Summary: Aqua is a mermaid and Belle is her cousin that hides a part of herself from the world.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of OUAT

Rating: T+

Pairings: Belle/ Rumplestiltskin and Aqua/Hook

THE BEAUTY AND THE MERMAID:

Hook knew he should have felt odd walking down the main street of Storybrooke with Aqua holding his one good hand. He was a pirate. He was Captain Killian Jones. Captain Hook. Why was this woman able to put him at ease? Why was she able to make him forget his façade? This was what real love felt like. When he was with Millah, she expected him to be ruthless, to be the pirate everyone feared on the high seas. Aqua expected none of that from him. She actually wanted him to be the better man. Did he have that in him after so many years steeped in hate? With Aqua by his side he was sure he could manage it. Killian came to a stop, turned to his lovely mermaid, and brought her hand up to place a gentle kiss to her knuckles.

Aqua smiled, genuinely happy with Killian, with the feel of his lips barely touching her skin. It was odd that a man like him could bring out all of her feelings. When she had her mermaid's tail, she was as cold as the ocean water she called home. She was an expert at mimicking emotions, but to truly feel them was something that stole her breath. Could she trust what she was feeling? Aqua hoped she could. She so badly wanted to be in love with someone who loved her in return the way her cousin Belle and Rumplestiltskin were in love. 'Let him be the one I have looked for all my life.' Alti prayed to whatever Gods would listen to her. She was tired of being alone, of being cold at night. Hook fired her soul, bringing life back into her heart.

Killian straightened his posture, gazing down into her eyes that matched her name. In the back of his mind he was trying to figure out a way of breaking his ties with Cora. Yes, he still wished vengeance on The Crocodile, but he wouldn't exact it now. Not when it would drive Aqua from him. To gain his desired pain upon Rumplestiltskin, Killian would have to give up Aqua. His heart wouldn't let him. But how would he get away from Cora without the Queen of Hearts coming after him or Aqua? "I will never let anything or anyone take you from me." He vowed with all that he was. Millah had been taken from her, scarring him for three hundred years. Now, he had the chance to do right by Aqua, to keep her safe, and from the clutches of Cora. Hook just had to figure a way out of handing the cousins over to the Queen of Hearts.

"What are we going to do about Cora?" Alti asked. She could potentially give herself away, but she had no other option. If things went wrong then Hook and Gold would go to war with each other and she and Belle would be caught in the cross fire. They would be the ones to suffer. Aqua feared for the future she had with Hook if Cora got in the way. Something had to be done about the Queen of Hearts.

"You leave Cora to me," Hook said. He was already concocting a plan to break is ties with the Queen of Hearts as it was. His future lay with Aqua, the way he felt was possible because of her. It also meant that he would have to set aside his personal vendetta against the Crocodile. Aqua threw her arms around him and hugged him so tightly this his heart seized in his chest. She was a young girl, a mermaid who loved a pirate. He had to protect the innate goodness in her soul, her fragile heart. Mermaids loved with everything they had, but that love was as changing as the sea. It could turn dark without warning.

"Ok," Aqua sighed, "What about Rumplestiltskin, will you leave him be?" Her eyes pleaded with him, begged him to say that he would move past his hate for the Dark One. "Please?" Aqua was not above shedding a few tears if it got her the answer she wanted. Killian's features softened and he pulled her in hard against him where his lips fused to hers. She melted from the feeling of his lips alone. Then he pulled back and grinned that wicked pirate grin at her and she giggled, "I'll take that as a yes." Her heart swelled in happiness because of Killian. Even though the Dark One was thoroughly in love with her cousin, a part of her heart still held him close with deep affection that she couldn't name.

"Yes, I will leave the Crocodile well to leeward." Hook said caressing her cheek and then slipping his fingers down her slender neck and then across her left collar bone where he felt her scales. She gasped when he lightly fiddled with one of them. They caused her pleasure. Killian saved that thought for later when, he undoubtedly knew, they would be in bed again. Parts of his broken heart were being mended by the innocent mermaid Aqua. The way she looked at him, spoke to him, kissed him, and smiled at him. All of it helped to heal him and helped him to move past his anger.

"Ok…" Aqua said not quite understanding him, but it had to be some sort of pirate agreement. She made a mental note to read up on pirate terms when she and Belle were in the library. "Well, I will leave you to your own devices," Aqua said, "I'm having lunch with Belle at Granny's." She made a move to leave his side, but his arms shot out, clamping around her waist and again he yanked her against him.

"I'll go with you," Killian purred darkly in her ear feeling her shudder at the power of his voice. He should at least make amends with Belle for all those time he tried to dispatch her. "I should make amends with your tender hearted cousin." Aqua looked as if she were about to protest. He covered her mouth and said, "I have to learn to get along with them and they with me as I am now firmly rooted in your life." Killian spoke the truth and she knew it.

Aqua sighed behind his hands and then licked his palm. He reacted quickly moving his hand and wiping away her saliva on his leather pants while playfully glaring at her. Then she pulled a serious tone around her, infusing it into her words, "Just please, try and play nice." Killian gave her his best face that promised he would be the perfect pirate gentleman. She only smiled at him as Killian offered his arm to her.

GRANNY'S DINER:

Belle sat with her head resting on Rumple's shoulder as his fingers tapped against hers. They were waiting for Aqua. Her cousin liked to make an entrance which meant she was notoriously late. Belle sighed this time tapping her fingers against Rumple's. To make her stop he laced their fingers together and gave her hand a little squeeze. It was a subtle signal that she should give voice to what was bothering her. Belle sighed again and said, "I hate waiting for my cousin."

Rumple chuckled, turned his head, and kissed the top of Belle's head, "She does tend to be late doesn't she?" He asked playfully. Gold knew full well Alti's penchant for making people wait. It was how she made her living; she drew out the moment. Anticipation was required in her line of work. "She makes us wait out of habit. Alti can hold a crowd in thrall with just the anticipation of her presence."

"Oh yes," Belle said with heavy sarcasm, "Because Regina thought to make my cousin a stripper." She sneered hating what Regina had done all the more. "How could someone do that to another living person? How could Regina turn my cousin into a woman like that?" It amazed her still at how cruel others could. Though, she shouldn't be surprised. She had lived in the castle of the Dark One for months. In that time she had seen many terrible things, a few of them Belle had managed to block from her mind, but the others still surfaced in her memory from time to time.

"Regina is an evil soul…" Gold growled. It was the same answer he gave, but it never lost its luster. True, Regina hadn't started out evil, but it was her pain that drove her to be vindictive and lust for revenge. At the time, that was what he wanted; a monster. Now, she was the bane of his existence and he would dispatch her if he could, but Belle had forbidden any retaliation against her, so he satisfied his need for vengeance by imagining all sorts of painful ways in which Regina would die.

Belle looked to the door before it opened knowing, just knowing, that Aqua was going to be the next person to walk over the threshold. The door opened and there was her cousin with the blonde hair and aquamarine streaks in the company of Hook. She sat up, but it was Rumple who moved from the booth to waylay her cousin and the pirate from coming to the table. She moved from the table and watched. Belle hated Hook. Deep down she wanted him to pay for what he had done to her.

Aqua knew what could happen. She moved from Hook's side to put herself between him and Rumplestiltskin, "No!" Aqua shouted. Her left hand pressed into Rumple's chest and the other was in Hook's, but he made no move to escalate the confrontation. "Don't do this." Rumple looked at her then; she made him see the terror in her eyes. Aqua was afraid what could happen to Hook and what could happen to Rumple. "Please…" She looked to her cousin who was standing by the table remaining silent. Aqua could understand Belle not helping. Hook had tried to kill her.

Rumple reacted to the terror in Aqua's eyes. She wasn't afraid for herself, but for the pirate's well being. "He wasn't invited." Rumple growled at Aqua. Her hand was burning into his chest through the tailored silk shirt he was wearing. He could feel her power rising. "Aqua, stop…" Rumple warned her. Her eyes were turning black with the swirling tsunami of emotion going through her. "Calm down…." Looking to Hook, he ordered, "Put your hand on her skin, calm her down."

Hook did as he was commanded by the Crocodile just this once. Lightly his one good hand slid over her flat abdomen causing electric sparks to fly from her skin into his. "Aqua, it's ok, calm down. We'll all adults here. I'm sure the crocodile can be a grown-up and allow me to eat at his table." Lightly he pulled his fare mermaid back in against his chest kissing the top of her head.

Aqua breathed in an out sharply. "What the hell was that?" For a minute she had all of these dark impulse's that demanded she cause harm to Rumplestiltskin. How could she want to hurt him?

Belle stepped forward this time. "Aqua what is it?" She moved around Rumple and took her cousin from Hook's clutches. "Hey, what's happening?" Aqua's eyes had gone dark as night and the bright sun blonde of her hair had started to turn black as well. This couldn't bode well for her cousin.

"Let's sit down, shall we?" Hook muttered seeing that they were drawing the attention of the mid evening patrons of the diner. The Crocodile nodded sharply and Belle took Aqua's hand. Suddenly the mood of the room changed, more at ease when Belle touched her cousin. 'Interesting,' Hook made another mental note. The cousin's had more power when they touched.

Rumple and Belle took their previous seat while Hook and Aqua sat across from them. "So, what do we talk about?" Killian asked setting the tip of his hook on the table watching Rumplestiltskin. The Crocodile was glaring at him, but his face was relaxed, placid. Killian could fall back on past behavior, poke and prod the Imp until the man did something, but he had given his word to Aqua that he would behave. "I must tell you, it is so good to be seeing Aqua again."

"It must be," Belle said, "After you abandoned her in Neverland, or so I'm told." She saw the flick of regret in his eyes. Looking to her cousin, Belle was scolded by lovely aquamarine eyes. Since Rumple had told her that the notorious pirate was Aqua's true love, Belle had wanted to be protective of Aqua. Her cousin as a mermaid, her heart was the sea. No man, not even a pirate would understand that. Belle knew what it was like, she was half mermaid.

"Belle," Aqua scoffed. "Please, if you are going make him feel guilty, let's wait until there aren't a bunch witnesses." Under the table she put her and on Hook's leather clad knee. She knew they were going to be subtle about how they attacked him in the open. Hook was hopefully not going to rise to their jibes.

"If any man is going to date my cousin, I want to make sure that they are going to be…" She searched for the right word letting her sentence hang in the air. Belle would be happy to never lay eyes on the pirate again, but that would hurt Aqua and her cousin had been hurt enough in this world. "Around." Belle finished much to the relief of Aqua. Apparently her cousin thought she was going to choose a different word

"I'm not going anywhere," Killian answered, "Though, in truth if I wanted to flee, to escape back to the enchanted sea I couldn't. No way to make a portal back to our world." He stretched out his arm and draped it over Aqua's shoulders. "But I wouldn't leave her here, not again."

Aqua looked to her cousin, "Satisfied?" She asked crossing her arms over her chest. Belle was acting more like an older sister rather than her cousin. They had been closer than cousins their whole lives; it was just how they were. She had found that she missed the feeling of someone caring about her hearts wellbeing.

"Hardly," Belle looked at Aqua. "I still don't trust him," She took a deep breath and then added, "But I can see your heart has settled on him. That's enough for now." Belle looked to Rumple who was eyeing her with a confused glance. She looked to Captain Hook who was wearing the same expression. "What?" She asked finally hearing how she sounded. Belled turned her attention back to Aqua who was snickering. They had suddenly switched tongues, speaking the langue of merfolk. "They can't understand us." She said.

"No," Aqua laughed out loud when attention turned to her. "Oh this could be fun." She said, stilling her bubbling laughter to look at Belle. Then, being the slightly wicked Siren she was, she looked to Hook and said, "He has the most amazing body you would ever want to see naked. Hook has this perfect line of scar along his left hip that you could just spend hour licking and nipping with teeth and tongue." Aqua ran her tongue along her teeth seductively and then graced her sexy leather clad captain with a purely wicked grin promising things of a sensual nature that would take place in his bed later.

"Aqua!" Belle exclaimed, her face was turning red. "I can't believe you said that." She looked to Rumple who still couldn't understand her and found she wanted to tease him like her cousin had teased Hook. "You can have the Pirate Captain," Belle rolled her eyes when her cousin stuck her tongue out at her. "I prefer the way Rumple uses his tongue to toy with my scales. I love the way he molds to my body and the way he fills me completely while making me scream in pleasure I would find with no other man."

"Oooh, good one," Aqua giggled, smirking at Rumple when he playfully glared at her. "Do you think we should go back to English, or keep talking this way?" She asked her cousin in mock seriousness. "Personally, so these two don't continue to look at us with their mouths gaping open like a flounder fish we should speak English." Under the table, Hook's hand touched her thigh and moved upwards until his index finger touched her. He slid his finger between her nether lips, stroking her, teasing her as she teased him. It was all Aqua could do to not moan and bite her tongue.

Belle saw the shift in Aqua's gaze and knew that Hook had to be doing something to her. In English she said, "Put your hand on the table." He looked at her, smirked, and then showed her his hand. But before he placed it on the table, he licked his index finger. Belle rolled her eyes when he placed his hand on the table. "Really?"

"Your cousin wasn't complaining, yet." Hook said darkly.

In the language of her people, Aqua scolded her cousin, "And it was just getting good too. You would not believe what he…." She started to say but Belle interrupted her.

"English Aqua, speak English." Belle scolded playfully even as she wished to speak in a language she had struggled to learn as a child.

"Fine," Aqua smirked making a motion that looked like she was folding her hands in her lap, but her right hand reached over and settled on Hook's thigh.

"Do I dare ask what you two lovely ladies were talking about?" Rumple asked stretching his arm out across Belle's shoulders trying to get into the spirit of things even though Hook was sitting across the table from him. For this one time they shared equal confusion in regards to their lovely companions.

Belle looked to her cousin and then back to the man who held her heart, "No, you really shouldn't." She answered with a gentle smirk. Rumple playfully glared at her, but Belle would not give in. It was nice to know that in one area of their world Belle had knowledge that Rumple wouldn't possess.

"But," Rumple tipped Belle's head back. "You will tell me later, won't you?" He asked.

"No, I won't." Belle responded with a chuckle that was soon joined by her cousin Aqua.