mon ami

[beheld_beauty]

Not much happens at the castle. It's the two of them and the magic. She studies. He wanders around. He's not very careful about standing behind things - he does when he remembers and there is something nearby, but it's plain that nothing about being visible in the less-than-fluffy nude bothers Beast except on her behalf.

Finally she excises an hour of study time to spend on being able to look at him without intervening furniture or flinching. She finds it's possible to do this in her mindscape, without having to use a notebook. She can zoom in deep into a rose petal, find a level of detail beyond which there are no patterns, and write, directly there. This isn't an ideal memory aid - if she looks later the words aren't exactly the same - but it's much faster for sheer processing, and the chosen modifications morph into the structure of the rose without special effort as soon as she's sure she wants them.

She behaves with more equanimity about his nudity after that. "You can stop trying to remember to hide behind things," she tells him.

Comments

[deslandes]

"Well, it means that now everything really is up to you."

[beheld_beauty]

"Assuming you're relatively constant about it, anyway. It is necessary for both halves to be at the same time."

[deslandes]

"I will not," he says with absolute conviction, "stop loving you."

[beheld_beauty]

"How do you know?" Belle asks curiously.

[deslandes]

He shrugs.

"How wouldn't I?"

[beheld_beauty]

"Well, I would have a good idea, in my case, but I make a particular study of my own mind, and I still wouldn't be as confident as that. So I want to know why you think so."

[deslandes]

"I think so because it's true."

[beheld_beauty]

Belle sighs in exasperation and gives up.

[deslandes]

He laughs.

"I'm sorry, I just can't think of another way to say it. It's not in me to give someone up like that, not for as long as I remember who you are."

[beheld_beauty]

"So," she says, "at least not within the time limit, then."

[deslandes]

"Yes."

[beheld_beauty]

"All right." She sighs. "I really don't know how to fall in love with someone. There are not - instructions, anywhere."

[deslandes]

"What do you think of me?"

[beheld_beauty]

"You're my friend," she offers after a moment. "You - you've been treated with appalling unfairness, and there's a sort of openness to you that I half-admire, and you have quite a smile. If unbeknownst to me that added up to love on my part I believe the curse would have noticed, though."

[deslandes]

"Half-admire?" he asks, laughing. "What of the other half?"

[beheld_beauty]

"Well," Belle says. "When I fully admire something like that, I copy it for myself. I'm disinclined to do that. It wouldn't suit me. But it seems to work for you."

[deslandes]

"I admire lots of things I don't want to be," he shrugs.

[beheld_beauty]

"Like what?"

She really ought to be getting to know him more diligently than she has. She suspects that's a prerequisite for falling in love. For her, at least.

[deslandes]

"You?"

[beheld_beauty]

She laughs. "I meant more specifically. Qualities, not entire people."

[deslandes]

He shrugs again. "I don't know, then."

[beheld_beauty]

"So you just sort of admire me as a vague entire thing with no characteristics?" she inquires archly.

[deslandes]

"No," he says. "You have characteristics - I don't know which ones I like so much, that's the trouble."

[beheld_beauty]

"Ah," Belle laughs. "That sounds frustrating."

[deslandes]

"It would frustrate you."