(no subject)

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

Toby slept most of the way from wherever it was Mr Venom picked him up until they reached the farm, and even then, he was still pretty groggy. The washroom was pointed out to him (and what a wonder that is, all shining and clean and good clean hot water right there without having to pump it or heat it on the fire or anything), and Toby did manage to scrub the mud off his face and shuck the outermost, muddiest layers of his clothes.

The kitchen seems like the best place for him, but when he finds it, he decides that it, like the washroom, is too posh for him to use much unless he has to or he's told to. Besides, there's not a proper fire going anywhere in the kitchen, and if there's one thing Toby really wants to find, it's someplace warm. A lot has happened lately-- too much to really, really take in, even-- and if he could just find somewhere warm and easy to sit for a while, to think things through... well, it can't hurt and might help.

He figures, though, that nobody's going to miss just one apple from the bowl, not if what Mr Venom told him about how many people live here is true.

If someone should wander in to tell the lad otherwise, he'll be most appropriately shamefaced-- especially since he's already taken a great big bite out of it.

((The usual note about spoilers applies-- let me know whether you want them or not or don't care.))

Comments

[littlestcooper]

Kitchen!

Apples!

Lucy.

Hand.
Bowl.
Snatch!

Mmmmm.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

"Hullo, miss," says a boy who is totally new to the farm. Well, it's polite to say hello, you see, although he doesn't mean to interrupt her if she's hungry.

Although saying hello to Mel let him play with a baby and saying hello to Jona got him a sandwich, so clearly saying hello is some kind of good luck, right?

[littlestcooper]

Saying hello to Lucy gets the faintest of smiles from the other side of the table.

And, once she's finished her first bite of apple: "Hello."

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

"I'm called Toby." Toby smells of spoilers.

[littlestcooper]

"Lucy."

Most people would finish that off with a 'nice to meet you', or possibly just a smile.

Lucy is too busy eating her apple and staying at a safe distance.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

It's not like he's got a straight razor on him.

They're over in the rucksack, with his muddy (well, muddier, some sort of soaked through his shirt) clothes.

"You must be the lady of the house, then. Mr Venom said I should look for you."

It's totally possible Lucy hasn't met Venom.

[littlestcooper]

She hasn't.

But there's a slight nod nonetheless.

An inquiring glance, too, for good measure.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

Mr Todd didn't talk much, either, unless he was trying to get you to go away. One way or another. So it's a little troubling, true, but not as strange as it should be.

"Said you was the one to speak to if I wanted to stay. I haven't anywhere else to go-- don't rightly know where I am-- and I'm willin' to work to earn my keep."

[littlestcooper]

Oh, that.

Nod!

"Stay."

...she could've been friendlier about that, possibly, but really. He got what he wanted, did he not?

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

Roof, amazing kitchen, amazing washroom? Oh yes, he got what he wanted. From there, he sort of figures he'll let Mel boss him.

"Thank you, miss. It's much appreciated."

[littlestcooper]

This slight smile stands for the phrase 'no problem'.

No, really, it totally does.

Honest.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

"Um."

Boy has forgotten something, see.

"Is there somewhere I can sleep? I'd just make up a pallet in the kitchen, only..."

Only this is certainly not the sort of kitchen one makes up a pallet in, much less expects to find the help sleeping in. Toby's face says he knows it.

[littlestcooper]

"The earth bunker. Outside."

If he needs more description he'd best ask someone who doesn't treat every syllable like a precious treasure, to be dispensed reluctantly if at all.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

"Thank you, miss. I'll be sure to inquire there."

He hasn't seen it, but he was totally half asleep when he was ushered inside. It was only when he discovered the washroom was a total posh fantasy paradise washroom that he started to wake up.

And hey, course she doesn't want the likes of him staying here, even if they're working here. He probably wouldn't either, if his house were this fine. That's just how things go.

[littlestcooper]

It's not so much that she doesn't want him as that there isn't room.

Various people crash on the couch in a seemingly endless cycle, but since the bunker it's just easier if they go find their own rooms.

Nod.

Applemunch.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

... Was that a dismissal nod? It's a bit hard to tell. New person and all.

"Lovely house," he tells her, and means it really really hard even if he's not sure if he's supposed to go now or not.

[littlestcooper]

Happy smile!

She doesn't look dismissive.

Just... quiet.

And: "It is."

Considering pause.

"Was my sister's."

Until Anne died.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry," Toby offers, less because he instinctively understands what happened than because if Lucy's sister had married or been evicted or something, Lucy wouldn't be the lady of the house now.

And people do have a distressing tendency to die.

[littlestcooper]

That they do.

This nod is a little bit sad, but Lucy's better about these things now. Comparatively.

Different thread, same spoiler.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

"Mrs Lovett passed on, just before I..." bang flash and the lightning crashed and this'll happen often never mind anyway "... came," Toby concludes. "She was a baker-- made meat pies, mostly. I was her apprentice."

[littlestcooper]

"Sorry," says Lucy, who is at least fairly certain that it wasn't her fault, but aware that it's what one says.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

Toby knows exactly whose fault it is, and also knows very firmly that it's been set as right as he could set it. (Which he didn't like, no, but it needed doing.)

"Thank you, miss."

[littlestcooper]

Soft nod.

Yeah, Lucy knows what it's like to lose someone.

[bakers-boy.livejournal.com]

Like a mother to him. He'd've been back in the workhouse without her. Treated him nicer than she needed to treat an apprentice or shop boy-- not one lashing.

There might be an underlying note of still-slightly-confused anger, but hey, it all happened very recently.

"This is your world, then? Miss Jona explained that much to me." Hullo there, subject change, how nice to see you at a time like this. Probably.

[littlestcooper]

"Yes."

Like a mother to her: Renee, whose claw-carved gravestone Lucy still visits, up in what's left of New York. And Anne, out back of the house in a little overgrown part of the field.