Blind and the Beast

At Dance's End

-Vanderwall-

"You really need to get a hold of yourself." Vandy whispered quietly.

Polly and Vandy had both been closely following the night's events with the rest of the staff, but when Belle and the King both moved to the library Polly and Vandy agreed to go in place of the entire staff.

"Somebody needs to know what happens if everything goes wrong!" That is what Polly had said to convince him to eavesdrop, and now they were both pressed into the library door that was left slightly ajar by the nymphs.

Polly had been crying since the music started.

"I cannot help it. This is impossible." she said.

"Well, you had better try harder to help it because if you are any louder, one of them will hear you." He said pointedly.

"I bet we could be shouting "fire" down the hallway and neither of them would hear anything. Just look at them Vandy, they are in love!" she said.

Vandy let out a small sigh and shook his head. Polly jumped to conclusions too often. It was a sweet sight to be sure, but Vandy would not be as easily convinced as Polly.

"That is exactly what you said last time about her" he said.

"That is just because I had never seen him with Belle." Polly stepped away from the door and let Vandy stand in a better position to look at them. "Look at me and tell me that you do not see what I see!"

Vandy kneeled and leaned towards the slight opening and tried to be objective. He could not see their faces clearly, but Vandy could not deny that there was something pure about the way they held each other. Vandy stood and silently closed the door completely, letting them be alone in their own private moment.

"So?"

"We should not be here." Vandy said in a grim voice.

"Ha! I knew it! You see it too." She said.

Vandy smiled tightly and led Polly to report the news to everyone else. He hoped Polly was right, but he could allow himself that kind of hope. Someone had to be ready if the outcome was less than favorable. He did not see how it was possible, but he did know Adam's father when he was a much better man. Years of bitterness and loneliness changed him into the Beast, that haunted stories. He did not want to watch Adam fall down the same path.

-Belle-

She wanted to keep dancing forever. They moved in perfect tandem and she listened to the fantastic sound of his heartbeat that sped up every time she shifted her hand in his. She reveled in the feel of his arm strong and unrelenting against her back and his face buried in her hair. She imagined for a moment that she was every bit of solace to him that he was to her.

This moment exactly, wrapped in his arms, surrounded with the euphoric sounds of weaving melodies and notes, was the best moment of her life. No one had ever held her this way, desperately, like she was the only thing that mattered.

Her thoughts turned to her father whose desire to see her married overshadowed her happiness. She thought about the town that gathered once a year to speak nothing but pure violence and hatred about the man who now held her in her arms. She then realized that the search party could be here soon. Taking her away. The thought made her cling to him even tighter, imagining that somehow if she could just hold on tight enough then she would never have to leave his side.

The music came to a brilliant conclusion and their dancing halted. He reluctantly unhooked his arms that had both found themselves cemented around her waist, but she did not have as much restraint as he did because her arms stayed linked around his neck.