After his bath and a snack, Gaston felt much better. He dressed carefully - new clothes, but identical to the ones he had destroyed - and then picked out a few especially sharp, straight arrows.

There would be no mistakes this time, and no playing around. "This time," he muttered to himself, "When he's down he's finished. No more talking and no more Beast-baiting." He cracked his neck. "This is all business."

Rameau growled softly as though he understood. Gaston finished getting ready, then worried that his wife might ask questions regarding why he had armed himself to the teeth just to attend a party. He put his ear to the bedroom door and listened carefully. He heard a page turn.

He chuckled. "She's reading. I could bring the roof down on her head and she wouldn't hear me," he whispered to his dog. "Perfect. Come on."

They snuck out of the bedroom, keeping out of Belle's line of vision, crept around the living room to the door, and left the house.

When Belle finally pulled her head out of her book, the house was quiet. Gaston had left for the party already, she supposed.

She stood and stretched. She supposed she should go. Not because she wanted to hear Gaston's praises sung for the umpteenth time, and certainly not because she wanted to dance with his disgusting friends or watch them compete to see who could drink the most beer.

It was because, after all, the party was in honor of the person who was supposed to be her husband, who had spent the night risking his life to protect other people. (Although she did rather suspect he had done it more for fun than anything else.) Besides, it seemed he had been doing his best by her recently, and so she owed it to him to make some kind of effort in return.

She decided she would go. And she would even dress nicely and put up her hair.

Belle spent more time making herself up that day than she had for the whole rest of their marriage combined. When she was cleaned and combed and ironed and all ready to go, it was nearly dinnertime and she knew she'd better hurry or the men would all be drunk by the time she got there. She started walking towards town, then flagged down the first wagon she saw to beg for a ride the rest of the way.

It was a couple on their way to the party. They were thrilled beyond measure to be giving a lift to Madame Gaston herself, wife of the hero of the hour, and started gushing as soon as she was inside about how very wonderful Belle's husband was and how very proud she must be of him.

"I think Gaston's proud enough for the both of us," Belle muttered.

The woman didn't seem to hear her. "He saved us, we live right down the road, my children could have been eaten for breakfast," she continued breathlessly. "I heard all about it, he jumped right in, threw himself right down into the thick of the danger, oh it gives me the shivers just to think about it! He wasn't hurt thought, was he? Lefou was telling everyone he's fine, but Lefou always says that."

"He's fine. He had a bite… no, more like a scratch," Belle corrected herself uncertainly, trying to picture the odd marks on Gaston's back, "but he's going to be all right."

"Oh, good. I had nightmares afterwards... you're so lucky, you know that? What I wouldn't give to have Gaston sleeping beside me… no offence, Pierre," she added in her husband's direction. "But you're so safe… it must be so nice."

Belle tried to give her a smile. "Yes, living with Gaston is… indescribable."

As they drove on, the woman kept talking and Belle kept trying to ignore her. If everyone liked Gaston so much, let one of them play wife to him, and let her go free! Belle wouldn't deny that he could be very helpful in his way, and certainly that he deserved better than a girl who couldn't help trying to murder him, but still. He just wasn't for her. When they got to the tavern the woman elbowed her and laughed, "Now you give him a kiss for the rest of us, and be good to him, dear, God knows he's earned it!"

Belle laughed back and promised "I'll try", and told herself that she meant it.

She was all ready to make the best of the evening, until they threw the doors open fully expecting to find everyone clustered around a beaming, drunk Gaston…

But instead the drinkers all descended upon Belle and demanded to know where Gaston was. "Where he is? You mean he- he's not here?" she stammered. "He said he was- He didn't…"

Lefou shook his head. "We thought he was with you, Belle."

"No. He left. He went somewhere. He's gone somewhere else." Belle thought fast. His dog was gone and so were all of his weapons… he'd been demanding food all day because he needed to 'get his strength back'… he'd been acting, in fact, exactly as if he were going into battle. I should have realized, she thought. Why wasn't I paying attention?

Could it be they hadn't finished off the wolf pack last night after all?

Belle's heart caught in her throat and she didn't even stop to think how odd it was that she would worry for him. He's in no shape for a fight now, she thought. He's going to get himself killed.

As much trouble as she had with her husband, Belle knew she was surrounded right now by a crowd of people who liked him and needed him. For their sake, if for no other reason, she should probably do something. Well, first things first: before she could stop Gaston, she would have to find him.

Luckily, not a week ago he'd been bragging about how he could track an individual person or animal for miles and miles, through rain and forest and blah something blah blah something. No matter how hard she'd tried to tune him out at the time, it appeared that some of his blabber had gotten in and stuck – Belle knew right away what she should do. Rameau was gone but… "Lefou, do you have a dog?"

"Sure – Gaston gave me one of his puppies the last time-"

"Can I borrow it? Now?"

Gaston was quiet, the Beast would give him that. Had the wind not changed at just the right moment, bringing a whiff of that peculiar blood-and-soap combination that only a human could have produced…

He turned and saw an arrow already notched and aimed right at him. "I figured you'd come," he said quietly.

Gaston lowered his weapon – just a little. "Why are you here – what do you want? And don't say Belle," he added a second later. "You can't have her."

"Have her?" the Beast growled. "She's not a toy, she's a girl who's in love with me. She said so."

"She also said she hated me," Gaston argued, coming a little closer, "And she's changed her mind about that, too."

"Then let me see her. If she's happy where she is, I swear I'll disappear. But if she wants to be with me…"

"Be with you? Look at you!" Gaston cried. "Who would ever want to be with you?"

The Beast's lips pulled back and his fangs gleamed. "Be careful, Gaston." His eyes moved over the ground between them and Gaston got the message – one leap, two at best… much too fast for Gaston to even get a shot off.

And what could he do? Back away til he was at a safe distance again? No, that would be embarrassing.

So Gaston just sneered, "Nonsense – you're too kind and gentle to hurt anyone, remember?" He made a face. "Except we all know that's a lie… Belle spent half an hour this morning trying to close up what you did to me last night."

All of a sudden the Beast looked much less fierce. "I'm sorry about that – that was an accident, I told you. I just- it's, sometimes I-…" He looked away. "Never mind. How are your friends?"

Gaston wished the beast would turn its back – no matter how many times he told himself to just kill it and be done, he found he couldn't resist the challenge. If he could just get in a clean shot to the shoulder like last time, weaken and infuriate it, make it a real fight, a fight to remember…

"Well?" It pressed. "How are they?"

Gaston shrugged. "Everyone survived."

"That's good."

"Yes…" Suddenly Gaston thought of a way to make it show its back. "To thank you for your help with that, actually, I've decided not to kill you. Instead, you can have one last chance to go away," he offered. "Leave now, and you won't become the next trophy on my wall." Still the Beast hesitated, so he pressed, "Go on – you're not wanted here. As you saw last night, we've got enough of a wild animal problem without you."

The Beast's face darkened and for a moment Gaston thought he had managed to provoke a fight even without the shoulder shot…

But all it did was take a little pouch out of its pocket. "That's it," the Beast growled. "I've had about all I can take."

"What are you– HEY!" Gaston dove for the ground as a burst of light and sparkles and fireworks occupied the space where the Beast had been standing.

TBC.

oho, gaston, let's see you judge a book by its cover now...

Plenty of action & surprises are planned for next chapter. Let me know what you think so far!