Chapter One: Rise and Shine

It was a glorious dream, much sweeter as everyone knew it had been reality. For the first in the longest time, they felt alive, real...human!

Moments before the castle servants had felt the transformation consume them. All seemed lost as the human spirit dissolved from within, frankly leaving them for dead. It was over...but only for a little while.

The true magic words rang through the castle in an echo..."I love you." The final part of the enchantress' demands had been met; the girl was able to love the master in return. As he regained the spirit, so did the entire household, and in swirls and bursts of magic, everything was as it was before.

Moving to the ballroom, all the while hearing a grand mix of merry tears and laughter, the Frenchman, like everyone, marveled as he and the others took their first steps back into the human world. It truly had been nothing short of a miracle, he thought. In a place where darkness and selfishness had reigned for years, love in every form once again conquered all.

The master and his lady, the woman who had seen the beauty within and undoubtedly saved their lives.

His friend and superior in the corner, engaging in a rather close conversation with the lady in waiting; why did he not see that one coming?

On the opposite end, a mother dropped to her knee to meet her son's embrace. She had not cared for herself during the spell, only her child, and she rejoiced seeing him run the halls once more.

As for himself, his eyes roamed the room looking for his own love. Over the course of the spell he had barely succeeded in clutching the memory of her human features, and now trying to piece it together, he looked for a sign of her presence...

"Bonjour, handsome..." The whisper came from behind, and he turned to find her, just as he remembered, if not certainly more beautiful.

As usual, his heart raced faster than his words. "You...you look so much better...I mean...I liked you before...but..."

She ambled alluringly closer, the sway of her walk, her grin more charmingly attractive with each step...

"Believe me...I like you better this way too..."

He would have thought himself under the spell again, but recalled the feeling of flaming blood was normal for humans also. He reached for her...she whispered his name...the bell tolled...

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"Lumière!" shouted a louder, male tone strongly as the man himself wearily opened his eyes. He gave his head a shake to wake himself up, and looked at the clock on his side table, even having heard the human one outside his door.

Groaning groggily, Lumière rose and quickly changed into decent attire before meeting his colleague, Cogsworth, the head of the household and former clock, in the hallway. "It is far too early for your incessant shouts of 'arise from your slumbers!"

The stout Englishman responded, "Sweet dreams then?"

"They would have been if not for you."

"Dreams are all well and good, but there is too much work to do. For now, it is time to seize the day! The Summer Celebration cannot plan itself you know."

Lumière could not understand how the man could be in such a good mood so early in the morning. "Do you sleep...ever? Do you even know what the word means?"

"Of course I do," Cogsworth replied, not catching the sarcasm although returning it in full force. "Early to bed and early to rise as the saying goes."

Lumière shook his head. "You are insane," he said simply, turning to head in the opposite direction.

Cogsworth looked back confused. "Where are you going? The hall is this way!"

"Things to do, people to see! I will be right down."

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Counting the doors quickly and quietly, Lumière stopped as he found the one he was looking for and knocked. No answer. He knocked a little louder, this time opening it a little.

"Ma cherie?" he whispered as he tiptoed inside. "Are you awake yet?"

The answer came in the form of a quiet sigh from further inside the room, and he entered silently, closing the door softly and shifting to where she slept. The castle's maid, Babette, the light of his life; he smiled a little, thinking back over time. She swept into his life what had seemed an eternity ago. Before the enchantment, they spent the year squabbling, bickering, and teasing each other, both not ready to admit how much each sincerely cared until the night that started the madness. He had held her close in the stable lofts, wanting to protect her from every threat, but moments later finding that he had failed instantly as they were taken into the first phase of their object forms.

Thankfully, that was all over now, and he knelt at her bedside. He brushed away a lax lock that had escaped the loose braid she had tied together before going to sleep, and gazed at her precious face. Ah the features that had transfigured her from a pretty girl he found adorable to a mature woman that intrigued him to no end. Her presently closed eyes that when opened had the most stimulating, mysterious look about them as they hid coyly beneath her lashes. The soft cheek he would nuzzle, adoring the smoothness as he caressed it affectionately. But none compared to her lips, almost naturally red even without any touches of lip rouge. Such a lush feeling radiated from them when they kissed making every moment pleasurable...

"We draw the line at the door, monsieur...I've always told you when I am ready for you to be so close, you would be the first to know."

Lumière, although he drew away instantly at her sudden words, smirked as he sat beside her. "You cut me to the wick, ma plumette; I try to be kind and wake you much more pleasantly over the human pocket watch's shouts and hollers, and you repay my thoughtfulness with such ruthless accusations? What do you have to say for yourself?"

Babette opened her eyes, blinking a little as the sun poured into her room through the thin curtains. As she sat upright, her hands slinked up his arms as she slipped her own around him. "I say, first, merci le Dieu that it was you so I could wake up agreeably, and second...go away while I change."

"Mmm, and I was very much looking forward to that part," he laughed, pulling away to avoid her scarcely hurtful smack of reprisal.

Yet she shrugged nonchalantly as she reached for a wrap to cover her shoulders. "Perhaps someday..."

He couldn't resist against a shiver that flew over him. "Don't tease..."

Babette flashed a mirror image of his own infamous smirk. "Who said I was?"

"You are the cruelest of women, amourette."

"I only learned from the best, namely you," she smiled before she ceased her playing. "But seriously go. La Celébration d'été, the last important gathering of the summer is this afternoon, and one kiss says you have not even started to help get things ready."

Lumière moved to join her, his blood simmering slowly to a boil as he got closer. "Then I suggest you accept your victory in that bet, mon amour..."

Babette held her hands out to stop him from getting any closer. "Vous contrôler, mon cher. You must help them first, for me if not anyone else. If you don't, you will hear every lecture in Cogsworth's book, and if that happens, the mood will be ruined, n'est-ce pas?"

He took a deep breath. "I'll have you know that I hate it when you are right."

She stroked his hair in the manner of a mother to her child, coaxing, "I know you do, but we will have our time together soon enough."

"Promise?"

"I swear it; now go on."

Reluctantly, he started to pull away, but looked at her longingly. "What about just a small kiss? For being so nice in waking you?" As he sensed a negative answer, he added very sweetly. "Please?"

With a great sigh, she smiled gently. "Now who could resist that?"

"Hopefully not you."

She drew close, a smug grin playing at her lips. "But of course, I can not."

Drawing her close, he crooned eagerly, "Ma plumette..."

"Mon cher..."

"Are you two QUITE finished now?!" One would figure that being a former clock, Cogsworth would have had better timing as his voice boomed from the other side of the door. "We DO have quite a bit of work to do for the party, you know!"

Babette sighed, "Told you."

Lumière growled, "That miserable old..." A nudge of Babette's elbow stopped his words immediately. Cogsworth had impeccable hearing, and at present, it was best not to provoke the second in command. "Very well, I suffer for you and you alone." He waited a second longer only to take her hand in a fervent kiss. "Thus, until later it is..."

TBC...