A/N: When organizing my files on my old laptop I suddenly found this one I wrote a while ago. Hope you enjoy reading it!
Summary: The alcalde has passed away and the people want Diego in the position. His new title spreads to the bachelorettes of California. And of all sudden the pueblo is filled with women longing for Diego - much to Victoria's dismay.
Disclaimer: Own nothing associated to the Zorro franchise.
DIEGO THE ALCALDE
One-Shot
Los Angeles
Ever since the alcalde had been shot by a bandit, and Don Diego De La Vega for some reason had stumbled upon him - the people voted for him. In his clumsiness he had headed to the tavern for late tamales when the bandit basically collided with his horse, and suddenly he was seen as the new hero. Not Zorro, but Diego. He had thought of it as undeserving praise and also tried to hush all the hype, but it was indeed harder than expected.
At last it stood clear that the pueblo wanted him as new alcalde. Something his father encouraged highly.
Finally Don Alejandro De La Vega's son was a proper man. The pride of the elder De La Vega was not unnoticed by Diego, which had caused him to consider the position. He was more comfortable running around anonymously as Zorro. Although being in charge would for sure ease the part of living a normal life again.
The only person who reminded herself of the lack of Zorro, was Señorita Victoria Escalante. To Pilar, between fetching glasses and preparing dinners, she would let a complaining statement slip about his absence.
So there she stands, behind the counter. Filling glasses of lemonade in her white short sleeved blouse. A red long shirt hanging from her waist down, and her volume hair reaching just down her shoulders.
By her frown, Diego cannot not stop checking her out from his table further away. The tavern is empty, which is quite odd for the moment. Ever since the information about his new position as alcalde slipped, it seems as if every woman from all corners of the world appears. Beautiful are they all, and much to his father's dismay, he never reflect their interest.
Felipe is eating his tortilla in silence beside Diego. To escape all woman they have decided to eat lunch during siesta. Only a group of drunken elder men surround a table on which they play poker.
Diego watches Victoria head over to the table and hand out glasses of lemonade before walking the tray back to the counter.
Her frown is deeper as she wipes the counter with harder and harder force. Pilar appears beside her and nudges her.
"Are you alright?" she wonders thoughtfully.
Victoria snaps out of her upset trance. Her expression softens for a brief moment before the furrowed eyebrows are back. "I just... cannot understand Zorro," she lets out frustrated. "I haven't seen him for such a long time."
Diego glances to her posture again but tries to not seem too obvious. He does not want her to know he hears their conversation. He has really been occupied in contracts and discussions with his father about him being useful as alcalde or not. This must have caused him to unwillingly postpone the visits of Zorro. Then again, Zorro has not been needed lately.
Pilar moves behind the counter to gather empty glasses in preparation for the rush at dinnertime. "Perhaps he has been very busy. There is a big change here now when Diego is becoming the alcalde."
Victoria's gaze moves to Diego at those words, but fortunately he has already switched his attention elsewhere.
"How could I miss that? The pueblo is filled with women."
She tries to hide the bitterness in her tone, but Pilar can hear it. She chuckles and shakes her head. "Maybe you should focus elsewhere, Victoria."
Victoria stops rubbing the spot on the counter with her cloth. She pauses and looks at Pilar with a questioning look.
"Well, seeing that Zorro is... Zorro, maybe you could get some inspiration from all the bachelorettes in the pueblo," she goes on.
Victoria turns to Pilar who still works around the counter. "And what would that be? Chasing Dieg-," she stops herself midsentence upon hearing her own loud and accusative voice to lower it a few levels. "Chasing Diego?" she questions in a low tone and glances to Diego to make sure he has not heard her.
Pilar chuckles and looks at Victoria. "I've seen how you look at him when you think no one knows."
Now Victoria starts to feel like a child getting teased by her best friend. She just snorts and returns her attention to the spots on the counter. Maybe she should not have. Not until shutting Pilar for good, that is to say.
Because Pilar is not done with the conversation. Instead she leans on the counter, with pure humble intention of course, as she opens her big mouth.
"You used to be so foolishly in love with Don Diego at younger age."
Both Diego and Felipe almost jump to look at Victoria and Pilar's banter.
Victoria gasps and turns her blushed face to Pilar. What in the world?! She would literally kill Pilar after this.
"Pilar!" she hushes. "It was a crush!" she hisses in correction highly irritated. "A crush! A simple mere crush!"
"Oh, it was more, right! You were all over him back in the days, and you kept longing for him when he was in Madr-," Victoria's hands fly to cover Pilar's mouth as the friend's hands are up in surrender.
Pilar realizes she has spoken too loudly. The Escalante temper is nothing to play with.
"Forgive me, Victoria. I never intended on speaking so loudly."
Victoria nodds once, accepting her apology. She leans on the counter with a defeated expression and covers her face with her palm in shame. The eyes of Diego burn on her and she just wants to escape all of California at the moment.
Diego is certainly not supposed to know that. She separates her middle finger and her index finger to peep between them into Diego's direction only to meet his tearing eyes. When she removes her hand it is as if he is staring right into her soul.
Oh, dear lord almighty. Madre De Dios. She just wants to sink right through the floor already.
When she slowly stands up, the ending of siesta saves her. The doors of the tavern swing open and a group of ladies hurry inside to surround Diego. Victoria uses the break of Diego locking her eyes to escape into the kitchen.
Diego feels how his heart is returning to its' normal beating. Yet it throbs as if it will escape his chest. Victoria used to have feelings for him? Apparently a long time ago, but still.
The ladies dragging in him does not manage to gain his attention.
"Don Diego, my father informed me he was willing to pay for our entire wedding," a blonde woman suggests hopefully.
It causes a red head to squeeze in further. "However my father has promised to pay not only for the wedding but also another hectare of land on the east coast."
As another one reveals her offer, Don Alejandro enters. He smiles at the vision of women on Diego. At some point he will stumble across one that will capture his son's heart and eventually give him grandchildren. Thereby pass on the fortune to an heir.
He decides to not free his son out of the women's grip and instead gestures for Felipe to join him. The younger adopted De La Vega struggles out from the excited women to head over to Don Alejandro at the counter.
'They are insanely into Diego,' he gestures with his arms.
Don Alejandro chuckles. "I sure hope so," he claps Felipe's back as Victoria steps back out of the kitchen. "It is about time he marries."
Victoria blushes. "Don Alejandro," she greetes with a smile. Her lips are trembling slightly and she blushes still.
"Victoria," Don Alejandro notices her red state. "Is everything as it's supposed to?"
Victoria quickly slides two glasses of lemonade to the De La Vegas. "Why would it not?" she tries cheerfully.
The elder don gives her a knowing look but decides to not go further. He is well familiar with the Escalante temper if stepping on one of those toes and let alone the woman's.
"Very well."
She removes the cloth from the counter. "What will it be today?"
Felipe gestured tamales, and Don Alejandro agrees. She let out a laughter and nodded. "More tamales, Felipe? Sí, I'll tell Pilar."
She notes it down on a piece of paper whilst the two men sit down at a table. She moves the curtains aside and hands Pilar the paper.
"For Don Alejandro and Felipe."
Pilar still smiles. "Father in law..," she mumbles in a sing-song voice. Victoria stops tracks when closing the curtains to open them again and shoot her coworker a warning glare.
"We are not children anymore."
The amused Pilar nods and playfully wavs for Victoria to leave.
The tavern owner snorts again and adjusts her skirt. Pilar is her devoted coworker but can at points be a pain in the-, just like a sister.
In between the squeals Victoria moves her gaze to Diego's table where all the women hang. He does not seem intrigued by any of them. She knows him too well to see when a woman does capture his interest.
And it is also something she will come to face when the doors open further into the afternoon.
A woman in an elegant whipped cream colored dress stands in the doorway. Gracefully she walks inside and the previous drunken men stop playing poker to check the young beauty out.
Her long brown hair reaches down her waist in gracious curls. She smiles in her elegant posture and scans the room.
Deep into her bones, Victoria will deny that the presence of this woman even causes her to stop tracks. But it is not the beauty of the woman which makes Victoria upset. It is how Diego slowly stands up to meet the stranger's gaze.
His head tilted as they lock eyes. "Ana?"
They know each other? He knows her?!
Victoria can only watch them from behind her counter. How Diego gets himself free from the grasp of the desperate bachelorettes to approach this woman.
She looks at him as if she owns him. Something Victoria never have witnessed before.
He grabs her hand and bows as he kisses it.
"Diego," she lets out.
Victoria tries to shake the flashes and thunderstorm away from her eyes. She has Zorro, and is very much in love with him. She shall not care what other ladies do with Diego. Or how they holds his interest. He is her best friend and she shall be happy when he finds somebody to marry and have children with. Somebody to love.
She feels nausea on that last word.
It makes her uncomfortable to watch him with her, and she even cringes. Probably because she just is not used to him having the eyes of a woman, nor him actually giving a lady the so called eye himself.
"It has been so many years," he says.
Ana lets out a laughter. "Oh yes, it has."
He holds out his arm for her to get escorted to a table.
Victoria raises her eyebrows. She scans the room to see Don Alejandro looking at his son and the woman with great pride. For some reason, she does expect the same reaction from Felipe but all his face displays is bewilderment.
She bites her bottom lip, slightly tilts her head and squints whilst musing on what causes him to do this.
"May I ask what led your ways to Los Angeles?" Diego wonders.
Ana smiles. "I always believed until this moment that you married Zafira," she declares.
It is as if something shoots Victoria by those words. She honestly does not want to know how her life would have looked like with Diego married to this Zafira and him being occupied during his days. In other words, not being able to hang with her. Perhaps that is why she is this skeptical to other women of Diego's interest? He would not have any time over to spend with her.
"I didn't marry her," Diego reveals.
Ana smiles slightly. "I figured that out as the rumors reached Madrid. That you were a single man becoming an alcalde."
Pilar comes up beside Victoria and causes the tavern owner to look at her coworker. Pilar carries two plates of tamales and she nods once a very harsh nod in Diego's direction. Her face is stern and she is clearly telling Victoria to head over there.
Victoria gives her a confused look and Pilar clenches her jaw but continues her way over to the De La Vegas' table to serve them. She brings out an overly sweet smile and presents the food before returning to Victoria.
"Get over there."
Victoria's eyebrow quirks. Who is the boss of whom?
"What is going on with you, Pilar?" Victoria wonders. "I have no business in this Don's life and what Doña or other noble woman he will marry."
Pilar sighs, shakes her head and goes inside the kitchen again.
What causes Victoria to snap back to Diego's conversation is how he seems to be at unease.
"There is in fact a woman..," he begins but Don Alejandro a few tables away intervenes.
"He is single!" he interjects.
When Diego looks over his shoulder, he gives his father a glare.
Ana laughs. "Are you saying you are courting a woman for the moment?"
Diego shrugs. "Well, I-."
"He is not!" Don Alejandro intervenes again, causing Diego to shoot another glare over his shoulder.
Don Alejandro frowns. "What? You are not courting anybody."
Diego leans towards Don Alejandro and gives him another warning look. "Please Father. Stay out of this."
Don Alejandro rolls his eyes and returns to chat with Felipe.
Victoria on the other hand crosses her arms. She has heard him say so before, but he has said that the woman he fancies is in love with someone else. Has he told the woman about his feelings now, as Victoria suggested?
She is so curious she is about to explode.
"Are you courting anybody Diego?" Ana wonders thoughtfully. She clasps her hand over his and squeezes it, causing Victoria's to squint again. "Is there a woman out there being courted by Diego?"
Not precisely Diego. Only his alter ego.
"Well, not Diego..," he begins but is interrupted by Ana's laughter.
"You are speaking of yourself in third person," she winks at him. He too joins her contagious laughter and sees the ironic words he said.
Victoria decides it is time to walk up to them. She denies it is because of how their hands touch and how her approach makes them part.
"Don Diego," she smiles and ignores the woman. "Do you want anything to drink?"
Diego's eyes tears from Ana to Victoria. "Yes, Victoria. Two glasses of red wine."
Red wine?! If Victoria had been drinking she would have coughed on it. Wine?! Diego?
"This is Ana de Feria, a friend of mine from Madrid," he introduces the woman.
"Only a friend?" Ana teases a bit disappointedly yet playfully.
Victoria's face grows red.
Diego chuckles and decides to ignore her statement. "Ana, this is Señorita Escalante."
Ana smiles and Victoria forces a closed smile upon her lips. The two ladies share a nod as greeting.
"So the two of you met in Madrid."
Diego does not know if it was a question or a statement. "Yes we did," he answers with a smile.
"Not only Zafira then," Victoria mumbles but bites her tongue and has to swallow the words as Diego looks at her.
"Forgive me?"
Intervening, Ana opens her mouth. "You should have seen him in Madrid, Señorita Escalante. The best swordfighter of them all. The best of Madrid. He is such a master."
Victoria moves her hands to rest on her hips, an eyebrow quirking as she looks at Diego. Either way, the woman is madly in love with Diego and sees him as some dreamy hero he is not. Or, her friend has a mystery side she has no knowledge of.
Diego coughs and shakes his head. "I was not that good," he tries. His heart begins to race. What if Victoria figures him out?
"Diego..?" Victoria asks.
"What are you talking about?" Ana exclaims with the widest grin. "You had people pilgrim all the way from France to challenge you!"
Victoria cannot stop staring at Diego. "You seem to have a lot of secrets, Don Diego." She hopes her tone does not reveal the hurt in her voice of him not involving her in more. How can he, as her best friend, not tell her such? He is seen as the worst swordfighter of all habitants of Los Angeles? Surely of all of California? What had happened? How did he fall so behind in fencing?
"I just did not think of this that way," he tries to explain himself in his panic of coming up with something to say. "It was not important for me. I am not good right now I and I bet nobody would have believed it anyway."
Victoria still does not buy him. She gives him her skeptical eye but retreats to the kitchen. More guests arrives, and even as much as she wants to hang at his table to find out more about him and this stranger, she has dinner to cook.
She stays in the kitchen for hours. Every time the rush eases, she tries to get a glimpse of her tavern. Mostly her eyes gets stuck on Don Diego being completely involved in a conversation with Ana. At points she can even hear their laughter reach inside the kitchen. Two wooden forks have already been cracked by the sudden force she brought upon them.
At last it is pitch dark outside and she can hear from her kitchen that guests are leaving. When Pilar is too busy, Victoria will go to the counter and help out with drinks. When Diego rises from his table to escort Ana out of it, she can feel this strange feeling grow in her belly. Certainly when she notices Don Alejandro look after his son with that look of pride.
After tiding up the tavern, Victoria says goodnight to Pilar.
"Victoria, if you want Diego you must work fast."
Victoria smiles and shakes her head. "He is a nobleman, Pilar. And I am a common businesswoman."
"I know he loves you," the coworker persists.
Victoria shakes her head once again. "You have a great imagination. We are very good friends, and so our friendship will remain."
Pilar is not bought on Victoria's words but decides to pretend agreeing. "Alright. Even if your actions today said otherwise-."
By Victoria's warning eyes, Pilar shuts her mouth and just smiles warmly. "I just want you to be happy."
Victoria reflects the smile. She is exhausted from the events of the day and cannot wait to finish the kitchen and head upstairs to bed.
"I am happy," she replies calmly. "And I will get happier when Zorro and I are married."
Pilar seems defeated in her tryout of pairing Diego with her coworker. She swallows and nods. "Goodnight Victoria. I'll see you tomorrow."
Victoria smiles. "Nine o'clock it is."
When Pilar closes the door, Victoria heads back to the kitchen. Her soft hands dig in a barrel of water to dish the plates and forks when she hears a familiar voice coming from the restaurant area.
"Victoria?"
She draws in her breath. "Zorro."
She stands up straightly and wipes her hands on the apron hanging over her clothes. She brings it off and grins widely. Zorro is exactly the person she needs after a day like this. To just get embraced by his strong arms, pulled against his chest and feel the warmth from him.
She swings the curtains aside and stops tracks in shock.
Her former smile has turned into an expression of astonishment and her mouth hangs open.
"Diego?"
She scans the room in search for Zorro even if she can slowly feel it in her now.
He looks at her confused and scans the room as well. "Yes?"
He watches her confusion as she makes circles in the tavern and looks up to the ceiling. What is going on with her?
"I came here to say goodnight. I left without saying goodbye and had to adjust my inappropriate manner," Diego confesses.
She cannot hear his words when she realizes he is there alone. "You are here alone."
Diego lets out a nervous laughter. "Yes, a disappointment?"
"No..," she still scans the room for Zorro, deep in in denial. He cannot...? Can he? "Not at all," she mumbles as she continues to search for Zorro. She heard him out here, did she not? "Just..." She stops tracks again and looks at him with bewilderment. The memory of what Ana said replaying in her head. "What Ana said... about you in Madrid."
Diego waves with his hand. "Do not take the sword fighting too seriously, Victoria. You have seen me perform such here."
Her voice is shaky and she can feel herself trembling again. She has to grab a nearby pillar to keep her balance. "I have, haven't I?"
He notices her pale face and quick breathing. She backes away from him and stares at him as if she has seen a ghost. Her heart is throbbing and she wonders if it may pop out of her chest.
"Is everything alright?" he wonders.
She swallows and has to work a few moments on building up the strength to speak. "Everybody has asked me that question today... and I suppose, this is first time it really is."
She speaks as a poem. Not something she usually does, but it causes Diego to smile and in result - reflecting a tugging smile on her lips.
"I shall leave you to get some sleep. I will see you tomorrow at lunch." He makes his way to the doors.
"Wait!" she bursts out. Just to see his eyes again. See him facing her again. His deep blue eyes. His lips.
She draws in her breath and gasps. She is not mistaking anything. Mr Zorro.
How much she wants to say, how much she wants to ask. But everything she manages to speak is a simple "Goodnight.".
His smile remains as he heads for the doors. "Goodnight, Victoria."
"Victoria," she takes a deep shaky breath. "What happened with "Querida"?"
The End
Hope you liked it! :)