Note: Written for the Staying In challenge at the yuridrabbles livejournal community.
Pairings: ClaudinexCecilia
Warning: Minor spoilers for the first half of Claudine.
The lights are low in Cecilia's living room, the glow from the lamps barely enough to read by, but they both know the poetry by heart already; The book is merely a polite fiction, something to do with their hands. Somewhere to put their eyes when the connection grows too intense to bear.
The Baudelaire rolls off Cecilia's tongue, the robust words washing over Claudine and enveloping her in a haze of decadent sensuality. These are the moments she loves best, when the world narrows to a pinpoint; This little room with the two of them, and the poetry, and Cecilia's voice, her gaze, her presence. This is Claudine's paradise, and she revels in it. She cannot conceive of anything that could be better than this.
Rosemarie says that Cecilia is using her, but she doesn't understand. She hasn't experienced these moments, hasn't seen the way Cecilia looks at Claudine as she reads poems of love.
"Ta tête, ton geste, ton air#," Cecilia recites, "Sont beaux comme un beau paysage;/ Le rire joue en ton visage/ Comme un vent frais dans un ciel clair." She reads with a teasing lilt to her voice, her eyes never once leaving Claudine's, and Claudine's heart skips a beat as Cecilia weaves her magic around her. In this moment, she would die for this woman.
Rosemarie is mistaken. Cecilia isn't seeing anyone else. How could she be, when she looks at Claudine with such fondness? And why would she spend so many evenings in with Claudine, passing the time reading and discussing literature and the arts, if she were seeing someone?
No. Claudine is the one in Cecilia's eyes, and in her heart. In these moments, she is sure of it.
Cecilia would never betray her.
#: From A celle qui est trop gaie (To One Who Is Too Cheerful), from Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) by Baudelaire. English translation (done by James McGowan):
Your head, your air, your every way,
Are scenic as the countryside;
The smile plays in your lips and eyes
Like fresh winds on a cloudless day.