SORRY, I DON'T KNOW WHY MY COMPUTER KEEPS SPITTING OUT THAT WEIRD STUFF.
A/N: I cannot get enough of this song, 'A Million Dreams' from the Greatest Showman. I suddenly had this thought of a young Darcy singing this, seeing his parents in love and wanting the same when he got married. I don't own the song or the characters.
Young master Fitzwilliam Darcy walked down the great hall of Pemberley, his home. Along the hall were pictures of his ancestors depicted in large portrait paintings. His progress down the hall halted when he paused to look at his parents' portrait together. He sighed longingly and closed his eyes.
"I close my eyes and I can see the world that's waiting up for me, that I call my own," he could only imagine the day when he came out into society. Opening his eyes again, he looked down the hall where he could hear laughter. It was his mother's. Continuing down the hall he peeked through the door to spot his father dancing with his mother.
"Through the dark, through the door, through where no one's been before. But it feels like home," he smiled, seeing his father place a loving hand across his wife's growing middle.
Going back down the hall and upstairs to his room, he thought about what he wanted in a marriage. He wanted to have the love his parents shared with one another. To be respected and valued by his wife for being him and not for his wealth. He sighed.
They can say it all sounds crazy. They can say I've lost my mind." He frowned, shaking his head in determination, "I don't care; so call me crazy. We can live in a world that we design."
He climbed on top of his bed and bowed to an imaginary girl standing across from him. Fitzwilliam pretended to dance, and he smiled.
"Cause every night I lie in bed; the brightest colors fill my head. A million dreams is keeping me awake. I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see. A million dreams are all it's gonna take," he stopped and bowed to his 'lady', "A million dreams for the world we're gonna make."
He flopped down in bed and pulled the covers over him to sleep.
Fitzwilliam woke up the next day and visited his mother before finding something to do for the day. He paused at the nursery room that was being prepared for his new baby sister or brother. Leaning his head against the door, he smiled.
"There's a house we can build. Every room inside is filled, with things from far away." Fitzwilliam walked into the room and picked up a toy for when the new arrival came. "The special things I compile. Each one there to make you smile, on a rainy day."
The ran to the stairs and climbed on the banister to slide down, "They can say it all sounds crazy. They can say we've lost our minds. I don't care if they call us crazy. Run away to a world that we design!"
Years later… Fitzwilliam Darcy is now twenty-seven.
He came down the last step of the staircase and walked down the hall. Servants bowed to him as he walked past them. It was still strange to be the master of Pemberley. He sighed.
"Every night I lie in bed, the brightest colors fill my head. A million dreams are keeping me awake." He stood straight and as still as possible while his valet finished tying his cravat for the ball. Darcy wanted to sigh. At the ball, he weaved his way through women who only saw his wealth. None of them really cared for him as a person much. Stealing himself to a balcony for fresh air, he thought of his old dreams, "I think of what the world could be. A vision of the one I see. A million dreams is all it's gonna take. A million dreams for the world we're gonna make…"
In a small county called Hertfordshire, a twenty-year-old Miss. Elizabeth Bennet sat alongside her window in her nightgown. She thought of her dreams of finding her soul mate. The one she would marry. She didn't require him to be wealthy at all unless he was wealthy in love for her.
"However big, however small, let me be part of it all. Share your dreams with me." She smiled at the imaginary arguments they might have, "You may be right, you may be wrong, but say that you'll bring me along. To the world you see. To the world I close my eyes to see, I close my eyes to see…"
Darcy braced himself on the stone wall of the balcony, looking up into the night sky, "Every night I lie in bed, the brightest colors fill my head. A million dreams are keeping me awake."
Little do either Darcy or Elizabeth know, they are wishing the same thing.
Elizabeth sighed, "A million dreams are keeping me awake…"
"A million dreams, a million dreams!"
They wish on the stars singing together, "I think of what the world could be. A vision of the one I see. A million dreams is all it's gonna take! A million dreams for the world we're gonna make!"
"For the world we're gonna make."
Darcy refrained from sighing just before he turned and walked back into the ballroom.
A year later in Hertfordshire Darcy sees a young woman who he makes eye contact with for a split second before looking away quickly. Just because his friend asked him to join him tonight, did not mean he was going to lower himself to dance with strangers. His heart had grown cold over the loss of his parents and then his failure with his sister this past summer. Only after he had rebuffed a young woman at this country assembly did he feel heat enter him again.