True love will help us get home. ( she can't help but to laugh at the irony. it's by no means a happy sort of laugh. joyless, it comes to an end rather abruptly as she presses her lips together to form a thin line as though she's biting her tongue on saying something further to him, what that might be, he's left to imagine.

frown upon her face still, she turns her head to look away from him. to say that he reacted harshly was very nearly putting it a bit too gently. Belle however, being the silly and foolish girl she is, hasn't voiced taking much more issue with it than she already had the day she left his castle. and it was as though she had even forgave him, wasn't it? perhaps she had, still, there were moments such as this one in which she couldn't help but to feel scorned just a little bit.

nothing, however, can prepare her to hear the words that leave his mouth in that moment. her chest constricts and all breath is gone from her lungs. dizzily, she lifts her head almost too quickly to look in his direction and while she means to, she cannot hide the completely shocked expression on her face. now, it's true that she knew he had to feel something akin to love back for her in order for the curse to have even broken a little bit, he's never said it before — he'd never given himself the chance to do so in the first place )

Y, You—

( what should be a happy moment is leaving her feeling brokenhearted and despairing all over again. swallowing a dry lump in her throat, she hears her footsteps rather than feels them as she moves toward him, a sort of numbness spreading through her body.

she doesn't even voice a reply to his confession, a part of her very much wants to but the reasonable side of her mind reminds her that it likely wouldn't help in this situation, no matter how much she wants it to )

You aren't a monster. ( her voice is quiet ) Monsters don't often love, Rumpelstiltskin. There is hope yet.