'True beauty is found within...' I absolutely LOVE Beauty and the Beast! It is such a beautiful story with such a powerful message! I have been completely and utterly obsessed with Disney's new live action film version, so this story is in its honou...
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Some years later...
When Belle awoke early in the morning, she found Gaston's side of the bed empty, as well as the baby cradle. Slipping a shawl over her shoulders, she headed downstairs. When she reached the lower floor of the cottage, she was greeted by a sight that instantly melted her heart.
There was Gaston walking around, rocking their baby girl in his arms. She looked so tiny there in her father's arms.
But what melted her heart even more was the fact that he was singing to their sound-asleep daughter, very softly singing. So quietly you could have missed it, but it was there.
He blushed when he noticed her standing there. "My mother used to sing that to me when I was little."
"It was lovely," she assured him, kissing his cheek and then their little girl's head.
Their quiet morning was short-lived when their sons awoke. The two eldest boys were standing shirtless before the mirror, flexing their muscles. Then they began wrestling, rolling around on the floor.
"Boys!" cried Belle. "That's enough! Please, your sister is trying to sleep. Now please go and get dressed, you don't want to be late."
Still shoving each other, the boys ran upstairs. She sighed and shook her head as she watched them, but smiled. Her wild and reckless boys, and she loved them.
Gaston, the eldest, was called G. He was ever so proud to share the same name as his heroic father, and funnily enough was a spitting image of him. His dark hair and bright blue eyes alone had persuaded his parents to choose the name upon his birth. G, nine, and Jean-Lou, seven, were in school, but Anton, five, and Henri, three, weren't yet. And little Elene-Marie - after their mothers - was still just a baby.
"G sit still! I have scissors and I don't want to cut you." Once he was dressed Belle had her eldest son seated at the table, attempting to cut his hair. Out of all the boys, G was definitely the most wild and reckless. A spitting image of his father indeed! In appearance as well as in character!
G yanked his curls away from his mother's grasp. "But I don't want to cut my hair! I want it to be long like Papa's!" He wanted to be exactly like his Papa.
"And it still can be, you just need to cut it a little so it can be healthy."
"When can I go hunting with Papa?"
"No!"
"I said 'when' not 'if'."
"No, the answer is no."
"But Maman!" he whined.
"No 'buts'," she said firmly. "You're much too young to be handling a rifle. Gaston," she looked to her husband for support in this matter.
"Well, I myself was seven when I first held a rifle. My father was very insistent-" She hit him on the arm. "No, no, nine is still too young. Listen to your mother." G groaned.
"Enough complaining. Now go get ready for school."
"But I don't want to go to school!"
"You should feel very lucky that you get to go to school, mister. Now run along." He stomped up the stairs with a loud and dramatic groan.
Belle sighed, shaking her head. "He's just as stubborn as you," she told Gaston Sr.
He only smiled proudly as he watched his son storm off. "I know." Then he nudged her. "But you still love us."
She smiled, nudging him back. "Yes. I do."
"Well, I'd best be off. Don't want to keep LeFou and the others waiting." Gaston gave her a kiss. "I'll see you all later."
"Yes, see you. Have a good day."
"You as well!"
After dropping the eldest children at school she and the younger few went to run some errands in town.
"Bonjour, Madame Gaston," called the farmer's wife.
The title she had once thought appalling, she now held with great pride. "Bonjour! Two dozen eggs please," she requested.
"You go through a lot of eggs," remarked the farmer's wife.
"Well between the four growing boys and their father," Belle said with a smile. The woman smiled back and threw in a couple of extra eggs. They were for Gaston's family, after all.
Later that day, Belle and the children went to go pick up the eldest two from school. They were wandering through the village.
"Ah, look at them LeFou, my family," Gaston said, eyeing them through his telescope from the hill at the village's edge. It didn't seem like that long ago he was doing the same though imagining Belle as his wife. Now she was, and they were married with five children! Gaston smiled. "My wonderful, perfect family." He nudged his horse and rode into the village.
"Papa!"
Suddenly, four young boys were springing towards him, only to tackle him into a hug. He picked the two youngest ones up, one under each arm, spinning around, with Jean-Lou dangling from his neck.
Belle laughed as she watched them, holding Elene-Marie close.
Her family. Her life.
And what a wonderful adventure it had been, and still was.
The End.
(And there we are, you've reached the end! :) Thank you so much for reading and, as always, I hope you've enjoyed! :))
