Once upon a time, in the country of France, there lived a particular noble family. Young Prince Adrien lived in a smaller, quieter part of the country, in a secluded castle with his father and mother. His father, being the third son of a third son, and thus not ruling over the country as a whole, was able to afford to keep such privacy - not for himself, but for his son, he insisted.

Being a prince was a risky title, Prince Gabriel often told Prince Adrien, and even a minor prince like himself could be in terrible danger. To make matters worse, Gabriel was not an easy man to get along with, and his cold behavior combined with cutting speech had made him several enemies.

Powerful enemies.

He did not care if one of those enemies attacked him, but his son...He couldn't bear for something to befall his son.

Therefore, the family lived away from the larger cities, where crime and assassins were, and instead stayed in a small castle in the forest. Adrien was not allowed to leave the castle, not even with an escort, and had only the servants for real company. Minor nobles or no, his parents still had connections to keep and impressions to make, and frequently left for other lands.

But Adrien grew up shut away in the secluded castle, away from the world, and frequently left behind.

The air felt wrong.

That was what Adrien told himself as he stepped out of his room, hugging his arms and looking around. The sun still had not risen, and even the hardest-working servants were asleep, so the castle was dead silent. Nothing could have woken him, he told himself as he walked down the hall. But he was awake, with an odd feeling of dread and unease. Why did the air feel so strange?

Suddenly, he figured it out.

It felt heavy, suffocating. It carried a strange charge in the air that made the hairs on the back of Adrien's neck stand up.

Magic, of the malicious kind. And power, likewise.

Which meant they were all in danger.

He had to warn them.

Adrien barely took three running steps before there was a gust of wind, and the already-dim lights were extinguished. Adrien felt like the air around him was pressing in. It was compressing everything inside the castle, choking and entrapping him. As he ran from his room down the hall, opening his mouth to shout for the others - though no sound came out but a strangled, hoarse cry - he felt as if he were running through molasses.

And then the butterfly appeared.

He didn't know what happened, it was too quick.

A black butterfly perched on the bridge of the young man's nose, and then he felt something change. Without seeing it, he knew something was happening; he felt his being warping, felt something invading his veins and skin.

He only had a second to realize it was happening before the searing pain hit.

Falling to the ground, screaming in agony, he felt like his skin was burning and being dipped into water at the same time. One shaking arm reached out, desperately trying to pull forward, to keep moving - and he saw his skin peeling away, dissolving to be replaced by inky blackness, some strange shifting shadows, or cold black flames. His head felt like it was slowly splitting open, his eyes burning with the same cold fire but the pain being too great for him to close them. His spine seemed to ripple and tear, yet he knew it wasn't actually moving or breaking; his jaw burned like fire.

It felt like both eternity and the blink of an eye, but suddenly it was over. He could move again, the pressure in the air vanished all at once, and he screamed for help once again. At least, he hoped he did...he did not know what he was shouting anymore; his mind was scrambling, reeling with what had just happened and how suddenly it had occurred.

His legs shook as he forced himself off the floor, and gave way. The young prince grabbed a curtain to steady himself-

-and in mere seconds, the curtain rotted away under his very fingers, and he collapsed to the ground, a strangled scream escaping at the sight before him, the knowledge of what his mere touch had done.

"Well now…" came an unfamiliar voice. "This is not what I expected."

Gasping frantically, Adrien looked up. The sensation of magic was back, coming from the man in purple who stood before him. The man - sorcerer - was gazing down at him with cold eyes, head tilted slightly as his fingers ran over his chin, as if he were looking at an interesting passage in a book. Meeting Adrien's eyes, he smiled coolly. "I had expected your father would be here," he said simply.

"My father?-" Adrien gasped out, still shaking from what had happened.

"I had intended," the sorcerer said, speaking as if Adrien weren't even there, "to teach him a lesson for offending my person so terribly…"

Adrien did not know what he was talking about, nor when his father could have possibly met with such a man. But that did not matter. The man was still speaking.

"And I certainly can't take back this spell, now that it has been cast. But…" His cold eyes looked back down at Adrien, and then he grinned so wide it seemed to split his face. "Perhaps I can still make this work. What could hurt him more than the knowledge that his own child suffers because of him? Yes...yes, this is perfect."

"What did my father do?" Adrien gasped out, cold fear gripping his heart. "Whatever he's done, I swear I-"

"Nothing you can say or do will change my mind, boy," the man said, with a brisk wave of his hand. "Besides, this had been a long time coming, I believe. Consider this me delivering karmic justice on behalf of everyone your father insulted. Perhaps he should have thought twice before crossing a powerful magic-user," he added with a low chuckle.

And as Adrien gaped in pain, confusion, and terror, the man grinned again and stroked his chin. "Hm, but if only you are affected by my magic, you would suffer nobly...and I do hate that."

Suddenly Adrien realized what he was about to do. He shouted, about to plead for him to stop, leaping towards him-

-the man lifted his staff, and swung outwards. Though Adrien couldn't see anything happen, he felt the charge in the air intensify. And seconds later, the castle echoed with the sounds of horrified, agonized screaming. And with his new, more powerful hearing, Adrien was able to pick some of them out.

He picked out the voice of one of his closest friends, Nino, shouting about how his skin was melting, begging for help. He heard Alya, the pretty and curious new maid, pounding her fists against glass and screaming that she was trapped. He heard a loud, guttural roar that he knew, he just knew, to be Ivan. He heard Sabrina screaming something about the mirrors, and her hands, but she wasn't coherent enough to say what was wrong. Nathalie's voice was softer, choked, but he could still hear the fear in her tone, just above the sound of her rapid footfalls, as if she were trying to run from the magic itself.

Adrien covered the new ears that were protruding from his scalp, gritting his teeth and praying for it to stop.

And still the sorcerer smiled. "The rest of the curse can still be my original plan," he said smoothly, his low voice still carrying over the cries for help. "You will remain in these forms," he went on, his voice steadily amplifying until all could hear. "Look to the castle rose garden; every week for ten years, one blossom will rot and die. If the young prince is able to lift all of your curses before then, all shall be well. If not...well, I do not want to spoil the surprise," he chuckled cruelly.

He tilted his head, as if listening to a far-away voice. Perhaps he was. "Of course, how silly of me...Yes, there is a way to restore you all to your true forms… If your prince loves an outsider of the castle, and if they love this cursed being, then my spell will lift. You have my word of that.

"But…" he laughed again, slowly fading into the darkness, leaving Adrien - no longer a human boy, no longer a recognizable prince, but a creature that would be seen as a curse, as bad luck - alone. "With my magic on your home, what are the odds of that ever occurring?"

And he was gone.

There were fast footfalls, and then Adrien felt someone fall beside him and wrap him in their arms. "A-" the woman tried to speak. "Ma- Your H-" Nathalie coughed, trying to say his name, or title, anything. But she couldn't - the sorcerer had even taken away the ability to say his name. One more time, Nathalie tried to speak, but something else came out instead, beyond her control. "Chat Noir, are you all right?!"

No. No, of course he wasn't… They both knew that.

As the panic spread through the castle, everyone finding their friends and seeing the state they'd been left in, Nathalie and Chat Noir stayed on the floor together, the woman trying to keep her charge from falling apart.

Years passed, and it was just as the sorcerer said. Once a week, a rose in the castle gardens would blacken and rot, then drop from its branch to the ground.

Adrien and his friends tried to hold onto hope during the first few weeks. Surely, surely, his parents would return home to see what had happened. They would send for help. They would fix this.

But they did not return.

They never did.

The castle occupants would later learn why. And they hated the sorcerer for it:

He head cruelly made it impossible for the spell to break by ensuring that any outside looking for the castle would never be able to find it. And with the king and queen being out of the castle at the time of the casting, this made them "outsiders."

The sorcerer displayed further cruelty by enchanting the mirror in the young prince's room, allowing him to see the outside world should he ever wish. While some initially thought it an act of mercy, they soon saw it for the cruelty it was, to be able to see the outside, but to never go freely. To see the prince and princess trying desperately to find their home and son, only to give up and ride elsewhere again, abandoning them all. To see the world moving without them, to be tormented with freedom the prince could no longer have.

And as years passed, with none able to find them, nor they able to go to the village as normal, Adrien - no, Chat Noir - began to see that the situation was well and truly hopeless.

Note:

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite story, and I really couldn't help but make another AU… Yes, I've made one already, but really, what law says you can't do the same AU twice? Especially when there's so much you can do with it?

So this particular version takes a few more cues from the Disney film, but don't worry, this isn't a copy-paste either. I promise I'll still be throwing my own twists into it and nods to other versions of the tale; so it won't be a direct copy of my first fic either.

I hope you guys enjoy reading this just as much! And yes, I posted it on this day on purpose ;)