-Belle-
"I could happily die right here" she thought to herself dreamily. She had finally found it after nearly a week of exploring the castle. The perfect chair. It was outside in the garden near some type of plant that smelled beautiful with the perfect amount of sun to be warm.
She hadn't realized how much tension that she had been holding on to since the her father volunteered her at the Blood moon feast. Now that she had an ally and she knew where she stood, it didn't seem so impossible anymore.
She had only just closed her eyes taking in the sun when she heard familiar foot steps walking up to her. She couldn't help but smile. It was Adam.
He usually came as the beast, not bothering to change between patrolling the forest and sleeping, but she heard his boots and was intrigued about what he could possible want to talk to her about.
They had fallen into a content role with one another. He would find her when he was done with his duties in the forest and update her on any information that he had. It was all business the first time he talked to her, but by now they usually traded insults gleefully until one of them surrendered.
She wouldn't admit to keeping score or anything, but the score so far was 5 to 3 in her favor.
"Belle." He sounded stiff and awkward and she sat up a little.
"Adam." She said, copying his tone.
He stalled then, running out of words, something that seemed to happen often. For someone who strikes fear into the heart of every man woman and child he almost acted as though he was the one who was afraid of her.
"You sound like you're in poor spirits. I guess the hunting party hasn't been spotted yet." She said, helping him out.
"Why do you say that?" He asked.
"Well I'd think the moment you spot the hunting party you'll be so thrilled with the idea of getting rid of me that I'll hear you skipping over to tell me."
He laughed and she smiled, she liked that he was always easy to laugh. Her father was always stoic. She'd never had any hope of figuring out what her father was thinking, but Adam was the opposite. He thought out loud and was always quick to laugh.
"It's the opposite really. The only reason you'd ever hear me skipping is if I'd locked you in and thrown away the key."
"tsk tsk tsk someone has got to tell you at some point that there's better ways to make friends. Your highness."
"You're one to talk, love. I'm not the one who wondered into the Beast King's forest on a blood moon because that was the only way you could get someone to talk to you."
Belle laughed, "That was a low blow." 5-4 her favor still.
"Peace then, please." He said, ending their exchange. "I only came to invite you to dinner."
Ever since she returned from the forest with Adam, Belle had taken dinner in the dining room with Polly, Vandy, and the rest of the castle staff, but Adam hadn't shown his face. She was beginning to think he was scared of her.
"Is this a trick? I didn't know that you even knew where to find the dining room."
"No tricks. If you accept I'll try to get directions to find the dining room by tonight."
She smiled, he actually sounded worried that she might turn him down. Two weeks ago she'd have walked through glass before accepting an invitation to dinner from the Beast, but for Adam, she was starting to realize that she liked spending time with him.
"Of course, If you aren't to busy for me, I'd love to."
He closed in on her and picked up her hand sending shivers down her arm that went all the way to the tips of her toes. Every time he touched her he sent waves of warmth into her and she felt all the heat rush to her face.
He rarely touched her. Belle couldn't imagine that he cared one whit about her outside the temporary alliance they had built. Belle was shocked when she felt him press a gentle kiss to the top of her wrist.
"Till tonight then." He said and then turned and walked away briskly. leaving Belle an incoherent mess behind him. Somehow at every turn Adam surprised her. Every thought and image she had conjured up about the blood thirtsy King Beast were just laughable when she thought about him.
Her thoughts then wandered to what it would feel like to taste those lips. Softer than she ever would have imagined. She didn't even know what had come over her, but she tucked her hand to her chest and laughed.
-The Beast-
The Beast was pacing his rooms having a complete meltdown.
"I'm not sure that it matters the way you are dressed my Lord, it seems as though you won't gain any favors from her that way." Vandy said, and Vandy was usually right.
"I know that Vandy. I just want tonight to go well." He said putting on his overcoat which was misshapen and sad looking after years of unuse.
"I just don't understand. Two weeks ago it seemed as though you were content to let her rot in the dungeon until her people came to rescue her, but now you're all worked up over dinner. You say that nothing has happened between you two, but it doesn't seem like nothing."
"It is nothing." He emphasized. He was lying of course, because as far as he could figure, there was a lot riding on this moment. It was life or death. He'd been just the beast for so long that he wasn't sure if anything else existed. Tonight he would figure out if he was still Adam, or if Adam was some old dream.
He thought on how Belle's touch affected him, how her laugh made his heart rate faster and how his dreams seemed to always turn to her. He was in deeper trouble than he could ever imagine.
He turned to Vandy after struggling with the buttons on his coat, "What do you think?"
Vandy looked him up and down and shook his head, "I think you should go with the Maroon one."
"You said that the color looked horrible on that one."
Vandy smiled a wicked grin and leaned back, folding his arms, "Well, the maroon one is the best fit and the best fabric. The blue one is a far superior color but the sleeves are far too short. I'd say wear the blue one if you're trying to impress Polly and wear the Maroon if you're trying to impress her."
The beast turned away, unbuttoning his blue overcoat.
"This doesn't mean anything." He said, irritated at Vandy's restrained laughter.
"Of course not sir." Vandy set the Maroon coat down on the bed.
"I'm making a mistake in doing this. I should have never-" He died out not willing to voice his self-depricating feelings in front of someone else.
He put on his coat become more and more nervous. He shouldn't be having dinner. He should be out in the forest waiting for challengers or watching the boundaries of the forest, or literally anything besides leading himself into a trap of his own making.
Vandy came up behind him securing cuff links into the end of his sleeves. "The only mistake you could possible make is doing nothing. That girl won't be here for long and you've already got more than enough regret than to add her to the list.
-Polly-
Leaving was not Polly's idea. It was Vandy who plotted and ultimately convinced her to agree to his crazy idea.
She was not convinced on the matter until she had spoken to Belle about dinner and realized that she was actually giddy. Her excitement was contagious, and Polly was equal parts happy and worried.
"The kids don't need two annoying elders to interrupts their dinner!" Vandy had said, but now, standing up in the middle of dinner, going along with whatever excuse Vandy was saying, it seemed like the Beast was much more terrified of them leaving than Belle was.
All the staff poured into the kitchens and crowded around the door adjacent to the dinning room.
"Are they going to get married?" Emma asked with an enthusiasm that could only come from a young child, and everybody laughed quietly.
"shhh, hush now Emma." Anette responded.
In all reality there was nothing but tension amongst the group. They were all waiting for the worst to happen. The last time there had been a woman in the castle they had all been filled with enthusiasm and went out of their way to push her towards the beast, but now with Belle no one was sure what would happen.
-Beast-
He was doing this wrong. "Make a friend" that's what Vandy said. Well making a friend is something obviously easier said than done.
The Beast didn't know what to do with himself, every time he said the right thing that made her talk for a minute it was like a weight was taken off his shoulders until she directed the conversation back to him.
He was getting desperate in his conversation topics, they had both finished dinner and he was stuck between wanting to be put out of his misery and not wanting her to leave.
"No, I don't do much reading." Belle said, trying to hide a smile behind her napkin. His inability to remember that she was blind was somewhat charming and endlessly entertaining every time he realized what he had said.
"No of course you- I didn't- that's too bad." He finished lamely then she laughed at him making him flinch internally. Wanting to be put out of his misery was beginning to win out.
"Yes I agree. It would be nice to be able to read and have an escape from my thoughts sometimes."
Belle picked at what little food was left on her plate as the Beast began panicking, trying to think of literally anything that could steer the conversation away from reading, clearly not a good subject.
He floundered, and then she took pity on him.
-Belle-
Belle was surprised how much she was actually enjoying herself.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" Belle asked.
The Beast shifted in his chair, making the chair creak uncomfortably, "It depends on the question."
"Why did you invite me to dinner?" She asked.
He tried to find any bitterness or regret in accepting his invitation, goodness knows he was feeling a lot of bitterness and regret for extending it.
"You regret coming then?" he asked.
"I didn't say that."
He sighed long as if she was forcing the answer from his lips, "I did all of this wrong in the beginning. After that I- I assumed you wanted nothing more to do with me. I had hoped that I was wrong, so here we are."
"Can I speak openly?" She asked.
"Always."
"It's just that... you seem a bit..." She stopped searching for the right word before finally throwing out the word she meant, "miserable."
There was silence until he realized what she said and then he couldn't hold back his laughter. He laughed until his sides hurt. He must have been a worst actor than he had ever thought if even the blind can see through his charade.
"I didn't think it was that funny! I thought I have been very perfectly pleasant company!" She said in jest.
Her words had their intended effect and he immediately sobered up, not realizing that she was just kidding.
Quickly he rushed to defend his laughter, "No, no, It's not you! I'm not used to company, I never know what to say at these things, and I hate just sitting here and... you're just trying to get a rise out of me." He said, realizing that her shoulders were shaking lightly with laughter.
She couldn't restrain her laughter anymore and he eventually joined in until the laughter died out into a comfortable silence.
"Yes, I was just trying to get a rise out of you. You really don't need to be afraid of speaking to me."
"Despite how scary some blind women can be." He joked.
"Yes, despite that. You can ask me anything and I'll answer it honestly. As for your misplaced anger and aggression early on, it's forgiven. If you had left me alone in the forest that night I would have died, plus after knowing everything that's happened, I think you reacted the only way you could. As for not wanting anything to do with you- Well, you couldn't be more wrong. You're the only fun person here to tease, you know the best chairs in the place, and you're impossibly kind."
When she was finished she blushed. She hadn't meant to blurt all of that out, and she thought that maybe she had crossed a line. When he had nothing to say back to her, she needed a sudden distraction to keep the attention off of her before the feel of his eyes on her scolded her skin.
"Will you show me the library?" She asked, already standing up so he couldn't say no.
"sure." he said, clearly panicked. She smiled, she was beginning to think that she had an addiction to throwing him off guard. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she loved his voice when he was panicked. She walked towards his end of the table and waited to hear him get up from his chair.
"I won't bite." she said after he hesitated and that made him stand up quickly.
-Adam-
He gulped, he actually gulped and then immediately turning his back to her, fleeing to the door and he opened it for the both of them. Belle was still standing back, one hand on the table, with a secretive smile.
"Er- um- it's this way." He said awkwardly, standing there as useless as a loaf of bread.
She held out her arm expectantly and his heart rate shot up. He shouldn't go over and take her arm. That's all he was thinking as he crossed the room and linked his arm through hers.
"Sorry to be so helpless." She said, grinning up at him.
"Something tells me that you're a lot less helpless than you pretend to be." Adam said, leading her to his favorite part of the castle.
It was the sweetest kind of torture, to have her in his arms. Her smell was intoxicating and the longer he was close to her the more he wanted to never leave her side. He was in trouble. His alarm bells were going off and all he could think was that they had such a great plan and that plan ended with him alone. Again.
"You know you're somewhat of a celebrity outside of the forest." She said suddenly.
Belle never seemed to stop surprising him in her choice of conversation.
"You know I'm also somewhat of a celebrity inside the forest as well." He said in his most predatory voice.
She laughed and suddenly it hit him. This could be the last time. The last time he'd ever be able to talk to her, the last time he'd get to hear her laugh or see her wit and humor.
Soon she'd be in the arms of someone else which just felt so inherently wrong and he wanted to fight. He'd never wanted to fight more for anything in his life. Fight for every minute of her time. Fight to remember every word she said. Fight to keep her here.
He thought of the silence that will come on the day she leaves. He thought of locking up the East wing the day she leaves, another place in his castle forbidden to him by painful memories and suddenly he didn't want to do it anymore.
"You know. I can feel you staring at me." She said, her face angled up towards him and she smiled.
"yes." Was all he managed. Every inch of him wanted to reach down and kiss her except his last shred of common sense which decried the uncivility of it all. He was holding himself back by a thread.
"I think we've stopped walking."
"Yes."
"It doesn't sound like we're in a library."
"And what does a library sound like?" he mused.
"Well I would hope it doesn't sound like a hall way. To be honest I was expecting something a little more... magical."
When that word fell from her lips he grinned at the idea that was beginning to form in his mind. If she wanted something magical she was going to get it.
"The library doors are right in front of us." He said.
"Oh." She said tilting her head away from him.
He shifted his weight between each foot daring himself to do what he had planned and when he finally built up his courage he unlaced his arm through hers and grabbed her wrist, he intended to guide it safely to the wall, but couldn't help but press her hand to his mouth first, inhaling the smell of her and savoring their touch.
He grinned when she flushed and she opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
"I'll be right back hold on." he said, finally guiding her hand to the wall next to her.
-Belle-
Belle was confused to say the least. She thought everything was going well, great even until he left suddenly. Excitement built up in her, excitement for him to come back when he had just only left her alone. Excited for whatever plan he had just had that made him jump around like a boy on Christmas.
She heard him walk briskly down the hall away from her, and then he turned down the hallway out of the line of sight, and then she heard him break out into a run and she couldn't help but laugh out loud.
She had never smiled so much she cupped her hands over her face trying to memorize what it feels like to be happy.