Evermore [The Beast/The Prince x Reader]

finale ; part i

Time went on for the castle, and even for the Beast.

For a long time, he was a twisted form of agony. He was tormented by golden memories of his lost love and friend. Dances they never finished, songs that ended too soon, kisses that never were placed on her skin.

He missed the feeling of his hands on her waist and her hands on his shoulders. He missed the way she never looked at him like he was a monster; not when he was human; not when he was a beast. He missed the way she never let him feel alone.

He knew that she was gone, but he didn't want to believe it.

The girl - his beloved ___ - was buried in the garden. Her grave was marked with red roses. The Beast visited often, and he spoke to her. Some days, he would not leave the spot.

Her room was shut off from the rest of the castle. They wanted to preserve her scent in there, wanted to keep her gowns untouched by any other. There wasn't much left to remember her by; but they had memories that would last them years.

The Beast took care of the roses. He gave a majority of his time to caring for them just as ___ once did. Not one of them wilted against his care, and none of them were picked out of the bush. The plant grew twice as large in time. He cared for them for her, because no one else could.

No one else was allowed near it. It nestled her spirit, and therefore, his, too.

Years later, there was a visitor - an intruder. An old man. When the old man came to pluck a rose from the bush, the Beast grew red with anger. He was a thief now. He confronted the old man and dragged him into the dungeons of the castle. He was a thief, and he had stolen something that had been hers.

Not long after the old man came, a girl came to beg for her father's life. Neither one of them could make sense of why a Beast would feel it right to throw an old man in prison for plucking a rose from a garden. The Beast didn't have the strength to explain it. He never could talk about her - especially to strangers.

However, when the girl traded her freedom for her father's, the Beast was left to wonder. Was this the girl ___ had said would come? He glanced in her warm brown eyes and, for a second, saw the familiar reflection of his friend's beauty, grace, and bravery.

He reluctantly began to allow himself to feel. In time, he did fall for the girl, and although he did not feel like she would love him in return, he thought as his friend would: unselfishly.

He loved her with no expectation of being loved in return. He cared for her with no need for her to care for him in return. He felt himself changing. He felt moments with her and knew that they would last forever. Soon, he was absolutely in love with her.

Even when the girl loved him back, he never forgot his beloved friend. He never let go of her memory; never let her rose garden die, never opened her bedroom door. He kept her locked in his heart - the place she had called home moments before she died.

He told Belle about her. Sometimes, he would talk to the servants about her. Lumiere and Plumette, upon welcoming their first child into the world, a baby girl, named her after the girl they had loved so dearly in the little time they had known her.

He told her story to all he could, but he never unlocked his heart. He never expressed just how much he loved the young girl that attended his parties. The young girl that loved him first. The young girl that died for him. He kept her in his heart.

There, she would be with him for always. She would be with him forevermore.