Read You Like A Book
Look, an Eve AU! I still have the feels from the Series 3 finale, but I wanted to get this out first before I let my brain spill out all the random that the finale provoked. Nick and Katherine though... :D
But here's some Eve/Will for y'all, since the finale also kind of proved that wrong and I do miss it. Enjoy!
"My friend and I always make up backstories for people while sitting in the diner, but I couldn't seem to figure yours out, so care to tell me the real story?" AU
"Obviously a loner. Who'd want to hang out with him?"
"What are you talking about? He's obviously a rock dude. And I wouldn't mind hanging out with him – he's pretty cute."
Both teenagers look somewhat sceptically over at the boy in question – sitting quietly reading at a table next to the door. His hair is neatly brushed back from his forehead and a long, striped scarf loops around his neck, hiding his chin from view behind brightly stitched colours. "A rock dude?" inquires Will doubtfully, unable to picture it.
Lily laughs, resting her chin on a fist. "Okay… maybe not," she acknowledges reluctantly.
Will's frown deepens. "And you seriously think he's cute?"
The girl shrugs cheerfully, a faint blush colouring her cheeks. "Cuter than you," she says teasingly. "And maybe I do think he's kind of cute-looking. Maybe my type is tall, dark and handsome now."
He looks unconvinced. "Since when do you have a type?"
"Rude." Lily absent-mindedly checks her phone then takes a spoonful of ice cream sundae from the glass on the marbled surface. "You know, I'm not sure we're taking this whole backgrounds thing very seriously any more."
"We'd make pretty rubbish spies," Will concludes with a rueful grin, swallowing a mouthful of his own raspberry ice cream and shivering on impulse, although the sun shines brightly outside.
"Speak for yourself." Lily holds her head up proudly. "Didn't I figure out that Tuesday's waitress had just gone through a rough breakup the night before, after all?"
"You made her cry when you asked her about it!"
"I was still right."
"Fine." Will rolls his eyes and looks across the diner, scanning the people sitting in the booths lining the opposite wall and making a decision after a moment or so. "Next. How about… them?"
Lily follows his gaze, making sure to avert her eyes every so often so her staring didn't look too obvious. A man and a woman had just come in, the woman striding purposefully up to the counter and ordering – curtly, but not impolitely - a couple of coffees, which the waitress had just brought over to their booth by the window. The man thanks her quietly, while the woman flashes the waitress a quick nod, setting the mug down in front of her and clasping it between both hands, allowing the fragrant steam to warm her up. The man takes a long sip from his own cup.
"Obviously on their work break," comments Lily offhandedly.
Will frowns, staring first at his friend, then glancing over at the window booth. "How can you tell?" he wants to know, somewhat put out by Lily's assurance.
"Well, for one, they're both wearing suits. Plus, the man keeps checking his watch, like there's somewhere to be. Checking when his lunch break ends, probably."
"Or - like a million other possibilities that he could be checking his watch," argues Will. "Maybe it's nearly time to go pick up their child from school. Or they've got – I dunno - a concert to go to together?"
"A concert? At eleven fifty on a Thursday morning?" Lily points out. "And again – if school was on right now we'd be in school, wouldn't we? Besides the fact it's the half term holidays."
"S'possible," grouches an already beaten Will. "They might be going to an early concert."
"They're on their lunch break from Calimov across the road," says Lily firmly. "They don't have a child, not between them, and I doubt they even share the same taste in music, or would ever agree to go to a concert together."
Will folds his arms, deciding not to argue, since it's guaranteed to be a losing battle with his resolute friend. "Fine. Well, what about background?"
"Difficult to say." Lily narrows her eyes slightly: the man is arguing something quietly as the woman makes some kind of comment that he evidently disapproves of. Will can just pick out snatches of conversation over the general chatter of the ice-cream parlour. "Katherine... irresponsible… not to mention dangerous!" floats across from the man's side of the table. Lily nods in interest as both listen in.
"Well?" Will prompts somewhat daringly after another moment.
"He and – Katherine, I assume her name is, from that - are obviously fairly close, if they go out for coffee together," theorises Lily. "Coworkers, definitely. Friends – maybe. Maybe some romantic past there as well."
"Romantic past –" Will scoffs.
"Hey, you never know! They seem to be arguing a lot – maybe they've got some kind of love-hate thing going on," Lily says wisely. "That's how many friendships go – they're not quite sure where they stand with each other, and both of them are too proud to make the first move."
"Who died and made you relationship counsellor?" Will wants to know.
"Whatever. I'm right, though." Lily smiles, confident in her assumptions now they've been made. "Arguing says it all."
Will huffs. He had forgotten how annoyingly good Lily could be at this game. "Whatever."
Lily smiles cheekily, patting his shoulder and taking a gulp of ice cream as they take their attention off the probable-coworkers/possible-couple across the room. "Don't be like that, William. Look, you can do the next one. Take your pick."
Will brightens again - another dose of sugar-filled ice cream obviously doing its work. His eyes set on a particular table, and Lily cranes her neck to see who's caught her friend's attention, grinning knowingly when she finds the subject. "Let's do her next," Lily suggests innocently.
Her friend nods absently, his eyes still fixed on their new mark – though Lily doubts it's just picking out clues about her personality, like the game entails. The girl looks slightly older than them, but not by much – flowing blond hair cascades down both shoulders, framing a pretty face. She wears a short dress with leggings and a thin cardigan wrapped around her shoulders that juxtaposes the autumn cold. Unlike most in the café, she doesn't appear to be eating or drinking anything, but she sits quite happily in her booth next to the window, flicking through one of the complimentary magazines that dot the room.
"You can blink at some point, you know."
Obediently, Will's eyelids flutter accusingly as he turns back to a grinning Lily. "I know!" he defends, not terribly convincingly. "Just – trying to figure her background out. Like normal."
"You got anything yet?" she inquires levelly, trying to keep the impish note out of her voice – for now.
Will looks back at the girl for a long moment, dragging his eyes away as he shakes his head, unusually conceding defeat. "No," he admits. "You?"
Actually, Lily's kind of struggling too. It's not that normally she doesn't just elaborate on details and make them the truth – that's the fun of the game, after all, not to mention to see how annoyed Will gets when she's apparently able to read everyone around them like a book – but while their focus seems very normal and presumably easy to read, she also seems oddly enigmatic, like she holds secrets behind the attractive exterior.
Still, that's not going to stop her from embellishing a little anyway.
"Probably got a boyfriend, judging by the dreamy smile on her face. Either that or she's just a bit – odd. Who sits smiling to themselves like that? Dressed for summer in November, that says something. Maybe from the South? Sitting in an ice cream parlour but not eating anything –"
"What are you talking about?" Will immediately counters, interrupting Lily's guesswork. "She seems nice. Just because she's smiling doesn't mean she's weird. Just happy. And –" he lowers his voice surreptitiously, although the girl shows no sign of glancing their way. "Do you really think she has a boyfriend?"
"Relax, Will. I'm joking." Lily grins. "Honestly, I'm pulling at straws here. Though it is probable she has a boyfriend – she's old and pretty enough. Anyway, why don't you go ask her yourself?"
"You mean… ask her out? No way." Will shakes his head fervently. "No way. She'll just laugh at me."
"You don't know that."
"I don't know her!"
Lily sighs heavily. "Honestly Will, you're such a wimp. I'll get the conversation started, shall I? Anyway, I want to know what her real background is, since both us seem stumped at guessing a basic backstory."
Before Will can stop her, Lily's turning around to face their mark and opening her mouth confidently, ignoring her friend's half-formed exclamation.
"Hi? Excuse me?" Lily meets the eyes of the girl across the aisle, the stranger's head tilting curiously as she realises she's being spoken to.
"Hello," she replies in a distinct accent. Her voice is soft, measured, and -
"American," realises Lily under her breath, sounding slightly surprised. "Well, neither of us guessed that."
Will kicks her gently under the table and smiles as widely as he can at the slightly confused-looking girl that Lily has just hailed, figuring that they might as well play along now the breach had been made. She smiles shyly back.
"We were wondering whether you could just settle a little dispute for us," Lily inquires loudly across the couple of metres that separate their tables.
"Of course." Without complaint, the teenage girl swings her legs out to sit sideways-on in her booth, facing them more fully. Her leggings are flower-patterned and accentuate the length of her slender legs. "What do you require?"
"We were just wondering what your background is," Lily says more directly than Will would ever have dared. "You see, we like looking at people here and making up backgrounds for them, but we kind of drew a bit of a blank with you."
She's going to turn away. She's going to give us an odd look and leave and I'll never see her again, thought Will desperately.
Luckily, the teenager just giggles, apparently loving the idea. "Well, I hate to tell you but it is not all that interesting," she says somewhat regretfully. "My mom – Mary Douglas, you might have heard of some of her tech projects? – brought me over to the UK a couple of years back to follow her work. She is very busy right now, however, and I hardly see her. I go to college up the road from here. I like reading and playing video games occasionally. And as you have probably deduced already, I'm American. But nothing out of the ordinary, really."
Lily nods. "That's cool. Doubt I would have guessed much of that, though, just on appearance. But thanks, um –"
"Oh… my name's Eve," she offers almost as an afterthought.
"Eve. That's a pretty name," nods Lily. "Isn't it, Will?"
"Beautiful," the boy agrees dreamily, not really listening before jolting back into awareness. "What? Uh, yeah – it's a… name."
Lily has to hide her growing grin behind another spoonful of ice cream.
"So, is that what you guys are doing? Guessing people's backgrounds?" Eve gives them both a bright, enquiring smile.
"Um, pretty much. It's become kind of a habit of ours when we come here," Lily admits.
"Can I try? It sounds fun!" enthuses the girl.
Lily shrugs and Will gives a rather too emphatic nod in reply. "Sure," he replies as casually as he can, shuffling across the seat so that the teenage girl can slide her way into their booth too, her eyes already scanning the busy room.
"How about… him?" Lily decides, inclining her head towards the booth right next to them.
Eve inclines her head too in the same direction, then suddenly points dramatically towards their chosen mark – a young boy in a wheelchair, who turns and gives Eve a strange look, before shrugging and continuing his conversation with another boy, slightly older with curly brown hair. "Him?" she announces inquisitively.
"Shh! Keep your voice down!" Lily warns. "We just observe. Not draw attention to ourselves. We don't want to be kicked out."
"Again," Will adds.
"Again."
Eve nods in comprehension. "Ohhhh… okay. Got it." She turns her head ever so slightly to sneak a glance at the booth next to them, and falls silent as she listens. Lily raises her eyebrows at Will, and Will smiles earnestly at Eve in response.
After a moment, Eve flicks her head back to Will and Lily and lowers her voice furtively. "He's in a – wheelchair!" she says with a slight gasp, like this revelation is ground-breaking knowledge.
Lily rolls her eyes. "Great job, Sherlock. We hadn't noticed."
Will kicks her under the table. "Be nice -!" he mouths, before giving a startlingly realistic fake smile when Eve looks back in their direction.
"He is also talking to his friend Abe about some girl called Gretchen," she remarks. "He enjoys magic tricks, and he's wondering whether he can impress this Gretchen with some 'magic moves'. He is called Isaac, and he enjoys technology, judging by the standard of the phone he is holding and the watch on his wrist. I estimate that he is eleven or twelve years of age. He and this Abe are now best friends, although they have only recently met."
Their target glances behind him again to see the three teenagers staring at him, and Eve stiffens. Lily saves them by making a show of staring at the sandwich board on the wall next to their booth, and the wheelchair boy shrugs again, before he and his friend get up and head for the door.
"They're leaving," says Eve regretfully. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No… I think they've just finished their ice cream," replies Will.
Lily nods approvingly, despite herself. "That was pretty good inference for your first time, newbie."
A huge smile breaks out on Eve's face at the compliment. "Thank you!" she replies. "I should like to try more inference."
"Here's one for you," Lily suddenly says, gesturing at Will, who gives her a 'don't you dare' kind of look. "This way we can tell you if you're right or not. An easy target, by all standards, seeming as you're new to this."
"Lils…" objects Will under his breath, frowning at his friend. Lily looks innocent.
"Will?" Eve gives him a calculating look, searching him for clues. Will tries to look as innocuous as possible, though he doesn't hold out much hope. Lily's always said she's been able to read him like an open book. There again, they have been best friends since they were able to toddle across to each other's back gardens to play soldiers and wizards and such like, so maybe that gives her a somewhat unfair advantage.
"Well, Will is a human boy," Eve begins simply after a moment of reflection. "He lives with his father, judging by his clothing style and way of speaking. A friendly relationship has been sustained. You have been friends with Lily for a long time – you seem very close and able to tease each other with few repercussions. He plays football – his trainers are scuffed on the inner side and stained with mud and grass-stains, perhaps from a recent game. He has a few close friends but isn't very outgoing in general. He cares very much for these friends, and will do anything to protect them. However, he does seek to make his mark in the social standings of his school, perhaps by attending parties such as the one listed on the invitation stuffed in his shirt pocket. Currently, his facial expression indicates I am correct in many of these assumptions." Eve pauses, having spouted all this in seemingly one breath. "Am I indeed correct?"
The Scottish girl exhales in a surprised tone, the mostly-melted spoonful of ice cream dropping from her hand, forgotten, into its glass with a clink. "Um – yeah. Mostly. Quite a lot, actually."
"Don't I get a say in this?" wonders Will aloud, fingering the aforementioned paper in his pocket, patterned with balloons and purple streamers that probably gave the game away – though he's not entirely sure how Eve was able to pick that out. "But yeah, that was pretty accurate."
Eve smiles. "Good. I was fairly sure of my assertions."
"But even though you, a complete stranger, seem to know more about Will than even Will does, there are a couple of fairly obvious things you missed," adds Lily mischievously, ignoring the death stare now definitely being directed her way.
Will looks nervous. "I thought she was fairly thorough."
"Nope, she definitely missed a key factor."
"Lily!"
"What is it that I missed?" inquires Eve interestedly, not registering Will's stressed miming from over her shoulder.
Lily arches a knowing eyebrow. "Well, my friend Will here must think you're pretty, since he's been staring at you since you came in."
Eve's cornflower-blue eyes widen, flecks of hazel leaping out of her irises as her gaze swivels to meet Will's. "You think I'm pretty?"
"Lily!" Will protests for the third time as he blushes a deeper red, the embarrassed shade telling that there was more truth in the statement than he would ever have willingly admitted.
"Don't tell me I'm sitting with two completely oblivious people now," Lily groans, resting her chin on a fist. "You're hopeless. Nice shade of red, by the way, Will."
Will's half mortified, half fuming glare says it all.
Lily gives him a sly wink that Eve – apparently oblivious to her immediate surroundings apart from Will who she still stares at, her expression almost of wonder – doesn't see. "Let me try again!" their new friend suddenly says excitedly, maybe from processing this new information as she smiles with renewed brilliance at Will. "I like this game."
"Okay, okay!" Lily chuckles at Eve's exhilaration. "Him. Over there, in the blue shirt. You see him?"
"I see him." Eve settles back into her seat, her cardigan brushing Will's leg slightly as she moves perhaps unconsciously along the seat towards him. "What have you got? I believe it is your turn, Lily."
"Oh, okay." Lily shrugs, taking a second look at their sixth or seventh target of the day, who sits within earshot of them, and is across from a pretty girl around his age, her appearance not unlike Eve herself. "He's a guy," she starts with a teasing grin at Eve. "He's holding the girl's hand, so from a wild guess I'm assuming she's his girlfriend. They haven't been together long though, it might be their first or second date. He seems quite nervous, you can tell. Can't quite decipher his accent, it's foreign of some kind."
"His accent's Cuban," amends Eve absently. "You can tell by the way he forms his vowels – very characteristic of the Cuban dialect."
"You speak Cuban?" Will wants to know admiringly, recovering from his embarrassed silence and brightening again a little, evidently deciding that no lasting damage has been sustained.
Eve shrugs. "A little. Enough to get by."
"I've never even seen someone from Cuba," muses Will. "At least I don't think I have. And I definitely don't know the vowel sounds, or whatever."
"What a surprise," mutters Lily, though not unkindly. Will sticks his tongue out at her.
Eve takes over the analysis. "His shirt is smart and fully buttoned up, he's eager for this date to go well. I agree with you, Lily, it's only their first or second date. Her accent is also Cuban, maybe they've moved over from Cuba to go to university together, since they are both around nineteen or twenty, so an optimum age to be pursuing higher education. He's been over to England before; he seems quite easy and relaxed in this café although it is likely that Cuba has a very different style of diner. However, I estimate that it is her first time in Britain, he's showing her around the sights."
"Hey, you're good at this!" Will notes.
"Hey, you're good at this…" Lily mimics from behind Eve's back. Will flashes an accusing glare at her, which a chuckling Lily merely grins back at.
Eve smiles modestly. "Thanks. Though it's pretty easy, really. There's lots of clues to find – like a mystery story. She's studying to be a doctor, you know. And he's just left a long-term relationship, and this is his new girlfriend who he's just got together with."
Now it's Lily's turn to look surprised. "How can you tell?" she asks incredulously – perhaps unable to believe that anyone can be better at her at the Sherlock deduction game.
A grin finally alights on Eve's face, as if it's tugging at her lips. "Well… he's actually my ex."
Both Will and Lily can't help but laugh. "That's definitely cheating," points out Lily once she catches her breath again.
"I prefer to call it educated inference," corrects Eve with a small smile. "That's Zac, and the girl with him is aforementioned new girlfriend Isadora."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Will feels the need to say somewhat awkwardly.
"Don't be. I kind of hate her for it, but Isadora's actually really nice. And Zac and I are still really good friends and keep in touch," Eve tells them. "Strange how life works out, but it just wasn't meant to be, I guess."
"That's a shame," comments Will absently, not really meaning it. Lily stifles a laugh behind her hand at his not-very-sorry look.
Eve smiles appreciatively at him, taking the comment as genuine. "Thank you."
"Well, if we're all done with our ice cream, I'm just going to go and say hello to my tall, dark and handsome over there," Lily suddenly decides, gesturing at the 'rock dude' still absorbed in his book by the door. "You two stay here – talk a little, maybe. Back in five."
No amount of death staring can apparently stop Lily this time as she gets up, winking again at a helpless-looking Will and heading across the café with a swish of her long green-tartan shirt and jingling of bangles. Eve waves after her happily, before returning her smile to an uncomfortable Will, who is suddenly horribly conscious that he has not sat alone with a girl who isn't Lily since – forever.
"Um… can I buy you another ice cream?" Will asks Eve hesitantly, after a few seconds of long silence which he feels like he should be the one to break.
"I have not had a first ice cream," Eve replies with a slight frown.
He summons up what remains of his nerve, projects it in a hopeful smile. "Then can I buy you a first ice cream, then? It's really good here, I promise."
Eve considers this for a long moment before she meets Will's slightly nervous-looking eyes. "Yes," she replies simply, her smile nearly as bright as his own as the boy registers her assent. "Why not."
From across the room, as the 'rock dude' stares at her, perhaps wondering why a girl is showing any attention in him, Lily smiles in satisfaction as she watches Will point out flavours in a parlour menu, Eve sitting rather close to him than she had before. "Utterly oblivious," Lily murmurs with a growing grin, and turns her attention back to her own new companion.
A/N) Reviews make me scribble faster (sometimes) XD