Little Gaston

Chapter 2

"So, that was weird, right?" Belle asked, after they left Gaston to their own devices. She looked back at the door, almost bumping into Adam, who was already losing the fur he had gained again, now calm again.

She never had really cared for Gaston before, his brutish ways and his archaic thinking always irking her to no end. She knew the village loved him, loved his manliness, and his hunting had provided meat for leaner winters. Of course, seeing that she was the only woman who wasn't interested in him, seemed to only have made her an obsession towards him.

But with what she had just witnessed in the room, it made her think, another thing that was weird about her.

Adam's behaviour had been atypical, but not just him. Belle had felt something, something she had never felt before. And even Gaston, who was normally posturing as much as he could, hadn't acted like he usually did.

He had just meekly sat in the chair while the changed the bedding and didn't offer any scathing remarks or angry tones full of embarrassment when Adam had wiped him.

Even when Adam had put Gaston in the bed, he had unconsciously pulled the blankets high up, making sure they were tucked nicely around the large man, who had barely reacted to the coddling.

"It was weird," Adam agreed, the fur on his arms now completely retraceted, and his posture once again smaller while he came back to his human form. It was weird how much Belle was surprised to see him like this instead of the Beast he was before, "is he a little?"

"No, in the village he's known as a base," Belle said, never heaving heard even the tiniest whisper of another possibility, "he always had a whole flock of women going after him, hoping he'll marry one of them,"

"You sure? He was bare, no hair anywhere," Adam remarked, thinking back to the softness of the bare skin he had wiped.

"Except his chest then," Belle said, having seen the hairy chest once or twice when the man was posturing, not understanding why such a hairy chest was a proof of manliness, but he did love to show it off.

"No, that was bare as well," Adam said, "you sure he isn't a...."

"A what?" Belle asked, trying to net let her thoughts go to where Adam was leading them, realising that his lifestyle was just not something a little could thrive on.

"A little?" Adam asked out loud, using the word a second time in combination with it's unlikeliest candidate.

"No, he couldn't be," Belle said, "I've known him for years. Never once has he been in headspace, and if he was a little, he should have dropped before. No one can keep headspace away for years,"

"Unless he uses medication against dropping," Adam said, and Belle stopped in her tracks staring at him.

"But why?" Belle asked, not understanding, "littles are rare, but they are cared for. Any caregiver would be happy to take him in, if he was one,"

"Perhaps," Adam said, shrugging, "could be we're wrong and he's just a base who is recovering,"

Belle nodded, but a frown was still present on her face. Now the seeds of doubt were put in her mind, she couldn't help but think all the evidence through. There was nothing definitive yet, but it lingered.

"Why don't we keep an eye on him," Belle suggested, wanting to figure out this mystery "even if he was a little, he still did all those bad things. I can't believe he's a good person, and being a little doesn't redeem what he has done,"

"No, it doesn't," Adam said, wrapping his arm around Belle, wanting her to forget about the stress and the anger, "do you want to walk around the gardens? They are beautiful, now it's all restored,"