A/N: Hello all! Puzzle_With_Infinite_Pieces and I have decided to do a oneshot challenge for a prompt post we saw on Tumblr. The theme is "100 ways to say I love you." As an additional challenge for myself, I am going to make sure all my oneshots are exactly 1000 words. We are going to each take our own approach with these but post them together. So here is my first one! It was written for two prompts- one, from the list, "it brings out your eyes." And the other was from a prompter on Tumblr who wanted a certain twist on the end of BATB that I can't reveal without spoiling the story. Hope you enjoy this!

So many of life's most important events, Stanley has learned, come out of nowhere. They are fulminant. A war, a curse, a plague, an angry mob, or, in this case… a gunshot. A gunshot to the one person he loves above all others.

Stanley's heart screams at him to run out to his friend, but he forces himself to stay where he is, knowing Lefou wouldn't want him to hear the things he's confiding in Belle and Adam. He does listen, unable to tear himself away, but he'll let Lefou think it's a secret.

Weakly, Lefou gasps, "G-Gas… ton? D-Dead?"

"Yes," whispers Adam, voice filled with sympathy. It's not for Gaston, but for the man below him who will be left to grieve, if he survives at all. "Not even I could survive a fall that high."

Belle presses her hands to Lefou's blood-soaked shirt. "Now save your strength. Let us save you like you did for him."

Lefou gives a bitter laugh. It's choked and raw and it makes Stanley's heart ache. He reaches a hand out, for a moment forgetting the distance between them, but then lets it fall, blinking back tears.

"'s how it's s'posed to be," says Lefou. Stanley can hear the pain in his voice, but no fear. Just sadness and remorse.

"What does that mean?" asks Belle with a shake of her head. "How? You aren't supposed to die, Lefou."

Lefou manages a single word: "atoning."

And that word says everything, at least to Stanley. All his life, Lefou has castigated himself for not doing enough. Sometimes the self-criticism was deserved, as when he'd stood by during the attempted murder of Maurice. But other times it was unwarranted.

"I didn't do enough," Lefou had lamented, gazing at the carnage on the battlefield. "I should have been with them. I'm a coward." And Stanley would tell him that it wasn't true, that it took far more bravery to attend the dying than it did to fire a musket. Lefou and Gaston had two different but equal sorts of strength, Stanley would try to explain. The difference was that Gaston's strength was visible while Lefou's was inside him.

But Lefou never listened. Not to Stanley, not even to Gaston on the rare occasions he cared enough to talk Lefou out of his guilt. And now that self-loathing has reach its conclusion.

Belle tells Lefou what Stanley wishes he could. "Atoning for my father's near-death with your own? No. He doesn't want that."

"Not… just him. Gas.. ton too," Lefou barely manages to say. "'s my fault."

Stanley closes his eyes. The words cause more pain than any physical injury could.

He opens them only when he hears a shrill cry from Belle. "Lefou! Lefou, hold on!"

And he hears Adam running in his direction, presumably to fetch one of his staff with more experience in first aid, though Stanley knows it will be for naught.

Adam pauses when he sees Stanley, carefully biting his animalistic lips. Wordlessly he gestures his head back towards Lefou, the silent message clear. Go to him. This is your last chance.

So Stanley does exactly that. The fabric of his dress makes a soft flapping sound in the wind. The makeup Madame de Garderobe put him in is streaked on his face now, ruined by tears.

Belle looks at him, and is remarkably fast at assessing the situation. She defers immediately, moving just far enough away to give Stanley some privacy with the dying man.

"Oh, chouchou…" Stanley's voice is cracked, like the rapidly-deteriorating castle. They're all running out of time, it seems. He squeezes Lefou's hand, strokes his cheek. "You didn't have to do this, sweet Adrien."

Lefou blinks up at him. He's only half-aware, registering Stanley's presence but barely understanding his words. He opens and closes his mouth a few times, and then finally says, "your… dress is… pretty. It brings out… your eyes."

Under other circumstances, Stanley would have laughed, but instead he cradles Lefou to his chest and breaks down into anguished sobs. "You- you're so- Why do you have to be like this?-"

"… Cryin'?" Lefou asks in confusion. "Why?"

"Because I love you," says Stanley quietly, kissing Lefou's forehead. His skin is cold, clammy. "Because I can't lose you. Not like this."

"Oh."

And that's all Lefou says, for at that moment, he stops breathing.

Stanley lets out a wail of grief, holding Lefou close to him. His body shakes with each sob.

Nearby, Belle is fighting back tears of her own. Adam notices when he returns, and he bows his head respectfully before going to comfort Belle.

Belle holds one of Adam's paws in her hands, looking first at the two gunshot wounds Gaston had inflicted on him, and then gazing into his eyes. "Please," she says, breath ragged. "D-Don't… don't leave too. You can't."

Adam takes in a sharp breath. "I won't. I promise, Belle." He rests one finger against her cheek, gently wiping away her tears.

This stirs something in Belle, who murmurs, "I love you."

As soon as the words leave her mouth, fireworks explode around them. She watches in awe as her Beast becomes human again, blond-haired and blue-eyed but still the one she loves.

The joyful cry the lovers let out on seeing each other is nothing compared to the one Stanley gives when Lefou stirs. His chest begins to rise and fall, slowly eat first and then steadier.

"Adrien!" Stanley gasps. Tears are still streaming down his face, but for a different reason. "You're-!" He shakes his head before kissing every inch of Lefou's face he can reach, to Lefou's delight.

"Stanley…" says Lefou, looking at Stanley as though seeing him for the first time. "I think… I think I love you."

"I love you too." Stanley resumes kissing him, slower now.

As the entire castle celebrates their miracles, Agathe watches from the shadows with a satisfied smile.

A/N: So, the second prompter wanted a fic where Lefou gets shot on accident instead of Adam taking the third bullet, and Lefou thinks he deserves to die, and Stanley comforts him while still wearing that dress. So I combined that prompt with this one to make for an angsty-as-hell oneshot. Hope you enjoyed it!