Evermore [The Beast/The Prince x Reader]

chapter three

She ran out of the room in a panic and dashed down the stairs. As she reached the foyer, her hands shaking and her breaths bursting out of her in short gasps, a group of objects swerved in front of her. They were alarmed by her urgency to leave the master's room.

She pulled herself to a stop and braced herself against a post. Her chest heaved. She brushed her messy hair from her face and shook her head.

"He's... he's impossible," she gasped. "You cannot convince him of any good! He thinks this is the end, that I cannot begin to help him! And he won't listen to a word of reason!"

She pushed herself back up and started down the hall. She picked up her dress and stomped off. Her friends chased right at her heels, clamping and clonking against the hard floors.

"Where are you going, mademoiselle?" Lumiere called out.

"To a room," she answered. "Any room, so long as it is far away from him!"

She stomped inside of the first one she saw and slammed the door. Seconds of silence went by, and the objects blinked at each other.

"Oh, dear," Mrs. Potts whispered.

The door opened again. "That's a washroom, not a bedroom," she grumbled, her hands in fists at her sides. She hesitated halfway down the dark hallway. "If... if you guys want to follow me... that would be fine."

Lumiere and Cogsworth gulped and glanced at Mrs. Potts and Plumette. They were not skilled in dealing with comforting a woman. The women sighed and followed the young girl, tossing friendly suggestions of where she should sleep. Chip hopped behind them.

"Poor, poor mademoiselle," Lumiere sighed, shaking his head.

"Poor her?" Cogsworth scoffed, "poor us! Look at us, pieces of furniture! Doomed to be antiques."

Lumiere placed a wax candle-hand on his friends bronze shoulder. He sighed as he looked at his gold arm, the wax dripping from the wick of the candles on his hands.

"We have time, old friend," he reassured the clock. "It is only day one, and the petals have yet to show signs of wilting. That is what the Enchantress told us, right? We have until the last petal falls?"

"Yes," Cogsworth answered. "Which gives us merely days-"

Lumiere shook his head. "Uh, I do not think she has given the master any average rose, Cogsworth. It is enchanted."

"What are you saying?"

"I am saying that we have time," Lumiere said. "Weeks, months, even!"

He was suddenly filled with unearthly hope. Their lives has been graciously spared by the Enchantress, in a way. She had given them the most precious gift of all: time.

"Maybe even just enough time to conjure up a plan," Lumiere said softly. He turned back towards the hallway, where ___ and his friends had disappeared to. "We can think of something, Cogsworth, and we will be human again in no time!"

                           ...

It was deep into the night when Plumette and Mrs. Potts came out of ___'s new bedroom, a yawning Chip trailing behind. Cogsworth and Lumiere stood up straight from where they had been waiting.

"So?" Lumiere asked. "How did it go?"

"The poor girl is in hysterics," Plumette said. "She cannot stop crying for a minute!"

"Our poor friend," Mrs. Potts said sadly, shaking her entire frame as one would shake their head. "She's been such a free spirit, it is probably difficult for her to deal with the realization of being stuck here."

"At least she's just stuck!" Cogsworth exclaimed. "We have to deal with the possibility of becoming antiques!"

"Well, she doesn't know that!" Chip argued.

"The boy is right," Lumiere said, "our dear ___ has no idea. She only wishes to help-"

"-but the master is impossible to fight with!" Plumette said. "Especially now..."

"But she is no better than the master when it comes to anger," Mrs. Potts pointed out. "We would be blind to think otherwise! They are both headstrong."

"Then we will use that to our advantage!" Lumiere said. "Something in common - right there in front of us!"

"Pardon?" Cogsworth scoffed.

"Their temper," Lumiere specified. "We can fix their tempers - together. This will bring them together, and voilá! We are human again and restored to our original brilliance!"

"That is the most absurd, ridiculous, upside down idea I have ever heard!" Cogsworth exclaimed. "No one can bond romantically over anger issues."

"Cogsworth is right," Mrs. Potts said, "I'm afraid our girl is not the one."

Lumiere gasped. "Not the one? Sacrébleu, of course she is! A young maiden - left human - in our castle! One with history with our prince, nonetheless!"

"But they are very headstrong," Mrs. Potts reminded him. "And they rarely get along. And now... oh, the sadness in both of their hearts... they express it with their anger."

"So we've lost all hope, Mama?" Chip asked.

The teapot found herself at a loss for words. On one hand, she liked to think that something could be done. After all, the young lady and the prince had chemistry. They were friends - but the situation they were in currently left them at a crossroads.

Perhaps they could try. If the world allowed it, they would fall in love before the year was through. But only if the world allowed it.

"Now, Chip," she said, laughing nervously, "I am sure we have hope. After all, we have time on our side, and nothing is impossible."

They stood in silence. The adults forced hopeful smiles on their nonhuman faces, but as they glanced at one another, they felt hope flutter away from them. Lumiere reached to comfort Plumette. He circled his arm around her, and they were disheartened when his limb couldn't fit against her waist. They didn't fit like puzzle pieces anymore.

Nothing was impossible. It was not impossible for people to turn into objects. It was not impossible for a selfish prince to be cursed. It was not impossible for a romance to bloom between friends.

"We must just have hope, my dear," she added, and they all nodded to themselves. "Hope is all we can have."