roruna (roruna) wrote in roads_diverged, @ 2009-01-17 15:00:00 |
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Sybil and Sam walked to the barricade trying to avoid each other’s eyes while at the same time glancing at one another. Sybil started to fidget with one of her curls as she continued to sneak looks at Sam. Sam had not stopped blushing. He wondered if it were possible for hair to blush. He was sure he could feel it turning red. They stopped just in front of the barricade. After a few seconds, Sam got down on one knee and cupped his hands together to give Sybil a boost over the barricade.
It was Sybil’s turn to blush but she very tentatively put one foot in Sam’s hands, a hand on each of Sam’s shoulders and pushed herself up and over the barricade. Sam tried very hard to not look up Sybil’s dress as she went over the barricade. It didn’t matter too much though since under her dress she was wearing that special kind of undergarment that can double as breeches. But Sam was still painfully embarrassed and he looked up at the sky waiting to see if he’d get struck by lightning. (1)
He climbed over the barricade and saw that Vimes was watching him. Sam and Vimes shared a look. Vimes raised an eyebrow and Sam smiled widely and very nervously. Vimes shook his head and sighed as he stepped away from the barricade and sat down by the fire that had been built. He pulled out his cigar case and read the inscription. To Sam with love from your Sybil. His Sybil. There was a universe, out there, with his Sybil in it. He started remembering things about his Sybil that he didn’t even know he had ever noticed. He missed her, her smile, her laugh, how she always smelled like a mix of swamp dragon gas, anti-burn ointment and a hint of perfume, her cooking…
He swore things would be different if… when he got home. Then a thought struck him, what if he came home to a different future. He looked over to Sam and Sybil who were sitting next to each other but with a two foot gap between them. He wasn’t listening to what they were saying but at one point Sybil laughed, patted Sam’s arm and said, “You’re so funny!” (2) Vimes wasn’t supposed to meet Sybil until that business with the dragon, which was almost thirty years from now.
There were so many ways that this could go, most of them wrong. They could fall in love and run away together, they could fall in love and Sam would be killed by Lord Ramkin causing Vimes to pop out of existence, they might not wait twenty five to thirty years to get married and Vimes would come home to children and possibly grandchildren he didn’t recognize or Sam might get scared away by Lord Ramkin and never approach Sybil again. Damn, damn, damn. Of course there was also the possibility that Sam would say or do something stupid and Sybil might marry someone else. Shit.
Vimes got up and walked away from the fire. He couldn’t watch anymore. It was just going to make him crazy. He climbed to the top of the barricade and looked out. He pushed all thoughts of Sybil out of his brain. He needed to do the job that was in front of him and hope that things would sort themselves out between the kids. There really wasn’t much he could do to keep them away from each other for twenty five years anyway. He really wished that he had Vetinari’s knack for manipulating people at the moment.
Sam was finally started to feel more comfortable around Sybil. No girl had ever said he was funny and he had a vague idea that this was probably a good sign. He had noticed a few alarming details about her though. Details like her clothes, they were very good quality though they weren’t particularly flashy. She was pale, not like sickly pale but she definitely did not spend a lot of time the sun and she all around looked… soft. Not in the same sense as weakness but in the sense that, she wasn’t used to worrying about the basics. She obviously ate well and dressed well and spoke well.
Sam knew all these clues added up to something, probably nothing good for him so he purposefully tried to ignore them. This was becoming more and more difficult as he continued talking to her. “So… er… where do you live exactly, miss?” He didn’t really want to know… well, he didn’t want to ask because he knew the answer was not going to be something good but he couldn’t keep himself from asking questions. Sybil smiled and touched Sam’s shoulder timidly as she moved closer to him. “I live on
“Sorry, mi—Sybil.” Sam’s denial took this opportunity to move the fact that Sybil lived on
Dibbler spooned some Victory Stew into a bowl before Sam even said anything. Rosie was standing beside him holding a bowl for herself but definitely not eating it. She smirked at Sam. “Problem, Vimesy?” Sam’s eyes turned to Sybil for maybe a second as he tried to think of what to say but Rosie didn’t give him a chance. “She likes you, you know.” Sam blushed again taking the bowl Dibbler offered him. “What? No. Who… How can you tell that?” Rosie sighed, tilting her head toward the fire and Sybil. “Your young lady, Sybil right? Yes, she does and I do know what I’m talking about.”
Dibbler took another bowl and scooped some stew into it as well. “What is it about wars and revolutions that bring out the romantic in people?” Rosie shrugged. “I think it’s the fact that people are dying and they don’t want to miss a chance to have sex one last time. Don’t you agree, Vimesy?” Sam almost choked on a mouthful of stew. He spit it out and started coughing rapidly. Rosie patted his back gently until he stopped coughing and stood up straight again.
That had really been too much for Sam. His brain was already melting from touching Sybil’s knee by accident; he just knew that there was no way he could think about actual sex. He was going to be struck by lightning for sure any minute now. Rosie rolled her eyes. “Oh stop being so uptight. Like you haven’t been thinking about it, you little hypocrite.” She gave Sam a good natured smile as she spoke but Sam was too far into his embarrassment to notice.
Rosie sighed and smiled more kindly. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about just be sure to let her know you like her too. You never know what could happen. You two might even live happily ever after.” She turned Sam around and gave him a gentle nudge forward. He walked slowly back to Sybil holding his bowl of stew and one for Sybil. Dibbler stirred the stew slowly and spoke once Sam was out of earshot. “Why did you say that to him? Any fool can see she’s really posh and you’ve put into his head that they might live happily ever after?”
Rosie sighed and shook her head. “He might not listen to me. He’s so damned shy.” Dibbler nodded. “True but you know that Keel will probably tear your head right off if Vimesy’s heart gets broken, he’s awful protective of the lad.” Rosie shut her eyes tightly. “Damn, I hadn’t even thought of that.” She finally tasted a spoonful of stew and winced. It was horrid. Rosie was not the least bit surprised.
Sam handed a bowl to Sybil and sat down next to her again. She sniffed the bowl carefully and then tasted it. “I’ve never tasted anything like this before. It’s very interesting.” Her face didn’t reveal even a hint of terror or disgust. Sam put his bowl down on the ground. “It’s horrible. I’m sorry.” Sybil shook her head as she took a piece of what she hoped was pork in her fingers. “Nonsense, it’s great. Here.” She held the little piece of ‘pork’ up to Sam and without thinking Sam opened his mouth so she could feed it to him.
Sam was caught between a rock and a hard place at this point. On the one hand as long as he focused on chewing, he could not focus on Sybil licking her fingers but on the other hand, he had to actually taste the ‘pork’ if he did that. He decided to swallow the ‘pork’ with hardly one chew and dared the gods to smite him. Sybil must have noticed where Sam’s mind was going and turned away from him with her index finger in her mouth.
Sam put his hand on Sybil’s shoulder. “Sorry! I’m sorry… Er…” Sybil turned to Sam suddenly. “Do you like me?” No thought went through Sam’s mind. “Yes–” He covered his mouth with both hands but it was too late of course. Sybil bit her bottom lip and Sam was mesmerized. “And I like you… So, now that that’s settled, what shall we do about it?” Receive fiery retribution from the gods for our sins and burn in hell for all eternity, was what Sam thought. What he said was, “I dunno.” Sybil sighed with just a hint of frustration. She had already acted like a floozy just by admitting that she liked him. The least he could do was try something so no one could say that she threw herself at him.
Sam gingerly raised his arm and put it around her shoulders. He pulled her closer to him and suddenly felt like he was being watched. He was pretty sure that some insulted god wasn’t watching him though and turned his head to see who it was. For a second, he saw
Sam took Sybil’s hand and stood up. “Maybe we should go somewhere private?” He was really going out on a limb now. It was one thing to flirt out in the open but Sam really wasn’t sure if Sybil would be all right with going anywhere alone with him. Not that he’d really try anything but girls seemed to care a lot about what people thought. Sybil looked down at the ground while she thought; finally, he made a move… almost. Maybe he was just shy in front of other people. She nodded. “All right.”
(1) He was, of course, worrying needlessly. If the gods struck down every teenager who had an impure thought there would be no intelligent life anywhere in the multiverse and all the land would be scorched.
(2) That’s the multiversal teenage girl sign of romantic attraction.