Fairy Tale Magic
Sybil and Tom were sitting together on the sofa, following a lazy Saturday spent inside to avoid the gentle showers that never seemed to stop. Sybil had charge of the remote control and was trying to find something new to watch, having just finished watching the news, which she hardly listened to and frankly didn't have the patience for today. As she flicked through the channels she caught the end of Peter Pan on the film channel. As she continued through the mountain of channels, she said, "I never much liked fairy tales when I was little."
Tom looked at her, utterly shocked. Disney fairy tales (and Disney films in general) were a large part of his childhood. His brothers always told him that he was girly for it, but he didn't care. At least he knew that he didn't watch them because he had a crush on Cinderella or was a Little Mermaid fanatic, but because oftentimes, the stories were ones from which he could learn a great deal.
"How could you not like fairy tales? How did you get through childhood without liking them? Doesn't every little girl dream of being a princess?" he asked, surprised that he never knew this about Sybil when they'd been going out for almost three years and friends for even longer.
"Oh, I did dream of being a princess and having my own Prince Charming. My best friend at the time and I made up whole games based around it. We'd rope in one of the boys in the playground and make them propose to us and we'd give them a peck on the lips of they didn't fight it too much. It was a bit manipulative to be honest, now that I look back on it."
Tom laughed at Sybil's anecdote - one he'd never heard before. "So what happened?" he asked. "Where did all the fairy tale magic go?"
"Well, when I realised that they were all made up, I stopped fantasising about it all. I knew I wasn't going to get a Prince Charming, so I gave up. Ever since, I've preferred stories I could relate to," Sybil said simply, not thinking anything of it.
"Am I not your Prince Charming?" Tom said mock indignantly, with humour in his voice.
"Well, you're Irish. And you didn't find me because I left a glass slipper at your ball," Sybil said before kissing him gently. "You took me on a much more romantic first date, if you remember," she said softly against his lips as she remembered how he'd taken her to go stargazing at the spot where he'd gone stargazing with his dad when he was a child.
"I do remember," he said. "And I seem to recall that it ended in a much more magical way than Cinderella did."
He paused before taking Sybil's lips against his, gently placing his hand on her waist as she fell deeper into his embrace. When he pulled away, he placed another kiss on her forehead before saying,
"So, you didn't believe in them, but you still saw all the Disney films, didn't you?"
"Some of them, sure," Sybil said nonchalantly.
"Some of them?" Tom repeated, allowing his voice to reach a higher pitch than usual. If his brothers were to hear him, he'd be on the receiving end of a myriad of insults in no time. One of the good things about being away from his family back in Ireland was that now he didn't have to worry about sounding like an idiot because Sybil didn't react in the same way in which his brothers did.
"Yeah," Sybil said lightly. "You know, I saw Cinderella and Pocahontas. Although, actually, Pocahontas isn't strictly a fairy tale. But I couldn't be bothered with the rest when I realised they weren't real."
"Sybil," Tom said very matter-of-factly, putting a serious face on, "if you're going to be my girlfriend, I need to educate you in Disney films. Even if they're not real, they're still good stories - good films," he said as he stood from his spot and walked out of the room.
"Wait, Tom, where are you going?" she called after him.
"Give me two minutes," he shouted back. Sybil kept flicking through the channels aimlessly, but before she'd settled on a programme to watch, Tom came down with a stack of videos. "There's no time like the present - we're starting tonight." Sybil examined the spines of the boxes and realised that he'd brought down his own personal stash of Disney magic.
"How long have you had these?" Sybil asked, staring at the videos that had been replaced with DVDs in most households.
"Years. I can't throw them out. They've been part of me for forever. Anyway, choose one. We have to start somewhere," he said, gesturing to the boxes in front of him.
"These aren't all fairy tales. Some of them are just stories," Sybil observed, looking at Pocahontas and The Lion King.
"So what? They're so good!"
Sybil laughed at Tom's enthusiasm. If she had been given a million guesses, not one of them would be that his biggest guilty pleasure was Disney films.
"Start with Aladdin. I know the songs from that," Sybil instructed as she pointed at the box with the purple spine. Tom opened the video box and placed the cassette into the VHS player as he got the TV onto the right settings. He mumbled to himself as he fiddled with the remote.
"If you're going to marry me, you need to experience the joys of Disney."
Sybil's eyes widened as Tom spoke and she brought her hand to her mouth, unable to control her own actions.
"Tom," she said shakily.
"Hmm," he said, completely preoccupied with the task at hand, not realising what he'd just said and unbeknownst to the impact it had had on Sybil.
"Tom, look at me. What did you just say."
Tom turned and saw Sybil's surprised state. "What's wrong love?" he said, walking towards her.
"What did you just say?" Sybil insisted as she stared at Tom, completely unable to look away.
"I said that if you're going to marry me-" he paused as he realised what he'd said. "Oh God."
"Do you really want to?" Sybil said, her hands now wrapped in Tom's.
"Uh, well, I," he stumbled, unsure of the right thing to say. The wrong answer could lead to a completely lost relationship between him and Sybil. He didn't know which way was the right way to go, so he was relieved when Sybil cut him off.
"Yes," Sybil said quietly, tears beginning to fall from her stunningly blue eyes.
"Yes?"
"Yes!" she repeated. "If that's where you were going, then yes." Her hands would have been shaking had they not been enveloped with Tom's. Sybil stood up to match Tom and allowed him to kiss her with the soft skin of his lips.
He pulled away and walked to the door where he'd hung his jacket. He buried his hand in the pocket and brought out a velvet covered ring box that anyone would recognise as the box for an engagement ring. He walked back to Sybil and knelt on the floor before her as he opened the box and made no effort to fight back his own tears.
"Sybil Cora Crawley," he was already crying, but he didn't care – this was going to be a day he would remember for a very long time, "I have loved you for three years of my life and they have been the best three years of my life. We were friends before we got together and I'm certain that it cemented our relationship even more. This isn't quite how I imagined this moment to happen – I had a night of stargazing planned – but now we're here, will you make me the happiest man on earth by becoming my wife?"
"Yes! Yes, yes, yes! That's a ridiculous question! Of course yes!" she said as she knelt in front of him to be on his level and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him clumsily. Tom carefully drew away to place the ring on Sybil's finger before returning to the kiss. The salty tears from both parties blended with the ridiculous smiles as their lips bashed together uncontrollably. It wasn't the best kiss either of them had ever had – after all, how great can a kiss really be if the mouths involved were locked in a constant grin. But while it wasn't the most technically perfect kiss, it was the most emotionally fuelled one they'd shared and the most important one. Their limbs entwined as they clumsily fell in a heap on the floor and there they stayed in puppy-love bliss as they fell asleep together watching Aladdin – and what better fairy tale to watch when they had just become engaged?
I don't really have much to say here, but here's my Rock the AU for this month. Please review if you enjoyed.