The Boy and the Beast: A Merthur Beauty and the Beast AU

They Can Talk?

Merlin followed the beast for a few steps more and that was when he spoke up.

"I hope you'll find the castle...welcoming," and he cleared his throat after saying it. Was he...nervous?

"Now that you'll be living here you can treat it as your home and go wherever you like," he then strictly added, "except the west wing."

He couldn't keep himself from asking. "What's in the west wing?"

"It is forbidden!" The beast boomed stopping abruptly. Merlin took a step back.

Finally, they came to a set of double doors three times the size of Merlin. The beast turned the handle and opened up the door. Merlin walked through it taking the room in.

It was quite large with a good sized bed and a lot of pillows. There was a single wardrobe in the opposite corner and and a small dresser right beside the bed. There was also a large window at the far end of the room with a cushioned bench in front of it.

"I hope it's up to your standards," the beast growled behind him, his breath lifting the hairs at the top of Merlin's head, "because it's all you're getting!"

With that, the beast slammed the door shut with a loud boom causing Merlin to jump and try to open the door again. It was locked, of course. He was a prisoner. This wasn't his "home" like the beast had claimed. He wasn't a guest. He was being held captive. Now he was trapped, in this almost empty room, in the dark, the moon a meager sliver in the night sky and all he could do was fall onto his oversized bed-he figured he might as well call it his now-lay on his side and let his tears flow.

He stayed like that for a good many hours of the night.

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Merlin's eyes opened the next morning to light spilling into the room. He was curled up on top of the bed having drifted off before he could get under the blankets.

He sat up groggily, rubbing at his tired eyes and heaved himself up and off the bed stepping heavily onto the floor. He looked around his room, not knowing exactly what to do. He couldn't leave. The door was locked which he had discovered last night. So he went over to the wardrobe and started to open its doors to find out what little he had in this room.

However, before he could so much as touch the handles, the wardrobe let out a cry. Merlin, in shock, fell backwards onto the floor.

"Well, excuse you, sir!" a male voice said sounding like it belonged to a fifty year old man.

Merlin looked around his room in complete confusion and fear. "Who's there? Who said that?"

"Um, me," the voice said again like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "the wardrobe!"

Merlin snapped his head to the wardrobe and looked up at it from his spot on the floor. "Come again?"

"What else do you want me to say? I've already told you it's me talking!"

Merlin's jaw fell open as he saw a small mouth and brown mustache at the top of the blue and white wardrobe. It had eyes, too, brown eyes that were staring him down. He jumped to his feet and stumbled back a few steps.

"You can talk?" Merlin screeched in disbelief. He must still be dreaming. He had to be. He'd just go lay down on that bed again, close his eyes and when he woke up he'd be back home and with his mother and none of this ever happened it was just some horrible nightmare.

"Hey, where are you walking to?" The wardrobe asked as Merlin started towards the bed.

"I'm going to wake up from this nightmare," he grumbled, flopping onto the bed.

"Well I hate to break it to you then but you are awake! This is the real life and you're stuck in this castle FOREVER!" The wardrobe informed happily.

"Wow, thanks for making me feel better," Merlin mumbled into the sheets as he was lying face down in them. He lifted his head up a second later realizing he was having a conversation with a talking wardrobe.

"Uh, so," Merlin began, "why exactly is it that you can talk?"

"Oh, of course, of course! It's not everyday you see a talking wardrobe, now is it?" He said chuckling.

And then it started walking towards him.

Merlin gasped as the wardrobe made its way to him by the bed, hobbling over in such an inhuman yet human way his mouth hung open for a second.

"Oh don't be so startled! I'm not gonna swallow you up!" Merlin gulped at that. "Nope. I can talk because this castle is cursed. Yup, we've been like this for two whole years. Everyone in the castle just poof! Went and got turned into talking objects."

"Why?" Merlin asked after a pause.

"Because of an enchantress! The prince, or the beast as you know him, got her upset and he turned him into an animal and the rest of us had this happen!"

Merlin glanced around his room. "So have I been sleeping on a human turned bed?"

The wardrobe laughed. "Oh, no, silly boy! Not everything in the castle is a person turned object! In fact, I'm the only thing in your room that can speak. Well, besides you of course," and he laughed again. Merlin was stuck with that as a roommate?

Merlin got up off of the bed and went to the door which he knew was probably locked.

"Hey where are you going?" The wardrobe called after him.

"I don't know." Merlin yanked on the door's handle not expecting it to open...but it did. The force of his pull caused the door to almost smack him in the face. "Go find food."

Merlin walked out into the hallway, brighter than last night since the sun was shining through the many windows of the castle...or at least the ones that weren't covered by thick curtains.

He turned corners, walked down some hallways and backtracked in the maze that was the beast's castle to try and find the kitchen. Finally, although it took him a lot longer than he would have liked, he found the kitchen and put his hand up to open the door.

He would have pushed it open, but voices in the next room caught his attention.