The Beast hadn't known how long she had been unconscious, as she slowly opened her eyes and found herself in the den of the castle, sitting in her chair and not in the forest fighting savage wolves who were about to pounce on Leon.

She had no idea how she got there, but had vaguely heard Leon asking for bandages, hot water and a bowl and wondered why he would need them, then felt the stinging pain on her arm and remembered the wolf getting to her and tearing her with its sharp claws, the last thing she saw and remembered before passing out.

Oh, she thought, that's why my arm hurts so much and the boy needed those things. He must have brought me back here, when he could've just left me in the cold to die, since I deserved it for what I did to him. And yet.. he didn't.

Leon, who had been unhurt, was kneeling next to her, pouring hot water from Mrs Potts in a bowl, while Babette, Rebecca and George handed him the bandages and a towel. The others were nearby, waiting anxiously and offering to help if they were needed.

'Mmmmph,' the Beast groaned, as she woke up groggily and sat up, rubbing her head with her bad arm and it made her grimace in pain.

Lila crawled into the room and saw her mistress, wanting the attention she hadn't gotten from her for years, jumped onto the Beast's lap, accidently bumping her arm.

'Get down, Lila,' Mrs Potts said to the cushion, who put her 'paws' on the Beast's chest, 'Leave her alone.'

Disappointed, Lila reluctantly jumped off her mistress's lap, letting out a sad meow as she slunk away in a corner, while making Cogsworth sneeze, his allergies having been triggered by her, despite being a cushion and not a cat.

'That Lila still makes me sneeze, even as a cushion,' he said, sounding stuffed up as he let out another sneeze, ' I could never fathom why I allowed the mistress to keep her even though I am allergic to cats, especially since she's neglected her.'

'Because she is..was a good rat catcher, the mistress loves…loved her so much and we made sure that she wasn't in the same room as you,' Lumiere reminded him, 'That's what you promised.'

'Oh, that's right,' said Cogsworth, 'I only wish that the mistress would start taking care of Lila again, especially since she practically begged me to keep her.'

With Lila out of the way, the Beast looked at her arm again and noticed the three scratch marks from the wolf, exposing raw flesh, which kept stinging and she couldn't ignore it any longer. She had to lick it like the animal she was, but before she could do so, a hand reached out and put her head up.

'No, don't do that,' Leon said, 'it'll get infected.'

The Beast gave a low growl in response, as she held her arm, edging away from Leon, who was dipping a towel into the hot, steaming water and wrung it out, like she was afraid it was going to burn her and make her wound worse than it already was.

The servants slowly backed away, as if they knew what was going to happen once that hot towel was placed on her tender, raw wound and the chances were that it wasn't going to be pleasant and they didn't envy her for it.

'Brace yourselves,' Remy muttered, 'She's gonna blow BIG TIME,'

'Oh, Sophie never makes this much fuss, when she gets hurt,' said Amelie, having gone through the same thing with both Sophie and Raymond, whenever they got injured, except they didn't act like the Beast was now.

'Come on,' Leon said to the uneasy beast, 'let me clean your wound for you. Stop acting like a baby,' but she kept backing away from him.

It was like the time she scratched her hand when she had tried to pick a rose, except she didn't have the comfort of sitting in her mother's lap, while she rocked her gently and sang softly to calm her down and to distract her, while the wound was being tended to.

Instead, she only had Leon, who she hated even though she had just saved him from wolves and got hurt for it and he obviously wasn't going to sing to her, as he pushed the steaming hot towel towards her, about to place it on her raw wound and it was going to hurt worse than a mere scratch from a rose thorn.

'Don't be silly, let me help you,' Leon said, becoming frustrated with the Beast's behaviour. When she wasn't looking, he slyly and quickly pressed the towel onto her arm.

Feeling it on her exposed flesh, she let out an earthshattering roar, loud enough to rattle the walls and a small marble statue fell off the fireplace, smashing it and the servants hid in fear.

'THAT HURTS!' she bellowed, clutching her arm,' What did you put in that water? It stings worse than lemon juice!'

'Nothing, it's just hot that's all!' Leon said sarcastically, 'and if you only held still, it wouldn't hurt as much!' as he rolled his eyes at her.

He felt like a parent caring for a very big baby and a beastly one at that and sighed.

'You really are unbelievable,' he said, 'First you act like a savage animal and try to kill me by throwing furniture very badly and then you are like a little child who can't handle pain when I try to clean your wound. Honestly, it's like you have some sort of split personality!'

You don't know the half of it, the Beast thought bitterly.

Neither of them spoke for a moment, but if anyone thought that after their ordeal with the wolves, there would be some apologies and thank yous and pleasantries between the two, they had been mistaken.

Instead, they had picked up from where they had been before the wolf chase- arguing and playing the blame game, well at least the Beast was, as she felt that Leon had caused all this.

'This is all your fault, you know,' the Beast hissed to Leon.

'My fault?' said Leon, outraged, 'How is it MY fault when it was YOU that started it all?'

'If you hadn't been so stupid to run away into the forest to be nearly eaten by wolves, this never would have happened and I wouldn't have been hurt on YOUR ACCOUNT!' she shouted.

'Well, if you hadn't lashed out and tried to kill me and given me a chance to explain why I was in the West Wing, then I wouldn't have run away!' Leon said, 'and don't go blaming me for your injury, it's not my fault that wolf got to you!'

'Well, you shouldn't have been in the West Wing in the first place!

I told you that was forbidden for a very good reason, but you just couldn't help yourself and went in any way!' the Beast said.

'Why is it forbidden?' Leon said, 'What else have you got to hide from me, besides that magic rose?'

'Nothing!' the Beast said, uneasy, ' I've got nothing else to hide, it's my private space where no one can disturb me and you deliberately disobeyed me by intruding it and nearly touching my rose, which could have had serious consequences, but you were too ignorant to care!

You need to learn not to snoop around private places that are not intended for you!'

'Well, you need to learn to control that horrid temper of yours!' Leon said.

'It's not doing you, me or your servants any good!' which stunned the Beast, as the servants nervously came out of their hiding place, walking slowly towards the two, as they glared at each other.

They were surprised at hearing someone telling the mistress to control her temper when they had failed themselves and had only gotten a roar in the face for their efforts and saw the stunned face of the Beast, as she was trying to take in what Leon had said, although she knew it was true.

Trust a simple village boy to tell her that!

Leon, seeing the nervous and frightened looks on the servants' faces as they started at their mistress, like they were afraid that she might lose her barely-contained temper again, then said to a still stunned Beast, who couldn't quite believe what she had heard,

'Don't you see what it's doing to your servants? They're frightened of you and I can see why! All they're trying to do is help you, since they obviously love and care about you, so stop acting BEASTLY to them and to me!'

Another moment of silence passed, as the Beast stared at both Leon and the servants, his words stinging like her wound and she realised that he was right about everything she had done and how loyal the servants had remained to her, even though she had condemned them to be living household objects and she was starting to regret her behaviour.

Damn that boy, she thought, how does he do that?

'Now, will you please let me treat your wound?' said Leon, breaking both the silence and the Beast out of her trance.

'I know it stings and causes you pain, but you do want it to heal and not become infected, don't you, because if you lick it, it'll only make it worse. You have to trust me on this.'

The Beast had to swallow her pride and let Leon put the towel on her arm again, wincing at the steam coming off it and pressing against the raw flesh exposed by the scratches, as she gripped the arm of the chair, her claws digging deep which indicated her obvious discomfort.

But instead of letting out loud roars, she gave pitiful whines like a wounded puppy every time the towel rubbed against her arm, as Leon cleaned the wound and saw that the scratches weren't as deep as he thought, so they would heal quite quickly but could leave scars.

He chuckled slightly at seeing the Beast look more like a pitiful little dog, with her whines of pain rather than the hideous and terrifying creature she was, but seeing her again in a vulnerable state made him think.. maybe she isn't what he thought she was.

After a few minutes more, the wound had been cleaned of blood and Leon was adding the finishing touches by wrapping up the bandages around the Beast's arm, to prevent infection and to stop her from touching and licking it.

'There now, all done,' he said, 'that wasn't too bad was it?' in an almost patronising way, which made the Beast roll her eyes. He was speaking to her like she was a little child making a big fuss about an injury, although she had to admit, she had been acting like that the whole time.

She grunted to him in response, which Leon had interpreted as a 'thank you,' and that was as good as any spoken words, especially coming from a beast, so he had to take it.

'Oh, by the way, thank you,' he said.

The Beast looked at him, confused. What on earth could he be THANKING her for? All she had done to him was send his mother away from him, kept him prisoner, told him to starve when he refused to have dinner with her and chased him away, when she had caught him in the West Wing?

'For what?' she said, 'What are you thanking me for?'

'For saving my life,' he said, looking at her like she was an idiot.

Of course, she thought, I saved him from the wolves and that's why he's thanking me. How stupid am I!

'If it wasn't for you, I would've been wolf tucker and I'm sorry that you got hurt for me. But why did you go out to save me? You could've just left me to die out there in the cold, if the wolves didn't already get me but you didn't. So why did you?'

'Because…' the Beast said, faltering, 'I couldn't let you be killed by those mangy animals. And you were so kind to bring me back here, when you could have selfishly abandoned me, which is understandable after the way I behaved and treated you.'

'Well, thank you, again,' said Leon.

'Um, you're…welcome,' the Beast said, as she struggled with the words, but to the servants, it was music to their ears. It had been so long since they heard her say them and it took a simple boy and a wolf chase to bring it out of her.

'Well, what do you know, the mistress actually said 'You're welcome'!' said Lumiere.

'I never thought I'd be so happy to hear those simple words from her,' Mrs Potts said, grinning.

'Maybe this could be a turning point,' said Cogsworth, 'Maybe there is some hope for us after all,'

'You may be right, Cogsworth,' said Amelie, 'we just have to wait and see, that's all, but what we are seeing is a good step forward.'

As Amelie said the last sentence, the Beast nervously cleared her throat and said to Leon,

'I'm sorry too,'

She felt that if the boy had just thanked her for risking her life for him, it was only fair that she returned the favour and apologised to him.

After all, she HAD sent his mother away from him and was keeping him prisoner for her own selfish needs and behaved very badly towards him, giving him an unfavourable first impression of her and vice versa.

It was never too late to start afresh and it was time to let it go and open up her heart that she had locked away from everyone for so long.

'Are you actually apologising to me?' said Leon, surprised.

'Yes, I am,' the Beast said, sounding less like the terrifying monster Leon had been seeing the whole day since he arrived in the castle and more like a lost, lonely little girl.

'I know my behaviour has been absolutely disgusting and shameful and I make no secret about that, but it's just that… I act out of fear.

You see, you don't know what it's like to live a miserable, lonely life as a hideous creature, who exists only to scare people out of their wits and have them run away as, just one look at me is enough for them.

And I also feel hopeless, not worthy of living and deserving love and constantly having conflicting emotions and neglecting my beloved cat, when she needed me, who I begged Uncle Cogsworth to keep, even though he's allergic to her.

I'm trapped in a gloomy, dark prison, that is my home, because that is all I'm fit for with only my servants for company and even they are terrified of me!' the Beast said, as she looked at them.

'And who could blame them, with my horrible temper! They don't want to be around me, and you didn't either. Even I don't want to be around me!'

She slumped back in her chair, as Leon looked at her, seeing the pain, sadness and misery in those beautiful blue doe-shaped eyes, like in the portrait of the mysterious girl he had seen in the West Wing earlier.

Was this sad and lonely creature really the ill-mannered, cruel and heartless one he had first seen in the dungeon, keeping his mother prisoner, when she had only wanted shelter?

The one he gave up his freedom for, who had yelled and growled at him, acted like a brat and chased him away from the castle due to her temper when he had invaded her private space?

The Beast that was sitting in the chair in front of him, stroking her bandaged arm and whining pitifully, wasn't like that. She was.. vunerable, lonely, scared and clearly miserable, judging by her face, while it still had horns, fangs and a snout, was etched with sadness and pain at her plight, almost..human like.

At this moment, Leon felt sorry for her. She didn't ask to be born like this, to be a vicious-looking monster that people ran away from or would hunt down and kill to protect themselves.

He couldn't imagine what that would be like and maybe he shouldn't have been so rude to her, if he knew how much it affected her.

Maybe Katrine had been right after all, he thought, first impressions aren't always correct and the Beast's sad, short confession might be proof of that.

It wasn't too late to start over again and have a clean state and that was what Leon had decided to do. It was only fair to get to know the Beast- could he really call her that now?- if he was going to be around her forever.

'Listen, um, Beast,' Leon said, which got her attention, 'We got off on the wrong foot, as you know and I really shouldn't have been so rude to you. I was acting out of fear too, so why don't we start over and do things properly, shall we?'

'What do you mean by that?' said the Beast.

'Well, for a start, I haven't even told you my name,' Leon said, ' since you haven't given me the chance to and you can't keep on calling me 'boy,', can you?'

'No, I haven't,' she said, ashamed that she didn't do that, 'but I would like to know your name.'

'It's Leon, Leon Dupont,' he said.

'Leon,' the Beast said, saying it if it was the most pleasant thing she had heard, 'that is a nice name, it really suits you, since you seem to have the heart of a lion.'

'Thank you, I've always liked it,' said Leon, slightly embarrassed. At least she would never know about his demeaning nicknames, not that he would tell her, of course.

'What about you?' he then said, 'Do you have a name?'

'My name?' said the Beast, uncertainly, 'You want to know..my name?'

'Well, yes I do, I mean you can hardly be called 'Beast,' can you? Surely, you must have one!' said Leon.

That made the Beast think. She DID have a name, but it had been so long since she last used it and being a beast, she didn't think it was worthy for her to have it and told the servants not to call her that anymore.

But since the boy asked and told her his name, she decided that it was only fair that he knew hers, as she tried to remember it.

In her mind, the enchanted rose appeared not only as an unwanted reminder of her ordeal but what she used to be called, the name her parents gave her, since it was so special to them.

'Rose,' she finally said.

'What was that?' Leon said.

'My name..is Rose,' she said.

'Rose,' said Leon. He was surprised that she was named after a beautiful flower and that beasts even had names, but there was something familiar about it. It was the same name as the princess and the name on the portrait.

Surely that could be a coincidence? He quickly ruled that out as she just happened to have the same name, that was all, but she looked like a little weight had been lifted off her shoulders in remembering it.

'That's a beautiful name,' he said.

'Thank you..Leon,' Rose said to him as they sat by the fire while the servants watched them, happy to hear the mistress's name again and the two not arguing.

Maybe this could be the start of something special, that they had waited ten lonely years for and they were feeling the hope that they had started to forget and thought that had gone completely but it was starting to come back.

Maybe there was hope for Rose and Leon after all. They just had to make it happen.

So now this is a turning point, where Rose and Leon, while still not liking each other, are at least past the fighting and bickering as they had done in previous chapters and it took a wolf chase and an injured arm to do it! And as Cogsworth said, this is the start of something special.

Read and review and let me know how I'm doing!