Some Other Floof of July

A/N: Based on Some Other Kiss Me by junoinferno, wherein Rumpelstiltskin gets a glimpse in a crystal ball of an alternate reality where he meets Belle while Bae is still a boy. He can’t resist hoping for another glimpse of a life where things turned out better than in his own. The scene he sees here is from my fic The Floof of July. Want to play in the 'Some Other...' ‘verse? Juno invites you to give Rumpel visions of the fluffy stories we’ve written where he and Belle are happy together or Bae didn’t die or grow up alone. Link back to Juno’s fic (”Some Other Kiss Me”) for the starting premise,  and the fic of yours which Rumpel gets a glimpse of. Let’s show our former Dark One that happiness is possible!

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Rumpelstiltskin lay awake for a long time that night, thinking of the glimpse of that other Bae and Belle and himself he had seen in the blue crystal ball, wishing he knew more of their story, and how it had turned out, wondering what his life would have been like if he had met Belle when Bae was still a boy. How many other alternate realities were out there in which Bae was still alive and happy? Where a tangle of lies and bad decisions didn't exist between himself and Belle? Rumpelstiltskin finally fell asleep and had a lovely dream where it had been Belle welcoming him home from the Ogre War, with baby Bae cradled in her arms instead of Milah’s. 

He was still thinking about what other visions the ball might show him when he went down to breakfast the next morning. If it had just been some other Belle and himself he had seen, he thought, he wouldn’t feel this overpowering temptation to try for another scene. But the memory of laughing brown eyes over an unruly mop of hair tugged at him with a need that was almost painful. 

“Is something wrong?” Belle asked, placing a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon down in front of him. “You seem distracted this morning.”