pink of hopeful love, hope that withered as its petals fell, now burst forth into bloom, the deep dark blue of a winters sky, of a heart gone dark and cold.

She walks steadfastly, resolutely towards the small town she had once called home. There are more scores to settle. Somewhere on the wind, she thinks she hears the echo of the Imp’s laughter…

[ace-of-spaders]

This was initially a starter set in an alternate timeline ( because f*ck the 6th season — these two deserve to experience this pregnancy, and another one or two to come 😌, together and be blissfully, blissfully happy while at it ) I wrote for my Belle over on my rp blog (I've got both Rumple and Belle blogs, actually, so if anyone wants to roleplay Rumbelle with me, just hit me up and I'll point you in their direction) in a spur of a moment after watching the last episode of Hamish Macbeth ( I dunno how or why but something about emotional young Bobby triggered this flood of emotion in me ) but then I decided to also post it as a ficlet on my personal blog, too, so that all my fellow Rumbellers could read it because the mental image is just too precious to not share it 🥺💗🥰

Alright, enough with the rambling 😅 On to the ficlet itself:

(Oh, and @thinkofscotland I blame your pfp for my urge to dive back into the marvel that is Hamish Macbeth, so I guess this fic also came into existence partly because of you ❤️ )

"He kicked," Rumple stated the obvious in a voice that's gone hoarse with emotion, his gaze slipping from his wife's beautiful face to her round stomach, where their hands were resting, intertwined, united forever in spite of everything that life had and will throw at them, his thumb stroking her belly through the thin material of her blouse.

"He kicked, Belle," he repeated, astonished, as if his wife was not the one who got to experience that significant moment first-hand, and when amber gaze rose to meet the sky blue one again, there were tears shining in his eyes.

"Oh, sweetheart," the endearment was no louder than a whisper, breaking with emotion, as Rumple raised his free hand to cup his beloved's cheek, but it was enough for her to hear it and, hopefully, the feeling welling up inside of him even before it spilt out of him in the form of tear-soaked words, "I love you so much."

He then leaned in to kiss her – sweet and firm at the same time, the unspoken proof of just how much he loved her and a way to let the overwhelming emotions out before they choked him – but pulled away after a few moments to kneel slowly in front of his wife, truly grateful for what seemed like the first time ever to have his ankle permanently healed, not just numbed. Lifting the fabric of her loose-fitting blouse just enough to place a kiss on her stomach, on the very place he felt their son kick against just a few moments prior, he did just that, whispering in the same tone, wrecked with emotion, as tears finally slipped down his cheeks:

"And I love you, too, son, with all my heart. I will always love you and be there for you, for as long as you and your Mama need me. I promise."

His voice broke completely on that last word, sacred for him, and he could speak no more, so he wrapped his arms around Belle's legs, rested his cheek against her belly and closed his eyes, trying and failing to rein in the storm of love and fear, anxiety and elation going on in his soul.