#freyafic

[freyafrida]

(anne of green gables) dancing in this world alone, chapter 14

dancing in this world alone - rilla/carl - pg-13

"D'you have a minute to give me an opinion about something?" Una's brow wrinkles. "I can't help you with your bugs." "I think about other things," Carl complains, and Una raises her eyebrows, looking remarkably like Jerry for a moment. "It's about Rilla, actually." Una's eyebrows go down, but only so she can draw them together. "Is this about your…arrangement?" Carl looks around, sure that anyone listening would absolutely take that the wrong way. "You make it sound so unseemly. What did Rilla tell you about it, anyway?" "Just that she let everyone think she was interested in you back home, and you've been going along with it to help her save face, otherwise some of the girls might have figured out that she'd had hopes for Ken Ford." Una's gaze flicks up to him, her blue eyes calm and steady. "And it sounds to me like it's been spiraling out of control ever since." Carl blinks. "What makes you say that?" Has Rilla said anything to her? He's absurdly — hopeful? Nervous?

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[freyafrida]

(anne of green gables) i can see you

i can see you - dora/paul - g

"One time…Davy and I came over to see the parrot," she continues. "But Mr. Harrison had locked it up, of course. We tried to talk to it through the door but it didn't work — not until Davy kicked the door, anyway, then the parrot started swearing an absolute storm. We ran out, we were so frightened someone would hear it and think it was us — can you imagine?" Paul has to laugh at the thought of the twins hurtling out of the house as though the devil had caught them. "And what did Teacher and Miss Cuthbert say when they saw you?" "Oh. Well, I don't know." Dora's hand flutters to her mouth, as though she wants to cover it, push the words back. After a moment, though, all she says is, "Davy locked me in the shed. So I couldn't go home." Tales and secrets. It occurs to Paul that Dora Keith has a few of her own, too.

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[freyafrida]

(anne of green gables) dancing in this world alone, chapter 11

dancing in this world alone - rilla/carl - pg-13

It's true that Carl is not a very good dancer. The band whirls through different songs — a one-step to "Oh What a Time for the Girlies", a foxtrot to "You're Some Pretty Doll." Carl manages to stay on his feet, grinning sheepishly every time he misses a step, but Rilla's danced with worse — she hopes Nellie Clow, newly engaged, has better luck with Mark Warren than Rilla did — and it's somehow not so irritating when it's Carl, perhaps because she knows him so well and it's not his fault that his balance has been affected so. Dancing with him is still fun, especially as he makes her laugh, murmuring commentary in her ear about how so-and-so reminds him of a centipede with too many legs and some of the girls' dresses are the same colors as particularly shiny beetles. "Hmm," Rilla says, leaning back to look at him. "If I were a bug, what kind of bug would I be?" She immediately regrets asking the question, because she's sure he's going to bring up her old Spider nickname, and then — "Rosy maple moth," Carl says, without missing a beat. Rilla is about to swat him for having such an answer prepared, but then he goes on.

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[freyafrida]

(anne of green gables) but boy, you still look pretty

but boy, you still look pretty - walter/una - pg

He waits for Rilla outside the lighthouse, in the shadows. The pines are dark shapes around him, shrouding him. He'll step out once he sees Rilla, draw her arm in his, give her comfort. She needs him to be her older brother now, and that is a role that feels very easy to play, tonight. He feels lighter, almost free — all his burdens, his fears of what's to come. "So you're going." It's not Rilla. The voice is too soft, too calm.

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[freyafrida]

(anne of green gables) dancing in this world alone, chapter 12

dancing in this world alone - rilla/carl - pg-13

"It's nice that you girls have chaps dancing attendance on you already," Ruth says, a little wistfully. "I hope you don't mind my saying, but I always heard P.E.I. isn't the sort of place where — the young people are — you know, it's a bit — " "It always sounds like a stricter place than somewhere like Kingsport," Nora says, saving Ruth. Laura laughs, so loudly that a few other shoppers turn to look at her. "Oh, it is," she says. "But Rilla's always been the prettiest girl in the Glen — well, her and Faith Meredith — there've always been boys after them." "Yes, Rilla's always been popular," Una agrees quietly. Rilla supposes it's kind of them to say, although she's smarting slightly from the qualifier of Faith's inclusion. "But you've settled on Carl Meredith, haven't you?" Ruth asks. "I saw you two together at the dance, and you're always walking together."

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[freyafrida]

(anne of green gables) dancing in this world alone, chapter 7

dancing in this world alone - rilla/carl - pg-13

They stop on the veranda, Rilla twirling her hat in her hands, smiling. "You really didn't have to, you know." "I know. But I wanted to," he repeats. "You're my friend." Rilla casts her eyes down, cheeks turning faintly pink in the glow of the Ingleside porch lamp. Carl's seen her do this to a half-dozen fellows — before the war, when they asked her to walk with them after prayer-meeting, at that lighthouse dance where the world had turned upside down. Good God, no wonder she had Ken Ford in the palm of her hand. Still, it's funny to see Rilla play the coquette — he saw the way Miranda had nearly deferred to her, asking what they ought to do at her own party. Rilla Blythe is hardly demure, he knows that about her.

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[freyafrida]

(anne of green gables) dancing in this world alone, chapter 13

dancing in this world alone - rilla/carl - pg-13

"Is that what you plan to do after graduation? Fix up planes?" "Maybe. I'd rather build them than keep flying, I guess. It didn't feel very much like I thought it would, but maybe it will one day." "I know. You wrote that in one of your letters." She remembers that, does she? He knows he wrote about it a couple of times — to his family, a couple of Queen's friends, to the rota of Red Cross girls who volunteered to write to all the Glen boys. Laura had been among them, he remembers. "The Freshers' Dance was fun," Laura continues idly, when he doesn't say anything. She stretches her legs out, tapping the toes of her scuffed boots together. "I hope we have another dance like that soon. Are your sister and Carl engaged?" So she's noticed that, too.

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[freyafrida]

(anne of green gables) dancing in this world alone, chapter 8

dancing in this world alone - rilla/carl - pg-13

"And…" Ken's dark eyes search hers, in that way that used to make Rilla's heart feel as though it were skipping beats. Funny that she almost can't recall the sensation, it's been so long since she's felt it. "He's good to you?"

Rilla can't help but smile, the faintest laugh escaping. She can see Carl offering to fight Ken for her, trading notes for Redmond, his sharp blue gaze on her as he handed her hat back on the beach — agreeing to accompany her everywhere to begin with, really. It's not what Ken means, of course, but — "Yes. Of course."

"Then…I wish you every happiness.

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