Hey everyone, I just wanna quickly say many thanks to everyone for reading and to those leaving a review :) I appreciate it all so much. Thank you!
Also in this chapter, I have mentioned another fictional country from another of my favourite films. I needed a country and this one popped up in my head and thought it would work perfectly. But like writing for this fandom, I'm making no money for mentioning it. All credit goes to whoever brought us such wonderful films.
Now, I hope you enjoy this chapter ;)
"Well, grandma, I gotta say in a space of two days, just two, you have completely changed. You were so collected, so prim and proper before," Mia said standing in front of her grandmother with a small shake of her head, as the next song began to play. "I just never imagined you this way. It's very strange."
"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" Clarisse asked, unable to figure out which it was.
"Oh, it's most definitely a good thing," Mia smiled.
"Well thank you," Clarisse smiled and placed her hand on her chest. "Honestly, I feel like someone else, I don't know it's hard to explain, but inside, I feel different."
"It's called being in love grandma, and yes I know that you two were, you know, sort of an item already, but you couldn't really allow yourself to fully love him until now. And boy what an impact it's had on you already," Mia smiled, a twinkle in her eye.
"It really has, I feel young again," Clarisse smiled and slipped her arm around her granddaughter's back as she moved to stand beside her, "and it's all your doing."
"Hey it's not my doing, I'm not the one you married, it was grandpa," Mia exclaimed and they both laughed as she put her arm around her grandmother's shoulders.
"No, I meant with what you said to me in the church yesterday, if you hadn't said that I wouldn't have found the courage to ask him and we wouldn't be here now. I wouldn't be his wife," Clarisse said somewhat sadly.
"And he would still be retiring," Mia asked and watched as her grandmother nodded. "How sad."
"It is a sad thought, indeed," Clarisse said as she looked at her granddaughter. "He wouldn't have left until you were settled as Queen, but still the idea of him leaving and nearly losing him because of my stupidity is, well, I can't even think about how close it came."
"Well I'm glad you found that courage yesterday because you are certainly made for each other," Mia smiled and watched as her grandmother averted her gaze across the room to him still sitting on the sofa at the mere thought of him. "He's your one true love."
"Yes, he is," Clarisse agreed, absentmindedly nodding as Mia smiled.
"See you can't even keep your eyes off him," Mia said and watched as her grandmother shook her head ever so slightly.
"No I can't," she said and Mia laughed. It was only then that she realised what she had said. "Hey," she exclaimed and they both laughed.
"Honestly grandma, it's lovely to see you so happy," Mia said and leant closer to kiss her cheek. "You certainly bring out the best in each other."
"Thank you, darling," Clarisse smiled happily, "come on let's go and sit down." But as they turned to make their way back over to the sofa, they saw Joseph making his way over to them.
"I'll leave you two to talk," Mia smiled at Joseph and then at her grandmother before making her way over to join the others by the sofa. Leaving them alone.
"Hello you," Clarisse smiled as he stood in front of her and leant closer to kiss her cheek.
"Hello," he smiled and pulled back while taking hold of her hands in his. "I was wondering if you would like to dance?"
"I would love to, yes," she said, flashing him a flirty smile, and while still holding onto his hands, began walking backwards a few feet, her hips swaying in time to the song playing as she gently pulled him with her, before stopping and reaching up to whisper in his ear. "Stay right there."
Raising his eyebrow in amusement, Joseph watched as she pulled back and looked up at him while pulling his arms to wrap around her waist. "Why do I need to stay here?" He asked.
"Because," was all she said before letting go of one hand and putting her hand up to cup his face, his hand instinctively going to her side, as she reached up to kiss him slowly. Pulling back a moment later, she smiled. "I wanted to kiss you, have done ever since you said my name again. And with your back to everyone it was the perfect opportunity to do so."
"Mmm, I got that," he laughed as she snaked her hand from his cheek to around his shoulders. "Someone's getting braver that's for sure," he smiled, holding her other hand down at their sides.
Smiling, Clarisse nodded as they began swaying together. "I am, I feel like a completely different person."
"Because you are, remember," he said before moving his head closer to whisper in her ear, "you're Mrs Clarisse Elizondo."
"Here Mia," Nicholas said as he leant closer to her, "they do know that this isn't a slow song playing, right?" He chuckled and watched as she turned to look over at her grandparents dancing.
Smiling, she watched as they shared another kiss before her grandmother let go of Joseph's hand at their sides and put her arm up, snaking it around his neck and locking her hand with her other hand, as he snaked his arms around her waist while talking quietly to one another. "Aww," she said after a moment and looked back at Nicholas. "I think it's cute."
"It is cute, but it's also very odd," Lilly said as everyone looked at her. "I've never seen her like this before."
"Neither have we," Pierre said, everyone looking at him.
"Oh, wow, really?" Lilly said in surprise as Mia studied her uncle. "Not even with your father?"
"No," Pierre said and shook his head. "You got to remember when my father was alive they lived a loveless marriage. Never showing love like this, not even behind closed doors. They were only together for duty."
"This must be hard for you to see," Mia asked.
"It is a little, especially since I had no idea that they had been in a relationship for the last few years," Pierre nodded as he looked across the room at his mother and her new husband dancing. "But I guess that's my own fault for staying away as long as I did."
"I'm sorry uncle Pierre, I didn't give it a thought," Mia said as Pierre looked back at her. "Maybe we shouldn't have had this little party for them after all."
"No, don't be silly. I'm glad you did," Pierre said with a shake of his head and looked back across at his mother and Joseph. "They deserve this and she's happy, they both are, and that's the main thing."
After dancing together to two more songs, they decided to take a break and go and sit back down with the others. But as they made their way back over to the sofa with Clarisse leading the way, her arms behind her back holding onto one of Joseph's hands, she noticed Mia leaning forward and putting the camera on the coffee table. "Have you been taking pictures?" Clarisse asked with a smile.
"Of course," Mia smiled. "Did you enjoy your dance?"
"Oh we did," Clarisse nodded and took her bottom lip between her teeth as she felt a hand on her hip, and Joseph's warm body close behind her, causing her tummy to flutter at the closeness.
"Good," Mia smiled and shuffled along to the end of the sofa, where she had been sitting earlier, and crossed her legs in front of her. "Come and sit down, uncle Pierre was just about to tell us a funny story about you two."
"Oh he was, was he?" Clarisse said as she glanced at her son before letting one hand go of Joseph's hand and moving to stand between the coffee table and the sofa, her other hand still holding onto his. "Should we be worried?"
"Not at all," Pierre smiled and watched as both his mother and Joseph sat down. "You might not even remember it, but I do."
"Oh now I'm worried," Clarisse laughed as she leant forward and picked up her glass of champagne from the coffee table.
"I am too," Joseph said and rested his arm along the back of the sofa as Clarisse snuggled back against the cushions next to him.
"Don't be, honestly it'll be fine," Pierre smiled.
"Okay, go on," Clarisse nodded and smiled at her son, "we're ready."
"Okay, so I was eleven at the time, and Philippe was seven. It was a few days before Christmas and because we had already broken up from school for the holidays we were allowed to join you and father on a Royal visit to Aldovia, which was a rare treat for us when we were young. We usually had to remain at home, but because it was the Christmas holidays we were allowed to go this time." Pierre smirked.
"Oh gosh," Clarisse said and put her hand up to cover her eyes when she suddenly realised what trip he was referring to. "I remember now."
"I don't," Joseph said as he turned his head to look at Clarisse beside him and smiled when he saw her covering her face. "Is it bad?" He laughed.
"It's not bad bad, but you will remember in a minute," Pierre smirked as they both looked back at him. "We were only there for two days, but when we arrived we discovered that the King, who you and father were scheduled to meet, had arranged for us to attend the town's Christmas celebrations with him and his family. There were stalls, fairground rides and an ice rink."
"Oh yes, now I remember," Joseph nodded and laughed at the memory as Clarisse looked at him.
"Both Philippe and I had begged and begged to go on the ice rink, and eventually, we got our way," Pierre smirked and leant forward for his glass of champagne on the coffee table. "We were even joined by the King and Queen, and their two children too. All except father, he wasn't interested so stood on the sidelines with his bodyguard while we all had fun on the ice," he said and took a sip of his drink.
"Then what happened," Mia asked, intrigued to know what happened. "Did you fall?"
"I didn't," Pierre said with a shake of his head, "but your father did. Mother went to help him and as she tried pulling him back up onto his feet she went down too."
"Noooo," Mia exclaimed and covered her mouth with her hands.
"Yep," Pierre nodded. "Larry, one of the other guards back then was closer to them and made his way over, along with the King, Queen and their guards. Joseph was across the ice rink with me and had missed the fall, but the moment he saw them down he shot of across the rink as quickly as he could. I had never seen him move so fast in my life," he said, averting his gaze to his mother and Joseph as they looked at one another.
"Well I had to make sure they were okay, it was my job to protect them after all," Joseph said and looked back at Pierre.
"What happened? Did you help them up?" Mia asked.
"No, I ended up joining them on the ice," Joseph said shamefully and shook his head with a laugh.
"What? No way," Mia laughed and watched as her grandmother bent her arm up and cupped his cheek.
"Where he was going so fast, to get to her, he must have realised that he would have gone straight into them if he carried on, so done a sharp turn and ended up doing a flip of sorts and landed on his back," Pierre said.
"No, oh no," Mia said, trying not to laugh. "Did you hurt yourself?"
"I did, I hurt my shoulder from landing on it," Joseph nodded.
"You never told me that," Clarisse said as she twisted her body slightly to him.
"I was alright, you and Philippe were my priority," Joseph said.
"I remember you quickly getting back up on your feet and brushing it off, you weren't even fazed that a crowd had gathered around as you moved over to mother, who was still sitting on the ice laughing with the King and Queen." Pierre smiled.
"What about my father?" Mia asked.
"Oh, Larry had got him to his feet by this point and was checking him for any injuries," Pierre said as his mother leant closer to Joseph and kissed his cheek. "And I remember looking at father, his face was like absolute thunder. He was not pleased at all."
"No he wasn't," Clarisse said as she shook her head while looking back at her son, "he was so grumpy for the rest of the day."
"For the rest of the trip more like, he thought we had embarrassed him," Pierre said. "Even though the King and Queen both insisted that it was the most fun they'd had in a long time."
"Aww, that was nice that they thought that," Mia said and looked at her grandmother, "did you hurt yourself though?"
"Only my knees from landing on them," Clarisse said and everyone started laughing over the whole memory.
"It was definitely the talking point at future events with them, that's for sure," Pierre said and took another sip of his drink.
"It was, and your brother never let me live it down," Clarisse smiled over at Pierre.
"No he didn't," Pierre said, smiling back.
"That was really funny, I'm glad you didn't hurt yourself seriously though grandma," Mia said as everyone looked at her.
"Us too," Joseph nodded and smiled as Clarisse turned her head to look back at him.
"Have you got any more funny stories to share?" Mia asked and leant to the side, picking up her glass of lemonade from the coffee table.
"I have, I have loads," Pierre smirked and looked across at his mother and Joseph. "But I think I'll save them for another time."
"Yes, please do," Clarisse laughed.
Thoughts? Please do let me know what you all think :) it's much appreciated.
