Hello all, Lyddie here, with another Cogworth story! (If you missed it in the description, I'm formally known as LyddieLovesWriting For some reason there isn't a label for the wardrobe in the characters...anyways, I'm using the musical version name for her because it's brilliant: Madame de le Grande Bouche, though I did come up with my own first name for her (Also, I'm going under the theory that Cogsworth is a last name-stay tuned in later chapters for his first name). I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: If I owned Beauty and the Beast, Cogsworth would have had his own movie by now, so obviously I don't.
Cogsworth felt himself growing. He felt his flesh beginning to replace the cogs that he had somehow almost grown used to. He could hardly believe that the prince had finally done it, yet here he stood in human form. He heard screams of delight from every direction; he figured he should be greeting people, but he was far too overwhelmed to handle interacting with people. Unfortunately, his solitude was short lived, because Lumiere came to him and started kissing his cheeks repeatedly. "Lumiere, please, this is hardly appropriate."
"Oh, Cogsworth, lighten up, the curse has been lifted!" he danced around, "we should go find the master and see if we can assist him."
"I suppose you are correct about that, mon ami," Cogsworth relented and followed Lumiere out to the balcony.
They watched as the prince kissed Belle. He quickly embraced them.
Soon, the castle was in full swing. Prince Adam returned to his rightful place as prince and everybody in the castle was celebrating the lifting of the enchantment. Madame de la Grande Bouche walked over to him with a smile on her face, "It is so lovely that the enchantment has been lifted."
"Yes, of course…" he replied, distractedly.
"Cogsworth, it wouldn't hurt you to celebrate a little," her voice so boisterous, she was practically singing.
"I haven't the time, Madame."
"Madame is so formal, Adelynn is fine."
"Adelynn, I really have many affairs to worry about and do not have the time for careless folly."
Adelynn sighed, "Alright, I suppose I should get back to singing for the guests' entertainment…" With that she walked away.
Cogsworth rolled his eyes at Adelynn, who always neglected her work for personal entertainment. However, when her voice filled the ballroom, he couldn't help but smile at its beauty. He never understood why they needed to have a castle opera singer, but could also never bring himself to complain about it.
He sometimes resented himself for being such a workaholic, after all, the ball was a celebration of all of their years of hard work; the entire purpose of the ball was to give those who over worked a break and those who were unable to do the work they loved the chance to work again. According to Prince Adam, Cogsworth most definitely deserved a break. Cogsworth sighed, worrying about royal affairs that would need taken care of in the coming weeks.
Adelynn was watching him from afar as she sang. She could not explain the exhilarating feeling she got whenever she saw him, but she pushed the thoughts of her lonely heart aside and went back to singing. After the ball ended, Adelynn stayed behind to help clean up. This is something she had never done before, and was quite unsure of what she could do to help. "Adelynn, I'm surprised to see you still here," the gentle voice of Mrs. Potts said.
"Oh, yes, I figured if I got my glory back that I should help out."
Mrs. Potts gave her a knowing look, but replied, "Oh, I see."
They continued clearing out the ballroom, when Adelynn dropped a plate, sending it shattering to the ground, "Oh my!" she exclaimed, "Maybe helping out was a bad idea…"
Cogsworth was the closest to her when it happened, so he called for someone to get a broom. He then noticed that there were some glass shards in the top of her foot, "Adelynn, you should get your foot cleaned."
"What?" she said, then looked down, "Oh, I hadn't even noticed that."
Cogsworth held out his arm, "Come along, I'll help you with that." Adelynn gaped at him. She could hardly believe he was leaving the ballroom for anything short of a crisis, but she took his arm and allowed him to lead her out. Walking proved to be painful, despite the fact the glass was on the top of her foot, the changing pressure seemingly pushed the glass further in. At one point she gasped in pain. "Are you alright?"
"Oh, I'll be fine!" she replied.
They searched a sitting room and a servant brought in a basin of hot water. "This may hurt a bit, but I will get that glass out."
She winced in pain as he dug the glass out of her foot, "Sorry I am so clumsy…" she said, embarrassed.
"It is not a problem, we do have quite a few plates, losing one will not be an issue…after all, we are all human again. No need to worry."
"Why are you the one doing this?" she gestured towards her foot.
"Oh, before I moved to France I was studying to become a doctor."
"You were? Why did you stop?"
Cogsworth froze, "I, uh, discovered I was not very good at it."
"You seem to be doing well right now."
"Well, this is rather simple. I-I am not even sure why I did not instruct someone else how to do it…" he muttered embarrassed.
"You are doing a fine job," she assured him. He finished cleaning it out in silence. "Thank you, Cogsworth."
He muttered a quick, "You're welcome" then left without another word.
Well, I hope you enjoyed chapter one of Opposing Love. I'm writing this as I go this time, which I normally don't do, so I don't know how quick updates will be, but because of this, I can take suggestions for the course of the story if I like them enough and will give credit. I have somethings planned out for the story, but there's a lot of open air as well. Thanks for reading.
