[AU] Beau-ty and Liz-Beast

[Beau LaRoux]

Thankfully Beau did end up being fairly easy to distract for a relatively long period of time. His own personal servant had come up with a guitar and wanted Beau to show him how to play it, which had Beau distracted right up until he heard footsteps descending. Beau turned and saw a beautiful girl descending.

His jaw dropped, quite literally.
So did the guitar.

Fortunately, the servant had quick enough reflexes to grab the guitar and stop it from following to the ground to be hurt in any form or fashion. This proved to be an especially good thing, as the minstrel continued to quite openly goggle at the girl formally known as a she-beast as she descended. She descended, right, and cleared her throat, which really didn't work to jostle Beau out of his reverie.

The question didn't land either. Beau didn't move even after that. Not even when another servant came along to poke and try to prod him. Eventually they had to go over and try alerting their mistress.

[Elizabeth Edison]

She wasn't aware of the look Beau was giving her but she did hear the scuffle behind her and suddenly a staffer was in front of her showing her their whiteboard. "He's stuck we don't know what to do"

The beast frowned slightly before she turned around and tilted her head in his direction. "What's up with you?" She asked, sliding her hands in the convenient pockets in the dress.

She approached the boy and shook his shoulder to rouse him. "Minstrel." She called out. She shook him again and repeated the act. "Beau!" the beast finally yelled.

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau kept staring, even as Liz stepped forward. no response, no seeming activity in the regions of the brain at all, for that matter. Just a lot of staring. Staring and blinking. And then some more staring and blinking. Some breathing in there, just to mix things up a little.

He did sort of hear words, in a sort of faint, far off echoey sort of manner, as though his head were deep under water. That word again, some shaking, some more calling, then a startled Beau looked to Liz.

"Liz?" he reached up and literally grabbed her face, "is that... actually you?"

Clearly the flirting was strong with this one.

[Elizabeth Edison]

Her eyes popped open when her face was grabbed. Her hands shot up to his wrists, prepare to flip him over. Of course the girl knew self defence. What else was she supposed to do in isolation while maintaining that rockin' bod?

"Jesus, minstrel, yes it's me." She didn't realise she still had her hands on his. She didn't even realise she had curled it around gently on his wrist. And they were way too close for comfort but frankly, she didn't give a damn.

Or was that trademarked?

"Can we just eat now? You're kind of squishing my cheeks here, man."

[Beau LaRoux]

For a moment there, Beau almost thought that he was going to be flipped over her shoulder in some sort of strange self-defense move. Not that he could've really fought against it, not in his current state. He was almost surprised when instead she responded to his question, wrapping a hand around his wrist. A shot of heat went from the touch throughout Beau's body, and he certainly didn't know where that had come from.

"Right, you," he repeated, looking into her eyes. Sure enough, there was the look of a girl he recognized. A girl: why had it taken him so long to realize that she was, in fact, a girl? But wasn't she a beast too? Or, well, the beast was inside the girl or something? How was Beau to know: he weren't no scholar.

"Right, food," he agreed, moving his hand to grab one of hers. "Are we havin' some kinda fancy dinner or somethin'? I ain't sure I could handle eatin' snails or somethin' like that?" and Beau looked expectantly at Liz, figuring that she should be leading him toward the food. It was her castle, after all.

[Elizabeth Edison]

And there it was again, that look in his eyes that made the beast melt inside. Damn those blue eyes. Damn them to hell.

When Beau took her hand, the beast looked down at them and then looked back up at him, wondering why this felt nice. Should it feel nice? Everything is so weird!

It was her turn to be frozen somehow when she was asked about the menu. She just stared at their hands unblinking.

[Beau LaRoux]

Her hand felt nice... warm, and definitely unbeastly. How had Beau ever seen that? He blamed bad scripting or rumors or something, because now that he looked at Liz, all he could see was girl. Pretty girl, for that matter, though he knew why she'd at least looked beastly earlier (he wasn't quite that stupid).

Wait, hadn't he been asking questions and stuff? He blinked, looking at her again. His fingers ran along hers, giving them a light squeeze.

"Hey, Liz?" he asked, leaning over. "Blink twice if you can hear me," he waited, "was askin' 'bout the menu?" Another short pause. "Do I gotta kiss you or somethin'? Break you outta your spell?"

He grinned at that, recalling ever so many fairytales that involved precisely that. But everyone knew that Fairy tales had very little to do with reality. Heck, they were living proof of that.

[Elizabeth Edison]

Instinctively, her hand shot up when Beau leaned in, swatting his face away as her other hand pulled out of Beau's. "Aye. Food. Gotta get to the food." She shook her head and walked towards the dining room where everything was spotless and gleaming, the candles burning a lot brighter here with the singular table in the middle of the room. There were two covered trays and a small trolley that held a bottle in an ice bucket right beside the table.

"What the hell are you trying to do?" She whispered to herself, glaring at the staff who gave her a wide grin and disappeared into the kitchen. She held her hands up like claws and hissed before taking her seat, waiting for Beau to sit. Waiting. What a concept.

"Can you hurry the shit up?"

[Beau LaRoux]

The swat made Beau jerk back. He guessed it must have been a little too soon for a romantic meeting, which he really should've figured, given who Liz was and all. Just because he'd had his fair share of fun with girls in the past didn't mean he could just waltz in here and sweep this one off her feet. Wait, why did he even want to? Wasn't he just here because she fed and sheltered him and all he had to do was keep her company? Or, wait, wasn't she supposed to have traded him for a father or something? Oh well, that was just a little detail that no one really cared about, especially this far in.

Beau followed Liz easily enough, purposefully leaving at least a little room between them as he headed along. He hummed to himself, feeling like he should be entering another musical number. Then again, as this was Beau, he pretty well always felt like he should be entering a musical number.

Soon he was looking around at the dining room, staring with some awe and enjoying things. He jerked toward her and nodded. "well, can't say nothin' 'bout no crap, but I can hurry m'self up," he said, sliding to take a seat and smile at his hostess. After all, you didn't eat till the lady did first: even minstrels knew that.

[Elizabeth Edison]

Beau's response to her hurrying him up had the beast chuckling before putting on a stoic face. She grabbed the bottle of...not alcohol, she poured it into their glasses and removed the cover to her plate, happy that it was her favourite macaroni and cheese with a side of mashed potatoes and salad.

"Yay food." She clapped her hands and dug in. Suddenly the room was filled with some crappy ballad-y song about tales and time. "Seriously? Where's the Sinatra? The Fitzgerald? The Spears, for God's sake?" She shook her head as she shovelled the food in.

"So...was the music room okay?"

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau nodded and gathered his own food, piling stuff on plates. He had to hand it to the staff here: they definitely knew how to produce a good bunch of grub. Though Beau was fairly certain that he'd end up fat if he kept up at this rate. He'd have to start seeing if there was some kind of work around the place that he could do, or maybe skip a few meals while he played, something like that.

He did pause a moment to say a little prayer over the food, only to pause as he heard the music. Beau twisted, looking around for the source. "Where is that even comin' from? We got some kinda soundtrack goin'?" he wondered aloud, twisting for a few moments more. He was about to point at some servants and ask when Liz asked her question.

Said question had Beau turning back around. That familiar grin returned to his face, lighting up his features, and soon he was nodding. "Heck, better then okay: that place was great! Yer probly gonna have to drag me outta there often. Well, assumin' you don't jus' show up an' start listenin' or playin' yerself,' he replied with a wink. that being said, he figured he could start digging into the grub a little bit.

After all, food that good couldn't be wasted, even if Beau couldn't quite shake the feeling like there should be some romantic dancing about now.

[Elizabeth Edison]

"We have speakers somewhere. Or a string quartet hidden somewhere. I don't know. The staff seems to know more about this castle than I do. Why don't you ask them later." She shrugged as she ate.

The beast took in how Beau's face lit up as he spoke about the room with just as much passion and love that she used to have for the room. A small smile flitted across her lips that seemed to soften practically her whole face. She hid the smile with her food, sipping on the apple juice and leaning back against her chair.

"Maybe we could do something together later. In the music room. Maybe." She shrugged, looking down at her food as she continued eating.

[Beau LaRoux]

"Might try it sometime," replied Beau. He wouldn't be surprised to find that there was a "string quartet guy" who hid in the back or something. For that matter, by this point, he half expected a "theme song guy" to pop out of the cake and start serenading them, even if that was a different movie altogether.

Back to the food: which proved to be scrumptious. Liz looked to be enjoying it too, if that smile was the indication that Beau thought it to be. He nodded along with it, half tempted to make a comment about it. There was that whole talk about the music room to have though, and the offer.

"I'd love that," he replied, nodding. "After all, we didn't quite get a chance to do it earlier, an' I'd love to try an' do somethin' with you," he finished with a wink before taking a large bite of his food, clearly enjoying himself.

[Elizabeth Edison]

Reminded of her little outburst in the music room, the beast pursed her lips and looked at Beau with a raised eyebrow, though a smile threatened to show up. "Yeah, I bet you do." She said before licking her spoon when she was done with her food.

A staffer appeared with her board out. "Time to work off that food. On the dancefloor. Come come." It said and the beast shook her head. Another staffer came out with his board which said: "Please? It'll be fun. We promise!"

"I said no!" the beast said with a shake of her head, shooing the staff away. She poured more apple juice into her glass and drank, not knowing what else to say.

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau just grinned again as Liz licked a spoon. Was it wrong that he found that hot in a sort of way? Not like, drool worthy, or anything along those lines. there was just something hot in the casual way she handled herself, the confidence it showed, or at least the "I don't care what anyone thinks."

Beau noticed when a staffer appeared, looking at the board. He sat there staring for several long seconds, not sure that he'd actually read it right. Dance...? Did they even have the space for that? Another came, insisting it would be fun, and meanwhile Liz seemed to start pouting.

"It might be fun," offered Beau, turning back to look at Liz. "That is assumin' you can dance an' all. Don't fancy gettin' my toes stepped on any time soon."

Which Beau considered might be a very real possibility.