Title: All These Years
Fandom: Beauty and the Beast
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Cogsworth/Lumiere, pre-Beast/Belle
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Lumiere is determined to cheer up Cogsworth.
Word Count: 1,594
Written For: Fan FlashWorks 381: Amnesty: 370: Clock and 373: Stamp; 100 Fandom Hell - New Fandom; and 1 Million Words A to Z: A (Adoring and All) and F ((Inanimate) Forms)
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.










Cogsworth was trembling with barely controlled rage as he bustled into the kitchen, the hands on his face spinning in rapid spin wheels. Chip jumped and hid behind his mother, who bubbled softly. She was upset, too, but she wasn't going to let the Master get the best of her. She had faith in the new mistress after all. She had seen Belle's kindness already and fully believed the right woman had come at long last to break through all the Master's... Neither grumpiness nor harrumphs were strong enough a term, but she still believed Belle could do it. Moreover, from the way she had watched Belle interact with her son, the Queen, Lumiere, herself, and even temperamental Cogsworth, she fully believed the girl was fit not only to be a Princess but their Princess. Still she grimaced as the door swung shut behind Cogsworth.

"I CAN NOT BELIEVE THAT MAN!" Cogsworth declared, the hands on his face spinning ever more rapidly as he jumped up and down and stamped his base in fury. "HE IS SUCH AN ARROGANT SON-OF-A--"

"HMM MMM!" Missus Potts declared, releasing a warning whistle of steam.

"I'm sorry, Missus Potts, I am!" Cogsworth cried, trying to calm himself but also throwing his little, metal arms up in the air. "But he is just such a -- "

"Not in front of the children, Mister Cogsworth!" she reminded him firmly.

"Ah, come on now, Cogsworth!" Lumiere declared, hopping up to his former lover. As inanimate objects, the act of actually making love had died out between them centuries ago, much like it had that tender act of romance had died for Missus Potts herself when her husband had passed away. She wished he could have met the new missus. She would have liked to have known his opinion of the young, brave girl, but then too and far more so, she would have liked to have had him there for the boys' birthdays and for so many other cherished events. She sighed and gently bumped against her son, letting him know it was time for bed.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lumiere saw the other dining ware retiring for the evening and, moreover, leaving him alone with Cogsworth. "Ah, ma cherie, we can all be têtes de crosse at times! We mustn't despair! Belle vill see through him!"

Cogsworth batted away Lumiere's reaching sconces. He was in no mood to be tickled, or to be reminded of all they could no longer share! "He's worse than that, Lumiere," he cried, "and you know it! He'd scare away any monster, let alone a young girl -- "

"A young girl, Cogsworth, who is going to see through him! Belle is ze one! I can see it in her eyes!"

"Nonsense! She's going to leave at the very first opportunity she gets, especially if he keeps acting the way he's been tonight!"

"You know ze Master is always especially ornery whenever zere is a storm! Besides," Lumiere dropped his voice to a whisper, knowing the last thing they needed was for the Master to overhear that which he was about to confide in his oldest and most treasured friend, "do you not zink ze Master is also afraid? And you know he acts when he is afraid!"

"Like a blustering fool!" Cogsworth declared, throwing his hands up. "You're a hopeless romantic, Lumiere! You're going to find any excuse to claim his behavior acceptable!"

"Non! His behavior is far from acceptable, especially around ze young Mistress!"

"She is not our Mistress!"

"She's going to be!"

"No, she's not! He's not going to give her the chance to be anything but scared witless!"

"Really? She has not left yet, or even tried to leave since ze first night!"

Cogsworth ached for a spigot of brandy, but with this clock form for a body, he had no way of drinking or eating anything. All nourishment was a thing of the past, including being able to be truly reassured by the Frenchman who annoyed him as much as he assured him -- and as much as Cogsworth, despite himself, loved him.

He folded down into himself, his sorrowful, almost crying face pressed against his own pulleys. The heavy sigh he emitted made his cables and pulleys swing. "Just because she hasn't left yet doesn't mean she won't!"

Lumiere bounced to him. He was successful this time in tickling him with his sconces, but Cogsworth did not laugh. He merely sighed heavily again and looked up at his beloved. "I am so tired," he whispered, both his hands dropping to six.

"Ze spell will be broken, ma chere."

"How can you still be so optimistic," Cogsworth demanded, "after all this time?!"

"Because," Lumiere answered, wrapping a sconce around Cogsworth and pulling him close, "after all this time, I still love you."

"I love you too, but -- "

"Ah, but zere is no butts!" He tickled Cogsworth's face, trying to make his hands sweep back up which would be a sure sign he had reached his beloved's down-trodden spirit. "Don't you see, mon amour?"

"All I see is a great big, stupid brute of a man -- "

Lumiere grinned at him and winked. "Zat is very same zing zat was said to me so many times when we first began courting!"

"Fat lot of luck that did us!" Cogsworth cried. "Look at us now! We can't eat, can't drink, can't kiss, can barely sleep -- "

Lumiere gave him such an adoring, long look that Cogsworth found himself stopping and just simply sputtering in mid-sentence. "Can't -- Can't -- Can't -- "

"Cogsworth, ma chere, I kiss you every night in mon dreams. I love you every day and night, even if we can barely touch. I make love to you every night when I dream."

"Lucky you," Cogsworth sputtered, but his face was burning now in a way that no mere clock's face should be able to burn.

"I know ze cure is comin'," Lumiere told him earnestly, "and oui, I believe it is zis girl. Oui, I may be wrong, but even if she is not ze one, ze one is coming, Cogsworth."

"How can you still believe?" His voice now was almost a whimper. He had once faced down whole arms with bravado, but all these centuries they had spent cursed to be meager, inanimate objects had drained him of all hope, all joy, all courage... He only had a little love left, and all that he did leave was for the man... the candle who now held him. Tears dripped down his face. Lumiere caught one and held it out before him.

As Cogsworth stared back, puzzled, at the candlestick, Lumiere explained, "Zat is why I know zis curse will not last. We are still too human. After all zese years, all zese centuries, Cogsworth, we still feel like humans. I still love you just as much as when you rescued me. I still love you just as much as when your lips first touched mine."

"We don't even have lips anymore!"

Lumiere gently brushed a wick over where his beloved's lips should have been, if only he had not been a clock. "I still remember," he told him, "zat first kiss, zat first embrace, zat first daring rescue. I always will just as I will always, always love you."

"But just because we love each other -- "

"Oui, love is enough!" He squeezed him hard, lifted him off of his pedestal, and swung him around in his sconces. "Love is all zere is! Do you not understand, mon amour? Love is ze very zing, ze only zing that will break ze curse!"

"But how can any one love that blustering buffoon?!"

"Ze same way I can love you," Lumiere replied gently, beaming at him and tickling his pendulum bob. "Ze same way I have always loved you! Ze same way I loved you from ze moment you rescued me, from ze first moment I saw through zat zick exterior hide of yours! Zat's all it's going to take for sweet Belle! Once she sees beyond ze Master's zick hide, she will love him! Love always leads to kisses, and zat is all we need to be free again, to be ourselves again... It's all only one kiss away!"

"Yeah," Cogsworth muttered, "and when she actually kisses a monster..."

"I kiss you!" Lumiere began trying to plant kisses on Cogsworth's face, that was no longer nearly as gloomy as it had been, but Cogsworth waved him frantically away. Lumiere darted pass his little, waving handles and succeeded in darting a few kisses onto his face. Cogsworth's hands spun. "When ze girl does kiss ze beast," Lumiere cried defiantly and jubiously, "when ze curse is lifted, zere will be two weddings!"

"Two?!" Cogsworth sputtered.

"Oui, two, old man! We're going to tie ze knot!"

Cogsworth tried to argue, but he could no longer manage to get words out for constantly trying to swat Lumiere away. At long last, he dissolved into giggles and relented, "Fine! Fine! We'll wed -- if the curse ever breaks," his hands began to spin again, "but it won't!"

"Ah, but it will, sweet General! It will! Just you wait and see! We are going to live happily ever after!"

The Beast's thunderous roar suddenly shook the whole castle. "Yeah," Cogsworth groused, "that'll be the day!" Yet Lumiere continued kissing him, kissing his words away, kissing his anger away long into the dark and stormy night.




The End