AN: For some reason, I didn't have this chapter uploaded (I think because I didn't quite finish it) therefore there was a mislabeling of chapters and this is Chapter Twenty One, sorry for that.

Chapter Twenty One

21.1

As Belle helped Adam to their bedroom, still in beast form, her eyes caught onto the metallic rose. It had been black before and she knew black meant that he could only change back because of death but what did metallic mean? She helped him onto the bed and smiled as she saw her watching him. She walked over to the cloche with the rose and studied it.

"I'm sorry," he told her as he reached his paw out towards her.

"You don't have to be sorry," Belle said quickly before her attention went to the flower again. It didn't look natural and this was the first time she had seen it like this. She walked to see it from another angle. "Do you know what it means? Is it dangerous to you?"

"I think I've secured a promise," he told her and Belle nodded. He had appeared both in a human form and in a beast form already tonight. She wasn't sure what he would have decided or sacrificed. She was just pleased that he was here with her. "I will remain a beast for the rest of my life but I will also remain human for the rest of my life. I'll have to live in two forms. I don't have control over it just yet but I will in time. I hope you don't mind."

"Mind?" Belle asked as she went back to him and let her fingertips run through his fur. "No. Not at all. You know that I love you no matter what. Even if it takes you years to fully understand how to control this form." Belle kissed his forehead. "I love you, Adam."

"I know I might not be as intelligent as you are," he apologized and Belle stared at him in shock that he had just told her that.

"What are you talking about?" she asked him. She placed her hand on the top of his arm. She sighed before brushing his facial fur back. "You might not be as intelligent as I am," she said. She didn't want to act arrogant but she also didn't want to lie to him, Adam could see through that. "But you are the second most intelligent person that I know. You might not have started that way but the way you love to learn, the way you get excited when you see something new or learn something you didn't know before." She sighed, "In the village people don't want to listen. They want to move about in the same circles that they've always known. You are gorgeous, protective, strong, kind, supportive, and intelligent." She drew nearer and kissed his mouth. "Never forget that."

Adam smiled, he still didn't believe it fully but he felt that Belle at least believed it. As he found the happiness and strength within, his body turned to his human form and Belle kissed him again with equal love and equal passion.

"I will learn how to control it," he attempted to promise her and Belle smiled. She let her fingers go through his hair. She saw him try to move but could see how weak he had become. She pressed his chest down and shook her head.

"Stay here," she tried to persuade him. "You need to rest." She let her fingers go through his hair again. She couldn't quite believe that she was actually here, speaking with him, being with him and he was coherent, he was safe, he wasn't dead.

"Belle," he said as he reached his fingertips to touch her cheek, she immediately cupped his hand to the side of her face and nodded. "Please promise me that you won't interfere with this spell. I know you didn't mean for it to happen but…I don't think that there will be a way back if it happens again. I think the metal of the rose shows that there is no way of escaping. I'm going to be a beast for the rest of my life…but as long as I have you, that shouldn't be an issue," he said and Belle kissed him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and feeling the painful guilt, Adam's human body transformed again. He felt a pain this time at the way his body kept going back and forth. Maybe soon that would stop happening and it wouldn't be a problem for him. "I just want you to be happy." She looked at him lovingly before brushing the fur by his horn. "I saw your flinch, are you okay?"

"I just need to stay in this form for a little bit," he coughed. "The transformation saps my energy. I wish I knew how to control it," he frowned and kept his paw on her cheek. "Belle, to be honest, my body feels more strain when I'm in a human form. I hope that I can learn how to be human for most of my life but right now, it takes less energy for me to be this way."

"The way in which I first fell in love with you," Belle reminded him and saw Adam smile. She moved so that she was lying down next to him in the bed with her head positioned over his warm chest. "No matter which body you are in, you are Adam. You speak with such coherence even through transformations." She took his paw and placed it over her belly. "I love you regardless. Now, please, rest. All I want is for you to be happy, healthy, and safe."

Adam looked at her and nodded. "That's all I want too but for my girls," he told her. "Both of them."

21.2

Adam sighed as he put his hand to the petal of the metallic rose. It was all one piece, nothing more than a decoration and the petals wouldn't come off. It was in a way of saying that either the entire piece got destroyed, ending his life, or he remained true to his promise of remaining the way he currently was. As he sat there with his body taking up at least half the width of the window, he watched Belle waking up. He still couldn't understand how he was lucky enough to be with someone like her.

"Adam?" she asked as she looked over at him. Her face didn't seem any different than as if she were looking at a human. There seemed to be three kind of beings for her, or at least that's how Adam had thought about it. There were men, beast, and him. As prideful as it was, Adam knew which group Belle cared for most, with the exception of Juliet, of course. "Are you okay?"

"It's going to take a lot to break this rose," he told her and Belle smiled. "Are you su-"

"Don't even finish that sentence," she told him before sitting up and he came back over to her. She flung her arms around his neck and smiled into his shoulder. "I was so scared that I had lost you. First I was scared I had lost you physically and second mentally but now…now you're here and everything will be okay."

"Have you heard of the expression brawn and brain?" Adam asked her and Belle smiled as she saw that same curiosity and excitement in his eyes that she adored. "I think that describes our relationship, right? I'm the strength and you're the -"

"I don't want to hear you say that you're unintelligent," Belle kissed him. "It's like you saying you're ugly," she saw him hesitate. "You're not ugly, Adam," she told him. "At least you will never be ugly to me."

Adam took her hand and brought it to his heart, he looked at her and after a while, he managed to shift back to a human form but he was shaking, his bones could be seen through his pale and ghostlike skin, he looked as if he might pass out. Belle's eyes widened in alarm and she saw him start to shake. "It's a l-l-lott har-der to be h-h-huma-n" he shivered and Belle shook her head. She didn't want to see him in this pain. Seeing him as a beast was so much more preferable.

"Then don't," she kissed him. "Until you've built your strength up or until you really need to, don't force yourself." She saw him nod and change back. He looked a lot healthier as a beast. "The way I see you doesn't depend on the outside."

"You should go and spend the day with your father," Adam replied. "As you suggested, I need to get some sleep and make sure that I'm going to be okay for when I can allow myself to see him," he said and Belle frowned at him.

"If Papa can't accept you as you are then maybe I don't want t-"

"Promise me you'll go and see your father before finishing that sentence," Adam asked her and she looked at him. Despite how he looked, he wasn't a monster. He was someone who had decided to live with a curse that he had never truly deserved. She let her fingertips glide over his right horn and then laughed.

"Okay." She smiled, "But you need to be with me tonight. I want to feel your fur upon my skin," she winked at him and Adam blushed a little. Even like this, she was okay to be intimate with him. Doing much wasn't going to happen until after Juliet was born but even with how he looked, her bare skin against his fur…it was just another proof of her love for him.

End of Chapter Twenty One

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Twenty

DarthLeia19, KathyMesser, Rachel