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The Trade Off	By : LotornoMiko Category: M through R > Once Upon A Time Views: 5409 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Once Upon A Time fandom. Nor do I make any money off of it or this story.

Chapter List
- 1-The Trade Off
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Trade 11
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-Fourteen
- 15-Fifteen
- 16-Sixteen
- 17-Seventeen
- 18-Eighteen
- 19-Nineteen
- 20-Twenty
- 21-Twenty One
- 22-Twenty Two
- 23-Twenty Three
- 24-Twenty Four
- 25-Twenty Five
- 26-Twenty Six
- 17
- 18
- 19
It was easy for Hook to be confidant in the dead of the night. With an aroused woman before him, the liquid proof of her desire still wetting his lips, treated to the sight and sound of how her breath had hitched in response to his tongue's blatant flicker. All little victories that had pointed to his inevitable triumph, Hook having considered the battle already won in his favor the instant he had agreed to Belle's little game.
It was less easy to maintain that confidence in the bright light of the midmorning sun, Hook more than a little hung over and hurting. With neither the woman nor his booze in reach, every ache and pain seemed somehow magnified. His rib cage sore, his body bearing bruises not just from Rumplestiltskin's cane, but from the fists of both the prince and the she wolf, Ruby. The pain of those attacks seemed insignificant compared to what Hook had gained, a beautiful, loyal, and intelligent companion who was not only the sexiest woman the pirate had ever known, but also proof of a revenge completed. A revenge that was beyond brilliant, successful beyond Hook's wildest dreams. And here he was, alive to enjoy it and HER.
Only Hook didn't really have Belle at the moment, did he? And it didn't have anything to do with the fact that she had wriggled free of his possessive hold, and was currently hiding in the bathroom, all on the pretext of taking a shower. And everything to do with him taking things just a little too far, finally pushing Belle past her limits of tolerance. Hook couldn't even blame it on his being too drunk, not when he lusted after Belle so strongly. He could easily have seen himself repeating the exact same behavior when sober, having taken for granted that Belle's agreement was a sure thing when it was not.
He hadn't been just confidant and assuming, Hook had been downright arrogant. Ignoring the clear signs of her reluctance, thinking to soothe away any token resistance she might make, Hook had let his own lusts blind him to the very idea of Belle saying no. Worst yet, he had let that same lust give Hook reason to underestimate the girl, the pirate never dreaming she would use his own deal against him. But leave it to a bookworm to find the key in the wording of a deal. A wording that had been loose and messy under the best of circumstances, Hook having used it to trick Belle into agreeing to something she hadn't properly understood at the time. Only to have her use that same wording against him, Belle realizing there was options available to her as Hook's woman.
It was beyond clever how Belle had turned things to her slight advantage. It had won her the rest of the night, and so far most of the morning, free of Hook's molestations. Well most of them. He would never be able to claim to be a saint, especially with a woman like Belle in his bed. But for a pirate, and a lusty one at that, Hook HAD behaved. To a point. But really, with Belle in no mood to be receptive to his endeavors, Hook had let her slip away. For now. But he was already thinking, though far from scheming, mostly just bemoaning how the situation had soured in his favor.
Hook couldn't even really blame it on his boozing, the pirate simply knowing he had pushed Belle too far. Something he had been doing from the moment they had made that deal, from the very first kiss he had claimed from her, to last night's drunken debacle. But rather then break, Belle had pushed back, a trait to be admired even if it put a damper on Hook's own pursuits. A temporary setback, but one all the same, Hook sighing as he stared up at the ceiling. He didn't hold the arrogance of last night, the cocky swagger that had him thinking Belle's surrender would take only days at best. In the light of this morning's sobriety, with Belle dashing from the bed as though the hounds of some hell were nipping at her heels, Hook could at the very least admit to himself that it might take longer.
How long he couldn't say, even with his full charm brought into play, Hook would hardly seem irresistible to a woman whose life he had help make shambles of. It would be a challenge for sure, Belle a worthy prize to be won under any circumstance. He would just have to correct some of his thinking where she was concerned, a feat that would prove difficult considering he had already gotten used to having unrestricted access to her. To have to ask, or worse yet work for her permission, seemed like a major step back, Hook not used to courting a woman like Belle.
But then, he reasoned Belle wasn't used to courting of any kind, let alone from a man like Hook. After all, what life experiences did she have, really? Growing up as a princess she would have been sheltered from the best and the worst of life's offerings, and that was before she had gone off to be the crocodile's slave. In the keep of the Dark One, few had ever had the privilege of seeing the beauty, and never without Rumplestiltskin near. He had kept her imprisoned in his castle, loathe to share her with the world. It reasoned to stand that was why Belle had ultimately fallen in love with the coward, with no hope or friend to turn too, no other prospects of any kind, her heart had been taken because she had had no other choice.
Hook had a morbid curiosity about Belle's time with Rumplestiltskin, and a myriad of theories on the nature of their relationship. He also knew Belle hadn't been free for very long, when Cora's daughter, the evil queen Regina, had captured Belle and imprisoned the girl in a tower. What Hook didn't know, was what had happened next. Or how the girl had eventually won her freedom from the evil queen. But then Hook knew next to nothing when it came to the lives Belle and the others had been living in Storybrooke, only a few glimpses caught when he had stalked the crocodile through the town's streets.
His single minded pursuit had kept Hook from truly exploring, the pirate having noted only a few of the oddities of this strange new land. Mainly the carriages, which had neither horses to pull them, nor magic to guide them. Storybrooke looked to be weirder than Neverland and the Enchanted Realm combined, but at least he had Belle to serve as a guide here. And of course there was Smee, the old pirate sure to fill Hook in on the less savory aspects of Storybrooke life.
Not that Hook was ready to get in the thick of all things trouble. Not now. Not when a second chance at life had been given to him. It was still a strange concept, the idea of being alive and having gotten his revenge. It was an adjustment, one Hook was still getting used to. But one he was eager to embrace, Hook looking forward to life in a way he hadn't before. Because of Belle, because of the effect her presence in Hook's life would continue to have on Rumplestiltskin. It made him grin, a wide smirk of it, that remained even after Belle came limping back into the bedroom.
Immediately, Hook sat up, noticing the woman had another one of his shirts on. But the black material was clinging noticeably to her body, the woman not as dry as she could have been, her long brown hair hanging down in damp waves against her back. Not even the unfriendly look she gave him, could stop Hook from wanting her, and wanting badly.
He didn't even try to hide the reaction he had to her, letting the blanket noticeably tent over his lap. His eyes greedily roamed over her body, in a manner similar to the way he wanted his hand and lips to. Her unfriendly look remained, Belle keeping her distance from the bed even as her cheeks began to pinken in color. Dearly wanting to see just how fast and how far that blush could spread, Hook didn't even try to disguise the seductive lilt to his tone of voice.
"Come now, love." He basically purred at her. "It's far too early in the day to be giving yourself over to unpleasant thoughts." His only hand began to caress the space besides him on the bed, though he didn't really expect Belle to accept the invitation so easily. "Why don't you come back to bed, so we can work on turning that frown into a smile?"
"Smiling is the last thing I'd be doing in your bed."
He didn't miss a beat. "You'd be surprised, pet." The look Belle gave him was withering at best, but lacked the power to destroy his mood or his body's response. "If you just give me the chance..."
"I believe I've given you an ample amount of those." Belle interrupted, then noticeably stiffened at his laugh.
"Oh, you've given me plenty. But a chance is hardly one of those things."
Her cheeks downright flamed, Belle glaring at him. "What...What are you saying?! After all I've agreed to!"
"Oh I know what you agreed to. And why. But that was brought on by necessity." Hook told her. "Everything you've done so far has been for HIM, very little for your benefit, let alone mine."
"You got what you wanted." Belle all but hissed. "You got your revenge on Rumplestiltskin, and ruined my life in the process."
"Ruined?" Hook lifted a brow at that. "I like to think I saved it and you." She sputtered at that, Belle seeming incapable of coherent speech. Hook couldn't resist teasing, waving his hand in an airy, unconcerned gesture. "No need to thank me."
"Thank you?!" She managed to scoff in disbelief. "I would never..."
"Never say never, dear." Hook noted that particular endearment brought a pained looked to her face, the word dear too similar to something the crocodile had spoken a thousand times over. To Belle, and just about everyone else he had ever had dealings with.
"But gratitude aside..." Hook continued, shifting just enough that the bed sheet began to slide down his torso. Belle made a studious show of not looking, staring at something beyond Hook and the erection the blanket was snagged over. "I'd really like you to give me a real chance."
"A chance to do what?" Belle demanded, tone rife with suspicion.
"To get to know me for one." Hook answered. "Aren't you the least bit curious about the man you're sleeping with?"
Hook watched Belle struggle with her answer, the woman tempted to outright lie. But her curiosity was surely more powerful, Hook speaking in silken tones, trying to seduce her interest. "The people I've known, the lands I've seen, the adventures I've had?"
"I might have a few questions for you." Belle finally, reluctantly admitted. Hook grinned in response, patting the space besides him once more. But she firmly shook her head no in response to his invitation, her brown hair shifting strands over her shoulders.
"Come now, love. You've got to give a little to get some." He told her, which only earned Hook another frown from Belle.
"I just don't think a bed is the place I'll get any answers from you."
"What if I promise to be on my best behavior?" He laughed at her doubting look. "Well best behavior for a pirate...."
"I don't think pirates know how to behave."
"Oh we do." He assured her. "It's just, most of the time we scoff at society's rules."
"Some rules are in place for a reason." Belle retorted.
"Which makes them all the more fun to break." Hook countered while maintaining his grin.
"Your fun HURTS people." Belle protested, and Hook sobered his expression to something more serious.
"Sometimes." He agreed. "But not always." She made a scoffing sound at that, one Hook was already talking over. "And sometimes, it's a hurt well deserved."
"It doesn't make things right."
"It might not, but tell me something love. Would you be so quick to protest, if Mila's murderer was anyone other than your beloved Rumplestiltskin?" Hook asked, watching her carefully. Belle opened her mouth, then promptly snapped it close, her blue eyes taking on a troubled look to them. Hook should have felt smug, instead he just felt tired, speaking in a softer tone. "You wouldn't."
"He's changed." Was all Belle could whisper.
"Has he really?" Hook asked her. "Or do you let the love you feel for him, blind you to his bad side?"
Her troubled look increased, her lips a hard, uncompromising line on her lovely face. "I'm well aware he's not perfect. No one is."
"It's far more complicated then that." Hook argued. "Not when he's succeeded in terrifying a whole realm's worth of people!"
"They just...."
"Just what?" Hook asked. "They just don't know him like you do? Or is it you don't know him like they do?!"
She looked to be trembling, Belle actually shaking her head no in protest. "Belle, love..." Hook took pity on her as best he could, starting to inch his way towards the edge of the bed. The blanket slid free of him, revealing his clothed from the waist on down form, the front of his pants opened in order to accommodate the frequent arousals he had endured throughout the past night of behaving.
"You're wrong about him." Belle finally spoke. "And about me!"
"Oh?" She seemed to color in response to his disbelieving look, Belle angry but not anywhere as much as she was upset by what Hook had been saying. "Then tell me how you've not been romanticizing the man who kept you prisoner and enslaved. A man who has terrorized the people of the Enchanted Kingdoms for centuries at least. A man who was able to kill in cold blood the woman, the wife, he supposedly loved!"
"Rumplestiltskin's not perfect by any means." Belle managed. "But you demonize him far too much! You say I'm blind by love, and yet you let yours do the same!"
"Maybe I do." Hook agreed to Belle's surprise. "But I at least have the experience of others' encounters with him, to back up my claim." He didn't have to say it, didn't need to verbally point out that where Rumplestiltskin's good side was concerned, Belle was the only one to truly believe it even existed. "There's a reason why he was--is the most feared man in the Enchanted Realms. Why they sought to neutralize him in any way they could."
"Everything Rumple did....he did for a reason."
"And what reason could possibly excuse all the evil he's done? All the lives ruined, the people hurt? Whole kingdoms fell because of him! Mila was KILLED because of him, by him!" Hook practically snarled now.
Belle made a stammering noise of sound, as though she too knew there was no real way to justify the things Rumplestiltskin had been doing, and that he still at times did.
"Tell me, love..." Hook had gotten off the bed, and was drawing near to Belle. So close to her, she began to back up, first one step, then another, until her back was bumping into the wall. And still Hook pressed towards her, boxing her in between his arms though he didn't actually touch her. "Tell me how Mila's murder fit into some grand, mad scheme of his....how it wasn't a spur of the moment act of insane jealousy?"
A choked sound from her, Belle's eyes welling with tears. Hook could feel sympathy, knowing it couldn't be easy for the girl to face the truth of the man she had been with, and given a part of her heart to.
"One reason love....one possible justification for all it." Hook spoke, his voice an urgent whisper of sound. "One thing that can actually excuse it, any of it, all of it!"
A violent shake of her head, Belle's tears starting to fall. "He just wanted his son back." She mumbled.
"All this for a boy who doesn't even want to be found?" Hook let out a deep breath. But he wasn't unaffected by her tears, his one hand caressing his fingers over her wet cheek. "Oh love, don't you see? He's selfish, ever so selfish. Putting his own desires above the needs of everyone else's! It's not right, not right at all."
She was openly crying, trembling under his touch. But she wasn't saying much of anything, eyes turned downcast as Belle struggled against accepting the truths Hook was pointing out. She didn't fight him when Hook drew her away from the wall, pulling her against his bare chest in an attempt to offer comfort. And though stiff at first, Belle soon melted into the embrace, hiding her face against him.
It had been a long time since Hook had offered comfort to a woman. His hand made an awkward pass over her hair, Hook trying to sound soothing as he talked to her. "It's all right to cry because of him." He said. "He's hurt you as much as anyone else. Tricking you, using you....but you're safe enough now." But he couldn't lie and say her hurt would go away. Not when Hook had been waiting several hundred years for his own grief and pain, his own hurt feelings to go away. At this point he wasn't sure they would ever vanish completely, if anything could ever make the wounds in his heart heal. Mila had been too big a part of his life, his heart, her murder scarring it and him.
Just as Rumplestiltskin, the truth about him, was scarring Belle, the woman heart sick as she struggled with accepting it over the lies she had told herself to make things seem better. To make Rumplestiltskin seem better than he actually was. Hook couldn't begin to imagine what it had been like, living with Rumplestiltskin, being the Dark One's slave. Less hard was how Belle had come to naively have feelings for the crocodile, Hook having heard more than one tale of how women had fallen for their captors.
It was in effect, a situation the crocodile had exploited. And though Hook didn't like the man very much, he could appreciate why Rumplestiltskin would do such a thing. Belle was beautiful, clever, courageous and loyal. What man wouldn't want to do whatever it took to win her? Where Belle was concerned, Hook found he was no better than Rumplestiltskin, and that thought didn't disturb him as much as it should have.
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To Be Continued....
Been a while. I had no idea my break would end up being this long. But I was feeling burnt out on this fic, and then I got side tracked with some Hook Emma stories. (Plus real life mainly health/pain issues.) Though I've been sneaking Restraint chapters in amidst all the Captain Swan madness. XD
Now, there's no need to worry. Just because I am writing Hook Emma stuff, doesn't mean I've abandoned ship where Hook Belle is concerned. That pairing is still my passion, even though it seems like it's my impossible to happen in cannon unless the writers do some hard drugs ship. Though I keep hoping for more Hook Belle interactions in the show. I've had three ideas for if the triangle, if the season goes horribly wrong for Hook, and two of them are Hook Belle story ideas! Though I am trying to resist them right now, to try and work on/finish some of the existing work in progresses.
This is gonna be a long rambling author's note. I spent last weekend rereading Trade off (And spent all of this week struggling to get this chapter finished.). Well...I know I kept talking about a time skip, but when I reread all of my existing chapters, I realized the time skip...well it couldn't happen just like that. There needed to be some morning after chapters. Some things had to be addressed, (Not enough got addressed in this chapter) before I could do a believable (believable to me anyway) three day skip. I've also started worrying about something I wanted Hook and Belle to do together after the tree day time skip happened (Not sex!), just because it was something I hadn't noticed before but when I reread, I noticed it regarding Belle. I'm being vague about it, cause I don't want to spoil it until it happens. My big fear is the thing I noticed makes it harder for it to happen.....guess Hook will have to do his best to persuade her otherwise. (Again not sex! XD)
Also need to thank my friend Zerousy. She did major hand holding for me on this chapter. Listened to a lot of me whining and fearing, and even got to read the first 14 KB. After reading the first 17 chapters again, my big fear is that I can't write it at the same level of quality (or even better). I'm very scared this chapter SUCKS! But the other thing she helped me is...well after Belle says "Your fun hurts people." I had found Hook and the conversation took a far more serious turn than what I had wanted. Oh it was a conversation they needed to have, only I hadn't planned it for this chapter. (So yes, some rearranging of plans have been happening.) But Zerousy was reassuring and felt my fingers typed a necessary evil (love that saying she said!) in making the conversation serious instead of flirty fun, or sexy. So thanks again to her for all the feedback and reassuring!
Now I can shut up and post this! Just got to proofread first. XD
----Michelle
Celtic Dewin, why thank you. :) I actually forgot about this site (Been positng mostly on fanfiction.net), and about updating this story over here as well. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things full time after a three month break from all writing, but for now I hope you enjoy several chapters written quite a while ago. ^^''
- 17
- 18
- 19
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The Trade Off