A/N: To all my sparkly reviewers, and reviewees, DarkAlavine, Evil Duckie of the Black Lagoon, Jacks-Strumpet, untouchable1400, Girlofthenight, to everyone, thank you.

xx

Chapter Six: Vianne

There comes a time in everyone's life, when they're waiting, for a job reply, exam results, a bus, eccetera, and this was your time. Roux had told you that you were about half an hour from Vianne's little town, and that he wouldn't be staying there long. It is only about half past nine in the morning, the sun is up and playing on the river through the trees. The children are already in the water as the day is very warm, closely followed by parents. You had asked Roux if he wanted you to come into the village with him, but he had said no, he wanted to go alone, and you respected that. However, you weren't going to spend the day idly doing nothing. When Roux had left to see Vianne, you spent a few minutes in the boat, worriedly wondering if he would come back as he said he would, and not stay with Vianne. You shook this thought out of your head, the river was his home, he wouldn't leave that, and he loved you, he wouldn't leave you. You quickly changed and then dived into the river with the other gypsies, splashing and playing with the children you had come to love, and swimming from side to side, careful not to touch the bottom of the dirty river. After about an hour, you got back onto the boat, you were the first to leave the river, and you quickly dried in the heat, your fingers regaining their elastisicty that they had lost in the water when your skin had become wrinkled. Continuing with the composition of a song on your guitar, you played for a while, sitting first on the boat, and then on the bank, dreaming of love songs, poetry and Roux. Speaking of Roux, he had said he'd be back over an hour ago, the time had flown quickly since beginning to play, music just had that effect on you. Deciding to go to the village, you unstrap your guitar, take a few coins and head up the bank.

The village seems pretty enough, quaint and friendly, people stop to say good morning, or good afternoon as it has now become. After walking past a statue of a previous Comte, you see a small café, after approaching it, you see it is named Café Armande, and you are welcomed inside where you buy a drink to quench your thirst. You ask the waitress where the chocolaterie is, and she gives you simple directions. A few minutes later, you leave the café, and follow the directions until you find the chocolaterie, where you see Roux inside, talking to, you presume, Vianne, who's behind the counter. They're both sitting down, drinking from mugs, and laughing like old friends, which you think is odd, as Roux had said he'd come to say goodbye, and was due back at the river over two hours ago. You don't enter the chocolaterie, but wait outside for a moment, watching, half hidden by the window display, but clear enough in view so you can see what's happening. Roux takes a sip of his drink, and then Vianne stands, takes his hand, and they both go upstairs.

Anger surges through you, 'how could he? How could he be saying goodbye and then following her up the stairs?' You leave the chocolaterie window, and storm off down the small cobbled street, nearly knocking over several people but not really noticing, or caring. You reach the top of the river bank and sit down, resting your back against a tree, knees drawn up under your chin, and begin to sob into your long skirt. 'All the time, all the time he loved Vianne, what the hell were you thinking, he could never love a river rat like you. Freedom, yes he needed his freedom, like he needed the air he breathed. Now he's gone, he's got his love, and he's got his chocolate, and it was just that easy to leave the freedom, leave the river that he used to love.' You feel so betrayed, so used and hurt. Now you've got nothing, you have no idea where your own family are, and you refuse to stay with his, you hardly know them, you've been with them a week and now the only one you did know, or thought you knew, had gone, and you were lost, alone, and forgotten. You were homeless, you had nowhere to go, no job and no family, no friends, no money and very little dignity left. How the hell did you fall for that going back to say goodbye? What the hell were you thinking the morning after he said 'come with me'? You were thinking you could trust a river rat, your father had always said you could never trust anyone, not people in towns, and not even other gypsies, even though they knew the life you led, and that's why there are families of gypsies, those you can trust, and those you can't. That is why he had a different family, that is why Bion didn't like him. But how did Bion know that? Because you can't trust other gypsies, its just an unwritten rule, the only people you can trust is your family, whether blood related or family related, you cannot trust other people! He's a gypsy, everyone knows gypsies can't be trusted, everyone avoids them like the plague and why should it be different just because you're a gypsy? Why should he be different when it's people like him who get the bad reputation for people like you? How you always long to yell at people in towns, and tell them that it's wrong to tar every gypsy with the same brush, but you've just gone and proved them right, well done. You're a right good advert for making friends with gypsies, when gypsy and gypsy can't even get along, how the hell are townspeople going to do it?

And you come to realise that you are a gypsy, he's the river rat, and you come to despise the fact that you share the same river with him, let alone culture, if you could call your cultures the same, when culture is what you do and what you believe in. You don't believe in betrayal, deception and trickery, you believe in the old ways, the Romany ways, where people travel from place to place selling their trade, not deceiving people and tricking them for their own greed and want. 'I can't stay here,' you sob into your skirt, rubbing your eyes. 'I need to go.' Where? The river had always been your home, but you had always had a family, a safe group of people to go with, but now you don't even have a boat, there's no way you can go anywhere.

Yes, you can. You can take Roux's boat, after all, he won't be needing it anymore, he's got all the freedom he needs with Vianne, and her daughter, Anouk or whatever it was she was called. You can take his boat, and sail down the river, your family can't have gone too far, your father was talking about staying for a few weeks somewhere along this stretch of river, if you set off tonight you could reach where you left them in a week, and travel further down stream in another week to where they would have got to by now, and they'll be there because they're staying there a while, you might even have chance to stay there a while yourself if you make good time. Yes, you'll take Roux's boat.