Cinderella Phenomenon One-Shots

Perfect

Lucette always loved to dance.

The simplicity of the movements. The fluid motion that made her body twist and move and spin without having to truly think.

Dancing had always been easy for her. When she was young, maybe four or five, she could remember dancing with someone in her room. Them spinning her around and dipping her and jumping around with her, it wasn't really dancing, but it was her first memory of it, and it was what got her started with her passion for it. She wished she could remember who she was dancing with, the person who gave her this one good thing, but it didn't matter now. She had made it her own.

Her mother had actually encouraged her dancing, saying a princess had to know how to dance, and how to dance well. With multiple different people and multiple people personalities.

She learned that you can tell a lot about a person through how they dance, their culture, family life, relationship life, and sometimes, if you paid enough attention, what a person was thinking. Her mother taught her how to do that when dancing with someone. She had made it into a little game whenever they had balls and dances at the castle, who was thinking what, who liked who, who could she get gossip from, etc. It definitely made her life in the castle more interesting, especially after her mother died.

But, dancing changed for her after the death, it made it into less of a game or an enjoyment into more of a necessity. It was still a passion of hers, but, it was less for just fun and more as something to cope. To feel at ease for at least some part of her day. Even if it was for an hour, a minute, a second, anything was enough for her to just let her shoulders rest and for her mind to clear.

So, whenever things got particularly bad, when things made her hands shake and her voice quiver and her throat tighten and for tears to want to bridge her eyes, she would excuse herself to her room. And if someone was there, like a maid cleaning or something similar to that, she would go to the garden, since no one ever went there, well no one besides her. Anyways she would go somewhere where she was alone and she would dance to an imaginary tempo. It was always the same, maybe a little faster or slower to hard or gentle depending on her mood, but it was always the same simple tune.

Even now, when she wasn't in the castle anymore, and a part of the Marchen, she still snuck away to the forest. There was a clearing, a smaller one than the one the knights trained, where the trees gave enough cover that it was near impossible for anyone to notice she was in there unless they followed her there.

It was quiet there, which she definitely liked, and it reminded her of her garden back at the castle. When she was too tired to dance she would lay back on the ground and stare up at the stars, they were a lot better to view there then they were at the castle through her window. They danced across the sky much like her, if only she were as free as they were.

Dew, trees, flowers, and the night air would always fill her sense and she would finally be lost in the silent buzz of the wilderness instead of the chaos of civilization. The green of the trees and navy of the sky with splashes of white across the sky would be all she could see, and it was all she needed after a long day.

And today was a long day.

She groaned and rubbed at her eyes, she was on the couch with Delora at her side and Parfait in front of her. Today was not her day. Really the last few months haven't been great for her, but today? Today was probably the worst.

"I'm so sorry, Lucette, but we thought you deserved to know."

She moved her hand up rub at the sides of her forehead, eyes closed, and head pulsing, "I know. I get it. I'm just...really tired. Could I just have a minute to process this?"