"Chip? Chip!"
Mrs. Potts sighed as she peered into yet another room tucked rather deep into the Northern end of the castle. Within, she found a team of maids and footboys sweeping from one end of the drawing room to the other. Such large numbers working simultaneously on the same task, rare in most noble households, was actually rather understandable in their situation. The drawing room stretched for at least a quarter of a mile from corner to corner. It did not help that all the walls decidedly formed a pentagon and increased the size drastically.
Mrs. Potts cleared her throat. "Pardon me, but have any of you seen Chip?"
None of the servants had seen him, terribly sorry ma'am. Would she like any of them to help her search the castle?
"No, no, don't bother yourselves," she assured, knowing it was just an excuse for them to get away from their monotonous job. Sighing, she hopped back out to the hallway.
Even ten years later, he was still exactly like the naughty little boy he once was. Wherever Chip was, she hoped he was behaving himself.
And Chip was behaving himself – or rather, he couldn't misbehave even if he wanted to. He had fallen asleep. It had to do with his actions some hours back, something no one else in the castle would dare to attempt especially this late into the curse. He had convinced the Beast to join him in a game of hide-and-seek.
"You remember how to play, right, Master?" little Chip chirped, bouncing cheerily beside the cased rose his Master had gotten so consumed staring at these days – though not too close. Master got pretty touchy when it came to the enchantment, and the teacup didn't want to make things worse.
The Beast, eyes listlessly still on the rose, grunted vaguely. Chip, as perpetually young and inexperienced as he was, took that as a 'yes'.
"Good!" Chip hopped down in a practiced descent: chair, lower table ledge, then to the cracked marble of the floor. He hopped eagerly to the exit. "I'll hide first! You count to thirty, then ya gotta shout, 'Ready or not', okay? No cheating!"
He hid in his favorite spot, a tight space behind a pillar near the front entrance.
After thirty minutes, he had drowsed off. Two hours later, somewhere else in the castle, Mrs. Potts started searching for him. An hour later, the Beast snapped out of his melodrama and realized that there were much more pressing matters at hand.
He swept through the castle on all fours, since that was fastest. The household objects he passed cowered fearfully at the thought of what horrors awaited the thing that caught his attention. Their imagination, however, differed slightly from what actually happened. For the Beast approached the pillar in the grand entrance hallway, crouched down so low that his face was just inches from the ground, and found the little teacup snoozing just where he had expected to find him.
Chip woke up quickly enough at the sound of a very familiar voice growling his name. He broke out into a huge, sleepy grin. "It's about time, Master! You took forever. I must've found the best hiding place in the castle."
The Beast sat up and his shoulders sank as he watched Chip hop out of the shadows and into the dimness of the hall. "… Chip, go back to your mother. I cannot play with you."
"What're you talking about, Master?" Chip whined. "We used to play together all the time!"
And it was true. Ten years ago, the Beast had been an eleven year old prince, and his only friend had been the perpetually cheerful youngest son of the head housekeeper. They had played hide and seek inside the castle countless times. That was why it was so easy for the Beast to find him – it was, and apparently still continued to be, Chip's favorite hiding spot.
The teacup hopped around impatiently while the Beast struggled to find the right words for all the thoughts running through his mind. He wanted to apologize for so many things, not just to Chip, but to all the other manservants – for the enchantment, the wasted years, his failure to them as a master and a prince.
But so much time had passed, and he had already sunken so deep into despair. None of the words he knew were necessary to say could travel up his disfigured form. Instead, he could only say something he didn't realize he had been dying to say for the longest time.
"… It's my turn to hide next, right?"
Chip leapt in delight and nodded his eager little head.
"Fine. You… count to twenty-"
"Thirty!"
"Don't interrupt m…! Do you want me to play this game or not?"
The teacup grinned and the Beast gradually lost his glare.
"Alright, thirty."
Chip nodded one more time. Then, gleefully, he spun around facing the nearest column and started to count.
The Beast went back to all fours and quickly disappeared into the castle. It was too late for him to right his wrongs. But at least he could play one more decent game of hide and seek with probably the only person in the world who wouldn't give up on him.
Eventually, the entrance hall became silent except for the sound of Chip's counting. Realizing he was now left alone to his own devices, he started to wander around a little, racking his brain to remember the numbers in the right order.
He almost didn't notice the sound of the tall double doors of the front entrance creaking open. He quickly looked for a hiding place.
"Hello? Is anyone here?"
Five minutes later, the teacup was rushing into the kitchen, surprising the staff with all his excitement. "Mama, Mama! There's a girl in the castle!"
Since that, hide and seek went completely forgotten in Chip's mind, and remained that way as the first floor of the castle sprung into life, eager to impress the pretty new guest. It took hours until the Beast, lurking in the forests of the back garden, realized he wasn't going to be found anytime soon.