div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Enough," I hissed at my servants as they fussed about getting us tea, "ENOUGH!" The room screamed to a halt as Belle gave a small scowl, turning to the room with that gentle smile of hers./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""If you could give us a moment, thank you," she cooed as the crowd smiled, bowing their heads at us before departing with Cogsworth being the final man out the door, giving a respectful bow of his head toward me and then closing the large doors. It was then Belle surged forward, our lips colliding in a wave of relief and i felt the warm tears trickling from her cheeks onto mine. She gave a nervous laugh and pulled back, wiping at them with the dry blanket that had been placed around her shoulders. "I'm sorry I just...I watched you die and yet here you are...human." I reached over, cupping her face with a small smile./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""You broke the curse, my love. You loved me for me...so I suppose the witch's magic in turn saved me," I exposed my stomach to show the smooth and bullet-hole-less stomach./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"Belle reached over, almost in wonderment, the rain unable to wash away the blood from her dress. It was unnerving to see how badly I had been wounded by the state of her clothes - of which I had every intension of removing, but there was something important to take care of first. Gently I took her hand in mine, kissing her knuckles delicately, "Belle...nothing would make me happier than for you to become my queen." Belle pulled in a sharp breath and for a moment I thought she might decline, that I had finally found the limit of her kindness. But then a smile started to break on her features, an excited blush forming on her cheeks and she threw her arms around my neck, nuzzling her face into my skin./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Of course, Beast," she breathed as I bit my lip, pulling back as memories flashed through my thoughts./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Clarice," I corrected, "Clarice Lorraine-Guise," I smiled, the name rolling off my tongue for the first time in years. It was as if the witch had clouded my memory of the words to remove any sort of connection I had to my human self. But now...now that I was free I could be me again./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Clarice," Belle repeated with a soft breath, leaning forward to kiss me again./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"The sensation was even better than when we had kissed nights before. I found my hands trailing along her dress, slipping the sleeves from her shoulders till the dress pooled around her ankles. Gently I stepped closer, pressing our naked bodies close as I wrapped my blanket around the two of us, pulling back to run my fingers through her soaked hair. Beautiful in every light. I didn't deserve her, but now I had her and for once I found my self praying she stayed. I could lock her back up in her room but her heart would never belong to me as mine belonged to her. But those were thoughts that I hoped wouldn't plague my dreams as we drifted and danced to the bed./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"I laid her upon the new velvets and silks. My body no longer hungered as a beasts would, instead I simply found myself holding her close for the desire of just being able to touch her and feel her. Belle had even become a far less coy creature as she was the one to grab the harness and slip the soft leather onto my hips. I spent the evening just enjoying the woman I had as we tumbled and rolled, as she straddled my hips and allowed me a full view of her beautiful torso. My fingers would linger on her stomach, on the child I knew was growing inside and I found a surge of excitement to know that it would be ours. A child from our love, not necessity. And we would treat it as such. We would raise it together...my queen and I./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"We did not appear from the room till the next morning, probably looking quite disheveled in nothing more than robes and with no help but our own to clean ourselves up. I begged Belle to stay in bed for breakfast but the curious girl refused, begging to explore the newly refurbished castle. And in the end I found myself wanting to do the same. I had forgotten what it looked like in all of it's glory, without the claw marks in the wood or the cracks in the stone. In the end i remembered how gorgeous my home was and how little I had appreciated it until now. And while the business of it seemed the same as before, it was now from people...not objects./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Cogsworth," I called at the top of the stairs, Belle already skipping off to find the library. I smirked, pushing my hair form my face as my loyal servant bowed at my approach. In the end...he had truly fit the appearance of a clock with how his mahogony hair curled on the top of his head and his boxy figure. It was all very expected. Though it would take time looking eye-to-eye to him rather than down. "I would like breakfast brought to the library."/div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Of course, your majesty. Anything in particular?"/div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Whatever Ms. Potts wishes to cook, everything she makes is devine." Cogsworth smiled and whispered to a passing servant what I assumed to be the same as I had told him, the servant quickly scooting off into another corner of the castle. "And I wish for you to prepare a wedding...mixed with a town ball," I smiled as Lumiere suddenly poked his head around the ballroom door./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Did I hear talk of a wedding?"br /"You did, Lumiere," he appeared suddenly disheveled, realizing who he had been speaking so casually to. I raised my hand in an attempt to show it was alright. The man was still as slim as a candle his white-blond hair the ony true reminder of his waxy past self. "As big and as grand as you can muster," I requested as Lumiere and Cogsworth bowed before i excused myself to chase after Belle./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"When I entered the library I found her in the same spot she always was, the large sofa with books strewn about her. And It was a sight I loved to see. I rested on the door frame, simply observing as my future wife filled her head with even more knowledge and stories...thoughts drifting to that of the future. To that of when i would be looking in at her reading to a child, to see the child just as enthused as anyone was when she read to them. It was an image I couldn't wait to see become reality as I finally made my way into the library, closing the doors in the process./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"Breakfast would take some time to arrive, anyway./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""If you could give us a moment, thank you," she cooed as the crowd smiled, bowing their heads at us before departing with Cogsworth being the final man out the door, giving a respectful bow of his head toward me and then closing the large doors. It was then Belle surged forward, our lips colliding in a wave of relief and i felt the warm tears trickling from her cheeks onto mine. She gave a nervous laugh and pulled back, wiping at them with the dry blanket that had been placed around her shoulders. "I'm sorry I just...I watched you die and yet here you are...human." I reached over, cupping her face with a small smile./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""You broke the curse, my love. You loved me for me...so I suppose the witch's magic in turn saved me," I exposed my stomach to show the smooth and bullet-hole-less stomach./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"Belle reached over, almost in wonderment, the rain unable to wash away the blood from her dress. It was unnerving to see how badly I had been wounded by the state of her clothes - of which I had every intension of removing, but there was something important to take care of first. Gently I took her hand in mine, kissing her knuckles delicately, "Belle...nothing would make me happier than for you to become my queen." Belle pulled in a sharp breath and for a moment I thought she might decline, that I had finally found the limit of her kindness. But then a smile started to break on her features, an excited blush forming on her cheeks and she threw her arms around my neck, nuzzling her face into my skin./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Of course, Beast," she breathed as I bit my lip, pulling back as memories flashed through my thoughts./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Clarice," I corrected, "Clarice Lorraine-Guise," I smiled, the name rolling off my tongue for the first time in years. It was as if the witch had clouded my memory of the words to remove any sort of connection I had to my human self. But now...now that I was free I could be me again./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Clarice," Belle repeated with a soft breath, leaning forward to kiss me again./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"The sensation was even better than when we had kissed nights before. I found my hands trailing along her dress, slipping the sleeves from her shoulders till the dress pooled around her ankles. Gently I stepped closer, pressing our naked bodies close as I wrapped my blanket around the two of us, pulling back to run my fingers through her soaked hair. Beautiful in every light. I didn't deserve her, but now I had her and for once I found my self praying she stayed. I could lock her back up in her room but her heart would never belong to me as mine belonged to her. But those were thoughts that I hoped wouldn't plague my dreams as we drifted and danced to the bed./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"I laid her upon the new velvets and silks. My body no longer hungered as a beasts would, instead I simply found myself holding her close for the desire of just being able to touch her and feel her. Belle had even become a far less coy creature as she was the one to grab the harness and slip the soft leather onto my hips. I spent the evening just enjoying the woman I had as we tumbled and rolled, as she straddled my hips and allowed me a full view of her beautiful torso. My fingers would linger on her stomach, on the child I knew was growing inside and I found a surge of excitement to know that it would be ours. A child from our love, not necessity. And we would treat it as such. We would raise it together...my queen and I./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"We did not appear from the room till the next morning, probably looking quite disheveled in nothing more than robes and with no help but our own to clean ourselves up. I begged Belle to stay in bed for breakfast but the curious girl refused, begging to explore the newly refurbished castle. And in the end I found myself wanting to do the same. I had forgotten what it looked like in all of it's glory, without the claw marks in the wood or the cracks in the stone. In the end i remembered how gorgeous my home was and how little I had appreciated it until now. And while the business of it seemed the same as before, it was now from people...not objects./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Cogsworth," I called at the top of the stairs, Belle already skipping off to find the library. I smirked, pushing my hair form my face as my loyal servant bowed at my approach. In the end...he had truly fit the appearance of a clock with how his mahogony hair curled on the top of his head and his boxy figure. It was all very expected. Though it would take time looking eye-to-eye to him rather than down. "I would like breakfast brought to the library."/div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Of course, your majesty. Anything in particular?"/div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Whatever Ms. Potts wishes to cook, everything she makes is devine." Cogsworth smiled and whispered to a passing servant what I assumed to be the same as I had told him, the servant quickly scooting off into another corner of the castle. "And I wish for you to prepare a wedding...mixed with a town ball," I smiled as Lumiere suddenly poked his head around the ballroom door./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;""Did I hear talk of a wedding?"br /"You did, Lumiere," he appeared suddenly disheveled, realizing who he had been speaking so casually to. I raised my hand in an attempt to show it was alright. The man was still as slim as a candle his white-blond hair the ony true reminder of his waxy past self. "As big and as grand as you can muster," I requested as Lumiere and Cogsworth bowed before i excused myself to chase after Belle./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"When I entered the library I found her in the same spot she always was, the large sofa with books strewn about her. And It was a sight I loved to see. I rested on the door frame, simply observing as my future wife filled her head with even more knowledge and stories...thoughts drifting to that of the future. To that of when i would be looking in at her reading to a child, to see the child just as enthused as anyone was when she read to them. It was an image I couldn't wait to see become reality as I finally made my way into the library, closing the doors in the process./div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;" /div
div style="font-family: Helvetica;"Breakfast would take some time to arrive, anyway./div