Ok everyone, I've decided to start a new story. It's an idea that's been bugging me for a while. It's set in December, and Maria and the Captain aren't together yet. But they will be, so read, review, and wait for more! Thanks!
Note: I would be honored to thank my dear friend and beta The Lonely Goatherd for her help and suggestions for this story, and her fabulous title. Thanks dear!
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Maria was late for breakfast. Again. Sprinting into the dining room, she gasped a hurried, "Sorry I'm late," took her place at the foot of the table, and looked expectantly at the Captain to say the prayer.
"For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful. Amen."
There was a chorus of 'Amen's around the table, and then Kurt made everyone laugh by saying, "Can we eat now?"
"We certainly can, now that your governess is here at last," said the Captain, giving his favorite Fräulien a half-smile. She blushed and started cutting up Gretl's eggs.
Breakfast passed in relative chaos, something that had become a regular occurrence since Maria had been there. When Kurt was finally done with his third slice of toast, Maria asked, "What shall we do today, children?"
"Go on a picnic!"
"No, we did that Tuesday! Let's go on a boat ride!"
"But I can't swim! Let's play with dolls!"
"Dolls are stupid! Why don't we play a game?"
"But I want to finish my book!"
"What about our lessons? I was finally learning how to conjugate verbs!"
"Aww come on Liesl, French is stupid! And I want to play dolls with Gretl!"
"Why don't you all just calm down." Maria tried to quiet them, but-
"Children!" the Captain finally shut them up with his Captain-voice. "Why don't we ask Fräulien Maria what we should do?"
Maria blushed at having the spotlight on her again, so she gave a noncommittal shrug and said, "Whatever you want to do, I'm fine with, but I really think we should work on your lessons for an hour or so before doing anything else. We wouldn't want you to dream away your winter holidays, would we?" She gave the Captain a pointed look at this point.
"I think that would be a wonderful idea," he said, smiling again. "Children, why don't you go upstairs and get started. I need to have a word with your governess." The children looked at each other, fearful that their Fräulien was going to get fired. "I'm not going to fire her," the Captain chuckled, "I just need to ask her something. Now get going." He waited until Brigitta was fully out the door before turning to Maria.
"You wanted to ask me something?" she asked, standing up and walking over to him. He nodded and led her out of the dining room and into his study. They sat down on the couch, something they had made a habit out of doing for the past few weeks.
"You know how we've become friends over the past few weeks?" he asked, putting his arm around her shoulders.
"How could I forget?" she giggled, and laid her head on his shoulder.
"Mmm. Well, my friend Josef sent me an invitation."
"Wasn't he in the Navy with you? You've got too many friends for me to remember them all."
"Yes, he was in the Navy with me, and sometimes I forget my acquaintances too… But that's beside the point. He wants me to attend his New Year's ball, and he told me I could bring someone if I wanted to."
"Do you think you'll go?"
"Well, that depends." The Captain turned towards Maria, gently removing her head from his shoulder. "Would you be willing to-"
"Watch the children? I've only been doing it for half a year; I think I can handle them for one night." She chuckled.
"That's not what I was going to ask."
"Then what did you want to ask?" Maria looked at him, confused. What would he want her to do beside watch the children? What else could she do besides watch the children?
"D'yawannagow'me?" he asked, gazing at her expectantly.
"What?" Maria laughed. Seeing the Captain, usually such an articulate man, reduced to speechlessness, was amusing.
"Do you want to go to the ball with me?" he asked again, then feeling like an idiot as he watched her face. It had turned from a joyful smile to a confused wreck. Oh why, oh why did he ask her? They had just become friends, ever since she had visited him in his study one evening. That was when they had talked all night. Every night since then, they had chatted for hours after the children had gone to bed. He had gotten to know her pretty well, and found himself falling more in love with her every day.
Captain von Trapp, usually such a brave man, was now feeling scared. Scared that the love of his life would turn him down. Scared that he was being too forward with his darling Maria. Scared that she would leave again, and not come back this time. Scared that she might say-
"Yes."
"What?" he sputtered, bewildered. By the look on her face, he thought she might say no.
"Yes, Captain, I will go to the ball with you," Maria repeated, giggling a bit at the look on his face.
"You will? Oh good, I thought you might say no." This was the truth. That was why he was so scared.
"Why would I say no? I've never been to a ball before, why would I pass up the opportunity to go to one with you?" Dear Lord why did she just say that? Why did she get the feeling that she would do anything her dear Sea Captain asked her to? Why did she want him to see her, not as the tomboyish governess, but an elegant lady? Could she even act like an elegant lady? Oh dear…
"You went to Elsa's ball," the Captain said. He couldn't say it was his ball, even though he planned it and threw it. It was for Elsa and Elsa only.
"Yes well that doesn't count," Maria said hurriedly.
"Oh and why not?" He was joking with her now. Actually, it might seem like joking to Maria, but it was really flirting.
"Well I was the governess then! I wasn't actually attending it! And I'm not going to be the governess this time- am I? Are you inviting me as a friend or as an employee?"
"As a friend of course! How could I invite you any other way?"
"Oh I don't know…" she sighed. This was getting to be too complicated for her liking.
"So you'll come?" He needed reassuring that she was absolutely sure.
"Of course! I would love to!" She seemed rather excited about the whole thing. "When is it? I'll need to get something acceptable to wear…"
"It's in two weeks. Will that give you enough time to find a dress?"
"It gives me enough time to make a dress! Oh! I'll have to draw a design, and get fabric, and measure myself again, all your good food is making me fat, and sew, and-"
"Maria!" He interrupted her rant, making her stop abruptly. "You are anything but fat!" She gave the Captain a glare at this point. "Well it's true, I mean look at you! I could probably pick you up and swing you around if I wanted to…."
"You wouldn't," she stared at him with wide eyes.
"You never know," he said mysteriously. She narrowed her eyes at him. "Now, as for your design, do you think you might let me…?"
"No. It will be a surprise." She really wanted to amaze him this time.
"Well at least let Liesl see it, she should give you an idea of whether it's appropriate or not." The Captain didn't think anything Maria designed would be inappropriate. "And please allow me to take you into town for your material." Maria started to protest, but he stopped her and stood up. "Now, I suggest you check on the children, and start making your design." Maria stood up too and started to leave. However, she suddenly ran back to the Captain, threw her arms around his neck, kissed his cheek, muttered a quick "Thank you!" into his ear, and ran out of the study, leaving a dumbfounded Captain standing with his hand touching his cheek where she had kissed him.
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"Oh! I just can't get this right!" Louisa slumped back in her chair in defeat, glaring at her surface area problems.
"Really Louisa, it's not that hard. Here, let's try again. You have a cylinder. You want to find the surface area. What do you do?" Maria tried to simplify the problem for the girl.
"Find the area of all the sides and add them," she muttered, giving the problem a look Medusa would be proud of.
"And how do you find the area of the base?"
"You… multiply the radius by pi?"
"No, you multiply the radius times the radius, then by pi. Remember, it's pi times radius squared."
"Oh yeah, huh." Louisa tried finding the area of the base of the figure. "12.56? How does that make sense?"
"When you multiply a number by pi, you usually get a decimal," Maria said gently, remembering the time she multiplied two by one half and got one fourth. "Then what do you do?"
"Ummm…. Do you multiply that by two?"
"Yes! And why do we do that?"
"Because… it's the base and the top! Yes!" Louisa multiplied by two. "25.12. Now what? Find the area of the… rest of it… and how? Oh, this is hopeless…."
"Come on Louisa, just have confidence in yourself. You know how tall it is, it's 5 units tall, so how would you find the area?"
"Multiply by the width, I know that, but what is the width?"
"Well, if we take this apart, then you can find the circumference of the top, and…" Maria showed Louisa exactly how to find the surface area. When she was pleased with the result, she left Louisa to do the rest of her problems, and went to work on her dress.
"Fräulien Maria, that's a beautiful dress! What's it for?" Maria found Liesl inspecting the rough sketch of the dress she planned to make.
"Your father asked me to attend a ball with him, and I said I'd go, and that's the dress I'm going to make."
"It's beautiful! But it needs something extra… What color were you planning for it to be?" Liesl was still studying her dress.
"I'm not quite sure, but I was thinking maybe white…"
Liesl started humming a song under her breath. Maria couldn't quite make it out, but it sounded something like 'My Favorite Things'.
"Do you have a pencil?" Liesl suddenly asked, looking up at her governess. Maria handed her the pencil she had been using. Liesl wouldn't let Maria see what she was doing to her drawing. Maria was trying to look over her shoulder when the Captain walked into the room, unbeknownst to her and Liesl. He looked at the drawing, gave one of his half-smiles, and said, "Nice dress."
"Captain!" Maria cried, startled. "It was supposed to be a surprise! What are you doing here?" She spun around to look at her dress. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY DRESS?"
"What?" Liesl said innocently, looking down at Maria's altered dress.
"I can't wear something like that!" Maria exclaimed, staring at the neckline. It was much lower than her original drawing, which wasn't exactly high to begin with.
"Yes you can! I think it's perfectly fine to show a little skin." Liesl tried to argue her point.
"A little is what I had before. That- if I wore that, I'd look like a slut, and I am not a slut!"
"You can afford to show a little cleavage!"
"Liesl, there's nothing there to show!"
"What are you, crazy? There's plenty to show!"
"No there isn't!"
"Well there would be if you'd wear proper undergarments!"
"My undergarments are proper, thank you very much!"
"Well I say we take you out shopping to get you a bra that will give you some cleavage! Can we Father? When we go out to get the material for her dress?"
"I don't know if I want to get into this argument…"
"Oh it's all your fault Captain! You and your stupid ball!" Maria tried to storm out of the room, but the Captain caught her around the waist and dragged her back.
"Temper, temper, Fräulien," he joked. She slumped down in his arms, defeated. He pulled her to him in a comforting hug. "It's all right, Maria. You'll be the belle of the ball," he said, trying to comfort her.
"You mean the slut of the ball, if I wear what Liesl wants me to wear."
"That's better than some of the dresses women wore to Elsa's ball."
"I just don't think I can wear something like that," Maria mumbled into the Captain's jacket.
"Maria, you'll look beautiful, I promise. How about we come to a happy medium between your dress and Liesl's?"
"I suppose so." The Captain kissed the top of her head and let her out of his arms. Then he took the pencil and Maria's drawing from Liesl, spent a moment correcting the neckline, and gave it back to Maria.
"Oh Captain! I love it!" Maria grinned, staring at her new and improved dress. The Captain had raised the neckline so it still showed a little, but was perfectly appropriate. He had also added a sash, giving it an empire waist.
"Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes," Liesl whispered, gazing at the dress with amazement. Her Fräulien would look gorgeous.
"Do you think it should be a white dress with a blue satin sash?" Maria asked excitedly.
"How would you like a white satin dress with a blue satin sash?" the Captain asked Maria. She looked skeptical for a moment, then said,
"That's a lot of satin." The Captain and Liesl looked at each other, and started cracking up. Maria couldn't see what was so funny.
"That's not too much satin," the Captain said after his laughter had died down. Maria still looked doubtful. "At least it's not silk," he added, catching the expression on her face. She rolled her eyes at that last comment.
"Can we go into town, Father? Please?" Liesl begged.
"Are you done with your lessons?" Lessons were always the first priority to the Captain.
"Almost," Liesl said, and sprinted off to finish.
The Captain turned to Maria. "Did you need to measure yourself again?"
"Do you think I need to?" she asked playfully.
"Absolutely not," he replied, and hugged her once again. He still couldn't get over how she felt in his arms. He felt whole, and he hadn't felt that way for a long time. The Captain didn't think he wanted to let his little Fräulien go. Finally, after a long moment, he had to release her, for propriety's sake. She smiled up at him.
"Are you sure you want to go shopping for a dress?" she asked.
"Utterly."
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Liesl, Maria, and the Captain had been in the dress shop for about half a minute before Maria found the perfect fabric for her dress. It was white like she wanted, light, airy, but heavy enough to keep her warm. As a dress, it would billow around her, and Liesl said that she would look like an angel in it. And to Maria's delight, it wasn't satin. Now they were trying to find a fabric suitable for the blue satin sash. Liesl was off looking at some pink fabrics, so that left Maria and the Captain to look by themselves.
"How about this one?" Maria offered, holding up a sample piece of material.
"No, too light. What about this?"
"Hmmm… It looks too…. See-through. And isn't it supposed to be satin?"
"Right…. Well what about this one then?" He held up the cloth and Maria gazed at it for a moment, trying to decide. "It matches your eyes," the Captain said, holding it up to her face. "It matches them exactly."
"Are you sure? I don't think my eyes are that blue…"
"Oh Fräulien Maria! That would be wonderful as a sash! You absolutely have to get it!" Liesl exclaimed, walking over to her father and governess, who had been standing a little closer than their employer-employee relationship allowed. Liesl smiled. She knew what was going on between those two; she knew that their 'friendship' was on the brink of a romantic relationship. She loved how happy Fräulien Maria had made her father.
"Do you really think so, Liesl?" Maria asked. She still wasn't sure.
"Oh yes! It would really bring out your eyes!"
"I'm going to have to agree on this one, Maria," the Captain broke in.
"Oh all right then, I might as well." Maria finally gave in to their urgings and took the fabrics she wanted over to the counter. She tried to pay for them, but the Captain wouldn't let her.
"Really Captain, I'm perfectly capable of paying for my own material."
"No, it's my fault you have to make a dress in the first place, I should pay."
"Captain-"
"Maria." He put his hand over her mouth to quiet her. "I am going to pay, and you are going to accept. Alright?" Maria nodded. She didn't really have a choice. "Good. Now all I want you to worry about is looking beautiful for the night of the party, which shouldn't be hard." When Maria tried to speak again, he put his hand over her mouth (again). "Oh no, you're not going to talk again, are you?" he joked, looking concerned. "We wouldn't want you to strain yourself, would we?"
"Father, you shouldn't bribe her like that, you know her temper-" Liesl was cut off by a "damn" from her father, whose hand had just been bitten by an irate Maria.
"Serves you right," she said in response to his glare. "You know me, with my temper, like Liesl said. Don't bribe me, you'll regret it."
"I think I learned that the hard way," he said, shaking his hand. She sure knew how to bite. Maria only smiled at him.
"Well, I think we're done here. Shall we go home now?" she said, walking briskly out the door.
"Ooh no you don't," Liesl exclaimed, catching her arm. "We still have to get you a proper bra."
"Liesl, really-"
"Maria, you are going to get a bra, or you won't be going to the ball at all!" The Captain's threat made Maria calm down, and she let herself be dragged all the way to the lingerie store.
"Mm, I think I'll just- uh- wait outside, okay?" The Captain looked uncomfortable even being near a store like that.
"Me too," said Maria, and tried to join him, but Liesl dragged her inside.
It took a while for them to find an appropriate bra. The first one made Maria screech, "I look like an old lady!" She wouldn't even come out of the dressing room. The second one was too lacy for her liking (she said it itched). The third one made her look, as she said, "like a hooker." The fourth one was too small, the fifth too big, the sixth too noticeable under a dress. The Captain was getting more annoyed by the minute. He had never been shopping for ladies' undergarments before, and he didn't know if he wanted too. He was beginning to wonder what was taking so long, so he decided to go check it out. Just as he was walking in the store, Maria was walking out of the dressing room in nothing but her skirt and a bra. He gave her one look, said, "Get that one," and walked out of the store again, embarrassed beyond his wits. Maria turned beet red and went back into her dressing room to get changed. She and Liesl found the Captain pacing outside the store, ready to go home.
"Er, sorry about- that-" he tried to apologize.
"It's alright, I'm sure you didn't mean to." Maria still resembled an overripe tomato.
"Still, I really must apologize, I wouldn't have gone in if I knew you were like that, but I was wondering what was taking you so long, and-"
"Father, shopping for lingerie is a very delicate process. She didn't want to look like an old lady-" the Captain raised his eyebrows at this "-but she didn't want to look like a hooker, either-" Again, the Captain looked skeptical at the thought of Maria looking like a hooker "-so we had to find a happy medium, and we did. That was the one you saw." The Captain raised his eyebrows at Maria, who said,
"Remind me to never let you take me to a ball again."
He chuckled and put his arm around her waist. "If I get another invitation, I'll just have to turn it down, then."
She smiled at him. "I'm sure you'd love that."
"Yes, actually I would, it'd give me an excuse to stay home with my seven wonderful children and their lovely governess." Maria blushed at this last statement, though not nearly as much as she had when the Captain walked in on her.
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"Captain?"
"Mmmm?"
The Captain and Maria were, once again, sitting in his study. He had kicked off his shoes and put his feet on the coffee table in front of him. Maria had leaned over so her head was on his shoulder, and he had his arm around her.
"Why do you always wear a suit?" Maria asked innocently.
The Captain laughed. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm just wondering. It just makes you seem so- oh, I don't know- so formidable."
The Captain chuckled; his chest shaking so hard Maria had to lift her head off him. "Me? Formidable? Why would you say that?" he joked, wondering how Maria was going to answer.
"Well, I think it's this jacket. If you would just take it off, it'd make you seem much more approachable." As she was saying this, she was slowly working the buttons of his jacket, so before he knew it, she had taken it off and was examining him. "There, isn't that much better?" He nodded. "But I think there's something more. A tie without a jacket looks funny." She took off his tie. "And you're going to suffocate yourself if you keep your shirt buttoned up like that all the time." She unbuttoned the first four buttons of his shirt. "Now that is something I can live with," she said, admiring her handiwork. He really did look handsome now, with part of his chest showing and his hair looking a bit tousled. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking rather like a naughty schoolboy. She giggled.
"What's so funny?"
"You! I never thought I could get you like this." She sighed, wondering what it would be like to take his shirt off completely. Maria knew that this was already bordering on inappropriate, and to take his shirt off entirely would be crossing the line. So she sighed again and leaned against his chest, relishing in the warmth that washed over her. He engulfed her in his strong arms and let her rest her head on his shoulder.
"You know, I could get used to this," he murmured into her ear. She shivered and pulled him closer. He smiled in contentment and kissed the back of her neck. She shivered again. Hey, if she could torment him like this, then it was only fair that he torture her back, right?
Maria took her hand from around his neck and rested it on the open V of his shirt. She really wanted to undo a few more buttons. Giving in to temptation, she clumsily unfastened the buttons one-handedly. Tracing patterns up and down his bare chest, she sighed. She never knew a man could affect her like this.
Apparently, the man wasn't only affecting the woman. Maria was affecting the Captain in ways he had never even dreamed of. He groaned as he felt her tugging on the buttons of his shirt. "Maria," he growled, "Don't." She didn't listen to him. Instead, she undid his shirt completely, and slid it off his shoulders seductively. She smiled at the sight of his bare upper body, her eyes taking in his tanned skin, his strong muscles flexing as he tried to retrieve his shirt. She only smiled and tossed it behind the couch, where he couldn't reach it.
"Terribly sorry, Captain, but I'm afraid that I like you much better without a shirt than with one," she murmured, leaning in to him again. He didn't even try to restrain himself; he just gathered her small frame to his larger one and sat there in contentment, the woman of his dreams drawing invisible patterns on his skin as he kissed the top of her head.
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Read and Review please!