"No... no! Please, please don't leave me. I love you."
The voice echoing in his head over and over again, getting quieter every second. So this is the end, he thinks. He'll never get a happy ending, but at least he loved. He loved her with all his heart, every inch of his soul and existence. And she loved him. He smiles, one last time, and fades away into the darkness.
But darkness, however it's supposed to look, surely wouldn't shine with this great golden light that's blinding him at the moment. Still half conscious, uncertain and dazed, he feels a great movement taking control over his body. Unsure of the up and down, confused of this unknown, yet somehow refreshing feeling, he lets the mysterious force spin him the opposite directions. The blinding golden light sends a shivering sensation to his limbs, giving a feeling of something being broken, yet not physically, and not in his body. Half awake, he now knows it's something much more than that. And then he remembers. He felt that once, long ago. The exact night he was taught the most powerful lesson of a lifetime. The night when She came to change him. He remembers. The light, the curse, the rose. But could it be?
As he softly lands on a flat surface, the feeling in his limbs returns and his mind clears. His eyes open.
His figure doesn't resemble a monstrous creature anymore. He can feel his skin, his jawline, his hands. He can't sense even the slightest sign of the horns. The tail is gone. Then he remembers the voice he heard right before fading away, and turns around.
And she's there. Her wide eyes completely filled with tears, the rain left a strand of her golden brown hair over her forehead.
"Belle." he only manages to whisper, his voice shaking.
He runs to her, she runs to him, and their bodies join in the most frantically longing embrace. He feels her heart next to his, as he listens to her unsteady sobs.
She pulls away slightly, only to see his face, his real face, for the first time.
"It's you. It's really you." she whispers, her voice breaks and more tears escape her eyes.
"It's me." he replies, still not used to the tone of his voice, with no more growling and deep echo following every word he says.
"But you... you..." she doesn't need to finish the sentence, it's still so visible in his head. Sudden sharp pain in his chest, radiating through him. Screaming. Thunders and rumbling of the castle.
He shakes his head. He raises his eyes and looks at her. His salvation, life and hope. It wasn't a dream, she came back, she is here.
He takes her hand and presses it against his heart, beating with new human strength.
She looks in his eyes and they flicker, widening. She smiles delicately, as if she has known him for so long, as if he has returned from a long journey and at last came home. She traces her fingers through his hair and touches his cheek.
She shakes her head and lets out a small laugh, as if unable to fathom what just happened on the balcony.
"You came back." she says, right before their lips meet.