provincialbelle | (no subject)

(no subject)

Everything feels as if it's been happening very quickly and very slowly at once. The castle had been frightening and exhilarating at once and she had been so giddy to see all her friends again, but so dismayed to discover them in their original forms. Worse, of course, had been when she sat on the rug of the reading room and confessed that she didn't know that she was ever going to be the one to break the curse.

"I wish I could," she said. "And it isn't that I don't love him in my own way, but..." Belle's attention drew towards the door, where she had asked Jacob to stay for a moment. "But I think that there's someone else and I couldn't imagine a world without him." Disappointment had been so evident, but Belle could manage past that. She was simply grateful that she had managed to see them again after thinking she would never get that chance.

Now, with the gates behind them and the sun beginning to set in the distance, Belle did what she had been longing for -- she simply wrapped her arms snugly around Jacob's waist and held on as tightly as he could permit her.

"I'm glad we came," she admitted, speaking the words into his chest. "But I'm so very tired, all the same."

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"It was amazing," Jacob said, holding her close. "But I feel sort of bad that they're stuck like this forever. I wish there was something we could do."

There wasn't, though, unless he was prepared to give up Belle.

"I know," Belle agreed, the pain on her face evident in her agreement on the point. It felt strange to leave them behind like this and worse to know that she couldn't help the way she wanted. As she approached Philippe, something else occurred to her.

She hadn't even thought once to sneak her way into the west wing and pry through the secrets there. She hadn't even thought to because she had Jacob at her side. Blinking, she rode through the stunned moment, staring at the man who had escorted her here, even though he hadn't been sure of coming. "You're wonderful, I hope you know that."

"Yeah? I mean, I know I'm awesome most of the time but what did I do this time that's so great?"

Jacob reached for her hand and squeezed it lightly, just being affectionate. It seemed to come easier to be affectionate here in Belle's fairy tale land than anywhere else.

"You're you," she said, which is something so overwhelming and overarching, but it's the truth. After all, it's the reason why she had fallen for him and now, she hadn't even given second thoughts to seeing the Beast and that was all because of Jacob. "And I didn't think that I could ever love anyone quite so much as I do you, but you prove me wrong every day."

"I thought, before I came to the island, that I was in love with Bella. I thought about her just about every waking moment and got jealous whenever she talked about Edward. I thought she had to be the one."

Jacob paused, oddly thoughtful. "But then I met you. And as our friendship grew, I realized I didn't get jealous over you. I didn't obsess about you. You were just there, constant, and it didn't take long for me to realize that I would rather sacrifice myself than anything ever happen to you. I would give anything to have you forever. And I realized, too, that I was in love and it was real. Bella paled in comparison."

She had never really felt jealous over Jacob and other girls. There was a part of her that simply didn't understand how it might have worked, didn't know how mechanics of that might affect things, but now that she'd had the chance to see him with other young girls, she knew this: "I trust you," she said, taking hold of his hand and tugging him along towards the gates. "And I never had the chance to do much trusting before. But I trust you wholly and there's no jealousy in that. Love, though," she said thoughtfully, leaning in to press a slow and thoughtful kiss to his lips. "I think there's no end to the love in what I feel for you."

"I want my whole life with you," Jacob said and he was trying to explain how he meant it without proposing. He wanted to propose, sure, but he wanted to talk to Belle's father first and go about it the right way before he did something so life-changing and intimate for the two of them.

"There is no path I see that doesn't have you on it. If we went back to where I'm from, I'd tell my dad that, and my sisters, and my pack."

"Me too," Belle promised, wholly and so wholeheartedly that she didn't want to only say it once. "Jacob, I swear," she insisted firmly. "Me too, a dozen times over, you're so much more than I ever expected to get out of life. I had half a mind to throw men away for good before I left to chase after my Papa," she confessed, lifting her chin stubbornly in the air.

Which also meant that there was one thing, of course, that she wanted to ask. "Now that we're in the woods. And alone. Jacob, will you shift for me?"

Jacob nodded. Normally, he didn't wear a lot of clothes in the woods so that would be less to deal with when shifting and shifting back but with Belle right here, he felt safe enough to strip down and shift into the large, russet-colored wolf he'd been back in La Push.

It felt free somehow, to be able to do this again after two and a half years of not being able to shook out his fur in an attempt to keep from howling with joy.

Belle stepped back in order to permit him room, her eyes widening in wonder and some amount of fear to see the creature he could become. She stepped closer, running her fingers slowly through his fur, though there was a tentative nature to the touch. "Is it okay if I'm doing this?" she asked softly.

It was hard to vocalize as a wolf without alarming other wildlife in the area and Jacob had enough sense not to do that when Belle might be trampled by a panicked horse or, worse, actual wolves might find them. Instead, he nudged his head against her hand, encouraging her to pet him.

Her smiles broadens and she can't help the gasped laugh that escapes her -- filled with wonder and delight -- and she pets a little harder, curling in closer and bowing her lips down to the fur just behind his ear, brushing a soft kiss against the bristles of the hair there. "You're beautiful," she praised.

That was easy enough to understand and the attention felt nice, even if it was much, much different than the attention he got as a human. It was a simpler sort of affection but no less intense and he licked her hand slightly before shifting back.

"That felt...amazing. Damn, I'm glad I can do that again."

She was still laughing when he shifted back from the light tickling of his tongue on her fingers and the sheer joy of seeing Jacob's other form. She practically vaulted forward to wrap her arms around him, both to share her affection and also to keep him warm from the cold and prying eyes of the animals around them, holding snugly tight to his body. "Maybe I should've asked you to do that inside," she admitted, unknotting her cape so she could offer it to him.

"Maybe, but the cold doesn't bother me when I'm the wolf again," Jacob explained, wrapping her cloak around him. "My temperature runs a lot hotter. Can you tell?"

Bella had always been able to, had always basked in his warmth. He wondered if Belle would feel the same way.

"You're very warm, yes," Belle admitted as she tightened the cloak around him and held on firmly so that she wouldn't have to let him go. "I suppose you'd be a wonderful aid on a cold night, but I would take you, no matter the temperature you were."

"I guess I can't really say no to that," Jacob said lowly, brushing a kiss against her mouth.

"We probably need to get back to your father's house, though, unless we want to run into something nastier than me in these woods. You down with that plan?"

She caught his chin with her fingers, softly coaxing him back towards her so that she could press a slower, longer kiss to his lips. "We should go," she agreed, a fretful beat of her heart catching her almost off guard. "I don't want a repeat of what happened last time."

"What...was that, exactly," Jacob asked even though he was a little nervous about the answer. If it wasn't a good thing, it probably was for the best that he didn't know but curiosity had always been something to get him in the end.

"Wolves," she says evenly, which shouldn't still be scary to her after spending more time with Jacob (since he seemed to be as wolfy as they came and she wasn't scared of him, not in the least). "Feral ones, ones that hurt the Beast. I don't want them to hurt you," she admitted firmly.

Jacob nodded. "Yeah, okay, we probably do need to head out. I'm good one on one but there's no way I can take a whole pack by myself. Besides, wild wolves have better instincts than I do. I had to learn. They were born with it."

The advantage he had was solely in intellect but numbers could overwhelm him easily.

"And I wouldn't want you to be hurt," Belle pointed out, because that was more important to her. She didn't want some macho fight to happen because of their lingering due to her wish to stay. "Back home and to Papa, then?" she said, a hopeful look on her face that they could all have a lovely dinner together and she could truly and properly introduce Jacob to her father.

Jacob leaned in and kissed her quickly. "Yeah, let's get back home. I'm sure your horse will appreciate that."

Horses didn't tend to like predators, especially wolves, and the later and darker it got, the more likely they would run into something with more teeth and less manners.

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