[DISCONTINUED] A Beauty and A Beast (Garmau AU)

Chapter 3

Every thirty seconds or so, Aphmau would look over her shoulder to make sure Gene wasn't behind her, and every time she did so, he wasn't there.

When she finally reached her home, she rushed up the stairs to her porch and quickly shuffled inside, not wanting Gene to pop up out of no where and cause her to be awkward again.

When Aphmau made it inside, she opened a window and threw the bouquet outside, not even wanting it in the first place.

After slamming the window pane shut, she could faintly hear music from somewhere.

Automatically, she knew it was coming from the basement where her mother worked on small projects for herself.

Aphmau smiled before making a small plate of food and walking down the basement steps, careful to be quiet as to not disturb her mother.

Then, as she reached the bottom step, her mother's voice cut through the quiet music like a knife through water.

"How, does a moment last forever?" Aphmau peeked around the corner to see her mom watching a music box play. "How can a story never die?" Her mom continued to sing, and Aphmau softly laid her head against the wall and closed her eyes while listening to her mother's soft yet beautiful voice. "It is love, we must hold on to. Never easy, but we try..." she continued, and Aphmau couldn't help but allow a smile to grace her features. "Sometimes our happiness is captured. Somehow a time and place stand still," Aphmau then noticed how the music box was in the shape of a windmill, and how the blades of the contraption softly spun around to the soft music. "But love lives on inside our hearts, and always will..." her mother finished before looking at the device seemingly in a trance.

Aphmau lifted her head off of the wall and took that as her cue to make her presence known. As soon as her mother heard her boots, she looked up from her invention and smiled.

"Ah! Aphmau!" She exclaimed before shutting the doors to the music box and taking the top off, exposing the gears and other contraptions before turning her attention to her daughter.

"Can you pass me the-" she was cut off as Aphmau passed her a small pair of tweezers. "Thank you." Her mom said in a singsong voice.

After she moved a gear back into place, her mother started once more by saying, "Now can you pass me the-"

Again, she was cut off as Aphmau held a small gear in her hand and motioned for her mother to take it.

"No no no, that's not what I was going to say-" her mother did a double take. "Actually, yes. Thank you." She said before taking the piece out of Aphmau's palm and placing it inside the music box.

Then, they each shared a smile with each other, and Aphmau stood up straight before grabbing one of her mom's completed music boxes and holding it in her hand.

"Mother... do you think I'm... odd?" She asked, and her mom looked up.

"You? Odd?" Her mother started with a raised eyebrow. Aphmau only smiled. "I know, but it's just... the townspeople are always talking about me behind my back and saying I'm a 'funny' girl. I'm starting to think they don't mean that in a nice way." Her daughter replied, making her mom laugh.

"Oh honey, you are definitely odd." The woman said, making Aphmau sweat drop at how blunt that was.

"But... when we lived back in Paris, I remember a woman who was just like you. She was definitely odd, but she was brilliant. So ahead of our time. The people there made fun of her too, and laughed and scolded and mocked her until the day they all found themselves trying their absolute hardest to be her." This sparked a flame inside Aphmau, and she stood.