Hiya! To all you beautiful individuals who choose to take a few minutes from your day to read my one-shot, I really appreciate it!
Disclaimer: I do not ownBeauty and the Beast. It is one of my favourite stories, though, for its characters, message, and music. I just think that the Beast gets too much hate for his actions at the beginning of the story, so I thought I'd shed some creative light on why he did what he did.
Anyway, enough prattle. Onward!
...
"Hello, everyone… or whoever the hell even reads these things…"
"Belle, I don't think I can do this. Being a super smart, famous, drop-dead-gorgeous writer is your thing, not mine. I suck at writing."
"Firstly, thank you. You're really sweet. Secondly, no, you don't suck at writing," she says enthusiastically. "You're a great writer."
"Honey, I've never written anything before," I reply with an 'are you kidding me' look.
"Exactly!"
"But you said-"
"Like I said, you might be a great writer!"
Yep, there it is. That smile. She has many genuine "happy" smiles- which are adorable, by the way, but this is the only one that signifies murder. It's the cue to not argue further; I don't want to awaken the beast… ironically speaking.
"Okay, I'll try again," I sigh. Here we go.
…
Hello, everyone. Of the many stories you have been told, you might recall one of a prince turned into a beast who was given until his twenty-first birthday to fall in love and be loved in return. I'm the prince in that story. Well, the way that it's told makes me out to be the bad guy. I'm here to set the record straight.
Long before I met Belle, the intelligent, caring, beautiful love of my life, I lived in a castle with many servants and two people who called themselves my parents. They probably loved me but never showed it, and I was stuck trying to prove my worth the never-impressed. There was no love amidst the marriage of the king and queen, and my mother made that clear time and time again. Of the many individuals staying as guests in the palace, few had not seen the inside of my mother's bedchambers. My father had always been my role model. I had placed him on a pedestal in my mind as someone to resemble. I don't know why, though. As a ruler, he was a few steps short of a tyrant, and as a father, he was not much better. He got everything he wanted, though, and as a child that seemed pretty cool. So, his uncontrolled temper, rage instead of requests, and lack of gratitude all rubbed off on me. But my parents never reined me in, so when they were suddenly out of the picture, I did not lose much. A few years later, even after the servants tried unsuccessfully to teach me kindness, I was practically still the same child as before. Only parentless.
One stormy night, I heard a knock coming from the front door. Opening it, I saw a haggard old lady huddled in a cloak. Now, like any child, I was taught to beware of strangers. And man, this woman was creepy. So obviously, I didn't let her inside. I was scared! A few seconds later, she knocked again. So yeah, not only was she old and wrinkly and wart-covered, she had stalker tendencies. As I said. Creepy. And, she thought that giving me a rose would make me let her in the house. Granted, it was a beautiful rose, and it was freezing outside so maybe I should have let her come in for some tea before kicking her back out, but you must remember that I was eleven at the time.
But after warning me and me ignoring her, the old woman changed into a beautiful enchantress. Right then I knew I was screwed. She transformed me into a beast and the servants into various objects, and you know the rest. Now, I can see that she might have been having a particularly crummy day, but picking on an eleven-year-old boy? That's really mean. She did teach me a valuable lesson that led me to Belle, though, so I can't be too mad at her.
You might wonder about why I was so cruel to Belle when she first got to the castle. Don't remind me about that. I beat myself up about it enough. Well, I should never have done it, but I'll at least tell you what my thoughts were at the time and the backstory leading up to it.
So, I had been a beast for a few years with no interaction with anyone outside of the castle. One day, a young girl around my age came along adventuring with her friends. They ended up playing around in my castle, and despite all my father's teachings about fun not being a pastime that a royal like me could enjoy, I really wanted to join them. So, I tried to, unintentionally scaring them all away, including making the girl slip and fall down the enormous staircase and die. Her friends carried her home, but I still felt her death like a dagger to the heart. No one came along to the castle again. It was avoided like the plague, and I heard whispers of a rumor that spoke of a vicious beast living in the ruins of a haunted castle. I hated life and didn't want to see another human again.
Years passed and I was about to turn twenty-one when Belle's father found himself hiding from the cold in my castle. At last that horrible rumor had died off, but I believed that anyone seeing me would revive it. That fear paired with my temper caused me to make a stupid mistake and lock up Belle's father. I really wish the meeting between Belle and myself had happened differently, because boy did I know how to make a horrible first impression. After that, you know all about how my temper screwed me over several times, but how we finally became friends. I didn't really know how important she was to me, though, until the evening that I danced with her and then let her go free. I didn't realize until then that, because I loved her, I had to let her go. What happened next was the same as you know. The tale as old as time. Love cannot come from appearances. It comes from what's inside.
…
"See? That was really good!" Belle exclaims.
"Thanks, I guess. It really wasn't that good, though"
"Yes, it was. Don't be so hard on yourself."
"Belle, I... I wouldn't be the same without you. If you weren't here, I really don't think I'd have the courage to write that," I reply, looking down.
She places her hands on my cheeks and lifts my face to look at hers. Smiling her genuine happy smile, the one I love so much, she weaves her fingers through my hair and places her forehead on mine.
"I always knew you could do it."
When we kiss, I think about how I wish to tell my eleven-year-old transformed self that it is okay, the right one will come. She will accept and understand you, be the only one who can win in an argument with you because she is always right, and she will be able to look past appearances and see the real you. Don't worry, kid. Just wait a few years.
...
Hiya, all you beautiful readers! Thank you so much for reading through to the end! I apologize if either Belle or the Beast were OOC, but I do try my best given that the story revolves around plot, not character development... well, quite a bit of character development for the Beast, but the story is mostly plot. Reviews are greatly appreciated! (~￣▽￣)~