Thaw

"𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥-𝐟𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬."

❅

"Man the barricades, and move quickly!" Thor shouts to the house of bustling servants, ranging from a golden coat stand to Tony, the bourbon glass married to Mrs. Potts.

"Let's kill the beast!" Echoes from outside the castle walls, worryingly close as Clint boosts Thor up to latch the lock on the door.

"I don't think locking the door will do much-" Mrs. Potts says, but is interrupted by the mob knocking down the door with a makeshift battering ram. "Help. I don't think locking the door will do much help."

"Shit," Clint says.

"We need help," Thor remarks. "Serious help."

❅

"I have to warn him," Belle says, frantically searching the lock mechanism of the inside of the carriage.

"Warn him?" Phil repeats in disbelief. "How did you get away from him?"

"He let me go, Father," Belle corrects, stopping to look her father in the eyes. "He sent me back to you."

"I- I don't understand," Phil says, stammering. 

Belle reaches into the cloak pocket, pulling out the slightly-crumpled drawing that she had kept with her when she and Loki had visited her family's old home in Paris.

"He took me there," Belle explains as Phil's eyes light up in recognition at the drawing from all those years ago. "I know what happened to Mama."

"Then you know why I had to leave her there," Phil says solemnly. "I had to protect you."

"I understand," Belle remarks, taking her father's hand in her own. "Will you help me?"

"It's dangerous," Phil diflects.

"I know," Belle answers, her eyes shimmering with the mischief that she had unconsciously picked up after being around Loki for so long.

"I could try to pick the lock," her father says with a wink, standing up the best he can in the cramped, padded carriage. "After all, it's only gears and springs."

Belle reaches her hands back into her hair, pulling out on of the ornate golden pins that Wanda had insisted she wear just hours ago, although it feels like days ago.

"But I would need..." Phil trails off, reaching his hands through the barred window to examine the lock, "something long and sharp." (lol thats what she said -narrator)

Phil turns back to Belle to see if she has any ideas to find her holding up her hair pin with a grin on her face.

"Like that," Phil says, smiling down at his daughter as he grabs the pin from her hand. "Perfect."

❅

"Brother!" Thor shouts urgently, rushing up the stairs to the west wing as fast as his candelabra-like legs will allow him.

"She's not coming back?" Loki asks quietly, although it sounds more like a statement than a question.

"No," Thor replies, uncharacteristically quiet. "They're, uh- they're breaking down the doors."

Loki lets out a small sigh, his hunched figure still sitting near the frozen rose with his face shielded from view. 

"It doesn't matter now. Just let them come."

❅

"This isn't working!" Mrs. Potts shouts from inside the entrance hall, where Steve and Bucky are trying to get Sam, the piano, to barricade the door with little success. 

The outside of the castle doors is littered with various shrieks and screams, all saying the same thing: "Kill the Monster!"

Finally, Sam's strength gives way, and the villagers, led by John and Lemar, burst through the doors and spill out into the suddenly abandoned entryway.

"Are you not the least bit concerned," Lemar begins, his voice wavering a bit, "that this place might be haunted?"

"We've come too far to turn back now," John says, glancing down into the stolen mirror in his hand whilst gripping a torch in his other. "Don't lose your nerve, Lemar."

"Where are we?" Vision's voice rings out from the crowd.

"This place seems familiar, like I've been here before," Sif adds.

Lemar's eyes catch on an abandoned tea cart nearby, and he approaches it with a sarcastic smile.

"Well, hello there," he says to the inanimate teapot and teacup, his voice alight with mocking amusement. "You must be the talking teacup! And you must be..." he turns to the teapot, "his grandmother."

"Grandmother?!" Mrs. Potts shouts in disbelief, her eyes snapping open. "ATTACK!!"

At once, the castle becomes flooded with light once again, as everyone surges forward, taking the astounded townspeople by surprise. Even Bruce, the quiet, mild-mannered flower pot joins in on the action, helping launch Steve into Lemar, distracting John's right-hand-man just long enough for Sam to jump on top of him, trapping Lemar under his pianic weight.

"John!" Lemar shouts for his friend. "Help me up."

"Sorry, old friend," John looks at his friend with mock pity, "but it's hero time."

"Damn!" Sam shouts, still on top of Lemar. "Hey, Prickface, did your back hurt when you threw your friend under the bus?" He yells, but John is already racing up the stairs, taking two at a time.

"One, two, three, four!" Peter shouts, annunciating each number by hitting an approaching villager in the head with a small plate. "Five, six, seven, eight!"

"Good job, kid!" Tony shouts from the kitchen, commanding the 'troops' of kitchenware to trip up the villagers.

"Ah, excellent!" Clint shouts from a nearby balcony as Wanda rushes in with multiple stacks of books. "The infantry's arrived!"

"Yes, those are called books, you third rate musketeers!" Bucky shouts in glee as the heavy novels quite literally fly off the shelves, each hitting a townsperson in the head and effectively knocking him over. "Oh, shit," he says as three particularly threatening townspeople catch sight of him, and begin to approach him menacingly. "I'm, uh, I'm just a fire poker! No harm here!"

Suddenly, Wanda surges forward, putting herself in between Bucky and the mercanaries, laughing in glee.

"Ah, I see we have some guests!" She shrieks. "We best help them dress appropriately!"

At her words, long strands of silky yet firm fabrics shoot out at the three men, winding them up together in makeshift rope of wild colors before Bucky hops over and pushes them down the stairs, laughing as they all tumble down the stairs helplessly.

"Wanda, on your left!" Mrs. Potts shouts, and the wardrobe boosts her up onto the chandelier, the ornate teapot spinning around with a gleeful look on her face. "How'd you like your tea?" She shouts as she pours scalding water on the men down below. "Piping hot, or boiling?"

However, Mrs. Potts' success is short-lived as someone throws a discarded book at the chandelier, jolting the teapot from her perch on the chandelier. 

"Mom!" Peter shouts nervously as he watches helplessly as his mother plummets down--and lands right in the hands of Lemar.

"Well, thanks for the catch, dear!" Mrs. Potts exclaims before letting another burst of scorching hot water hit the face of an approaching man. Lemar lets out a surprised yell as another villagers rushes at him, and before he can think, his instincts take over, and he swings Mrs. Potts right at the man's head, landing the hit with a resounding thud.

"I used to be on John's side," Lemar says to Mrs. Potts as if she were his therapist, "but we are so in a bad place right now."

"You're too good for him anyways," she agrees, nodding however talking teapots nod.

"That is exactly what I needed to hear," Lemar thanks her.

"Watch out!" Sam shouts as he shoots a barrage of keys at the thinning crowd of villagers slowly retreating back to the doors.

"Let's light things up a bit!" Thor yells, placing one of his lit hands on the ground, leaving a trail of sparks forcing the villagers back out the doors.

In their panic, none of the villagers seem to notice Hela slip through the fleeing crowd, making her way into the castle with determined purpose.

"Safe trip home!" Thor shouts as the last townsperson runs out of the castle.

"Don't come back!" Clint adds.

"We really showed those assholes, didn't we?" Tony shouts in delight.

"LANGUAGE!" Steve says from his husband's side.

❅

As John makes his way up the final set of stairs leading up to the west wing, his eyes shine in murderous delight as he catches sight of Loki hunched over on the balcony, lost in his despair.

"Hello, Frost Giant," John spits at Loki, alerting the Frost Giant to the man's presence as he pulls out a pistol from his holster. Loki slowly turns to face the man who is now pointing loaded gun at him, no longer caring to hide the solemn look of a man who just had his heart broken on his face, "I'm John. Belle sent me," John says with a sneer. 

Loki's heart pangs in his chest at the betrayal, averting his sad eyes from John's condescending gaze as he turns to look back down at the courtyard full of villagers.

"Are you in love with her?" John continues, his mocking voice dripping with venom. "Did you honestly think that she'd want you?"

John punctuates his final word with a gunshot straight to Loki's turned back, knocking the frost giant over the rail of the balcony and sending him falling into one of the conjoining towers below.

Suddenly, John feels a tugging at his hip, and turns to see Belle clutching his remaining bullets, her face filled with hurt and rage as she tosses them off the side of the tower.

"Belle!" He exclaims.

"Where is he?" She shouts back, her voice wavering in her urgency.

"When we return to the village, you will marry me," John says angrily. "And that monster's head will hang on our wall."

"Never!" Belle shouts, grabbing John's hand that still held the gun, knowing that there were only two bullets remaining inside the chamber.

At the struggle, the floor under John's feet begins to crack, and he only just manages to swing himself over to the conjoining tower as the entire floor crumbles, Belle retreating back into the tower in a hurry.

"I'm coming for you, Monster!" John shouts, and Belle spots Loki's frame holding onto a nearby pillar as she gathers up her skirts and rushes down the stairs to where she knows would be a place to call for Loki.

Belle rushes over the bridge, not daring to look back as she hears the floor crumbling away beneath her every step. Finally, she gets close enough to properly see Loki, just as his grip on the pillar begins to slip.

"Loki!" She shouts, her voice laced with desperation.

"Belle?" Loki gasps, turning to see her frame in a nearby window watching him with worry. "You came back?"

"I tried to stop them!" Belle shouts urgently, her heart racing in her chest.

"Stay there--I'm coming!" He shouts, pulling himself up onto a nearby balcony just as John drops down in front of him. Already weak from the gunshot, Loki is unable to put up much of a fight as John swings a piece of debris at him, knocking him down flat on his back as John towers menacingly over Loki's frame.

"John, stop!" Belle yells frantically, scouring her brain to think of any way to get over to the pair of men.

As John raises the shard of metal over his head to bring down on Loki, Loki's arm suddenly shoots out, grabbing the makeshift weapon from John's grasp and rendering the man defenseless. 

Without thinking, Loki grabs John by the throat (lmao thanos style) and dangles him over the side of the balcony--a drop that would most certainly kill anyone.

"Please, don't drop me," John pleads, his voice strained from the pressure to his windpipes. "I'll do anything. Please, don't hurt me, monster."

In the corner of his eye, Loki catches Belle's panicked expression, and his eyes widen just slightly with shock, realizing just what he was about to do.

"I am not..." Loki growls, throwing John back down on the balcony, "a monster."

John scrambles up in fear and runs off, grasping his throat and panting for breath as Loki leaps across the gap between him and Belle.

Belle takes him into her arms at once, so engrossed in his ruby-red eyes that she doesn't register John picking up his gun behind them once more until he pulls the trigger, not once, but twice, hitting Loki square in the back with two gruelling cracks.

Before John can take the time to admire his work, however, the ground under him crumbles, sending him straight down to his own death. 

"Loki!" Belle shouts as the knockback from the gunshots sends Loki hurdling back into his chambers, the blue rose standing mockingly in the distance with its single remaining petal.

"You came back," Loki whispers incredulously as Belle rushes to his side, the pain in his crimson eyes suddenly replaced by another, stronger emotion.

"Of course I came back," Belle gasps, tears in her eyes as she clutches his cold, pale blue hands in her own. "I'll never leave you again."

"I'm afraid that it's my turn to leave, Darling," Loki sighs, reaching his free hand to caress Belle's flushed cheek.

"No," Belle shakes her head, placing her hand on top of Loki's. "I'm not going to let that happen. We're together now--its going to be fine."

"At least I got to see you again," Loki sighs, the fight already leaving his eyes as he stares up at Belle with nothing but love.

And, with Loki's final breath leaving his lungs, the final petal of the rose falls just a few feet away.

❅❅❅