Sincerely,
A/N: When I say "tomorrow" I actually mean "a few minutes after I post the first chapter." Anyway, this is done. Now I'll go back to writing and/or revising my other works (but I have a feeling that I'll write more for this first since I'm not over this anime.)
"Will you marry me?" She had always been better than him when it came to words.
(Claudia and Cattleya, before, during, and after.)
It's snowing.
Music is being blared from within a two-story building. Boisterous laughter and loud cheers echo from within it. Cars are passing by. People are walking. People are talking. Somewhere, a gunshots resound through a battlefield and bombs explode into the night.
But the people of this city, these two people hiding in the dim light in particular, don't care.
She's a dancer. He's a soldier. There's a war being waged far beyond them, but they're leaning against the brick of the back alley, side-by-side with an air of combined animosity and genuine curiosity.
"I'm a dancer, sir. Nothing more."
Cattleya isn't fond of soldiers.
"It's not... I'm not. Jeez."
Claudia isn't a fan of dancers.
And yet they have found themselves here, not quite in the dark, but shrouded in enough mystery to make anyone think of something intimate.
It's quiet between the two of them. He thinks of lighting the borrowed cigarette between his cold fingers, but fumbles with the lighter in his other hand. She thinks of downing the bottle of gin she stole from the bar, but twists the cap back on and off.
"Why are you here?" She snapped without looking at him.
"I'm just..." He sighs. "I just needed some time alone."
"Then go find some place else." She huffs.
He doesn't leave.
"I can't leave you alone."
Oh.
She knows his type.
"I can take care of myself."
At that moment, Cattleya dares to take a swig from the bottle, and spits out the drink immediately after.
She has never been that much of a heavy drinker.
"Are you alright?" He asks cautiously.
"Fine."
She raises the bottle to the light. "This tastes like gasoline."
"Oh, it's that brand." He says. "They say it's strong enough to burn a building down."
"Really? You have a lighter don't you?"
He gasps.
She laughs.
Claudia thinks she laughs beautifully.
"I was just joking. Jeez. You soldiers really are the serious type."
He also thinks she has a strange sense of humor.
"I'm not going to drink this. Do you want to have it?" She offers the bottle to him.
"No, I..."
His words are lost to him when he sees her standing in the light, dark hair in a tousled ponytail, striking violet eyes, and face looking so soft...
She's the one the other soldiers were talking about.
"You...?" She smiles slightly, averting her gaze.
She would be lying if she didn't find him attractive, with his bright red hair and his even brighter blue eyes.
"I'm Claudia."
Her face immediately lights up and she laughs. Loudly.
Of course.
"Is that really your name?" She says in between laughs.
He sighs. "Unfortunately."
"Well, Claudia..." She says with a wide smile on her face, "My name's Cattleya."
He thinks it's only right that she be named after such a flower.
"So what are you doing here, Cattleya?" He tests her name.
"Well, Claudia," She says in return, a slight hint of a laugh in her voice, "I'm not really one to do well in crowds."
"Ah, I see." He says in reply, "I understand that people can be a bit touchy-feely sometimes and–"
"Oh, no! No!" She is quick exclaim. "It wasn't anything like that."
She pouts very slightly. She doesn't want to say it, but there's a nagging in her head that tells her to do so, and it's the name voice that tells her that this Claudia is a good man, a man like those she has dreamed of when she was younger and when her world was a little smaller.
"I actually..." She hesitates. "I think I broke a man's jaw."
He blinks.
Twice.
"You–you did?"
Of course he doesn't believe her.
"But it was because he was getting a little too close for his own good!" She quickly adds.
He's utterly speechless now.
"Oh, dear. Cattleya, what have you done?"
She bites her lip and leans back to the wall, quietly wishing she would disappear. She ran out of the club in order for things to settle down, and found herself in the company of a strange soldier who has yet to utter his response to what she said.
He could at least ask her if that was true...
"Wow." He breathed out. "I guess I shouldn't get on your bad side, then."
Does he actually believe her?
She's never met a man like him before.
No, wait. She has.
And she knows how to deal with such men.
"Do you want me to show you how I did it?"
"If that's alright with you."
So she places the bottle on the ground and takes his wrists in her hands, placing them carefully on her waist–and he doesn't move so much as to hold her there, such a gentleman–and then she leans up, almost close enough to...
And then she is quick to move, ducking low and coming up fast with a right hook aimed perfectly for his jaw.
He stops her fist with an open palm, but stumbles back at the surprise of how much strength she has.
But she doesn't stop there. She pulls back and twists away from him, only to knee him in the stomach. He dodges just in time, but she is even faster, quickly kicking his side to send him crashing into the wall.
"Oh, my gosh!" She gasps.
She knew she hit him too hard.
"Are you–I'm sorry, I–"
"Damn." He laughed as he pushed himself off the wall. "I knew I shouldn't have said yes."
Why is he smiling?
Forget about what she said earlier.
She has never met a man like him before.
"You have a terrifying punch, Cattleya." He says, rubbing his cheek. "A really strong kick, too."
She can't help but blush a little at his words.
"Ever thought of being a soldier?"
How rude to say to a woman of her charm.
So she punches his shoulder as a reply.
"Hey!"
"Me? A soldier?" She pouts. "Never."
But then he's smiling.
And she's smiling, too.
"Yeah." He says intently. "It wouldn't be the life for a woman like you."
She narrows her eyes at him. "And what would be the life for a woman like me?"
And he says after a beat, "Something better than all of this, I think."
Her heart can't help but beat a little faster at those words.
"A life better than all of this?"
She ran away from home and became a dancer at the hope of a better life.
How is it that there is this would-be-knight-in-shining-armor in front of her, telling her that there is a better life than what she already has? She might have dreamed of big mansions with marble floors, seven-course dinners and lively music, silken gowns and ruby earrings, but she was younger then.
A woman like her could only hope to have such things, which is why a woman like Cattleya Baudelaire is content.
She doesn't need any of those things to live a life.
So why has this soldier told her such a thing?
A/N: There you have it. Coming up, me trying to update my other stories while quietly begging for the fandom to support this ship.
