Stan sniffed and wiped the tears from his cheeks as he sat up and looked out of the window, it was very nearly nighttime. The Beast expected him for dinner soon, but he wasn't going, he already knew that much. If he had to, he'd starve just to avoid that monster.
The doorknob turned and the door swung open slightly, catching Stan's attention. He blinked in confusion when he saw no one walking through the door. "W-What?" Was the place haunted or something?
"Oh dear," he looked down to see a white tea pot with a light gray lid hopping over to the edge of the bed with a light blue tea cup following it, "I'm afraid we're down here."
"Huh?" Stan's eyes widened in surprise, but he slid off of the bed to sit on the floor next to the talking china. "Did…Did you just talk?"
"But of course." The tea pot turned and poured some hot tea into the tea cup beside it. "Would you like any sugar?"
"Um… No, I'm fine without."
"Okay then." The tea cup began hopping over to him. "Careful Ike, don't spill."
"I won't." Ike stopped at Stan's knees and waited to be picked up.
Stan picked up the tea cup slowly, afraid that he was going to hurt it, and took a drink of the tea. Oolong, his favorite. "This is great. Thank you."
The tea pot nodded with a smile. "Glad you like it. My name is Pip, by the way."
"I'm Stan."
"I'm Ike!" Ike announced excitedly.
Stan chuckled. "It's nice to meet you both."
"Hey, do I get no introduction?" Stan whipped around at the voice to see the wardrobe suddenly had a face.
Whoa! "I've been in here for a while now, you had plenty of time."
"Yeah, but it looked you wanted to be alone."
Stan's lips tightened into a thin line. It was true, he wanted to be alone, but now that Pip and Ike were here, he didn't anymore. They were such nice…pieces of china, far better company than The Beast earlier.
"Oh, I'm ever so sorry," Pip apologized to the wardrobe. "Stan, this Token."
Token did a mock bow, looking like he was going to fall over when he did. "Nice to meet you, Stan."
"Uh…same here…" Stan looked between Pip, Ike, and Token. "So, why are you guys…talking? Alive, I mean…? Are you…uh," he was trying to remember the specific word from the sci-fi shows Kyle always watched, "androids?"
"Oh no, nothing like that," Token laughed.
"It's nothing you should concern yourself with," Pip said with a smile. "Anyway, the master is really a sweet guy, you should get to know him better."
Stan rolled his eyes and sighed. Great, the subject found its way back to The Beast…! "I don't wanna get to know him better. I can never see my best friend again because of him," his eyes narrowed and he began grinding his teeth, "that's all I need to know."
"You should really give him a chance, you might find that you like him. I hope you come to dinner, the master would be happy about that." Pip suddenly chuckled then. "Oh dear, I need to go and get dinner on the table. Pardon me. Come along Ike."
"Coming." Ike hopped along after the tea pot out of the door.
Stan watched as Pip and Ike hopped out of the door and it close behind them. Dinner… He was hungry, but his desire to never see The Beast was stronger than that hunger. He wasn't going to dinner, no matter what anyone said.
"So," Token's doors swung open to show dresses and suits hanging there, "which one so you wanna wear?" Stan stood up as Token reached for a brown suit with one of the doors. "This one would look good on you."
Stan shook his head. "Thanks, but I'm not going."
"You have to, it's expected."
"I don't care." He sat down on the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. "I won't go."
"Suit yourself." Token put the suit back on the hanger and shut the doors.
A moment later the door opened a crack again, this time to the small clock Stan had seen earlier when he first entered the castle. "Um, dinner is served," it said in a timid voice.
…
The Beast paced nervously back and forth in between a fireplace with a brightly lit fire and a long dark wood table. Pip stood next to the candelabra on the mantle above the fireplace, staring at their master with concern. He had never seemed so nervous and anxious before in his life.
"Where is he?" He roared at nothing and no one.
"You must be patient," Pip said reassuringly.
"Yeah," the candelabra chimed in, "you can't be too excited. Butters has gone to get him now."
"Besides, he's lost his best friend and freedom all at once."
"Master, have you thought that this Stan guy might be the one to break the spell?"
"Of course I have! But…he's just…so handsome, and kind…and I'm, well, look at me," The Beast sighed deeply.
"We can help him see past what you see," Pip offered.
"We must," the candelabra said as he leapt across the gap to the table with Pip.
The Beast looked at the candelabra. "How?"
"Look sir," Pip chimed in, "all you need to do is impress him. Show him that you're willing to be a nice, gentle guy."
"But not whipped," the candelabra added as an afterthought. "You must still show your tough side."
"Stand up straight!" Pip instructed; The Beast did so.
"Give a playful, sexy smirk!" The candelabra added. The Beast smirked, showing the two rows of pointed teeth lining his mouth. "Uh, too much. You don't wanna scare him."
"Be kind!"
"Give him plenty of compliments!"
"Be witty!"
"Flirt as much as you can!"
"But above all," Pip and the candelabra said at once, "you must control your temper!"
The door to the dining room began opening then. "He's coming," the candelabra said excitedly.
The Beast stood up straight and put on the sexiest - least frightening - smirk he could manage, only to have it drop when Butters waddled in. "Butters? Where's Stan?"
"Well, uh," Butters began bumping the pieces of wood serving as his hands and arms together, "h-he's…not…coming."
"WHAT?" The Beast burst through the dining room doors and up the stairs to the east wing. Once he reached the door leading to Stan's room, he came to a sudden halt and yelled, "Why didn't you come to dinner?"
"I'm not hungry!" Stan yelled back.
"When I invite you to dinner, I expect you to come!"
"No!"
The Beast growled and nearly yelled again, but stopped when he felt something pulled at the bottom of his pants; the candelabra. "What?"
"Softer," the candelabra instructed. "You'll only scare him using that tone."
The Beast sighed deeply and asked through his teeth, "Would you please join me for dinner?" He asked nicely, he thought, so surely Stan would join him.
"No, I don't want anything to eat!"
Really? After asking nicely he still wouldn't join him? "Fine!" He roared as loud as his lungs would allow. "Then you can stay in there and starve!" He turned and began stomping back towards the west wing, stopping for a moment to look at Butters, Pip, and the candelabra. "If he won't eat with me, then he doesn't eat at all!" He kept walking, stomping down the stairs of the east wing and up the stairs to the west wing.
