Chapter Text
Once upon a time, in the hidden heart of France, a handsome young prince lived in a beautiful castle. Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was selfish and unkind. He taxed the village to fill his castle with the most beautiful objects and his parties with the most beautiful people.
Then one night, an unexpected intruder arrived at the castle, seeking shelter from the bitter storm. As a gift, she offered the prince a single rose. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the prince turned the woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within.
When he dismissed her again, the old woman’s outward appearance melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. The prince begged for forgiveness, but it was too late. For she had seen that there was no love in his heart. As punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who lived there.
As days bled into years, the prince and his servants were forgotten by the world, for the Enchantress had erased all memory of them from the minds of the people they loved. But the rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose. If he could learn to love another and earn their love in return by the time the last petal fell, the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time.
As the years passed, he fell into despair and lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love a beast?
It’s the beginning of a new day in Villeneuve.
After helping your servants with the chores, you leave your manor and walk into the village to meet your friend, Belle.
“Y/n,” she greets when you arrive in town and meet her as she’s coming out of her cottage.
“Belle,” you greet in kind.
You’d met Belle five years ago on the day of your father’s funeral and you two had been inseparable ever since, despite your social statuses.
It’s almost 8:00.
Wait for it, you think, as the clock begins to strike the hour.
Once the clock finishes striking the hour, every villager you and Belle pass greets, “Bonjour!” like clockwork.
You stop and wait as Belle pays for a loaf of bread for the local beggar woman, Agathe, before she heads to the church to return the book she’d borrowed from Père Robert. The book she’d borrowed and finished recently was Romeo and Juliet, which had turned out to be her favorite work by William Shakespeare.
“Good morning, Belle,” Monsieur Jean greets.
“Good morning, Monsieur Jean,” Belle says. “Have you lost something again?”
“Well, I believe I have,” he says. “The problem is, I can’t remember what.” You can sympathize. For the last three years, you’ve been having that feeling that you’re forgetting something, but you don’t know what. “Oh well,” he says as he puts his hat on his head. “I’m sure it will come to me.” Belle feeds Monsieur Jean’s mule an apple and the two of you begin to walk off, as Monsieur Jean asks, “Where are you and Lady Y/n headed off to?”
“To return this book to Père Robert,” Belle answers. “It’s about two lovers in fair Verona.”
“Sounds boring,” he comments.
As you and Belle walk further into town, the whispers about you and Belle start as they always do.
“Strange, no question,” “Dazed and distracted,” “Never part of any crowd,” (that’s the comment you hate the most; you and Belle have tried more than once to fit in, but anytime either of you try to talk about some of the subjects that interest you the most that aren’t about the village or life in the village in general, everyone instantly loses interest) and “No denying, they’re funny girls.”
Finally, you both arrive at the church. As is your custom, you hover outside of the vestry, waiting for Belle to return her book. Soon enough, she comes out and you both set off to buy a jar of jam for Agathe.
The whispers resume, but you try your best to ignore them this time by asking Belle what book she'd gotten this time as you both buy that jar of jam. As it turns out, Père Robert didn’t have anything new and allowed Belle to borrow any of the older ones she’d liked. She’d gotten her old favorite, a story about a heroine who met a prince in disguise.
Soon enough, you and Belle find Agathe.
“Good morning, Agathe,” Belle says. “I don’t have any money, but…”
She hands over the bread and Agathe says, “Oh. No jam?”
You hand over the jar of jam and, just before you leave, you discreetly place ten francs in her cup.
When she’s about to protest, you whisper, “Keep it. You need it a lot more than I do.”
“Bless you, Lady Y/n,” Agathe whispers back.
More often than not, giving a fair amount of money or allowing Agathe to stay the night at your manor when it looked like the weather wasn't going to be pleasant has earned you dirty looks from some of the villagers, mostly Clothilde, who you mostly butted heads with. When you’d given Agathe money for the first time and had seen Clothilde give you a disapproving glare, you’d simply fixed Clothilde with a glare, silently daring her to tell you what you as a noble lady could and couldn’t do.
You and Belle begin to part ways, but not before she asks you, “You are coming over for lunch this afternoon, right?”
“Absolutely,” you say.
With a smile, you turn to head out of the village back to your manor, glad to leave the whispers of the villagers behind. With any luck, you probably won’t run into Gaston.
Unfortunately, you must have done something to offend a higher power in another life or some higher power must have it in for you.
Because at the very moment you begin to head for the gates, two horses carrying none other than Gaston and LeFou arrive. Before Gaston can notice you, you immediately turn around and slip into the crowd.
It's a skill that you've perfected over the years when you want to avoid him. And one that's mostly served you well on the few occasions you can avoid him, even as you spot him grabbing a bouquet of flowers and trying to make his way through the crowd toward you. Once you see a large enough crowd behind you, you immediately begin heading back toward the gates.
“Good morning, Y/n!”
You grit your teeth and resist the urge to rip your hair out of your head as you always want to do whenever you're forced into a conversation with this man, before you force a smile on your face and turn and say, calmly, “Bonjour, Gaston.”
Out of the corner of your eye, you see LeFou mouth, “Sorry” to you and you give an understanding nod, before turning back to Gaston, who hands you the bouquet.
“For your dinner table," he says. "Shall I join you this evening?”
“Sorry, not this evening,” you say.
Not ever, in fact, you add, silently.
“Busy?” He asks.
“No…” you say.
Then you quickly walk away and out of the village before he can engage you in any more conversation.
Later, you make your way back into town to join Belle and Maurice for lunch with a basket of food. Luckily, you're able to avoid Gaston this time.
Once you arrive at Belle’s cottage, you tap lightly on the door and Belle lets you in. You see Maurice sitting at the table, tinkering with one of his music boxes.
“I thought that was you, Y/n,” Maurice greets.
“Hello, Maurice,” you say, as you set down the basket and pull out some vegetables and fruit.
“How was your walk?” He asks.
“It was fine,” you answer, as you begin helping Belle with lunch. “Though I ran into Gaston this morning.”
Belle gives you a sympathetic look, as she shakes her head and says, “Honestly, I don’t know what’s become of that man. He used to be...somewhat decent before the war.”
Ah, yes, that French/Portuguese war Gaston always went on about to whatever captive audience would listen. You’d been a part of the war too, in another way, but you never went on about it the way Gaston did. During that time, you’d offered up your manor as a convalescent home for the wounded and dying soldiers of your homeland and helped your maids care for the soldiers. Incidentally, it was where Gaston, captain of his battalion at the time, first met you. And from that day on, after he’d healed, he’d been trying to woo you even though you’d shown little to no interest in him.
“If you ask me, I think the war only added to his character," you say, remembering all the times you had to feign interest in whatever war story Gaston regaled you with to try and impress you, which more often than not was about how if it weren't for him, the whole village would have been annihilated. "That arrogance and conceit was probably already there to begin with. It just took the war to inflate all of that." Then you add, "I really can't see myself with someone such as him. I mean, I know he's good-looking and well off, but he's rude and conceited and...I just don't think he's the man for me."
If you're honest, you do want to get married, not for wealth or looks, but for love, like your parents had. You want someone who likes you for who you are. But the odds of ever meeting someone like that in this village or anywhere else are a million to one. And it's probably why you'll end up an old maid before it happens.
Later, after lunch, you help Maurice load the music boxes he and Belle are planning to sell at the market at the next village over into the wagon while Belle hitches up Philippe. Before Belle gets onto the wagon with her father, you hug her.
“So, what shall we bring you from the market?” Maurice asks you.
You pause to think, before you answer, “A rose. For my family.”
You’d been searching through the flower stalls for a rose to put on your family’s grave earlier, but had found none whatsoever.
“You have our word, Y/n,” Maurice says, before he and Belle set off.
"We'll see you tomorrow," Belle calls out.
"With the rose," Maurice adds.
“Goodbye, Belle,” you say, as you watch them leave. “Goodbye, Maurice.” Once they’re gone, you add softly, “Stay safe. Both of you.”