AN: I kind of love Victoire because nobody's perfect, but in my mind, she's a lot closer than she thinks.
Victoire
The world will wait for someone like you
All my doubts that fill my head Cascading up and down again
Up and down and 'round again
down and up and 'round again
Crystal Ball - Pink
There's this swing set near Shell Cottage - down by the water and away from the world - that she goes to sometimes. It's old and decrepit, and if she didn't truly believe it was fashioned from pure magic, she'd be worried about it breaking and dumping her on her arse.
It's covered in a twist of vines that flower in the spring and wilt in the fall, and it acts as her refuge all year round. She goes there when the world seems a little more cruel and the people in it a little less innocent.
And when she feels a little less than perfect.
Here she'll sit, let her eyelashes flutter close and just breathe. The waves come to rest on the shore somewhere close by, set in a rhythm that soothes and clears the mind and soul. This is the one constant she feels she has in life, and she's been coming here for as long as she can remember. Even though her feet can touch the ground now and she's known the beauty and hurt of love and life, this swing still has the same gentle creak it has alwaysalways had as she sways back and forth. It's like something tangible, a solid proof, that some things can and do last forever.
(She's been having her doubts, see?)
But she knows that this is not her reality, just a momentary escape. This is okay, really, because it works - if only for a little while. After all, that's all she needs to collect herself yet again – to patch up those walls, restore order to the chaos of her (racing, racing) thoughts and maintain the facade that's become her life.
The one that has the world seeing only beauty and pedigree and charm and grace and utter perfection.
The one that covers the insecurity and fear and pressure and the fact she has no idea who she really is.
So, yeah, she's basically a walking cliché - the perfect little princess girl with the world at her feet and no fucking idea of what to do with it.
But here none of that matters just now, because she's got her swing and a little while.