Hello! I wrote this story because well...I've been wanting a Beauty and the Beast Stony story and couldn't find one. So I decided to write it myself. I'm also cross posting this on my AO3 account. If you have any ideas for this story please let me know as I only have a vague outline of whats to happen. This story has been running around in my head for awhile. Anyway hope you enjoy! Also future chapters will be longer and I'll post when I can. Reviews make my heart happy!
Stark Mansion had always been a place of activity and excitement in the small town of St. Peter.
Visitors often came by when the Lord Howard Stark was there. Lord Howard having always thrown the biggest and best parties when he was in town with his wife. The whole town mourned when he was gone. Lord Howard had left behind his young teen son Anthony, who suddenly had to take over his estate. He seemed to do very well, there was a party every week with excellent booze and woman. It was gossiped around town that Lord Anthony had slept with no less than half of the village girls and even some foreign ones when they passed through.
Eventually the town grew bored with the young Stark's parties and soon Lord Anthony was spending every week in the taverns and bars in town. Moving on from drunken parties in his mansion to drunken parties in town. He always seemed to charm at least one girl to come back to his mansion with him. Most people thought bad of him for this, for having had so many girls warm his bed. The truth was Lord Anthony only wanted to have some sort of contact. Some sort of affection, even if it wasn't true affection.
His parents had never been around long when he was a child and he grew up in a house full of servants and people only meant to take care of his physical well being. All of this was not good for the young lord, who being used to getting whatever he wanted from the servants, grew up to be selfish and egotistical. He was used to getting his way and never took no as an answer. He always believed that if he couldn't charm his way into it, then he could throw money at it.
Despite all this he had managed to make a friend or two. People who could actually deal with his bad habits and sometimes horrid manner. People who no matter what he did would stick around to clean up his mess or be an ear to listen to the problems of the privileged youth. Even still these people were not enough to change the attitudes or the rough demeanor of the boy. No one ever thought he would change. They thought he would remain his rude, playboy self until the end of his days and maybe he would have if he had not angered a powerful wizard.
This wizard was a tall, elegant and powerful man. He had heard about this selfish boy who never took no as an answer and seemed to be truly heartless. This wizard just couldn't let that go by. He was a mischievous mage and would only take pleasure in knocking down this boy a peg or two. But...he must first give the boy a chance to prove him otherwise.
So the wizard went to the Stark mansion and disguised himself as a horrible looking old man seeking shelter from the cold harsh winter night. He had knocked on the door and asked for refuge, immediately Lord Anthony refused. He would not have such a wretched man under his roof. The wizard decided to try once more and once again Lord Anthony refused him refuge. The wizard gave Anthony one last chance and Lord Anthony once more shut the door in the wizards face.
Filled with anger and a need to pull the man off of his pedestal of self loving, the wizard knocked on the door and before Lord Anthony could shut it he transformed himself into his true form. Elegant lines and handsome face. Lord Anthony instantly tried to change things around but the wizard would not let him get in a word. So the wizard cursed Lord Anthony and all in his house.
The wizard doubted that Lord Anthony could love anything other than himself so as part of the curse he took away Lord Anthony's looks, turning him into a horrid beast. Vines grew over Lord Anthony's house and all inside were immediately affected by the curse. Every guest, every servant, and every animal were affected. After seeing his face in a nearby puddle, Lord Anthony begged the wizard to change him back. The wizard refused but gave Lord Anthony a condition to the curse.
If Lord Anthony could learn to love someone, wholeheartedly and put them in front of himself and be loved in return then the curse would break. With those final words the Wizard Loki gave Lord Anthony two gifts to help him, though he doubted they would change anything. One was a bright blue ticking clock. It had no numbers on its face, but instead had twisting turning gears. That was how much time Anthony had until the spell would be permanent. The gears in the clock would slowly stop until they no longer turned, when that happened there was nothing Anthony could do to return to the way he used to be. He had until his 24th birthday.
The other gift was a silver hand mirror. With this Anthony could look into the outside world and see what was going on. Maybe find one to love him, though the wizard doubted that Anthony could ever love someone other than himself. With this the wizard disappeared in a flash of green smoke leaving Lord Anthony to stare into the mirror. He was a monster, a beast, Who could ever love such a horrid creature.