Who: Amy Pond and Fleur Delacour When: Last week in May Where: A local coffee shop What: Meeting between friends Warnings/Rating: None/Low Status: complete when posted
Coffee was the one thing the world needed to function well, except perhaps oxygen. Fleur was certain of that much and after a long day she looked forward to relaxing with a cup of coffee at her favorite café. The atmosphere was quaint and quiet which was what she wanted at the moment after the chaos of the day.
What she didn't expect to see was a familiar face sitting in the café. The red haired girl was one Fleur found she rather liked talking to every since her earliest days on the Net.
"Mind if I sit down?" She asked as she glanced down at her friend's familiar face.
“Fleur! Yes, of course. I didn’t see you come in.” Amy said, sitting up a bit and lowering her mug of hot tea. She gave the blonde a smile. There were few women in this world that Amy actually thought were so much prettier than her that she was jealous. Fleur was one of them. Though, the jealousy was good-natured. She worked in that industry, she noticed beautiful people.
“How are you?” Amy asked, smiling warmly for her friend.
Fleur gave her friend a smile as she sank into a nearby chair and set down her coffee. "I cannot complain too much," she told her honestly. It wasn't like her life was what she thought it would be or should be but there was little to complain about. There was no undoing what had been done. "Been busy but the dance season is over so I have endless free time coming."
"How about you?" Fleur asked her friend over a sip of her coffee.
“I really should get out more to see the ballet,” Amy said, almost wistfully. It’s really beautiful. Maybe I’ll take John. I bet he’d love that sort of cultured activity.” The thought of sitting with John at the ballet was a good one. Especially if Fleur was up on stage. “Do you have any more performances coming up, or do I have to wait until the fall?”
“You should!” Fleur told her happily. Performing in from in front of an audience was one thing but it was different when there were friends and family in the audience. “I might be doing something in the summer but it’s not quite ballet, but I will let you know. If not I will get you tickets to the first show.” Summer really was her relax time but Fleur hated it. It was easier to keep in shape and stuff when you had things to do.
“My sister is coming to visit this summer, you should meet her!”
“Oh yeah? That’d be great! I’d love to come and see it.” Amy said, giving a friendly nod. She’d be there, too. In the front row. She wanted to support her friends the best she could! “From France? She’s coming from France?” Amy asked. “That’s great! I’d love to meet her!”
Fleur gave her a nod in response to her question and happy that a friend wanted to come see her performances. “Oui! She said she needed a break from our parents. They are a little intense and think summer vacation is just a time to get further ahead of things and for extra lessons. I think she should have some fun.” Work was just as important as play sometimes.
“Definitely. A little fun is really important. It’s hard to spend so much time studying and working hard if you don’t get to be happy and carefree every once in a while,” Amy said, giving a shrug. “Ooh, when she gets here you should take her to Disneyland. Has she been?” She wondered if that would be exciting for Fleur’s sister.
“My parents do not agree but they will not be here so they do not have a say in it,” Fleur told her friend with a grin. “Besides it will be a good practice for her to improve her English skills.” It wasn’t a total made up excuse but it was partially. Though Fleur would make sure her sister kept up with some of her summer work she wasn’t going to hold her down with it every day. “No, she hasn’t. She has not been out to California yet. She always has something going on so when my parents come out they have never brought her here. I think I would like to take her. I have never been either.”
“You’ve never been to Disneyland??” Amy asked, then gave a sort of a pained expression. “You absolutely have to go. It’s brilliant. The rides, the people in costume... I recently went with my friend John. I really should have made him take pictures with Cinderella and stuff. Ooh, I’ll have to email that to remind myself.” She pulled out her phone. “Take John to Disneyland, pictures with Cinderella.” She said aloud as she typed it in.
“Maybe we can go with you and your sister when she’s here. How old is she, again?” Amy thought she remembered Fleur talking about her. Wasn’t the girl a teenager?
“Non, cannot say that I have.” Fleur told her friend in reference to her question. There just had not been much time in her schedule and it was something that her friends hadn’t been interested in. “I have not had much time for anything really but we should go!” It was something that she would like to do.
“Gabrielle is ten,” most people had a few years between their siblings and themselves but Fleur was considerably older than her sister. Nearly ten years to be exact. “Though she does not act like she is ten. She is ten going on twenty I swear.”
“That’s really sweet. I can’t wait to meet her.” Amy said, nodding. She pulled up her phone again. “What day did you say she’s coming to visit? I want to make sure to put it in my calendar. I’d hate to miss it.”
“June 15th,” It was only a few weeks away but it felt like it would be forever to Fleur. “Just be prepared for her to talk your ear off. She says she needs to talk to people to learn English better.” Which wasn’t saying much because Fleur was pretty sure her sister’s English was pretty good. “More like just an excuse to talk. She never is quiet.”
“Hey, that’d be great. I love that. Though, I hope that my accent doesn’t throw her off.” Amy still had a hint of a Scottish drawl to her tone. “I’d love to have my ear talked off. I can connect with what makes the kids tick these days,” she added, grinning. “We’ll have to make sure she and John have a chat while we’re all in Disneyland together. It’d be hilarious to see how they interact.” Amy and John had a running gag about how old he was. Amy thought it would be even funnier to pair him with someone so young!
“She won’t mind. She talks to a lot of people from all over when she performs and a few of her professors at school are international.” It would probably make Gabrielle like her friend even more. “We will see how long it takes him to run away from her when she won’t stop talking or asking questions.” Fleur said with a laugh. “Or sit her in front of a piano and you’ll never get anywhere until she like falls asleep.”
“Ooh, a piano?” Amy asked. “That’s wonderful! She likes to play music?” She said. “I’ve always thought that I should learn to play a musical instrument, but I’ve never really had the time.” She added, softly. “Do you play? I bet you have a great singing voice.”
Fleur laughed. “You could say that,” her sister had a talent for it and it was something they had all learned to live with because back at home she was nearly inseparable from their baby grand. “She is going to some fancy music school in Paris for it. My parents like us to be overachievers but really she is talented with it.” Sure Fleur had learned to play but it wasn’t anything more than the typical lessons most kids took. “I play a little bit and not very good. I was always more interested in dance. Singing is something I can do, I admit it, I just don’t do it very often.” It was one of the only aspects of herself she was self conscious about.
“I will teach you to play chopsticks and then you can say know how to play.” It was like the universal thing people learned to play it seemed.
“That sounds great!” Amy said, playfully. “I’d love to learn chopsticks,” She added. “Next time we see a piano!” Though she couldn’t think where one was. Maybe there was one in Disneyland.
“Deal then and I’ll find you one eventually,” There always was one in the dance studio if they were really pressed to find one. “And we are certainly going out because I am sure we both could use a day out.”
“Good.” Amy beamed at her friend. “Hey, I’m always good for a night out. I need them on a near daily basis.” Things weren’t great with her husband at home, and her work life could be stressful. Sometimes. She was switching agents, though, that should help.
“We should go get our nails done, or something just as girly.” Amy said, idly, lifting her hands to take a look at her fingernails. “Mine are a bit of a wreck. I’ve been chewing them like mad, lately.”
“Then it is settled! We will go out sometime!” It wasn’t like Fleur usually did anything at night typically outside lounge around her house or maybe take her dog for a walk. She hadn’t really ever gotten into the night scene, it had never been Bill’s thing when she had been with him, but there was always a time to change that. Maybe it would allow her to meet new people or just relax once in awhile.
Fleur looked at her own nails and laughed, “You’re not the only one.” While her fingernails were short they were relatively in one piece. “I will show you my feet and then we can compare.” Dancers feet were always particularly gross even though Fleur tried to keep her’s well taken care of. Nails were always falling apart, blisters were so common she wasn’t sure if they were coming and going, and there was always one or two bleeding by the time she took her shoes off. “We could always get our hair done too.”
Amy laughed. “I’m sure your toes are worse. I’ve heard that about dancers. Mine are pretty good, I had a shoot not too long ago about shaving cream, so I had to have pretty legs and feet.” That was a good part of her job. It made sure she was well groomed. “Hair sounds good, too, actually. I’d love to have a good, old-fashioned blow-out. Or we could get facials!” Sometimes she got snarky comments from hair dressers for changing her hair between shoots, even if they weren’t for the same product or line.
“I say we should make it a date. When you have time that is.” Fleur wasn’t sure what her friend’s schedule was like but it was sure to be busier than her own. “Let me know?” It would be something fun for them to do and she did need a day of pampering.
“I absolutely will!” Amy said, grinning. “Let’s do it soon. I’ll send you a text message, okay?” Amy said, then she stood from her chair. “I’ll leave you to it. I’ve got to get running, anyway, I have to grab chicken on the way home for dinner.”