A/N: So sorry for leaving you all for so long! I had a novel I was working on for Camp NaNoWriMo and haven't updated anything, so I felt that I owed you all an update.

Shadowfang14: That's part of the fun in writing Greg, his innocence and sweetness. Oh….won't you be … disappointed or… perhaps overjoyed…depending on how this goes. *grins*

Guest: I'm sorry for such a late update! Here's the next one, I hope you enjoy it and I hope to update soon so I can appease all of the readers' appetites!

Now onwards!

Wirt's/The Beast's POV:
He had trudged through the forest all night long, near the little cabin that Endicott had found them. It was ridiculous to be in such a predicament. The Beast couldn't believe he'd been outwitted so easily. A simple maneuver to get out of this may have worked better; Wirt had to admit he didn't know what the right decision anymore was. Even if the Beast was not bothering him right now, he could feel the murmurs in his head, the spirit was angry about what they'd gotten themselves into.

The forest leaves were thick against his feet, rustling as he went along, but only a little bit. Gliding along the ground was something Wirt had tried to get used to. It felt often like he had no control over his own feet, nor where he was going. The only thing that could direct him was his torso, and oftentimes he felt like it was going in the wrong direction. The moon was full as well, causing him to be a little blinded by its light. No one was out here tonight, not with the chilliness of the air. It was always fall here, or so it seemed. Not too cold, not too hot, just in between, just as Wirt had always known this place was and surely by now, Greg had figured that out as well.

His cloak felt hot and heavy, despite the chill. The fabric was heavy in the first place, and his heart and head were feeling a bit heavy as well, full of thoughts and feelings in every way possible. The fog that was falling thick over the forest was nothing compared to his mind, which was thickened by a doomed sense which he could not quite describe. Close enough to rhyming.

When the sun came up, he found he was back at the cabin. In fact, it occurred to him that he hadn't really been looking where he was going. There was Beatrice, standing outside of the house with her arms crossed, staring at him. Great. He was probably going to get talked to. Lorna was beside her. He felt a bit of rage flare up inside of him, anger at Beatrice for dragging Lorna into this, Greg for causing this, and himself for being the one who ended up like this, something that might never be fixed. The thought struck him really hard, and he felt as if he was falling backwards a bit at the idea. It was the truth, and he couldn't deny it. They were the ones denying it.

As he walked toward Beatrice, or floated, whichever one preferred to call it, he couldn't help but think about how they just couldn't accept his fate as it was. It was his fault after all. They were denying that he might be like this forever, they still had hope. Beatrice of all people had hope. It calmed the anger and brought him a little more calm hope himself, but he didn't know quite what to think.

"We need to talk, Wirt." Well of course, what else would she say?

"Fine. But make it quick." The voice he spoke in was cold, hard, not exactly as he'd planned it on being.

"I can't promise that, because we really do have to talk. Again." Beatrice motioned with her hand to follow her behind the house. He followed, but didn't look at either of them.

"Beatrice, I can't tell you that I'm going to do anything to help you with your endeavors to help me. I wish I could say that I will, but I'm currently stuck between trying to be helpful and trying not to explode on you with anger. You have to understand, the Beast is still here." He sighed, for once he felt like Wirt again. A pushover, too good for his own kind, and everything else in between.

"I get it. Lorna, can you check on Greg?" The dark haired girl nodded, and he watched her leave, then faced Beatrice, who was suddenly a lot closer than he'd intended to be.

"If you think something ridiculous is going to save me, you're wrong."

"I never said anything was going to save you, Wirt. We're doing our best. We have to do this. Because if Greg has to live a life without you, and has to suffer, and you have to see the pain in his eyes if he ever comes here and ends up in this world and watch that pain disappear even after years of him having to deal with it…and you'll still be like this…" she sighed, "I get it, you're cold now. But try and bring something human back into you. Push through this. I already have to marry a guy I refuse to, and I don't know why I have to in the first place, but because I do, you have to do this. I told you a lot of this earlier, didn't I?"

"Well for the most part." He nodded; she was letting her defenses down in front of him. It wasn't a very Beatrice thing to do, and he was feeling a little shaky about why she was doing this. His roots at his feet rustled a bit.

"Things are desperate right now."

"I'm fully aware of this. If you have anything else pointless to say or … do, I think you should probably do it now." The tension was rising, for some reason he felt like he was almost blushing even though he was pretty sure he'd lost his ability to do that somewhere along the way. Things came back at him from the first times he'd been around Beatrice. Sara was still there, or she had been. But now he threw the thought of her out of his mind, she was a fleeting moment in a sprinkle of time. A silly crush that no longer seemed to exist.

"Wirt, what I'm getting at is…oh you probably already know." She didn't move still, dark eyes watching his glowing ones. He searched her face, but she looked as flustered and tense as he felt.

It was moments later when suddenly, she grabbed his arm and pulled his lips onto hers, his cold lips against her warm ones felt strange to him but what was more strange was that they were actually kissing and this was actually happening. For the first time in days, Wirt felt something like joy and happiness flutter in his stomach. A feeling he'd forced down for ages. A feeling that hadn't existed for what felt like ages, because the Beast never allowed things like this to happen. Things like this just didn't happen for the Beast.

He somehow managed to get his hand to grab her arm back, but the kiss was a little short compared to what he thought Beatrice might be trying to do. When she pulled away, a strand of hair was flying loose around her face and he watched it wave in the breeze. They stood a little further apart now, but were looking at each other like a miracle of some sort had happened. He didn't know what to think, Wirt's mind was no longer foggy it was clear, but clear in a shiny sort of dazed way.

"I…I'm sorry…if I…it was wrong to do that, wasn't it? What with me getting…married to some guy…and you being…oh Wirt, I'm sorry. I'm a fool. I'm really, truly dumb." She continued staring at him as she said this, not turning away as some girls might or looking down. That's what he liked about Beatrice; she didn't care if you stared at her while she suffered from something.

Yet anger did surge up inside of him, for her having the wits to do something like that. Maybe it was just from the daze, but the Beast itself wasn't very pleased at that. It muttered in the back of his head, saying cruel things he chose to ignore. Beatrice seemed to be waiting for his reply.

"I…no it was fine. I guess I sort of … liked it. But…he didn't…" He found he was more breathless than he'd thought.

"Of course. And I should always think through what I'm doing and I didn't and I was just caught up in the moment and now I'm not going to be able to live a life like this." Beatrice threw her hands up in the air and then set them quickly back down again, folded as if she was protecting herself. "We won't tell the others…but…I do like you Wirt. More than I thought I would. You were such a stubborn little boy when you came in here. Or so I thought. I guess I just assumed you would be like that…forever. But I guess you did change. And then you just went away and I was…a little heartbroken, but I knew I'd survive. Then you came back and everything was back although I've denied it of course. I know I felt very little because I pushed it all down. I knew you might not feel anything."

"I do but…" Shaking his head to clear it, Wirt let a thin smile play across his lips. "We don't need to tell anyone. Not unless you feel like it. I always thought Sara was the only one I'd like but … now I don't even think I like her."

It was true; every thought of Sara had gone out of his head and was now replaced with Beatrice, her red hair, her dark eyes, her freckles, her hackling at him all of the time, constantly. Perhaps cliché but it worked for him, every bit of it did. The teasing, the taunting, the constant nagging at him from her.

"Well this talk ended awkwardly. I'm going back inside." She turned away quickly, leaving him to lean against the back of the house and stare out at the forest, branches on his head feeling heavy.

Wirt had analyzed himself in the ponds and rivers in the Unknown for a while now; enough to know what he looked like. It was a bit horrifying, actually it was truly horrifying, and he didn't blame Beatrice for not really knowing how to feel. He didn't know how to feel, how he could live two separate lives. One with her, one without her and dark nights spent alone in the forest. Perhaps time was the best thing here, yes, he figured time would be the best thing, to let this rest until they'd discussed more or decided on something more suitable.

Greg was the one to snap him out of his thoughts not a minute later, coming around the corner of the house with a smile on his face and Jason Funderberker in his arms. The frog croaked once at Wirt, and Greg came up to him.

"Did you have a good night last night, Wirt?" Greg asked, the smile widening. He gave a nod in response, no longer a smile pasted across his lips. "That's good. Jason Funderberker wanted to come see you when Beatrice told us you were out here."

The boy picked up a stick and threw it into the air, setting down the frog as if expecting it to play catch. Wirt watched him give a little sigh when the frog didn't run back to get the stick, and he had to admit it was a bit funny to see such a sigh come out of Greg at a time like this. Strange that such human emotions were suddenly with him. He blamed it on the kiss, the kiss that wouldn't be spoken of. Beatrice had stirred it, but he knew as well as she did that he would go back to rigid stone once they had left him. It was as it always was. The Beast made sure that anything that disrupted his system was pushed down to the furthest and darkest parts so that it didn't resurface any time soon. It was the will of the Beast, it was the way of the Beast, and it was how the Beast worked with all of its vessels. Not long after that short period in the morning did Wirt return to his normal composure, and only if he thought of what had happened that he felt anything but anger.

A/N: A bit brief, but I think enough happened. The tension that was there is finally somewhat released between Wirt and Beatrice, yay! I guess….I've got plans guys and I don't know how much you're going to like them *cackles wildly*. So yeah, that was chapter 11. I hope you enjoyed reading it! Thanks for reading, and please, review, review, review!