An Advanced Victorian Steampunk Roleplay discussion
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Vivian's New Start
message 201:
by
Ji Mei , The Meticulous Secretary
(new)
Jul 02, 2013 01:25PM
Joeri flushed at being caught. "Yes, um, thanks," he said as he quickly grabbed his shirt and swiftly strolled to the door, pulling his shirt on as he went. He stopped in the doorway to button up his shirt.
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Vivian dressed quickly, grateful yet again for not really needing a corset to fit into fashionable clothes meant for perfect hourglass forms. Without Bridget and with her broken arm, lacing up was impossible.Once she was dressed, she walked out from behind the screen, tucking her curls neatly behind her ears. Joeri was standing in the doorway with his back turned to her respectfully. She smiled and caught him around the waist from behind with a laugh.
"You're wonderful," she told him. "Alright. Breakfast. I'm sorry I can't cook." She frowned at that thought. Perhaps she ought to ask Bridget to teach her a few things.
He gave a small laugh. "Don't worry, I do if we need to cook," Joeri replied, moving to offer his elbow.
She took his elbow. "You read and quote Shakespeare, you're incredible with children, you dance beautifully, and now you're telling me you can cook, too?" Vivian teased as they went down the staircase.
Joeri winked. "Of course. Camping with my comrades in the military teaches you things. Especially if you taste what some of them cook up," he explained, giving a small shudder as he remembered one of his comrades who made a meal that was the most horrifying thing he ever tasted.
Vivian gave him a sceptical look. "I thought you meant you could cook real food," she said, but her eyes twinkled at him.
"Ah, yes you're quite right, my lady. But the rest of my training in the culinary arts comes from the stays at the inn," Joeri replied, smiling.
They did have good food at the Inn.Vivian sat Joeri down at her kitchen table and disappeared into the pantry. "I think I might always eat in here," she told him from deep inside the larder. "It's so much cosier than in the dining room."
He sat there, looking around, reminded of the times in the kitchen he and Anne helped his mom. "I like it here too. My family always had fun in the kitchen," Joeri said, tracing circles on the table.
Vivian emerged with a tray piled with loaf of bread, a wedge of hard cheese, grapes, and apples. She set it down on the table and rummaged in a cupboard for plates, then in a drawer for cutlery. "Your family sounds lovely," Vivian told him wistfully as she set his place for him, followed by her own. Her own family ate meals together, but such things were not occasions of love and warmth. Joseph used to take the opportunity to lecture them all together, especially once Grandfather became too ill to leave his quarters.
Joeri smiled and gave a shrug. "You could say that. Anne would get into lots of trouble though. She always manages to get flour exploded everywhere somehow."
Vivian laughed as she shaved off a few slices of cheese and tore the bread into manageable chunks. As Joeri picked up an apple and began to peel it, Vivian said, "I can see her doing that. The brief time I met her, she seemed so...wild."
Nodding, he gave a small laugh at the memories. "She does, doesn't she? Anne always lightened up everyone's day, being cheerful and rambunctious," Joeri commented. He cut up the apple into slices, swiftly and deftly. Then he placed some slices on her plate and his own.
Vivian added cheese and bread to his plate in return, then tucked into her own humble fare. "I hope I can meet the rest of them someday, Joeri." She smiled at him brightly before popping a slice of apple into her mouth, upon which she'd laid a piece of cheese.
"Me too. Plus it would be fun to show you around the shop," Joeri replied, eating a slice of bread and cheese. The sun was slowly warming up the kitchen, and as he sat across from Vivian, he wondered what if he... What if I can be with Vivian in a strong bond that will last forever? Perhaps I can ask her. Joeri thought it slowly, a subtle idea that he only occasionally mused about when he heard of comrades marrying or were already married.
"I'm afraid I'm hopeless in shops. A friend of mine - the one who made my arm...well, in his shop I was always touching things and nearly breaking them. It got to the point where I just had to clasp my hands in front of me or behind my back or sit on them." Vivian grinned and tossed a grape in the air, catching it in her mouth. Another shocking habit brought you by Benedict Kaylock.
He raised a brow at the trick, but he thought it more fun than disrespectful. He smiled and took a bite of his apple. "Then I suppose I'll just have to hug you the whole time," Joeri said nonchalantly, his blue eyes twinkling.
"But then how would I hug your mother and father to thank them for raising such a man?" Vivian asked, nibbling on a crust of bread.
Sighing, he raised his hands up in mock defeat. "I suppose we could group hug? But my father is never one to show affection."
Vivian grinned. "Yes, and apparently so were you. But I seemed successful in breaking you out of your shell. I'm sure I could melt your father enough for a hug."
Joeri gave a nod in admittance. "Touché. Though, I think my father is much more a challenge than me," he said, trying to avoid the memory of the scorn and disappointed face he saw last from his father.
Vivian saw the flash of sadness in Joeri's light blue eyes and immediately backed off the subject."I wish you didn't have to go to work today," she sighed.
Joeri glanced up at her, the horrible thought that work would soon be at the barracks and no longer at the inn in just two days. "Me, too," he agreed, taking a bite of cheese. "But the innkeeper has been lenient so far and I think I should just do a little more for him."
Vivian nodded. "I know. I should send him something to thank him for lending you to me all the time.""Joeri," she said after a moment, "do you think you'll keep working at the Inn even if you stay here with me during leave?"
Tilting his head, Joeri never considered it before. His brow furrowed a little as he thought. "I'm not quite sure. I don't have any other occupation so far. I assumed I'll keep on working there, but I suppose I can always have another job. But who would hire someone like me who only comes back for three weeks or less with months in between?"
It was a very good point. "Well. It's not something you have to think of now, right?" she said with a smile.
He smiled back, reaching across to place his hand over hers. "Nope. I just like to enjoy the free time I have and the work that isn't so taxing when I'm here. After all, it won't last much," Joeri said lightly, trying to be optimistic.
Vivian gave his hand a squeeze. "Maybe since you won't be working for your upkeep, the innkeeper could pay you a little bit," she said, then realised with horror how that must have sounded. "I meant...oh, God..." Her cheeks were flaming. She didn't mean for it to sound so...materialistic.
Joeri gave her hand a pat with his free hand, his metal fingers gentle. "Perhaps. I do owe him some more, but when I'm even with him, I'm sure he might be glad to pay me. He'd probably pay me to leave his inn for good," he said, smiling slightly. He didn't see a reason for why she seemed embarrassed, after all, it was practical and it was the way of life.
Vivian gave him a beautiful smile and they finished their breakfast in relative silence, but it was a comfortable one. When they finished, Joeri washed and Vivian dried, and together they cleared the table and wiped it down. Vivian glanced at the kitchen clock - it was still early enough, and she knew Joeri's shift wouldn't start for some time yet. She hugged him tightly from behind, wishing desperately he didn't have to go - not back to the Inn today, or back to the Barracks at all. The hot prickle of tears pierced her eyes and she squeezed them shut, glad he wasn't facing her.
Surprised, Joeri was in the middle of placing a plate on the drying rack. He set it down carefully and then placed his arms over hers. "What shall we do this morning, my lady? We have some time yet before my presence is needed at the inn," he said over his shoulder.
Vivian smiled as she nestled her head between his lower shoulder blades. "My books need shelving," she suggested. "Or would you rather we sit in your alcove and just read them instead of putting them away?"
"Perhaps in the process of shelving books, we open some of them and happen to forget about shelving in the process," Joeri replied, a smile in his voice.
"I like the way you think, good sir," she laughed. She made him turn around so that she could put her arms around his neck and go up on tiptoe, her face turned up for a kiss.
He gave a small laugh, then let his lips touch hers, kissing her sweetly and gently.
They went upstairs, hand-in-hand, to the alcove, where numerous crates of books were stacked against the wall opposite the alcove bed. "Would you fit comfortably in there?" Vivian asked, gesturing at it. "It seems to be quite roomy, but then again I'm smaller than you are."
Looking at it, Joeri gave a nod. "It looks quite comfortable. Are you sure you want me to stay? I might not ever want to leave," he said playfully, picking up a crate as if it was a small stack of papers instead of hundreds of pages bound in hard material.
As Joeri set the crate down on the table and opened it up, Vivian replied impishly, "Why, aren't you clever? That was exactly what I was plotting."She caught his hand in hers and looked up, her eyes suddenly wide and hopeful. "Do you mean it? Would you really like to stay here with me?"
He grinned and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Of course. I want to be with you as much as I can," Joeri replied, sincerely. Silently, he added forever with you to the end of the sentence, still unsure if he was just thinking the impossible or being impractical.
Vivian's smile was radiant as she picked up three or four books and went over to the shelves built into the wall next to windows. "Now. How shall we categorise these?" she asked briskly - perhaps a bit bossily.
He took a two books in each hand and went over to stand next to her. Looking at the covers, Joeri considered her question. "We could alphabetize all of it together, but perhaps you want different sections for things like history, Shakespeare, and other literature."
"I like the different categories better," Vivian said, "but we should alphabetise them within the categories. It'll be quite organised that way, I think."
He nodded in agreement. "So, what category should we begin with?" Joeri asked, the books in his hand poised to be shelved.
Vivian laughed. "Do you really need to ask?" she said, holding up All's Well That Ends Well. "Where everything with us begins. Shakespeare."
Joeri gave her a salute, books still in his hands. "Yes, my lady," he said with a smile, then proceeded to shelve all the books he found with Shakespeare's name on them. He had to go back and forth between the crate, looking through the books for a bit until he found another Shakespeare.
The Complete Works - that giant Bible-sized tome - went first on the shelf. Then Vivian arranged Shakespeare's plays chronologically, knowing by heart the timeline of the Bard. Next came the longer poems.There was one book missing.
"Joeri," Vivian said without turning around, "is there a small red-bound book with gilded pages in any of those? It's the only red one one with a completely embossed cover, and it would fit in your hand."
He had picked up a book of sonnets, admiring how lovely the cover was. It certainly was better than any book he'd ever read in its condition, being well cared for and though used, handled delicately. Flipping through it, he came across one that drew his interest. In response to Vivian's question, he read out loud Shakespeare's Sonnet 148:"O me! What eyes hath Love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight!
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then Love doth well denote
Love’s eye is not so true as all men’s: no,
How can it? O how can Love’s eye be true,
That is so vexed with watching and with tears?
No marvel then, though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
O cunning Love! With tears thou keep’st me blind,
Lest eyes well seeing thy foul faults should find."
Vivian was drawn to stillness at the sound of Joeri reading her favourite sonnet. She joined him from memory at the beginning of the third quatrain, her voice soft and sweet. When he was done she turned around and walked to him, placing her hands on his as he held the small book easily in the palm of his real hand. "Did it fall open there again? It usually does," she said.
"I'm not sure. I was just flipping through and stopped at this one," Joeri replied. "Why would it fall open on this sonnet specifically?" He was curious at to what she meant that it regularly does.
Vivian's pale rosy lips were curled into a strange smile, one halfway between sadness and fondness at some distant memory. "It's my favourite one," she told him simply, running her finger over the words on the page.
