Elvis One Shots/Imagines

How's the World Treating You - Elvis & Lisa Marie

A/N: I know this is probably different from what you wanted, but it's been on my heart and after analyzing the meaning of 'purple rain' I felt it fit. For stqrgirli .

She didn't know how to describe the feeling, though did anyone really? It went from a dizzy, dusky morning to a cold sweat. It covered you all at once yet not at all. She could feel as her heart took awkward jumps, as her limbs fell to the floor in the kitchen, and as her fingers inched towards something other than the cool tile. The light went out.

It didn't return until later when her body was moving at a quick pace, hands all over her abdomen and pressure on her chest like no other. Her eyes flew open, her mouth desperately trying to form something but unable as an oxygen mask was forced over her. Then, the blue eyes that bore so much resemblance to her fathers fluttered shut with the warmth of the vehicle. She could hear the patter of rain against the ambulance door. Constant and loud.

Then it was just cold. Cold, cold, cold. Cold on her hand as an IV was shoved in, cold on her toes as she lay on a cold table where cold hands pushed onto her chest. A cold set rings on a warm set of hands, holding hers, and whispering things she couldn't decipher. Love. Love for her? Love as a nickname? Was love her name? God, could she not remember her own name? That voice was familiar but familiar didn't mean known. Love could mean so many things and she just floundered inside the empty shell of her soul, searching for who said it and why. She wanted her Mama. Her mama... Her Daddy. She wanted her comfort again but now she was alone. Didn't they say you saw your life flash before your eyes before you died? If this wasn't death what was it?

Then suddenly she opened her eyes. The cold bed she was sprawled across was gone and she stood motionless in an abyss that far more resembled her fantasies than a reality. That same rain from earlier spattered across her cheeks. It was warm and she tilted her head back to feel the water cascade down her skin. A hug, tight but not squeezing as it filled you, body and soul. It was rejuvenating. The same ache that made her heart and mind weak seemed to fall away with the touch of the purple rain. She opened her eyes quickly. She hadn't seen that it was purple, but as she held her hand out she felt it. The gentle hue of it, clear yet purple all at once.

"Baby..." the voice was inviting, full of emotion. She couldn't believe it, dare death try to fool her with some twisted imagination. But behind her, her father stood with a sad smile. It was happy, he couldn't not be happy. However, she saw in his eyes all the sadness of the world.

He cleared his throat twice before he could get a word out, and his voice was a punch to the gut. It was him. Daddy.

"I missed you, baby." He held his arms out, and she fell into his touch. There he was. It was like being a child again, wrapped up in the never ending strength of a father.

"You left so early," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

His hands were strong yet kind as they stroked her hair, soft words in her ear. "I never meant to cause you any sorrow, any pain."

She was sobbing now. Full hiccups onto her daddy's shoulder as he kissed her forehead. He was so proud of her, he said, he missed her. He couldn't believe he was seeing her so soon, and the moment was bittersweet but at least he had his baby. Sweet nothings that weren't really nothings, they were everything's and she was hiccuping and hiccuping and hiccuping and sobbing. When had she started to sob? Those tears blended in with the tears of the purple rain, coming down thicker as it consumed the two of them.

But her daddy didn't hesitate, didn't stop to cry. He only parted from her, holding that sweet face in between his large hands and saying, "how's the world been treating you?"

She laughed a sad little hiccup. He smiled, "there she is. I only wanted one time to see you laughing."

The rain came harder now, blurring the line between daughter and father. She didn't know where her tears started and the rain began, but she felt the warm hands holding hers and that old voice ringing out, a laugh in his words, "I only want to see you laughing
in the purple rain."

Maybe it was the chaos of the moment, the swirling clouds of purple rain pelting her and her daddy until all she saw was varying hues. Maybe it was the fact she was seeing her daddy, hugging her daddy. Maybe it was the fact that old ache that tore through her didn't tear no more, and she was weightless in a weighted world. Maybe it was the fact she felt like she'd heard this all before on some radio before her mother clicked it off to talk about the anniversary of something big... it all seemed so irrelevant now. But she threw her head back and she laughed in the purple rain.

It wasn't just a giggle, it was a full belly, kind of ugly laugh that made everyone else around you laugh. And soon she could hear the husky laughter of her father in her ear. She laughed and laughed, twirling around in the drenching weather and letting it hit her very soul. But it wasn't cold. She was simply dancing in the purple rain.

"Come on baby.." that calloused hand grabbed hers and she looked up to see her daddy again, smiling fondly at her. Again those bittersweet eyes. She didn't know why but she laughed again. He smiled, "you can't seem to make up your mind."

Her brows came together in confusion and he turned her towards a bright light that now transformed into something different. Home. The word made her throat clench. Though the image was sunny, it was outlined in that husky, purple rain. Graceland.

Green lawns and white walls, covered by a musical gate. She gasped. And her baby, Benjamin, leaning against one of those Grecian pillars with a lazy grin on his face.

Her daddy opened his arms wide, this time there was nothing bittersweet in his gaze. It was warm. "Let me guide you to the purple rain, Lisa Marie."

Rest in Peace
Lisa Marie Presley
1968-2023

A/N: if you feel in any way I've disrespected the Presley's let me know. This is meant to honor them but I understand the sensitivity to the topic.