A birthday story for one of my wonderful friends, newbienovelistRD. Here you go, Amiga! Happy Birthday!

Lily belongs to newbienovelistRD. Monster Inc., belongs to Pixar and Disney and Beauty And The Beast belongs to Disney.

A Special Door Leads To Friendship

"Well, here we are," said Mike as he swiped his keycard into the keypad that opened a large door. "It's kind of messy in there, Lily. Like really messy."

"Can't be any messier than my daughter's room," said Lily with a smile that told Mike she wasn't deterred.

"Come on, Mike," said Sulley. "It can't be that bad. I did ask the cleaning guys to clean it."

Just then the door fully opened and they all froze. The storage room was a mess! It looked like no one had even tried to clean it up. "Uh, is this the right storage room?" asked Lily nervously, trying to help the guys out of their stupor.

"I guess Waternoose didn't have the cleaning guys come down here at all," said Mike. "I wonder why."

"The cleaning guys did act strange when I asked them to do it," said Sulley. "Well, guess we'll have to clean and organize."

Mike unlocked the door next to the storage room and disappeared inside and tossed out the cleaning supplies as Sulley turned to Lily, but she was gone. "What are you looking for, Mike?" he heard her ask and turned to see her looking in the supply closet.

"I'm looking for some masks," said Mike. "All that dust in there is going to kill us."

She saw what he meant and glanced around, spotting the dust masks on a shelf opposite of where Mike was. "Uh, Mike, I think someone moved them to that shelf," she said helpfully.

The green monster turned and looked at where she was looking. "Hmm, I wonder who?" he said. "Oh well." He then tried reaching for them, but he couldn't quite get them.

"Here," said Lily, bringing in a chair.

Mike smiled at her sweet gesture. "Thanks," he said as he successfully got the dust masks and all three grabbed the supplies.

"Lily, you're okay with this?" Sulley asked.

She smiled. "Honey, have you seen my closet in my room? This is a piece of cake compared to that," she said.

Sulley smiled lovingly at her as they and Mike headed in to clean the storage room, deciding to tackle a small section at a time. Lily was quick and efficient with cleaning as Sulley lifted the boxes and various objects and Mike planned on where the stored items would go and vacuumed the floors that were clear so that the now clean items wouldn't be sitting on a dirty floor.

They had only one corner left to tackle when Celia came with lunch. Sulley and Lily smiled gratefully at the one-eyed girl monster they considered to be their sister-in-law and Mike kissed Celia, who kissed him back. Lily couldn't resist and kissed Sulley, who was a bit stunned, but kissed her lovingly. Soon, Celia had to get back to work and Lily stood up and saw a door she hadn't seen before. It was beautifully carved and she recognized it to be made of oak. "Sulley. Mike? Why is this door here?" she asked.

They came over. "Hmm. I've never seen this one before," said Mike and checked the tag on the door and wrote down the number. "I'll check it later. Right now, we're almost done."

"And after," said Sulley as he looked at Lily. "I'm treating a very special girl to a romantic night."

Lily blushed. "Oh, you," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Come on, let's get this finished."

They soon finished cleaning and were putting the stuff in an organized section that Mike had set up and the storage room looked a lot better now with lots of room and they sent the junk to the incinerator. Lily looked back at the door and sighed. "I wonder what's behind this door?" she said.

"I don't know," said Sulley. "I've seen every door here on the Laugh floor, but that one is unfamiliar. Not even when the Laugh floor was the Scare floor did I see this one."

"Can we check it out? Please? It may lead to an old house," Lily said. "I love old houses."

Sulley smiled, knowing that Lily liked old houses over flashy ones, but she was also happy with a little modern too. "I don't know, Lily," he said.

"Please?" she said, giving him a loving look. "I'll just be in and out and then we can cuddle by the TV when we get home. Mike and Celia are going out for the evening."

Sulley felt hypnotized by his love's loving gaze and smiled. "Alright," he said. "Let's put it in."

Lily smiled as she watched Sulley's arms bulge as he lifted the door and sighed lovingly. She loved how strong he was and could always make her blush when he would flex his muscles to show off for her. They soon made it to a Laugh station and Sulley swiped the card, making the door activate. "Lily, be careful," he said as he heard one of his employees call him. "I'll be back in a moment."

"Okay," she said and gave him that smile that made him feel like the luckiest monster in the world as he watched her head inside the door and he turned to his employees to see what they had to report.

Lily gasped when she looked around at the stone walls and richly-colored carpet and the grand staircases. "Is this a mansion?" she asked herself and glanced outside to see a small tower that connected to this grand house not far away. "A castle!" she said aloud to herself before coming face to face with someone and gasping. The other person, a young woman, jumped.

"Hello," she said. "How did you get in the castle?"

Lily was stunned for a moment and quickly gathered her thoughts. "Uh, through a door," she said. "A door that led here from where I was."

The brown-haired woman looked a little confused. "You mean, a magical door?" she asked.

Lily looked at her in surprise. "Uh, not really," she said.

"Are you from the future?"

Lily then took notice of the girl's long blue dress and white apron. It looked colonial and she realized with a start that this girl was actually right about her being from the future. "Yes," she said. "I was in a factory that uses doors to go places and we found this beautifully carved oak door and activated it. I went through it and ended up here."

"Sounds like a magical door, like in my story," said the girl. "Oh, I'm sorry, you don't know my name. I am Belle."

"Belle? What a pretty name," said Lily. "My name is Lily."

"Lily? I like that name," said Belle. Suddenly, she looked fearful as she glanced over the rail of the staircase. "Come with me. Quickly."

Hearing a roaring growl from somewhere in the castle, Lily quickly followed Belle, feeling there was something in the castle that was worse than monsters.

They made it to a room. "You can hide here," said Belle. "The Beast doesn't like any humans besides me here."

"Why is that?" she asked and then looked horrified. "A beast?"

"Yes," said Belle. "I'm sure he wouldn't hurt you, but he'll be very angry thinking I brought you here."

Lily looked at Belle. "Is he keeping you prisoner?" she asked.

"No, not anymore," said her new friend. "He just doesn't think no other human will see him beyond how he looks."

That made Lily think about when she first met Sulley and how startled the blue-furred monster had been when they had met. She had been surprised too and the Beast sounded very similar to her Sulley. "I know what that's like," she said. "Maybe I can meet him?"

Belle looked worried, but thoughtful. "Let me see what I can do," she said. "For now, please don't leave the room."

"Okay," Lily promised as Belle headed out. Lily then noticed some books but they were in French. "Oh, man! I can't read French."

"I can help you," said a kind voice and Lily turned to see a wardrobe closet talking to her. It took every ounce of her not to scream as she sat down on the bed. "Oh, I didn't mean to scare you," said the wardrobe closet kindly.

"You're…real?" asked Lily.

"Oh, yes," said her new friend as she sat down and told the displaced girl the story of the castle.

Meanwhile, Sulley had just listened to the good reports and signed the documents that needed signing when Mike came up with a look of panic. "Sulley!" he said. "You didn't let Lily go through that door, did you!?"

"Yeah, not too long ago," said Sulley. "Why? Is it defective?"

"It's a banned door!" said Mike, making everyone gasp.

A banned door meant that door wasn't safe because there had been a monster on the other side of the door that had scared the monster that had gone to scare a kid, but had come face to face with a monster instead and got frightened. Those doors usually went through the shredder, but this one had been put into storage.

"Why wasn't it shredded then?" asked Sulley.

"It can't be shredded," said Mikey. "It's a magic door."

Now that was rare, but magic door in the monster realm couldn't stay active for long or the monsters who had gone in that door would be trapped in that place forever. He now felt horror fill him. "Lily!" he called out, racing toward the door station with Mike behind him.

"Hurry, Sulley!" said the green, one-eyed monster. "I'll watch the door!"

The blue-furred monster burst through the door, only thinking about Lily and he glanced around, hoping to find her. "Hey, look out!" a child's voice cried out and he looked around. "Don't step on me!"

Horrified, Sulley looked down to see a small teacup talking to him. "Chip!" cried a voice and he saw a teapot come hopping quickly to the teacup. A clock and a candlestick were right behind her and they all looked up at Sulley with stunned expressions.

"It's a monster!" Chip screamed and his mother and two best friends also screamed. Sulley was so shocked at seeing them that he screamed too and ran off, not looking back.

Beast heard the screaming and wondered what had frightened his faithful subjects and ran towards the screams, stopping short at seeing a blue-furred beast also running toward him and he saw the unfamiliar beast stop and they looked at each other and screamed in horror.

Lily heard the screaming and recognized one of them. "Sulley!" she cried out and ran to find him. Belle was also running to find the Beast and both girls found their loves looking at each other with horror and backed up against the walls, shaking. Lily ran up to Sulley.

"Sulley, are you okay, honey?" she asked.

The Beast was stunned that a girl no older than Belle had gone up to the unfamiliar monster and was calming him down and he was hugging her. It reminded him of himself and Belle, who was beside him and calming him down. "I don't believe it," said Beast. "That girl…she loves that…uh…,"

"Monster?" Belle supplied helpfully. "He doesn't act like a monster, just like how you don't act like a Beast anymore."

Lily glanced over at the Beast and went up to him. He kept still as she looked at him and smiled. "Your Beast doesn't look like a beast at all, Belle," she said.

Beast was stunned. "But, my appearance is…beastlike," he said.

"True," said Lily. "But you're kind on the inside, just like my Sulley is." She had turned to smile at the large monster who now stood behind her, smiling at her.

"His name is Sulley?" asked Belle. She then smiled. "That's a unique name."

Sulley was surprised Belle wasn't afraid of him and smiled when Lily suggested they explain their stories. Beast led them to the grand sitting room where his servants were waiting.

They had a wonderful time swapping stories and laughing together and Sulley apologized for scaring the servants and Beast. "When my best friend told me that my girl was in danger, well, all I could think about was her and that she might be hurt," he explained.

"I understand," said Beast. "But, I must admit…I was foolishly afraid."

Belle hugged her love's arm. "Being afraid is nothing to be ashamed of," she said gently. "We're all afraid of something and get scared at little things sometimes."

"Belle's right," said Lily. "I was scared of monsters until I met Sulley, but even then, not all monsters have a kind spirit like my Sulley."

The blue monster blushed a little and hugged Lily. "Mike said we have to get back by tonight," he said.

The Beast looked outside. "It's midafternoon," he said. "Will you at least join us for a feast?"

Lily and Sulley looked at each other. "Alright," Lily agreed.

It was a fine feast and went all too quickly, but the friends enjoyed it and wished each other well as Sulley and Lily headed back home. And just in time too because the magic ended just as they walked through. "Whew!" said Mike. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yes," said Lily. "We met some great friends."

"Really?" said the green monster.

"We'll tell you and Celia about it sometime, but right now, I'm ready to go home and enjoy an evening with my lovely Lily," said Sulley, putting on a charming smile that made Lily blush.

"That sounds wonderful," she said.

Mike then heard Celia call him. "Oh, I better not keep my lovey-buggy waiting too," he said and headed off, making Sulley and Lily laugh as they headed home, reflecting on the day and the new friends they now had.

Life couldn't have been better for them.

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GoldGuardian2418