Elle and the Mysterious Beast (One Direction)

Chapter 9 - Information

I haven’t really done much today besides listening to all that music yet I feel so tired, I guess it’s a mental thing? I don’t know, but right now I’m sitting at the table in the dining waiting for whatever his name is to finish making dinner. He refused to let me help so I’ve just been sitting here thinking for about a half hour now.

If I could ask any question, just one, and he HAD to give me an answer, I’d just want to know his name. I don’t understand what the big deal in him telling me is? What would it hurt if I knew his name? I hate just calling him ‘the beast’ all the time, mainly because he really isn’t one. On the outside sure, but the way he moves, talks, smiles, acts, no. He’s very human.

My thoughts are interrupted as he gracefully enters the room through the swinging kitchen doors carrying two large bowls and a circular dish. He’s already set the table. He sets down what he’s carrying and in one bowl I see mixed vegetables, (green beans, peas, lettuce, chopped carrots, and corn) and in the other bowl is mashed potatoes. Then on the dish is baked chicken and bread. It all looks and smells delicious!

“Bon appetite!” he says with a smile.

The food is delicious, I’m not used to eating this well, usually I just get a chunk of bread and a chunk of half cooked meat.

“This chicken is really good, thank you for dinner,” I say to him as I pop a long bean into my mouth.

He smiles happily at me, “Thank you. It’s nice not eating alone.”

“I’ll bet that gets tiresome, huh?”

“More than you can imagine.”

“I wouldn’t mind you know…” I say softly.

“Wouldn’t mind what? Eating alone?”

“No, eating with you all the time.”

He looks surprised, like he didn’t expect me to say that. I’m not sure I expected me to say that. “Y-you don’t like eating with your family?”

“I don’t really have a family, I have my mom and her irritating boyfriend who thinks he’s my father.”

He looks confused again. “Um… I…”

“Unless you don’t want me to eat here…?” I say, confused now myself because he was just saying it was nice not having to eat alone.

“No, it’s lovely dining with you, I just don’t understand why you want to.”

“Listen, I know for many years now you’ve listened to people tell you how awful and mean and scary you are, but they’re wrong.”

“No they’re not, you saw what I did to that man in the village, and how do you think I get this meat? I don’t hunt with a gun.”

“No, but you have to survive. Sometimes we have to do bad in order to get good.”

“…I guess.”

We’re done eating now. “You cooked, I’ll clean up.”

“You don’t-“

“Shh, I’m doing it.” I say as I stand up and start collecting the dishes. I balance everything onto the large dish and lug it into the kitchen. It’s so heavy for some simple dishes! I ignore his smirk as I make my way out of the room.

I place all of the dishes into the large sink. This is so different from how we do it in the village. There, everyone has to fill a bucket from the water pump in the middle of the village and wash the dishes out of that. But here the sink turns on with the turn of a handle and stays on!