Room 511, Wednesday Night

[thatsamilkshake]

After today's trip out to talk to Katchoo, Francine wasn't feeling very social. More thinky, not that her thoughts were really going anywhere except in circles.

So instead of going downstairs for the weekly shirtless vampire fix, she was camped out on her bed with a bowl of vanilla wafers, a glass of milk, and the beginnings of a letter home about everything she'd been doing for the past few months. If by 'beginning' you mean five lines worth of I was a super-hero! Booze is evil... Katchoo is...

Dunk. Crunch. Scribble.

[OOC: For the eeeeears.]

Comments

[thatsamilkshake]

"What is?" Francine asked. "Badgers?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Arthur. Not acting like... Arthur in public," He said weakly.

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine let that one percolate for a few seconds. "I guess I get that. Katchoo is different with me than she is with most people, too."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin sighed and leaned back to rest on his elbows. "Why do you think they do that?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"I don't know." Boy, did she not know. Boy, was there a lot she didn't know. "Katchoo's my best friend; I guess she trusts me more than other people?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin snorted. "Arthur would never admit to being my friend, but I suppose he is."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine looked at him thoughtfully. "Do you like him? Not the working for him part, but him?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Looking up at the ceiling, Merlin stayed quiet for a moment. "I didn't at first. I thought he was the dumbest, rudest, biggest arse I'd ever met. But he got better about things. He saved my life once. Did I ever tell you that?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"Nooo." Francine shook her head. "From the badger?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"No, I rescued him from that," Merlin said with a laugh. "Poison, actually. I drank it in his place and he risked his life to find the cure. Most masters wouldn't think twice about letting a servant die."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Oh, wow." Francine shook her head. "I've never had anything that scary happen to me."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"What about you and Katchoo?" Merlin asked, shrugging off the fear over nearly dying.

He, after all, had the self preservation instinct of a lemming walking into a burning building.

"How did you two become friends?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"We had to write poems for English class. Hers was really beautiful." And awful, once she knew the truth behind it. "Later on she sort of beat up these girls who hit me with a ball in gym."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin couldn't help but laugh at that image. "I can see that. Have you known each other long?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"Before here? Not really very long at all." Francine glanced down to discover that the cookie she'd been dunking was less cookie than mushy memories of where a cookie used to be. "We just clicked like we'd known each other since seventh grade forever, and then she...had to leave." It wasn't quite true, about nothing that scary happening, she realized. It just hadn't happened to her.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin tilted his head to look at her. "Where'd she go?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"To, um. Live with family in another state." Francine looked down. Why wasn't her story to tell, but she hated making it sound like Katchoo had just up and left because she felt like it. "Things were bad for her. At home."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin let his head fall back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling and just thinking for a moment. "At least you two met up again."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine took a last drink of her milk and set the cup aside. "Uh-huh. I was here for a while by myself, and then late in the summer ... it was like the island gave me the best present ever!" She leaned back on her elbows, nudging the cookie box to safety. "What about you? How did you end up working for Arthur?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin grinned and shook his head. "It was a reward for saving his life."

[thatsamilkshake]

"..." Francine tried to find something nice to say about that. "Ahahahahahaha," was ...probably not it.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I know!" Merlin couldn't help but laugh too.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Did you know him before that? It'd feel weird to work for somebody you grew up with, I'd think."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Ealdor isn't even in the kingdom," Merlin replied. "I'd met him twice before the whole... manservant thing. The first time, he was throwing knives at a page and I told him to stop, not knowing he was the prince."

Because that would have so stopped him.

"The second time, I knew it and still--got into a bit of a row with him."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine eyed him. "...How'd that work out for you?"