"Hold still." Maurice carefully dabbed at the monster's wounded fur with the rag, the way he had done to Belle when she was little and scraped her knee.
The monster roared, swinging his furred arm away from Maurice's touch, as gentle as he was trying to be. "That hurts!"
The furniture all cowered in fright. Instead of being intimidated by his roaring as he expected, Maurice instead felt amused. He sounded more like a petulant child at the doctor's than a terrifying, bloodthirsty beast.
"If you held still, perhaps—" He tried to phrase it as a meek suggestion, not wanting to anger the monster more.
"If you hadn't ran away, this wouldn't have happened!" he growled back without waiting for Maurice to finish.
He really did sound like a petulant child. "Well, if you hadn't taken me prisoner, I wouldn't have ran away." Maurice surprised himself with the boldness of his words.
"Well, you shouldn't have intruded the castle!" The monster grinned widely, showing his vicious teeth, but instead of feeling frightened, Maurice felt amused again. He looked like a child confident that he'd won an argument with an adult.
"So you decided to make me stay?" Maurice gently pressed the rag against his wound again, provoking a pained growl. "If you didn't want me here, you could've let me go."
The furniture of the castle cowered in fear again, obviously expecting a reaction from their master. Maurice tensed, fearing he'd gone too far, but the monster simply opened his mouth and then closed it, looking at a loss for words.
When he didn't reply, Maurice spoke up again. "You know, the wolves tore apart my invention." He dabbed at the wound again, provoking a restrained grunt. "It was a silly thing, really. It probably wouldn't even work. But still, I miss it. I worked so hard on it, and now..." He paused, the usual disappointment he felt when his inventions failed or the townspeople called him crazy for working on them welling up.
Again, the monster didn't reply as Maurice continued tending to his wound. "I suppose it was rather foolish of me to run off like that," Maurice admitted. "The wolves would've easily gotten me if it weren't for you." He paused, realising the truthfulness of those words. "Thank you for saving me."
The monster looked shocked by this admission, and then conflicted. Finally, he managed to settle on a reply. "You're welcome."