The day she comes back, it's summer. Bright sun warms the mountains and makes the castle grounds glow with life. He sits at his wheel, but instead of spinning stares idly out the window at the scenery.
The view from the dining room does not include the front road, so he is surprised when he hears a knock at the door. That is nothing, however, next to his surprise when he sees the one who did the knocking.
It's her, backlit by soft sunlight. Her wavy hair is pulled back into a tight braid, but wisps escape and frame her face like a halo. She's dressed like a traveler and smells like adventure. Her once porcelain skin is weathered, and she is all the more beautiful for it.
It has been a year, almost exactly, since he kicked her out. He thought – no, knew – that the last he would see of her was the tattered hem of a dirtied blue dress disappearing around a corner. That the last thing he would hear her say was that he would regret it.
Yet here she is, standing on his front step like a warrior and smiling at him like he is the moon and stars.
He wants to say forgive me I'm sorry I love you come home please stay but they battle each other on his tongue and die, melting away under that resplendent smile. All he can do is stand there like a flower in her sun and tilt in whatever direction she chooses, hoping to catch just a few precious rays. He is helpless, he is hers. She might as well be holding his dagger, and for a moment that realization terrifies him. But then he looks at her again, the tiny crow's feet in the corners of her eyes, her chapped but grinning lips, the dirt under her nails. He looks at the battered rucksack strapped to her back, the posture that implies outer strength as well as inner. She is still Belle, but more so. He thinks to himself that if anyone should be allowed to wield infinite power, it is she.
So he waits with baited breath, waits for her to part her lips and release her words like butterflies or wasps.
Her cloudless eyes search his murky depths, and she must find what she is looking for because she takes his hands, beaming as she says, "I've just had the most wonderful adventure."