((Things have been edited and the OCCness should be...lessened. Well...the next chapter should be coming shortly. Wait patiently! If you want to read a new chapter in something, check out To Know True Love, newly updated! All my love, Lizney Wolf))
You Don't Have to Order Rat
Chapter Two: You Don't Have to Order Rat ((It's the title chapter! Yay!))
Carrot brightened, giving her a wide smile and pulling himself up to full height. "Great! There's this little dwarf delicatessen around the way from the Watch House." He bounced on the balls of his feet as he said this... then his smile faltered a bit. "And...don't worry, you don't have to order rat."
Angua subdued the urge to cringe and laughed faintly. This did well to relieve some of the tension that had been welling up in her chest over the past few drawn out moments.
"I don't have to order rat," she managed, giving Carrot a lopsided smile. "Good to know, good to know." Above them the clocks of the city slowly clanged the hour, the sound (and non-sound) reverberating between Angua's ears.
"Well, then..." she said suddenly, turning sharply and beginning to proceed back down Broad Way. "We should be getting back to the Watch House, eh, Captain?" She sent him a smile over her shoulder.
Carrot stood for a moment, not quite sure what he should do, and not exactly trusting his legs much. Yet he soon followed after her, stumbling a bit more than he normally would have, and kicking up cobbles with his boots.
They neared the Watch House shortly, amid a bit of tension filled silence, which was broken by Carrot saying, "I'll meet you out here, then?" And Angua nodding in return.
Carrot disappeared inside the dimly lit Watch House, ducking a bit to get through the door, while Angua continued to stand in the waning sunlight. She was trying desperately to take a deep breath, but the ability was failing her at the moment.
With a half-sigh, she followed his path and took off across the wooden floor at a fast trot, only slowing when she was safely inside the women's change room.
The wooden door of Angua's locker creaked open and an almost inhuman smell, a weeks worth of unwashed clothes, hit her sharp senses. She grimaced and one of the thoughts that had been flitting over her mind finally came to camp there.
Dates weren't for watch girls, she thought desperately, pulling a pair of crumbled pants out of the depths of her locker. Dates were for girls that could afford prim wigs and dresses expensive enough to look properly simple. She whined almost desperately as a wrinkled shirt followed the pants.
But one thing Angua knew, perhaps the most important thing that she had learned during her time on the Watch, was that there was no arguing with Captain Carrot. If he got a notion in his head, then you'd be damned if that idea didn't become a reality. So...Angua was going on a date. Whether she wanted to or not.
Another cringe as she pulled on the black pants and buttoned up the pale blue shirt. Her hands ran over her stomach and thighs, trying desperately, and failing dreadfully, to smooth out the wrinkles. She gave up, not even looking at her humidity puffed hair, and emerged from the locker room.
Fred Colon was lounging in a high-backed, swivel chair, his feet propped up on the wooden desk in front of him. He had his hands folded tranquilly over his plump stomach, and was looking through a cloud of smoke, coming from Nobby's dog end.
Nobby, hunched on a stool beside the desk, looked up as the women's change room door thumped against the wall and Angua strolled hastily out. Even Colon lifted his head off of the wall it had been leaning on to take a stare at her. She was breathing deeply, her eyes a bit wider than they usually would be, and she knew that she was giving them a show.
Ever since Carcer, a psychopathic murderer who had right ravaged the city for a good few months, had been captured and 'put to justice', there hadn't been much life around the Night Watch. Angua's bit of apprehension was enough to draw the attention of the bored coppers.
"Alright, there, Constable Angua?" Colon's voice was deep and, to Angua's surprise, laced with concern. She gave the two men a smile, and then spread her arms wide.
"How do I look, Sirs?" Nobby was a bit surprised, but recovered quickly, lifting his cigarette in a kind of salute and giving her a nod. She chortled and then her gaze slid toward Colon, who was still taking in her wrinkled use a press...." He said finally, the words joined with an uncertain smile. Angua gave a salute then, smiling at the both and biding them a wordless farewell.
Outside Carrot was standing patiently with his hands folded behind his back, nodding contently to passer by while he waited for Angua to meet him. She stood for a moment in the doorway, staring at the back of his red-haired head.
"Why are you standing in the doorway? I believe Commander Vimes wants to get by." It took a moment for Angua to process the words. She quickly wiped the dim-witted grin off of her face, muttered an apology to the increasingly irritated Vimes behind her, and rushed to stand beside Carrot.
"Don't let me interrupt you, Constable." Vimes was looking at the two of them, from one to the other, and then both at the same time. His helmet was perched on top of his head, giving him a slightly menacing look, not aided by the sword and truncheon hanging at his waist. "Where are you two going?"
Angua sniffed indignantly, straightening her shoulders. "To dinner! Er...Sir." And with a bit of hesitation, she grabbed Carrot's arm and dragged him, with less effort than one would expect, away from the Watch House.
Vimes watched them go, slightly shocked. He stepped back into the Watch House, figuring his shift could wait a few moments more.
"We don't know." Nobby said simply in response to the Commander's dumbfounded expression.
((Sorry it took me so long, but I began working on yet another fanfic. When it rains, it pours, eh? Alright! Review! Until we meet again, fair fortune be yours!))