Leave all your love and your longing behind

You can't carry it with you if you want to survive. AU Post 3A where they stay in the Enchanted Forest and try to get back to Emma and Henry.

Inspired by: captainswans on tumblr's au graphic of princess Belle and warrior Ruby. In her words: "But the call had come, as it always did, and ruby was loyal - to her queen, to her cause, to the armor she donned and the blade she swung. No matter what she told her at night ("I'm yours, only yours"), she was gone in the morning.

Belle was no queen, not yet, perhaps not ever - but if only she were, if she were ruby's queen, she'd forbid her from ever leaving her side."

"Sword practice again?"

Ruby looked up from where she was adjusting the bands of her armor plating to watch Belle cross the hall into the war room. Sword practice…if only. She cleared her throat and tried to answer Belle's easy smile with one of her own, but Belle's smile faded and lines of worry replaced it.

"No," Ruby said. "This time it's for real. King George's army is amassing at the Northern border. David has decided to meet him. The border towns will be without protection, and David won't allow George to take them."

"Oh."

Belle stared at Ruby, slow blinks giving way to a thoughtful bite of the inner corner of her lip. Ruby returned to adjusting the new armor plating that would allow for the shift into a wolf without breaking to pieces. She deliberately didn't look at Belle as she did so.

She was weak in this regard and it was a vulnerability that she allowed herself with so few people. Even when the curse broke and Ruby could return to being just Red, the wolf girl with the open heart, she kept herself apart because where Red had the kindness of Snow and the strength of David to preserve her, Ruby had seen the weakness of a heart too ready to embrace the world.

So, Ruby tried not to read into the lines folding Belle's forehead and the thinness of her lips. It wasn't as if she expected Belle to be happy that she was leaving, but she didn't want this, she didn't want –

Belle's hand to cover hers with its princess soft touch.

"Let me," she says quietly.

Ruby swallowed and nodded as Belle's fingers gracefully did the bands that Ruby struggled with. When finished, Belle kept her hands resting on Ruby. It shouldn't have felt so heavy, but it weighed down on her more than the armor that she wore. It was a branding of skin upon skin, even though the sheets of armor separated them.

She didn't need to feel Belle's touch to know its mark. As many touches as they had shared in the past year, Ruby carried Belle's mark wherever she went – in the scent that clung to her skin, in the press of knuckles on her shoulders and the weight of Belle's hands on her now as they've rested so many times before.

"So, you're going out with them?"

Ruby finally looked into Belle's eyes again. "Yes," she said with a rattle in her breath. Belle's smile had returned but changed. It wasn't a smile packed with laughter, but it held happiness all the same.

"Remember when we met?"

Ruby would never forget that that moment in Granny's diner when Belle exclaimed that she'd never had an iced tea before and Ruby could only stare at her with slack-jawed smile because of the simple pleasure Belle had found in something so small.

"Of course."

Belle's smile widened. "I was a stranger to you and still you offered me kindness when I was so frightened of the prospect of setting out on my own that I'd downed three iced teas to steady my hands."

Mouth twitching in a small smile, Ruby said "I noticed. I could hear your hands shaking."

Belle's eyes were too soft around the edges and too bright for Ruby to hold for so long and not feel wetness behind her own. Explanations tumbled from her mouth: "There's too much at stake if we lose this. Emma, Henry, the whole kingdom. People could die if I don't go."

Belle's smile didn't fade but she blinked and Ruby heard the tear fall before she saw it streak down Belle's cheek.

"I know. You have to go. I wouldn't ask you to stay when you could help so many as you've helped me."

Belle paused to bite her lip. With a slight shake of her head and a frustrated crease in her brow, she said, "This is selfish, I know, but promise me this -" Belle's hands released Ruby's shoulders and one rested on the plated armor above her heart. If Belle could feel the thumping in Ruby chest, she'd know that Ruby would promise her anything, everything, the entire world, and the sun and stars of realms unknown.

"Promise me that you'll leave your heart here with me, so I can keep it safely here with mine."

Belle's other hand went to her own chest to hold over her own heart. The gesture and the plea in Belle's eyes made Ruby's eyes wet again. She did not blink the tears away this time. Some fell across her cheeks, others she could hear splash on Belle's arm.

Belle didn't move away, her breath held until Ruby smiled through the water that hazed her vision.

"My heart has always been with yours, and no matter where I go, that's where it will stay."