A/N—This chapter irks me. Probably because by the end, writing it was like trying to pull teeth. I'd hit the end of my 'inspired' period, you see. Anyway, as stated before, no plot furtherance, but some personality quirks are revealed here.
Day 3 continued
Upon entering the game room, William wondered exactly what to begin with. As if drawn by some strange sort of eye-magnet, his (surprisingly) eyes alighted on a green table to the far side of the room, divided by a small net. He tossed a glance Lizzy's way.
"You said you liked tennis," he began, effectively demonstrating that he had, in fact, been paying attention to their conversation in the halls earlier, "but what about its little cousin?" He nodded his head toward the ping pong table and Lizzy followed his gaze.
"I'm not averse to it at all," she said, a bit surprised by the knowledge that he actually had been listening to her and had remembered, but not enough to let it show on her face. She had thought he was just being polite. She smiled at him. "Do I detect a challenge in that, Mr. Darcy?"
He returned the smile.
"I'll leave it for you to decide."
"How gracious! Well, then, I say to you: bring out the paddles!"
Charles looked at Jane.
"Foosball?" he suggested with a shrug.
"Sure, why not?" Jane replied with a smile like sunshine. They contently attended to their friendly game while Lizzy and William started something a little less friendly and a little more competitive.
"Whose serve?" Lizzy asked as Will bounced the ball on the table. The competitive juices were flowing within Will's veins, each tap of the ping pong ball accentuating his heightened pulse.
"Ladies first," he smirked, bouncing it over to Elizabeth. She caught it and smirked right back at him.
"Go ahead, then," she countered, bouncing it back over to William. His eyes crinkled in a devilish (dashing) grin.
"You are so going down," he threatened playfully.
"That's what you think!"
Not far away, Charles and Jane listened in discreetly.
"Oh, no," they groaned quietly at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed.
"What, what is it?" Charles asked.
Jane smiled merrily (becomingly) at him.
"Oh, it's just that Lizzy gets so competitive when it comes to things like this," she explained.
"Will, too!" Charles laughed. "I'm afraid that for however long we're down here, all we'll hear is trash talk and gloating."
"I'm afraid so!"
Heedless to the other two's side conversation, William and Elizabeth began their game. Will smirked and toyed with the ball.
"I'll go easy on you," he said, and gently served the ball.
"Please!" Lizzy snorted, leveling a power shot out of the right corner, both astonishing Will and alarming Charles and Jane, who seemed to be directly in the ball's projected path of destruction. "It's not like I'm going to go easy on you."
"So that's how it is, eh?" William asked as he jogged to retrieve the ball. "I see! No more free rides for you!"
"Trust me, you're going to be the one wishing for free rides!"
"Oh really!"
"Yeah, really!"
"No way!"
"Yes way!"
One would expect one of them to stick their tongue out at the other. In fact, Lizzy did. Will laughed. Jane sighed and Charles tut-tutted them, wholly amused by their uninhibited immaturity.
Will served again. The two worked up a good rally before Lizzy struck another power shot down the left side. It was a blur as it bounced within bounds and then off the table. Lizzy pumped a fist.
"Oh yeah!"
Reacting without thinking, William lunged desperately toward the ball and managed to tap it, his arm outstretched. They both watched as it arced beautifully up towards the ceiling and then fell towards the table. Lizzy made no move to hit it, figuring it would land on the floor.
It did not.
Both watched in disbelief as it bounced neatly on the table, on Lizzy's side of the net, and then off, where it met the cool grey floor and bounced right on past Elizabeth. They stared at it.
Darcy was the first to break through his surprise with a startled laugh.
"Hah! What was that you were saying?"
"Oh, shut up, will you?" Lizzy said, even though she smiled. "How did you do that?"
"A master never reveals his secrets!" William taunted, wagging a finger at her.
"Lies!" she cried. "That was pure luck!"
William knew this, but it wasn't like he was going to actually say anything, come on. Lizzy retrieved the ball and twirled it in her hand before tossing it back to her opponent.
"One-all," he said before serving again. They rallied for a good while.
"You're pretty good at this."
A smirk.
"You're not so bad yourself."
Will drove a neat shot down the right side of the table, scoring another point with a smug smile. Lizzy huffed and recovered the ball. She wasted no time as she served and plowed another strong shot out of the corner.
She quite seemed to like those, that Elizabeth. Will quietly noted the differences in their playing styles. He was more into finesse and fancy wristwork while Lizzy preferred to overpower her opponent.
Interesting.
"My, my," Will said, "there's some fire behind that arm. Are we a bit angry this afternoon, Elizabeth?" He retrieved the ball and tossed it casually back to her.
"Not at all," she replied smoothly, bouncing the ball a few times on the table. "Impatient, maybe. Angry? No."
She served normally and the two worked up another handsome rally.
"Impatient? For what, pray tell?"
He absently noted that the clicking of the ball when it hit the table closely resembled the beat to one of his favorite songs. It was oddly soothing.
"Why, for you to lose, of course!" It was then that she decided she was done playing around and stepped up her game. She tried for another hard drive across the table, breaking the pleasing rhythm they had attained, but Will had smartened up by then, and watched her as well as the ball. He was therefore ready for this attack, and quickly extended his paddle to catch the ball and bounced it up in another quadratic arc. Lizzy fumbled, but caught the shot awkwardly in the air and returned it.
"Good job!" Will commended facetiously.
"I could say the same for you!"
William approached the ball as if to strike it diagonally across the table, but subtly altered the angle of his paddle at the last moment to guide it down the opposite corner. He scored a point. Lizzy quietly retrieved the ball.
"Three-two."
As the game progressed, the two's taunting grew steadily more absent as they slipped into focused personas with no time for idle banter. Charles and Jane looked at each other, surprised by the silence.
"She only—"
"—does that when things get serious?" Charles smiled wryly. "It seems that William and Elizabeth have more in common than any of us allowed for."
She watched them for a moment, mulling something over. Then, she looked at Charles.
"Call me later?" she asked, taking him by surprise. He stammered.
"Ah—S-sure! Any, ah, particular reason why?" He hesitated. "I mean, it's not like I don't enjoy talking to you, I do! Believe me, I do; it's just that that was rather sudden, and—well—erm—yeah!"
His color heightened. Jane smiled affectionately at him, causing a smile to come to his own face and his blush to deepen.
"And I like talking to you," she replied. "But you're right, there's a reason—something—forgive me for being so presumptuous, not knowing William quite as well as you do—something is going on between those two." She dropped her voice so that the earnestly playing couple could not hear. "I just want to… compare observations."
Charles grew thoughtful and serious. Jane had never before seen this side of him, but it was not an unwelcome sight. Indeed, she found it quite captivating, although she would probably not admit it because she was rather shy and apt to hide her innermost feelings.
"I suppose.…" he said finally, if a little hesitantly. "Of… of what nature do you think this 'something' is?"
She pursed her lips.
"It's a bit hard to tell on either side," she admitted. "But… Lizzy is my closest friend, and I'm rather fond of William as well. I don't want to see anything…" she tried to find an appropriate word, "injurious happen either of them."
Charles, normally not the most perceptive of creatures, sensed that Jane suspected a good deal of the truth. He would learn what she thought and observed, and discern how much she should be told from there.
He nodded. Then, they turned to watch the rather serious game of table tennis going on between two rather confusing individuals on the (rather) far side of the game room. Their game of foosball was forgotten.
"That was… intense, to say the least."
William nodded in agreement as he retrieved the small white ball for what he hoped was the final time that day.
"It was a good game," he said, strategically placing it on the table between the two paddles so it would not roll away. He would put the equipment away later. Now he stepped forward, hand extended to shake, as all good sportsmen do.
Lizzy took his hand with no small bit of triumph and shook it firmly. (He was taken by surprise—her hands were so soft and yet her grip so firm—it was a bit disconcerting.)
She had won by a scant two points. The game had seemed to last forever, and when the final winning shot was made, everyone in the room cried out—Lizzy in exultation, William in defeat, and Jane and Charles in mutual sympathy for the loser.
There was no denying it.
She was good.
It was the best game of ping pong he had ever played, anyway.
Elizabeth then espied two plastic guitars tucked behind the large television on the other side of the room. She made her way over and took one out to examine it.
"You have this game?" she asked, looking at Charles. He smiled.
"Yeah," he answered, "although Will's a lot better at it than me, I freely admit."
Jane quirked a brow at him. He smirked back.
"Oh, really?" She added under her breath, "Why does that not surprise me?" Then, she sent a challenging glance William's way. "Is that so? Well, well, well! As it were, I'm quite skilled at this game myself. So I have a question for you, Mr. Darcy—would you like to continue licking your wounds, or would you rather accept a challenge?"
He rolled his eyes as he walked over to retrieve the other game controller.
"You can call me Will, you know," he said, taking it from behind the television. He grabbed a disc from a pile of seemingly infinite video games and inserted it into the console.
She grinned cheekily at him.
Quiver.
"I take it you accept my challenge, then?"
He shrugged.
"I'll have you know," he said, securing the guitar's strap, "that this time, you're going to run home crying to your mother."
"Right!"
He quickly set up a match on one of the moderate songs. He chose the hardest difficulty without so much as a second glance toward Elizabeth. Lizzy was delighted.
"I love this song!" she exclaimed.
"Well," William said with an exaggerated sniff, "I hope that you can play it, because this is my favorite song in the game and so I play it all the time. I can kill it."
There was a pause. Then, Lizzy found herself overcome with laughter at such a ridiculous remark from such an unridiculous person.
"Oh God! Do it again!"
William cocked a brow at her antics.
"Do what, exactly?" he asked, clearly not understanding what she found so funny.
"Say it, say that again!" she entreated. "C'mon!"
"What, say what?"
"The killing thing!" Her eyes sparkled with unrestrained mirth. "Say it just like you did before."
He looked at her.
"Pleeeeeeeeease?"
She looked so adorable, and was asking nicely to boot—who was he to deny her any sort of satisfaction? He rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time that day.
"I can kill it," he gratified. She dissolved into infectious laughter yet again. He found himself grinning—how could he not?
A tone from the game signaled that their song had finished loading and was about to start. Lizzy still grinned widely, but took her place on the black leather couch comfortably situated at an ideal distance from the television screen. He spared a final glance at her.
"You can play this sitting down?" he asked in surprise.
She clicked her tongue, as if to say You poor, ignorant little man.
"Of course I can," she answered even as the first notes began to fly across the screen. Her fingers moved with quick and deadly precision. "In fact, it's my preferred method of play. You can't?"
It was a moment before he spoke.
"No," he said shortly. Upbeat alternative poured generously from the speakers, drowning out any attempts at conversation.
Lizzy was persistent, however.
"You have the power-up, you know," she mentioned, not once losing herself in the slew of notes. Once again, it took a moment for William to reply.
"I know…" he said, "…but…I'm… I'm, uh, waiting."
"Why are you talking like that?"
The chorus came in. Lizzy missed a few notes during this massive attack, but quickly got back on her feet. William continued his perfect streak until the next verse began, where he missed three notes.
"Can't talk… while… playing," he answered. She smirked.
"What, can't walk and chew gum at the same time? And here I thought you were accomplished!"
He growled as he missed two more notes. Don't distract me! he shouted within the confines of his mind. You're going to make me lose!
Elizabeth Bennet did not heed his mental command and continued to speak freely. He simply decided to ignore her until the song was over. Surely she would understand.
And it wasn't as if she would say anything important, right?
Although Lizzy refused to comply with his wishes, William was successful in his own undertaking, and therefore did not lose. Admittedly, he had only won by a few thousand points—practically a hairsbreadth—but it was a victory nonetheless.
Mr. Darcy was smug, indeed.
"They're quite entertaining to watch," Charles declared to Jane as Will and Lizzy started up another song. Jane bit back a laugh.
"Yes, entertaining is one way to describe it!"
"See? That wasn't so bad, was it?"
The two men waved as the ladies' car pulled out of the driveway and drove off.
The afternoon had proceeded in a manner similar to how it started. After a few hours of recreation, Jane and Elizabeth declared that they simply must leave if they were to arrive home in time for dinner. Charles, being Charles, invited them to stay for said meal, but the girls insisted that it would be too much of an imposition on their part, and besides, Jane really needed to write a bit for work; she was a freelance writer and the deadlines for her latest articles were looming large. Charles could do nothing but commend her on her dedication to her craft, and so both he and William bid the sisters good evening.
Will gave a noncommittal noise as they walked into the building.
"You can't say you didn't have fun."
Mr. Darcy shrugged. It was true, he admitted to himself. During the afternoon he had mostly played against Elizabeth in a variety of games, only occasionally switching opponents. The four had also participated in a few group games—typically boys vs. girls. The games were fun, the company was fun, everything was fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. He couldn't complain.
Fun is fun, after all. A release of dopamine in the brain, resulting in, keyword, pleasure.
Suffice to say that it was a pleasurable afternoon.
Charles looked at the clock.
"Our dinner isn't for another hour or so," he said. "I got that new movie with that one famous guy in it—you know, the one that does that thing with the… thing…"
"Charles," William drawled, "your powers of description are absolutely mind-boggling."
"Shut up!" Charles laughed. "You know who I'm talking about!"
The sad thing about it was that William actually did.
"Sure," he agreed.
The rest of the evening passed pleasantly enough, excluding the single event of Caroline's return to the manor. She had been kept later than she expected, she explained upon asking, and she would like it very much if no one so much as looked in her general direction for the rest of the evening, thank you very much. Even the highly esteemed Mr. Darcy received a curt and unusually brief acknowledgement.
Needless to say, Caroline Bingley on November 16 at 5:37 p.m. was not a happy camper.
The rest of the evening, though, was wholly unremarkable.