Blind and the Beast

Resillience

-Belle-
Polly and Vandy left them alone, but Belle barely noticed. The last time she held him like this, he was dead. The last time she touched his face, it was cold, and now he cradled her to his chest when the tears came.

His hand stroked her hair hypnotically reminding her that he was there. Her tears soaked into his shirt and her arms were trapped against him as he rocked them both back and forth. Nothing was said for a long while. He was murmuring sweet assurances in her ear that everything was going to be okay.

"You died." She said, her voice muffle into his shirt. She packaging every feeling she had into those two words.

"I know." He said softly. He loosened his grip on her so that he could see her. His hand reached out and his finger traced her cheek bone. She felt like a dream in his arms. Just holding her made him afraid that he would flinch and everything would fade away.

"The wolfmen, are they dead?" she asked, jolting upright.

His hand ran up and down her back, cherishing every moment he had with her.

"We do not have anything else to worry about. The blood moon is over and the wolfmen are beaten. What remained left of the hunting party is probably back to the human borders. It is all finally over."

She reached up and traced his jaw with her hand. He shuddered from her simple touch he wondered if she knew exactly how much power she had over him. Desire and hope combined to make her completely irresistible. She leaned up to him and pressed a reverent kiss to the corner of his jaw. Every touch and kiss brought back dark memories and healed them. She was the very embodiment of the kind of affection he had thought he was incapable of receiving.

All at once he felt pathetic. How reprehensible must he be when the only thing he needed was to feel wanted by someone. Overwhelmed, he stopped her kisses and pulled her into him tightly, trying to brand the feeling of her into his heart.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, muffled into his chest.

"No." He said, but his voice shook. It did not escape him how completely vulnerable he was to her.

"You died. I think it is ok if some things are wrong."

He remembered everything. He remembered fighting the Prince in rage fueled desperation, and he remembered the worst pain he'd ever felt eclipsed by horror. Horror that he had failed everyone he loved most, but especially her.

"You brought me back."

"It wasn't me, it was-" He pulled her away from him. One of the questions he had been agonizing with since he was brough back resurfaced.

"You brought me back Belle. No one could have done what you did for me. What did it cost?"

"Nothing." She did not even try to be convincing with her denial.

He snorted, "Unlikely. Magic is not wielded for free."

"It was practically free. I cannot leave. I belong to the forest just as you do."

He stilled. His mind travelled down every path where she would come to regret that cost. "You should not-"

It was her turn to cut him off. "You were dead. I would have given a lot more than my freedom to bring you back. It cost me nothing."

"I did not keep my promise." Their parting words were a banner in his mind that reminded him of his failures. He detached his hands from her.

"You saved me."

There was something oddly humorous in her reply that made him chuckle darkly.

"No, you are cursed."

"I am not cursed."