Beauty and the Bookworm

Chapter 10: Paris

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The three of them were back in the library, and the beast had pulled out a special kind of book.

"Another little gift from the enchantress. A book that truly allows you to escape." He explained, blowing some dust off of it.

"How amazing." (Y/n) complimented.

"It was her cruelest trick of all. It was just another curse. The outside world has no place for a creature like me, but it can for you." The beast said.

"Think of the one place you've always wanted to see. Now find it in your mind's eye. Then feel it in your heart." The beast explained.

"Beau, where do you want to go?" (Y/n) asked.

"Well, there is one place I've always wanted to see." He confessed.

The beast grabbed (Y/n) and Beau's hands and placed them on the book. Beau pictured where he wanted to go, and soon, the castle faded away and the three of them were now inside a windmill.

"Where did you take us?" (Y/n) asked.

"Paris." Beau replied.

"Oh, I love Paris." The beast said. "What would you like to see first? Norte Dame, the Champs-Élysées? No? Too touristy?" He asked when he saw neither of them were paying attention.

"It's so much smaller then I imagined." Beau said. He looked on a chair and saw their were a bunch of sketches of a baby.

Beau: "This is the Paris of my childhood. These were the borders of my life. In this crumbling, dusty attic, where an artist loved his wife."

(Y/n) and the Beast looked at Beau with a sad expression as he wondered around the home.

Beau: "Easy to remember. Harder to move on. Knowing the Paris of my childhood, is gone."

Beau picked up a small rattle shaped like a rose and sat down on the bed. (Y/n) came over and sat next to him and put her arm around his shoulder. He leaned his head in the crook of her neck.

"What happened to your mother?" The beast asked him.

"It was the one story Father could never bring himself to tell. I knew better than to ask." Beau confessed.

The beast looked over and saw a mask sitting on a chair.

"Oh. A doctor's mask. Plague." He said.

Beau looked around the home again, putting the pieces together. A few tears leaked out of his eyes. (Y/n) wiped them away, and pulled Beau into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back.

"I'm sorry I ever called your father a thief." The beast apologized.

"Let's go home." (Y/n) whispered looking up at him.

....

The three of them travelled back to the library, all of them standing in awkward silence before Beau excused himself and walked out.

"You should go check on him." The beast said to (Y/n).

"I don't know...he seems like he wants to be alone..." she replied.

"Trust me, no one wants to be alone." He told her.

(Y/n) nodded at his words before squeezing her brother's hand in gratitude and walking out to find Beau.

....

(Y/n) knocked on the door of their bedroom before entering.

"Beau? Are you here?" She called out.