One-Shot: Beast's Transformation from Beast's POV

"No, please! Please don't leave me! I love you!" Belle begged. But it was too late; I was already slipping away. I wanted to return that love, say goodbye to Belle, but I could not get the words out as my head collapsed to the stone balcony and everything went black.

For a short time, there was nothingness. I had expected as much from death. But, wait…. if I was dead, why was I thinking?

Then, all at once, I felt a warmth begin to spread throughout my body – no, not my body, my being. I could not feel my body if I was dead…. could I? The warmth felt painful at first, like painful third-degree burns or as though I had swallowed something really hot. Soon enough, it was replaced by a comfortable glowing kind of warmth like the kind you get when you merely sit next to a fire. Ah, I thought, maybe this is my soul leaving my body. If this is what death feels like, it actually isn't so bad….

The glowing warmth spreading through me seemed to increase, though not in a painful way as it had in the beginning. Then, all at once, I felt a rush of air fill my being and I reflexively inhaled it and breathed it.

Wait…. I breathed….

And then I opened my eyes. I could see the cold stone floor of the balcony. So I was not dead! But then, what was I? I began to try and get up. It was a struggle. My feet were wobbly, shaky, refusing to do what I wanted them to. It was as though I had been lying in a position for a long time or had been a while at sea. Either way, my feet, then my legs, initially refused to cooperate. But eventually I got the hang of it. Even with my initial clumsiness, I quickly realized that I felt lighter – bore less weight. Usually, even when in normal circumstances, rising from anything bigger than a chair was naturally difficult because of my girth. But this time, the rest of my body had raised me up with little resistance. I then noticed…. I had no fur. Instead, it was smooth white, porcelain skin. I looked down at my hands. Not paws, my human hands. Thus, a torrent of sights and senses was unleashed. I could feel that my clothes were baggy somehow, felt way too big for me. What's more, they were incredibly tattered. My white shirt, now flimsy on me, had torn partially down the middle. My purple leggings were ripped starting at roughly mid-thigh. There was a gash down one pant leg that coincided with where Gaston's knife had stabbed me… but the flesh wound that would have logically followed it was gone. No scar. Not even so much as a drop of blood.

Could it be, or was this all some sort of dream? One look at Belle was enough to give me an answer: when I finally turned around, she was staring at me as if she had never seen me before. One hand covered her mouth in astonishment, her hair windswept. Even then, she looked so incredibly beautiful. Yet, beyond her stunning and attractive physical appearance – to me, that had always been a given; I'd been attracted to her the moment I met her – her emotions were hard to read. Right away, I ruled out that she was exhibiting any signs of terror. No, she seemed shocked, along with a dash of hopefulness.

I decided to stop staring like a goofy idiot and find out for myself. Doing my best to reassure her seemed like as good a start as any.

"Belle," I breathed, "It's me." I took my first confident step towards her and took her hand with a smile.

She flinched ever so slightly, but did not pull away her hand. Two thoughts immediately popped into my head. One: OK, maybe I was wrong about the terror. And two: That doesn't sound a thing like me! The voice that I had grown accustomed to over the last ten years was deeper, more gravelly. Instead, I now sounded lighter – as light as I now felt within my new body.

Any fear that Belle may have instinctively displayed in that moment in time dissolved into skepticism. Her lips pursed into some halfway land between a bemused smile and a frown. Her head cocked to one side like a small child, as if she was trying to figure something out. Her hand reached out, then drew back, before completing the motion. Unexpectedly, her target turned out to be a lock of my hair – long, fiery red locks that I had not noticed until now – which she took in her hand and ran curiously through her fingers. I honestly did not understand the point of this, and resisted seeming impatient. Still, my thoughts willed: Come on, Belle, you must know it's me. How can I prove it to you?...

Belle stopped running her fingers through my hair and now gazed deep into my eyes. And there. That's what did it. She must have seen something familiar staring back there, for her eyes widened and her face brightened into a beaming smile of joy.

"It is you!" she cried out, her hand reaching out to touch my jawline. I smiled knowingly down at her, and brushed a heavy hand through her brown curls. She leaned into my touch shyly but with a beaming smile of her own, her eyes closing at the sensation – even as her hand at my jaw ran silkily down until two fingers just grazed my chin. She opened her eyes moments later to look up into mine.

This was it, this was the big moment I had been waiting for. What I had always wanted to do. I pushed doubtful thoughts from my mind, as my eyes softened almost at the same time hers did. I vaguely sensed her free hand curl into a fist against my chest; the other now simply rested against it. Our eyes drooped shut as we leaned in closer; my one mountain of a hand now cupped her face just above her neckline. Too late to turn back now…. Moments later our lips met in a magical kiss.

Whoa. I was…. Kissing. Belle. And she did not pull away. In fact, she was eager to kiss me back. Her lips were unbelievably soft, yet firm against my own – even when the muscles in her jaw and mouth worked overtime to pry my own mouth open, to penetrate her tongue deep in to dance with mine. Deepening the kiss is not a strong enough phrase for what she did. She relished it. It was almost disturbing, how much she desired the feel of my mouth meshed tightly around hers. I smirked along her eager lips. Guess she's never been kissed like this before…

All at once, I felt the rush of wind as blue lights began to swirl around us in an airy inferno. Instinctively, I moved to protect Belle; getting to elevate the passion in our kiss was merely a bonus. My hand clutched at her back and pulled her flush against me. Her hands, meanwhile, went everywhere - along the back of my shirt, the other permanently affixed itself into my red hair. Both of our heads of hair could only be controlled by the wind, standing straight up. Neither of us paid attention to that, let alone acknowledged the obvious magic enveloping, engulfing us – a signal of sorts that seemed to approve of our union, our physical joining, manifestation, display of love at last. I could feel Belle's body pressed tightly against my own, and I to hers. I did not care that a certain organ was stiff up against her. She had to know by now that I wanted her, had wanted her for a very long time. And from the way she was kissing me right now, it was clear she wanted me just as much.

So lost in each other were we, that we barely registered the piercing wheesh as a firework broke through our magical tornado and tore into the night sky high above the castle, setting off a display of many more. We hardly were aware that the dark night and rain was now deposed by bright morning sunshine, and that the dark stone and gargoyle features of the castle were replaced by angels of blinding white marble. By the time Belle and I broke the kiss at last, the enchanted objects were already turning back into people. I greeted them all warmly and they happily watched us as I picked Belle up in my arms and swirled her, laughing, around.

Later, as I danced with and kissed the once-poor village girl who was now my princess, I knew we would live happily ever after.