Belle ignored the viscous banging on the door and continued to shift through the mountain of dresses.

"Come down to dinner…Please."

The 'please' sounded forced and not at all inviting and Belle had no plans of satisfying him. When he had first dumped her in the room she had been terrified, yes, but even more than that she had felt angry. He had no reason to be so rude with her, she didn't care if he was an animal, he had enough human qualities to talk so he should act like a semi-decent human being.

At this point he was making Gaston look good.

With that thought, Belle's vision blurred. She had forgotten about Gaston and what had almost happened. Oh God, for all she knew Gaston was still furious and looking for her. If he found her – Belle cut off that train of thought and steeled herself pulling out yards of gaudy rich dresses. She yelled out, "I'm not coming!"

She could practically hear his annoyance through the large door. She could also hear other voices, but she couldn't make out any of the words. Must be the invisible servants she thought while mocking the beast's descending voice.

She gave one final tug on the scarlet fabric in the wardrobe and almost screamed as she was buried in heavy silks, taffeta, and ribbon. She heaved the corsets, petticoats and shifts off her body with an unladylike grunt. The common dresses she was used to were nothing like these rich monstrosities. The gowns she wore were simple and practical, but these were almost to the point of being unwearable.

"Are you all right," The door handle rattled and the door shook. She glanced at the door with a smile, he wouldn't be breaking in anytime soon, unless he wanted to completely destroy his home. She'd already moved a chair, fainting couch, and chest in front of the door unless he got any ideas. She may have promised to stay here, but that didn't mean that she was going to make it easy for him.

"Belle, answer me."

Belle stared at the door, still sitting in a pile of fabric. He sounded genuinely worried. She hadn't even made that big of a sound. His attitudes were as volatile as the last few days had been for her. She didn't understand him. He had openly hurt her father, verbally abused her nearly every chance he had, taken her prisoner, but was still worried that she might have hurt herself.

"Belle," the door rattled.

"Stop! I'm fine." She stood up, "no thanks to you," she mumbled.

There was no answer, she could hear the rumbling snarls that was the beast's voice and once again the voices that she didn't recognize.

"Beauty, please open the door. I would be more than happy for you to join me for dinner tonight."

"Why? So, you can berate me again?" she moved closer to the door, "I for one am not in the mood. I may not be the smartest woman in the world, but I have been through a lot the past few days and thrust into situations that most will never have to endure. So to answer your proposal which you don't even bother to phrase as a question, I will not be joining you for dinner and I will not be joining you for dinner until you earn it. You have been everything but kind."

"What do you expect me to do?" His voice was stifled through the door, but no less imposing, "by refusing to meet me for dinner tonight you are refusing me a chance to prove myself kind."

"Well, you should have thought of that before you yelled at me." She turned on her heel and heaved a pile of dresses up into her arms and shoved them into the wardrobe with a bang. Sleeves and hems poked out of the drawers in random places.

More growling from behind the door, "Fine, but if you won't eat with me than, by god, you won't eat at all!"

"Master, just wait!"

"You were supposed to be consoling—"

"And kind—"

"You can't just walk—"

"Well, she's being difficult. Lumiere! I don't care, just stay here and watch the door, if she gets out than alert me immediately!" His voice faded as he went down the hallway.

Well, Belle had heard the voices this time. One was obviously Lumiere, but she didn't know which one they had both been male. Voices continued to murmur outside her door, but no matter how she tried without them yelling she couldn't hear a thing. She found it strange that the voices were right outside yet there were no shadows underneath the door to give away their presence.

She backed up as what the beast had said earlier sunk in, he had said something about how even though you couldn't see them, they were still there. Oh God, what if they were watching her every move in her room. She backed up slowly and looked up at the gilded gold ceiling, her eyes tracing over the violet walls. Of course she couldn't see anything, even with the numerous candles and large fireplace that took up a wall of the room.

She blinked and laughed at herself nervously of course she wouldn't be able to see anything, she was just being silly. There had to be another explanation other than invisible servants. Although invisible servants seemed more believable than a hulking animal that talked.

Belle fully turned around in the room, perhaps this was all just a dream that seemed very real. Yes! That was it, when she was in the forest searching for her father she had fallen off of Philippe and hit her head. Ha, it was just a dream and what a dream it was it—

"Ahh!" When she turned back towards the closet to enjoy her dream a bit more, one of the dresses was suspended in the air right in front of her as if it had been in the middle of checking the fit. The dress flung up in the air and swung around madly. Belle watched it as she backed up in desperation before launching herself towards the door.

"Oh, Dear, did I scare you? I was just checking your measurements—you're quite curvy you know! Oh, don't leave it's been so long since I've been able to dress anyone, I do miss it so."

Belle felt a ribbon loop around her ankle, making her fall to the ground.

"Sorry to trip you, Dear! All this ribbon is such a hassle and sometimes I get confused on what's what. Do you know your measurements?"

Belle looked around madly at the twining fabrics and colors, "Wha-What?"

"Oh, it's no problem I can just measure you myself… Where did I put I put my tape? No, not in there..Maybe," the voice trailed on.

Belle stared in horror as all the clothes that she had stuffed into the wardrobe were being strewn about by invisible hands. Random cloth was hitting her in the face and was being thrown across the bed.

"Wake up, it's just a dream. Wake up, it's just a dream," as a jewelry box came sailing towards her face, "IT ISN'T JUST A DREAM!"

She got up, untangling herself from the ribbon and ran to the other side of the room to the window, looking for really any type of escape. Whatever it was throwing everything in front of the door and she didn't want to walk past it. But, from the view, there was no way that the window was an exit unless she wanted to die a slow and painful death. She spun back around as the clothes started to move towards her, she gasped and swept underneath a mountain of flying ruffles and bows. Behind her she could her, "Maybe it's in the nightstand beside the bed... No, not there either, where would I have put it…"

Belle started tearing at the clothes in front of the door and to the furniture underneath. She gripped a chair and heaved with all her might and feebly flung it out of her path. The fainting couch she tugged and pulled and one of the legs snagged on the rug, ruining something that was probably priceless, but she was in no position to care. Once it was far enough from the doors span she latched onto the chair and as soon as she pulled it away, the door burst open with a bang and a tea cart came sailing into the room like carriage. The cart came to a screeching halt in front of Belle and Belle just stared as the teapot moved around the cart, pushing a teacup towards her.

Behind her, "I know it's somewhere! Oh, I fooouuund it!"

"Madame Georgette! You are scaring the poor girl, well, my, she looks absolutely terrified! What did you do to her?"

The dress that had first surprised Belle showed up and drooped beside her, "Oh, I didn't mean to scare her! Was it my drawers? I've been meaning to clean them."

"There's voices. From a dress and a teapot. A teapot. And a dress. And I am not dreaming. No, I'm not dreaming, I am utterly and completely insane," Belle backed up, "the people in town always called me crazy, but I never believed they were true. Of course, my dresses never tried to speak to me and I never talked to the teapot at home."

"Hush, girl, you are not crazy, you are as sane as I am. I am Mrs. Potts, Mr. Potts was broken a few weeks ago—Oh, it's a joke dear, it's supposed to make you smile not wince. And the clothes that have been speaking to you are Madame Georgette. Very rude of her not to properly introduce herself to you."

"I wanted to dress her, and besides I thought the master would have already informed her of us. With her staying and all, don't be so shocked Mrs. Potts, Maria told me, she is very quick with gossip."

"She's also quick at other less appropriate things. Here, Dear, drink this up, it will make you feel better.

Belle looked at the steaming cup that had just been shoved into her hand and tried to calm herself down. She traced her finger over a small chip in the cup and watched as the cup wiggled and then actually giggled.

"Maria, shouldn't be—Chip, how rude, stop that right now!"

"Sorry, Mama."

"Okay…" Belle sat the cup down hastily as it spoke and watched as it scuttled back to the cart. "Perhaps someone could explain what is going on," she interrupted their conversation.

"Oh, of course dear, you see—"

"The beast is lonely and needs a woman!"

"Georgette, stop! That was not what she was talking about she was asking about, I believe she was inquiring about the lack of servants being humans."

"Ohh. Well, she would have asked about that information eventually."

"What do you mean 'needs a woman'?"

"Don't worry about that, Dearie. As I told you I am Mrs. Potts and I am the 'spirit' you might say that controls all of the dishware and china. A very important job if you ask me. Madame Georgette here is in control of the clothes of the castle. She makes sure everyone is dresses—or I mean the Master is dressed and—"

"You have no idea how happy I am to have you hear, the master is simply a bore to dress—he never wants to wear pink. I can't fathom—"

"Georgette! I swear—well anyway, Dear, Lumiere is the light of the castle. He's in the fire place over yonder, but that's only his presence, don't worry he isn't actually listening. He was before to watch you, but now that I'm here he's free to do what he wants. Cogsworth is a little harder to explain and take in."

"You mean out of a group of spirits that wouldn't even be real in an average situation, one of you is hard to comprehend. I can't imagine."

"You see Cogsworth is time. He doesn't have a physical presence like Lumiere, me, or Georgette. He is just time, he can wind the clocks back to another time or fast forward them, but only to a certain extent, he can also stop time in a specific place, so that everything stops aging, well almost everything, you yourself should stop aging now that you are here, but for some reason the master ages, Cogsworth can't stop that. That is how the castle is at the moment. Frozen in time. Or at least until you break the—"

When Mrs. Potts suddenly stopped talking, Belle leaned forward, by the minute it was getting less and less strange that she was talking to a teapot. "When I break what?"

If a teapot could look nervous, this one did. When suddenly as if she couldn't contain herself anymore, the measuring tape soared at Belle, "Oh, let me measure you. You'll need new gowns if you'll be entertaining the master of the house! Let me see—Oh!"

Belle tore the tape from where it wrapped around her chest and threw it to the ground. "I'm sorry to disappoint you Georgette, but I don't want new dresses, I like the dress I have on and the ones I have at home, I'll be fine. Can you just send someone to collect them? I'd rather not bother you too much by putting you to work."

It was silent for a bit and Belle was realizing that they were clearly hiding something from her. Neither of them said anything as she looked at the dishes on the cart and the clothes strewn throughout the room, until finally she said, "is there something wrong with that plan?"

"Well, yes… You see, the master doesn't want you to have any contact with anything from your home. He wants you to start over here."

Belle shook her head, "but I don't want to start over, I have a life or I had a life, can't I at least have my own belongings?"

The clothes shifted towards the wardrobe, putting themselves back in, "I'm afraid not. Do not worry, describe your dresses to me and I can replicate them in the fabrics I have available, it will be just like your old ones."

"No, they won't be. Many of my dresses are my mother's that I grew into. As magical as you may be you cannot weave together the memories of my mother. It just isn't the same."

"…I am sorry. Maybe after some time passes, you can persuade the Master to let someone retrieve them. If you spend some time with him, you'll find that he isn't as bad as all that he seems. He's really quite pleasant if you get to know him."

"But, I don't want to get to know him, I don't want anything to do with him!"

Belle stood up from the bed and walked to the window and stared out. You could see miles and miles of green, thousands of shades. It should have been beautiful, but she just couldn't take any of the beauty in. Her father was wounded and most likely closer to death than life, Gaston was still out there and looking for her. What would happen if Gaston got ahold of her father. Her father wouldn't stand a chance in his injured state. She had promised her life away and had missed so much in the process, it had never crossed her mind that she wouldn't even be able to say goodbye to the man that raised her and she loved dearly.

She focused on the reflection in the window, she looked worn out and pained. Georgette and Mrs. Potts weren't talking anymore and by the absolute silence of the room she assumed that they had left her to her thoughts.

Maybe she could make it out here okay, she thought to herself. She already had more friends here than she had had in the village. She just had to remain optimistic. It was too much to think about now, she dragged her body away from the window and to the bed. Tired with the thoughts of her father and the overwhelming castle she laid across the bed, not even noticing that it was the softest bed that she had ever laid on in her life. She fell asleep immediately.

The Beast leaped up the stairs. Troublesome girl. He had acted cordial and gentleman like in his asking her to join him, but no, she had to refuse. He slammed the two entry doors to his den and walked across the bare-thread carpet. He opened the full windows and felt the blast of the cool night air. It was later than he thought. Time was so strange in the castle.

He gripped the window lining, being careful not to be too harsh with it. Why did she have to enrage him so. It was as if she purposefully tried. No one had ever purposefully tried before, it was quite surprising.

His chest rumbled, "I ask her to dinner nicely and she refuses, what does she expect me to do, beg? I do not beg."

His emotions were in a complete turmoil, he didn't like it. He liked her and didn't like her at the same time. She made him feel and think things that he hadn't thought of in years. It had been so long since he had been in the presence of a woman, an actual woman, not just some reminisce of a woman. Hell, if Mrs. Potts were still an actual woman she would look good to him and she had been nothing but motherly his whole life.

He was already thinking of her dark eyes and gentle face. She had to be the one. She just had to be. There were no other options for him. He turned away from the wind and picked up the heavy simple mirror. He rarely used it, but he had a feeling he would be using it a lot more with her in his castle.

"Show me the girl."

"…I don't want anything to do with him!"

Belle's image stood up and walked to the window. She was limping a bit and looked extremely upset. Beast felt pain shoot through his chest as her words sank in. He was never going to break the curse. He slowly sank to the ground and stared at her, not being able to look away. He watched as her face started to gain color and her face bloomed with hope. She looked tired still, but her face grew more optimistic and with her hope more beautiful. She walked to the large bed in the room and gingerly crawled across without even changing into sleeping attire. So tired she didn't even notice the dinginess of her dress.

He laid the mirror face down on the table and didn't bother looking at the rose that was on the same table. Looking at it just brought painful memories and hopes that would never be met. Who was he kidding. She would never want him. Never care for him anymore than she would care for a warden.

He sat with his horned head down, the cold air freezing him and dreamed of a life stolen from him.

Belle awoke when the gnawing in her stomach became too much. She groaned into the down pillow her face was buried in.

"Ugh."

She rolled over slowly and saw that the fire had nearly died down. It was nothing but an orange glow, she wondered if Lumiere was listening in on her. She pushed off the bed and pushed her hair out of her face from where it had fallen out of her braid.

She got up and walked around the room a bit. There was no sign of Madame Georgette. The room was now orderly. Everything had been cleaned while she was sleeping.

"That's strange," she murmured looking at the furniture that she had moved around, but was now in the place it had first been.

She walked to the door, pressured by the growling of her stomach. She tested the handle, wasn't locked and she hadn't expected it to be, it was what might be outside the she was afraid of. She opened up the door and poked her head out. No one. But, as Belle well knew that didn't mean that no one was there. She crept out anyway, because it wasn't as if she had anything to lose.

"Now if I was a kitchen where would I be?"

She walked down the hallways a bit, not towards the west wing, but to the large staircase leading down to what she assumed was the ground floor, but she had been over so many floors that she truly had no idea where she was in the castle. It was too large to learn in just a night.

As she came to the foot of the stairs she saw a fire blaze to life on a candelabra.

"Why hello, Ma Cherie!"

Belle jumped, "You must be Lumiere."

"You are correct in your assumption. May I be presumptuous and assume that you are hungry?... In that case, will you, be our guest?"