The Dreamer and the Hunter - A Beauty and the Beast Story

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Gaston was still insistent that he wait to see her father, so they went inside and she made some tea for them while they waited for Maurice to finish working.

"Enjoying that book I gave you?" Gaston asked once they were seated in the sitting room, following a long, awkward silence between them.

"You mean the book from Père Robert." She could not help but smile at his startled expression. "Yes, it's lovely. My mother and I used to read fairy tales together, they've always been very special to me–" Just as she suspected, his gaze was wandering about the room and he hardly seemed to be paying attention.

"Gaston, why don't you like books?" she wondered aloud. "They're just stories, and you like telling stories I know. They're just already written out for you."

"Ah but see, that's the fun part, the making it all up. And the telling of it is so exciting."

"Reading can be just as exciting," she insisted. "Especially reading aloud." She scooped up her book, stood, and opened it. Before he could protest she began to read aloud, changing her voice as needed to add excitement and depth. When she finished the passage she snapped the book closed and smiled at him. "See. And that wasn't even the most exciting part, not one with action or adventure–"

"Action and adventure?" This caught his ears. Now that sounded interesting. 

"Yes, I love stories about far off places, epic battles, magic. And with some romance of course." She almost forgot who she was speaking to. She quickly regained composure, snapping from her near dreamy trance. "What kind of books did you think I read?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, whatever it is girls read."

She gave a snort of laughter and rolled her eyes. Classic Gaston.

"You see, this one–" She went over to the small bookcase and withdrew a book with a deep blue, worn leather cover.  "This is one of my favourites.  It's about pirates who sail all around the world, visiting all sorts of different places, and there's magic and mystery and excitement.  I've read it twice."

"Twice?!" he cried.  "Why  would you want to put yourself through that more than once?" Was she trying to torture herself?

"Because I enjoy it." Was that really so hard for him to understand? Apparently.  "It's like–" She searched for a way to explain this, to relate it to him.  "–Like you and hunting.  It is something you enjoy, right? And you do it because you enjoy it, for fun." She didn't like referring to killing animals as 'fun' but if it would make him understand...

"Yes, I enjoy it, but I do it because that's how I make a living now that I'm no longer a soldier." He gestured to her book.  "As far as I know you don't get paid for reading."

"If I did, I would be rich!" Okay, maybe not hunting.  "What are some things you like to do in your spare time?" she asked, almost cautiously.  

He shrugged.  "Go to the tavern, have drinks, talk, laugh, tell stories."

"Alright, see you enjoy it, that is why you do it.  The same is for me and reading. It is something I enjoy doing."

"Yes, but I really don't see why."

"Well I don't see why you enjoy spending hours in a tavern, but that's alright if we don't understand that about each other.  As long as we enjoy what we do and accept that of others. That is a part of being friends, honouring and respecting each other's differences," she then added.  "You can like hunting and going to the tavern and telling stories, and I can like reading."

"I still think that telling stories is much more exciting – a story is never told the same way twice."

"Perhaps, and that's your opinion, and I respect that.  And yes, that's true, like how we all imagine and picture things differently."

"Some of us aren't quite as imaginative."

"Everyone has an imagination Gaston. That's one of the reasons why I love reading so much, it feeds my imagination.  I can read about all the places I'd like to see, and imagine them, so in a way I get to really go and see them, better than not at all.  Reading allows me to escape for a time, it takes me on an adventure."

"But see, why would you read about it if you could go out and live it?"

Here she sighed. This only reminded her of how trapped and alone she sometimes felt.  "If only I could."

(And then she breaks out into song: "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere!" Haha ;) And I thought the picture was neat cause it shows her book and his pistol :) Thanks for reading!)