Ever After - Ella Enchanted AU

Ever After - Chapter 10

Marinette didn't sing very often, and when she did it was often on her own in the comfort of her own bathroom or bedroom where no one else was there to spectate. But she had been given a command which meant her closet songbird act was no longer a secret.

She started to sing, quietly at first, an old song that her mother would hum when she and her father would dance around the kitchen. It was barely audible, even to the giants standing before her with their, well, giant ears that should have been perfect amplifiers.

"Can... anybody... find me... somebody to love." Marinette hummed, her voice flitting through the air like a butterfly in erratic flight. Adrien sat just behind her, mesmerized as she took the stage with Alya bouncing on the balls of her feet just behind.

She sang through the first verse of the song, starting out rather timidly before growing in her boldness, having to compete with the music as the band quickly picked up on the tune. Their backup vocals, a few giantesses who had been singing with the band, even started to fill out the verse with a few well placed harmonies. Marinette had managed to loosen up some as the verses blended into one another. As she sang, she grew more confident and as she grew more confident, more was asked of her.

"Louder!" Ivan called from the front of the audience. She obeyed in an instant, singing at a projection pitch that she didn't know she was capable of.

"I work hard, every day of my life, I work till I ache in my bones," Marinette sang, her voice echoing off of the walls of the gathering hall as the audience let out a sharp cry of glee. She pressed her hand to her heart, the words carving deeper than she thought possible. "I get down on my knees and I start to pray, till the tears run down from my eyes..."

From the back of the crowd, another participant spoke his mind on the performance. "Give it a little more soul!"

Almost overwhelmed by the adrenaline, Marinette quickly reached up and pulled her ribbons from her hair, throwing them to Adrien before stepping back into her performance.

"But everybody wants to put me down, they say I'm going crazy." Marinette threw herself into the words of the song, grabbing at her head in an overdramatic fashion. "They say I got a lot of water in my brain, I got no common sense, I got nobody left to believe."

There was an instrumental after the third verse which prompted another audience request, "Dance!"

Marinette had never been the best dancer, having only taken a few ballet classes when she was younger, but that didn't mean her curse wouldn't pull out all the stops. She spun and twirled, her raven hair and long skirt billowing around her as she moved to the music.

From where he sat, Adrien couldn't find it in himself to look away, not even for a moment. He looked on in growing wonder at how this petite girl, this beautiful and firecracker of a girl, could continue to amaze him. He had heard the beautiful bell-like tones of her normal voice and the heart-racing, bubbling tone that was her laughter. This was different though, now he was hearing the sweetest, albeit powerful, voice he had ever heard in all his years. It was intoxicating, watching her move and listening to her sing the heart achingly haunting tune. He didn't know whether to dance, sing along, or grab her by the waist and twirl her around. When she threw him her bright and brilliantly red colored ribbons, he quickly leapt to his feet, unable to control himself as he carefully cradled them close to his heart.

The song quickly wound down, the music doing a slow build as the crowd chanted the words to the final chorus as the tension started to build. Marinette took to the dance more whole heartedly than she thought she would have, typically giving up the command whenever she felt it wane, but it just felt so right, dancing the night away. She couldn't wipe the smile off her face, her cheeks starting to hurt from how happy she was. She gave one final twirl as the bridge came to a close, the audience barely containing themselves at the sheer excitement of the moment. In her dizzying dance number though, Marinette's foot caught on a wrinkle in the carpet, nearly sending her stumbling over the table edge when a hand firmly grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her away from fall. She was suddenly pulled flush against someone's chest before promptly being turned on her toe and dipped dramatically as the music cut off.