Title: Poison and Wine

Author: robinsparkles14

Rating: It will be NC-17 in future chapters

Fandom: Once Upon A Time

Pairing/Characters: Rumbelle, with some other characters that managed to weasel their way in

Summary: Dr. Gold is not having the easiest time. His life is in pieces, and it's pure dumb luck that he happens across Belle French, the only person who seems to hate her life as much as he does. Rumbelle AU with stripper!Belle and doctor!Gold

Disclaimer: It would be so awesome if I owned OUAT and ABC and Disney didn't. Also, all song lyrics belong to The Civil Wars. This fic was pure imagination and resemblance to another is unintentional.

A/N: Sorry this is a day late! I promise it was done yesterday but then life happened. This idea has been in my head since July and I was going to save it for the premiere but I couldn't help myself. Hope you all enjoy!

"You only know what I want you to."

To say that Dr. Gold doesn't want to be here would be a massive understatement.

Maybe it's the blaring loud music, the irritating girls who are continuously trying to take his money, or his colleague Dr. Whale, who is completely content with all of this. All of those things are probably contributing in some way to Gold's horrendous mood, but in all honesty, the biggest thing is probably just the shitty state of his life.

At this point, all he wants is to leave this godforsaken place and go back to his son, but he knows that doing so isn't possible. And knowing it's not possible definitely doesn't help to lift his spirits.

"Would you like a dance?" A scantily clad girl says over his shoulder. And really, that's all he notices: that she's scantily clad. Because beyond that she's just a woman. Some random girl who will probably fuck up his life in some way. Just like Lilac.

"No," he says coldly, not even glancing back at her.

Dr. Whale nods and points at Gold as the girl saunters off. "Good call," he notes, "you know they're no good when they pull up their fishnets like that."

Gold resists the urges to both roll his eyes and punch Whale in the face. "Of course," he mutters, "Look, I have business elsewhere. I ought to just go."

The words appear to kick Dr. Whale into a new state of mind. "No! You can't go yet!" He says, hardly sounding like himself. Apparently the companionship of a rude, recently divorced and abandoned doctor meant more to him than Gold had assumed.

"Why not?" Gold asks, sounding irritated.

Whale completely dismisses the question. "Just wait until Bella comes out. She's amazing, honestly."

"I could care less how amazing she looks, Dr. Whale. I don't need to see any more of this."

He half expects Whale to start whining like an eleven year old girl who's had her barbies taken, but instead he gets this 'oh man you have no idea, do you?' expression on his face and says, "trust me. Bella is more than just a girl who looks amazing. One look at you'll fucking fall in love with her, I swear."

Gold sneers and looks away. "Well I'm not looking for love."

"I know everything you don't want me to."

"Yes...yes, Greg I understand, I-"

Belle sighs and does her best to ignore the continuous rambling coming through the phone. He's upset that she's working. Even though they'd had this damned conversation last night, Greg is still complaining about it, saying he wanted to 'spend time' with her tonight. Like she doesn't know exactly what that means.

"If you'd shut up for one second you'd realize I-" She starts to say, but as usual, he interrupts her.

"No! You shut up! I do everything for you...for us! Do you know how much my schedule's been fucked up because of you? We're supposed to be together, Belle! But I have to everything, right? It's all about Belle."

She understands where he's coming from, really, she does. But that doesn't negate the fact that he's annoying her beyond belief. "I know, I know," she says calmly, "And I'm sorry but we'll have time. Just not tonight.

He sighs hugely into the phone. "You know what? I get it. I get that you're a stripper and that it's cool to have dozens of other boyfriends, but at least have the decency to say it to my face."

She's completely taken aback by his words. "Is that what you think?" She says, and her pissed-offness is clear as day.

"Belle, I know you-"

"You told me that you wouldn't judge me. You told me that the job I was forced to get didn't matter to you, Greg!" Belle fumes. And to think she'd actually believed him when he told her that.

"You think I don't know what you do at that job? And I put up with it for you. Because I care about you."

"I can't believe you'd say something like that to me." She whispers.

"You don't leave me with many other options." He informs her.

Her eyes narrow and she shakes her head in the mirror even though he can't see her. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it would be better if I had dozens of other boyfriends. It'd be better than this, at least."

As soon as the words leave her mouth she wishes that she could take them back. She knows that Greg only wants to be there for her and that he doesn't mean to be so irritating, but at this point she's so angry at him for accusing her of something so horrible that she wasn't thinking.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" Greg demands.

Belle sighs and calms herself. "Nothing, honestly. Sorry, I'm just angry. I don't mean that."

"Sure you don't."

He says it so simply that she could swear that he actually believes she's just another whore who had to take up stripping for money. Greg is supposed to be different. She spends enough time listening to people saying she's a horrible person and that she's going to hell. Greg always said that he respected her and thought of her as a real person despite her occupation. Her father had pushed her to date Greg because he worked at the flower shop, and Belle had agreed because she thought he was better than any of the other men out there. She even trusted him with her secret and he didn't judge her for it.

At least at the time he didn't. Apparently now things have changed. "I...I'm sorry, Greg, I never should have said that. You mean more to me than that."

She hears him sigh into the phone and say, "Whatever, Belle. I'll just go out tonight. Don't wait up for me."

The words, 'I wouldn't dream of it' boil on her tongue, threatening to spill over, but she knows saying them will only upset him. "Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"I have things to do tomorrow." He says flatly. Of course he has things to do. Nowadays he always has better things to do than hang out with her. Except tonight, when he'd convinced himself they were going to have sex.

"Um, okay. Monday then."

"Sure. Monday night. I'll see you then," he still has a coldness to his voice which she thinks is silly. Is one night really going to kill him?

"See you then. Bye."

"Bye," he says, not losing an ounce of irritation.

Belle snaps her cellphone shut and runs her hands through her hair. Being with Greg always proves to be tough, but she always tells herself it's worth it. She does care about him to an extent, and he's nice to her and protective of her (if a little overly so.). He does his best to be gentle with her and she likes the feeling of being close to someone like that even though she hardly enjoys the actual sex. But all that is just life. Disappointment happens. Sometimes you get stuck with a controlling boyfriend and a job stripping. It could be worse, and honestly Belle doesn't have it all that bad.

"Hurry up," a sweet voice singsongs behind her. Belle turns to see Ruby smiling down at her.

"Oh. Hey, Ruby. Sorry, I'm nearly ready, give a minute."

Ruby slides into the chair next to Belle and laughs. "I don't care. But Regina might. You're the whole reason people come here."

Belle rolls her eyes and blushes. "No I'm not. If anyone is it's you, Ruby."

"Stop being so modest, we all know about Dr. Whale's little crush on you," Ruby wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

"I have a boyfriend, Ruby," Belle mutters.

"Yeah, I know," Ruby agrees, and then whispers, "But even Dr. Whale might be better than him."

Belle pretends not to hear her and continues mascara-ing her eyes.

"How is Greg, anyway?" Ruby asks "I ask only because you look pissed off."

Belle bites her lower lip. "He's mad that I have to work tonight. I told him blame it on Regina but he's convinced I'm cheating on him. It's silly because he's the one who always claims to be 'busy'" she puts air quotes around the word busy, dropping the tube of mascara in the floor and cursing quietly before picking it up.

Ruby nods slowly and sighs. "Well, he's just a little over-protective. If you were taken captive he'd probably march down to the kidnappers house and get himself eaten. That's not exactly a bad thing."

Belle shakes her head. "Kidnappers don't eat people, Ruby."

"Some do. But that's not the point. Just be glad that Greg cares about you, even if he is a whiny bastard. Now go. Get out there."

Belle rolls her eyes and makes her way toward the beaded entryway to the stage where Regina is standing with Emma Swan. Belle tries to contain her distaste. The two of them are laughing and flirting and being so...happy. Everyone around here knows about Emma and Regina's love affair, but hardly anyone approves, including Emma's mother, for various reasons. The whole thing is just a full-blown soap opera.

Belle tries to get between them, whispering "excuse me" over and over and being ignored. Come on she thinks to herself, Stop being such a coward. Do the brave thing.

"Please move, Regina. I'm supposed to be out there now."

The older woman turns her sweet gaze away from Emma and glares daggers at Belle. "I'm sorry," she says, in a voice that sends ice through the room, "I may be mistaken, but did you just interrupt me?"

Belle takes a step back thrown off completely by Regina's hostility towards her. "I-I'm sorry," she stammers, "I didn't mean-"

"Oh, really?" Regina snaps, stepping back toward her, "Then tell me, miss French, what did you mean?"

"Regina..." Emma says uneasily.

Belle blinks and says, "I really didn't mean to upset you, Regina, I just-"

Regina slits her eyes and her jaw sets for a moment before she snaps, "You know what? I've grown really fucking tired of your excuses, Miss French. Get out of here."

Belle looks down at her fishnets and barely-there corset. "I-I can't! Please, I need-"

"That was NOT a request!"

"Your mouth is poison, your mouth is wine"

"I can't believe she's not out yet! i swear, every night Bella comes out at this exact time!"

Gold resists the urge to roll his eyes at Dr. Whale and instead just stares blankly ahead of him. "I'm going home, Whale. This was a miserable idea."

Whale makes a flitting motion with his hand and cocks his head to the side. "Yeah, yeah. Just go home and mope over that bitch who stole your kid. Doesn't sound at all unhealthy."

Gold balls his hands into fists to keep from slapping Dr. Whale across the face. Not for insulting Lilac. (Lord knew Dr. Gold has called her much worse than 'bitch') He wanted to slap him for calling him on his shit. Because, unfortunately, Whale was right. If he goes home now Gold will spend all his time moping around over Bae. And he wishes he could deny it.

"I'm leaving now, Dr. Whale," Gold says in a voice like ice.

Whale rolls his eyes and Gold rushes out of the place in a hurry.

For the love of all that is holy, why on earth does he deserve this? He has never considered himself a good person, but this seemed a cruel and unusual punishment. Bae was his everything, and the fact that Lilac was taking him away just for the sake of hurting Gold is beyond ridiculous. Lilac does not care about their son. She never cared about Gold. The only thing she ever cared about was herself and her ridiculous, hurtful motives. She isn't even worth his thoughts and he hates himself for giving them to her.

Smack! Gold gasps and nearly falls over from the force that had whacked him in the forehead.

"What in the bloody hell is-"

The words "wrong with you" fade away from his lips when he glances up and sees a small girl clutching her own forehead. He can't really make out her features in the dim light of the alleyway, but the fact that she's also hurt herself stops him from insulting her too severely.

"I-I'm sorry," she says, and he immediately picks up on her clear, Australian accent.

"You..." Why is he finding himself at a loss for words? "You damn well should be sorry!" He feels like hitting himself in the forehead again for sounding so idiotic.

"Yeah, I-I wasn't looking," she stammers, looking up, and he sees the black mascara lines running down her pretty face even in the dim light.

It wasn't because of him, was it? His words couldn't be making her cry. "It's, uhm," he clears his throat awkwardly, "It's no matter."

She shakes her head. "No, it was my fault, I just have a lot on my mind I was...distracted."

He finds himself nodding along with her words and forces himself to stop. "Are you...are you alright?"

She waves her hands in the air and stumbles over her own feet in the process. "No, no...yes, I'm fine, just...trying to get myself home."

He nods again. "You have a place to go?" Why was he asking her that? What did it matter? He doesn't even know her.

"Yeah," she says, "I mean, not really, but I'll find one, probably."

He sighs and musters up all the confidence he can. This is stupid. He is going to regret this completely. He knows it.

"Come with me. I'll give you a place to stay, miss..."

"Belle."