just listen

The creature was pulled away, and Ariel’s eyes moved to fixate on the man who’d controlled him, only to bring the brightest of smiles to her face.  It was him.  Her human, the one she’d wanted to find.  It must have been fate, she thought, for her search to be over before it even began. He took off the thing around his shoulders and wrapped it around her own, She swore her heart picked its pace up considerably, and her cheeks flushed red. At his question, she opened her mouth, about to answer verbally, but nothing came out.  It dawned on her then how difficult the next few days would be.  Ariel nodded, smiling up at him.

He was sure he would recall a girl quite as lovely as this one had she been from the village and he hadn't even began to think about why exactly she was clad in a makeshift dress. "I can escort you ba... Oh forgive me M'lady. I haven't even introduced myself." He was already on his knees beside her so he could only offer her a dip of his head. "I am Sir Eric."

Her smile grew shy, letting his fingers intertwine with hers, then graze along the side of her hand. The question lingered unsaid in the back of her mind if he wouldn’t mind taking another dance with her….if he wouldn’t mind leaving his date to spend a little more time together if she did the same—no matter how morally wrong that suggestion was.  She wanted to test the waters, see if what she had thought about him was right.  But then he spoke, and what he said brought a breathy laugh, “So are you.”

"You bring it out in me I guess, Br..." He said with a self conscious dipping of his head. He'd almost said her name then but it didn't fit. Brooke wasn't what he wanted to call her. There was something else. A name that belonged to her.

 It was hard to even notice what was going on around them with how smoothly they carried on.  Dancing with Matt was like she’d never stopped, like there hadn’t been nearly twenty nine years of being out of practice.  Almost as if she had never even changed partners.  Maybe she’d found her first dance instructor, the one she’d sold her voice to meet…maybe, just maybe, she had found Eric.  It’d explain how easily they fit, the ease of dancing, and how she still had a crush on him even when she knew he was at the dance with someone else.  How she still wanted to get closer despite having a date herself.

There was something tugging at his mind and at his heart. Something older than he could explain and more a part of him than he dared to imagine. It was taking control of him now. Changing the way he stood and making him alter the way he held Brooke's hand. Twisting slightly to lace his fingers through hers. It was better that way he thought as his thumb traced the side of her palm before coming to rest on her wrist, just over the pulse point. The way he was sure he remembered doing a thousand times before but surely that couldn't be right. "I." He began dumbly. "You're a good dancer."

For most of the night, she had been trying to be a sub-par dancer.  She wouldn’t deny that.  But she had said she had two left feet to her date, and she hadn’t wanted to seem a liar.  With Matt, however, she wanted to seem competent, so she straightened her posture and squared her shoulders.  All the while she second-guessed herself, biting her lower lip until he placed his hand on her waist, when her stomach tied itself into knots, her head feeling strangely lighter, urging her to put her hand on his shoulder.  At his step forward, she mirrored it without a moment of hesitation, moving her left back to follow him.

Matt had never been the best dancer but he could hold his own on the floor when he wanted to but that little inkling of a talent seemed amplified a million times now that he was spinning with Brooke. Each move flowing smoothly into the next without even so much as a thought. The sounds of the band were fading away, the song being replaced by an other that he swore he had heard in a dream once before. 

On my own.  And I did a decent job.  I’m rather proud of this first step toward being a homemaker. I’m going to celebrate by getting a slice of pie at Granny’s.

Brandon not hired that maid then?

I like movies about dogs, this isn't one of them.

Yes! I mean, sure Eric isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier buuut the story is charming and cute. And then they have a dog exactly like ours! What’s not to like? 

There's a dog?

[starts chuckling a little, saving that comment for when Matt remembers] Yeah, the stupid looking… “prince”. We’re going to watch it tonight to try and change your mind! 

Does it really matter that I don't like a dumb kids movie?

To be fair… she’s only a mermaid for the first bit. Then she’s a beautiful human girl! 

And the stupid looking prince who falls in love without even speaking to her?

You…..don’t like that movie? WHY?

Come on Matt, it's about mermaids. Anyone over the age of five has no interest what so ever in made up fish girls.