TAKE COVER!!! (jumps into foxhole)

Heat-seeking missile: -goes KABOOM!-

And they said filling the foxholes with ice-cubes was a dumb idea.

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Beauty and the Beast. *sigh*

I woke up to Belle shaking me. "Uh, five more minutes, mom..." I said, sleepily.

Belle giggled. "C'mon, sleepy-head. Time to get up," she said. "You don't want to miss breakfast, do you?"

I jumped out of bed, quickly getting dressed. If there was one thing that could get me out of bed quicker, it was the mention of food... especially when it was served to you my enchanted Disney characters! "Let's go."

"Well, hold on! I have to get dressed, too!"

I waited as Belle put on a beautiful emerald-green dress. I was wearing my regular black pants with a light-blue blouse, courtesy of Glenda. We then walked down the hallway, heading to the dining room.

"So, where did you go last night?" Belle asked.

I froze. "How did you know I went somewhere?" I asked.

"I saw you come into the room earlier this morning."

I was surprised. Belle looked like she was asleep last night-- pretty good actress, I must say. "I woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep, so I decided to walk around the castle," I told her about meeting Jean, and how I fell asleep again, only to wake up with a blanket over me and the Beast in his chair, asleep.

"You really think he covered you with the blanket?"

"It was either him or Jean, and as tired as that coat-rack sounded, it's a safe guess that it was Beast. ...Kind of sweet of him, if you think about it."

Belle chuckled. "He does seem a lot nicer. ...Kind of."

I could sense she still had a bit of doubt about the Beast in her voice, but I let it slide. I knew sooner or later she'd warm up to him.

We came across Mrs. Potts when we reached the dining room. "Good morning, ladies," she said, tipping forward in a curtsy.

"Morning," Belle and I both replied.

"Breakfast is not ready yet, in case you are wondering. It will be ready within an hour or so."

"What should we do until then?" Belle asked.

I thought about it. "We could take a walk outside and check out that garden Lumiere and Cogsworth told us about," I suggested.

Belle smiled. "I figured you would want to do that," and we went up to our room and grabbed some cloaks.

We began walking down the hall, the little footstool running up and yipping beside us. I reached down and stroked it's back. "Good boy," and it yipped again, nuzzling against my leg.

Cogsworth walked by us. "Good morning, ladies," he said, then faced me. "Oh, Lynn, the master would like to speak with you."

"Me?? Why me?"

Cogsworth shrugged. "He wouldn't say."

I looked at Belle, seeing a look of concern in her eyes. "You can go ahead, Belle. I'll catch up with you later."

She sighed, put an arm around my shoulders, and whispered, "Be careful," and then walked away, the footstool following her.

I followed Cogsworth up the stairs of the West Wing, toward the Beast's room. I couldn't help but feel a little nervous. What did he want to see me for? Did I do something wrong? Was it about last night? Was it about my dressing up as a guy?

A more horrific thought entered my head: What if he had fallen in love with me instead?! There goes the movie, I thought, worriedly.

Once we reached his room, we saw the Beast standing on his balcony with Lumiere, wearing a white shirt and dark-blue cloak. That's when I knew exactly what part of the movie I was in, and my heart began to stop racing (a little). "You... wanted to see me?" I asked.

The Beast turned to me and grinned a little. "Yes, I would like to talk to you," he replied.

I stood next to him on the balcony, looking down at the snow-filled garden scenery. Some critics would wonder, if the castle is on a mountain, how could it have a garden? And my answer would be: It's a Disney movie, so anything is possible.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"It's about... your sister, Belle." Beast replied, looking down at Belle, who walked through the garden with Phillippe. "Tell me, what is she like?"

I restrained breathing a sigh of relief. Thank God, he still had more interest in her! "Gosh, I don't know where to start. She's funny, she's very kind-- of course, you already know that-- she loves to read, she's very smart, especially compared to the other girls back in the village. She's quite an individual where we come from."

"You're quite the individual yourself, Lynn." Lumiere said to me, bouncing his eyebrows. "Tell us, why do you dress up as a man, rather than as the beautiful girl that you are?"

I blushed a little at his compliment, then told them what I told Jean last night: about being a tomboy and having to dress up as a man in order to learn archery, fencing and everything. "It's a good thing none of them suspected me, especially when my hat fell off one time. Once I learned all there was to know, I began practicing at home."

"Why didn't you just dress up as a girl and train?"

I sighed. "One, it's hard to fence while wearing a dress and heels. Two... everyone in the village thinks that girls should learn how to cook and clean, nothing else. And they gave Belle and I a hard time just because she likes to read and I prefer to look like a guy. They think it's wrong,"

"How absurd!"

"Yeah..." I turned to Beast. "Anyway, why did you want to know so much about Belle?" ---even though the reason was obvious.

Beast looked back down at Belle, then rubbed his bandaged arm. "I've never felt like this about anyone before." a look of determination appeared on his face. "I want to do something for her! ...But what?" He turned to us for advice.

"Oh, let's see... flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep..." Cogsworth said.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, every girl wants that." I scoffed, sarcastically. "If you want to show her how much she means to you, you've got to do something special, find something that sparks her interest."

"Lynn is right, Cogsworth," Lumiere said. "It must be something spectacular, something she'll really like... Wait, I know!"

"What?" Cogsworth and Beast asked.

"The library! She has an interest in books, no?"

"That's a great idea, Belle would love that!" I agreed.

"You really think so?" Beast asked.

"Trust me, I know Belle, and she'd go ga-ga if she had a library in her grasp."

Beast smiled and nodded. "Then a library she shall get. Thank you," And he left us on the balcony.

"Go get her, Romeo! Sweep her off her feet!"

Once he was out of the room, my eyes fell back on the enchanted rose, and I was once again beguiled by it's beauty, and I thought about my dream-- my memory-- from last night. I looked at the rose and sighed deeply.

"What is wrong, mon-cherie?" Lumiere asked, spotting the concern on my face.

"Oh, it's nothing," I replied, turning and looking back down at the garden, just in time to see Beast talk to Belle, leading her back into the castle. "Gosh, I hope spring gets here quick. Your garden must be beautiful when it's not covered in snow."

"Ah, you enjoy gardening, I take it?"

"Very much. My mother and I would spend all our time in our garden, planting roses-- she adored roses-- and it was basically our favorite past-time. We used to garden every sunny day, until..." I stopped sighing again.

"Until what?" Cogsworth asked, and Lumiere nudged him to shut it.

"Until she passed away."

"You had to ask, didn't you?" I heard Lumiere scold to Cogsworth.

I shrugged. "It's okay. It doesn't hurt to talk about it. Besides, I like remembering my mom... man, she would love this place."

"She would??" Lumiere and Cogsworth questioned.

"Sure. Who wouldn't love visiting an enchanted castle?" I smiled at them, then left.

As I walked down the hallway, I looked down one corridor, where Beast was about to show Belle the library. I chuckled, seeing the eager look on his face, then walked on toward the doors that lead to the garden.

I walked along some hedges, past a fountain covered with dead weeds. I pulled the weeds off the fountain, throwing them in a pile. I continued my walk, seeing that some dead plants were covering some plants getting ready to bloom for spring. I pulled out the dead plants, giving the fresh plants more room to grow.

Every few feet, I saw an area of the garden that needed touched up-- some dead leaves that needed to be raked away from some bushes, tall grass that needed to be cut, vines covering some statues, etc. Finally, I walked over to a shed by the stables, grabbed some gardening tools, and got to work.

Sure, it was still winter, but I wasn't going to wait until spring to spruce up the garden. How could it grow after winter if it was surrounded by dead things? I would not stand for it.

As I worked, a scrawny shadow fell over me. "Isn't it a little cold to be working in the garden?" A voice asked, and I looked up and saw Jean standing behind me, a scarf wrapped around his neck-area.

I shrugged. "Hey, it's better to get the dead weeds out of the way so they won't be around in the spring," I replied.

He nodded. "Good thinking. You must really like to garden if you care so much about ours."

"Hey, it's practically my hobby."

"And you're good at it. It's starting to look beautiful again... even though nothing has grown yet."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"Mind if I help you?"

"Sure, go ahead." I handed him a small shovel and we began to uproot dead plants.

After five minutes, he nudged my arm. "Hey, look, it's the master and your sister!" he whispered, and we looked over, seeing Belle and the Beast feeding some birds. "What do you suppose they're thinking?"

I smiled wide. "I don't know... but something tells me Belle's noticing something about your master that she's never seen before." ...I knew what she was thinking.

We continued working, secretly glancing back at Belle and the Beast. Suddenly, as I looked away, a snowball hit me. "What the...?!" I sputtered.

"Sorry, Lynn!" Belle called.

I smiled devilishly, packing in a snowball. "Not yet, you aren't!" I threw one at her, but she easily dodged it.

I saw Beast pack one huge snowball, ready to toss it... but I hit him with a snowball before he could throw it. "Hey!" he called, but didn't really seem mad.

A snowball fight erupted between us just then: Jean and I against Belle and the Beast. It wasn't exactly a fair competition, since Jean was having trouble packing snowballs (since he had wooden hangers for hands) and the Beast could make snowballs the size of Canada.

Still, we had fun, creaming each other with snowballs until noon, then we decided to head inside. That's when I heard my stomach growl, realizing that I had missed breakfast due to my rendezvous in the garden.

"Hungry?" Jean asked me, hearing my stomach's protests.

"Yeah, just a little," I said, and my stomach growled again. "Okay, more than a little."

"C'mon, lunch should be ready by now."

I followed him into the dining room. I looked back, seeing that Belle and the Beast weren't with us. They're by the fireplace, reading. I remembered.

"It looks like Belle and your master have grown to like each other," I said.

"Yeah, there may be something there that wasn't there before," Jean replied.

I chuckled as that song popped into my head. "I wouldn't doubt it."

A/N: So... review?

catapult: -goes twang!-

giant wooden rabbit: -goes crash!-

Whoa! ...Sheesh, that's the last time I let the mob watch a Monty Python movie!