(no subject)

[man_of_all_work]

It's far too cold to be outside.

Which is why Perry is not. Instead, he's sitting at a table, whittling at something, and whistling cheerfully.

With tea.

Of course.

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[kitchen_maid]

Amy, clearly, has been outside, because (cold or not) fresh air is nice.

But she wore a cloak this time, a dark blueish gray one.

It's bright outside, with the sun on the snow.

Amy's smile, just now, is brighter.

"Hello, Perry."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

His whistle breaks off, and his returning smile is quick and brilliant.

"Hullo, Amy. Join me?"

[kitchen_maid]

"Thank you," she says, and sits down in the chair next to his.

"How are you today?"

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"Doing all right," he says, cheerfully.

"That's a nice cloak. I see you've returned to at least some semblance of sense about going outside in this weather."

[kitchen_maid]

She looks at the cloak for a moment, and then says. "This one is warmer. And I think it makes me slightly less of a target, for snowballs."

And then she grins. "'Semblance'? You don't think I'm capable of actual sense?"

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"Of course you are," Perry says, grinning back.

"Or, at least I assume you are. it is, after all, very sensible to wear a cloak because it will decrease the chances of having a snowball thrown at you."

[kitchen_maid]

She arches an eyebrow. "You know, I half suspect you're teasing me, Perry."

A moment, and then she nods towards the whittling.

"What are you making?"

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

He nods, and then says, "I would never! "And I'm not sure. It started out trying to be a squirrel, but I don't think it's working very well." It really looks rather more like an acorn.

[kitchen_maid]

Amy looks at him, and then at the squirrel-acorn thing, and then back at Perry.

"Do you have much practice with whittling?" she asks, uncertainly.

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

He looks at it.

"Not really," he says, cheerfully.

[kitchen_maid]

"Well," she says, straight-faced, more or less, "I would never have been able to tell."

The proper end of that sentence is probably "that it's meant to be a squirrel."

And then she laughs. "Maybe you should go back to paper?"

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"Undoubtedly," he laughs, and tosses the wood aside.

"I was just trying to pass the time, anyway. So tell me, your Highness, has this day treated you rather better than the last time I saw you?"

[kitchen_maid]

"Much better," she says, firmly.

There were days after that one that treated her rather worse, really. But they're over and done and not to be dwelt on.

"I might even go so far as to say that this day is treating me quite well."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"I'm terribly glad to hear that," he says, smiling.

"Join me for a cup of tea, then?"

[kitchen_maid]

"Yes, please," she says.

"And what have you been doing with yourself these past few days, Perry?"

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

He pours her a cup, and passes it over.

"Oh, not a whole lot, really," he says. "I found the library and was reading, for a while. Mostly I've just been poking around the place."

[kitchen_maid]

Amy takes her tea with a smile.

"It amazes me, sometimes, how much of this place there is. I mean, there always seems to be something else on the list of things I haven't found yet, or even heard of. Anne and Gilbert and I found an apple tree once, which was lovely. I wonder, sometimes, if this place actually has ends, or if it just keeps slowly expanding."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"Now there's a question worth looking into."

Perry sips at his own tea, and looks out the window.

"Maybe it only gets bigger when it needs to. Or when someone needs to find an apple tree."

[kitchen_maid]

"I think the stables work that way," says Amy. "Getting bigger as more horses arrive."

He gets a smile that wrinkles up her nose. "Finding that tree was very important. Anne taught me to make pie with those apples. And that was the day I met her friend Gilbert."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"Apple pie," Perry says, seriously, "is always important."

He smiles back. He can't help it. That smile is infectious.

"Lucky Gilbert."

[kitchen_maid]

"Very important," she agrees, equally seriously. "Have you met Gilbert? He and Anne have been away from a while. But I'm sure they'll be back."

Her smile may get a bit brighter in response to his. The smiling thing appears to be self-sustaining.

"You and I should go look for something wildly improbable and see if the bar or the lake or whatever produces one for us."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"A marvelous idea," he says, nodding.

"What shall we look for? Not dragons, obviously, and not a lemon tree, either. What is something that we could very easily do without?"

[kitchen_maid]

Amy thinks for a moment.

"Well, depending on exactly how improbable we want to be, I'm tempted to suggest something like . . . long lost pirate treasure."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"That would be useful," Perry reminds her. "As it could help with our tabs."

Not that either of them needs much help.

"Any other ideas?"

[kitchen_maid]

Not so much, no. Sometimes it's nice to have the resourses of an entire kingdom at your disposal.

"It has to be improbable and not useful?" says Amy. "Goodness."

She thinks.

"Is there anything you'd like to look for?"