BELLE ✩ t.c

two, emma watson

"You're crashing at my place tonight," Timothée said once they settled down in their seats. They were first-class on the last train of the day, which left at 8:00. Juliette merely smiled at the statement, knowing she couldn't make him back down, he was stubborn as hell and always had been.

"Sure. It will be far too late to check in at the hotel anyways. Let me call them though, let them know," She said and she did so, Timothée trying to stop himself from staring but failing anyways.

"So," he started, one she was done on the phone. "How've you been?"

She laughed. "After 12 years? 'How've you been?'" They both grinned. "No, but I've been good. Uh, let's see. Well, Alex got really sick the summer after you last came. He's cancer-free now but that was probably why my parents hadn't invited you back. They were just taking care of him for a long time. When I was 14 I moved to London for boarding school. Did that till I was 18, went to Cambridge for three years, got my bachelor's in drama last year. I was filming a bunch of stuff during that time, including Girl. I'm actually dating Lukas, the director of Girl. Uh, hopefully in a few years I can go back to England and get my M.F.A., which is the goal for me. But, yeah, I've been busy."

Timothée smiled fondly. "That's amazing, really. And the boarding school explains this posh accent you've developed," He chuckled, mocking her accent at the end of his sentence.

"Oh, really, it's not my fault! The school was in West London and I was staying with friends in Oxfordshire," She rolled her eyes. "I know none of that means anything to you. But Oxfordshire is where Emma Watson was brought up, if that helps."

"That's right, you sound like Emma Watson!" He laughed.

She couldn't help but smile, staring at him with adoring eyes. "How are you?"

"Good, good. Y'know, after Call Me By Your Name it was just..."

And for the next 3 1/2 hours, the two caught up on 12 years of lost time between them. They fell back into a rhythm they had when they were young. They just clicked. Juliette was so happy to finally be talking to him. They had this unspoken agreement that the few years they had both been famous and failed to reach out were now in the past, they both knew they had both been overthinking everything.

Unfortunately, as good of a time they had on the train, being the people that they were, of course it was bound to be imposed on. A clip of their conversation had been recorded by someone in the seat behind Timothée and they were sent to tabloids across the nation. That clip happened to be the one where Juliette revealed she was dating Lukas, which was otherwise unknown to the public.

- - -

"Fuck, I hate the press. I'm sorry Jules," Timothée said as soon as they got in the hired car at the train station and they began driving to Timothée's condo.

"It's fine. I'll call Lukas right now, I'm sure he'll be okay with it," She sighed; tapping rapidly on her phone, nails clicking against the screen.

"Do you want to stop the car?" He asked politely, not wanting to intrude on a private conversation. She nodded gratefully and the driver pulled into a parking lot, using a special pass to gain access to the roof, where he parked the car and Juliette stepped out, walking to the edge of the parking structure while dialing her boyfriend.

Timothée waited and chatted with his driver, who he hadn't seen since he had began filming in Massachusetts.

He kept glancing out of the window at Juliette, who was leaning on the rail, overlooking Manhattan.

"She seems like a keeper," His driver commented slyly. "She's nice, genuine."

Timothée smiled, laughing lightly. "Me and Julie aren't together, Jacob. But she is nice. And genuine."

"And beautiful," Jacob said, giving Timothée a pointed look. Timmy rolled his eyes, still smiling, and looked out the window once more.

Only this time, Timmy's grin immediately got wiped off his face when he saw that Juliette had her head in her hands, back shaking with sobs. He quickly opened his door and left it open as he rushed over to her, incredibly worried.

"Julie?" He asked, hesitantly putting his hand on her back as she looked up. "Are you okay?"

She smiled sadly, tears still running down her face. "Lukas said, and I quote, 'if you can't keep your mouth shut, there's no point in keeping you around'," She took a deep, shaky breath. "He broke up with me."

Pushing away his anger towards Lukas, Timothée embraced the shorter girl, letting her cry into his jacket. "I'm so sorry, Belle. You don't deserve that."

She stopped crying and soon pulled away slightly, chests no longer touching but arms still around each other. Juliette looked up at him with a lopsided smile. "Belle? Haven't heard that one in forever."

He laughed, hugging her tightly one more time as she laughed too, before he let her go. The two of them leaned their elbows on the rail, looking over a bright and busy New York.

Juliette looked at Timothée, who's eyes were still on the bustling city, and just smiled at his beauty. She looked forward again soon after, but scooted closer, wrapping her right arm around his left and entwining their hands. She leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"Êtes-vous d'accord?" He asked quietly, squeezing her hand.

It had started snowing by then, small, white flakes decorating their matching dark hair.

"Je pense que je le serai," She replied after a moment.

Just then, a huge screen in Times Square went off with a 'Merry Christmas, New York!' sign, and most of the other screens soon changed to Christmas messages from different brands and government departments. Timothée looked at one of the many clocks on one of the many buildings as realization hit and the two turned to each other.

Juliette was grinning as widely as humanely possible. "Merry Christmas!" She said enthusiastically, pulling away her hand to hug Timothée.

After they pulled away, Timothée just studied her for a moment, a small smile decorating his lips. Juliette stopped smiling, realizing how close they were as her cheeks suddenly felt like they were burning off. "Merry Christmas," He whispered.

They just looked at each other for a moment longer, until Timothée finally leaned forward and connected their lips in a slow, sweet kiss.

They stayed like that for a moment, just kissing as snow fell harder around them and overlapping Christmas songs drifted through the air from below.

It was magical.

When they finally pulled away, Timothée gave her one more short kiss before speaking. "You've had no idea how much I regretted not doing that when I had the chance."

Juliette smiled. Yet a feeling of slight uneasiness settled in her stomach. Wasn't this too soon? Timmy had just broken up with Lily-Rose earlier that year, which was a two year relationship. And Juliette had just been broken up with by a man she had been dating for four years.

But those thoughts were washed away as she hugged him tight and looked at the city again, the Christmas spirit infecting the air around her. Maybe she could be happy for once. Maybe all that overthinking was for nothing, and overthinking again would only make things worse.

The two got back into the car with an 'I-told-you-so look thrown to Timmy from the driver. They drove the five minutes to his hotel and Juliette was dropped off first, covered in a tight jacket with the hood up and sunglasses to hide herself. She headed up to Timothée's condo, which he gave her the key to, and flopped into a chair facing the window, taking off her jacket and brushing the snow out of her hair.

She soon heard a knock and opened the door to find the one and only, grinning widely. She smiled up at Timothée, who joined her in the room, and the rest of the night was spent doing only-God-knows-what. They fell asleep at around 3:00 AM, wrapped in each other's arms, content smiles on both of their faces.