A Time for Peace
By ChocolateEclar
Disclaimer: I do not own A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones, nor do I own Singin' in the Rain.
Quick Note: Well, I had the sudden urge to read fanfic for A Tale of Time City, only to find none. Thus, I reread the book and then got started on this one-shot. It was mostly a try at imagining Jonathan, Vivian, and Sam about ten years after A Tale of Time City and to write some Jonathan/Vivian. Enjoy and please review.
Also, I promise to update With This Ring… in the near future.
"For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace."
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Vivian Walker – who was not Vivian Lee, thank you very much – had long decided that Jonathan was the most arrogant person she had ever met, aside from perhaps the Lees but they were another story altogether. Jonathan's lordly airs had seemed to subside as he grew up, but had only gotten worse with the Sempiturn election drawing near.
"You are as bad as your father," she said, as he fussed in front of the mirror.
"The blue would look better with my eyes," said Jonathan inattentively.
Vivian smiled and shook her head. And now he will stuff his pigtail in his mouth and stare at his reflection, she thought.
Sure enough, Jonathan began to absently chew his hair. It was still more than twice the length of her own, though she accounted that partly to the fact that hers curled.
"Sam is taking his Leavers' Test today," Vivian commented. "He has a bit of an unfair advantage over the others when it comes to firsthand knowledge of history with Faber John as his teacher now, don't you think?" She waited for some kind of response, but Jonathan was pulling on another 'pajama suit.' Now he was almost blinding in a glittering silver bodysuit. The gleam dimmed once it had zipped automatically up the back thankfully.
"Are you attending to a word I'm saying, Jonathan Lee Walker?" Vivian asked, as she twisted one of the discarded pajamas he had already decided against in her hands.
"Yesh," Jonathan said with his braid still in his mouth. He spit out the hair and turned to her. "I won't have time to see Sam this morning, so I bought him a good luck butter-pie yesterday and reminded him of the time when he ate a hundred credits worth. He looked a bit ill then." He smirked a little.
Vivian leaned back against her strange empty frame chair. "Just you watch, as soon as he has time, he'll get revenge on you for that little reminder."
"I do not doubt it, V.S.," Jonathan replied when he returned to gaze into the floating mirror. Vivian leaned over to where the bedside deck hovered and pressed a button. The mirror instantly vanished.
"What did you do that for?" Jonathan wanted to know. His anguished expression made him look like his father in that moment and Vivian had to hide her grin behind her hand. Jonathan, she knew, would become sullen and ignore her for a while if she suggested such a thing within his range of hearing.
"You called me V.S. after all this time again," Vivian accused with the deck protected from his longer arms, as he tried to reach around her. "I thought I had gotten you to stop that."
His eyelids, with their strange fold across them, lifted to allow him to stare wide-eyed at her with his most overbearing air. "The results will be coming in less than an hour. I need to be ready."
"I need to be ready, Vivian," Vivian said.
"Vivian…" groaned Jonathan.
"It's time to make our way down to Aeon Square, Master Jonathan" came Elio's call from outside the bedroom door.
"He will be down in a moment, Elio," replied Vivian.
She stood up and straightened Jonathan's clothes. "You look fine," she claimed. "Besides, you are running against someone from two-hundred century. People know you. Your father was the last Sempiturn."
Jonathan ran a hand through his hair and hooked one finger into his pigtail. He released it easily, but not without pulling some of his hair free. "Oh, in Time's name," he hissed.
"I'll fix it," Vivian said, as she deftly freed his hair and ran her fingers through it to remove all of the twists.
"Fine," sighed Jonathan, "as long as you don't give me a topknot though. It's beastly."
Vivian plaited as they walked down the staircase and into the hall of Annuate Palace. The tree that grew over Lee House had been struck by lightning, resulting in a branch to fall atop the roof of the house next to it where they lived. Until it was repaired, which Jonathan hoped was as soon as possible, Vivian and him had moved into Annuate Palace with Jonathan's parents.
Ranjit and Jenny Walker, who were talking to Vivian's parents, were waiting for them with Elio off to one side. Vivian tied off Jonathan's pigtail and smiled at her parents in their Time City pajamas. Since Faber John and the Time Lady agreed to allow the Smiths to live in Time City, Vivian had been greeted with the image of her parents without the fashion of her past to her amusement. Joan Smith wore pale green pajamas, while her husband had on emerald green.
The whole party of Walkers, Smiths, and Elio exited the Annuate Palace and out into Time Close. Jonathan looked dejectedly at Walker Place beside tall Lee House with the unfinished repairs on the roof. Vivian leaned against him and whispered teasingly, "Isn't it great living with your parents again? Just like old times?"
"I'm just glad I told my father that he could stay in Annuate Palace if I win the election. There are too many memories."
"Can't you see that your father is amusing? Give his attitude a try."
She chuckled when he stuffed his pigtail in his mouth rather than saying what he really thought. "Are you going to do that when your opponent says something nasty?" she asked.
Jonathan took the hair out of his mouth then and stopped before entering Chronologue. Not so long ago, he had stood on trial in that building for breaking the law tenfold. Vivian looked up at his drawn face and the lines in his forehead and leaned up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. His eyes refocused so that he was in the present again, and he led the way inside with a small smile upon his face.
As always, Vivian stood awed under the painting of the starry sky above and surrounded by the gilded walls around them. Faber John and the Time Lady sat in their thrones in the far back. The soon-to-be former Sempiturn Walker sat down in his chair, while Jenny and Elio sat in the first row before the three people with the Smiths and Donegals behind them. Abdul and Ramona Donegal greeted Jenny and Vivian's parents, while Vivian stopped Jonathan before he went to sit in a chair beside his opponent.
"Some advice?" she offered.
"Don't gnaw on my braid?" Jonathan replied.
"I was going to say 'Don't think about your criminal record,'" Vivian said.
"Thank you for reminding me again," said Jonathan. He clasped her hand for a moment however and then sat next to Andrew Mayor. He had a ridiculous row of too bright white teeth that rather reminded Vivian of Leon Hardy, except Andrew Mayor was not so bad as far as she knew. The possible title Sempiturn Mayor made her chuckle in any case.
She took her place beside her parents just in case they needed anything explained to them. Her father was known for being curious by every custom of Time City. She knew he missed his best suit, which was on display in one of Elio's museum displays beside Vivian's gas mask and string bag. He would rather wear the suit than the pajamas.
Vivian leaned back in her seat and waited. Even farther back behind the Donegals, several rows of tourists and Time City people in pajamas sat. Sam was missing of course. It was rumored that the Leavers' Test had been scheduled on the same day as the election on purpose so that he would not be there to do something embarrassing. Since his trial, which had only been two years ago because they had waited until he was older to charge him for his crimes, he had refrained from being such a model citizen because he had no criminal record again. Vivian remembered the incident with the belt malfunctions in which Sam had hacked into the belts of everyone in Chronologue at that moment. There had been people floating a little off of their seats because of low-weight functions and others with sudden glowing green times on their hands and even more with the lights on their belt turned on fully.
The Time Lady had scared Sam that time. She had threatened to send him out to the Stone Ages even though all charges against him were dropped.
Jonathan's father started the proceedings and then motioned for Mr. Enkian, the librarian, to step forward from where he stood along one gilded wall. Mr. Enkian had quarreled excessively with one of Faber John's four parts back when Time City had been ending and had been given the task of tallying up the votes for Sempiturn. He now haughtily handed Faber John a gold piece of paper with the results written on it. Faber John handed the paper to Ranjit Walker after the Time Lady peered over his shoulder to read. Ranjit stood up to deliver the results of the election.
An hour or so later, Vivian sat on the big staircase inside Walker Place with the light from the hole in the roof slanting down onto her face. Jonathan would be occupied for several more hours with becoming officially Sempiturn, which included a huge ceremonial walk around Time City.
The city looked a little different than when Vivian had first arrived around ten years ago. The buildings that had collapsed when Time City had almost crumbled away had been rebuilt, but they all had been redesigned by Faber John. The big dome of Millennium, which she could see through the glass windows in the front of Walker Place above the door when she went to the top of the stairs, now looked far more metal than blue glass.
Vivian and all the people in the Chronologue who were not elected officials were thoroughly brushed out of the Chronologue not long after her father-in-law had announced Jonathan's name. She was now the Lady Sempiturn, but that was not an elected position and she did not want to get in the way. So, she decided to see how the work was going in Walker House. Apparently, all of the workmen were either on a lunch break or just now leaving the Chronologue, like she had, and had not returned yet.
She stood up and went to leave when one of the workers returned. He was a good foot taller than her and had a very thick clump of hair topping his head. He smiled and held the door open for her. She recognized him as one of the little boys who had come through the portals with all of the other children from Twenty Century when the gates had been blown open. He seemed to have adapted to life in Time City as well as she had. Thanking him, Vivian left and returned to the Chronologue where people were milling about outside waiting for the ceremony to begin.
"Vivian!" called a voice not coming from among the throng of people in front of the Chronologue. She turned to see Sam's familiar red hair and freckles.
"How was the test?" she asked him.
"It went swimmingly," said Sam with a cheeky grin. "One of the questions asked about the battles in the deserts during the Mind Wars."
Vivian smiled and said, "So, have you heard about the election?"
"Yeah," replied Sam. "I knew he'd win. Can you imagine his pride if he had lost?"
"At least he doesn't act all haughty about being a Lee any longer," Vivian pointed out.
"I disowned those Lees anyway," said Sam. Vivian remembered the little eight-year-old boy in the mind suit proclaiming as much. "I almost wish we could see how they're doing in history though. I doubt our poor Uncle Viv got onto any of the ships leaving with the Depopulation," he added nastily.
The ceremony began then with Faber John and the Time Lady in blue and white robes respectively. Although Faber John hated ceremonies and robes and the like, he seemed to be dragged into them a lot, Vivian thought.
Ranjit Walker came next, followed by the librarians in blue, and eventually Jonathan. He was wearing a red robe now over his silver pajamas. He spotted her as he walked down the steps and smiled. Then, he returned to looking rather lordly. An excited tourist next to Vivian and Sam gushed that the youngest Sempiturn in five centuries had smiled at her to one of her friends.
Vivian laughed a little behind her hand, but Sam leaned back against one of the pillars and she heard something like a click of a button. At that moment, a butter-pie flew from atop the Chronologue and landed pretty much exactly where Sam wanted it to be, Vivian suspected. In other words, it landed on Jonathan's shoulder rather than his head because he began to move at the last second. Vivian lightly cuffed Sam's head, as he sat down and released peals of laughter. She had to hide her own laughter behind her hand. This was a more subdued revenge than stealing someone's credits, she thought.
Abdul Donegal stalked over to Sam, who quickly scampered up to his feet and ran.
Much later, after the ceremony and the ceremonial dinner (at which Mr. Donegal reappeared dragging Sam by his ear), Vivian walked with Jonathan back to the Annuate Palace. Jonathan leaned against her and somehow they made it quite comfortable, despite him being several inches taller. She supposed they had had enough practice over the years to make it work.
"At least I don't have to wear robes anymore," Jonathan pointed out sleepily.
"Faber John hates them," Vivian said. "Not many ceremonies either. They pester his leg."
"What do you think of being the Lady Sempiturn now?" Jonathan asked, as they stepped into Annuate Palace. Somewhere far off in another room, she could hear Ranjit and Jenny. Her parents had gone home.
"I don't think it requires me to do much of anything," Vivian said. "My job is in the Time Patrol History Relations Department."
"Which is a job that does suit you," said Jonathan, "you've made a lot more people aware of us veering a little too close to outright manipulation of people out in history."
"I do try," Vivian said. They entered Jonathan's old room, which they were occupying together. "History is not some scary place filled with barbarians. People there are mostly just like us."
"I still don't want to go out into history however," Jonathan said with a slight shudder. He closed the door behind them and kissed Vivian in a manner quite a bit less tired than you would expect from seeing him leaning against her earlier.
She remembered their first awkward kiss. It had not been long after Jonathan's trial and they had been splashing around in the River Time. Jonathan claimed she was an even better swimmer than Cousin Vivian thanks to his tutelage and she had dunked his head in quite mercilessly at that.
Someway or another (she was never quite sure how it had happened), Jonathan's mouth had made contact with her own. Everything was rather uncomfortable between them, until a week later when Sam had intervened. While they were walking to Duration, he had suddenly whipped around and glared at the silent pair. "What is the matter with you two?" he demanded.
And then, simultaneously, Jonathan and Vivian had turned bright red and looked at one another. After a long moment of awkward silence, Vivian began to laugh at their mirrored expression of embarrassment and her laughter became infectious. Soon Jonathan was actually sitting on the grass with her and hooting with laughter, while they leaned on each others' shoulders companionably. Then, the school bell rang and they were scrambling across the square and into Duration.
In the present, as he pulled away from her, Jonathan saw the slight smile on Vivian's face. "Don't become reminiscent on me. I was an annoying child."
"Not too much so," Vivian claimed, as Jonathan went over to the bedside deck.
"Do you want to watch a movie?" he asked.
Vivian's goal was to watch every film stored in Whilom Tower, but she had a feeling that watching every movie in history might take several thousands of years. All the same, she sat on the bed and said, "Elio recommended that I watch Singin' in the Rain. It was made thirteen years after I left history."
Jonathan pushed the white button on the bedside deck and a screen appeared and floated near the opposite wall by the automat, just like Jonathan's mirror had done. He laid down next to her on the bed, while Vivian propped herself up with pillows. Eventually, Jonathan fell asleep with his face pressed against her hip.
As Vivian listened to Gene Kelly sing, she unbraided Jonathan's hair. He did not make a sound as she did this. "What a glorious feelin'," she sang quietly. "I'm happy again."
Asleep, Jonathan seemed not that much different than he had been the first time she had seen him. Of course, then he had been wearing a scratchy coat and glasses to blend into the Twentieth Century – or rather, she reminded herself, Twenty Century – but all the same, he had been just a boy a little older than her eleven years, so very sure of himself, and ready for an adventure. Sure, Jonathan was the most arrogant person she had ever met, once again aside from the Lees of course, but she still loved him. Yes, life in Time City suited her just fine.