From Tumblr: Anon Ask - About Rumple's non-sexual romantic gestures

[nym_wibbly]

Bed of Thorns Rumple really seems to like the nonsexual ways of being tender to Belle?
~ Anonymous

Oh, definitely. He’s very demonstrative with the people he cares about. Initially in A Bed of Thorns, he’s more tempted by that than by sex with Belle. He wants to touch her hair, to watch her because she’s beautiful. To hold her and look after her. Give her all the nice things. He doesn’t expect those things to be any more welcome than the sex, but there’s a wistful enjoyment to his yearning for those other things. He doesn’t have many ways left to express that softer side of his nature - he’s buried them all under the ‘beast’ for so long.

Once he realises that Belle welcomes his gestures, that he doesn’t need to be hesitant or pretend it doesn’t matter to him - pretend to be someone/something he’s not - he’s as happy as he’s ever been in his life. It’s not the sex, for Rumple, though he’s definitely not complaining about that; it’s being allowed to be close to someone, and the idea of Belle’s acceptance. He can’t believe in it, not for a long time, but he does yearn for it. He’s a romantic.