All These Lives (AU) || Belle & Oliver
belle-leclairâ:
âOhâ, she exhaled as he proceeded with his confusing statements. He obviously didnât trust her yet, or was still too tired to force himself to try â who was she to judge â but it left her feeling a tad empty. Somewhat longing for more of an explanation. She sat on the basic, how far would that get her? The only thing she could say for sure was that Oliver did not seem dangerous to her, merely bitter about his situation. âThatâs fine, I wonât pressure you. Iâm just curious by nature.â A harsh fact about her, often digging for answers that didnât belong to her and those she would be better off not knowing. Oliver, she guessed, was one of them on his lonesome as the second she had figured out who he was she had placed herself, and her father, in danger by inviting him inside her home. Other people, whether they were active in the hunt or stayed neutral, would supposedly had done better keeping themselves on the sideline. Let Oliver slip by without notice before they all pretended they had seen nothing at all to stay safe.Â
âMy dad? Uh⊠sheâs an engineer. Tend to stay out in his workshop most of the time actually. Thus he wonât bother us. He comes in for dinner and an evening snack but otherwise itâs him and his ideas.â Although a humble and loving father Belle had never failed to notice how the death of her mother had broken him into pieces. He didnât stray away from talking about her, sharing whatever he had left with the person he had left â but the void was still there. Haunting him and his mind was best kept occupied outside. âHe doesnât make as much as he could with his stuff, he keeps it pretty local but itâs enough to survive on.â Belle smiled, nodding at the plate before Oliver. âHow about you eat some, you need it.âÂ
Curious, huh? It sent a warning flag high up in the air, fearing what type of information she would eventually stumble upon or try and claim from him. She wasnât pressuring him now, surely, but no one liked to have a stranger around and he was more than that. No, it was best not to prolong his stay, but for now he allowed his mind to drift -- oddly surprised by Belleâs straightforward attitude. âEngineer?â Oliver responded with an arch of his eyebrow, for once finding himself at ease with something. Familiar territory, even if it came off as nothing but a hobby in his own case. âFunny...â, he mumbled and steered his eyes against the plate of food once more. Shaking off the fear it could easily be a trap, Oliver grabbed for the fork by its side and carefully poked at the rice before he gave in to his cravings and offered his mouth a tender bite. Not bad.Â
âI... used to do some tinkering myself.â That wasnât considered too much infromation, was it? A basic fact, something almost anyone who knew him could state through and through. âNot that I had much freetime to try anything too advanced but itâs fun to work with your hands. Craft things from the bottom or better something you already have.â Oliver shrugged and took another bite off the plate. âAnd... what about... you? What do you do?â Not that he genuinly cared but it wouldnât hurt to get an overview of the people he shared a space with. Harmless only went so far in his mind, something you had to learn early on if you wished to survive on the top of the chain.Â















