Beauty, Her Beau, and Her Beast (A Rumbelle/OUAT Fanfic)

A Confession

*~ I haven't updated in such a long time, and I would explain my departure, but I doubt it is of much concern. I'm back to writing though! Let's get to it. ~*

Graham's POV, The Cottage

We haven't been at Laura's for long. A few days, maybe. But in those few days I have noticed more and more differences in how Laura acts and how she behaves. Her eyes are... colder. Her smile is tighter. Her voice, which was my anthem of comfort and joy as a child, has something else underneath... something more malicious.

I don't want to say anything to Belle, though. It might upset her, even more than she already is, and I don't think I could bear any more of her masked frustration toward me. Perhaps Laura has always been this way, and I haven't noticed it until now. Still, something feels... off. I don't have enough evidence yet, but I have a bad feeling something will happen soon.

I'm sitting at the dining table as I think this, waiting for Laura and Belle to finish cooking supper. Every time I've offered to help with the meal, Belle has shrugged me off with a thin smile which clearly fails to hide her discomfort, and Laura has fussed tremendously and shooed me out of the room. All I can do now is wait.

It doesn't take long for the food to be brought out, Laura and Belle's happy chatter accompanying it. Belle hesitates before putting my plate before me, carrying on the conversation with her eyes cast downward.

"Thank you," I mumble, attempting to place my hand on hers. She jerks her hand away and passes it off as smoothing out her skirt, before retreating to the other side of the table.

"And I told that wretched woman that if she ever thought to try and steal one of my precious hens again, I would make sure she couldn't sell in a market anywhere from here to the corner of the land," Laura finished with a loud laugh, oblivious to the friction between Belle and I. Belle's laugh was hollow.

"My, what a silly story," she replies with a tight smile, sitting down at her spot. "Shall we eat?"

Belle's POV, The Cottage

I never believed that this situation with Graham would turn out to become such a mess. I can't even fathom how crystal clear my vision of us together in the future together was before he uttered those awful words. Heat of the moment.

I avert my eyes from him for the whole meal, making polite chatter with Laura while pushing around the food on my plate. Laura's gaze becomes focused on my meal, and she frowns.

"Why, Belle," she admonishes, "you've hardly touched your food. If you don't like my cooking, you might as well just tell me."

I shake my head rapidly in response. "No, no!" I reply, "Your cooking is delicious. I regrettably don't have much of an appetite tonight, if you can believe it."

"Listen to the young lady, Laura," Graham intervenes, flashing a smile.

Laura and I give him two very contrasting looks. Hers, full of warmth, and mine, full of ice.

"Well, I do suppose I overreacted," Laura admits, "Belle, I apologize. Maybe you should go lie down?"

I nod silently and push my chair back, standing up.

"Thank you for the meal, Laura. I'm very grateful."

With that, I stiffly turned around and crossed the room to the stairs, climbing them in order to reach my room. As I reach the top, I hear Graham's voice from downstairs, accompanied by the scraping of a chair against the floor.

"I'm not feeling very hungry either, would you excuse me?"

I hurry to reach my room before Graham reaches the top of the stairs, and am just closing the door when Graham sticks his foot in the doorway to prevent me from closing it.