A/N: I'm planning on adding these "flashback" chapters every ten chapters or so. Here's the first one. Enjoy!

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Canada's Funniest Home Video #1

Fee aged 5 • Luke aged 7 • Darcy aged 9

"Girl Time"

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"So, Princess Fee..." Victoria addressed the pretty little girl bedazzled in pink taffeta from over the rim of a dainty tea-cup belonging to Melanie's finest set of china.

Ophelia stuck her tiny pinky primly outwards as she finished sipping from a tiny, delicate porcelain cup and set it on the matching saucer. (Thank you, Amazon.ca.) She tried and failed to keep a poised, regal expression on her face as she turned her attention to her Aunt Victoria, who was dressed in a long, flowing, silky summer dress for the occasion.

Aunt Victoria was always so pretty, thought Fee. Just like Mommy. And Aunty Alison too.

Victoria's dark eyes sparkled mirthfully as she glanced around Melanie's ornately-decorated dining-room table. The polished oak surface was draped with a lacy, cream-coloured table cloth and set with gold-rimmed teacups, saucers, and side-plates. At the centre of table, two steaming pots of tea and coffee in elaborately-designed china teapots sat amidst vases of flowers, plates of sugar cookies, princess-themed cupcakes, cake-pops, brownies, mini cucumber-and-cheese sandwiches, a cheese platter, sliced fruits and veggies, and several other tasty treats. And, of course, Vicky's specialty and everyone's favourite, chocolate-covered strawberries set onto cake-pop sticks, lathered and drizzled in three different kinds of chocolate and dipped in an assortment of sprinkles, skor-bits, and chopped-up mini-marshmallows.

They may have gone a little overboard, as per usual.

"Since this is a princess tea party," Victoria began conspiratorially, "And we are all princesses at this table..." Ophelia and Sienna exchanged excited, giddy looks with one another as they listened to Aunt Victoria's gentle voice. Victoria leaned in towards both of the little girls seated across from her and confided lowly, "It's time to decide what your princess superpowers are."

Ophelia gasped, surprised. She looked to her right to where Melanie was spreading strawberry jam and thick Devonshire cream onto a buttery golden scone. "Mommy! Princesses have superpowers?"

Melanie gave her daughter a sage wink. "Of course they do."

"Mom! What's your princess superpower?" Sienna, dressed in a sparkling, baby-blue Cinderella dress with matching slippers and a tiara, asked Alison.

Alison swallowed a bite of chocolate cake extremely slowly as she wracked her brain for something impressive but honest. "My princess superpower..." A leisurely sip of tea, "Is that I get to read lots of books at my work, and I get to wave my magic wand and decide which books get sold in the store, and which books have to get thrown in the garbage."

Ophelia and Sienna stared at her blankly for a moment, apparently unenthralled by Alison's successful career with a major Canadian publishing house.

"That sounds like a boring superpower," Sienna commented frankly, shaking her head and chomping into a slice of watermelon.

Alison grabbed a floral-printed paper napkin and quickly dabbed away the juice that dripped down the corner of her daughter's mouth. "Well, not everyone gets to have an amazing superpower like Aunt Victoria."

Melanie stifled a laugh into her napkin and the three women exchanged a knowing look. Good luck coming up with something good, Victoria.

But Victoria didn't look fazed. Her deep, silky chestnut hair was done up in gorgeous up-do with strands falling gracefully around her face. All the moms did their make-up and hair so, so pretty but Ophelia thought that Aunt Victoria's artful, sparkly, glamorous pink-and silver eyeshadow was just incredible.

"Well, look around the table, Princess Fee and Princess Sienna." Victoria waved a well-manicured hand at all the goodies spread across the table. "My superpower is that I am a fantabulous baker. I can bake cookies, cupcakes, brownies, and a gazillion other yummy things. Isn't that an amazing superpower?"

Both girls nodded vehemently. "Your chocolate-covered strawberries are magical, Aunt Vicky!" Ophelia took a messy bite from the strawberry and smeared chocolate all over her fingers in the process.

When the kids weren't looking, Vic gave Alison a saucy wink that said, my superpower is better than yours and Alison playfully flashed her the finger in return.

As soon as Mel finished wiping her up, Ophelia looked at her mother and asked excitedly, "Mommy, what's your superpower?"

Melanie's brown eyes glimmered mischievously. She was still a little... well, high, from the way her husband had left her that morning, with three orgasms and a decadent new diamond bracelet. An early anniversary present that Gavin figured Princess Melanie would like to wear to the princess tea party that day.

"Well," Melanie confessed. "My princess superpower is..." She took a coy sip of her coffee before explaining, "That I can ask my Prince Charming to do anything I want..." She gave her daughter a mischievous wink, "And he will usually always say yes."

Alison rolled her eyes, smiling, and Victoria chuckled knowingly.

Ophelia giggled a happy round laugh and asked, "Is Daddy your Prince Charming, Mommy?"

"Yes, he is."

Just as they were about to discuss Melanie's magic powers in further detail, the sound of the front door opening a distance from the dining room got the mothers' attention. They shared a confused look as they heard the raucous sounds of their husbands and sons begin to fill the house.

This was supposed to be some quality, uninterrupted girl time, uncontaminated by male influence. The boys were scheduled for go-karting, ice-cream, hamburgers, and a couple other testosterone-driven activities, after which they were supposed to end up at Dylan and Victoria's house for a movie so that the girls could have their quality time in peace.

Apparently someone didn't quite understand the plan.

"I'm just gonna go check on why the princes are interrupting our princess tea-party," Victoria decided, rising from her chair and striding out of the room so her flowing light-pink dress swooshed around her ankles and her silver high-heels clicked against the hardwood.

Normally, there were no shoes allowed in the house, but they made an exception for the princess tea party because getting all dressed up was a rare luxury that the moms wanted to take full advantage of.

If Melanie had to guess, Dylan got confused and thought the tea-party was at his house instead.

Men.

"Mommy, do I get to meet my Prince Charming?" Ophelia asked earnestly, resting a tiny palm on her Melanie's bare forearm.

Mel pinched one of Fee's soft little cheeks and promised, "One day when you're all grown up, you'll get to meet your Prince Charming too, pumpkin."

That was a satisfying enough answer for Ophelia because she immediately went back to devouring her cupcake. Vicky really had outdone herself. The cupcakes were piped with large, rainbow buttercream flowers and splashed with silver sprinkles.

Like she'd pulled them out of a unicorn's ass, Alison mused.

All four girls turned towards the entrance of the dining room when the sound of Aunt Vic's heels became more pronounced, accompanied by the patter of little footsteps.

Victoria entered the room, holding onto Luke's soft little hand. The seven-year old was definitely not dressed for a princess tea party. His jeans were covered in mud at each knee and his thick brown hair was all messy and disheveled. There was ketchup streaked over the top of his light-grey t-shirt and more dirt smudged across one of his round cheeks.

"Apparently there was some car trouble," Victoria explained.  "Flat tire. Ran over a nail or something on the interstate. Dylan is out dealing with that while Gavin and Zach brought the boys home." She shook her head ruefully. "They got the houses mixed up, of course."

So apparently Dylan wasn't to blame, this time.

And so maybe Melanie's Prince Charming didn't listen perfectly to everything she said.

Luke's eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. So. Many. Treats.

"Mel, I just wanted to see if I could borrow some of Darcy's old clothes, if you have any? This little guy is pretty stinky."

"I should have something lying around," Melanie agreed, rising onto her feet. Her salmon-coloured dress ended mid-calf and looked incredible paired with the golden wedge-heels she was wearing.

"Why are you guys... so fancy?" Luke asked, gazing around the room at the dresses and make-up and tiaras and sparkles and jewellery. Woah.

Ophelia slid off her chair after her mother and landed, a little unsteadily, onto her pink plastic Sleeping Beauty sandals. The entire outfit was an overpriced purchase from the Disney store but thankfully Fee's daddy enjoyed spoiling her every now and again. "We're having a princess tea party, Luke!"

Luke blinked his big brown eyes a couple times as little Ophelia skipped towards him, a swath of sparkly pink fabric and boundless energy. "Are you a princess, Fee?"

Luke let go of his Mom's hand as he and Ophelia came to stand in front of each other. He was a good head taller than her and stared down at her, taking in her changed appearance fascinatedly.

Fee nodded vehemently, grasping the edges of her pink skirt and dipping down into a practiced, slightly wobbly curtsy. "I am a princess." Ophelia suddenly remembered the conversation from earlier and frowned. "But... I dunno what my princess superpower is."

Luke laughed, shaking his head. "Princesses don't have superpowers."

Ophelia crossed her arms indignantly. "Yes they do! Mommy said so."

Victoria chuckled and gave Luke's shoulder a squeeze. "I'm going to go with Aunt Mel to look for some clothes for my handsome prince here. Be back in a second."

Luke's attention was immediately drawn to the table laden with all sorts of delicious goodies while Fee was suddenly fixated on Aunt Vic's parting words.

But... Luke didn't look like Prince Charming. He was all messy and smelly and tattered.

Ophelia's busy mind began sifting through all of the princess fairytales her parents read for her in an effort to put together a sensical definition of 'prince charming'.

In the Frog Prince, the little girl had to kiss the ugly frog before it turned into Prince Charming. But in Sleeping Beauty, the handsome prince had to kiss Princess Aurora so she could wake up from the evil spell.

Hm.

There was lots of kissing in fairytales.

"Aunty Ali, can I please have one of the chocolate strawberries with sprinkles?" Luke asked.

Alison plucked the strawberry from the plate and held onto the stick carefully, passing it to Luke with a napkin.

"But Mom, this is a princess tea party," Sienna protested. "Only for princesses!"

"It's okay, Sienna. Princesses are generous and like to share," Alison explained.

Luke began to munch on his strawberry while Fee bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, preoccupied.

"Luke," Ophelia asked, grabbing onto his arm and stepping closer. "Do you wanna be my Prince Charming?"

A piece of hardened chocolate fell off the strawberry onto the floor and Luke looked down at it in dismay.

Ophelia bent over and picked it up with two delicate fingers. She held it out to Luke and placed it gently in his outstretched palm, neither of them seeming to care that it was getting all melty and crumbly and gross.

"What do Prince Charmings even do?" Luke inquired, licking the chocolate off his hand.

Ophelia pursed her tiny chocolate-stained lips thoughtfully before deciding, "They have to do whatever the princess wants, and give her lots of kisses."

Luke didn't like the sound of that. "That sounds boring," he decided, chewing on a juicy, sticky mouthful of strawberries and chocolate.

Ophelia stomped her feet and pouted. "Please Luke? Pretty please? I'll give you ten thousand chocolate strawberries when I grow up."

Luke's eyes went as wide as saucers. "Promise?"

Fee nodded her chin determinedly. "Pinky promise." She held out her pinky finger and he grasped it awkwardly in his and they gave their twined hands a little shake to seal the deal.

Ophelia batted her long brown eyelashes and held onto Luke's hands, leaning in towards him and offering him her cheek. "Now you have to kiss me."

So Luke planted a tentative, chocolatey kiss to Fee's right cheek, his body hindered by the large, fluffy pink mesh skirt of her dress.

Ophelia pulled away and wrinkled her nose. "You smell yucky, Luke."

"You look pretty," he replied, not letting go of her hand.

That made her smile a big, goofy grin.

"Mommy!" Ophelia shouted excitedly when Melanie returned moments later. "Luke's my Prince Charming!"

"That's nice, pumpkin."

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A/N:

🥰

I want Vicky to be my mom. Just saying.

XOXO Ami

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