(Untitled)

[the_beta]

Remus is on his second cup of coffee.

It's foul and acidic and makes his empty stomach want to shrivel up and crawl out of his body--he's never even liked the smell of coffee--but it's hot and however bad it tastes, at least it tastes strongly of something. At least it doesn't taste like blood.

Nothing does, he thinks. It wasn't real, didn't count

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[provincialbelle]

Belle had seen the boy around Jacob before, but she'd never found the time (or the moment) to properly introduce herself, though she wanted to. She wasn't sure she wanted, so much, to be drinking as much coffee as he was. "Want me to get you another cup?" she offered as she began tea for herself.

[the_beta]

"Merlin, no," he answers, gulping down the water like he's been stranded without these past ten months. It isn't until he's finished, spent five head-aching seconds willing a towel into his hands before finally wiping his mouth on his wrinkled sleeve, and turned to squint at her that he remembers his manners. "Ah, no thank you, that is, I've had enough."

It's a bit more squinting before he starts to think she's rather familiar. "I'm aware it's not the biggest of islands, but have we met?"

[provincialbelle]

"Not officially, I don't think," she admitted, finishing the water in the kettle and plugging it into the wall with aplomb, taking small victory in learning the device. "But I've seen you around a lot. I live at the Homestead, too, but I'm usually tucked away reading. I know you know Jacob."

[the_beta]

"Making you Bella," he surmises, except that can't be right, Bella is...something to do with tall, dark, and sparkling boy that Jacob isn't terribly fond of.

To put it lightly.

Remus shakes his head, only enough to clear it, "No, Belle--forgive me, he speaks so highly of you both. I'm Remus."

[provincialbelle]

"Remus," she echoed and stuck out her own hand in order to shake his. "Hello, Remus. I'm glad to have finally met you. Even if he does speak well of me, I don't want to exist solely in stories," she admitted with a soft smile. "But I'm always glad to meet his friends, even if they look as though something rough has happened," she went on tentatively. "Are you okay?"

[the_beta]

He shakes her hand and wonders if he ought to tell her--specifically, if he ought to leave Jacob well out of it, because Jacob is an incredibly nice boy, but most people don't stay out all night and hope the company updates their girlfriend the next morning. "Nothing a shower and some sleep won't fix," he assures her. "It's a hangover, save your sympathy for someone deserving," and his smile is thin, but genuine.

[provincialbelle]

Belle can't help a quiet laugh at that, searching through her things to make him a cup of tea with honey. "I've had a hangover before," she assured, recalling some nights involving too much wine. "At least let me make you something to drink?"

[the_beta]

"You're far too kind," he says gratefully, nursing the rest of his water, easing the bad taste and mild itch in his mouth. "I'd say you don't seem the type to drink much, but Jacob says we've a bit in common, and here I am." Perhaps just the books in common, he silently amends: she hardly seems as stuffy as he's accused of being.

[provincialbelle]

"I don't usually overexert," she insisted, with a slightly hapless smile. "But I'm from the south of France and sometimes, it's all we had to do. I tried to be on my own so I wouldn't bother anyone, but some mornings, the wine caused such a ...a." She gestured to her forehead. "Un mal du tete. Headache!" she said, with a snap of her fingers. "I don't think it speaks poorly of a person, to enjoy a drink now and then if it's not a common problem."

[the_beta]

"My friends tended to be of the mind that if you didn't overexert, there wasn't a point, back home," and there's almost affection in the wry twist of his mouth. "But that would be the difference between prattish schoolboys and the south of France," he muses.

"Did you know much English when you arrived," he asks conversationally, not sure how long she's actually been here to pick it up.

[provincialbelle]

"I learned English in order to read my books," she said with a small nod of her head and a rueful smile. She offered a shrug, not wanting to make it seem like she had done something extraordinary. "I couldn't bear so many texts being foreign to me just because I couldn't speak the language."

"Are your friends here?" she wondered.

[the_beta]

In spite of their mention, the question still catches Remus off guard--perhaps because he hasn't much wanted to think about them outside of the context of school. "Apparently we've all been here once or twice before," he answers, "But it's just down to two of us now.

"And what of your people," he asks, knowing enough of the Homestead by now to guess her parents haven't appeared.

[provincialbelle]

Belle shook her head, unable to help a quiet sound of almost sympathy for herself. "I don't have anyone here. There's really only so many people I'd actually want here, but they're not..." she finished, feeling rather pathetic in her lame attempt to not feel sorry for herself. "I mostly just want my Papa."