Chapter 10
Belle stumbled into the pod, her hair plastered to her face and clothes completely saturated with water. Cogsworth and Lumière started up from where they lay half across the table, and Babette rushed towards her, peeling Belle's numb fingers away from the strap of her bag.
"Is it just me or is it raining outside?" Belle forced out through chattering teeth, attempting a smile.
"Come on, Belle, get out of those wet things and have a bath to warm you up, non?" Babette asked forcefully, peeling away Belle's jacket and skilfully untangling her favourite blue ribbon from her web of dark hair. Shakily, Belle nodded and edged towards the bathroom, visibly shivering with goosebumps layered up her arms. "Lumière, amour, put the kettle on," Babette ordered, rubbing the younger girl's arms vigorously while frog marching her out the living room.
"At your service, mon ange," he replied, stretching like an over-indulged cat before snapping into action. "Just tea?" he shouted from the kitchenette.
"Y-yes please," Belle stuttered, barely audible over the sound of running water. "Thank you!"
"No problem, mademoiselle," he grinned, even though Belle couldn't see it.
Babette stalked out the bathroom, and started rummaging through the cupboards while the kettle made its earthquake-like rumble.
"Biscuits are under the cutlery drawer," Cogsworth proffered, still sitting on his chair.
"Merci," Babette nodded, poking around for a jammy dodger. "Why are you not going to do anything - leave all the work to Lumiére and myself?"
"Because, mon ange," Lumière smiled, squeezing her waist as he reached for the tea bags, "my dear friend Cogsworth cannot cook to save his life, huh?"
"I tried making pancakes for Adam's twelfth birthday and - through no fault of my own, may I add," Cogsworth admitted, "I broke four plates and set off the fire alarm. Twice."
Babette and Lumière looked at each other, entertained the thought of not laughing for a brief moment, and proceeded to shriek profusely. The kettle clicked off, and Lumière stirred Belle's milk and sugar into the tea. Babette moved over to the bathroom door and knocked gently.
"Belle?" she called.
"Yeah?" The sloshing of water was heard, and the door opened a crack.
"Your tea is ready," Babette said, handing the mug and biscuit through the door.
"Thank you! I hope you and Lumière and Cogsworth are having some too - I'd hate for you to go to all this trouble just for me."
"No need for any feelings of guilt," Cogsworth intoned from his seat on the table.
"I feel confident that you would do the same for us."
"If you don't mind," Lumière asked, "would you mind telling us how you got this wet and cold? I'm sure there are an abundance of cafés and bars in Dunbroch."
"I did go in one, but, uh, Adam was there and we had a disagreement," Belle said, sipping her tea. "I just kind of ran out after that."
"What sort of disagreement?" Babette asked, sitting down at the edge of the doorframe.
"Oh, you know, the usual - il me regardait bizarrement, m'a invité à sortir - dieu sait pourquoi - et a les boules quand j'avais dit non. Trou du cul."
"Ahem - Belle, I am aware you speak French, but I do not and I am still in hearing range," Cogsworth coughed pointedly.
"I know," Belle said, moving so that the corner of her earthy eye was visible through the door, "but I feel bad when I insult him. He's your cousin - it's not your fault I don't like him."
"Anyway," Lumière said, standing up suddenly, "shall we be nice to you and say you're asleep when he comes in from work?"
"It's ok - I'll probably actually be asleep by then anyway - but thank you for the gesture," Belle replied. "Now if it's alright with all of you, I'm going to shut the door and get on with my bath."
Half an hour later, Lumière and Babette had gone out to one of the other small bars in town, Cogsworth was studying, and Belle was finally out the bath. Flushed pink, she dashed the short distance between the bathroom and her bedroom, rubbing the ratty blue towel over her shoulders once she was concealed within. Fumbling around for her dressing gown, Belle scooped all her hair into her towel and settled into her favourite part of a bath - reading while her hair dried. Unfortunately, Belle had learned the hard way that she was just too clumsy to read while actually in the bath, but this way was still nice.
She knelt down beside her bookcase and ran her fingers delicately over the spines, tapping them like piano keys as she hummed a tune under her breath. When she had finished a new book and was looking for something to re-read, Belle inevitably went for the 'It-is-the-book-that-chooses-the-reader,-Mr.-Potter' approach. She always screwed her eyes up tight, extended one finger out like the E. T. poster and, swirling it in concentric circles, suddenly jabbed at a random title.
Her mother used to light candles in honour of it.
Now, Belle opened her eyes at the ribbed, well-read texture of the spine before her. Jane Eyre, she thought. Brilliant. Smiling, she pulled it out, only for the front cover to fall away and all the pages to flutter to the floor, birds falling on an autumn hunt.
"Oh," she said. I forgot. George got his hands on this.
Belle jumped up suddenly, leaving the tattered remains of her most-loved book on her floor, and scrambled around the room quickly getting dressed. I'm sure there's a bookshop somewhere in town. You can get a new copy - just dry your hair and go, Lecteur.
"Hair dryer . . . hair dryer . . . Cogsworth, have you seen the hair dryer?" she called, scurrying out her room.
"W - what?" Cogsworth blinked heavily, half-asleep on the kitchen table.
"Hair dryer. Where is it?"
"Adam's room," he mumbled, settling back down underneath his textbook.
"Okay," Belle whispered, facing the door. "Okay, just in and out and down to the bookstore. Yeah, I can do this. Yeah." She reached out, hand on the doorknob. Belle glanced back once to the pod door, steeled herself, and gently eased herself in.
It took her a minute to adjust to the darkness, as the curtains had been closed tightly and all other sources of light were switched off. Blindly, Belle felt the wall for the switch, keeping the pats as quiet as she could. When her fingers managed to press down on it, the relative brightness caused her to wince, shielding her eyes with her hands. Keeping her gaze as far away from the contents of Adam's room as possible, Belle quickly scanned the floor to find the hot-pink hair dryer Resa had given her for her seventeenth birthday. There it is, she smiled. Right on top of the wardrobe.
She picked her way across the floor, dramatically slipping on a discarded pillow case haphazardly left out, before Belle was finally in front of it. She stretched up, grabbed the nearest part of the hair dryer she could reach (the cord) and lightly pulled, only for something hard and sharp to fall on her head, before the hair dryer clunked onto her shoulder and then the ground.
"What's this?" Belle muttered, picking up the sharp object.
It was a photo frame. A man, woman and child smiled out at her from their confines. The man was short, stout, but with kind, piercing blue eyes and balding hair. His wife, Belle assumed, was significantly taller, with deep brown eyes and a shimmering mane of auburn hair. The little boy in between them was unmistakably -
"What do you think you're doing?" Belle whipped around in shock, dropping the photo on the floor again to face the little boy in the photograph ten years older - a furious Adam Darensbourg.
"I - I'm sorry - I was just looking for my hair dryer and -"
"What are you doing with that?! Why are you looking at that?!" He took a step forwards, and Belle straightened up, backing away slowly. If she thought his eyes had flashed fire before, it was nothing compared to the animalistic fury contained within them now.
"I'm sorry, it just - it just fell down when I was getting my hair dryer -"
"GET OUT!" He was nearly in her face, and Belle shoved him as hard as she could, knocking him into the wardrobe, and ran out his room. "GET OUT!" he yelled again.
"Belle, what is it, what's the matter?" Cogsworth was wide awake, waddling behind her as fast as he could.
"I'm sorry, Cogsworth, I tried, I really did, but I can't stay here another minute!" Belle hauled the door open and raced out the pod, feet flying, hair slapping her face, eyes burning with tears that were destined to never fall.
A/N: If you know where we are in the movie, you know what's happening yet.
It has taken me ten chapters to write 30 minutes of screen time. This is ridiculous.
Reviews make me happy :)
Oh yeah, and Belle says "He looked at me weirdly, asked me out - God knows why - and got pissed off when I said no."
EDIT: A very helpful guest reviewer gave me a correction in the French I used (because I am lazy and have been using Google translate instead of actually translating.) They also pointed out that I've been spelling Lumière wrong the entire time, so I'll go back and correct those. Thank you!