Your Beast, My Beauty

Chapter 6

(Dipper pov)

I finish changing Bill's bandages as morning sunlight peeks in from the curtains he kept pulled tightly over the balcony like he just wants to rot in eternal darkness. I look at Mrs. Potts, Lumire, Cogsworth, and Plumette before I look at the yellow rose again.

"What happens when the last petal falls?" I watch as a petal falls and it seems to decay instantly the minute it's not touching the rose. A rumble is heard throughout the entire castle.

"The master remains a demon forever. And the rest of us become..."

"Antiques."

"Lightly used houseware."

"Rubbish. We become rubbish." I look at them again.

"I want to help. Isn't there a way to break the curse."

"Well there is-" Cogsworth starts to say before Lumire hits him and Mrs. Potts speaks up.

"It's not for you to worry about, lamb. We've made our bed and we must lie in it." They all slowly leave the room.

Going over to the curtains I pull them open letting light into the room before I go around, picking up broken furniture and trying to clean up the room as best as I can.

Once that is done I sit in a chair next to the bed taking my book out of the messenger bag and open it up as I continue reading it again.

"........'Revenge is an infection of the spirit.'"

I look up from the book and over at Bill, his eyes open as he looks at the book in my hands. "You've read the Rot and Ruin books?"

"Yeah. Was one of the few books I had that I actually enjoyed."

"You don't like reading?"

"No, I loved it. Just was forced to read a lot of history books and things about class. Nothing I really enjoyed. So I often would find a few books that I honestly enjoyed and would hide them in my room. Read them in my spare time. Rot and Ruin was my favorite series. The way that it ends is just so perfect too."

"......I haven't read any of the others in the series...."

"Why not?"

"In my village, there are few who enjoy reading. So the library we had was very small. Didn't have a lot of books. I pretty much read everything in it over a million times. Always helped me feel like I was travelling to other places even though I know I wasn't really going anywhere."

"......Come with me really quick." He gets up swinging his legs off the bed. He grabs a white button up shirt and pulls it on hastily buttoning it up. I see that it even has extra sleeves sewn on for his extra arms.

"Are you okay to get out of bed?"

"I'm fine just come on."

Setting the book down I grab my jacket and messenger bag and follow him out of the room and through the halls. He pushes open some doors and my jaw literally drops as I take in the giant library, it stretching so wide and the shelves going so high.

"....holy shit...."

"Should be something here you can start with... " He picks up a book and tosses it to me. I catch it and see it's called Dust and Decay. "That is the second book in the series. Takes place a few months after the first one. You're going to want to brace yourself for that ending though. In fact, brace yourself for all the endings of these books."

"Thank you....this place is wonderful..."

"If you like it so much, then consider it yours."

"Have you really read all of these books?"

He gives a shrug as he puts his hands in his pockets. "Not all of them. Some are in Greek. "

"Was that a joke? Are you cracking jokes now?"

"Maybe." He shrugs again before he walks out of the room.

Glancing out a window I look out at the beautiful garden covered in snow. It just looks so perfect like this. Getting an idea I pull on my jacket and messenger bag before I head outside to the garden.

I read my book as I walk through the garden, smiling with pure enjoyment. Some people might think that reading in the cold is a terrible idea, but I honestly love doing it.

My feet slip out from under me and I fall flat on my back the wind getting knocked out of me. Painfully sitting up I realize that I wasn't looking where I was going and walked out onto the ice pond. Hearing a slight laugh I look behind me and see Bill with two pairs of ice skates in hand.

He helps me up to my feet as I put the book in my messenger bag. "You know, skating is easier if you have the proper footwear." He puts the ice skates on his own feet.

"I don't know how to ice skate."

"Then I'll show you how."

He helps me put the skates on before pulling me out onto the ice. The minute I'm on the ice I nearly fall again until he wraps his arms around me to keep me steady, one of his hands holding onto mine to help me stay on my feet.

"Don't worry, I've got you."

I smile a bit as he helps me skate around the pond as I get the hang of it, to the point where I can skate a little bit on my own without him holding onto me.

Once we're done skating and we take the skates off we head over to the stables. Daisy rears up when she sees Bill but I get her to calm down.

"Come here, Bill."

"I don't really think that she wants me near her."

"No it's okay, you just gotta be gentle so you don't scare her." Gently grabbing one of his hands I have him put it on Daisy's neck. I take a few steps back as I see him smiling slightly as he pets her.

"There's something sweet, and almost kind
But he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined
And now he's dear, and so unsure
I wonder why I didn't see it there before"

Hearing a chirping I look in a pile of hay and pick up a small bird, it's wing looking broken. "What you got there, Dipper?" I turn to Bill who's looking in my direction.

"It's a little bird, I think it's wing is broken."

"Hm....I think I have some stuff in the kitchen that can fix that. Come on."

He takes me back into the castle and into the kitchen. I put the bird on the counter as he takes out some supplies and makes a small splint for the bird's wing. I hear him softly singing something under his breathe.

"She glanced this way, I thought I saw
And when we touched, she didn't shudder at my paw
No, it can't be, I'll just ignore
But then, she's never looked at me that way before"

He looks up at me with a small smile. "I can find some stuff to make Chirpy here a small bed in the kitchen where he'll be warm. You go and enjoy yourself in the library."

I head back into the library, sitting on a reading couch as I keep reading Dust and Decay, my mind wandering back to Bill again.

"New, and a bit alarming
Who'd have ever thought that this could be?
True, that he's no Prince Charming
But there's something in him that I simply didn't see"

I just simply smile to myself as I turn all my attention back to the book, imagining myself entirely in the world of Dust and Decay.