Summary: You begin to resign yourself to life in a prison cell, when things somehow manage to become even stranger. Alternately, Duncan deals with his staff and fellow prisoners having hope for the first time since the curse was placed on his home and everyone in it.
Word Count: 1.6k
Oh shit, another Beauty and the Beast!Duncan fic? That’s right, it’s the AU absolutely nobody asked for!
Without your phone, you can’t tell if it’s been minutes or hours since you took Jim’s place in this dark, dank cell. Every creak from the ceiling above makes you flinch, worry on your mind about the beast that owns this manor coming down to finish you off. Beyond that, it’s silent. No screams or yells, no hustle and bustle, just silence. You can hear the blood pounding in her ears as you lean against the stone wall, staring dejectedly at your hands folded in your lap.
“Sorry to interrupt your pity party, but I’m here to take you to your room.” You look up in shock, looking for a figure to belong to the voice that you heard.
“My room? But...I thought--”
“What, that Mr. Big-and-Scary was going to keep you locked up in here?” The voice scoffs, and you watch in awe as a pair of keys seem to float through the air and unlock the cell door. “He’s so overly dramatic.”
“Oh my god, I think I’m going crazy,” you mutter to yourself. “I’ve been down here for too long, and I’ve lost my mind.”
“That’s a normal reaction, and it’s one that I had too when all this first happened.” The door opens, yet there’s still no person standing in front of you. “Let’s get you to a more comfortable room to make your own, and then you’ll feel better.”
You stand up from the floor, trying not to run into this mysterious person as you walk out of the cell. “Are you a ghost?”
“No, but that would probably be easier. As far as I can tell, I’m invisible. Almost everybody here is.”
“How many people live here besides you? And how did this happen?” Your head feels like it’s spinning as the invisible person leads you to what you guess is going to be your bedroom, and you almost have to stop to regain your bearings.
“There’s only a few of us, but I feel like you’ve already been through a lot today and anymore information will just make you freak out. Let’s start with an introduction: I’m Mallory.”
“Uh, I’m (Y/N).” If you are going crazy, you might as well play into the delusions your mind has thought up.
“I know!” She’s oddly cheerful considering she’s been turned invisible. “I was the one that led you to Jim in the first place.”
“Oh! Well, thank you for that. He didn’t--he couldn’t stay locked up here. It’s not right, and he needs his support system.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I think it was very brave of you to take his place.”
You breathe out shakily, the memory of Jim’s yells as he was dragged up the stairs fresh on your mind. “What do you call whatever it is that took Jim?”
“Well, to his back, we call him jackass, pompous, arrogant, the reason we’re all trapped here...but to his face, he’s just sir or Shepherd.”
“You’re trapped here?”
“Besides the fact that nobody would be able to believe that an invisible woman was standing in line behind them at the coffee shop? Yeah. We’ve tried many times, but we can’t leave the grounds of this manor.” Mallory laughs bitterly. “You take a job as someone’s assistant one time, and suddenly you’re invisible...oh! Here we are.”
The heavy oak door ahead of you opens, and you follow Mallory’s presence into the room. It’s a beautiful room, with handcrafted furniture made of dark wood, a chandelier on the ceiling, and a cloudy sky that reminds you of the Grand Hall at Hogwarts is painted above you.
“Way better than that little cage, right?”
“Yeah, this is definitely...better than I was expecting.”
“Good! I’ll leave you to get settled, and then I’ll be back later with Miss Cordelia.”
“You promise you’ll be back?” You sound like a little kid bartering with their mother to pick them up after a sleepover, but you can’t help the fear you feel at potentially having to face the beast that rules this home.
“Of course.”
The door shuts with a click, and you can hear footsteps moving away from the door that signifies that Mallory is going to attend to whatever business the invisible members of the household do. Falling back against the large bed, which is much comfier than you care to admit, your body begins to show the signs of fatigue that you had been fighting off for so long. After all, it’s been at least a full day since you set off on your journey to find Jim, and you hadn’t slept at all since then. It’s incredibly easy for your eyes to slip closed, and even easier for you to fall asleep on top of the covers.
//
Duncan sits in his former study, which has been decimated by time and the unbridled rage that becoming this beast has produced. He’s glowering, a not-unusual occurrence lately, with the unwelcome addition of members of his staff refusing to avoid him at a time where his mood is not positive (of course, when has his mood ever been positive since this ordeal began?). Unlike himself, who had long since given up hope of ever reverting back to the life he had before that fateful night, those who were stuck in this curse with him were far more hopeful.
“Sir, this could be the chance that you have been waiting for!” Cordelia, the head of staff whom Duncan has known since he was a boy, says enthusiastically.
“I highly doubt that this girl is one to fall victim to Stockholm Syndrome; she seems far too capable for that,” Duncan says darkly.
“You also forget that the love has to be genuine on both sides,” a new voice joins the chorus of others. Great. Mallory’s here.
“Let me guess, you gave her a bedroom?”
“Unlike you, I actually want to get out of here.”
Duncan shoots a seething glare in the direction of her voice, but knows it won’t do any good. Mallory’s never been afraid of him.
“You do have to admit that she’s very pretty,” Nate, the groundskeeper and one of Duncan’s only friends before the curse, chimes in.
“Regardless of how attractive I find her, that doesn’t really matter when I look like this,” Duncan retorts.
“I understand your pessimism towards this situation, but you’ve done nothing to resolve the situation in the five years that we have been stuck like this! I know it’s been a while, but you were quite the ladies’ man,” Cordelia reminds him.
Duncan sighs deeply. “Look, even if I were to attempt to break the curse with this girl--”
“(Y/N),” Mallory interjects.
“I don’t know if I even remember what it’s like to be charming. I haven’t had much practice in that area.”
“So let us help you! You need to woo her.”
“I imprisoned her best friend, and now I’m currently imprisoning her. I don’t think it will be that easy.”
“Why don’t you start small?” Cordelia suggests. “Maybe ask her to join you for dinner?”
“Ask her to join me for dinner...” Duncan ponders. “That’s...actually not that bad of an idea.” He swears he hears Mallory mutter something about him not being able to control his temper, but there’s really nothing he can do in regards to this disrespect.
That’s how Duncan finds himself at his prisoner’s bedroom door, pawlike-fist poised to knock as he prepare to attempt the most dangerous thing he’s ever done: make a girl fall in love with him, and fall in love with her in return.
//
You awake to the same angry voice from earlier at your door. Rubbing your eyes blearily, you attempt to make your brain connect to your ears and process what is being said.
“--why she won’t answer!” You freeze when you realize that it’s the beast from earlier, obviously upset by something. Scrambling off of the bed, you creep towards the door and press your ear against it.
“Maybe she’s asleep. She did have a long day.” A gentler voice accompanies him, and you relax upon hearing the potential ally.
“Um, I--I’m sorry,” you call out hesitantly. “I was sleeping, and I didn’t catch what you said.”
“See?” Someone’s attempting to whisper, but they’re not doing a very good job of it. “You just need to be patient. Now, ask again.”
“Will you...join me for dinner?” He hesitantly asks.
“Oh!” You’re thrown off by this request, and there’s really nothing you’d do less at this moment. “No...no, thank you. I’m not hungry.”
He actually growls, sending shivers down your spine. “You’ll join me for dinner, or I’ll break down this door!”
“Sir, please try to act a little bit like a gentleman,” someone chides softly.
“And why should I when she’s being so difficult?”
“Gently ask her. She lost her best friend and her freedom, all in such a short period of time.” It does give you a little bit of amusement to hear this bickering at the expense of your kidnapper’s sanity, and you stifle a chuckle.
“(Y/N),” the beast of a man speaks again, softer this time, “it would be my pleasure if you would join me for dinner tonight.” Someone clears their throat, and he tacks on a “please” at the end.
“No,” you say, firmer this time. Why should it be expected for you to go and have dinner with this brute?
“You can’t stay in there forever!” You can tell his blood is boiling by now. Good.
“Yes, I can!” you retort.
“Fine, you can go ahead and starve!” he yells, louder than you’ve ever heard somebody yell at another person before. “If you won’t eat with me, then you won’t eat at all.”
You fall back into a sitting position, staring at the door in alarm. Could he really deny you food? How long would you survive before he decides that he’s had enough of you and kills you?
For the first time since you’ve been locked up in this manor, you let yourself cry.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Hello there everyone! I am doing it! I am starting that Beauty And The Beast!AU for Merlahad. Yay!
This is not pure BatB but with some Rumbelle elements. However, you don’t need to know the ship to read this. BatB is still BatB and Merlahad is still Merlahad.
Ship: Harry Hart / Merlin
Thank @anarchycox so much for beta’ing and giving me advice!
Beast!Yuuri from the Victuuri Beauty and the Beast!AU i’m trying to write (trying being the key word) and that i started way back in January. It’s a modern AU so that’s why he’s in a tracksuit and got glasses.
( @artemis69 i’m still working on this, one word at a time)
after reading this i was thinking of a victuuri version and just.
victuuri batb!au where the curse doesn’t work at all because yuuri, the cook’s son, has been in love with victor forever because he has witnessed the public, the private and the secret victor all his life and knows who he really is and fell in love with every side of victor. so take that witch!
and victor is like “someone loves me???? for real???? who is it??? wait a minute...the with said it had to be mutual love???? and i’m in love with yuuri???? YUURI LOVES ME!!??!!!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
meanwhile everybody’s like: “what was that woman trying btw??” and the witch is like “why did it not work?” “did i do the wrong move here?” “is it leviooosa or leviossssaaaa?” “what is my life?”
