"Good night, Adam." Belle said as she walked up the stairs.

"Good night, Belle." Adam said, Belle turned and walked up the rest of the stairs.

"I think I'll get some shut-eye too." Maurice said as he rose from his chair, "See you in the morning."

"Night Uncle Maurice." Tintement said as she cleaned the rest of the dishes. She watched him go up the stairs as Adam leaned against the wall. When Tintement was finished, she turned around and looked at Adam. "So...what is it you want to talk to me about?" Adam sighed as he looked at Tintement.

"Its more like...I'm asking for advice." He said.

"About?" she asked, Adam sighed again.

"My older cousin." he finally said.

"Ohhhh, you have a cousin as well?" Tintement said with a smile.

"He's ten years older than me."

"Let me guess, there's a riff-raff between the two of you." Tintement said.

"Riff-Raff?" Adam asked.

"In other words, something happened between the two of you." she said.

"Here's the situation," he said, "I haven't seen my cousin, Sagittarius, for twelve long years..."

"Start at the beginning first!" Tintement said, "I need to know every detail in order for me to understand." Adam sighed, he had the feeling that she would ask that.

"I'm going to warn you," Adam said, "this is going to hard for me to talk about this."

"I'm as patient as that little cousin of mine," Tintement said, "so go ahead, take your time." Adam went over to the window and stared at his reflection in the glass.

"Sagittarius was more of a brother than my cousin." Adam said, "He was...the only 'man' in my life...that loved me."

"Abusive father?" Tintement asked, despite that she knew the answer to that. "Keep going, you don't have to tell me about that part."

"I'm glad you said that, I rather not talk about that evil man." he said, "Seeing you sticking up for Belle when we were in the village...reminded me when I was picked on. Sagittarius always fought other kids to keep them away from me and to learn their lesson. Nobody wanted me around them or any of their kids because...of what my father...did when he controlled the kingdom."

"Another thing that you and Belle have in common," she said, "you both were the only kids in the family. I was the only one that was close to a sister to Belle, we loved each other's company. We did everything together...despite what our aunt did to us."

"But...did you ever do something to Belle?" Adam asked, "Something that was so bad that Belle didn't want anything to do with you?" Tintement made a sad sigh as she grabbed the top of a chair.

"Once," she said as tears started falling down, "it was an accident. It took a very long time for Belle to forgive me."

"What happened?" Adam asked, Tintement raised her head and looked at the ceiling as the memory came back.

"I...got into a fight with someone I knew, his name was Raoul." Tintement explained, "We weren't friends at all, but we knew each other because my father was friends with his father. I didn't like him one little bit, but he always picked on Belle when our parents weren't around. Because of our fathers' friendship, Raoul didn't pick on me, but I knew it wasn't fair for him to pick on Belle, mainly because he didn't know her and because of her love of books. Our parents, except Belle's mother, didn't believe us, they didn't want to believe that their friend's kid was picking on us. One day, Raoul crossed a line and I couldn't take it anymore. If my parents weren't going to help us, I was going take care of it myself."

"What did you do?" Adam asked.

"It was two weeks before Belle's seventh birthday," Tintement said, "I saved up my allowance to get Belle a special doll. It was the only thing she asked to have for her birthday."

"What kind of doll was it?" he asked.

"A bird doll, it was a dove." Tintement answered, "Belle didn't have a lot of toys to play with, she always played with my old ones. She just wanted one to call her own. I was wrapping up the present in its box when Raoul reared his ugly head. He...snatched Belle's present away from me, tore up the wrapping and the box. He also tore the doll apart, saying it was a stupid present. Nothing could express how angry I was when he crossed that line. I...picked up a stool and threw it at Raoul. I missed and the stool broke as soon as it hit the wall, I grabbed a piece of the stool and turned back at Raoul, he became so afraid of me now that I was going after him. I chased him all over the house, I wanted to prove my point to him."

"Where were your parents?" Adam asked.

"Out shopping with Raoul's father," she answered, "I didn't get in trouble until after 'it' happened. I somehow lost Raoul when I was chasing him. Turns out he went outside which is why I didn't find him. Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming from around the hall, I thought it was Raoul. I said out loud that he wasn't going to get away from me that easily. I saw the shadow coming my way, I went into the hallway and threw down the stool leg in my hand. When it made contact, that's when I looked up." Tintement couldn't stand anymore, she sat down in the chair she was holding. "It wasn't Raoul I hit...it was Belle. She just came to the house with her mother while I was chasing Raoul. I...ended up hitting Belle right on her head, but...since she was a child, she thought I was furious with her and that I did it on purpose. Nobody wanted to hear my side of the story, I got grounded for two weeks because of that."

"But...it was accident," Adam said, "you didn't know that it was Belle in the hallway."

"Exactly, but Belle, at the time, didn't want to hear it because she was scared of me." Tintement said, "She was angry at me for a long time."

"What changed her mind?" he asked.

"A couple of weeks before Belle's mother died and when...that horrible night happened to me...I decided to visit Belle. Of course, she still didn't want anything to do with me, but when I said a certain phrase from one of her books, she gave me the benefit of the doubt."

"What did you say?"

"Everyone deserves to be heard before the sentence is announced." Tintement said, "That experience with Belle and all the fairy-tales I read to her taught me that lesson when I needed it most. When Belle heard my side of the story, she apologized to me over and over again. I told her that she wasn't to blame, but she continued to do that. Did you ever hear your cousin's side of the story before you made up your mind about it?" Adam immediately knew the answer to that.

"No...I didn't." he answered, trying to stay calm, "I was...nine years old at the time and Sagittarius is ten years older than I am. After my mother passed away, Sagittarius said I could stay with him. I said 'yes', he was the only family I had left besides his mother. I stayed with him for a few months until..."

"When everything fell apart?" she asked.

"Yes," Adam answered, "before my mother died, Sagittarius promised me and my mother that no harm would come to me. He promised that...he would not do anything that my father did. After staying with Sagittarius for four months...it happened."

"What?" she asked.

"With me still being a kid, I wanted Sagittarius to play with me." Adam said, "I was walking through his castle, looking for him. When I approached his precious glass room, I heard angry shouting inside. Sagittarius didn't want me in his glass room because there a lot of sharp glass pieces and there was a lot of heat in there, but because I was looking for him, I knocked on the door. There was no answer, but I could still hear shouting behind the door. I knew it was Sagittarius behind the door, so I opened the door. When I did...Sagittarius picked a glass pipe and threw it at the door. I didn't see it at first because it was made of clear glass." Adam made a sad sigh, "The pipe landed on the door where my left hand was, the pipe broke and...shards were stuck in my hand."

"Adam, I'm so sorry." Tintement said.

"I screamed when the glass cut up the skin on my fingers," Adam continued, "Sagittarius came out from the room, he looked so angry that it scared me. I was so scared of him that...I ran away."

"Where to?" she asked.

"The only other place I knew, the castle I grew up, the one I'm living in now." he explained, "The servants were shocked that I was back, I didn't want to see, hear or speak to Sagittarius again. Because of everything happened in my life, I didn't want anything or anyone to touch my heart. Sagittarius sent out a letter to try and find me, my servants answered the letter and sent another one out. He came to the castle and tried to apologize to me, but because of my decision and his angry reaction that I rememebered, I didn't want to hear it. Even though my hand was bandaged, I picked up whatever I could get my hands on and threw it at Sagittarius and his servants. They all ran off and I never saw them again."

"So...why are you asking for advice?" Tintement asked.

"I want to accept my title and role as 'prince'," Adam said, "but the only way I can get it is through a family member and...Sagittarius is the only one who can give it to me."

"Ah...I see." she said, "You want to know if you should give him a chance to be heard. Well, as I said, everyone deserves to be heard before the sentence is made, there are probably parts of the story that you didn't know about or...you didn't understand at the time because you were a child."

"I don't know if...he would want to talk to me." Adam said.

"If he loved you so much that he took you in when your mother died, then...you shouldn't doubt his love for you." Tintement said, "You should give him a chance. Another thing you should consider...it's better to forgive now than never to forgive at all. It may have been twelve years since you've seen him, but...everyone deserves a second chance at everything, even forgiveness." Adam listened to all the advice Tintement gave him, she was right; everyone deserved a second chance at things.

"Tintement...thank you." Adam said, she smiled and nodded her head.

"You're welcome," she said, "now go get some sleep, we've got a big day tomorrow."

"Where will you sleep?" he asked.

"Don't worry about me," she said, "you take care of yourself. I'll deal with everything else." Tintement watched Adam walk out to the main room, she then blew out the candle in the kitchen, went outside and climbed up to the top of the house. She sat on the roof and stared at the village.

'I won't let anything happen to my baby cousin'. Tintement thought to herself, "If this village plans to do anything to her or Adam or Uncle Maurice, I'll make sure they'll regret it."