DATE: February 2010
AUTHOR: LosingInTranslation (losingntrnslatn,
Jennifer)
DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything
associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from
time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: T for Teen
PAIRINGS: J/D (Josh/Donna)
WORD COUNT: 668
SUMMARY: Josh shares a quiet
moment reflecting on a painful part of his past.
A/N: So, I was watching
some episodes for another story I'm working on when someone puts out an idea
for a prompt in another fandom, but the episode I was watching TOTALLY called
for a J/D fic, so I had to obey. WAY
in the future ficlet.
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way
I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS!
And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day,
and thanks for taking the time to read.She loved to
play with his hands. Her fingers delicately dance over every wrinkle, tracing
every line, back and forth for the last few minutes of every day. It was their
little ritual at the close of every day. And it’s Josh’s
favorite part of the day.
ONCE UPON A TIME
Her
soft golden hair rests on his shoulder as they talk about the day and she plays
with the lines in his palms. As Josh breathes in, the scents of cotton candy
and roses fills him with a perfect feeling of bliss. She is his completely, and
hangs on every word as he rambles on about the day. His life is spent living in
the great wide world, but his heart lives in that perfect soul tracing along
the dark purplish scar in the center of his palm.
She
is always so gentle when she reaches that visible reminder of the day he almost
went too far. When she stops at the worst part of the scar, he knows what comes
next. “Does it still hurt?”
“Right now, it kind of tickles.” Her gentle giggle in
his ear fills him with a warmth that spreads out from
his chest.
“Tell
me?”
Josh
sighs with her question. This is part of the ritual. She wants him to tell her
about the scar, she always does.
“Please?”
The pleading in her tone turns the corner of his mouth into a smile.
“Okay,
but first…” He rolls away from her and out of the bed to cover her with the
blanket and tickle her armpits as he kneels down on the floor next to her bed. He
tucks the blanket around the giggling little girl and kisses her forehead. “Gotta get you snug as a bug.”
Her
bright beaming smile shines in the dim light of her bedroom as she begs,
“Please, Daddy? Please tell me the story?”
“Okay,
okay… Once upon a time there was a very handsome and brave prince, and he slayed dragons every single day up on the battleground
called Capitol Hill. The dragons could never beat the prince, so he started
getting really cocky.” He pushes her curly locks away from her face as he speaks.
“And
then one day, when he least expected it, the trolls came out from under the
hills to attack him, leaving their mark on him and the prince lost all his
confidence. He became very sad. He was
so sad, he didn’t even fight with the dragons and none of his friends
recognized him anymore.” He holds her hand between his, comparing the sizes of
them with a sense of wonder.
“Then
what happened, Daddy?” She always gets anxious before the ending.
“And
then one day, the prince became so sad, he thought about giving up and just
becoming one of those ugly old trolls all covered in purple marks and living
under the hills. So, he put the mark on his own hand and it really hurt.”
“And
then?” The gentle voice over his shoulder asks and he turns to find his heart’s
other home standing in the doorway.
He
continues the story, looking over his shoulder with a different kind of wonder
in his eyes. “And then the beautiful princess, who always knew what was in the
prince’s heart, came in to rescue him from turning into a troll. She called the
Great Wizard Leo to conjure up a magic spell, curing the prince from ever
wanting to be with the trolls again.”
Josh
turns back to the little girl in bed. “But it took him a lot longer to finally
see the princess for what she really was, because he was a dumb boy and they
don’t appreciate princesses the way they should. And it’s a good thing for
princes that the princesses are really super patient and can wait for them to
grow out of being so dumb.”
The
girl’s brow crinkles up into a very serious expression when she asks, “When
does that happen, Daddy?”
Without
hesitation, Donna responds, “Mommy is still waiting, sweetheart.”