story by:Tess2645/Kdoc27

*Disney/Magical Tales-Innovage Inc. **{D/MT-II(TLM)}

The sound of the book hitting the floor made Marco smile into the kiss...Dylan trying to bend far enough to pick it up...without breaking their lip-lock, started him giggling!

Dylan had to let go of him...or drag his laughing husband off the bed.
He finally gave up...sighing as he stared into Marco now watering eyes, smiling slightly, though his eyes glowed with desire..
"Keep that up...and I'm liable to forget your 'delicate' condition." Dylan said, trailing the tips of his fingers lightly down Marco's blushing cheek...

After all these years, the sound of Marco's laughter...the way his eyes sparkle when he smiles...
Add in the soft flickering candlelight...
Dylan couldn't help getting... a little bit lost.
He knelt to pick up the book, his eyes never leaving Marco's.

Marco, watched, enchanted, as Dylan's eyes changed from their usual light clear almost sky-blue; darkening even as they grew soft with memories of other times...with candles...

"Little-Maui-on-the-Lake..." Marco spoke softly against the finger that brushed lightly over his lips.

For their fifth anniversary, Dylan had surprised him(after saying he couldn't miss the game tonight)with a Luau-style party on the lake-shore. His husband had used what looked like hundreds of flowers and flower-scented candles to try and re-create the feel and fragrance of an Hawaiian evening...

Their hotel-room had also been filled with flowers and candles...
...rose-petal strewn sheets...
Marco wearing only a lei round his neck, and a daffodil in his hair...

Dylan glanced at the flower from the breakfast tray...looked speculatively at Marco's hair...
"Dylan!" Marco said with mock disapproval. "Our daughter is gonna think her dads are a couple of dirty old men!"
"Nope." Dylan replied;"She'll think her 'dads'" (Dylan's eyes twinkled as he grinned unabashedly)"Must love each other very much!" The quick peck he gave Marco's nose effectively silenced him.

Dylan thumbed through the pages to the place he wanted, going round to climb onto the other side of the bed. When he glanced up Marco had the flower in his hair...and a lovely blush on his cheeks.

Dylan, resting his head against Marco's chest prepared to begin...
Marco, recalling Dylan's reaction to the last story he'd tried to read from the book of original fairytales, decided he'd better warn him now.
"Um, Dyl, which story are you .."
"The Little Mermaid of course, since we can't watch, I can read it to her."
"Yeah, about that, maybe you should go for the Disney version."
"Why, I mean I know we have it in that collection that Ellie gave us, but It looks awfully short."
"Y..yes.."
Just one word.
But you could say a lot with just one word...

Dyaln's shoulders dropped and tensed in the same motion.
'Great!' He thought. 'What have I done now...'
He'd been holding his place in the book with one finger...but he just laid it down and flopped on his stomach on the bed.

Dylan stretched.
Closing his eyes...breathing slowly...deeply.

'No.' He thought..'He didn't say 'I'm wrong', not really...'
Reaching both hands out, doing a full-body stretch.
'And...It's not really a lecture...just a 'Marco Explanation'!' Dylan smiled to himself; knowing it couldn't be seen through all that hair.

Marco had asked him, since he wasn't playing, if he'd let his hair grow.

At the party after his last game he'd gotten wasted enough to tell his teammates he wasn't cutting his hair till after their child was born. Of course there were bets taken that he wouldn't make it!
Good thing he hadn't promised not to shave, the itching would have driven him nuts!

So what if remembering why storms bothered him hadn't made them STOP bothering him.

Knowing that Marco didn't MEAN to make him feel 'wrong' or 'dumb' didn't help him not feel that way either!

It wasn't facts...
It was FEELING!

He could choose how he wanted to feel.
Wouldn't father 'Mo be proud!

This thought brought a smile,...one that was still on his face as he rolled closer to Marco, opening his eyes...

Yeah...I can choose how I want to feel.
Right!
Marco...
With that half apologetic look on his face...the flower in his hair.
That smile...above the soul-patch he'd agreed to grow back.
With that half apologetic look on his face...the flower in his hair.
Fine...let him lecture...I still get to lay here and enjoy the view!

Grinning at his beautiful, more-desirable-than- anyone-has-a-right-to-be love, Dylan tapped the book that rested between them on the bed. "O.k., what?" He asked softly.

"Well, that'll be the original story...do you remember it.?" Marco asked, somewhat cautiously.
"Yeah, right!" Dylan laughed, rolling his eyes.

Marco could read his incredibly gorgeous, but sometimes just as incredibly dense hubby almost too clearly most of the time.
And right now, he knew Dylan was expecting(we won't say DREADING!) a lecture! But he'd also noticed that since they'd started reading to Rosie(as she would always be to Dylan) that his big, tough, zombie-movie-loving husband would never read anything potentially frightening to her.

She would probably never get to hear Hansel and Gretel; the Little Match Girl, and the Gingerbread Man were on his 'No Way' list too.
Marco remembered some of them from when his mother used to read to him and had Dylan read, or at least skim them before sharing them with their daughter.
This one just sorta snuck up on him, It had been just last week...

After exercising with the dvd Dr. Levinson had him using now, Marco sat in the rocking chair in Rose's corner of their bedroom; a mug of herbal tea on the small round table next to him. Rose was quiet now; no more of the twitches that he thinks of (smiling at this foolishness) as her way of exercising with him.

When the other Del Rossi/Micalchuk team, the uncles had come over for their first visit, they'd noticed the bookcase right away...
George and Giuseppi(each with his own handmade furniture shop) had immediately begun to chew Dylan out for the 'kit' he'd (" Bought!" "You wuss!") to build it with. They were somewhat mollified by the beautiful bed that he was 'properly' building from an antique design.

Marco chuckled remembering the look on Dylan's face when both men had started to yell at him.
At the same time! His own uncle in French, Marco's in Italian!

Gently rubbing his belly; where Rose had settled into her 'nap-time-curl', Marco said: "Yes, my little angel, I'll be taking my nap soon too! Now, lets see...what shall we fall asleep with today?"

Instead of one of the larger, one-story books, Marco had pulled out the collection Paige had given them; the one with a gold 'star' next to each story that she and Alex had also given them a movie version of. About half-way down the list of contents, The Little Mermaid, one of his favorite movies, caught his eye.

As he flipped the pages Marco vaguely remembered that he'd read this story once, years ago...but only once.
The picture on the opposite page wasn't at all cheerful, in fact it gave Marco an odd, uncomfortable feeling...sort of like at the beginning of one of Dylan's 'zombie' movies...

'Oh, well.' He thought, 'After all it was written in eighteen hundred ..something!'

As Marco began to read, however, the feeling of foreboding grew... The king's mother, going around with oysters attached to her as a sign of 'high-rank'(!) ..sounded pretty uncomfortable!

The girl in this story didn't sound anything like the lively inquisitive Ariel: she seemed so sad...like someone who already knew they were doomed. She had the statue of the prince in her garden, but with a weeping-willow planted next to it... When she finally go her turn (She had to wait till each of her sisters had their own separate turn to go to the surface; when they reached the age of fifteen) she had to wear eight oysters...and yeah, she said it did hurt!

The prince came into the story in much the same way as in the movie, but after that things turned sad and gloomy again.

When Marco got to the part about humans having short lives, but with souls that last forever, and merpeople living longer though they had no souls...he stopped reading aloud. Skimming through the rest, he quickly understood why he'd never read this story again.

Dylan had one arm round Marco, his other hand gently rubbing over his husband's belly; as if little Rosie needed soothing too, after hearing all this. The look of horror on his face made Marco wonder if Dylan might not need calming even more!

"This is supposed to be a fairytale?" Dylan asked.
"Yeah, and I'm not too crazy about the pictures either!" Marco told him. In the few pictures of this poor nameless mermaid, she was either topless, or nude, with only her hair to cover her!

Dylan leaned down to where his hand still rubbed; not realizing he was doing it till just then, and spoke to her like she could understand him.."Sorry Rosie, this version's gonna have to wait...like maybe till you're 40!"

Marco laughed, and kissed his husbands cheek.
Dylan was able to smile then, as his arm tightened round Marco. 'Thank you god... for Disney!' He thought, 'And a special blessing on whoever did the re-write on this one!' What he said out loud was "So, little miss hard-azz..." Marco glared at him, frowning and glancing down at his belly. "..as nails!" Dylan went on, getting elbowed by a still glaring Marco.
"O.k...Ellie, does have a soft thoughtful side...who knew?" Dylan laughed, ducking the pillow Marco threw at him, as he got up to get the Disney collection Marco's best friend had given them.

After restarting the cd at the beginning, and returning with Disney:Enchanted Tales*: the first of the boxed two-book set, Dylan grabbed a pillow, got comfy again, and started to read.
"It was the day that all the undersea kingdom had been awaiting..."**

The shocking truths about the original story had completely distracted Dylan from his nervousness about the storm.

Marco played with one of the long strawberry-blond curls.

Listening to the music, the now more distant rumbles of thunder(it puzzles Dylan how Marco can find thunder exciting, but rain relaxing) the rain... and Dylan's voice.

dylan.

Dylan!

Dylan Allen Micalchuk-Del Rossi!

Ten years married...and it still seemed like a miracle.

And it wasn't like this was the first time he'd read to Rose...

THEIR DAUGHTER!

It just...always did something to his heart...something so sweetly piercingly beautiful...

Marco lay there, swallowing..breathing slowly and deeply... He didn't want to spoil the film by crying.
Dylan had forgotten about the camera...but Marco hadn't!
This one would most certainly be transfered to dvd...and copies made!

When Dylan got to the fireworks at prince Eric's party, Marco was yawning...
By the time Ariel heard Max barking...he was asleep.

And suddenly, Marco was looking down on all this again...like he was when it started...
Looking down at his own past..

He wondered where Dylan was...
What he was doing...

Tags: de grassi marco/dylan fanfic, mpreg1st marco forever