Blind and the Beast

Sparks of a New Friendship

-The Beast-

The sun was beginning to rise, and they were almost there. It had been a long night and he still could not believe that Belle was walking back with him willingly.

"We're almost there aren't we?" She asked, her head looking up as if she could see something far away.

"Yes. That's a neat trick."

She waved her hand around, "It's the echo, it sounds different."

He strained his ears to hear what she heard. He was impressed by her ability to piece together the world through her limited information. A lot about her impressed him.

He had been rudely staring at her for the entire walk back to the castle, watching as she turned her head slightly to hear something better and her hair shifted along her back. He was grateful that his arm was safely linked through hers, and that he was barely walking upright after three days without sleep and fighting those wolfmen, otherwise he would have given into temptation and ran his hands through her hair just to see if it felt as soft as it looked.

"Can I call you Adam?" She asked.

He nearly tripped, having been jerked suddenly by his thoughts, losing all working functions. "You want to what?"

"If we're going to be in league, I feel weird to be constantly saying, "The beast this-" and "the beast that-", and since I will not be calling you "the King", I was just wondering if I could call you by your name. If that is, after all, your name."

He couldn't respond. After a few beats of silence she jumped in blushing, "I mean, you can say no. It would just be- nice." she finished.

"You can call me whatever you wish, but Adam is- it's my- it's the name my mother gave me." He said choking out. He regretted the words as soon as he said them. Hearing his name was like an old wound tearing open. He had only told her his name because he was confident that he'd never see her again. He didn't expect her to return with him, much less with his name still on her lips.

She would be the death of him.

"What in the heavens!" Screamed Polly from the front entrance of the castle and the Beast froze.

Belle laughed and the beast leaned in towards her, "You're only laughing because you're not the one who is going to take all the blame for this."

Belle pulled him closer and spoke in a low voice, "You know if I really wanted to get you in trouble, I could probably convince her that you're the one who dragged me out into the forest to have your way with me."

She pulled away, leaving him less than eloquent when Polly caught up grabbing Belle and marching her inside hollering down the roof about how cold it was outside.

He hadn't even noticed the cold until Polly had taken her out of his arms.

He went over the events of the night in his mind again with a stupid happy grin that refused to leave.

Vandy had to do a double take when the beast walked into the castle looking less than beastly.

"Where have you been?" asked Vandy incredulously when he saw his master's attire. "Was it the humans? Are they on their way?"

"No, Yes, I'm not sure." He said, distracted, making a beeline towards his rooms, the events of the night finally settling in. If he didn't make it to a bed soon he would likely pass out somewhere along the way.

"Well why are you-" Vandy cut off suddenly and his face turned red, "Never mind. I don't want to know."

"It was nothing scandalous Vandy, you have my word on that."