Almost Amour!

Almost Amour! is the fourth issue of the Marvel Comic serial of Beauty and the Beast.
==Summary==
Will love bloom at the Glorious Harvest Gala Festival between Belle and the Beast? Not if Cogsworth, Lumiere and Mrs. Potts can't get them to attend. Meanwhile, Gaston is up to his old tricks as he plans to win Belle's heart.
==Synopsis==
Continuing the events where the last issue left off (The Wishful Walk), the castle household's senior staff, (Cogsworth, Lumiere & Mrs. Potts), are watching as their master the Beast & Belle are still enjoying their time outside. Whilst Mrs. Potts advocates patience and advises against rush, both Cogsworth and Lumiere are eager to speed things up, Lumiere proposing the idea that they should hold a "spectacular, starlight, star-filled, shimmering, spellbinding splendid supper", describing a romantic evening for two for the master and Belle, "a little theatre to prompt the passion".
In the castle's study, Cogsworth and Lumiere catch CrowQuill & InkBottle playing about. Calling them to task about their lack of professionalism, Cogsworth instructs them that they are to scribe elegant invitations for the master the Beast & Belle, and that they're to be ready in the next two hours, and leaves Lumiere to dictate the invitations for them.
Meanwhile, down in the village, Gaston is dressed in his best, whilst showing off his strength to an audience comprised of LeFou and the Bimbette Triplets. He explains his next plan: he's going to go up into the local forested mountains and hunt the biggest bear he can find, thinking that this is just the feat to bring Belle running to his side. As Gaston heads out, he is accompanied by LeFou, and the Bimbette Triplets (unbeknownst to him/unacknowledged by him). In his regular attire, Gaston starts up the mountain against LeFou's advice, refusing to listen. While LeFou initially decides to stay at the mountain base and nap, the Bimbette Triplets try to follow Gaston up to foil any feat that they think would impress Belle if she were to hear about it, but Gaston inadvertently causes a small avalanche to befall them and a slumbering LeFou.
Back up in the castle, Belle is reading in her room when Madame de La Grand Brouche announces/sings that an invitation has arrived. Excited, Belle informs Cogsworth that she would be delighted to attend, and Cogworth claims credit for the idea for the supper, and that the master would be "pleased as punch" that she's accepted. Down in the den, the Beast is seated in his chair in front of the fire, pondering over the apparent positive turn in the relationship between him and Belle; he's hopeful at what it might mean, but also fearful that it might just be what he's seeing what he wants to see; during which time Lumiere arrives with the other invitation. Accepting the invitation without even reading it, the Beast dismisses Lumiere, who tries to get him to read it, but is unable to save it from the fire when a gust of wind from the window blows in.
Back up on the mountain, Gaston is resting before continuing. LeFou points to a sleeping bear in a cave, which he points out as being the biggest bear he's ever seen; a fact that Gaston disagrees with, claiming that he could easily fight it with one hand tied behind his back. LeFou also points out that bears sleep during the winter; and Gaston, seeing that his heroic feat of fighting a bear won't be so heroic, changes plans and decides to take the bear alive, believing that Belle would love to sing to it before he makes himself a new bearskin rug out of it instead. Hearing this, the Bimbette Triplets plot on how to foil Gaston's plan.
Meanwhile, in the castle kitchens, the senior staff are arguing over the turn of events; if their master's not going to attend the supper, Belle will be there on her own, defeating the point of the supper; and Mrs. Potts points that she feared that something like this might happen. Chip, spotting Belle down in the gardens reading, and hoping that she might be able to do something about this dilemma, opens a window. Belle hears the end of Cogsworth and Lumiere's argument--and, with only some of the details, thinks that the Beast had burned the invitation deliberately--decides to go confront him herself.
In the den, Belle asks the Beast why he doesn't want to go to the supper that the staff are putting together (and can remember the whole title); when the Beast doesn't know what she's talking about, Belle asks if he had even read the invitation. The Beast claims to be too busy for "such frivolity". Belle points out that it's not frivolous to the household (as she believes that they are just trying hard to brighten-up the atmosphere of "this otherwise gloomy castle"), and that he just hadn't wanted to go, all he had to do was to just say so as it was just common courtesy to the household, and he needn't have burned the invite. The Beast suddenly snaps at her that the household staff are his servants and they're there to serve him; and the Beast's sudden outburst of temper leaves Belle feeling that her observations of his sweet, kinder side may have been premature, and as she leaves the room she voices aloud that "[she see's] that [she has] misjudged [him]". The Beast is left thinking he'll never get her to see past his exterior, (not quite grasping that his behavior and his temper is what's working against him).
Back at the hibernating bear's cave, Gaston and LeFou are taking another nap, during which time the Bimbette Triplets are trying to make it seem as though the springtime has arrived to wake-up the bear to foil Gaston's plans for the bear--which succeeds--only for the bear to attack. While everyone else runs, Gaston is taken back by just how big the bear really is, but still thinks that he can take it on--until it sends him flying out of its cave. Only now does Gaston see he's in over his head in regards to the bear, and quickly decides to simply give Belle a smaller bear, with LeFou agreeing. As they are headed back to the village, the Bimbette Triplets were watching them.
Back up at the castle, the Beast is brooding over the empass he's at with Belle when Mrs. Potts and her youngest son, Chip arrive with his tea; Mrs. Potts tries to help him with his problems--he insists that Belle will never see past his beastial exterior, which Mrs. Potts insists that he just has to let her see past all of that and see him for something other then that; he then insists that Belle rightly thinks he's rude. He admits that he does want to go the supper (but cannot remember the whole title), and that he would have said yes if only... but then stops there and tries to dismiss the whole situation as too humiliating. Mrs. Potts vise-versa insists that if he does want to go to the supper then he should just talk to Belle and clear the air before it just gets more confusing.
Soon afterwards, the Beast finds Belle in the library looking for a new book to read; the Beast expresses concern about her being up so high on a ladder, and Belle insists that the ladder's alright. The Beast then brings up the topic of the supper, admitting that he does want to go, that he would have accepted the invitation--except that he didn't know that it was an invitation--reluctantly admitting that he has forgotten how to read for quite some time. Belle points out that he could have just told her that in the first place, and the Beast also admits that he's ashamed to tell anyone; and Belle offers to help his re-learn how to read, and the Beast agrees.
That night, the "spectacular, starlight, star-filled, shimmering, spellbinding splendid supper" takes place, and the Beast also invites Belle outside to watch the stars from on the balcony. The sight of the Beast and Belle together out on the balcony has the staff feeling optimistic about the two of them falling in love.
==Trivia==
* The solicitation preview for this issue in the prior issue briefly hints at Gaston having to fight a bear, when it notes that Gaston can't bear to have Belle ignore him with the word "Bear" being given in italics.
* This issue implies that, had Belle learned of Gaston's scaling the mountain, and had Gaston succeeded in actually defeating and killing the bear, Belle actually would have fallen for him--or, at-least, that's what Gaston and the Bimbettes just assumed what would happen.
* The final panel has the servants briefly singing the final lyrics of "Beauty and the Beast"
* In the ending of the village side story, LeFou suggests that Gaston get Belle a teddy bear. This is anachronistic as Teddy Bears weren't invented until the 20th century, barely a century after the events of the franchise (being late 18th century according to Glen Keane), and were specifically named after the United States President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt due to an incident where he refused to kill a black bear during a hunting trip.
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Category:Beauty and the Beast
Category:Comic stories
Category:Beauty and the Beast books