So in this chapter, I decided to use some Frozen tid bits in the next story that Rose and Leon read together and decided to parody the popularity it has around the real world in this story (gently of course) and to make Rose feel insecure and uncertain about reading aloud in front of Leon, since she hasn't done it before (she can read, by the way) because she wouldn't be so eager to do so right away and the book brings back memories of her past self.

Read on and enjoy!

I don't own Beauty and the Beast, Tangled or Frozen.

'And the kingdom rejoiced for the lost princess had returned. Rapunzel was finally home and she had a real family.

She was a princess worth waiting for,' Leon read the final page as Rose listened, entranced by his soft, gentle voice reading the fairy tale she loved so much,

'Beloved by all, she led the kingdom with the same grace and wisdom her parents did before her..'

'And Flynn Rider went by his real name of Eugene and gave up a life of crime. He and Rapunzel were soon married and they lived happily ever after!' Rose said, as she knew the ending off by heart.

'Exactly,' Leon said, amused, 'now how did you know that was coming, Rose? Have you read this story before?'

'Eleven times,' Rose said, guessing for she could never really remember the exact number but it was more than eleven,

'I know it off by heart and I love how you read it. You didn't mumble or skip any words and you did the voices right.

I especially loved your Flynn Rider impersonation..'

'They just can't get my nose right!' Leon said, imitating the thief's dismay at his nose being drawn incorrectly on the Wanted posters.

He wasn't the best mimic but both of them laughed, finding it amusing.

'Considering I've never read aloud to anyone before, other than Sabine, my horse, but she loses interest easily and snorts or tries to eat the page I'm reading.' Leon said with a chuckle.

Many of his books had some of their pages partially ripped by Sabine, when she was hungry and wanted food and Leon's attention, tugging at the page when he had been too engrossed in a book to notice her.

'Was Sabine the horse I saw you walking with in the garden this morning?' Rose said.

'Yes, that's her,' said Leon, 'and you should see her sometime so we can take her out on a stroll with your horse, Phillippe,'

'Phillippe,' said Rose wistfully, sad that she hadn't seen the horse that she used to ride on, pat his nose and tug at his ears playfully when she was a little girl but from what she had been told by the stablemen, he had been well-looked after and had a new friend in Sabine.

The two sat in silence, the only noise in the library coming from Lila purring, as she slept in Rose's lap, while Leon held the book, looking at the wonderful place that had been given to him as a gift, that he was sharing with a beast.

A beast that he had just read to, who loved books just as much as he did, who listened to their favourite fairy tale, looking at him like he was the most fascinating and wonderful person to her and it felt strange in a way but he actually enjoyed it and wanted to hear Rose read to him, if she could at all.

'I'd like to hear it again, but this time, why don't you read it to me?' said Leon, putting the book on Rose's lap and she looked at it uneasily.

This was her FAVOURITE book for goodness sakes, so why was she being so silly about it?

'You want me to read to you?' she said, slowly, feeling awkward and uncomfortable at the idea, as she turned away from Leon.

'Yes, I do,' said Leon, which made Rose whine in worry.

'Rose,' he then said, seeing her distressed and anxious face, 'what's wrong? Why don't you want to read to me?'

He wasn't pressuring or demanding her to read, so he couldn't understand why she was avoiding it.

She seemed to be able to, since she recited the ending perfectly, so why was she so reluctant?

'It's not that I don't want to,' said Rose, 'it's just.. I'm worried that I'll look and sound like an idiot in front of you with my voice being growly and silky and if I read badly. I was just showing off to you before about the ending and that was stupid of me.

I mean, a hideous beast reading a sweet little fairy tale to a boy she's only just met? That would look ridiculous to anyone!'

She sighed as she shuffled on the sofa uncomfortably, not quite meeting Leon's eyes.

'I don't think it's ridiculous,' said Leon, 'It won't matter to me if it comes out wrong or if you skip a few pages or if you mispronounce words.

It's your special book and I would like to hear you read it to me.

It's just me you're reading to,no one else so just relax, take your time and don't worry about making mistakes.

Just do your best, I won't judge you.'

'Well, okay, I'll try,' said Rose, feeling self-conscious and nervous about reading in front of Leon and was afraid that she would make a fool of herself,

Nevertheless, she picked up the book and opened up the cover.

Her eyes blurred as she saw what Leon hadn't: the familiar written message in her mother's beautiful script,

To our sweet darling Rose on your eighth birthday,

We love you with all our hearts and give you this special tale of a princess just like you.

Lots and lots of love,

Mama and Papa

For this book was special to her not because it was her favourite and had been re-read to her, but it was a birthday present from her parents, her last birthday as a human and that was why she was reluctant to read it again, if she counted the fear of reading in front of someone.

While the book brought back happy memories, it reminded her of her lost childhood and fading humanity and she was also self-conscious about sounding silly and foolish if she was to read it in her growly tones.

After all, beasts didn't read and certainly not to strange yet handsome boys, as they weren't supposed to like reading never mind fairy tales.

But she wasn't like that, the past was in the past and she had to move forward, so she cleared her throat and started reading,

At first she was so nervous that she rushed and mumbled words and flicked through pages hurriedly but with Leon listening eagerly and giving her an encouraging smile, she slowed down and relaxed as the words came out clear as a bell, well clear as a beast could make it.

It wasn't perfect, as she had skipped a few paragraphs and mispronounced some words which embarrassed her, but Leon didn't criticise her and gently pointed out her mistakes and she managed to get through the whole book without any problems, with both of them reciting the ending together.

'That was great, Rose,' Leon said, smiling at her when she had finished reading, 'I never knew you could read so well, I didn't think beasts were able to for some reason. I didn't imagine you as the reading type, no offence.'

'None taken,' said Rose, 'I was always able to read, having learned a long time ago and I love it too much to have forgotten it.

But I didn't imagine YOU to love reading and fairy tales and self-educating yourself in many subjects. I would have thought that you would be into hunting and fishing.'

'Well, I'm not, I hate the idea of shooting animals and catching fish in a ridiculous manner just because it's what a man should do in the village to provide for their families, get respected and show off the poor animal's head as a trophy of their barbaric sport,' said Leon, as Rose looked at him, amazed as she was learning more about the boy that she barely knew.

'I think that's amazing, Leon, that you taught yourself how to read,' she said.

'Thank you, it wasn't easy at first, but the more I did it, the more I learned and got better at it.' Leon said.

'Rose, what you said to me last night, about you being alone and how sad and miserable you are being a beast, well, believe it or not, I know what it's like to be lonely and shut off from other people,' he then said.

'You do?' said Rose, 'But I thought that the villagers would have learnt from their mistakes in the past.'

'They haven't,' Leon said,' their coldness and attitude towards people who don't conform to their simple and predicable lives have been passed down for generations.

They saw me as odd, because I failed to fit the mold of an 'ideal young man' and they teased and ridiculed me because of that.'

Leon had wanted to mention the pig-kissing incident, but decided not to.

'That's so cruel,' Rose said as they both knew that they had something else in common apart from reading and loving the same books. They were both considered odd in their own way- Leon, because he hadn't been the ideal village boy and she, for obvious reasons.

'But surely, Leon, there must be some villagers that are kind and decent folk,' she then said.

'Actually, there is,' said Leon, realising that what he had said wasn't entirely true.

'The bookshop owner was always kind to me and I helped him out over many summers and I had made a new friend before I came here, Jean-Luc. He was one of the boys who didn't feel the same way as the others.

He had been friendly to me as well, but it had to be away from the influence of the others, because if they saw through his facade, he too would be picked on,'

'I never realised that before,' said Rose, as a distant memory came back of playing in the village and seeing a boy in the shadows of the crowd, reading a book rather than interacting with the children, who had always told her not to play with him and it had troubled her, as she wanted to play with everyone regardless of social status.

Could that really be..Leon? It made her think, but her memory was too hazy to remember what the boy had looked like back then.

The two then sat in silence for a moment as Lila got restless and jumped into Leon's lap purring and nuzzling against him, showing no hard feelings about nearly being sat on earlier as Leon stroked her gently.

'Hey there, Lila,' he said, 'sorry about nearly sitting on you before, I didn't see you on the sofa, you silly..cat,' trying to find the right word to describe her. Lila didn't seem to mind, as she was happy to sit on his lap, greeting the new friend of hers.

'Oh, she likes you,' said Rose, seeing the cushion purring loudly on Leon's lap, while he stroked her, happy to be receiving love and attention and it made Rose smile.

'Do you want to read another book?' Leon then said, putting Lila down on the ground and going over to the ladder.

'I'd love that,' said Rose, 'another fairy tale would be nice,' as she got off the couch,

'I'll pick one this time,' scanning the lower shelves in the fairy tale section, as the ladder would collapse under her weight if she was to climb on it.

'Leon, how about we read this one?' she said, pulling out an ice-blue book decorated with snow flakes and had a picture of two girls and the title La Reine des Neiges.

It had been and still was the most popular book in the kingdom, if not the world and little girls everywhere had pestered their parents to buy it for them, the ones who could read and afford it that is, and recited quotes from it, word for word.

Rose herself had gotten it from her parents for Christmas when she was seven and it had been her favourite book until she had got Rapunzel, when it became her second favourite.

It was also the story Mama and Papa had read to her when she had been sick with a cold the following month and when she had gone out to play in the snow, Papa had made her a snowman and called it Olaf, even doing his voice about 'liking warm hugs,' which she literally did because she had loved it so much.

Leon had wanted to buy the book himself after hearing all the hype about it and both he and his mother had gone looking for it when she went to buy dressmaking supplies but many towns and cities' bookshops had sold out and Monsieur Livre hadn't been able to order copies for the village and he was thrilled that Rose had a copy.

'Of course, I have been looking for this book for ages, but never could!

All the bookshops in the region had sold out almost immediately and the bookshop owner in the village couldn't order any copies, so I would love to read it,' he said, climbing down the ladder to join Rose, who had the book open on the first page.

'Let's read it together this time,' she said, as Leon sat next to her and the two began reading,

'Born of cold and winter air

And mountain rain combining,

This icy force, both foul and fair,

Has a frozen heart worth mining.'

'You can't marry a man you just met!' Leon read, as Elsa was about to deny Anna her blessing for her marriage to Prince Hans of the Southern Isles.

'You can if it's true love!' Rose responded, doing her best impression of Anna, with Leon trying not to grimace for he knew for a fact that Princess Anna did not sound like a beast but he had to admire her efforts.

'Anna, what do you know about true love?' Leon continued reading.

'More than you! All you know is how to shut people out!' Rose read, and then stopped for a moment.

Anna's words to Elsa had gotten to her for that was what she had done to the servants in the years before Leon came to the castle.

Like Elsa, she too had shut out the people who loved her, because she had been ashamed of her form, felt guilty about condemning them to being household objects because of her mistake of picking an enchanted rose.

She had slowly lost all but a faint trace of her humanity as she let her beastly instincts take over, just as Elsa was concealing her ice powers and fear of hurting her sister.

Before Leon could read the next sentence, the door opened and a tea trolley came wheeling in with Mrs Potts and Rebecca on it, along with two teacups, the sugar pot, milk jug and a plate of the strawberry cream cookies that Leon had last night.

'Hello, dears,' Mrs Potts said, 'I'm sorry to interrupt your reading time, but I thought that you could do with a nice cup of tea and some of Rebecca's strawberry cream cookies.'

'Freshly made, I might add,' said Rebecca, proudly.

'Is it ten-thirty already?' Rose said, surprised at how fast the time had passed and it was at ten-thirty each day that Mrs Potts, along with Rebecca, went around the castle with the tea trolley to give everyone a cup of tea (coffee for Remy, cocoa for Sophie) and some cookies that Rebecca had made.

'Well, time flies when you're having fun,' Mrs Potts said, pouring the tea with the sugar pot adding a lump each and the jug pouring milk into Rose's tea, while Rebecca placed the cookies on a nearby table, 'and it sounds like you two were enjoying yourselves in here!'

'We have, Nana,' said Rose, 'Leon read Rapunzel to me, then I read it to him and now we're reading The Snow Queen and had just got up to the coronation party.

It's such a great story and Leon reads it so brilliantly and he did the voice of the Duke of Weaseltown..'

'Weselton, Rose,' Leon corrected her, although he was tempted to say Weaseltown himself since he had found it amusing.

'Weselton so well, it was like he was him!' Rose laughed, which made Mrs Potts smile and Leon grin in embarrassment.

'Anyway, dears, here's a nice cup of tea,' Mrs Potts said as the teacups hopped carefully as not to spill any tea and leapt onto the table with the cookies.

'Thank you, Nana, that's lovely,' said Rose, her manners coming back to her, as the teapot smiled and Rebecca curtsied, as they jumped back on the trolley and wheeled out of the library, continuing their rounds.

'Is Mrs Potts really your grandmother?' Leon asked Rose, when Mrs Potts and Rebecca were out of sight, 'and are all the servants related to you? Because I heard you call Lumiere and Cogsworth 'uncle' and I was curious about it'

'Yes, she's my step-grandmother,' said Rose, 'and Chip is my step-uncle, but he is more like a big brother to me.

'All the servants are like family to me, being aunt and uncle figures and Katrine, Rebecca, Remy and George are like big brothers and sisters and Sophie is one of my friends, like you are, Leon.'

'They sure do care about you, Rose,' Leon said, 'and it's amazing and heart-warming that they have stayed loyal to you all this time, despite everything you have done to them.'

'They have taken good care of me over the years and you wouldn't believe the fights they had about what they got to do!' Rose said, chuckling,

'One time, Aunt Babette was preparing to give me my bath and Rebecca was bringing in the water, but she thought that Rebecca was going to do it instead of her, so she got really mad and they had a huge fight and Aunt Babette nearly broke Rebecca's arm!'

'No way!' said Leon as their laughs echoed around the library.

Soon their hunger got the better of them, as they couldn't read on an empty stomach and they reached for the cookies, with Rose looking at them hungrily as they were the thing she had enjoyed when she had been human and thought she would never have again.

'Mmmm, strawberry cream cookies,' both Rose and Leon said, as they took a bite, but Rose after fighting the temptation to eat like the animal she was, clumsily held her cookie in her paw in her attempt to be ladylike in front of Leon, not sure of how to eat it without making a mess as her table and eating manners had deserted her.

She tried to but her fangs made it impossible and she had gotten pink, sticky cream all over her face and on her paw where the cookie had been squashed by her snout, which looked comical to say the least.

Leon looked at her like she had grown an extra head, grimacing at Rose's manners or lack of and the sticky mess on her face, like she was a toddler learning to eat for the first time.

Feeling foolish and embarrassed, she was grateful that Mrs Potts had thought to leave some napkins nearby, so she quickly grabbed one and wiped the sticky mess off her face and paw, as Leon sipped his tea, pretending not to notice.

'Rose,' he then said, when she was slurping her tea in an unattractive manner as the brown liquid was being splatted on her dress, leaving stains.

'What is it, Leon?' Rose said, looking down at her dress, wincing at the stains and her disgraceful manners.

'Oh no, my dress,' she said, wiping it with another napkin.

'I'm so sorry, Leon, I must look ridiculous, but you try holding a sticky cream cookie and a teacup in these huge paws!' while chuckling and grinning apologetically.

'It's okay, Rose, you don't have to apologise, you can't help it,' Leon said, smiling and not even flinching at her fangs as she smiled back, even though they were covered in pink cream, which she quickly licked off.

'Thank you, Leon,' said Rose, 'now can we carry on reading?

I want to find out if Elsa will give Anna her blessing for her marriage, you can't leave it on a cliff hanger, you know!'

'Okay, Rose, be patient here!' Leon said, 'Let me finish my tea first,'

He took two more sips before putting the cup down and picking up the book, with Rose curling up on the sofa beside him as he continued reading,

'You asked for my blessing, but my answer is "no". Now...excuse me', Elsa said, looking hurt by Anna's words but remained calm as she turned to leave,'

'Aw, she said no to Anna,' said Rose.

'She had a good reason too, you can't marry someone you just met,' said Leon, 'you have to get to know them first because they may not be the person you think they are.'

'That is very true, Leon,' said Rose, 'and we can spend time together reading in the library, as friends, if you would like that.'

'I would, Rose,' Leon said, smiling at the beast who was starting to become his friend just by being kind instead of beastly, giving him her library and reading the book that he hadn't been able to get and seeing a gentle dear and kind side to her, something that Amandine truly lacked.

But he wasn't going to think of her now, not while he was in this wonderful library, reading with Rose.

'Keep reading, Leon,' she said.

As they read to each other, the two were soon in their own little world, absorbed in their book that they were not aware that a certain little clock was peeking through the door, watching them sitting together and enjoying each other's company rather than fighting and yelling and it made him smile.

It was like he was seeing Belle and Adam in the library again and he knew that they would be proud of their daughter opening up her heart, which he and the others thought had been locked away forever, to the boy who could well be their saviour and they were taking small but encouraging steps in the right direction.

'Yes,' Cogsworth said to himself, 'this is most encouraging. It won't be much longer before we're human again.'

Indeed it is, Cogsworth.

Next chapter, we see what the villagers are up to and Amandine will pay a visit to a certain asylum to carry out her plan!