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Nico and Hazel liked to keep to themselves, usually only leaving their father’s home and venturing into town for groceries or to restock their book collection.
They decided to split up in order to get home and return to their reading as quickly as possible, with Nico heading toward the bakery while Hazel went to the bookstore. They agreed to meet up at the town square and return home together, though when Nico waited half an hour without a sign of his sister, he went off in search of her.
He went to the bookstore, though the owner said that he hadn’t had a single customer the entire day, which caused Nico to slip into a panic. He ran back into town, calling out for Hazel.
“She’s not around here,” a voice said behind Nico. He turned to see Octavian leaning against the outside wall of the tavern. “I saw her heading that way, toward the beast’s castle. He probably snatched her up. You had better hurry on up there before he eats her alive.”
Any other time, Nico would have spit on Octavian’s shoes as he passed him, though with his panic now sunken into his bones, Nico turned and ran toward the beast’s mansion, looming over them at the top of the nearest hill.
When he reached the doors, he began pounding on them with both fists, shouting at the top of his lungs, “Beast! Give me back my sister!”
The door opened inward, and Nico almost fell forward with how much force he was putting behind his banging. A figure towered over him in the doorway, and Nico stumbled back a few steps - the beast was easily seven feet tall, and was dressed in a nice suit despite the thick layer of light brown fur covering his entire body.
“Your sister stole from me,” the beast said plainly, one clawed hand gripping the door. “She will remain here until she can repay what she took from me.”
“Let her go and take me instead,” Nico said quickly, letting his panic speak for him rather than thinking things through.
Something flashed in the beast’s eyes, and his posture relaxed somewhat. “Alright, fine. Wait here for just one moment while I retrieve her.”
When the beast turned and walked away, Nico stepped inside the mansion, though he didn’t let the door fall shut behind him in case it locked automatically. After a few moments, Nico heard rapid footsteps moving toward him, and suddenly Hazel was throwing herself into his arms.
“Nico, I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed, crying into his shoulder. “I was just picking wild flowers and somehow wound up here, and I guess I started picking flowers from the beast’s gardens, and then he--”
“It’s okay,” Nico whispered, rubbing her back soothingly. “You’re safe now, I’ve made sure of it. Run home, tell father what happened, and I’ll be there as soon as I can be.” He pulled himself back and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Hazel told him, and stepped backwards out the door, looking hesitant to leave as though she didn’t quite believe Nico’s words.
That was fine. He didn’t believe all of them, either.
The door shut between them.
“Welcome home,” the beast said behind him. “Nico, was it?”
Nico was required to clean every room of the beast’s mansion as payment for the flowers that Hazel picked. It seemed like an awfully steep price for a few flowers, Nico thought, though he wasn’t about to argue. Another of Nico’s requirements was to join the beast for each meal, which Nico suspected was just a way for the beast to keep tabs on him. Nico learned that first evening that the beast cooked all of his own meals - he had to, considering he was all alone in this giant mansion - and unfortunately, he was a very poor cook.
In his first week, Nico only managed to clean the entryway, dining room, and main hallway. The floors probably hadn’t been scrubbed in years, and cobwebs clung to the highest corners in every room. He also ended up spending more of his first night cleaning his own room rather than sleeping in it due to the horrible state of the room.
At the start of his second week, Nico forced open a heavy door and revealed a personal library with so many books that Nico was sure they wouldn’t all fit inside his father’s house. Pausing in awe, Nico abandoned his cleaning supplies in the doorway and rushed inside, throwing open the dusty curtains to get a better look at the floor-to-ceiling shelves that lined every wall. He ran a finger down the spine of one book after another as he skimmed their titles, recognizing a handful and having actually read even fewer. Nico had somehow found an oasis in the desert.
He dropped to the floor with a book in his hands, cracking it open and starting to read for the first time in days.
He was awoken a few hours later after having fallen asleep right there on the floor only halfway through his book, hearing the frustrated sound of someone clearing their throat above him. Nico flinched back against the shelves behind him when he spotted the beast looming over him, glaring down.
“I’m sorry,” Nico started, scrambling to his feet. “I got distracted, and I didn’t mean to fall asleep--”
“You have yet to clean a single thing today, you fell asleep on the job, and you failed to join me for lunch,” the beast boomed. “You think this is how you pay for your sister’s thievery?”
“No, I’m sorry, beast, I’ll make up for it,” Nico promised.
The beast’s expression hardened at Nico’s words. “Yes, you will. From now on, not only do you have to clean every room of this mansion, but you will be cooking every meal as well.”
Nico’s eyes widened. That wasn’t a punishment at all! “Can I really?”
The beast seemed taken aback by that response. “Do you want to?”
“Oh! No, no, I don’t! I just...appreciate that you don’t have a worse punishment for me,” Nico replied hurriedly. “Thank you, beast. Um, what time would you like me to have dinner ready for you?”
The beast sighed. “You might as well start now. Follow me, I’ll show you to the kitchen.”
Nico was led out of the library and down to the opposite end of the mansion, through the dining room and into the kitchen. Nico gasped at the sight of it - this kitchen was the largest he’d ever seen, with marble countertops and dark wood cabinets along every wall.
The beast pressed further into the room, opening a pantry door and gesturing inside for Nico to see shelves crowded with food. “This kitchen is enchanted to never run out of food, which is the only way I’ve survived here for so long seeing as I can’t exactly go down to the village for groceries. There are plenty of vegetables here, but if you prefer fresh, you are welcome to go out into the garden to pick them yourself. Any questions?”
“Yes,” Nico replied. “Do you have any requests for dinner this evening?”
The beast turned to leave, waving a hand dismissively. “Whatever is easiest for you.”
When the door shut behind him, Nico started to look around, peeking inside cabinets and opening drawers to see what he was working with, and came across a small stack of cookbooks in one of the lower cabinets. He pulled one out and saw a few of the pages marked, flipping it open to the first marked page and skimming the recipe. It wouldn’t be a particularly easy recipe to make, but Nico was always up for a challenge.
When he presented the meal to the beast about an hour later, he saw some kind of recognition in the beast’s eyes. Nico took his seat across from him at the table and waited for his reaction. The beast took a bite, and Nico found himself holding his breath.
“This is a rather complicated recipe you’ve made,” the beast said calmly. “I wasn’t expecting you to take on something quite so difficult right away.”
Nico ducked his head and picked up his silverware. “I may not have been entirely honest with how eager I was to cook again. I usually make dinner for my father and sister, but...you kitchen here is so much more impressive than any I’ve been in before. I just had to try something different than usual. I found the recipe in one of the cookbooks.”
The beast took another bite, taking his time chewing and swallowing before speaking softly. “This was one of my mother’s favorite dishes.” He cleared his throat, and said louder, “Why don’t you relax tomorrow? You’ve been working non-stop all week, and it’s clear you must be tired. Take a break, spend some time in the library since you seemed to enjoy it so much.”
Despite the snideness of his words, Nico thought the beast sounded rather genuine. Regardless, he couldn’t afford to take any breaks if he ever wanted to return home. “What about all the cleaning? I can’t just abandon my responsibilities when I have so much left to do.”
The beast’s expression hardened, like he wanted to argue but didn’t want to come off as angry. “Fine. Take a half day, then. Sleep in a little, spend some time reading, and I’ll see you for lunch.”
Nico wasn’t able to sleep in like the beast had told him to - his nap the day before had disrupted his sleeping schedule, which left him tossing and turning most of the night before he woke up at the crack of dawn, just as he had for the last week. He chooses not to spend his morning reading, either, instead choosing to wander the library for maybe half an hour as he examined the spines of different books. He decided to make himself a reading list, pulling the ten books from the shelves that interested him the most, and then sneaking them back up to his bedroom.
It was right around the time that Nico would normally meet the beast for breakfast, though since he wasn’t expected until lunch that day, he decided to skip the meal and went to gather his cleaning supplies instead. He made his way to a new room, one down the hall from the library, and pushed the door open.
There were no windows, so the only light filtered in from the doorway, though there was a soft glow coming from a pedestal in the center of the room. Nico stepped inside cautiously, and stepped toward the pedestal to see that it presented a cloche with a single red rose inside. He thought the rose must be a fake, considering there was no soil or sunlight to help it grow, though as he examined it, Nico watched a petal break off from the flower and flutter down.
Nico heard a click from somewhere behind him, and then the slow crackle of electricity traveling to the light overhead.
The beast’s voice said from behind him, “Shouldn’t you be--”
“Cleaning!” Nico exclaimed, spinning around as his spine stiffened. “I’m here to clean!”
If Nico hadn’t known any better, he might have thought he saw a smile on the beast’s face. Though, even if he did, it was hard to tell past all of the fur and fangs.
“I was going to say reading,” the beast said, his voice tinged with delight. “Didn’t I tell you to relax today?”
“I got...restless,” Nico told him. “Why do you have an entire room just for a single flower?”
“It’s more than just the flower,” the beast replied, and waved an arm around the room. Now that there was light, Nico could see the large paintings hung on each of the walls.
“Alright, a single flower and some paintings, then.”
The beast huffed, though it didn’t sound irritated. More...amused? “Do you have a specific place you go to when you’re feeling upset? Or maybe a particularly sad book you’ll read again and again just to make yourself feel something? That’s what this room is for me.” He stepped up to one of the paintings and waited for Nico to join him before he spoke again. “This is a painting of my mother and father shortly after they were married. And over here,” the beast continued, placing a hand on Nico’s back to guide him to the next painting, “is the first painting of myself that my father commissioned. I was probably about five years old here.”
“Why paintings rather than photographs?” Nico asked.
“My father was awfully old fashioned. Besides, don’t you think paintings are a bit more elegant?” He led Nico to the next painting, and when he spoke again, his voice took on a wistful edge. “This is the only painting I have of the three of us together, though my father had always talked of commissioning another once I was older. This final painting is the last one of myself before I was cursed.”
Nico took a step closer to the work of art, drinking in the golden curls, tan skin, and bright blue eyes that the beast had supposedly once had. Nico glanced back at him over his shoulder, though he only similarity he found between them were the eyes. Nico’s gaze snapped back to the painting before the beast could realize that he was watching him. This time, he chose to focus on the painting’s bright, beautiful smile - what Nico wouldn’t give to see that smile in person.
“My father had argued with me for hours about this painting, all because I had chosen to smile,” the beast explained, as though he’d read Nico’s thoughts. He really hoped the beast couldn’t read all of his thoughts. “He claimed it was improper to smile for a painting, that I wouldn’t look professional, but why shouldn’t I smile? I remember, I told him, I have all the reason in the world to smile, so why shouldn’t I? I just wish that were still true.”
Nico started to panic at the emotions seeping into the beast’s voice, so he said the first thing that came to mind to distract him. “So, why the flower?”
The beast sighed sadly, and Nico wanted to take his words back that instant.
“About two years ago, both of my parents passed suddenly,” the beast said quickly, plainly, as if he could get the words out and then forget he ever said them. “I lashed out in grief, and unknowingly insulted a goddess. She cursed me to appear on the outside as I did on the inside, which feels like some kind of cruel joke considering the day I had been having.”
“Isn’t there some way you can break the curse?” Nico asked quietly.
“There’s no way that I can, no, but someone else…” His gaze flickered down to meet Nico’s, just for a moment, just long enough for Nico’s breath to catch in his throat, and then he turned away completely. “Take the rest of the day off. I won’t be joining you for lunch or dinner, but please help yourself to anything in the kitchen. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He started to leave the room, though Nico stopped him with a hurried, “Wait!”
The beast paused in the doorway, but Nico hesitated. What did he think he was going to say? He didn’t want to press further on the curse regardless of how much he desperately wanted to know how to break it, and he didn’t want to pry and demand to know where the beast was off to.
Instead, he asked, “What’s your name?”
A beat, and then, “William Solace.”
Nico took a step toward him. “Can I call you William?”
“I’d prefer Will, actually.”
Nico cracked a smile. “Will it is, then.”
After spending a month living with Will, Nico could hardly think about leaving - he missed Hazel almost every second of every day, but the thought of leaving Will after so long was almost as horrible as never seeing Hazel again. Of course, if he would just ask Will if he could visit home, or maybe invite Hazel up to the mansion, he was sure Will would allow it. The only thing that held Nico back from asking was the fear of upsetting Will; he didn’t want Will to think that Nico wanted to leave him.
Besides, why would he want to leave when he had almost everything he could have wanted? He’d started teaching Will how to cook, though Will’s claws tended to get in the way more often than not. The same happened the first time Nico invited Will to the library with him one afternoon: he couldn’t manage to turn a single page without practically tearing the book to shreds. The one good use Nico had found for Will’s claws, though, was to scratch lightly at Nico’s scalp while his head rested in Will’s lap and he read aloud to him - which had only started after Will shyly admitted to enjoying the sound of Nico’s voice.
They had started gardening together as well because Nico had started to demand more variety of fresh vegetables, and he’d been craving a breath of fresh air for a while.
Nico was picking carrots while Will was on the opposite end of the garden, trimming one of the rose bushes, when Nico heard a quiet hissing coming from the woods.
“Nico!” a voice hissed, and Nico startled. He peeked over his shoulder to see Will still focused on the roses, so Nico crept toward the trees.
“Who’s there?” Nico asked quietly.
“Nico, it’s me!” Hazel’s head poked out from behind a shrub. “I’m here to rescue you!”
Nico frowned. “What? No, I don’t need rescuing. I’m perfectly happy here, Hazel.”
Hazel shook her head. “No you’re not, that’s not possible! Look, I know you told me never to talk to Octavian, but he said that he could get the villagers together to free you from the beast!” Nico flinched at Hazel’s words. He wasn’t a beast, he was Will, and he wouldn’t even consider leaving him. “They’re going to kill him, Nico, but if you leave with me now while it’s distracted, then maybe they won’t hurt it!”
Nico’s heart stopped. “They want to kill him? No, no way! Hazel, get out of here! Go back to Octavian and tell him to call it off!”
Hazel’s expression dropped. “But...Nico--”
“No, Hazel! I’m staying here!” He backed away from her and turned to pick up the basket of carrots he’d collected before walking to Will’s side. “I think I’ve gathered all I need.”
Will smiled - Nico had learned to distinguish the minute shifts in Will’s beastly face only recently - and turned to Nico with a rose held out for him. “What do you say we relax in the library for a while before we start on dinner?”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
All Nico could think of for the rest of the evening was Hazel’s visit. Had she been serious about talking to Octavian? Did he really intend to kill Will? Should Nico warn him regardless of whether or not the threat was real?
He finally made the decision to tell him just before he got into bed. He made his way across the mansion in his pajamas, knocking cautiously on Will’s door before he received the okay to enter.
“What is it, Nico?” Will asked from where he was sitting up on the edge of his mattress. “Is everything alright?”
“I have something to tell you,” he answered, wringing his hands nervously.
Will patted the mattress beside him and smiled reassuringly. “I have something to tell you as well. Would you like to go first?”
As he sat down beside Will, Nico said, “No, you first.”
Will angled himself toward Nico and folded his hands in his lap. “I never explained to you how my curse can be broken. When I was cursed, the goddess said that I would be turned into a hideous monster, and the only way for me to return to normal would be for someone to fall in love with me. I had never had hope that my curse would be broken, because who could love a beast like me? Now, though, because of you, I’ve finally started to hope, and… I hope I haven’t been reading this wrong, Nico, but I truly do believe I’m falling in love with you.”
Nico set his hands over Will’s and squeezed them gently. “I think I feel the same.”
Will smiled and leaned forward to rest his forehead against Nico’s. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that. What did you have to tell me?”
Nico tensed and pulled away, opening his mouth to respond, though before he could say a word, he heard the sound of shattering glass from somewhere outside the room. “What was that?”
Will frowned. “I don’t know. Stay right here, I’ll find out.”
Will rose from the bed, though Nico jumped up and stood between him and the door. “No, wait, you can’t go out there!”
“Why not?”
“They’re here to kill you!”
Will took a startled step back. “They... what? How do you know that?”
“Hazel was here earlier, when we were in the garden,” Nico explained hurriedly. “She wanted me to run away with her, and she said that if I didn’t, then the villagers would come up here to kill you. I didn’t think she was serious, otherwise I would have told you sooner! It’s what I came here to tell you! You have to believe me, Will, I would rather be here with you than anywhere else in the world.”
Will appeared hesitant at first, though he soon nodded and said, “Yes, Nico, of course I believe you. However, if we hide away in here, we’re bound to be found, and I would rather fight off intruders rather than being hunted down and killed.” With that, he sidestepped Nico and walked through the door, and Nico followed immediately behind him.
“Oh, Nico, Nico, Nico,” Octavian’s voice came from down the hall. Nico spun toward him to see him brandishing a knife. “I’m here to rescue you from the beast!”
“I didn’t ask you to,” Nico spat, “now get away from here!”
“Not before I kill the beast,” Octavian declared with a deranged smile.
Nico put himself between Octavian and Will, raising his arms protectively. “If you want to kill him, you’ll have to kill me, too.”
Octavian adjusted his grip on the knife in his hand, and raised the weapon. “I’ll just have to make it look like the beast did it.”
He lunged forward as Nico did the same. He managed to knock Octavian back, though not without receiving a cut down his arm which caused him to lose focus long enough that Octavian could over power him. He knelt over Nico with his knife poised over his chest, though just as was about to force the knife downward and between Nico’s ribs, Octavian was pulled off of him, ripped away and thrown across the hall.
“Do not touch him,” Will growled, stalking over to Octavian and lifting him off the ground with one hand. “You will never touch him again, and I’ll make sure of that.”
Octavian raised the knife in his hand, but Will simply threw him away, sending him through the window at the end of the hall.
Will turned back to Nico and dropped to his knees at Nico’s side. He pulled Nico toward him, resting his head on his lap, and started to examine Nico’s arm. “Are you alright? I’m so sorry you got hurt. This is all my fault.” He leaned forward, cradling Nico’s face in one hand, and pressed his lips to Nico’s forehead.
Nico smiled up at him when Will pulled away. “I guess you really do love me, huh?”
Will frowned. “What do you mean?”
He ran a hand through Nico’s hair, careful to keep his claws from scratching Nico’s skin, although...he had no reason to fear. His claws were gone, and his hands were no longer covered in a thick layer of hair. He reached up to pat at his own face, though all he felt was soft skin and the delicate curls on top of his head.
“I… You… The curse is broken,” Will stuttered, and brought his hand back down to stroke Nico’s cheek. “I can finally kiss you! Please, Nico, can I kiss you?”
Nico’s smile softened. “Nothing would make me happier.”
Will dipped down and pressed his lips to Nico’s. “I love you. I really, truly do.”
“I love you, too,” Nico told him. “Though, perhaps we ought to handle the situation of the angry villagers outside before we celebrate.”
“Give me another minute with you,” Will insisted. “You’re far more important to me.”