Please read while listening to 'Cinderella' by Steven Curtis Chapman. :)
He watched her dance, her beautiful white dress swirling around her legs, a look of blissful happiness on her delicate features.
She was quite good, he reflected.
He remembered how she used to trip over those same high-heels, and how she despaired of ever being able to walk in them, much less dance.
He remembered the first time she came to him, a shy smile on her face, her voice sweet as it said 'Daddy please', as she asked for a dance.
How she told him that this boy was everything she had ever dreamed of.
Everything she had ever wanted.
It wasn't hard to believe, to tell you the truth.
He was a handsome boy, to be sure.
Hair so black it seemed like a shadow itself, eyes that he had once heard his daughter call 'stormy', and a body toned, with Quidditch no doubt.
He was intelligent, courteous, and he looked at her like she was the light of God itself.
Everything that a man could ever want for his daughter.
And yet...and yet, he couldn't help but feel helpless.
Lost.
For so long, she had been his little girl, with her shining tresses always free as she ran to him for a favor.
And now...now, she was his.
She was this little boy's, this boy who suddenly seemed to think he could sweep her away, off to another life, one filled with more happiness than before.
His wife told him that it was simply a father's protectiveness, but he knew it was deeper than that.
Somewhere, deep down in his heart, he knew that only sadness could come out of this beautiful couple, dancing their way to a mortal heaven.
Somehow, he knew that they would go through hardships unheard of, and that no matter how he wished, oh no matter how hard he wished, they would never end.
He knew they would lose each other time and time again, each time they would come together, something else would tear them apart.
Until there was nothing left to tear.
Nothing left to break.
It was to prevent this brutal unhappiness that he protested, wasn't she too young to get married, to settle down with one man?
But the look in her eyes when she asked, "Please, Daddy...please?" broke his heart.
A father's love, he now knew, revolved around nothing but his daughter's happiness.
It didn't matter how much he hurt knowing what was to come, because he had to live in the moment for her.
All he could do was hope, just hope and hope and hope that perhaps he was wrong, that maybe they would be happy forever, and that beautiful glow surrounding her would stay throughout the coming days, weeks, months and years.
And though he knew the truth...he hoped.
He hoped for that girl and that boy, so newly married without a care in the world, without a sight other than each other in their eyes...
He had nothing left.
But Hope.
So I was just listening to that song, and I was overcome by the need to write, you know? And this is what came out. :P I agree it's unpolished, and is pretty hasty in its form, but hey, whatever. :) I might revise it a bit later, but I doubt it, lol.
As always, please read and review!
~Fanta-Faerie
