Future Prince Charming
By: Miss Phyllis Baxter (knockedoveralamp)
Ship: none (subtly foreshadows the future relationship of Robert and Cora)
Word Count: 1462
Summary: Five-year-old Cora Levinson is teased by her brother all the time, but their father Isidore always takes Princess Cora's side. One day, after Harold calls her stupid, Isidore gets her a bear and tells her to name it after her future prince charming to cheer his princess up. Dedicated to my beta, settees-under-siege, which is why it's not been looked at, I couldn't have her knowing. ;)
Cora Levinson lay on her bed in tears after her brother had just gotten angry at her for no reason and told her she was stupid. Their father had rounded on him after Cora had gone running into his arms, and told Harold that he could not call his 5-year-old sister stupid. Harold was currently being punished by both their mother and father (though mother wouldn't be as tough on him as daddy would be). And so, to keep her away from the shouting, they had asked Cora to go upstairs and play for a little while. However, instead of going to the nursery, she has ran straight to her room, knowing that once Harold was released, the first place he would look for her (simply to torment her again) would be the nursery. He insulted her and teased her all the time, no form of punishment would make him stop tormenting her. He called her everything from, 'stupid' to 'daddy's girl'. She hated crying and giving him the satisfaction that he had upset her, but she couldn't help it. She fell asleep some time later, after crying herself into a state of exhaustion.
As she awoke the first thing she registered was her father sitting on her bed with a small smile. The second thing was that the sun was setting. "Daddy?" she asked, sitting up and wiping her eyes. "Are you upset with me?"
"I could never be upset with you, princess," he replied, reaching out and touching her cheek. "I'm upset with Harold. I think I finally may have gotten through to him about upsetting you."
Cora smiled and wrapped her arms around her father. "Thank you Daddy," she whispered. "Did I miss dinner? Was Nanny worried about where I went off to?"
Isidore held Cora in his arms. She was truly a remarkable little girl who was never more worried about anything than what people thought of her. That's what hurt her so much about Harold's words. "No, I told Nanny that you were just resting and to leave you alone. Cook will make you a special dinner when you want," he said. "Do you want to eat now? Your tears must have made you hungry."
Cora nodded and pushed the covers away from herself, curling into her father's arms again, knowing he would carry her down to the kitchen, and back up to his office where she would have her dinner as Isidore worked. Isidore chuckled and picked Cora up, knowing that if Harold saw her refusing to walk he wouldn't be able to say anything for fear of being punished by his father. Cora looked up at her father as he walked down the servant's staircase, and she sighed lightly. "Daddy," she started. "Why to the servants have different stairs from ours?"
"Because we have different stairs, Cora. These stairs allow for more sound to travel, and if we all used the same stairs then you wouldn't be able to take naps because of the noise," he explained. "And one day, you're going to be running a home of your own, with servants that work for you. And you'll still use separate staircases."
Cora's eyes welled up with tears. "Daddy, I don't want to leave home, don't make me go. What would I do without you, daddy?" she cried, clinging to her father tightly. "No daddy. Don't send me away."
"Princess, I'll not send you away. But one day, when you're all grown up, you'll get married and you'll have little babies. Like real dolls to take care of and love," he explained. "But when you go and get married is mostly your choice. I will never make you do anything Cora."
Cora nodded. "You mean I won't have dolls anymore daddy?" she asked, pouting. "I love mydolls."
"You can still have dolls Cora, you can never really outgrow something you love," he said, kissing her cheek softly, bringing a smile to Cora's face. After Cora had chosen a small dinner downstairs, Isidore carried her back upstairs with a glass of juice being held securely in two hands by Cora. He put her down on the little chair that he had placed with a small table in his office for Cora's use, along with things to read and a toy or two, in case she needed to get away from Harold's taunting. One time she had even held a tea party for her stuffed toys in her father's office when Nanny had told her it would take up too much space in the nursery. Cora put her glass of juice on the table and picked up one of her toys to play with until her dinner arrived. "Daddy, is there anything wrong with being a daddy's girl?" she asked. "Only Harold said it like it made me bad."
"No, princess. There's nothing wrong with it. Harold just doesn't like that you're sweet and innocent. I still love him, but you're much better behaved. His temperament is much more like your mother's, whereas yours is more like mine. Your presence is much more relaxing because it's like alone time, only better, because I'm with someone that I love," he said. "Besides, you're my little princess and it's my job to protect you from the world."
Cora beamed. "Okay Daddy," she said as her dinner arrived. She started eating almost as soon as her dinner was placed in front of her. Isidore chuckled lightly and walked over to his desk to do some things for work. The two sat in silence, Cora eating and Isidore writing. Once Cora was all finished, she stood and picked up her plate, going to show her father that she was finished. She stood for a moment as Isidore continued writing until she tapped his arm a couple times and held up her plate for her father's inspection. "All done Daddy!" She smiled proudly. Isidore smiled with pride as well. His daughter's appetite lacked fairly often and sometimes her nanny would grow impatient when she wouldn't finish all her food. He expected that it was something that would change as she got older, or at least he hoped that it would.
"Very good princess. Do you want dessert?" Cora shook her head. Obviously she'd had enough food and couldn't eat another bite. "Alright, well I have a small surprise for you that I went out and got from the shop while you were resting this afternoon." Cora tilted her head and furrowed her brow lightly as Isidore reached under his desk and pulled out a box and handed it to her.
Cora sat down on the floor and took he top off the box gently, parting the blue paper that was inside. Cora loved the paper from her father's shop, since it came in lots of different colours. Her father always made sure that she was given blue, to match her eyes, unlike the pink that was usually given to the girls. Her face turned to one of excitement when she saw a new bear laying in the box. She lifted him out and hugged him. "Thank you Daddy," she cried, climbing off the floor and jumping onto her father's lap. She wrapped her arms around him while she still held the bear tightly in her hand and she gave her father a big kiss on the cheek. "What's his name?"
"You get to name him, princess. Maybe name him after your prince charming, since his purpose is to cheer you up when Harold upsets you," Isidore suggested. Cora pressed a finger to her chin in thought (which was something she had picked up from her father, that her mother didn't feel was very ladylike) and tried to come up with a name. But she hadn't met her prince charming yet, the only one who saved her from Harold's teasing was her daddy and she couldn't name her bear after him. It would only make Harold tease her more. She sat on her father's lap for a few more minutes before finally deciding on a name.
"Robert," Cora said, looking at her bear and her father. "Robert is his name."
"Robert?" Isidore asked, prompting his daughter to say more about why she had chosen the name for her bear.
"Why not?" Cora asked. "It's the perfect name for a teddy bear and a protector. I wanted to name him after you, but I can't spell or say your name properly. It's too hard. Besides, you don't look like a teddy bear. This teddy bear is light and has blue eyes and he's what my future prince charming is going to look like. Isn't it perfect Daddy?"
"Yes, my princess," Isidore said, pressing a small kiss to his daughter's cheek once again. "It's perfect."
Author's Note: So, I hope you all enjoyed it (especially you, Shelley). So this was based off of a conversation she and I had about Robert being a fierce protective teddy bear, and I've wanted to write young Cora for a little while now. I always pictured her (as I'm sure many of us have done) as being a Daddy's Girl who got everything she wanted and only the finest things in life. So Shelley, I really hope that you like the first story where Robert is a (legitimate) teddy bear who is going to be a fierce protector of Cora. He will appear again.