There was something about those nights that brought sense of joy to me from simply being read to. Last night, especially, I found myself attracted to Belle. Not only because of her beauty but also her life. It was so delightfully normal. Mine had always been more than I wished for. My parents had died when I was young, too young to be leading a kingdom. It had crushed my childhood and led me to become this thing. And yet through all of Belle's hardships she seemed to have become nothing more then determined and kind.

So I found myself wanting to help.

I arrived at her room one morning, knocking on the door, as I was casually welcomed in. I'd chosen some black trousers with a dark purples and velvet jacket and had to admit that I hoped Belle approved. But when I entered I realized she hadn't expected me to be the visitor. Belle was standing in front of a mirror, half naked as a shirt was fitted around her waist and a smaller damage was applied to her shoulder. The moment her eyes caught my wanderings ones in her reflection she yelped and covered her bare breasts. Quickly I averted my gaze as I turned my back to her.

"I'm sorry, I...I didn't know…" I trailed off as I grabbed at my nervously twitching tail, trying to ignore the heat in my body.

"No, it was my fault," explained as I nodded, stepping across the room to entertain myself as she finished dressing.

"I-I wish to show you something, once dressed," I muttered over my shoulder before hearing a nervous laugh. My curious eyes shifted up just as a dress was dropped over her slim and curvy body.

"To think you are more dressed than I am for once," the pair of us gave an embarrassed laugh and a nod of our heads at the realization. "All right," she replied, stepping across the room, "what was it you wished to show me?"

I smiled, standing straighter and glancing at her attire. The dress was a sky blue, making her eyes pop beautifully. A white bow was tied gently around her waist to accentuate her shape and her feet were covered in what looked like well-loved brown boots – the length of the dress covered how high they went on her legs. But before my eyes lingered for too long and shifted them back to her face and gave a small shake of my head. "It's a surprise," I finally answered before causally taking her hand and leading her from her room and into the halls of the castle.

The short trip was filled with Belle's nervous giggles, question, and the every so often blush. And I found myself drawn to her more. I wished to see her cheeks turn that precious scarlet at my responses or whenever our passing hands touched. I longed for the small giggle whenever I would remark about her appearance or her voice during our evenings. It was something I hadn't felt in a long while, if at all. And it was something that made me realize Belle had a curious…specialness to her.

But eventually our trip came to an end as we stop in front of a pair of closed doors and I couldn't help the excited look on my face; she was going to love this, I just knew it. "Close your eyes," I told her gently as she gave a small pout before doing as told. Quickly I pushed the doors open, exposing the massive library of the castle.

At one point in time the place had been immaculate, clean, sparkling, and busy. Not that I had ever used it. The library had always been a place that I had passed during my days, looking in it and thinking that it would be fun to spend an evening there. But that never seemed to happen. Now, though, it was finally going to be used and enjoyed by someone, hopefully.

"Keep them closed," I breathed, taking both her hands and pulling her into the middle of the room as Belle squeezed her eyes tighter. "And don't peak!" I giggled, dropping her hands to move through the room towards a large pair of curtains. With a heavy tug they pulled away from the window, filling the dusty room with light and exposing the numerous rows of bookshelves filled to the brim with anything someone could possibly want. But I found my eyes somewhat distracted at the view outside as I looked upon my grounds.

It was nearing winter, the evenings turning freezing and normally that made the foliage look even more dead, but strangely it all seemed to be doing the opposite. Grass had turned green and trees seemed to be budding leaves as if it was the beginning of spring. I couldn't explain it.

"Can I look now?" Belle's voice brought me back as I quickly stepped back to her, stepping behind her as my lips rested by her ear.

"All right, open your eyes."

COMMENTS: oof, that took much longer than I wanted that to take. Very sorry, I've gotten to the point of writing these in my notebooks during class but it's the task of getting it from there and onto here that's seeming to be a problem