In the most innocent moments of Dan Howell's childhood, you'd often find him in his back garden. Just twirling around in circles with a huge grin spread across his face that could brighten up anyone's day. In his head he was dancing. Dancing with his prince.

Dan had always loved stories where the prince would dance with the princess at the ball. Or the more modern day ones where the two princes would dance together. Of course at the time Dan didn't understand that before it wasn't acceptable to for two men or two woman to marry. But now equality had been won and the view of love is love was accepted by pretty much everyone.

Dan always loved dancing. Of course he never did any particular type of dancing like ballet or tap, but he loved to waltz with himself. Just spinning around with that small smile, watching the autumn leaves fly by him in the slight breeze.

If he wasn't in the garden dancing with himself, he could be found in the play room. The play room was a large room which contained all of his 'boys' toys but also a single old dolls house stood in the middle of the room. It had belonged to his great grandmother and had been passed down the family. This in turn was Dan's favourite toy. He'd sit for hours in that room moving the small wooden dolls in his hand acting out some little story he'd made up.

"What are you doing here Mackenzie?" Dan said in some deep voice which sounded funny rather than serious like he wanted. He moved the wooden doll which was painted to have a green shirt on as he spoke.

"I'm here for you, Ryan, I love you and want to marry you!" he said in a slightly deeper voicing, pausing for a moment to laugh before continuing with his little story. "I want to be with your forever!"

"Oh, Mackenzie. You've made me the happiest boy in the world!" he said softly as he moved the red doll over to the green one. His small smile turned into a grin as he gently pressed the dolls faces together to make them kiss.

To Dan, a kiss was something that was very important. It stood for something that other simple gestures like hugs could never mean. when you kissed someone, it meant you were in love with them. Of course when he'd told other people this, they'd found it really weird. Most normal nine year olds didn't care what a kiss meant or how special it was. But Dan knew that his first kiss would be special and with the man he was going to marry. No matter how long he had to wait, that was going to happen. Dan was determined it would happen.

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At night times you could find Dan cuddled up in bed, his eyes wide with wonder as he listened to his mothers words. She'd tell another story she'd made up just for him, smiling softly at her child's expression.

"So then the lovely prince gathered up all his riches and jewels and left the castle. He wanted to find the boy he was going to marry, no matter what he had to go through. And sure enough the prince found him in a small poor town a few miles from the castle. He gave his riches and jewels away to the poor which needed them. The town wasn't poor after that and the love of his life fell in love with the prince because of what the prince did for the boy's family and town"

"Wow…" Dan exhaled softly as he smiled, his eyes flickering up to his mum's to smile at her. He loved stories like this best. His mum had always liked to tell her stories with a slightly real twist so Dan wouldn't think that real life was like a fairy tale. They always had something that did actually happen in society. Real issues, if you would.

"And when they finally had a moment alone together was when they finally, and properly fell in love. The prince whispered in the boy's ear that he was perfect and they were meant to be"

"And then they got married and were together forever and ever, right?"

Dan's mum only laughed in response, a smile tugging at her own lips as she gazed into her son's wide excited eyes. "Of course they did. In fact, soon after they had their own little prince"

"Mummy…do you think there's a prince somewhere out there who will think I'm the boy for him? Like in the stories?"

Dan's mum gently ruffled her child's hair as a small laugh escaped her lips "Of course there is Dan. There is someone out there right now who is just waiting to find you"

Dan grinned, sitting up slightly more in bed "I bet he's going to be really beautiful and take me to lots of dances and want to marry me!"

"Of course he will. He'll find you at just the right time when you need him. Just like in the stories"

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"I had a dream last night about a man on white horse. I just had to look into his eyes to know he was the right one for me. It was love at first sight, just like in a movie"

He heard a sigh from across the room before his mother's voice filled the air "Dan, listen. I know I told you all those stories when you were younger, but…" she closed her eyes for a moment before looking straight into Dan's "Love isn't all about romance. Love is something you work towards to make it perfect. There is no such thing as perfect unconditional love"

All Dan did was smile even though he was a little confused at his mum's words "I know mum, but my love will be perfect. He'll come sweep me off my feet and we'll live happily ever after"

"Dan, look. You're fifteen now. This pretence that life is perfect and everything will be okay needs to stop. You're not a little kid anymore. You're growing into a fine young man" she sighed once again, taking a step towards Dan "I just don't want you to get hurt"

"…I know mum. But it's okay, I won't get hurt. I'll find him. I'll find him and it'll be perfect. You'll see"

And with that he stood up and left the room, leaving a now terrible feeling mother for even trying to shatter her son's perfect dreams.

So then a slightly confused Dan began to go over what his mum had meant. He closed his eyes with a small sigh as he lay back on the brown sheets of his bed.

'I don't care what anyone else says. I'm waiting for you. You'll come and sweep me off my feet, I just know you will. It'll be exactly like in all those romantic books I've read. Mum just doesn't want me to get hurt by the wrong guy. But I'll only ever let the right guy into my heart'

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The dull candle light of the church made Dan's head hurt. Why was he even doing this? This wasn't right, he didn't want this at all.

"Dan? Come on. He's waiting for you"

"I can't do this dad"

"Dan…come on. Don't do this now. We literally need to walk through this door and down the isle" he gently squeezed Dan's arm, flashing him a quick smile. Dan's dad was anything but a bad man. Dan didn't think too highly off him at that moment because of this situation. But he was still loving enough to be considered a good father.

The music began as Dan took a deep breath in some sort of attempt to calm himself. "Ready?" his father asked softly as he gave his son's arm another little squeeze.

"As ready as I'll ever be"

Dan couldn't help but close his eyes as he heard the first note from the organ. His eyes opened to see the many smiling faces of friends and family all staring at him. He supposed he should have been smiling as he walked down the isle but he couldn't even bare smiling. This was supposed to be the happiest day of his life. The day he'd dreamed about since he was a little kid. Yet here he was wanting to cry more than smile. This was a nightmare. An actual living nightmare.

As they arrived at the alter Dan's father flashed Dan a small smile before stepping to the side to join the other witnesses overlooking the ceremony. Dan tried not to look too sad or disappointed as he looked into Phil's eyes. To be honest even Phil didn't seem to be too happy. Maybe he'd hoped Dan would be happy on such a special day. Or maybe Phil was just as unhappy as Dan was. But no, of course Phil had to be happy. He had to be happy since he wanted to marry Dan in the first place.

"You look nice, Dan" Phil said softly, breaking Dan out of his thoughts.

"Yeah…you too" he replied, biting his lip as he refused to met the dark haired man's gaze. He quickly thrust his hand out, looking up for a moment to only catch a glimpse of the surprise in Phil's eyes before looking down again "Come on, lets get this over with"

A frown took over Phil's features as he gently took Dan's hands in his own. "Of course" Phil replied, turning to the priest who was watching them with unease. It was completely obvious to everyone in the room how uncomfortable both men where and just how awkward the whole situation was "Let's begin then?"

The priest nodded, looking from Phil to Dan and back before speaking clearly "Indeed. Let's begin"