I own nothing.
"Sybil, you baffle me." Snapped Granny.
Sybil didn't say anything, preferring to continue to sniffle into her sofa cushion.
"Oh, please stop that ridiculous noise." Sybil looked up at Violet, eyes wide and damp. Violet pursed her lips (her favourite form of unwilling sympathy), and leant on her cane. "Drink more tea." She passed Sybil the cup, and watched her closely as she tentatively sipped the beverage.
"Now, firstly, you make us endure mountains of suffering while you go on and on about how wonderful this man is and how happy you are you won't shut up for anything," Granny paused and considered, "Then, when he tells you he loves you, you run like a wild animal- why, we have no clue."
"Granny, I know you've always offered, and I always say no, but," Granny leant forwards, and gave her the eagle like stare that had a tendency to make people flinch. "But," She continued, cautiously. "Would you please fix my life?"
Granny sat down and smiled graciously.
"Well, now. I think that's manageable." Sybil worriedly sipped her tea once more. "But firstly, we must clear some room for sense." This statement made her cringe. "Now, do you love this boy?"
"I- I don't know."
Granny's frown could have made the elderly face crack in two.
"You try on a dress, and you start panicking because you think about being without him. He then tells you he loves you, where you proceed bawl your eyes out, and you start frolicking in Hyde Park like some kind of hippy," More tea. "And you tell me that you've never felt like this before. But that's not love, of course, how silly, how ridiculous."
"But I don't-"
"Sybil." Granny interrupted, with pursed lips, the expression she wore when she was becoming impatient. "Think for a moment, use your brain, and close your eyes."
Sybil quirked an eyebrow, but nodded, and did as she was bid. "Now, imagine kissing that slimy boy."
"Larry?"
"Of course, whom else would I be talking about? Don't interrupt."
"Yes Granny."
"Are you imagining it?"
"Unfortunately."
"How did it feel?"
"Creepy."
"Good."
"Why?"
"I don't want to be the one to tempt you into going back to him. He set my teeth on edge."
"Me too."
"Now imagine kissing my future grandson in law."
"Granny!"
"I'm sorry my dear, but I have high expectations. I like this one."
Sybil huffed in annoyance.
"Now, how does it feel?"
Sybil though for a moment, and her eyes flew open. She knew.
"Oh, Granny. Granny thank you!" Sybil dived on her phone, and selected Tom's contact with shaking hands.
There came no reply.
She tried again.
No reply. She snatched up Granny's Violet's landline, and dialled again.
No response.
And again.
No response.
She tried Sarah, and got no response.
She dropped the handset back on the receiver, and looked at Granny.
"I need to see him." She whispered. Granny nodded.
"I'd expected as much." Sybil snatched up her phone, and ran outside without so much as a by your leave. She went to hail a taxi, and then she realized- her bag had been left behind when she'd ran out of the diner, she had no money.
"Bugger, arse, wank and shit." She snarled quietly to herself, doing what one does in distress: quote Love Actually.
And so she started to run.
The first place she went was the diner- he wasn't there and neither were her things. Then she tried his flat.
Slamming her hands on the door, and beating the doorbell to submission. After a few minutes, the creepy Jeff answered the door.
So Sarah was evidently home alone, seeing as how Jeff answered the door covered only by the front and arse pillow.
Sybil wrinkled her nose.
"Ew," she muttered, pushing past him, and bursting into Sarah's room, the inhabitant screaming and covering herself with a bed sheet.
"I've seen it all before." Sybil grunted, "That's an average Saturday for you- where's your brother?"
"I dunno!" She shrieked, causing Sybil to huff. "Well, where could he be?"
"At work, maybe? At the pub, or if he's upset, at a friends."
"Text me the addresses!" Sybil cried, hurrying out of the door. As she ran to the pub (where they'd met, painfully enough), she tried his phone again, and once more, gotten no response. A brief scan of the bar yielded no Irishman, and she cursed, turning to run out of the door, and promptly slamming into a patron entering. She fell over backwards, and landed painfully on her back.
"Don't worry about it, she does that a lot." The familiar bartender informed the patron. Sybil scrambled to her feet, and grinned briefly at the man, before diving out of the door.
She read the address of Alfred's flat from the message Sarah had sent, and she began running in that direction. And she tried his number again, still yielding no response.
"Oh, god what have I done?" She whispered, as she ran to Alfred's door. She hammered on the chipping painted wood until it opened, and Tom's friend with the long mouth who'd found Edith attractive opened the door.
"Sybil Crawley, Tom's girlfriend, you must be Alfred, nice to meet you, heard a lot about you, all good I hope," she let out a large false laugh, "Now, have you seen my boyfriend?"
Alfred eyed her nervously.
"Er, no, sorry."
"Can you phone him for me?" He nodded, and dialled, though apparently it yielded no response, as Alfred hung up and shook his head. Sybil cursed under her breath, and nodded.
"Thank you! See you later!" She shouted, already half way down the path. And the last place was the garage.
Heart thumping in her chest, she paused at the garage door, and closed her eyes.
"Please let him be here. Please let him be alright." She whispered, before pushing the handle and walking inside. It was concrete all over; paint was peeling, and electric lights illuminating the shadows, and she walked reservedly to the desk.
"Hullo?" She asked, the elderly man looked up and smiled.
"Hello there, how can I help you?"
"I'm sorry, but does Tom Branson work here?" The man blinked and nodded.
"Yeah, he's out the back." All the air seemed to leave Sybil's lungs, and she felt weak at the knees.
"Can I see him?" She asked, already barging her way through the door to the work floor. And there he was.
Well, the first thing she saw was his arse. The bonnet of the car was up, and he was bending over it, reaching to the back, straining his navy blue coveralls ever so slightly. Oh, that backside.
"Tom."
He looked around, and Sybil really saw his face. His eyes were the calmest of blues, and she could feel herself getting lost in them- they exuded kindness, love, desire, and everything she felt when she saw him. His pale skin shadowed by stubble, his circles around his eyes, raw from crying- oh god, she'd made him cry.
He said nothing, but turned to face her, cleaning the spanner he'd been holding with the rag dangling from the pocket of his coveralls, intently.
"Tom, I-" She looked around, jumping with nerves, and tears burning her eyes. "Granny said…" What was she meant to say? So she settled with:
"I tried to call you." Tom nodded, and continued working on the spanner, before mumbling mere reply of,
"My phone's broken." Forgetting the situation, her eyes widened, and she grinned.
"How? Did you make a crater or what?" Tom chuckled slightly, but did not look up. Sybil mover her head to look down her shoulder, a curtain of hair spooning her face.
"I, er, spoke to Granny." She began, turning back to look at him. He was inspecting the spanner, and polishing furiously, though she could tell he was listening. She quickly turned to look at the door leading from the office to the work floor; around a corner from the one she'd entered in, and saw the elderly man watching through the porthole window. She frowned, and gestured with her hand for him to look away, which he did, reluctantly.
"And she said-" And then the word vomit came. "I imagined kissing Larry, and felt sick, and then imagined kissing you, and it all came and hit me- you. You're the best person I've ever met, you help me up when I fall over, you cook in the mornings, you're passionate and caring and rough and gentle at the same time and you never make me do it if I don't want to, though with you… I always feel that when you do, and by god, you're attractive! And I was running around like an idiot tonight because I left my Oyster card in my bag, and I was trying to find you, and I felt so helpless, because I thought I'd lost you, and if that was how I felt after one evening, how I feel if we really… and I've spent all this time freaking out about the relationship moving too fast, and not working, and I realised that that doesn't matter! Love is love, and I love you, and it comes in so many different packages, it doesn't matter how it happens, and what the hell was I thinking running out of there, I just felt so bad because I'd been thinking about not being with you, and then- oh my god, I just said I love you." Tom had looked up when she said it the first time, his handsome eyes filled with emotion.
"And I do, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you!" She cried, in slight hysterics. The spanner dropped from Tom's hands, and he flew at her, collecting her in an embrace, and pressing his mouth to hers. The kiss was filled with want and need and love and passion, and, she reflected, as her arms snaked their way around his neck, she never wanted to leave. Tom was hers, and she loved him with every fibre of her being, and that was all there was to it. They parted, and stood there, staring at each other. Suddenly, Tom's face broke into a smile- the one she loved, and he pressed his forehead to hers.
"I love you." He whispered, in his embracing Irish lilt.
"I love you too." She replied, giggling slightly.
"Why… why did you…" She sighed, and cast a look over his shoulder.
"I don't know- I suppose I just… I wanted it to… I've been so worried about everything… Oh, goodness, I need more word vomit." She buried her face into his neck. "I just freaked. I wasn't thinking straight. Or at all, and you were all hot and Irish and lovely and oh my God." His upper body rumbled as he laughed.
"You are such a… Sybil."
"And what's that supposed to mean, mister?"
"And what was hot and Irish supposed to mean?" He chuckled into her hair.
"You are such an idiot."
"Charming."
"Oh, but I'm just too busy being breezy to be charming."
The kettle was boiling, accompanied by a loud whistle that came with the model that didn't run from electricity.
"So, you interrupted my sister banging my best friend's brains out-"
"And saw him with an arse pillow." Tom whistled in mocking, and Sybil poked him in the stomach.
"And then you attacked a random in the pub-"
"I fell over."
"Oh, so you Sybilled over a random in the pub, and then you terrorized Alfred, and then you met my boss."
"Sure did!"
"And you ran all over."
"Yep." He grinned, but not his usual grin, the one he gave when he was about to make a joke.
"I must say, I'm very impressed." The conversation paused, while she inspected her shoes bashfully. "But, have a look at this." Imitating his actions before in the restaurant, he retrieved the spoon from the coffee pot, polished it on his coveralls, and held it up to her face, she studied her reflection for a moment, before burying her it into her hands.
"Oh, Aragron." She groaned, laughing slightly. Tom was doubled over with laughter, his cries of mirth ricocheting off the concrete walls.
She had a faint, but hardly invisible bruise from when she'd slipped and hit her head on the table, and, from when she'd been crying and rubbing Granny's sofa cushions all over her face, her eye make up had smudged all over her cheeks and nose.
Bloody liquid eyeliner.
"I ran all over town, terrorizing the villagers, looking like the joker." She cried, though her words were not untainted by laughter, when Tom finally straightened up.
"Come on, you make a very pretty joker." He reasoned, tipping milk into the mug. "If I were Batman, I'd tap that."
"When did you know?" He asked suddenly, and she looked up from her tea to Tom, who had lifted his head from the engine to talk to her. She smiled, and replied,
"I knew tonight. But I've been in love with you… since I heard you talking. About politics, and how passionate you are." She smiled, her body exploding with the emotions one felt when one was in love. "And not just on our first date, before, when I couldn't talk."
"Ah, our first date, I remember it well." Tom reminisced fondly, though she knew he wasn't being entirely serious. "You were so beautiful, you breezed in through the door after standing outside the pub for a good half an hour, and then breezed over to where I was sitting, and told me how breezy you were-"
"And you kissed me, and I was gone." She finished, tossing a rag at him playfully. He dodged, and winked at her, smiling cheekily. "And when did you know?" She asked, and he withdrew his head from the bonnet again.
"Well, one minute, I was sitting there, and then Jeff nudged me, and told me that this fit bird was staring at me, and he pointed to you, and I saw you sitting there, with all your friends and sisters, and I heard William tell you-"
"That I'd never drooled over a bloke in my life, yes." She finished, blushing scarlet.
"And I knew." She looked up from her tea once more, to see her boyfriend leaning against the car casually, fiddling with a piece of wire.
"…just like that?"
"Just like that."
"Love at first sight?"
"Love at first sight." He confirmed, nodding. She felt her face stretch into a smile, and she dipped her head back down to inspect her tea.
"For God's sake, Tom." The elderly man interrupted with resign, surprising both of them who had not noticed him leaning in the doorway. "It's not even your shift, I'm not paying you, and you've finished moping. If you're not going to do anything, go home."
And so, Sybil and Tom found themselves running through the crowded streets of London, with sore hearts and enormous smiles, and snow swirling around them.
And for now, none of the pain matters. Because they're young and in love, and, as far as they're concerned, they're running from the pain and sadness, and to the future worth having. And they both know, that those futures are wound so closely together, they're almost entirely the same.
Though not quite.
1. I'm very sorry about the last chapter, and I hope this fairy floss of a chapter makes up for it!
2. Thank you for your reviews, favourites and alerts! 50 reviews in 9 chapters- I LOVE YOU GUYS! Your support is really encouraging, and very inspiring :D
3. I'm sorry for not acknowledging that last time.
4. Hobbit in three days!
5. I'll try and get back to you before Christmas.
Please review! Xxx