[AU] Beau-ty and Liz-Beast

[Elizabeth Edison]

For some odd reason, the beast found her name on the minstrel's lips to be quite...endearing. And something else sort of stirred in her that she found that she quite liked. Which only made her feel all awkward and self-conscious so she stopped trying to feel those things again.

"No, I'll stick to minstrel. Beau sounds like a thing you shoot an arrow from." She shrugged, although if this were another time and another place, the beast would have more than happily called him that. With affection.

She scratched the back of her neck and wondered what else there was to say. Being nice had it's pitfalls it seemed. So she did the only thing she knew best, stuffed herself with bacon and walked around.

[Beau LaRoux]

"Do we even still have those? I keep gettin' confused," mumbled Beau. He supposed he'd have to deal with continuing to be called minstrel. It was technically his profession, or at least, close enough to it to count. Plus, there was something in the way that Liz said it that sort of worked for him.

A few moments of awkward silence followed, with the two standing there. Just as Beau was about to suggest something, Liz grabbed more bacon and started walking around. Beau watched for a bit then shrugged, tapping the keys to the piano and humming to himself for a bit, a strange tune rising to his mind.

Something about how there was something there that wasn't there before or something. Beau looked about as he played, his eyes wanting to head for a window somewhere. He didn't see one, and, well, he was enjoying his playing. So instead he looked at the girl, trying to picture what she'd look like if she actually cleaned up, put her hair up in a nice style, wore a dress.

Somehow, the picture was both appealing and weird at the exact same time.

[Elizabeth Edison]

"I don't know. I mean my dad liked to go hunting before and he did use that. It might still be at the shed. Maybe." She shrugged as she continued to walk about.

She stole glances a few times at the minstrel, wondering what she was seeing in him that she never saw before. Furrowing her eyesbrows when he started playing a vaguely familiar tune, she caught him looking at her and she paused. Why was he looking at her like that? She'd never seen him looking at her like that before. Had he always been looking at her like that? If at all?

[Beau LaRoux]

The tune continued, rising up for a bit. Beau looked away as he caught Liz looking to him, instead letting the tune pick up a little. It got a little more cheerful as he went. The words seemed to come to his mind, and he felt himself almost whispering them, their sense made only to him and going no further:

"There's something sweet
And almost kind
But she was mean and she was coarse and unrefined
But now she's dear, and so unsure
I wonder why I didn't see it there before..."

He glanced at Liz, then stopped playing for a moment, remembering that they weren't supposed to be engaging in big musical numbers. He coughed, tapping the piano. "It's a good instrument," he said, moving on then to start petting it slightly. "All in tune an' everythin'."

[Elizabeth Edison]

She didn't quite hear the words he was singing but suddenly she was also mumbling to herself.

"He glanced this way
I thought I saw
When we had breakfast he didn't shudder at my maw
No it can't be I'll just ignore
But then he's never looked at me that way before..."

When he stopped, she paused and a small smile curved her lips, lending a somewhat soft expression on the beast. "Yeah...in tune." She shook her head, wondering where all this fluttering in her stomach was coming from.

[Beau LaRoux]

The music had died, but that didn't stop the tune from parading through Beau's mind:

New and a bit alarming
Who'd have ever thought that this could be?
True that she's no Princess... Charming?
But there's something in her that I simply didn't see

"Yeah," agreed Beau. He tapped the piano again. His fingers punched out a few more notes for a moment there, working along the scales, bouncing out the tune that just wouldn't leave his mind despite all his effort to the contrary. He paused, looking back over at her. "You, uh, got a piano tuner guy too? You did say you had a guy for everythin'..."

Beau tapped the piano a few more times, fidgeting slightly.

[Elizabeth Edison]

When she realised that the minstrel seemed somehow agitated, she dropped the tray on the nearest surface and sucked on her fingers, wondering what was making him fidgety.

"Nope. I do it myself." She admitted before jerking her head in his direction. "What's wrong with you? You suddenly look like what you were supposed to look when you first came here."

[Beau LaRoux]

"Really?" repeated Beau. Before he could continue, Liz kept going. He shrugged, popping up off the piano. "Ain't nothin' wrong with me," he replied, adding another shrug. "Jus' was wonderin' 'bout the music room an' all."

He gestured, then moved forward a bit. He tapped the mandolin, managing to knock it loose from where it hung. Beau's reflexes kicked in and he caught it, managing to even keep his grip light enough as to not damage it. He let out a relieve sigh then grinned at Liz.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said, adding a few chuckles as he reached up and worked to put it back up. "Sure you still want me to come here whenever?" he joked, looking at Liz. He was failing at putting the mandolin back into place. Failing miserably.

[Elizabeth Edison]

Nodding at his question, she tilted her head slightly, curious at his answer. "Right. The music room." She nodded.

When the mandolin started falling, the beast moved to catch it but the minstrel managed to, even though he was a little shite at putting it back up. She reached up and helped him, though by doing so, she got a little too close to him. Pulling her hand down, she pursed her lips at how close they were before she moved away.

"I've got a lot of these anyway. Just...don't touch the guitars. They were my brothers."

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau nodded as Liz nodded, though he supposed he didn't really need to. It just sort of felt like what he should be doing right about then. Just like he should be attempting to get a mandolin back onto its holding place and mostly failing miserably. thankfully, Liz seemed to know how to get it there, and she did it quite quickly. This did mean that they were really close and, yeah, she still kinda didn't smell quite as pretty as most village girls but... she smelled... different? and there was something about the proximity that sent a flare of heat going through Beau.

One that made it so Liz wasn't the only one feeling a little awkward as the pulled apart. Beau nodded. "Right, won't need to mess with any of the guitars anyway, on account o' havin' my own. These brothers,' he looked back at Liz, "they gonna be comin' home soon or somethin'? I ain't seen nobody but you an' the servants an' all..." He seemed to vaguely recall her talking about a fire, maybe? But she acted like they were still alive or something... or was he missing something?

[Elizabeth Edison]

At the mention of her brothers, the beast shook her head. "No. They're not home. They're not coming home." She said before walking over to her bacon, once again stuffing her face with it. Feelings were starting to creep in that she didn't like.

"Why are you giving me these feelings, minstrel? I don't understand them and I don't want them. Take them back." She demanded, trying to fan it away as though it were something tangible.

[Beau LaRoux]

"Oh, I understand," said Beau, looking at the guitars for a moment. Part of him wanted to ask if leaving them hanging there was the best way to honor them. Not that he thought he should play them but maybe her? Maybe she could honor her brothers by playing their instruments, carrying their spirits forward?

Just when he thought he'd figured out how to word that, she spoke again. Beau stared at her, blinking. "How should I know?" he asked, smiling. "I'm jus' a minstrel. Ain't like I know about how feelin's work an' all that. 'sides, you can always kick me out if you really want. I ain't leavin' on my own jus' yet though," he looked back at the guitar, wondering. But no, the moment had passed.

Still, he didn't see any reason to leave the room yet. Not with all the music here to explore. He could spend hours here and still feel like he hadn't spent near long enough.

[Elizabeth Edison]

His "Oh I understand' did not sound like he understood but the beast shrugged it off. She didn't know what he was thinking and frankly she didn't quite care for it.

"It's outrageous." The beast waved her hand up, as though swatting at the 'tangible' feelings.

"Well...you can...stay here if you want. Watch the tutorials and whatnot. Maybe we can jam or something. I don't know. Is that what the original story had? Them jamming with each other? I don't know. You make me feel, minstrel. It's not right." She babbled as she grabbed her tray of bacon and attempted to leave the room.

She did pause in front of the minstrel to let him have some more bacon. "Look at me sharing things. What is happening? Dinner tonight by the way. The staff are cooking something nice maybe. Clean up."

And as she left the room, she mumbled to herself and continued to munch on the bacon, hoping the minstrel was going to deal with the transition as well.

[Beau LaRoux]

Staying didn't sound too bad, and Beau was nodding along to that. He was about ready to help with the bit about the original story, his mouth opening to provide the answer, but Liz was already babbling and grabbing the mostly eaten bacon tray and heading out. There was a pause, and Beau started to talk then, but Liz had again kept going. That left him only capable of calling to her as she went:

"They had a montage thing where they read together! An' did snowball fights an' stuff!"

Though by then, she was gone, and Beau was left grinning. He waited a few more moments, just in case, but figured that she probably had other things to do. The castle wasn't going to run itself, after all. So instead Beau moved to entertain himself, working through the instruments and all. That's where the staff found him later, grabbing him and insisting that he get cleaned up and properly dressed for dinner.

This seemed to involve a fair amount of poking and prodding and several handsome suits that just happened to be in Beau's size appearing out of no where. For some reason, they decided that he needed to wear some kind of black suit with a yellow cummerbund and tie. More goldenrod, really. Beau really wasn't sure what was going on there, and why it seemed to be taking an exceptionally long time. Maybe something about needing to bathe the mistress? He just knew his servant kept distracting him for some reason and he was just more or less going along with it.

[Elizabeth Edison]

[Outfit Reference]

Beau's words fell on deaf ears as the beast stormed away to get to her room where she contemplated skipping dinner altogether. If she continued with it, she would have to get her hair done, her pits washed, her eyebrows plucked and bathed. By someone else. She wasn't down with that.

Although did she really have to go through with it? She was at a not so bad place with the cute minstrel. She didn't want to have to change that by getting all dolled up for dinner.

Pouting, she resigned to her Nu Fate of being somewhat of a princess for tonight. When her staff came in, she looked at her with a skeptical look, only to be surprised by ten more staffers coming in with trunks spilling over with clothes and weird cylindrical looking things with wires attached to it.

"Are you going to murder me? Is that what this is? You were just waiting for the right time to kill me right?" She looked at the staff as they chuckled and shook their heads in amusement.

An hour later, after peeling several layers of her skin and pulling her hair and scrapping at her teeth, the beast no longer looked like a beast. She finally looked justified to be called 'girl' by the minstrel.

The staff somehow managed to fit her into a sleeveless yellow dress and a bright blue jacket thing with gold buttons, compromising with her on the shoes which were her trusty high tops she had been wearing since the thread started. She actually looked pretty good. She wanted to play with her hair but the staff glared at her and she raised an eyebrow before backing away from them.

Walking down the stairs, she noticed the lights were off and were replaced by candles everywhere which she thought was quite irresponsible and kind of cruel on the staff's part but it did give the whole romantic setting vibe thing. At least they were the big ones that were pretty hard to knock over, so she supposed they planned ahead.

She saw Beau at the bottom of the stairs and she would have whistled had it not been for her not actually knowing how to whistle. Clearing her throat, she descended the last flight of stairs and walked past the minstrel. "Let's get dinner started shall we?"