Beauty and the Beast? (Gaston)

[Rapunzel]

The first few houses she tried were empty, not even a barking dog greeted her. Maybe this was one of those ghost towns she had seen movies about, but if there was nobody here then why would she have felt so compelled to come here? Why did the very idea of going somewhere else fill her with such dread?

Starting to get worked up, Rapunzel could feel tears prickling her eyes. She was so tired and dirty and swore and hungry and lost and she wanted her daddy! He would hold her and murmur soothing words and her mother would run her a bath and make her something wonderful to eat and... no, but that wasn’t how it was anymore, was it? She wanted her parents but they didn’t want her. They were going to send her away to live with her witch of an aunt! Spoiled, was she? Ruined? What did she know, anyway? That old bat was just lonely and bitter and wanted to ruin Rapunzel’s wonderful life, that was all! Well, she didn’t need any of them! She would be fine on her own!

With a renewed sense of determination, the blonde girl started marching down the centre of the street until something caught her attention. Was that... music? Her eyes lighting up, Rapunzel hurried toward the source: the local tavern. Dropping her luggage outside (not like there seemed to be anyone around to steal it), she straightened her clothing as best she could, checked that her long hair was still pinned up properly, plastered a brilliant smile onto her face and stepped inside.

[Gaston]

It had been an exhausting day, out hunting in the forests for meat to feed the people of The Town, and all Gaston had wanted to do, on his return, was collapse into his huge, horned armchair at the far end of his tavern, tankard in hand, adoring girls hovering nearby, his latest kill roasting on the fire.

But of course, nothing was ever that simple.

Instead of his idyllic picture, he had returned to a fire-less grate, an empty tankard, and a near-empty town, practically devoid of any beautiful girls. And so, cold, hungry and pretty pissed off, he had thrown the carcass onto the bar, leaving the dead deer to bleed gently onto the floor, as he pulled himself a pint, and attempted to light a fire in the grate; a task, as it happens, which is much harder than it looks. By the time Gaston had a warm fire going, he was ready to beat someone to a pulp. It was times like this he could really use some adoring little idiot to punch in times of extreme anger. He really needed to get himself one of those.

Grabbing a barrel of ale and lifting it onto his shoulder as easily as if it weighed little more than a bag of sugar, Gaston made his way over to his chair, pulling a table close to him and dumping the barrel within easy reach. He threw himself into his chair and downed his pint, quickly refilling the tankard from the barrel, scowling into the fire, the dead deer still bleeding onto his bar.

"Bloody women's work. We need more bloody women round here..." He muttered into his beer as the door opened.

[Rapunzel]

Once entering the tavern, Rapunzel’s smile lasted all of five seconds before her eyes fell on the dead deer and she let out a high-pitched scream. It wasn’t like she didn’t eat meat, but by the time she ever saw it her father had always skun and butchered it, so she had never had to make the connection between the tasty meal and the pretty creature with the glassy eyes that lay before her.

It was pretty traumatizing, to be honest.

Blinded by her horror and naivety, Rapunzel wanted nothing more than to turn and bolt from the building, but as she tried to do just that she didn’t realise that the door had closed behind her so all she managed to do was run headlong into it, trip herself up and fall backwards onto her rump on the floor.

And there were those stinging tears again. Dammit!

[Gaston]

Jumping out of his skin at the scream, and slopping ale all down himself, Gaston raised himself from his seat and turned, furious, to vent all his anger and frustration on this stupid intruder. He paused with his mouth half open as the girl turned and ran into the door, falling onto the floor with perfect comedy timing. Perfect comedy timing which gave Gaston enough time to notice that the screaming intruder happened to be a rather stunning girl. His expression of sheer fury quickly rearranged itself, leaving an eyebrow raised in approval, and a smirk as he took in the view.

Placing his tankard on the table, he moved quickly towards the girl, offering her a hand to help her up. "Talk about making an entrance." He said with a smarmy smile, his hand extended. Glancing at the girls face he confirmed to himself that she was definitely new to The Town, and the smile grew, as he realised he'd probably got to her before Arthur or Merlin. Epic bonus.

"You didn't hurt yourself, did you?" He asked, his voice and expression pure concern.

[Rapunzel]

This was a disaster. Half the town was deserted, there were dead animals just laying about, and now her bum really hurt! And her head, and her nose, and her hand. Oh gosh, she really hoped she didn’t get any bruises! Sniffling slightly and rubbing her eyes, Rapunzel managed to miss Gaston in smarmy mode. By the time she looked up at him, her blue eyes rimmed with tears, he was all helpfulness and concern.

And really, really handsome.

“A little,” she admitted, her lower lip sticking out in a pout. It was completely involuntary now, but an action that had always had her daddy falling all over himself to make everything better. “Is it... is it dead?”

She wouldn’t dare look back over at the bar. She was pretty certain that it was, in fact, dead, and she was also quite certain that she would have a new nightmare for tonight, but she could always hope that she was just really tired and she was... seeing things or something. Yes, she liked that much better.

[Gaston]

Taking the girls hand, Gaston pulled her up onto her feet, making sure he held a little closer to him than was probably necessary - the body contact was definitely not necessary. Thank God Arthur wasn't here...

Pushing thoughts of Arthur quickly from his mind, Gaston glanced over at the dead deer. "Erm... yeah. If I'd been expecting company I would have removed it," He said with an apologetic smile. "It's not really a sight delicate females should have to see." He said smoothly, an arm creeping around her shoulders and guiding her down the tavern towards his seat.

Sitting her down, he quickly moved to the bar and got a glass of brandy, which he pressed into the girls hand on his return. "Drink this, it'll make you feel better." He said with a smile, leaning back on the table. "You're new here, right? You'll get used to things like that -" He nodded towards the deer carcass, "pretty quickly. We're a pretty primitive society in some respects." He smiled. "I'm Gaston, by the way, one of the founders of The Town. And may I be the first to say, welcome." His eyes fixed on hers, he took one of her hands in his, and kissed it softly.

[Rapunzel]

Wow, he was strong. With very little assistance on her part, suddenly and effortlessly she was on her feet. He was also very large... like tall and broad and muscular. Unfortunately he was honest as well and didn’t tell her that the deer was just sleeping with its eyes open in a pool of red... something; it was really dead. He was really nice about it, though.

Following him wordlessly over toward a large seat by the fire, Rapunzel was too busy looking at him to notice what the seat was made of, which was probably a very good thing. The last thing she needed was to freak out and accidentally run into the fire. Enjoying the warmth of the fire, she relaxed there for a moment before obediently taking the drink he offered her.

“Yes, I just got here. I was starting to think this place was deserted,” she said, looking down at the glass. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of a ‘primitive society’. Did that mean she would be expected to find her own food and and clean her own house and make her own clothes? What a horrendous idea!

Looking back up at him when he introduced himself, Rapunzel’s bright smile returned in full force. He was one of the town’s founders? How impressive! And such a gentleman! “I’m Rapunzel,” she replied, blushing a bit as he kissed her hand. Remembering the drink he had so kindly gotten her, she took a sip and proceeded to cough and sputter. “Oh gosh, what is this?” Oh my, how it burned!

[Gaston]

"There aren't all that many people here at the moment." Gaston admitted with a smile. "People come in dribs and drabs... people are drawn here - people who... who don't really fit in where they came from." Gaston's eyes lowered to the fire, in a rare moment of genuine feeling. "People like me." He said quietly. Brightening again, he downed the rest of his ale, pouring himself another tankard from the tap on the barrel beside him. "But that's what The Town is here for. No one ever ends up here by looking for it. They just... stumble upon the place when they need it."

He laughed gently as she coughed over the brandy. "Oh... yeah, that's brandy, it's pretty strong. You might wanna take it easy. Small sips." He said with a smile. And when that was gone he'd refill the glass. Then he'd get her drunk.

He should probably lock the tavern door... he knew what Arthur and the others were like, and their timing was always perfect.

[Rapunzel]

Aw, Rapunzel almost wanted to reach out and hug Gaston when he talked about not fitting in where he came from. Of course her situation was different: she had fit in perfectly. She had had so many friends that loved coming over to her house to play with all her stuff, and her parents gave her everything she wanted. It was only the threat of being sent away that made her leave. She only hoped she would fit in just as easily here... and why wouldn’t she? Of course she would!

“That’s what happened to me!” she exclaimed excitedly, having recovered from the shock of the drink. Taking Gaston’s rather large hand, she smiled widely at him. “I just started walking and I ended up here!”

She hadn’t really thought about it before, it hadn’t seemed important, but now that he mentioned it it was nice to know that everyone else had had similar experiences.

“So you founded this place?” she asked, taking a much smaller sip of her drink this time and grimacing slightly less. “Wow, that’s really neat! How long have you been here?”