A/N: So I was in the midst of writing another story when suddenly this little plot bunny hit me like a freight train so I had to stop what I was doing and write it up. Please enjoy!
Adam sighed heavily as he placed down the quill onto his desk. He brought his fingers to his temples hoping to relieve some of the tension in his head.
He had been absolutely up to his ears in work since he and Belle returned from their honeymoon a few days prior. Once he left the castle grounds he thought of nothing but his beautiful wife at his side and the adventures they would share together as they travelled across France and into Italy. For those wonderful, blissful weeks he forgot he was a prince at all. He was just a man, for once completely at peace with the world, enjoying every precious second he had with Belle.
She could have dragged him across the entire globe and he wouldn't have minded. He had told her so and she smiled, laughed and then kindly reminded him that they had a home in France, with her father and their friends who relied on him.
Their brief escape had not nearly been long enough and before long they had returned to France and he was once again swept into his duties. And because he had been away for so long there was even more waiting for him to take on.
Cogsworth nearly locked him in his study a few times whenever he tried to sneak away to find Belle. He'd much rather be with her after all.
Belle busied herself in her own work - splitting her time between the workshop and her inventions and planning the new library and school in Villeneuve. In the last few days the only time they really ever saw each other was in the mornings, at dinner - because Lumiere would shoo Cogsworth away and graciously reprieve Adam from his duties to eat - and at night when they were too exhausted to do anything but sleep.
It was times like these where he almost - almost - missed the time of the curse. No one was there to bother him, he was not responsible for anything, and it wasn't like he disliked being a prince, there were just times where he became overwhelmed.
His only saving grace was in Belle.
He scrubbed a hand over his face and then looked over to the window. The sun was just beginning to set and it was only then he realized how dark the room had become.
Shuffling and stacking the papers on his desk, he shoved them off to the side for the night and rose to his feet.
He stretched out his stiff muscles and then extinguished the two small candles on his desk. The room plummeted further into darkness, lit only by the dim setting sun and then he headed out of the room, eager to find Belle.
He passed the dining hall where a few of the staff were gathered for an evening chat - relaxing after a long day of work.
He paused in the doorway to quickly bid them all a good night and then continued on his way towards the west wing.
Once again he was far too tired to even think of doing anything intimately physical with his wife that evening but he craved her touch and looked forward to being able to hold her in his arms.
Perhaps, if he was lucky, she might even read to him. They often took turns reading to each other at night, falling asleep to the sound of the other's soothing voice. Or even simply to read separately, quietly with their own books but cuddled together on the bed or couch.
For that reason, as well as some others that involve other nighttime activities, nights quickly became one of his favorite times of the day. It was the only time he truly had Belle all to himself.
"Belle?" He called quietly as he stepped in through the doors to their shared room.
There was no response and the room was quiet but he was drawn to a small, dim light in the far corner of the room.
His face softened into a smile as he found Belle fast asleep and curled up in a chair, wrapped in what appeared to be a large white shawl, a book sprawled open across her lap.
He quietly padded across the floor towards her. He gazed down at her lovingly and wondered if there was any a more beautiful creature than his wife.
He carefully lifted the book from her lap and placed it on the table beside her, careful not to disturb a single page. He received a very scathing look the last time he accidentally closed a book she was reading and misplaced her page.
He turned his attention back to her and his heart suddenly leapt into his throat as he realized she was not wrapped in a shawl, but a shirt. His shirt, but not just any shirt. A shirt that had been about three sizes too large for the last few months. A shirt that he thought he had safely locked away, never to be seen again, along with many other things associated with those dreadful years.
Belle, and her ever clever, curious mind must have known where he hid it.
He suddenly felt breathless as an overwhelming love washed over him. He was reminded for perhaps the hundredth time, but it truly was a fact that would astound him for all of time, that Belle not only loved him for the man he was now but as the beast he once had been. She loved him first in that form - loved him so deeply, so truly, that it broke his curse.
There was evidence of that same love in her eyes every day when she smiled at him, talked with him, lay in his arms every night and whispered words of that love.
There was nothing more evident of that love than the sight before him now. Belle wrapped lovingly in that shirt, slumbering peacefully in that small but simple reminder of him.
He let out a small, shuddering gasp as he finally took a breath and blinked back tears that threatened at the back of his eyes. He swallowed past the sudden thickness in his throat and quietly reached down to brush a strand of hair away from her face.
Her lips twitched up but she did not stir, only sunk further into the chair, cuddling her head into her shoulder.
He hated to disturb her but knew he could not leave her there all night. As gently and carefully as he could he maneuvered Belle into his arms.
Her head lolled against his chest and as he turned slowly to carry her towards the bed, her eyes fluttered open. She tilted her head back and a small smile crossed her lips. "You're here…" She whispered sleepily and he smiled down at her.
"Yes…" He answered just as quietly. "My apologies for being so late."
She shook her head slowly and closed her eyes, resting her head back against his chest. "You aren't…" She sighed quietly. "I am sorry I fell asleep."
"There is no need to be sorry." He placed her down gently onto the bed and dropped a sweet kiss to the top of her head before pulling away. She hummed in protest at his absence and lazily extended her arm out towards him. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips but his heart soared at the adorable way she seemed to be drowning in the overlarge shirt.
"Don't leave…you've only just arrived…"
He smiled and sunk down onto the bed beside her. She instantly curled up against his side, resting her head on his chest.
"I am not going anywhere." He vowed quietly, dropping another kiss to her head.
She smiled and nuzzled against his chest. "How was your day?" She mumbled sleepily.
He shifted carefully on the bed to get himself into a more comfortable position and wrapped his arm gently around her shoulders to hold her close. "Oh...boring." He grumbled and then his lips twitched as he heard her laugh quietly. "Better now that I am with you."
She hummed again and turned her head in to press a soft kiss to his chest and then settled her head back down.
"I missed you today." She murmured.
"You mean to say you don't miss me every other day?" He teased lightly, raising his brow and then laughed quietly as she gently pinched his side.
He felt her smile against his chest. "Of course I do. I miss you…" She trailed off, her words stifled by a yawn. "...I miss you every day...and I know that is silly…" She let out a little sleepy sigh. "We are, after all, in the same building...I should not miss you when you are just across the castle…"
"Just across the castle may as well be across the world for all the time we have spent apart the last several days."
She grunted quietly in agreement.
"You should remind Cogsworth that is unfair and borderline cruelty to separate a recently married couple for so long."
He laughed, the sound rumbling in his chest, causing her to smile.
"Believe me, love, I have done so on more than one occasion. I think the novelty of 'true love' has worn out on him already."
"Well then," She breathed, "I shall have to appeal to him myself." She stifled another yawn. "I understand you have your duties and it's all very important but sometimes you are also needed elsewhere."
"And where would that be?"
"With me of course."
He chuckled and pulled her closer against him. "But of course...the only place I shall ever want to be."
She smiled and snuggled closer against him, stretching her leg over his.
"Will it be soon, do you think?" She asked after a few moments of silence.
"What's that?" He said quietly against her hair.
"That you and I will be able to spend more than a few hours together?"
He scoffed quietly. "I certainly do hope so. I might start to go mad otherwise…" His lips twitched in a smirk.
"That settles it then. I will speak to Cogsworth tomorrow." Her voice was quiet, thick with fatigue but ever confident as her way.
His smirk widened at the very thought. "My savior." He whispered against her hair and she laughed quietly.
The conversation then faded and he could feel Belle start to fully relax against him as she drifted off back to sleep.
He knew he would eventually have to move but he also knew it would not be anytime soon - to not disturb Belle and simply because holding her in his arms was one of the greatest joys of his life.
Belle murmured a goodnight and what he thought must have been an 'I love you' but was muffled by her own exhaustion and his chest. He closed his eyes, pressing a tender, lingering kiss to the top of her head and within minutes she was once again sound asleep.
He stared down at the top of her head, his hand moving in small, gentle circles across her back. His fingers kept get caught in the excess material of the shirt and his chest once again tightened as his thoughts were pulled back to its very significance.
It was something he had worn days upon days - there were not many clothes that fit him in that form though he always wondered why the Enchantress bothered to make him any outfits at all.
He had spent countless lonely, miserable nights with nothing but that shirt to remind him of the human he once had been. He clung to it desperately, foregoing everything else that had once made him human, even the bed to make a place on the floor to sleep instead. However just as everything else as the days bled into months that bled into years, his humanity slowly slipped away and the shirt was nothing but a useless piece of clothing that he wore out of habit more than anything else.
Then Belle showed up and reminded him what it was to be human. In the very end it did not matter what form he was in - Belle had brought him back, loved him, accepted him despite it all.
Just as she had reclaimed his heart, by wearing that shirt she reclaimed it as something good. Not a symbol of all he had lost - but all he had gained.
He had gained love in its purest, truest form and found it all in Belle.