A/N: Made this because I'm very interested in the Gabriel/Mama Agreste romance and I'm a procrastinator who really needs to get her shit together.
Btw, we really need to get Mama Agreste's name lol that way I won't have to make one up. I have no idea if someone has already used this name in a story. If I have accidentally copied someone, I'm sorry, and will change it.
Gabriel Agreste squinted his eyes to better study the young woman that came into his class. She seemed to be a new student; he had never seen her before. And he knew the faces and names of everyone in the school.
She had long, curly blonde hair pulled into a low ponytail and sharp, angular features. Her full, pink lips were pulled up into a warm smile as she regarded the class, dark green eyes looked over each and every student.
Gabriel was still scrutinizing her when they locked gazes. She was the first to look away, blinking her eyes and a soft, pink blush rose to her cheeks.
He tilted his head. The girl was beautiful, no doubt about it. She looked like a painting out of the Louvre, every detail of her was perfect. He couldn't find a single flaw on her.
Her face was an artist's dream, they would be clamoring over themselves for the consent to capture her face on paper. True, he preferred to design clothes instead of draw people, but this girl was too beautiful to pass up.
A rare smirk pulled the corners of his lips up. They were both here, and he wasn't going to give up his chance.
"Class, I would like to introduce our new student. This is Celine Lemaire," Mme. Joly announced kindly.
Celine...sky, heaven. Well, her face was heavenly. Her parents were smart people to name her that.
"Hi, everyone," she spoke shyly, offering a wave to the class. She had a lovely voice as well, matching her outer beauty. "I'm happy to be here and I can't wait to meet all of you."
He heard a scoff, and wasn't surprised to see it came from Chienne Meunier. She was the notorious 'queen bee,' as they call it, of their school. She had the most money out of all of them and was dating golden boy Andre Bourgeois who had big political dreams. He was already class president, and with a skill in politics that he was pratically already on the Mayor's chair?
Well, Chienne couldn't pass the opportunity up. She was a gold digger, a very patient gold digger.
Celine looked in her direction for a brief moment, the blonde looking a little threatened by the brunette. Once again she was the first to break gazes.
"You can sit with Gabriel," Mme. Joly said, gesturing to him with her hand.
On any normal occasion, he would've been utterly furious at a suggestion like that. He sat in the back, away from everyone, for a reason. It gave him peace to work in his sketchpad and not have to be bothered by some curious eyes seeking his drawings.
But with Celine sitting next to him, this would give him a perfect opportunity to study her face better. Hell, maybe the closer proximity would allow him to find a flaw.
The new girl nodded and climbed the stairs to the top bunk on the right side of the room. He kept his head down, eyes glued to his sketchpad, as she slid in the seat and sat down.
Out of the corner of his eye he watched her get out a basic blue notebook and a sky blue pen. She opened the tablet to the first blank page and took her pen in her hand, ready to write.
Eager to learn? A sign of intelligence. This girl seemed to be the rare case of beauty and brains.
Celine slowly turned to him and gave him a shaky smile.
Oops. He hadn't realized he had begun to blatently stare at her. Even he had enough social etiquette to know people considered random staring from a stranger to be unsettling.
"Hi, I'm Celine," she whispered while Mme. Joly explained what the lesson was going to be for that day. Slope, he noted absentently.
He raised a pale blond eyebrow. Was he wrong in the assumption that she was intelligent? Mme. Joly just announced her name only a few minutes ago, did she forget or something?
"I know, our teacher just said it," he replied, tone flat. Oh well, beauty was just as nice. After all, he wasn't going to draw her smarts, only her looks.
She blinked, as though she was taken aback by his response. "Oh, um, yeah," she mumbled awkwardly. "I guess you're not a fan of standard introductions, huh?"
Standard introductions? They didn't need them since their names were already revealed! What was wrong with this girl?
"Yeah," he answered instead, not voicing his thoughts.
"So, since we're skipping the introductions, can I just get to the part where I ask you to show me around? This school is a lot bigger than my last one, I barely even made it on time to this class."
"Actually, you were two minutes late," he clarified. "But luckily for you, Madame Joly doesn't start until at least five minutes into class."
Green eyes disappeared in a suprised blink again until she looked away from him and gave a small smile. "Uh, yeah. I guess that is lucky for me."
Gabriel continued. "As for your question regarding me showing you around the school, I'll do it."
God forbid she gets lost and accidentally goes to the wrong classroom. All the students would laugh and shun her, and drawn beauties were neither laughed at nor shunned.
Celine seemed to brighten at that. She perked up in her seat and he could swear her gem-like eyes sparkled. It was a dazzling change from her earlier small and shy smiles.
"Thank you! You have no idea how glad I am to have someone here to help me."
For some strange, inconceivable reason, he found himself giving her a smile of his own. Usually he never felt compelled to smile at people, but something about her just drew him in, made him want to share in her happiness.
As she safely turned away to gaze back at the board, Gabriel scowled and retreated to the blank canvas of his sketchbook page. Sharing in her happiness? Since when was he so poetic?
He started to work on the finishing touches of a suit he designed, only half-paying attention to the lesson. He already knew what to do anyway, there wasn't really a point to give Mme. Joly his undivided attention.
Celine snuck a glance only once, craning her head a bit to see, before sharply turning back and writing notes in her tablet. Gabriel had to admit he was impressed that she didn't try to stare at his work. He liked that she wasn't nosy.
His eyes studied her side profile. Perfectly formed jawline and cheekbones, long eyelashes that curled up at the ends, lips pursed in a tiny pout as she wrote. Even her ears were just the right size.
No flaws, none at all.
It baffled him, to be honest.
Meanwhile, Celine had turned to look at him, subsequently catching him staring again. She looked confused, yet one side of her mouth curved up in a half-smile.
"Any reason why you keep staring at me?" She questioned. Despite the cheeky way she asked, her cheeks darkened into a rosy pink.
"You're beautiful," he stated matter-of-factly. It was the truth, after all. Who couldn't stare at such angelic beauty?
The blonde's eyes fluttered open and closed three times in shock. Her mouth parted slightly and her emerald eyes grew wide as her cheeks flushed.
Gabriel tilted his head, his expression filled with confusion. Why was she acting so surprised? Surely she had to know she was beautiful, didn't she own a mirror?
"Th-Thank you," she finally stuttered. Her head lowered and her shoulders hunched in...embarrassment? Why would she be embarrassed?
He shook his head and continued on with his design.
...
Celine didn't know what to make of the quiet, brooding boy next to her. When she first laid eyes on him she mentally observed that he looked very cute, hopefully she could become friends with him. She didn't dare hope they could be more, boys were put off by her talkative, bubbly personality.
As her best friend Bernadette would always say, it was their loss. Celine would always let out a laugh whenever she heard it.
Bernadette. She missed her, she missed her home: Toulouse. All her friends were back there and she was stuck on the opposite end of France in Paris. Her father's job required the move. Celine pleaded with her parents to stay, to find another job for her father, but they were adament on their refusal.
"Besides," they said, "you can meet all new friends."
"And maybe," her mother added with a wink, "meet a boy."
She sighed through her nose at that memory. Her mother thought it was strange that no boy would ever try to date her daughter. She tried telling her that it was a lost cause but the woman wouldn't believe her.
"You're a smart, kind, beautiful girl. And someday, someone will see it and tell it to you straight to your face."
Who knew that day would be today? Well, kind of. He called her beautiful, but not smart or kind.
Also, she expected that when the time finally came when a man would tell her that she was beautiful, it would be in a romantic setting. With candlelight, the city view, nighttime with the moon high in the sky, and the suitor holding her and giving her a look so full of love that her knees would go weak.
Not one of those things happened. Gabriel had said it with such a serious face that it was almost like he was just...telling it to her. Just stating a fact that everyone knew, like how the formula for slope is change of y over change of x.
Still, it was enough to get her flustered. And why shouldn't she, he was the first boy to ever call her beautiful. Hearing it made the blood rush to her face and her brain temporarily shut down.
Celine tapped a pen against her tablet in growing aggravation. It wasn't even romantic, not the least bit, and she got so affected by it! Well, at least she got the 'first beautiful' out of the way. From now on, if she should hear it, she'll remain perfectly calm and unaffected.
She snuck another peek at him. Gabriel seemed really smart, that explained why he sounded so proper and stuff when talking. It also looked like he liked to draw. What, she didn't know, she didn't pry into other people's business and he didn't look to be the type to forgive someone for being nosy that easily.
He was also very blunt. He just said what was on his mind, whether or not it was rude. Maybe he was aware of this, but honestly, she'd bet that he didn't even care. He seemed the type to only care about himself, as mean as it sounded.
Dating him wasn't an option. He had the looks, but was severely lacking in personality. Then there was the fact that no boys wanted to date her.
Maybe she could befriend him, instead. He might have friends already, but she desperately needed one. She hated feeling alone, and perhaps she could somehow influence Gabriel to be nicer to people if he had her friendship. People did say her smiles were contagious.
That's it. She'd befriend him, and the school tour he promised her would be a good way to start that friendship.
A/N: So I believe that Gabriel was kind of like Felix in his youth, and Mama Agreste kind of like Bridgette. At this point Gabriel doesn't have feelings for Celine at all, he's merely intrigued by her beauty and wants to capture it on paper. Celine is attracted to him, but it put off by his personality.
I could leave it like this, since you guys already know what happens to Gabriel and "Celine". But, if you guys want this enough, I can turn it into a drabble-type story.
Next update will be for "I Like Someone Else" which will hopefully be finished :) Have a good day/night! :D