#what do you MEAN someone can’t tenderly kiss my ankles and the soles of my aching feet

[b-does-the-write-thing]

Just read 'If The Shoe Fits', and I have to know whether Belle relinquishes the use of high heels or they come onto a different solution. :)

Well…I had every intention of writing something funny and instead decided this would be a perfect time to explore pregnancy footwear because why not?

With little to no warning, Gold’s brain ceased operating.

Uncertain how to take his stunned silence, Belle glanced down shyly as her hands fluttered nervously about the lace fringes of her teddy. The blush colored sheer fabric was pulled tight over her swollen belly leaving her breasts and legs on full display.

Due any minute, Belle glowed like a single candle in a dark hall. Her entire being radiated light and life into the bitter dark surrounding him. His mind rapidly catalogued her curves in all their glory, starting at the curve of her cheek to the swell of her bottom. He had no idea how long he silently stared at his estranged wife without processing why she was here. It only the sight of her tiny feet, swollen and red, crammed into stilettos that helped him find his voice again. “Belle,” he rasped though he could barely move his jaw much less his feet. “What are you doing?”

Misunderstanding, a fierce glimmer flickered to life in her eyes as her chin jerked up to glare at him. “What does it look like?” she snapped. “I’m seducing you.”

When was the last time he had her?

Nine months, his mind supplied helpfully.

Too long, his libido hurried to add.

Gold’s fingers twitched at his side but his brain and body had yet to sync up again. Their unborn son kicked, his movements rippling his mother’s taut belly and Gold’s brain short circuited again. His body, having quite enough of his mind’s inability to focus, took over and his hand reached slowly out to cover the small area where his son’s foot wiggled. The answering thump made the both smile goofily at one another before his other hand followed suit as he sank down to his knees.

Belle’s breath hitched a bit as he pressed his cheek against her belly. His shorter hair scraped across the thin fabric, the bristles tickling the sensitive skin. He moved slightly so his head did not rest against her but her hands pressed him closer. Gods, he had missed this. Her warmth cradled around him as if he too was safe in her womb.  His eyes drifted close as her fingers began to comb through his silver hair, fingernails gently scratching his aching scalp.

Belle leaned too far forward to reach the back of his neck and she teetered. He caught her soundly and with a grumble at his own idiocy, he stood back up and led her towards the cot in the far corner of the shop.

She protested but he didn’t listen to a word she said. Once he had her sitting, he knelt back down beside her and very carefully began to wiggle her left foot free of the ridiculous shoe. By the time he undid the straps around her ankles, her feet had red marks and a small cut from where her swollen feet had rubbed raw against the shoe’s edge.

His brave little wife was breathing heavily through her nose but when he glanced up at her, she straightened her shoulders and gave him a cool look. “I can take off my own shoes,” she said stubbornly.

He quirked a brow at her. Belle could barely sit upright due to the swell of her stomach much less fold in half to take these contraptions off. “While I don’t doubt you’d find a way, how did you even get them on in the first place?” he asked.

“Ruby helped,” Belle confessed and he nodded knowingly. Of course, Ruby would have thought nothing of it but Emma, Mary Margaret, and Ashley, all mothers, would have understood Belle’s reasoning but would have somehow managed to talk her out of trying to wear sky high heels at this late date.

“I made her,” Belle said stubbornly as she caught a look at his face. “I promised I wouldn’t walk around in them… I just…I didn’t feel like myself without them.”

He nodded as he liberated her right foot from its cage. This foot had a slightly worse cut and the forming of what looked like a blister on the back of her heel. He’d have to get some ointment from the bathroom but as he stood, she caught his hand in her’s.

“Don’t go,” she whispered. Her face upturned in supplication made his heart clench in his chest as if someone had it in their grasp. Belle’s hair, even more luxurious from the pregnancy hormones, tumbled over her breasts but it did not do much to hinder his view. His little wife’s small petite frame was still tiny but her curves had filled out enticingly and her cheeks were the colors of apples.

“I’m just fetching a band-aid,” he assured her but as tears started to fill her eyes, he collapsed to sit beside her. The cot protested, a squeak of rusty springs, but they paid it no mind. “Sweetheart, sweetheart, what is it?” he demanded as his hand buried itself in her hair.

She leaned against him as she sought the same comfort she had given him moments ago as small sobs began to wrack her body. “I can’t do this,” she mumbled into his jacket. “I can’t, I can’t.”

His closed his eyes as her pain echoed in his chest but he only let it in for a moment. He remembered all too well the emotional whiplashes of pregnancy. Belle may have been…ahem…desirous of his attention but once faced with the actual beast…

He pressed a chase kiss to the crown of her head as he gathered her closer. “You don’t have to,” he assured her as he rubbed small circles into her back. “I understand.”

She pulled away from his chest to glare at him. “What do you mean I don’t have to?” she hiccuped. “I’m going to give birth any moment!”

His eyes widened as he realized what she had not been talking about not being able to sleep with him after all. “Oh,” he said, blinking rapidly. “I thought…I meant…” Before he could dig himself into this hole any further, he changed directions. “You will be a wonderful mother,” he told her fiercely. “You are everything a mother should be.”

“I’m not,” she hiccuped. “I’m impatient, and headstrong and- and Mary Margaret said I wouldn’t be able to wear heels anymore because-because I’d be a mother!”

He made a mental note to tell Mary Margaret to keep her opinions to herself but he chalked it up to a lost cause regardless. Snow White had never been one for gowns and heels, nor had her daughter come to think of it, but his wife had always enjoyed her shoes and skirts. Paired with her passions, bravery and staggering intelligence, it made her a formidable woman in her own right.

“Mothers like to tell expecting mothers all sorts of things,” Rumplestiltskin assured his wife as he drew her back to his arms. “In all my years, I’ve seen every kind of woman raise a child and I can assure you, their preference in shoes hardly signifies.”

“Oh,” Belle said lamely as her hands clutched at his lapel.

“However,” he continued as he kicked the shoes she had been wearing aside. “Perhaps no more stilettos until you’ve given birth.”

She gave him a watery smile. “You never liked my stilettos,” she said in a mock accusing tone.

“I liked that you liked them,” he reminded her. An old argument…one they had giggled about in bed. Belle shrugged as she wiggled her toes against his calf. The familiar gesture, was one he had never expected to experience again after everything. “Would you…would you like a foot rub?” he asked casually though he tried not to get his hopes up too much.

She nodded fervently and they shared a smile. His hand moved down to her bare knees before he drew her feet up and over his lap. Belle, unable to stay upright, leaned back on her elbows as he closed his hands over her left foot reverenlty. “I did quite like this part,” he confessed as he began to rub small circles into her sole.

Judging by her moans of relief and enjoyment, she had too. Their quarrels were not forgotten…but he could not quite talk himself out of this small oasis. As his knuckles worried out one knot, Belle went boneless as she collapsed backward. Her teddy fluttered about her hips, revealing the bare, swollen flesh beneath and Rumplestiltskin’s body went rigid as the blood rushed to his lower extremities.

His hands must have stopped their work because Belle rolled over to her side to glance up at him in question. “Sorry,” he managed as he tried to hide the evidence of his arousal by subtly shifting to the right. “Uh…anything else Mary Margaret said?”

Belle’s eyes followed him knowingly. “She did have some good tips on inducing labor,” Belle said as her thighs fell open. Rumplestiltskin’s mouth went dry. “That’s actually the reason I’m here…or one of the reasons…I was hoping you might…be interested in helping me try some of them?”

More than amenable, Rumplestiltskin threw all caution to the wind as he collapsed forward to worship his wife’s bare feet with his lips. He pressed kisses to the soles of her feet, brushed his nose against the small toes that wiggled in ticklish delight as he steadily worked himself up her calves, fingers caressing the underside of her knees before he buried his face into the heart of her sex and breathed in deeply the smell of her.

“Belle,” he murmured against the inside of her thigh as his fingers traced circles into her lower back. He could not see her face but her heartbeat thundered loud and strong against his cheek.

Her hips wiggled maddingly as she tried to urge him onwards and he smiled at her noises of frustrated exasperation. “Rumplestiltskin,” she growled after a moment. “If you don’t start making love to me this very moment, I’m going to wear nothing but stilettos for a year!”

He chuckled at the nonsensical threat but he obeyed without question. They came together awkwardly but tenderly before he collapsed to the side of her, clutching her to him as she might disappear from his arms. She seemed to have the same thought, her feet wrapping around his lower leg as if to keep him in place beside her.

“Rats,” Belle sighed as he pressed kisses to the back of her neck.

“Rats?” he echoed in amusement. “That bad?”

“No!” Belle hurried to assure him as she tried to roll over. He held her gently in place as his hands moved to gently follow the curves of her stomach. “No,” she repeated as she relaxed into him. “I meant…I was hoping my water would break.”

“During?” he said in horror.

She shrugged. “I want this baby out,” she confessed with a giggle. “I feel like I’ve been pregnant forever.”

Knowing Belle’s aversion to magic, he wisely did not suggest a magical solution. Besides, she snuggled closer against him, her feet touching his, and he thought he would see his very soul to never leave this cot but to spend an eternity with her in his arms.

–

Ha, well I can just see Belle stubbornly sticking to her footwear despite it all (especially when trying to feel sexy and comfortable in her own skin) and yes, I know canon Belle had a sped up pregnancy and I changed that a bit but oh well. Hope you liked it regardless.