The Boy and the Beast: A Merthur Beauty and the Beast AU

Be Our Guest

Merlin pulled his hand away from the door and turned his head in the direction of the murmuring voices. He creeped the last few steps to the end of the hall, took a breath, and peered into the room.

It was a small, square shaped room with a fireplace on one wall, a comfortable looking chair to the left of the lit fireplace and a fancy area rug. However, the first thing he noticed were objects on the rug...and they were capable of talking just as much as the wardrobe.

"No, no, no," a small, French style clock said, "I will not have us pound on the door and demand he come out!"

"Then what do you suggest? The poor boy can't stay up there forever!" A talking teapot insisted.

Merlin couldn't tear his eyes away from this peculiar and quite shocking scene. How was it that everyone who had worked at the castle were transformed into speaking, moving objects?

"Just give it time. I'm sure he'll come down. The boy must eat. I told the master to invite him down to dinner last night but he refused to ask." This time the candelabrum spoke. Merlin noticed that its two outermost candles worked as hands and his center most candle was his head.

Merlin stood up straight at this point, his back and neck beginning to get a bit stiff from peering into the room. Before he could return to this position once more after that brief stretch, a sudden barking caused him to freeze. He slowly looked over into the room once more, as that was where the noise was coming from.

He saw a red cushioned foot stool hopping around on the rug and making dog-like barking sounds. Merlin was only able to safely witness this for a second before the foot stool noticed him and started to run over to him. Merlin moved away from view and pressed himself up against the wall. That made no difference since the barking foot stool skidded out into the hall and found him anyway.

A moment later the clock, teapot and candelabrum were in the hall also.

"What are you barking at?" the clock asked. Then, all three objects looked up at Merlin.

"He has emerged!" the candelabrum exclaimed holding out his two 'arms' that were alight with orange flames.

"Oh, I'm so glad you've decided to come out," the teapot chimed in. "Are you hungry? Oh I'm sorry I should introduce myself. My name is Guinevere."

"I am Gaius," the clock introduced proudly.

"And I am Gwaine," the candelabrum announced.

"Um...nice to meet you?" Merlin replied as a question.

"Go get the boy some food, will you? He had no dinner last night! I'll fetch him a fresh cup of tea!" Guinevere stated hopping towards the kitchen.

"Follow me, Monsieur," Gwaine ordered moving past Merlin who followed. What else was he supposed to do? He was too stunned to do much else, actually. Gaius followed Gwaine as well.

"Take a seat, settle in, let us provide your meal." Gwaine said jumping on top of the table.

Merlin took a seat at the head of a large wooden table in a good sized room. It was quite dark, but he could just make out the walls.

"Us?"

A second later a spotlight, seeming to come from nowhere fell over the entire table. Spoons, forks, plates, cups and bowls, objects he couldn't see due to the previous darkness sprung up from the table and seemed to disperse at random yet in an organized fashion. Merlin gasped as knives whizzed by him and napkins spun in front of him. Tea carts zoomed next to the table and it took him a second to realize food was being transported on them and loaded onto the table.

"Don't be too loud! Shush, shush, shush!" Gaius hissed, his small clock hands a spinning frenzy as tea carts rumbled across the floor, trays clattered on the table and silverware thumped around.

"Be our guest!" Gwaine bellowed cheerfully as more spotlights, these ones green, pink and blue shone down from somewhere.

Gwaine rushed up to Merlin from the tabletop and handed him a large menu which he took from him awkwardly. The castle had a menu? He skimmed it quickly before looking up again.

Merlin was so overwhelmed he didn't know where to look, but he had to admit it was a spectacular sight...even if a lot of what was being served wasn't breakfast food at all. He smiled as eggs, pies, beef ragout, cheese soufflé, pudding and so much more danced in a line right before him.

Gaius seemed to be the strict one, as he continued to rush around trying his very best to silence everyone.

Merlin reached out and took a little bit of each. The objects were humming a catchy tune as they jumped about and Gwaine was jumping from plate stack to tea cart and making a huge show of himself and everything that was going on. Odd. The beast was a total, well beast, but the rest of the castle was extremely happy. The beast was okay with this? Did he know? But how couldn't he know? It is his castle.

Merlin tasted whatever decided to prance in front of him enjoying the marvelous show. A moment later, Merlin heard a small voice coming from directly in front him on the table top. He looked down and noticed it was a small teacup with a jagged chip in it.

"Hi! I'm Mordred," the teacup smiled up at him.

"Well hi there Mordred," Merlin grinned back.

"I have your tea," he exclaimed, bending over slightly so Merlin could get a better view of the steaming liquid inside.

"Oh," Merlin chuckled, realizing he had to drink from a tiny, talking teacup, "thank you."

With only a brief hesitation Merlin lifted the cup to his lips and took a small sip. The teacup giggled and bubbled a little, and Merlin grinned too. How many people got to have a grand meal with talking and dancing objects? Not many he knew.

Finally, the plates, cups, utensils, napkins and every other object around began to slow, the colorful lights went out and things began to calm down. Merlin had eaten quite a bit during the grand show and he could safely say his hunger was satisfied.

"That was delicious!" Merlin beamed. "Thank you. You didn't have to go through the trouble and make all of this, though. A small breakfast would have been just fine.

"Oh no, no, no," Gwaine protested. "It's been a long while since we have been able to serve anybody. We wanted to give you the best!"

"Well, thank you," Merlin said again. He stood up from his chair and looked around the room. "I think I'd like to explore a bit. I mean, if I'm to be trapped here the rest of my life I'd at least like to know where I'll be staying a little bit better early on."

"Oh, wonderful idea!" Gwaine replied a little too quickly. "Would you like the two of us to give you a tour?"

"If you wouldn't mind." Merlin eventually related.

"Alright! Then let's go!" Gwaine bellowed.

"And I'd be delighted to inform you about the entire history of the castle, including its art, family history, construction and design," Gaius told him proudly.

Maybe he should have just said no to a tour.