sunburned | (no subject)

Entry tags:

julie,
timeloop

(no subject)

Cowardly as it makes him, he decides to avoid the hut. At a loss of where else to really go, he ends up at Julie and Maddie's door, knocking and then leaning his forehead against the doorframe, waiting for her to answer. He wonders if any of what's happened shows on his face. He feels like it must be etched there, inches deep.

Even if he was gone for barely any time at all.

"Julie?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"She does have her moments," he says, somewhat grudgingly. "And I'd not be without my time with her. Not for all the world."

It's so clear how much he loves her that it makes me sad he's forced to be without her here.

"I could turn to piracy if you'd like," I offer, only half joking. I am not a replacement for a dragon, but I would try, for him, to recreate part of the experience.

"I think I've had more than enough of that in my time, thank you."

For an officer in his Majesty's Air Corps and a coal merchant's son besides, John Granby could effect a surprising level of primness when it suited him.

"If I want to be a pirate, I'll be a pirate."

For the daughter of the aristocracy, I can be remarkably prone to rebellion.

I jump up from the table to fetch the copy of Peter Pan that I've filched from the library (the bookshelf is not that kind to me, but it just didn't feel like home without it around), which I bring back and place on the table for John.

"For if you get bored. It'll explain everything, Captain Without a Hook."

She teases him often - he's used to it. One eyebrow raises and he reaches out, picking up the book.

"I'm almost afraid of what will happen if the two of you ever meet," he says.

"Next time you go visiting, take me with you and we'll find out."

I know people have no control over when or where the island might send us, or if we'll even come back, but I hate the idea of him being in some other world I can't access instead of in a hut just a few minutes from my own.

"I like to think we'll be great friends. If she likes me at all, that is. I don't know how I'd get on with dragons."

"I think you'd get on with her," he says, toys th the rim of his teacup, face thoughtful as he considers it. "She wouldn't view you as a thread, anyway, although....she has always encouraged...that. She liked Little. I think she just doesn't like to think of me as lonely."

"I can't see a dragon being much threatened by me. Unless they're much smaller than I imagine, or can be talked to death." I can tease myself, too. I sip my tea and smile at him over my cup. "I'm an entirely different sort of company for you, but she and I do have that in common."

"They can be terribly insecure creatures," he says, leaning back in his chair. "And she can manage to be discreet, most of the time, at least."

"Maybe I am a dragon, in the body of a girl." I may still play a good game of confidence, but I know myself well enough to recognize what my time with the Gestapo did to me. "Still no fire breathing, but you never know what might happen here."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only