Title: the darker side of fairytales
Pairing: Stayne/Alice
Warning(s): Mild innuendoes
Summary: He cannot look away from her, because he's scared she'll disappear.
A/N: Inspired by Jane Eyre and Beauty and the Beast, believe it or not. The novel Alice reads is Romeo and Juliet.
A fire crackles in a marble fireplace, with ruby flames looking as if they were in the midst of a fiery dance. The library housed more novels than one could devour in a lifetime; tales of faraway places, of flora and fauna, quixotic legends of knights saving their beloved, or perchance a recipe to make a shrinking potion.
Alice Kingsleigh sits by the hearth, basking in the warmth and light. Her voice is airy as she reads from the hefty tome, changing her tone to suit the various characters. Every now and then her voice wavers, and she bites her tongue while trying to decipher a word she cannot fully say. In this rare occurrence, the man sitting beside Alice in a red velvet armchair looks over her shoulder, and speaks the term she cannot pronounce.
Ilosovic Stayne on first glance would not seem the type to find entertainment in hearing a dramatic reading, but there was something soothing about Alice's voice that calmed his mental strain, and perhaps warmed his own chilly heart. When Alice read he was attentive, his gaze never left her for an instant; it was as if he were afraid to look away from the young woman before him, like she would disappear if the action was carried out.
"These sudden joys have sudden endings. They burn up in victory like fire and gunpowder. When they meet, as in a kiss, they explode. Therefore, love each other in moderation. That is the key to long lasting love-"
""Do you find me handsome, Alice?" Stayne interrupted, sending Alice into a panic. For a few moments she remained silent, registering each and every word carefully.
"No, I do not, Ilosovic," she replied shakily, smoothing the blue silken material of her gown fretfully.
A smirk twisted his lips while a low chuckle resonated in his throat. "Then why were you staring at me so fixedly over your novel?"
Because you spellbind me, Alice thought in the jumbled recesses of her mind. I've never met a man like you in my life—you perplex and challenge and scare me to death, and yet there is something about you that is intoxicating. I stare at you because when you sit in the chair before me, your coal black eyes lit up by the fire, unmoving from my face; it is hopeless for me to look away. Naturally Alice kept such thoughts locked away with the key hidden, so instead she chose silence as her reply.
"Tell me, why do you read to me every night?" Stayne inches towards her. She can feel his breath tickling her cheek and sending her mind into very dark places.
"It is amusing to read novels to you from my world." (Weak response indeed, but around him her brain never truly functions correctly)
Stayne cups her face in his calloused hands forcing her to look at him (oh god, she can hear her heart beating faster and faster and faster) and his dark eyes pierce into hers.
"You're really quite lovely." (Emphasis on the quite)
"But not very large."
This makes him chuckle, and he recalls a memory now blurry with age of pressing her against a wall and whispering huskily into her ear. ("I like largeness.") And ever so slowly Stayne inches towards her, and sweet little Alice thinks that she'll have her first kiss (that actually maybe, just maybe, means something) when-
"Alice! I'd like to use you as a model for my new hat!" Tarrant's voice echoes throughout the palace and they both pull away quick as lightening. (The villain and the champion can never be together) As Alice closes the novel and begins to leave, Stayne takes her by the wrist and spins her around.
"I will look forward to a private reading later this evening," he murmurs into her ear.
(Her heart skips a beat)
DISCLAIMER: I own utterly nothing except the plotline.