Okay, so this story came from reading LoveBroadway1510's story A Perfect Story (seriously, go read it) late at night. (I really need to stop that. It makes me stay up too late.) So I don't want you to think that this is only my creativity at work here. I'm actually hard at work on a second chapter, so expect that some time soon!

As always, I own nothing.

"Alright," Mary announces, clapping her hands together. "That will be quite enough of that, thank you very much!"

The two girls immediately stop jumping on their twin beds. "Oh, Mary Poppins!" the older one exclaims, "We couldn't possibly sleep now! Too many wonderful things have happened today!"

Today, Mary had worked with the girls on their history homework. Lessons are always learned well and quickly with Mary Poppins as a teacher.

Normally, lessons weren't exactly Mary's domain, but she has been with the family far longer than she normally is with any family. The sad truth is that she doesn't want to leave. The girl's mother had run off right after the youngest's third birthday and is rarely, if ever, heard from. They're being raised by their father, but Mary knows he's feeling overwhelmed.

"Is that so? Suit yourselves. But do hop down from there immediately before someone gets hurt."

Both girls scramble to do as they're told. "Tell us a bedtime story!" the youngest—Hattie, a precocious five-year-old with a gapped-tooth smile—demands.

"Oh yes!" her older sister, Isa- definitely not Isabelle- agrees.

"Certainly not," Mary sniffs. "I do not follow orders from young girls who aren't in bed."

Isa pulls the covers back on her bed and Hattie follows suit. "If we get in bed," Isa negotiates, "Will you please tell us a story?"

Mary tucks Hattie in snugly. "I'm afraid I don't know any bedtime stories," she apologizes.

"That's okay!" Hattie exclaims. "You can make one up!"

Mary sighs and moves to sit in the armchair. "Oh, very well," she agrees.

There's a knock at the door. "Come in!" Mary calls.

The door swings open to reveal Isa and Hattie's oldest sister. "Charlotte," Mary greets her, careful not to use the diminutive Lottie since the eleven-year-old has decided she hates it.

"Father just called to say he's running a little late," Charlotte explains. Mary has to smile—in her quest to be grown-up, much to her father's chagrin, Charlotte has taken to calling her father "Father" and her sisters by their full names.

"Mary Poppins is telling us a bedtime story!" Hattie informs her happily. "There's going to be a prince!"

Mary fixes her with a stare. "And who said anything about a prince, may I ask?"

"All good bedtime stories have a prince!" Isa insists.

"Everybody knows that!" Hattie continues.

Mary looks to Charlotte for reinforcements but she just shrugs sheepishly. "It really is true."

Mary knows when she's beat. "Well, if I must, I suppose I must. We'll start with a man—I suppose he is a prince in his own right."

"Is he charming?" Hattie asks.

"Of course he is!" Isa cries. "All princes are charming!"

Mary smiles. "He was, indeed, quite charming."

"What did he look like?" Isa asks.

Immediately a picture forms in Mary's mind. "Well, he had brown hair. And no matter how he tried, he could never seem to get to lay perfectly flat or to stay in place. Even when he was meeting with very important people, his hair was always a mess," Mary describes, a soft smile playing on her lips.

"Did he meet very many important people?" Isa questions.

"Oh yes. Even maharajas and kings bowed to him!"

"Why?" Hattie pipes up.

"Well, he was quite kind. You could see it in the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled. And kindness will get you everywhere in the world. So even though he was only a prince, kings treated him as an equal."

"So where's the princess?" Charlotte asks, crossing her arms as she hovers in the doorway.

Mary glances at her. "Who said anything about a princess?"

"Every prince has a princess! That's how stories work."

"In this story, the princess doesn't arrive until later. This story isn't about the princess."

"Well, then who does the prince talk to?" Charlotte asks, miffed that her suggestion wasn't taken immediately.

"Perhaps if you three would let me tell the story, you would find out!" Mary chides gently.

Charlotte flounces out of the room but Isa and Hattie settle in. "We'll be quiet," Isa promises. "Lottie just likes to be difficult."

"We'll start with a castle, long ago," Mary narrates. "That is where the prince lived. He had everything he could possibly ever want, but he was lonely. You see, no one would ever challenge him. He was so universally liked that no one ever wanted to upset him.

"Often, the prince would go walking around his grounds alone. One day, he was admiring the clouds in the sky when he bumped into a woman who was walking and reading a novel. Without looking up, she berated him for not looking where he was going. He quickly pointed out that she was the one with her nose stuck in a book and wondered what could possibly be so interesting. When she looked up, he was prepared for her to start bowing and scraping, but that's exactly what she didn't do."

"Why?" Hattie asks.

"Well, you see, she wasn't just any lady. She had a touch of magic about her."

"An enchantress!" Isa breathes, looking proud of herself for knowing such a long word.

Mary laughs. "Alright, she was an enchantress."

"So what happened?" Hattie wants to know.

"She offered to read the book to him."

"Was she pretty?" Isa inquires.

Mary smiles. "Oh, I like to think so."

"She looked like you!" Hattie decides. Both Mary and Isa stare at her. "What? Mary Poppins is very pretty!"

"Alright," Mary assents. "She looked like I do."

"They're going to fall in love, aren't they?" Isa says.

"Wait and see!" Mary chuckles.

"Then tell!" both girls cry.

"Every day, they would meet under a beautiful oak tree and read to each other," Mary continues. "The prince would reenact scenes from the story and they would laugh. The enchantress had never laughed so hard or so much in her entire life. Every day, they'd meet and every day, they'd spend less time reading and more time talking. Oh, they were a pair! He balanced her perfectly. You see, when dealing with magic, you must be quite concerned with perfection, but he made her forget all of that for a few minutes. She brought out the best in him—at least she thought she did—she challenged him a way that no one else could or would."

"They fell in love?" Isa butts in.

"And slowly, surely," Mary smiles, "they fell in love."

"I knew it!"

"Did they kiss?" asks Hattie.

Mary laughs. "They did."

"True love's kiss!" Isa applauds.

"Something like that."

"So what happened?" Hattie tries to steer back to the story.

"They became inseparable. Where one went, the other would follow. If they were separated for any reason, they could always find each other again. Many of the prince's subjects suspected that he would propose. But somehow, for all her magic, the enchantress had no idea. She knew the prince loved her, but the thought of marriage never entered her head."

"Were they happy?" Isa yawns.

Mary smiles softly—a nostalgic, melancholy smile. "Blissfully so."

"And they loved each other?" Hattie continues, her eyes losing the battle to stay open.

"Very much so."

"Did they live happily ever after?" Isa drowsily inquires.

Mary gets up and tucks both girls in. "In their way," she assures them.

"Good. That's good."

Mary clicks out the light and closes the door, allowing herself one last glance at the now sleeping girls.

"So what happened?"

Mary nearly jumps out of her skin at the urgent question. "I beg your pardon?" she asks shakily.

"Between the enchantress and the prince!" Charlotte exclaims from her spot on the floor next to the door. "You didn't finish the story!"

"I said they lived happily ever after."

"No, you said they lived happily ever after in their way. That's not the same thing at all! And you said there was a princess. What happened? Did the prince propose to the enchantress?"

Mary sighs. She can see that Charlotte will not be letting this go any time soon. "He did."

"What did she say?"

Mary tries not to sigh again. "Well, you see, she had a choice to make. Though the princess made her whole, though she loved the prince with all her heart, she also had a duty to the people of the kingdom. Being married would put herself before the very people she worked so hard to protect. And in the end, she knew she couldn't let the love she had for one person take precedent over the whole country."

"Why?"

"Because that would be selfish and she had spent her entire life being selfless. Besides, she knew that she could never give him everything he wanted, everything she knew he needed. He'd never be truly happy with her as a wife."

"So she said no?"

"She said no."

"What happened after that?"

Mary swallows, taking a moment to blink back unfortunate tears. "The prince got angry, of course—angrier than she'd ever seen him. Both of them said things that shouldn't have been said and… the enchantress left the kingdom."

"What happened to the prince?"

"He found a princess who could give him all that the enchantress couldn't. Someone far more suited to him," Mary says sadly.

"Did the enchantress find out? What happened? Did she put a curse on them?"

"No, of course not! In fact, she went to their wedding."

"That isn't a happy ending at all!" Charlotte cries out.

"It is, in its own way. Not every happy ending involves a wedding."

"Mary Poppins?"

"Yes?"

"That story was true, wasn't it?"

"Every story has a grain of truth in it," Mary evades.

"But the enchantress—she was you."

Mary smiles cryptically. "You have an extraordinary imagination, Charlotte. Never lose it. But now I do believe it's time for you to go to sleep."

"Maybe the story's not over yet, Mary Poppins. Maybe there's still a happy ending on the way," Charlotte comments.

"Goodnight, Charlotte."

"Goodnight, Mary Poppins."

I'll try to post the second chapter really soon! (Yes, there really is more!) But in the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts!

-Juli-