The next several days were a flurry of movement and preparations. Belle was almost immediately swarmed by the women of the village, having caught the wedding bug, all memories of thinking her the oddball or the loony-toon were completely forgotten. One older lady, the wife of our 'official' mayor, (he was required by the revolutionary laws but he was more master of ceremony than anything else really), immediately took over things and got the entire village organized into teams to set up for the ceremony.

Both the prince and Belle made to interject when she took over but like everyone else, she managed to bulldoze right over their objections. Taking a horse right up to the castle to speak with whom I knew were Lumiere and Cogsworth though we were never introduced during the entire time, we were kept far too busy.

With all the people of the castle restored and no longer able to clean the place up we were shanghaied into clean-up, decorations, catering, whatever orders she gave. I was personally assigned flower gathering, it doesn't sound exactly like my job, but when you're hanging from a rope off the side of the castle with a small pair of clippers you wanted the strongest man in the village holding the rope And yes I was fully aware of what should have happened in the story the entire time I had one of my neighbors dangling off the side of a mountain.

The entire damn reason we were even doing this was because Madame Mayor wanted flowers for the wedding and the only damn place there were flowers were clinging off the side of the castle. Sure there were plenty NOT clinging to the side of the castle walls but she felt those were perfect where they were and would ruin the look if we harvested those particular flowers. Despite the cold, the roses that had appeared enwrapping the castle remained healthy and vibrant, but as none of us knew how long that would last teams immediately went to work gathering up the roses to use in the wedding.

Maurice was actually a Godsend when he set up a much more stable climbing apparatus for the flower gatherers to use besides a rope and a strong pair of hands, which certainly helped smooth things over with Maurice and the folk of the village who'd been nothing but apologies to the man. Thankfully Maurice wasn't the sort of man to hold a grudge and the whole matter of d'Arque was gratefully swept under the rug for the time being.

What wasn't forgotten though was Gaston's attempted regicide, thankfully we had been too focused on the wedding preparations to make an issue of it. But while nothing was said, that was also a problem, nothing was said...to Gaston. The people of the village, after that impromptu celebration remembered Thierry's curse and made a point to avoid Gaston whenever possible, unless it was vital to communicate with him they simply ignored him. And this, I think cut deeper than anything else that had been done to him.

My brother had lived his entire life as the center of attention. He'd certainly done plenty to earn their praise but until now none of his crimes had ever made our neighbors angry at him and stop seeing him as a hero. Now that his actions had finally come home to roost he didn't know what to do. He tried to enter conversations with the others, they ignored him. He'd try to show off to the others with his feats of strength...they ignored him. He even tried to start a fight once, they ignored him.

Until the day of the wedding I was the only one to speak to him on a regular basis. It was a surreal experience as whenever we were alone my brother was completely lost and repeatedly told me so. But I stuck by him, my anger with him was already over and done with and I was never one to hold a grudge.

The afternoon before the wedding the two of us were sitting in one corner of the castle some hallway with suits of armor lining the walls. We had stopped to take a quick lunch break, consisting of some bread and meat that had been brought up from the village. We were observing the armor in silence when Gaston swallowed his mouthful of food and didn't start taking another bite. I noticed his pause and glanced over at him, taking a swig of the wine we'd brought along to wash the bread down I cleared my throat and said, "What is it brother?"

He didn't answer at first then said, "I...I really messed up didn't I?" His voice was small and hesitant. Absolutely nothing like he normally was like.

I didn't answer at first but after a moment in an uncomfortable tone I replied, "Yeah...you kind of did Gaston." What else could I really say? After all he'd done there was no other way to describe his actions.

He sighed, his face crestfallen, "The others won't even speak to me." He turned to me, his eyes questioning mine, "Why are you?"

I was quiet for a moment then I grinned and clapped him on the shoulder, "Because you're my brother Gaston. Do you think I pounded on you because I hated you brother? No I did it because I was worried you do something that would get people killed. Besides you were going down a dark path Gaston. You've always been prouder than an alley-cat, it's your defining character trait. It's been your greatest strength, but it's also been your biggest flaw. Remember when you insisted on riding Thunder before you even finished learning how to ride a horse? That horse threw you at least a hundred times before you finally got him to listen to you."

He winced in memory of that entire fiasco, "A hundred and twelve times. That time he dumped me into that briar patch was probably the worst."

I raised an eyebrow, "I figured it was the time you were tossed into that tree-hollow full of bees."

His eyes widened in horror, "You mean that really happened? I thought that was a nightmare after being thrown so many times." He shuddered dramatically.

That set me laughing and then the both of us were laughing our loud guffaws echoed through the empty hall. Wiping a tear from my eye I continued, "If you hadn't been too proud to give up, you'd have never tamed that horse and he's been the best horse ever hasn't he?"

When I saw him nod I continued, "But that pride also blinded you to things you didn't want to see...or accept."

He winced at that. "Like Belle."

"Yeah, like Belle. That's why I did what I did, I had to puncture that pride of yours and make you see sense. I didn't do it because I hated you, or I was jealous of you. I did it because you're my brother and I love you. We've been together our whole lives, through thick and thin, through good times and bad and I thought I was losing you to your damn pride. Twisting you into someone who wasn't my brother anymore." I laid my hand on his shoulder.

"For what's it's worth Gaston...I didn't like doing it." I told him in as heart-felt a tone as I could.

He snorted, "Bullshit Pierre."

I pulled back in surprise at the vehemence at his words.

"You've been wanting to beat me into the ground since we were eight. You just never could get the fire burning hot enough to do it." He looked at me as serious as a judge giving sentence on a convict...then couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. My relief at his lack of animosity set me laughing as well and soon we were laughing so hard we were leaning against each other. The hallway soon echoed with our howling.

Getting a grip on myself I wiped a tear from my eye and gasped out, "Phew! I needed that."

Gaston was wheezing himself and managed to choke out. "Yeah, me to."

As we were getting a grip on ourselves we heard the sound of chattering women, looking to the right we spotted the du Rhin sisters along with a few other girls from the village being led by the red haired maid I had spoken to the morning of the broken curse. I felt a slight thrill when I spotted Annie Lachance among them, her smaller height actually making her stand out among the other girls...at least in my eyes.

When they began approaching us we stood up and greeted them, "Good Afternoon ladies." I replied, giving my best smile...which I hoped didn't scare them off. Gaston simply nodded his head, expecting them to ignore him again.

The women paused and greeted us in turn. Then Paulette surprised us both when she turned to Gaston, "Are you feeling better Gaston?" She asked, apprehension on her face and she glanced at the other girls right after she spoke.

Gaston blinked at that, this had been the first time that someone had spoken to him since Thierry's curse unless it was utterly necessary, and the first time someone had asked about his well being. He recovered quickly enough and managed to give one of his old smiles and said, "I'm doing fine Paulette, I'm tough and I heal quick. I'll be better in no time."

Paulette gave a small smile and said, "That's good to hear Gaston….If you want I could make you something tonight."

I watched something click in my brother's head; his position shifted from his pose of bravado and became much more relaxed, "I'd like that very much Paulette. Living off Pierre's cooking is a fate worse than death."

A few of the girls tittered and I punched his arm in mock outrage. Then the maid told them they needed to move on and help finish decorating the ball-room. Annie brought up the rear of the group and paused a moment to turn back and smile in my direction before hurrying after them. To my surprise Claudette, who had shrugged her shoulders when Paulette had spoken with my brother also turned her head to look back at us. But when I raised my hand in a wave good-bye she flushed and snapped her head right around.

My hand froze in shock...what was going on?

My brother stepped to my side and commented, "So...Crimson and Gold or Green and Black huh? About time brother."

His words made me flush and I snapped down my hand to my side. Face still red I turned back to him and retorted. "Well what about you? Blue and Sable's gone but Emerald and Gold still seems to be a possibility."

He looked after the girls, his face unreadable, then he shrugged, "Well it's not important right now Pierre." He wrapped one arm around my neck and said, "Lunch break's over, we need to get back to work."

I smiled, returned the gesture and said, "Right, need to deal with all that furniture. Seriously where did it all come from?"

With that the two of us walked down the hall, singing a working song we learned from a Swabian merchant years ago. Gaston in his slightly operatic baritone, me in my Ravenscroft-esque bass.

"Just whistle while you work…"

Our whistling rang through the empty hallway.