Being Alive, Episode 2 : Avonlea

Summary:  Nicholas and Belle arrive on Avonlea. Nick plans on selling the elkium he got from Belle’s father but it doesn’t go as planned at all.

Pairing: Rumplestiltskin/Belle  (It should be Rumshplestiltskin, considering I’ve merged Rumple and Nicholas Rush)

Word Count: 21,387 / Complete in three parts

Rating: M

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Episode 2 : Avonlea

Von Stiltskin didn’t remember having ever been so angry before.
He had been furious for two days now, since he had discovered the little stowaway in his storage areas.
Belle was actually contrite at having been forced to hide but she really didn’t want to stay on her planet. She had reminded him that he had agreed to take her to a place of her choice in exchange of elkium and when he had deposited her on the planet, he had kept the metal. It was a breech of the contract he had made with her father and as he had reminded her dear father, no one broke deals with Nicholas Von Stiltskin and Nicholas Von Stiltskin never broke deals with anyone.

This simple logic had sent Nick straight into the helliest of mood, and the atmosphear onboard was tense at best, stormy like a bitch at worst. He was sulking at having been bested in his own games by a girl barely out of teenage years and coming from an uneducated zone of the galaxy.

Nick hated Belle and he never lost an occasion to make her feel unwelcome whereas she behaved like the perfect guest but always reminded him of his duties to her, like feeding her, and giving her a place to sleep.

In the end, he had given her a spare cabin, not about to give his own again, since she told him sheets were like humans, they got washed and freshened.
And so, Belle ended up in the cabin the furthest away from Nick’s.

The first floor of the ship was made of two bathrooms and six bedrooms, all together in the middle of the ship while the corridor circled around the block. Nick’s bedroom was the first on the right, then there was two empty bedrooms and the used bathroom. The corridor made then a half turn, leading to an unused bathroom, Belle’s bedroom, and after this, two other empty bedrooms.

Belle had carried her bags herself to her cabin and had promptly started to occupy her bedroom and the neighboring one, filling them mostly with her unopened bags, just taking out enough clothes for one week into the small cupboard that was there. She had cleaned her bedroom, as it hadn’t been occupied in at least a decade and even found - stole - clean sheets.

Nicholas was ignoring her totally and had banned her from the console room. Belle kept herself to the kitchen, her bedroom and the bathroom. She had decided to cook after tasting one of those white tasteless pastes he had left in the bowl he had the habit to prepare his food in, after he had taken his share.

He had yelled at her the properties of the paste when she had prepared a real meal with the ingredients of her planet, and she had yelled back that his food was the worst she had ever tasted. Since then, she had mixed the paste with a strong flavoured food and she made sure to make for two. Belle never offered Nicholas a plate but she left it in the plate like Nicholas had done. She prepared food every six hours and it was eaten one out of every four times. She even started to make him farherb infusions as a gesture of good will. Belle prided herself to be a reasonable, sensible and caring person and she would behave with that unsufferable man like she would with anyone else. She was willing to raise a peace flag and wave it at Nick.

Somehow, the kitchen had become a neutral territory in two days. The first floor belonged to Belle, Nick making rushing dashes to the bathroom and sleeping in a corner of the console room and Belle never came further down in the ship than the kitchen after she had collected her belongings.

They barely saw each other, they didn’t talk, it was a cold cohabitation, but at least they weren’t at each other’s throat all the time.

The fourth day and the fifth day, the bowl stayed full. Belle checked the other supplies in case Nicholas had eaten something else, nothing was missing. So Belle decided to do the brave and right thing to do and go facing the dragon in his lair. Nick was facing his console, standing, leaning on the sides of the consoles, staring at the screen.

Belle stood, observing the windshield, and the view. The stars were distorded and no more little dots, but lines as they hyperspaced by them. Hundreds of those lines formed like a tunnel in which the spaceship flew. It was breathtaking, it was nothing Belle had ever seen before. She had read descriptions of this phenomenon on her tablet but it simply couldn’t compare.

She must have gasped because Nick suddenly turned and looked at her. He froze when he saw her, and relaxed when he realised she wasn’t looking at him. He could perfectly understand her fascination, his first hyperspace trip had been spent face glued to the windshield, taking everything in.
"Hey."

Belle started at Nick’s voice and turned her attention on him.
"Hello." She answered and turned her eyes to him.

She took a good look at him and nearly did a double take. He looked terrible. He had dark bags under his eyes, he was as pale as death, thin dry lips… He needed food, water, sleep and from the smell, he badly needed a shower too.
"My god, Nicholas ! What have you done to yourself ?" She sounded shocked, and her eyes were wide.
"I worked !" He felt aggressed, and he immediately turned defensive, fists tight, shoulders up. "I’ve made sure our flight course was right, and I’ve worked on translating data from the archives ! Making sure we were good while you were lazying upstairs !"
"Lazying ? I was reading !"
"Lazying." Nick sneered.
"I beg your pardon ! I’m not the stubborn jackass who is not able to take care of himself ! I prepared food for you ! And you haven’t eaten in two days ! And you need to ! And go shower !"
"Who do you think you are, exactly ?"
"Someone who has a nose !" Belle shouted at him.
"You stubborn bitchy wench !" Nicholas roared.

Belle’s eyes inflamed and she strode at him. Her right hand launched itself to his face and gripped his left ear and squeezed and pulled. Nicholas yelped and Belle jerked him forward, using his ear as a leash.

He cursed from the kitchen up to the bathroom, and she let go of his ear once there, and pushed him into the shower before turning it on, and the mist changed Nick from furious into wet and murderous.
"Wash, then come eat, and then you’ll sleep. The ship is fine. The flying course is fine. You are not fine. I’m not entrusting my life into your hands when you’re like that"

And if the door could have been slammed, then Belle would have slammed it. She got out of the bathroom, and hit the close button on her way out. Nick heard the impact and shouted furiously.
"Do not hit the buttons ! Do not fucking touch anything !"

He was going to kill her. He was going to murder her. He was going to cut her body into small parts and scatter them into space. That girl had a death wish, it couldn’t be otherwise.

He started breathing deeply to calm himself. He didn’t think he could actually survive this week at this precise moment. When he was out, he was going to yell so much at her he was going to have a stroke or a heart attack at some point and that useless girl wouldn’t be able to make the medbay work and he’d die from a pathetic cause, his life quest unachieved because one day he had taken a bad deal on a deserted planet in a lost corner of the galaxy. If that happened, she’d be alone, unable to fly the ship, and after eating his food, she’d starve to death. That would serve her right, for meddling in his business. It’s not as if he wasn’t used to long hours. He hadn’t done a 70 hours work day in a long time but he obviously could manage. He didn’t need her opinion, he didn’t need her at all.

He started undressing himself, still furious at her behaviour. Not washing himself to antagonize her brushed his mind for a fleeting moment but he wasn’t going to behave like a child and he would die before admitting it outloud but it was nice to get rid of the smell of stale sweat. He washed his clothes, soaking them in the cleaning mist and opened a little cupboard door. It was a big conduct Nick had realised he could turn into a clothes dryer. Warm air was being sent from the engines through that conduct. He had pierced the wall to built in an airproof door the size of a kitchen cupboard and had welded a grid through it so that the clothes couldn’t fall into it. He put all of them there and closed the door. They would be dry in fifteen minutes.

He went back into the mist, and stroked mechanically his long hair and beard, getting them clean. He rubbed his way down his body. He was thin and small, with barely a swell of a belly, but had sinew muscles and a nervous strength to himself.

Once clean, he turned the mist off and airblowers took over, surrounding his body in warm air. He walked to the sink and brushed his teeth. As humans have spread through the galaxy, human ways of hygiene had spread with them. True, his way of showering was not human at all, but it did the job, and Nicholas was used to that.

He was feeling calmer, and tired. Looking into the mirror, he could still see exhaustion carved into his face, but at least, he could go to bed without having to change the sheets when he woke up.

He still needed to land the ship on a planet. Of course, the ship could still fly while he was sleeping, but if something went wrong, he was not there to fix it. Maybe he could even tell the girl she was allowed to go out and if she wasn’t there when he woke up, he could leave and leaving her stranded there. He hoped he would dream of that.

He fetched his clothes and dressed quickly before realising the notebook in his waistcoat had been soaked when Belle had turned the mist on and then blowdried. He panicked and browsed the pages quickly. The ink had faded but had not erased. He sighed in relief, a loud phew escaping his chest. Months of notes, musings, theories about his ship, flight courses, equations, plans, inventions… had nearly been lost because of that girl. If that had happened, she would have been thrown out his spaceship at this very minute.

He strode into the corridor, down the staircase, and into the kitchen. Belle was there, and she stopped him without a word but with a glare and a plate of the white nutritive paste turned pinky by Belle adding tasty ingredients into it.

Nicholas assassinated Belle with his gaze and she murdered him with her eyes. He leant against the counter, took a spoon and ate. It tasted sugary this time. He ate in silence and cold shoulder, and put the plate into the sink, not about to wash it. She had forced him to eat, she could do the dishes.

He prepared a teapot of farherb infusion, drawing water from the tank of hot water. They spent the five minutes needed to infuse the farherb in a very incomfortable silence before he pulled out two metal mugs from a drawer and he poured the weak drink into them. He kept his in his hand and left the one intended for Belle by the kettle.

Belle crossed the kitchen, took her mug and retreated, putting the table between them, and leant her front against it not to turn her back on Nick.
As he stayed mute and stared thoughtfully down at the ground, she kept her eyes fixed onto her drink. Belle was totally lost in her thoughts and she jumped out of her skin when he spoke and dropped her mug. It bounced off the edge of the table and fell on the ground, splashing tea everywhere.

She knelt and picked it up, observing it. It was dented from the shock against the edge of the table.
"I’m sorry" she said, meaning it. Nicholas was an arrogant ass, but he had agreed to fly her and it was his things. She had no business damaging them. She also suspected he had enough griefs against her and she didn’t want to add to them. She showed him the mug, and the dent in it. "I’m so sorry, but it’s… it’s dented but you can hardly see it."

Nick looked at her like he couldn’t understand why she was all apologetic for a cup and not for everything she had done to him before.
"It’s just a mug…" He replied in an impatient voice.

She looked relieved, and straightened to put the dented mug on the table. He stared at her interrogatively for a moment before he restarted his sentence.
"We need to land on a planet."
"Is there a problem ?"

He looked at Belle as if she was an idiot.
"Didn’t you want me to nap ?" His tone suggested the exact same thing.

Belle frowned a little and forced herself to stay calm. “Yes, I did.”
"Then I can’t fly the spaceship and sleep in the same time."
An insult targetting Belle’s intelligence was hidden in Nick’s voice, it was not said but they both heard it clearly.
"I thought it could fly itself. Something called autopilot." She countered.
"She can autopilot." He answered with a big emphasis on the gender of the spaceship and no hint of explaination as to why it wouldn’t happen. "We’re still stopping."

Nick collected Belle’s mug on the table put it and his empty one in the sink by his plate. He made his way to the corridor leading to the bridge, but stopped by Belle. He looked into her eyes, then leant a little, invading her personal space.
"Clean your mess."

Belle didn’t give the pleasure of a reaction, and waited he had left the room before doing the dishes and sponging the floor.

She felt a deep trembling and fell to her knees. She hurriedly grabbed the kitchen counter. She held on for dear life, trying to prevent herself from falling or being sent against the table or the wall.
"NICHOLAS ?" She yelled, thinking they were going to crash or they were attacked and she was properly terrified.

No answer, but she could hear the engines revving, changing their rythmns, they were going slowlier too. As the flight softened, she dashed into the cockpit, finding Von Stiltskin peacefully sat in his armchair, observing variables on the screens attached to the armchair’s arms. The spaceship was flying over a vast expanse of dark green water.
"Nicholas ? What’s going on ?"
"Oh Belle. We pierced this planet’s atmosphear. Everything’s fine."
"No, everything is not fine. I thought we were attacked !"
"We’re not. Just landing the ship."
"Next time, warn me, I nearly fell."

Nick glanced at uninterestingly at Belle, then back at the screens. “Next time, sit down. You have a cabin and there’s a seat here.”
He pointed at the copilot chair without even looking and Belle breathed deeply to keep calm. She answered in a deceptively soft voice.
"Next time, Nicholas, just warn me before going into atmosphear and I’ll make sure to sit down"
"Hmm hmm" He answered distractedly.

Belle glared at Nick’s profile and went to sit down on the copilot’s chair. She looked out and realised what they were flying above and her face filled with wonder.
"Never seen that much water, Belle ?"
Nick’s soft voice pulled her out of her amazement.
"No… I’ve heard it existed and seen pictures but I never thought I’d see it for real."

Belle didn’t see Nicholas giving a little fleeting smile which disappeared almost as soon as it appeared. He didn’t understand his reactions to her. She infuriated him, and he was still angry at her, but when faced to the choice of a planet where to land, he had selected one with an ocean because she had never seen one.

Nicholas lowered the flight till it almost brushed against the surface of the water. The shield parted the ocean under the spaceship and sending splashes behind them and Belle grinned in joy. Soon a beach appeared and Nicholas landed the ship, parallel to the water front.

He locked everything, put every outdoor alarms and glanced at Belle.
"I assume you will not stay in your cabin, even if I ask ?"
"You assume correctly."

Nick’s lips tightened for a second but he didn’t activate the indoor alarms.
"I’m off to sleep. Do not go outside. The doors alarms are activated. If you try, there’ll be hell to pay. Do not touch any buttons but the door ones. If you do, I will skin you for your pelt."

Belle rolled her eyes but nodded her agreement. Nicholas escorted her back to her cabin, and glared at her one last time before closing her door and retreating into his bedroom.

He laid down in his bunk, covering himself for his first real sleep since Belle got on board. He was lying on his front, nuzzling his pillow and breathing into it, surprised himself thinking her scent had evaporated. But he was falling asleep and this last thought didn’t register.

Belle waited fifteen minutes for Nick to sleep, and she got out. That was the first time she was unsupervised in the ship, without Nicholas’ huge glooming shadow, ready to murder her if she did something he didn’t like. She walked around, and noticed a narrow staircase leading to the ceiling. Looking closely, she saw a hatch and the door button wasn’t glowing any colour. She walked up the stairs and tried opening the door but it didn’t work. Maybe it was broken, but considering how much time Nick spent making sure the ship was working properly, she suspected a voluntary seal of the door. It meant there may be another floor Nick had condamned. More rooms ? Maybe. She’d ask later.

She turned around and went into the kitchen, observing the ship itself. The inside was stern, dark, and looking at it in a closer way, it was dirty. Actually, the place was filfthy. There was grease stains and dust on the dark metal walls.

Cleaning the spaceship crossed her mind, but she decided against it, as she didn’t have any cleaning products, and she didn’t want to risk pressing a button unpurposely. Nicholas seemed about to have an anxiety attack each time she opened a door, so dusting around would be out of the question. Belle had read all the books she had brought on board, and as they weren’t in a headcity or close to one, she couldn’t buy some new ones on her tablet. However… The kitchen was in her boundaries and she could take care of it.

She reordered everythings : transfered mugs from drawer to cupboard, moved the cutlery from shelves into a little basket she put in the drawer vacated by the mugs. She separated and ordered the spices and aromas by alphabetical order, and put together the stashes of white powder used to make the Paste. Somehow, it had now an official name : the Paste, with a capital P.

She proceeded to dust and remove the grease from the counters… Obviously Nick was a genius with everything enginy but total crap at everything requiring more than technical knowledge. She rolled her eyes at this typical maleness.

———————————————————————————

Flout was looking at his scanners. That was a job he took very seriously, despite a history of letting go of some preys. He just needed some drops in his eyes from time to time, and that was the moment spaceships chose to fly by his radar antennas. It was a medical problem. The Roggers was a Spaceship with a human atmosphear and Flout wasn’t really human. He had eyes like a fly’s, three fingered hands, and a body thin like a human skeletton but black-coloured and reflecting light in dark multiple colours like a beetle, and covered in little hairs that were able to feel the air around. For this reason, he hated clothes. They were not natural. He wore only shorts, the Captain forcing him to. It’s not as if it was needed to hide his genitals, they were not put on the outside of his body. His own planet was very humid and the ship was too dry for his eyes health. He needed drops, and he needed them often.

His eyes were currently tired, stinging from the too warm air. There was silence around, it was heavy and Flout knew that he needed to find a prey quickly. His medical condition had caused his shipmates to miss attacking a rich Venussian merchant spaceship. That day hadn’t been good. The Captain had not been happy that day, and Flout’s back was still hurting from the Captain tearing his hairs off his back.

A golden dot appeared on the scanner, and Flout’s eyes widened, and his bugsy mouth widened in a grin, letting mandibles appear. Finally, a prey… There was a lot of magitrion particles left behind. It meant lots of engine power, and lots of engine power were generally required for heavy ships, which were heavy because of heavy marchandises.

Flout grabbed the phone next to him and speed dialed the Captain’s cabin.
"Captain ? Flout here. We have a customer here."

Flout’s hairs tensed, and he gave a full body shiver at the Captain’s low cruel chuckle.

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Nicholas emerged from sleep. His mouth was like full of cotton, bit dizzy. His eyes opened slowly, the comforting dark metal meeting his eyesight. He smiled lazily, stroking his beard into the pillow. He stretched, feeling rested for once. This feeling of bliss lasted about ten seconds before he froze as he remembered a little fact that was synonym of troubles. Belle. Fuck.

He jumped on his feet but as his legs were entangled in the sheets, he fell on the floor, left leg tied up.
"FOR FUCK SAKE ! BLOODY FUCKING HELL !"

He rolled on the floor, and sat up and eased his left foot out of the beddings. He got up, and stroked his Tshirt to ease the wrinkles, before putting his waistcoat on. He startled when he realised what he was doing and he frowned, ready to go and check if she had done any damages to his Baby. He stroked the wall lovingly.
"Hey… If she touched you, I’m going to kill her."

He straightened and opened his door. He peeked into the corridor, left and right and saw no one. Hmmm… Maybe she was in her bedroom ? Somehow he didn’t think so, but he went to check, just in case. He knocked on her door twice and waited. Indeed, of course, she wasn’t. This meant… She could have gone to the bridge. He shuddered. He strode through the corridors, down the staircase, and entered the kitchen. He saw her sitting there, on a chair, reading on her tablet.

Nick sighed and Belle looked up at him.
"Hello Nicholas." She smiled. "I hope you feel better."

Von Stiltskin slowly spun around Belle, looking everywhere. Something was different. He couldn’t tell what yet, but something was different.
Belle continued. “I made a pot of farherb.” She advanced a mug of farherb toward him, keeping the dented one for herself.
"Something has changed…"

Belle grinned privately, happy her hours of work had been noticed.
Nicholas suddenly glared… “It’s clean. It is clean.”
Belle nodded gleefully. “Yes ! I’ve cleaned ! I’m glad you’ve noticed.”

Nick narrowed his eyes, expected a catch, actually surprised she had done something good for his Baby.
"Well…"

Belle had expected Nick to thank her but from his behaviour, he wasn’t going to. He took the mug of farherb and sipped it. He looked into it, then nodded and drank it. He observed Belle, and tilted his head, before holding out the hand with the mug toward the exit.
"Do you want to go outside and see the ocean ? You can even wet your feet if you dry them before coming back in."

Belle looked amazed then her face lit up with a huge smile.
Nick felt this smile like a punch in his stomach and took a step backward.
"Oh Nicholas, this is wonderful, thank you !!"

She looked about to hug him and he actually circled around the table not to tempt her, grabbed a cloth and threw it on the table before her.
"To dry your feet." He explained quickly.

Von Stiltskin drank the mug bottom up, burning his mouth from tongue to the back of her throat.
"Let’s go."

He retreated into the cockpit and deactivated the alarms, and took the remote control of the ship. It looked like a game controler with a little screen, and Nick had configured it to control the alarms, the hatch, and the warming up of the engines, amongst other things. It was easier as he was alone and for emergency exits.

He opened the hatch to make sure the remote was working. It did. Without waiting for Belle, he got out, and regretted his sunglasses. He needed to buy new ones. This planet would be considered by humans as a paradise. Warm ocean, sun, beaches all around… It was like a nightmare to him but Belle had cleaned Baby, and for this, she deserved a reward. Hence the staying here a bit more. Alone, Nick would already be back into space. He hated sunny planets, the luminosity was way too high and aggressive.

His data on the spaceship had indicated the water was safe, but the plants were toxic to humans. As long as they didn’t touch the plants, they were fine.

He waited, and Belle finally appeared, holding the cloth. She had changed. She had mostly kept to her pratical clothes but over the last ten minutes… She had done a little cutting to fit the planet’s weather. She had removed her vest and cut her tunic’s sleeves. He had not noticed her tunic was that fit and he refused to give that fact more than this thought.

He looked at the sea and the sun reflecting on the water blinded him. He rubbed his index and thumb to his eyes and down the bridge of his nose.
Belle stood by him.
"How does it work ?" She asked.
"What ?"
"The water… How does it work?"

He looked at her questionningly but answered. “You just walk in, dearie. Don’t breathe the water in, don’t drink it. It must not enter your body by your face in any way. But you just wet your feet, k ?”

Belle nodded frantically. “Can I go ?”
"Yeah sure. Remove your shoes first."

She obeyed and ran toward the water, all happy. Nick watched as she stopped just by the water, a little frozen. She observed it and touched it with her toe. The water covered it with the next wave and she grinned. She turned to Nick for a second to grin at him and she walked bravely into the ocean up to her ankles.

Nicholas felt as if he had been punched again. He should stop giving her reasons to smile-punch him, he was not a masochist. He watched the surroundings as Belle walked along the shore, and seeing no immediate danger, he tried to relax but he found out he couldn’t.

———————————————————————————

The Captain had discreetely followed the ship embodied by the golden dot on Flout’s scanner thanks to the magitrion particles it left behind.

It led them to a peaceful planet, on the side of the planet the furthest away from the headcity. This planet was used as a holidays destination by a lot of people from a lot of planets.

It had landed on a beach. The captain grinned and laughed internately. These people were asking to be robbed. Landing so far away from civilization, alone obviously. He had ruled out a merchant ship, it made no sense for one to land there. Maybe rich people with their crew wanting privacy… honeymooning ? Good good… Riches and credits were even better than marchandises to be sold. The Captain was not a difficult man considering preys, but he preferred things he didn’t have to make an effort with. Money and jewels were his favorite. He fingered his rings with a grin.

A crewman knocked on the door of the Captain’s office.
"Captain ?" He spoke from the corridor. He didn’t want to risk his ire. "We have a visual on the ship. We are just above it, and the invisibility shields are on, Sir. It shouldn’t be able to pinpoint us. We can see a woman walking along the beach, while a man is observing her. No other signs of life, unlike the ship has cold shield, which we couldn’t figure out. It is an unknown ship, Sir. The datas couldn’t identify its class, or the planet it’s from. I’m sorry about this, Sir."

The crewman sounded terrified, but the Captain inside merely grinned. It was… a mystery. He liked mysteries. It meant things to dissect, people to interrogate and to torture if the provided answers weren’t satisfactory… He’d probably find interesting items into that ship, he could dismantle it and sell into separate pieces ? Into collections, maybe. He grinned, and rubbed his hands together with glee.
"Prepare the attack, Mr Holden. We’re going down !" The Captain exclaimed.

He laughed and strapped his weapons. He was going down himself this time. It was going to be so much fun.

———————————————————————————

Nicholas didn’t see the scanner screens alerting of the pirate ship as he was outside, observing Belle walking, more like making sure she didn’t screw up an entire ecosystem, actually.

It was a surprise when the pirate spaceship arrived from the forest side, in their back. It flew over them with barely a sound, and opened fire on Baby. The shields glinted gold with every blast from the shooting.

Nicholas jumped down under cover of the shield, the sand cushioning his fall. He rolled on his belly, looking for Belle instinctively. The girl had done like him and had jumped. Up in the sky, the pirate ship was doing a U-turn and was about to attack them again.
"BELLE !"

She glanced at him and he gestured at her to come.
"RUN ! COME HERE !"

She jumped to her feet and started running toward him.
Nick used the remote control to open the hatch and start the engines. He shoved it in his pocket and looked up. He realised with horror she was not going to make it before the other ship had another go at her.

Before he realised what he was doing, he was running toward Belle full speed, and he tackled her. His shoulder connected full speed and strength into her abdomen and Belle went from running the fastest she could to flying backward in less than a second. The sand absorbed a little bit of the impact their body made. Nick had wrapped his arms around her and they rolled together on the sand.

Behind them, a huge explosion sent sand on them and Nick jumped to his feet. He was not much, but he was standing between Belle and the ship. It was already turning around to come back at them.
"Belle, you’ve got to get up."

Belle was on her back, holding her hands as they had been before Nicholas got up, poised on his shoulders. She couldn’t breathe.
"Belle, get up !" The man above her insisted.
She couldn’t get up, she just couldn’t.

Suddenly, she felt herself jerked up to her feet. Nick had picked her up, and started running toward his spaceship, dragging Belle forward.

They entered the shields protection just as a laser shot fell behind them. They were protected from the blast but not from the sand. Nick didn’t let Belle fall, he pulled her toward the hatch and inside.

He dropped her then, leaving her in the storage and he ran to the bridge, launched himself on the piloting console, and boosted the shields to their maximum, decreasing the weapons power. Nicholas had faced pirates before, and generally, those ships were armed to the teeth, full of evil murderous people wanted on numerous planets, and quite fast. His survival rules to survive them were “shields up and flee”

He closed the hatch, and pushed the engines to their maximum. The spaceship took off brutally forward, escaping laser shots, and Nicholas flew up full speed toward the atmosphear layer.

The turbulences were horrible, Nicholas got nearly thrown away from the console. Atmosphear layer breaks weren’t supposed to be that fast. A ship was supposed to press against the layer till it gently popped open. At the speed they were going, Nick’s spaceship would tear it through. Too much of it and a planet wouldn’t be protected enough from solar winds and could die.

Von Stiltskin held on to the console as tight as he could. In the storage area, Belle had huddled between two fastened boxes and was trying not to hit them.

Nicholas’ ship burst into space, dark space replacing bright sun in not even a second, and Nick activated hyperspace.

The pirate ship appeared in space following Nick’s hole.

The Captain growled. His prey had gone into hyperspace. He hated that. He had thought that those two were tourists and they were not. He swore to himself he was going to find them again and revenge himself.
"Mr Holden, do we have the picture of that ship ?"
"Yes, Sir, we do."
But for the time being, they had marchandise to sell.

———————————————————————————

Von Stiltskin put the ship back into autopilot and observed the scanners for a full minute, checking if they were followed. And from the first conclusions, they weren’t. He sighed in relief.

And he remembered he was not alone on his ship.

He walked to the storage area.
"Belle ? Are you here ?"

Silence answered him.
"Belle ?" He insisted.
"I’m here."

She got up and walked, an arm around her middle. She was putting on a brave face, but from her way of standing, Nicholas could see she was hurt. He had hurt her when he had speared her.
"Oh… I didn’t mean to hurt you…"

He cautiously approached her and held his hand out.
"I’m going to lead you to the medbay. I’m going to relieve your pain and see what you have, alright ?"
"Nicholas…"

They looked at each other, and Belle took Nicholas’ hand. One of the corners of his mouth lifted quickly and he led her into the kitchen.
He faced the back wall of the room.
"The medbay is used as a panic room too. It opens with this."
He took the remote controler out of his pocket and showed her. He manipulated the controler and the wall slid right, letting a big bright well lit room.
Nicholas led Belle inside and made her lie down on a white translucid bench.
"Lift your tunic, I need to see your chest" he ordered.

Belle stared at him, her mouth a hard line.
"Look, Dearie, I have no care of your charms. I’m trying to heal you, so if you don’t want to be healed, well fuck off and stay in pain."

Nick made to leave but Belle’s voice made him stop.
"I’m sorry, Nicholas" She said in a contrite tone. "It’s just… Thank you for saving my life."
"I hurt you."
"You still saved my life. They could have killed us and I imagine it would have been worse if those men had captured us alive."
"Definitely. I’m going to run a diagnosis now. It should be painless. Lift your tshirt."

Belle lifted her tunic, showing him her ribs were sporting bruises already. Von Stiltskin looked at her.
"I think they’re cracked." He said. "Relax."

He turned and grabbed a long thin grey item. He held her above Belle and pressed the tip of it. A purple light bathed Belle and a screen lit up in the wall facing Nick, drawing her figure in yellow. Purple areas of various saturation appeared around her middle, but her arms and legs were mainly yellow.
He explained. “The more intense the purple, the more damage.”

Signs that made no sense to Belle appeared on the screen.
"Your ribs are cracked, Dearie." He looked at her, looking bothered. "At least you’re alive."

Nicholas walked around Belle and she grabbed him by the white Tshirt sleeve, forcing him to stop.
"Don’t blame yourself, Nicholas. You did nothing wrong."
"I do not. You are alive, that’s what matters in the end."

Nicholas went to a smallish console.
"Do not panic" He ordered.

Of course, Belle started to worry. “What do you mean ‘do not panic’ ?”
She yelped from surprise and then from pain when the table underneath her moved, and curved itself around her to become a bathtub. As it did, Nicholas talked, trying to make his voice soothing but it came out impatient.
"You will be covered in a medical gel. This will make you sleep and will relieve your pain. In 50 hours, you will awaken and you will be healed."
"But… won’t it kill me? If I cannot breathe-"
"No. It will see to your many needs, Dearie. Relax. I’ve done it numerous times. You won’t feel time pass."
"Nicholas, it can’t be, I can heal with time too-"

She sounded obviously scared.
He pressed more buttons and Belle got covered in gel, shutting her numerous protests up.

Von Stiltskin closed his eyes and enjoyed the silence. Finally. He could be reunited with his Baby in peace. She wasn’t talking anymore. He was happy, he could hear the gentle and nearly silent purrs of the engine and not her unsufferable yapyapyap.

He left the medbay and locked it, knowing Belle would be safe in here. It was probably the safest place of the ship, packed in medical gel, food and even some water. There were weapons too. It was the last fortified place in case of attack. Nick suspected the ship could even be flown from there but had never found any clues proving it. It was a good thing considering that would mean bad people attacking him on his own ship.

He entered the kitchen and opened the drawer to take his mug. It was not there. The two mugs weren’t there. In their stead, a basket with cutlery. What the fuck ? What happened ? He frowned. He started to open rushingly every drawers and every cupboards, seeing everything neat and tidied up and absolutely NOT as he liked and was used to. He then knew what had happened. Belle happened. Fucking Belle fucking happened. He was going to maim her. He was going to dismember her. He choked up with sudden fury and sat down heavily.

Growling like a beast at every breath, he found out the place of the mugs - with the boiler, teapot and farherb bags in the middle cupboard - and made himself a teapot of it. Drinking it calmed him down a little, but he was so angry… He didn’t remember being that angry at one particular person, but that girl who thought she could mess with his things was.. infuriating. He didn’t think a word existed for how annoying she was.

He forced himself to a ten minutes respite before getting up and striding in his cockpit. He had work to do. He wanted to know if he had any information on this pirate ship who attacked them in his data and add to it if they had, or create it if they didn’t have anything on it.

If the cameras had taken a good picture of it, Nicholas could add it the surveillance system for the ship to notify him in case it came again on her scanners.

And so, he worked.