(no subject)

[mlle_belle]

She'd found the strange world while Jacob was still asleep.

To be fair, Belle was only half alert herself and had truly intended to go from bed to the bathroom to splash water on her face and rouse herself enough to manage through her morning routine until she could have a cup of coffee and truly wake up, but she managed one step through the door before she had to curl her toes and realize that these were not the porcelain bathroom tiles she'd been expecting.

No, instead, it was a gritty type of sand and the temperature around her seemed to bake and boil, as if it wanted to bake her into the earth like the red clay all around her. Wondrously, Belle forgot about the room (though she had the sense to drag a rock to the door and prop it open), and wandered forward to see what she could find.

It was incredible.

She vaguely remembered the island being like this, for a time, but this seemed to go on forever with no borders, not like it had before. Belle dug into the pockets of her cotton pajamas and found a little coin she'd tucked in there (for the coffee she'd been intending to get), and with it she paid for a set of clothes that looked better in this place.

And once that was done, she went to the row of horses, unable to keep herself from such beauties. "Let's see how long it takes Jacob to join us, hmm," she sings to the horse melodically, stroking his flank.

Comments

[mlle_belle]

"I know that," Belle said, quietly. "I may not look different, but we were outcasts in our own village," she reminds him, keeping the horse's canter at an even pace. "We were called mad and insane, because Papa invented wonderful things and because I liked to read books."

"I would never stand by and let anyone make you feel the same, though," she says, devoted and firm.

[quileutejacob]

"That's one of the things I love about you," Jacob said. It was crazy the way she could calm him down and ease his fears and he guessed that was why they'd gotten married. A partner did that.

"I think it'd be great to go to France with you. I've got to learn French, though."

[mlle_belle]

"I forgot about your lessons," Belle admits with a sheepish smile, colouring pink in her cheeks for the way he so easily talks about loving her. She loves that, loves him, and it never stops being a magical thing to think that she's found this sort of love. "We should start them again, to make sure you'll be able to get by and be able to go where you like. There's so much to see in Paris, from what I recall of it."

[quileutejacob]

"I've never been much of a student but I can be motivated to learn," Jacob said, grinning at her. "Being promised breakfast in a foreign country is a pretty decent incentive for learning French, don't you think?"

He thought the French were supposed to be good at the whole food thing. They did invent French toast, right?

[mlle_belle]

"Maybe we should throw you in the deep end and bring you straight to France." She wouldn't leave his side, given that she could never do that, but he would certainly learn very quickly. "Plus, it would give you the benefit of learning the dialect, which is a bit different from the proper language."

[quileutejacob]

Jacob gave her a skeptical look. "I think you probably have way too much confidence in my ability to learn another language. I mean, I love you, but I am not really into the whole book learning thing."

Then again, being thrown in meant learning hands on more than depending on a book. Maybe it would be better.

[mlle_belle]

"Then maybe we'll teach you the basics so you can get by and I'll take care of the rest," Belle says, given that it might be the best way to go about things. "Either way, I know we'll manage to have a good time in Paris. We'll be with each other."