A/N: Just a sad one-shot with multiple pairings. I spent a decent amount of time on this, so I hope that you guys like it. Everything should be pretty self-explanatory; say in you review or PM me if you wanna know who some of the people were. Please enjoy, and any feedback is appreciated:-)
Disclaimer: I don't own Instant Star or anything associated with it. I do however own the little girl. I also do not own "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, which is where I got the title from; it just seemed to fit.
"Pappy, just one more story!" The five year old begged somersaulting on her bed, and allowing her long, brown locks of hair to fall in her face. "Please?" she added, giving her grandfather an adoring face, her bottom lip sticking out.
"Come on Munchkin," he pulling she sheets of the bed down, and lifting his granddaughter to the space on the bed.
"Just one more! Look, I'll even go under the blankies first!" she said pulling the blankets up to her chin. "I won't even join you and Grammy tonight,"
The adoring five-year old could easily charm anyone into doing what she wished, but what most of them didn't know of were the nightmares she had at night.
"Fine," he grandfather agreed, "One more,"
The girl let out a squeal in victory, and clapped her hand in delight.
"Now," the man said snuggling next to girl on the twin sized bed, "Which story shall it be tonight?"
"The kiss!" she exclaimed, throwing off all of her covers from her waist, up.
The kiss was one of her favorite stories about her parents.
"So… how does that story start?" her grandfather asked, tickling his granddaughter.
The little girl rolled her eyes at her grandfather's stupidity.
"Once upon a time!"
"Oh, that's right," her grandfather agreed. "Once upon a time, there was a prince and a princess. They lived in Music Land, where people lived and breathed music. Now our Prince was a rather tart man, and never stayed with one girl for long, and the people in his court didn't like it,"
"Why didn't they like it?" The little girl asked curiously, even though she could probably tell you the answer from hearing the story so many times.
"Because, the Prince's court was sick of watching the Prince break so many girls hearts," her grandfather explained.
"Oh, okay," the little girl replied, 'just accepting' the answer to her question, as children do.
"Now," her grandfather said, as the little girl adjusted her position, and snuggled in he grandfather's side. "Our Princess who was just a common girl then, who decided to try out for a position in the King's court in a talent competition called 'Instant Star'; The Prince worked for the King's court. And do you know what happens next?" her grandfather asked.
"She won! The Princess won, Pappy!" the little girl squealed in delight, as she clapped her hands.
"That's right!" her grandfather agreed.
"You can't be serious, Little Tommy Q?" the princess asked, as if the people at the record label were joking.
"First, I'm here because Georgia is a friend. I could care less about you or your whack contest. Second, the name's Tom Quincy. Don't you ever call me 'Little Tommy Q' again," the Prince said back coldly.
"Then what happened?" he grandfather asked.
"They fell in love!" the little girl shouted.
"Indoor voices honey, we don't want to wake anyone," he warned his granddaughter, "and yes, you were right,"
"Sorry Pappy," the little agreed looking down, and feeling guilty; she was a sensitive child, and even little things could get her upset.
"It's okay honey, you didn't wake anybody," he grandfather said rubbing her back.
"Kay," the little girl said sounding slightly better. "Then people didn't like them being together, right?"
"Right, good job!" he grandfather praised the little girl, her guilt slowly fading away. "And do you remember why?"
"Because he was too old for her!"
"You're falling for this girl! Now, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to hit that in another few years..." a knight, and the prince's best friend told the Prince.
" Look, that's not even what this is about. Man, you think I'm okay with this? Huh? That the coolest chick I know, the girl that gets me the most, is sixteen? Give me a break, man. She's out of bounds and I'm not that guy,"
"Good... but if she was twenty-one?" the knight questioned.
"In a split second," the prince replied, without even having to think about his answer.
"Right again!" he grandfather exclaimed, picking up his granddaughter up off her bed, and twirling her around in circles.
Her grandfather then set her down, and she resettled in her bed.
"Then what happened?" he asked her.
"They fell in love, even though even they weren't spossed ta!"
"I'm so tired of falling for guys that don't fall back. It hurts,"
"…Girl I..."
"You all say the nicest things. You're so great, You're so nice, but none of you want to date me. So you want to help me? Tell me what I'm doing wrong. Tell my why I'm so easy to give up and maybe I can fix it,"
"You are asking the wrong guy,"
Then our Prince kissed our Princess, and even though it was now raining, they kept kissing.
The little girl squealed again, and her grandfather smiled.
"You like that part, don't you?" he asked, tickling his granddaughter on her stomach.
"Yes!" the little girl giggled.
"I can't hear you!" her grandfather teased, tickling the little girl even more.
"Yes!" the little girl squealed a little louder, and continued to giggle.
"What?"
"Yes, Pappy, yes!" she shouted, and her grandfather finally stopped ticking her.
The two then settled down, and the were finally back in their perspective positions; the little girl under her covers, and her grandfather sitting next to her on the bed.
"And how did it all end?" the little girl asked, shrinking herself.
Most likely, the little knew this answer better than her grandfather, but it was their thing to change the answer, so that the little girl's nightmares didn't come as bad.
"Come on babe, you know you want me!" a man said evilly to the little girl's mother.
"Don't touch her!" the little girl's father told the man.
"Ah, do we have a here?" the man chuckled. "Don't say any more, or the kid goes," he said revealing a gun from his jacket, and pointing it at the 3 year old in her father's arms.
"Don't do anything to my wife!" her father shouted.
BANG!
The gun went off, and shot her father, allowing the little girl to fall out of her father's arms and on to the floor, and her father to fall on top of her.
"Oh my G-d!" her mother screamed, and began moving towards her now dead husband.
"Take another step babe, and the kid goes!" the man grumbled.
"Don't kill my baby!" the woman shouted. "Take me, but don't take my baby girl!"
"Fine, now let's go…" the man grumbled, as he began to take off his clothes.
One his were all off, he turned to the little girl' s mother, and pointed the gun at the little girl.
"Now you," the man said to the woman.
And the woman then looked from her husband to her daughter to the man, and sighed, before talking off her clothes as well.
And even though her mother had no love for the man, they made love in the presence of her true love's corpse, and her young daughter.
And after they finished, the woman began to put her clothes back on.
"No so fast!" the man yelled.
"Huh?" the woman asked, turning around.
BANG!
The man shot her right between her eyes, and she fell to the ground along side of her husband and her daughter.
"I have no need for you!" the man turned to the little girl and chuckled.
He then set his heavy steal-toe work boot on the little girls head, and kicked her unconscious.
"Goodbye!" he chuckled, and left without looking back.
"So how did it all end?" the little girl asked again.
"They lived happily…ever... after…" her grandfather ended the story, rather reluctantly.
"Night munchkin," he told his granddaughter.
"Night, pappy. Love you,"
"Love you too," he told his granddaughter back, truly meaning it.
Her grandfather kissed her on the forehead, before turning to leave.
"Mommy and Daddy are in heaven now, right?" the little girl asked for assurance.
Her grandfather hesitated, not being much of a man of faith himself; but seriously, what were you supposed to tell a five-year old?
"I'm sure they are…" he told the little girl.
Her grandfather then turned to the doorway, and shut off the lights.
"I'm sure they are…" he said again, more to himself, than to the little girl. He then walked out of his granddaughter's room, and shut the door behind himself.
Her grandfather then went down the hall, and into his bedroom to find his wife sitting in their bed reading a magazine.
"Hey," she said calmly, helping relieve his emotions that were dancing mournfully inside of him.
"Hey," he said back.
"How is she?" she asked, protectively.
Even though the little girl wasn't hers by blood, she felt like the little girl was.
"I think she'll be fine," he told his wife truthfully, as he went over to their bed, and took off his bathrobe, before beginning to climb into bed.
"That's good," his wife replied, as she shut her magazine.
"Sadie called today," she said changing the subject purposely.
"Yeah?" he asked, only slightly shocked. Since the death of her mother, her grandfather and aunt didn't really talk much.
"Yeah,"
"I'll call her back in the morning," the man said simply.
"Okay," she said just as simply back, and shut off the reading light, and allowing the room to only be illuminated by the full moon.
"Night," the little girl's grandfather said to his wife.
"Night," her grandfather's wife said back.
And they both knew that the only thing they could do was hope that they made it through the night. And they knew that come the next night, they didn't know how the little girl would be. But they did know that they had good moments, and that was all that they could really ask for.
A/N: So… what do you think?