Hearts Afraid Of Breaking Chapter 48: Gold Forever (Various), a tudors fanfic

A/N: Hi, GreenField here, very glad to be back! The song is Gold Forever by The Wanted set to multiple pairings - Charles Brandon/Princess Mary (Margaret in the show), Henry/Anne, Elizabeth/Robert Dudley, Mary Boleyn/William Stafford and Anne Seymour/Francis Bryan. Please review and thank you for reading.

Say my name like it's the last time,
Live today like its your last night,
We want to cry but we know its alright,
Cause I'm with you and you're with me,
Butterflies, butterflies..we were meant to fly,
You and I, you and I..colors in the sky,
We could rule the world someday, somehow but we'll never be as bright as we are now.

"Now is not the time for weeping!" Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, twirled his new wife the Princess Mary Tudor around the great hall of their home, "How long has it been since we desired to be wed?"

"Oh, such a very long time!" Mary cried passionately, wiping her brimming eyes, "I just wish that we could share our happiness with everyone. If Henry would only – "

"He will learn to trust us again, in time" Charles spoke gently, but he could not rid himself of the huge grin that spread across his face as he looked upon her beautiful face, "Come, Mary, now is a time for celebration! You know what they say, don't you?"

"What?" she looked so terribly lovely, even with red eyes and a running nose. Charles took her face between his hands and planted a firm kiss on her lips.

"When you love each other, you have to treat every day as though it is your last. And we love each other, don't we?"

"Of course" she smiled at him, glowing like a typical Tudor sun.

"Well then! Mary, we are young and powerful and you, at least, are beautiful – "

"You are" she interrupted coyly, and her eyes twinkled with sudden mirth. Charles laughed warmly.

"See? This is why I married you. You're good for me, Mary" he intertwined his fingers with hers, "We have everything, you and I. Everything anyone could ever wish for. You do know that, don't you?"

Mary looked up at him, and he could see that there was a laugh bubbling up inside her.

"What?" he frowned, bemused, "What did I say?"

A giggle burst forth and her red lips stretched into a stunning smile, "We really do have everything! Charles...I'm pregnant!"

We're standing in a light that won't fade,
Tomorrow's coming but this won't change,
Cause some days stay gold forever.
The memory of being here with you,
Is one I'm gonna take my life through,
Cause some days stay gold forever.

"Can you believe it?" Henry kissed Anne's neck, but she was in no state to respond to such advances. They were standing at the window of their marital chambers, watching the multicoloured fireworks that shattered the sky and sparkled just for her on her coronation day.

"No" Anne replied faintly, leaning into his strong arms, "Today has been...the most wonderful day"

"Yes" Henry agreed, smiling; he had so wanted Anne to be happy, and now he had given her everything she had ever wanted, and all he had ever wanted for her. Now she just had to give him what she had promised, and they could be happy. He cradled her belly in his hands.

"I never imagined..." Anne was almost lost for words, an unusual occurrence, "When everything was happening with Catherine, and the divorce, I sometimes wondered...if it would ever actually happen. And now it has, after all these years...it feels like a dream"

"It is all real" Henry beamed, pleased to see this new, sensitive side of his lover, "You are my wife and my Queen of England, and you carry the heir to the throne in your belly. You no longer have to dream"

"I won't ever forget this day" Anne whispered, and, moving away from him, she splayed her long white fingers against the cool glass of the window, as if to catch the fireworks like stars and hold them forever.

Promise me you'll stay the way you are,
Keep the fire alive and stay young at heart,
When the storm feels like it could blow you out remember,
you got me and I got you..cause we are, butterflies, butterflies..we were meant to fly,
You and I, you and I..colors in the sky,
When the innocence is dead and gone,
These will be the times we look back on.

"How can you possibly expect me to be happy? My poor brother is dead, my cousin is in the Tower and Mary distrusts me so much that I am sure she watches me even now, somehow. What have I to be happy about?" Princess Elizabeth asked her childhood companion, Robert Dudley. Young and beautiful with porcelain skin and hair like a flame, Robert could not take his eyes off of her; she glowed with colour in the desolate moor they rode across.

"You are the heir to the throne now. You are next, and you will be great!" Robert replied enthusiastically. Elizabeth pierced him with her mother's dark, entrancing eyes.

"That is treason"

"It's a matter of fact" Robert concurred, "You know it is"

"Mary may yet have children if she marries the Spaniard"

"No! Elizabeth, Bessie – "

"Your Highness" she corrected, eyes twinkling. Robert smiled at her.

"Your highness, then. Don't you see, Mary won't ever have children! She's much too old now, as barren as her poor old mother was, and then you will rule. Everyone wishes for it to happen. Elizabeth – your Highness – you are going to be Queen"

"Hope is a fickle friend" replied Elizabeth, tossing her head, "That is what life has taught me. We aren't children anymore"

"No" agreed Robert, "We're in a much better place. Nothing will ever be so good as it is now. You'll see"

William Stafford hopped from foot to foot, as silly as a court jester, along the dining room of the small cottage that he and Mary Stafford, nee Boleyn, shared. His stepson, Henry, smiled at him from where he sat, legs languidly stretched across the table. He had grown so tall, and so fast!

"Don't worry, Father. Cat is with mother, and she doesn't sound in pain"

"That's because your mother is very brave" William retorted, "She – "

But he never got to finish his sentence, for his stepdaughter Catherine, slender as a willow-reed and pretty as her mother, emerged from the bedroom he and her mother shared. She smiled knowingly when she saw him leaping about the room, and brushed down her simple grey wool skirt.

"You can go in now" she said warmly, "All is well"

William beamed in relief and nigh pushed past the poor young girl to see his wife and their first child together. Mary sat up in bed with her golden hair loose about her, rosy cheeked and heavy eyed, but smiling glowingly. He rushed to her and kissed her hair, peered at the bundle in her arms. Their newborn babe squinted up at him, fussing, with a small rosebud mouth and his hazel brown hair and the dark eyes of birth.

"A daughter" Mary confirmed, seeing his quizzical look, "Just as you guessed"

William's smile grew and he kissed her again, this time on her lips, "Well done, my love. Thank you"

She laughed, a pretty, musical laugh, "Would you like to hold her?"

William cradled the girl gently, warily, in his arms, his eyes softening with love at the sight of her, "Will we call her Anne, like we said?"

"Yes. Please" Mary nodded fervently, and William nodded in turn.

"She will never be as loved as she is in this moment" he murmured. Mary squeezed his hand.

"Here's to many more" she chuckled wryly, and closed her eyes to sleep.

I won't, I won't let your memory go cause your colors they burn so bright,
Who knows, who knows what tomorrow will hold but I know that we'll be alright
'Cause we're
Butterflies, butterflies..we were meant to fly,
You and I, you and I..colors in the sky,
We could rule the world someday, somehow but we'll never be as bright as we are now.

"Francis...what are we?" Anne Seymour raised her gaze to meet that of her lover's, whose chest she was sprawled across. They had been sleeping together for nearly half a year now, and, despite the fact that she was married, Anne was beginning to fall for her dark, dashing lover.

Francis Bryan raised a quizzical brow, "We're adulterers. Is that what you meant?" he knew it was not. He didn't like to talk after sex, usually, but Anne was different. Him and Anne knew a lot about each other by now.

"No. Are we just...lovers? Or are we more than that?"

"You mean, is this a relationship?"

"Yes. That is what I mean" she swept up her long red-brown hair, a movement that he observed with interest. Francis looked thoughtfully at her. He didn't give himself up easily; women were demons and many of them had turned his head before breaking his heart. He somehow did not have such inhibitions with Anne – and he felt sorry for her, being married to such a cold fish as Edward Seymour.

"Yes, I suppose it is" he hesitated, with a wicked grin, "For today, at least"

"Francis!" she laughed, pinching the tender skin under his ear with her nails to make him shriek in pain, "I mean it!"

"Yes!" he cried, rubbing the mark she had left, "Yes, alright it is!"

She grinned, satisfied, and moved away from him, "Oh, good. That's what I wanted to hear"