A/N: Hopefully I have done this justice…
Beauty hated when she and her husband argued. Especially in public. Where everyone could hear them. Most people looked the other way, but that didn't change the fact that they were listening.
They hadn't exactly been prosperous in recent years, and ever since they found out that they were going to have a baby, things had only gotten more difficult. It turned out that babies were really expensive, and they had to cut back on a lot: her clothes, her shoes, accessories for her dog. It wasn't as though she couldn't do without quite so many new things, although that didn't mean she wouldn't complain, but those weren't the only things they had to do without. Going out was out of the question as was buying any name-brand products or… anything.
She was a princess, and she was not cut out to live like a… like a poor person. But there was no more denying that's what she was now. The money that she and her husband had been living on for centuries was gone. Beast was a teacher, and they had made enough for a while, but eventually spending more that what he was making ran them into the ground.
So they argued.
"Hello." A short, red-haired man approached the couple.
"What do you want?" Beast asked tersely. He had never been known for kindness, and with all their recent problems, his temper was shorter than ever. If the small man knew what was good for him, he would say what he wanted and get out of the way. Or he would just get out of the way. Quickly.
The man easily brushed off the lack of friendliness. "I hope you won't think me rude, but i couldn't help but overhear that you're having a bit of trouble with your financial situation," he said delicately.
Beast glared at him suspiciously. "What do you want?" he repeated.
"To make a deal," he replied with a sly smile.
"What kind of deal?" Beauty asked before her husband could respond.
"I can give you riches beyond your wildest dreams." That certainly caught their attention.
"We don't have anything you could possibly want," Beauty told the man bitterly. You couldn't get something for nothing after all.
The man looked at her belly pointedly. "Oh, I think you do."
They noticed his glance. "The baby? Are you insane?"
"You know you can't take care of a child. You can hardly take care of yourselves."
That was true. What kind of parents would they be, raising their baby on the streets? Especially when there was another option laid out in front of them. They really couldn't even provide for themselves. There wasn't really much choice left to them, was there?
The man left them to consider his offer, and they became more and more desperate.
They planned the day for the baby to be born; they would be using a certain magical root so that nothing would go wrong with the birth. They could do that at least.
The day came quickly.
Hours later the red-headed man arrived at their house. "Hello again," he said. "Have you considered my offer?" The odd smile on his face said that he wasn't really asking. He knew that they would do what he wanted. After all, desperate times…