There wasn't enough gas station coffee in the world to make a six A.M. alarm appealing to Belle French, especially when it was pushed under her nose while she tried to hide beneath the scratchy covers of a nameless hotel room bed.

"Wakie wakie," The over-sweet, crooning voice of her roommate called from outside the warm sanctuary of the comforter, and Belle resisted the gentle tugs that were slowly pulling the fabric out of her curled fingers. "Time to get on the road, sunshine!"

"Go away," She croaked, pushing what she'd bet was under-sugared coffee bribe out from under her nest. "It's too early for this crap, Ruby."

Two different weights settled on either side of Belle's feet, and she suppressed a groan as Mary Margaret spoke, her voice teasing.

"We're going to do this the hard way then, Belle, and you know how much I love doing that."

"I think I'm equal to the challenge," Protested Belle, getting a better grasp on the itchy sheets. Four years of college with these girls had prepared her for a great many things, and abrupt and rude awakenings in the wee hours of the morning were thankfully one of them. She was groggy but awake, and so technically she'd already lost, but ripping the sheets from her had been a routine for as long as she'd known Mary Margaret and Ruby, and she steeled herself for the ensuing fight.

"Belle, can't you just get up once?" Asked Aurora, who Belle guessed was the other indention in the mattress at her feet. "We aren't even at the University anymore. Do we have to always do this?"

"Yes." Belle replied stubbornly, sniggering when she felt Mary Margaret and Aurora stand and grab a fistful of the sheets near the foot of the bed.

"Some things never change," Tutted Ruby with mock disdain, and Belle shrieked as the covers were ripped from her, exposing her to the cold pre-dawn chill of the poorly heated hotel room.

"Wait!" She shouted, kicking her feet when a set of hands each grabbed one of her ankles and began to tug. As much as she enjoyed playing their old school routine, she didn't care much for how it ended; namely, being shoved beneath a cold shower fully dressed. "I'm up, I'm up!"

"You've got ten minutes," Ruby told her with a laugh, pushing the gas station cup of coffee into Belle's hand once she'd sat up. "We're going to throw the stuff in the car and then go grab whatever this dump considers a continental breakfast in the lobby before we hit the road, alright?"

"If you aren't there by the time we finish we're going to leave you!" Mary Margaret called playfully, following Aurora and Ruby out the door, and Belle blew them all a playful, grumpy kiss before standing and stretching.

"Some things never change," Belle grumbled, swirling the contents of the paper cup before, with a wary look, taking a sip. She grimaced. It was, as she'd suspected, under sweetened. She hated mornings.

"Belle!" Ruby called, waving Belle over when she wandered into the tiny lobby ten minutes later, duffel bag in tow, and she took in the scene as she walked over to the single plastic table set in its own little nook that she could only guess was intended to be a dining area, a few boxes of cereal scattered between the three of them. There was a young man she didn't recognize sitting at Ruby's elbow, a nametag plastered onto his chest, and he waved at her when she approached like they were old friends.

As she's suspected, he was from the front desk, and Ruby seemed to have completely him over. Aurora and Mary Margaret looked amused by the way he was overtly fawning over her, sitting close enough to the tall woman to make a normal person uncomfortable, but Ruby was handling the attention with effortless grace. She was beautiful; long and lean, and Belle would bet a hefty sum the young man wouldn't be the last to fall victim to her charm.

"Hurry over here and eat, we've gotta get going if we're gonna make it to New York by tonight!" Ruby was positively squirming, bubbling over with more excitement than any normal person should be able to conjure at six thirty in the morning, and Belle couldn't help but smile.

"Morning to you too," Belle called in greeting, settling in between Aurora and the front desk clerk, who immediately turned to her and introduced himself as she filled a Styrofoam bowl with some nondescript, off-brand form of Wheaties and committed to the task of eating the stuff.

"So, you ladies are headed to NYC? Where from?" The clerk asked.

"The U of M," Ruby said, raising her eyebrows at him sweetly. "Heard of it?"

"University of Massachusetts?"

"Maine," Mary Margaret corrected, giggling. "We're not from around here."

"Good school," He replied, nodding eagerly. "So, you started in Maine, you're here in Boston today, but New York City tonight? Sounds like a fun little road trip. Let off some steam before you've gotta pick it all back up in the fall, am I right?"

It was clear from his blank stare when asked about their school that the young man had any idea what he was talking about, but he seemed eager to please, and friendly enough.

Aurora chirped up quietly, sounding proud.

"We all just graduated, actually." She always sounded proud when she talked about their school, with good reason; she and Belle had graduated near the top of their class. Not that either of them ever brought it up. "Belle and I were at the top of our class!" Aurora added, sharing a secret little wink with her. Nope. Never.

"Oh!" He said, grinning at the four of them. "So, one last bit of fun before the real world sets in then, eh?"

Ruby leaned over and nudged Belle's shoulder, pouting. "And before this one goes back to the land down under and leaves us all behind."

The man turned to look at her, and Belle inwardly groaned at the wide-eyed look of fascination on his face. She knew what was coming, but she still gave the guy a patient look when he spoke.

"Woah, a real life Aussie! Do you have an accent? Say something Australian!"

"Sorry," She said, stuffing her mouth full with the last of her cereal to talk around it and gesturing to herself helplessly. Four years of living in the States hadn't dulled her dislike of people commenting on her accent, and she was more than ready to stop hearing the same demands over and over from every person she talked to.

"She's shy," Ruby whispered conspiratorially to the young guy, saving Belle the trouble of coming up with another excuse when she swallowed her food. That was a lie, of course; Belle was perfectly conversational, but it wasn't the first time and it wouldn't be the last time that Ruby saved her from this situation; after four years of sharing the same tiny dorm room together, Ruby didn't need Belle's input to know when she was needed. She also had only asked Belle to 'say something Australian' for the first month they'd been roommates, which had to be some sort of record.

"Belle came to the State's for school," Aurora patiently explained. "We've been friends since freshman year, but she hasn't gotten the chance to see anything except the snowy tundra of Maine, which is completely unfair."

Belle could only shrug helplessly, amused, when the clerk made a disapproving noise.

"Her Student Visa is running out at the end of the summer, so we all thought, 'What the hell, let's go spend the summer showing off the States', right?" Mary Margaret added in, leaning over and wrapping an arm around Belle's shoulder. "Why not?"

"Sounds like fun!" The clerk said, nervously fidgeting when Belle stood up to toss out the Styrofoam

bowl and plastic cutlery. He was obviously trying to stall them for time and, Belle suspected by the way his eyes never left Ruby for too long, her number. He looked upset when the other three stood along with Belle, gathering their things. "Uh, where are you ladies headed then? All summer is a long time to be on a road trip."

"Los Angeles," Belle told him, returning to the table and resting her arms on the back of her empty chair as she leaned down. As much as she hated the attention her accent garnered, the look of wonder on unsuspecting people's faces always amused her. "Apparently, California is the place to go when you're on a whirlwind road trip. At least, that's what I've been told."

He swallowed convulsively, his mouth dropping open before he spoke. "Oh—uhm-yeah! Totally."

They made their way to the front desk, much to the young man's chagrin, and Ruby was signing for their tab before something odd about the clerks chatter, a sound she'd already begun to tune out in the half hour she'd known him, interrupted Belle's reverie.

Something about the way that Ruby, Mary Margaret, and Aurora had tensed at a question before sending quick glances her way made her uneasy, and the clerk looked stricken when she fixed him with her stare.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" She asked, sidetracked from her thoughts. She'd been daydreaming; thinking about life after the summer and all the fun things she hoped they'd see before she had to go, forcing herself back to the present.

"Sorry, you were all so excited about it before she came down, I thought she knew—"

"Because it was a secret!" Hissed Ruby, glaring at the young man, and Belle narrowed her eyes at her three companions.

"Thought I knew what, Ruby?" She asked, suspicious, suddenly beginning to wonder about the strict schedule the other three girls had so carefully constructed. She'd thought they were just being careful with their time; they had all summer to make it across the country, but there was a lot they'd all wanted to see, and Belle had just assumed that the money they'd all scrimped and saved over the last four years had been a factor. For them to have an ulterior schedule that she wasn't privy to...

"Okay, okay." Ruby held up her hands, shooting a glare at the young man. "I'll explain in the car, let's just—get on the road."

"You got us tickets for what?!" Belle demanded an hour later, her hands fists on the headrests of the driver and passenger seats, leaning between them from the back seat of Ruby's old Land Cruiser.

"Fable," Ruby said, her voice sounding small despite the amused, smug look on her face. She dug in the center console and retrieved a handful of CD's, waving them at her, and Belle took them, glancing at the covers. The first seemed to be the oldest; three men and a blonde woman looked back at her, all looking young and wild and carefree. The other two CD covers seemed newer, simple and aggressive designs that incorporated a tribal F in some way, but when she flipped over the most recent case one of the men from the first cover glared at her through the printed words, looking older and haggard with a mane of brown hair, shocks of grey at his temples though he appeared to only be somewhere in his thirties. His hands were curled like claws around the neck of a guitar.

"That's one of the singers," Mary Margaret explained, noticing Belle's interest. "Rumplestiltskin. He and the blonde woman," She flipped over one of the other CD's to reveal the a woman who looked somewhere around Belle's age, looking older but not nearly as haggard as the man in the other cover had. "Are the main two in the band."

Belle huffed in distaste.

"We're in New York City, the big apple itself, for two days and we're going to spend one of them going to some crappy rock concert rather than, oh, I don't know, Broadway, or to any of the hundreds of one of a kind museums, or—"

"Crappy rock concert?" Sputtered Mary Margaret and Ruby at the same time, turning to look over their shoulders at her, and suddenly Auroras hand was on her shoulder, pulling her down to the backseat.

"Ruby," Aurora chided, "You're gonna get us killed, eyes on the road." She turned to Belle, narrowing her eyes. "Belle, it's not 'some crappy band', it's Fable."

Someone who had never met Aurora, the quietest of the four of them, would hear her tone and assume she was simply trying to calm the tension caused by the conversation that had exploded around her, but Belle knew the shy little thing well enough to groan and roll her eyes.

"Aurora! You too?!"

Aurora smiled shyly, looking out the window in feigned disinterest in the conversation, but the obvious reverence in her words betrayed her. "What? It's Fable, Belle. They're like…legends. And to see them in New York?" She snorted delicately, resting her cheek on her palm. "Is way better than going to some flash in the pan Broadway show."

When the quiet brunette had something to say, which was fairly uncommon, they listened, and Belle could see Ruby watching her triumphantly in the rearview mirror.

"Besides," Added Ruby, sounding amused at the silence that proceeded Aurora's statement. "It's just one night. There will be plenty of time for sightseeing tomorrow. How many museums and old libraries did we let you drag us to in Boston and Maine, Belle? Just consider this paying us back."

Belle leaned back in her seat, debating. She had begged to at least stop into every museum and bookstore in the four years she'd known them, and most of the time they'd tagged along without more than a few playful complaints each time, and she owed the other three girls. She'd never been to a concert, but it was a lack of interest rather than any real resentment towards the event that made her hesitant.

It was just—rock had never been her genre; she'd been teased relentlessly in high school over her love of gentler music; indie, folk, bluegrass. Rock music was rough, all hard edges and sharpness, and the thought of being crowded by hundreds of people in too-small of a space made her nervous. She wouldn't admit to being claustrophobic, but even being stuck in the little red SUV they were travelling in made her a little nauseous on occasion.

"Have you already bought the tickets?" She asked, and was rewarded immediately by disbelieving guffaws.

"Have we—yes, Belle." Mary Margaret said, turning around in the passenger seat to fix Belle with an amused and disbelieving look. "Fable is playing a sold out world tour. We had to buy these tickets months ago. We hardly got them even then."

"Oh," Said Belle, leaning back against the seat as she considered that. "You got a ticket for me, to a band that I've never heard of?"

"Well, we weren't going to go without you," Ruby said, sounding amused. "We've been trying since we bought them to get you into them. They're that band that was conspicuously always on the radio in the kitchen at the dorms—remember?"

"No." Said Belle honestly, trying to recall. She'd learned to tune out her roommates music choices, usually to lost in a book or her own headphones to take much interest. "I can't say I ever noticed. Why didn't you just point them out?" Aurora stifled a snigger behind her hand, and Belle looked at her. "What?"

"We did." Came the brunettes quiet reply. "Ruby and Mary Margaret came up with a whole plan the night they bought the tickets. Ruby turned them on the next morning and you came out of your room and said—"

"I believe her exact words were, 'Turn the garbage disposal off, it sounds like there's a cat stuck in it'." Complained Ruby, and Belle immediately flushed.

"Oh," Said Belle, suddenly remembering. They'd been up late the night before, and she'd been on the verge of oversleeping her morning class, and Ruby had taken it upon herself to wake her up by cranking up their old radio as loud as it would go, howling along with the grinding music. She'd had no idea it was her roommates attempt at making her like the music, but she could think of about a hundred ways that the taller woman could have done it more tactfully than a rude wake-up call. "That band."

"After that, we were a little more subtle about trying to get you into them, but you never seemed interested." Aurora added, the little smile still on her face. "But now you'll get an hour or two of uninterrupted Fable time at the show, and they can probably do a better job of convincing you than we did."

"So, it's just a concert?" Belle asked hesitantly. "I've never been to one. it's just..listening to live music and dancing?"

The other three girls exchanged looks that made Belle nervous before nodding unconvincingly.

"Mostly."

"Besides, if you don't go, we're just going to hawk your ticket for big money outside the venue," Teased Mary Margaret, and Ruby shot Belle a pleading look in the rearview.

"Come on, Belle, it'll be fun!" She whined, sticking out her lower lip and giving Belle her best puppy-dog look. "Please?"

Belle paused for a minute for effect, making a show of thinking about it. She'd never considered not going; they'd bought a ticket for her after all, but doing it without asking her and keeping the show a secret until the day-of made her suspicious that there was much more to the event that they weren't telling her, and she had to get in her playful revenge somehow. Finally, she sighed deeply, amused.

She'd just have to take her chances and trust that whatever they were trying to shield her from was nothing she couldn't handle. "Fine, I'm in."

"Yes!" Cried the other three, Ruby pumping her fist in the air. "I promise Belle, it'll be so much fun. And then, tomorrow, we can go sightsee."

"New York is only four hours away," Belle said, laughing. "We'll be there before noon, guys. We can get some sightseeing in before the show."

"Actually…" Hedged Mary Margaret, biting her lip to stifle a giggle and exchanging an amused look with Ruby. "The concert is at seven thirty, but—we should probably head over to stand in line as soon as we get settled into the hotel."

"Why?" Belle asked, immediately rewarded with a laugh from the other three girls. Aurora wrapped her arms around her shoulders in a hug when she tensed nervously, delighted with her ignorance.

"Oh, Belle. Just try to think of it as an educational experience. Trust me, in the next twelve hours, you're going to learn so much."

A/N: Hey guys! I've been toying with this idea for a while, and thought I'd submit the first little bit just to see what kind of reception it got while I continue to work on Brand New Start. It was too fun of an idea to pass up.

Fable, Rumplestiltskin, and the rest of his mysterious band-mates will show up in the next chapter. Please let me know what you think! ;)