You Make My Dreams - (2a/3)
Title: You Make My Dreams
Author: itsanoffblue, aka: likebluebutalittleoff
Pairing: Jesse Eisenberg/Andrew Garfield
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I am very sure that this did not ever happen even though I wish it did. Please don't google yourselves guys (but if you do, Andrew we love your eyebrows).
Summary: Tangled AU in which Jesse has magic hair that grows and shines when he sings, Andrew pretends his name is Eduardo and breaks into Jesse's tower and Joe Mazzello may or may not be a smug, ginger cat.
Words: 3,235
Notes: I found this chapter really hard to write and I don't have a beta so my sincerest apologies.
Previous
Jesse wakes up in the morning feeling a myriad of emotions that take him a while to identify through his sleep-fogged brain. He goes quite rapidly from confusion (why is Joe not waking me up? This isn’t my bed...); to panic (THIS ISN’T MY BED); to excitement (I am outside with Eduardo and Joe!); to betrayal.
Because Joe is a big, fat, ginger traitor.
Well OK so he is a small and fluffy ginger traitor but still, Jesse pouts about it because there on the other side of the remains of last night’s fire is Eduardo, face calm and impossibly young in sleep, with Joe curled up against his chest, purring away and clearly not intending to wake him up with a paw to the eye. Jesse glares over at Joe with a glower that he hopes says clearly ‘if you were a human you would be the biggest slut of them all!’ But judging from the way Joe just purrs louder and rubs his head against Eduardo’s chest, he shouldn’t add ‘intimidating’ to his list of personal traits.
Jesse’s stomach rumbles and he realises that he has no idea what to do about food out here. He stands up, stretching until his stiff limbs feel themselves clicking back into place. The floor is definitely going to take some getting used to. He goes to sit over Eduardo and lifts a hand before hesitating. Something tells him that it would be faintly creepy to be woken up by someone you only just met stroking your hair out of your eyes. He lowers his hand from where it is hovering over Eduardo’s head and rests it on his shoulder gently.
“Eduardo?”
“Nnnnnngh.” Eduardo doesn’t open his eyes but scrunches up his face in protest.
“Unless you have a different language where you come from and that was actually something incredibly intelligent you just said, I’m going to assume that you’re not a morning person.”
Eduardo cracks an eye open and shoots Jesse an incredulous look.
“How is it,” he yawns widely “that anyone can say that many words this early in the morning?”
Jesse shrugs, “I think it is mostly my stomach talking. I now completely understand what Joe goes through every morning.”
Eduardo sighs and sits up, Jesse’s hand falling from his shoulder and Joe trots off to clean himself.
“You,” he mumbles, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, “are ridiculous.”
“Says the man with what looks like a lion’s mane on top of his head.”
Eduardo pulls an exaggerated expression of affronted horror, “What?! Are you saying that my hair is not perfectly coiffed in a way that makes me look effortlessly suave?”
Jesse laughs and pretends to consider for a moment before replying “You know what? I think I might be saying just that.”
Eduardo gasps and clutches his chest, falling back onto the floor and exclaiming “Oh miserable day! Can one man be so cruel to one with hair so fine!?”
Jesse is laughing in earnest now and shaking his head in bemusement. Joe throws the two of them a look of contempt as only cats can and this only makes him laugh harder as Eduardo starts trying to tame his ridiculously unruly hair with his hands while still valiantly trying to maintain his look of hurt; his laughing eyes giving away that he is not hurt at all.
They find some apple trees nearby and a little pond with relatively fresh looking water. After they’ve splashed water on their faces and had a small bit to drink, Jesse takes off his shoes again and steps tentatively into the shallow water. The water only reaches his ankles and he grins down at his submerged feet. It feels almost as good as the grass did.
Eduardo has that look on his face again. The one he kept shooting him all of the night before that looks as if he is trying to decide whether Jesse is crazy or endearing. As if he can’t quite believe the fact that Jesse didn’t know what standing in a shallow pool of freezing water felt like until right this second or that he is finding it quite so exciting.
*
They’ve been walking for hours and it is well past noon when Jesse finds himself wanting to break the relative silence they have been travelling in. It hasn’t been awkward at all; in fact it was rather pleasant at first as they periodically made idle comments about the weather or the scenery or some other query Jesse had about the world but Eduardo has gone back to looking slightly disgruntled about the whole trip and this past couple of hours he has been getting quieter and quieter and Jesse can’t help himself.
“You haven’t tried to convince me to go home at all today.”
Eduardo looks at him with an almost hopeful look that kind of makes Jesse feel a little bit hurt, though he doesn’t know why.
“Why? Would you?”
Jesse shakes his head, “No. But you were much more argumentative yesterday.”
Eduardo shrugs.
“Yeah, well yesterday I didn’t really get the magnitude of the whole ‘I’ve never been outside’ thing. Plus, I know now you are perfectly determined not to be persuaded.”
He offers Jesse a small smile and Jesse shrugs,
“Well I’m sorry. I know you don’t really want to be here doing this but I...and I know I didn’t leave you much choice but I still appreciate it. I just couldn’t let the chance slip, you know?”
Eduardo shakes his head earnestly,
“Oh no, no, Jess you don’t need to apologise. You have a dream and you’re doing whatever you can to achieve it. I respect that. I admire that. I know if I had the chance I...” he sighs and rubs a hand over his face. “I admit this isn’t really what I had planned but I don’t mind. Not really.”
Jesse nods. He wonders what it is that makes Eduardo so reluctant to talk about himself. Aren’t friends meant to talk about what is bothering them? Are they even friends? Jesse doesn’t know what it is like to have friends. He has a mother and he has a cat and from what he knows of society, counting either as a friend, let alone a best friend, is well beyond sad. He wonders if Eduardo has friends; a best friend somewhere. Maybe a pretty girl or a handsome boy waiting for him at home. The thought makes Jesse feel a weird, tight feeling in his chest and a slightly nauseous feeling in his stomach. Maybe he is hungry again.
“So, you still set on not telling me why your mother keeps you in a tower?”
Jesse smiles to himself. Maybe Eduardo wasn’t the only one keeping secrets.
“Yep. You still sure you don’t want to tell me about where you come from and why you’re here? And why you were running? Oh! And why you stopped acting?”
Eduardo’s smile grew bigger as Jesse spoke and he laughs quietly.
“Touché, Curly. Touché.”
*
The sun is getting low in the sky and Jesse is tired. He is not used to walking, let alone for an entire day with nothing but the occasional fruit to eat. Joe had mewled and done his best ‘cute, persuasive eyes’ until Eduardo, who looks annoyingly no more fatigued than he had this morning, had caved and started carrying him. Jesse loved Joe but really if he had to walk all this way then he didn’t see why Joe should get out of it. I mean OK, sure so Eduardo probably couldn’t carry Jesse very far and in no world would he have any inclination to try but still. Jesse thinks it is probably weird to wish he were snuggled up against Eduardo’s chest right now. He assumes it is the aching feet talking.
To Jesse’s immense relief, they round a corner and see a small tavern with an old, squeaky looking sign that read ‘The Thirsty Scholar’. Eduardo raises an eyebrow,
“Ready to meet some new people, Jesse?”
“If there is food involved then I will definitely try to be.”
Eduardo looks nervous for a moment and stops walking so that Jesse has to stop too to look at him.
“Jess, I...” he sighs “just please try not to panic in there, OK? There are going to be lots of people and they are going to be loud and...” he lowers his voice, even though there is no one in hearing distance, “I think it might be best if you do not mention it is your birthday soon, OK? You can tell them about seeing the lights if you want to but...”
Jesse frowns, “Why?”
“Just - ” Eduardo runs a hand through his hair nervously and sighs, “trust me.”
Jesse knows the facts. He knows that Eduardo is on the run from the palace guards, he knows he had a Prince’s crown in his bag and he knows that he climbed into a stranger’s tower to escape arrest. But he also knows that with Eduardo looking at him with those pleading, earnest eyes, he is never going to do anything other than nod.
Eduardo is right. The moment they step through the doors into the tavern, Jesse wants to run straight back out again. There are so many people. Too many.
And OK, so Jesse has been convincing himself quite successfully the whole day that the only reason he finds Eduardo quite so...breathtaking was the fact that he had never seen anyone his age before and so, you know, of course he was going to find him beautiful because he only has himself to compare him to and, come on, Eduardo is so far beyond him in the looks department it is almost laughable but...for all Jesse knew all people looked like Eduardo and Eduardo wasn’t actually a particularly beautiful person at all. It has been something that has made him feel better about the embarrassing way he has to keep telling himself not to stare and his weird desire to touch his hair but now...well that theory is completely off the table. People are not like Eduardo. Or not these people.
These people were big, with huge arms just like the ones in the books. Warriors arms, some of them. But they weren’t handsome. They were terrifying and threatening and they had mean, angry faces. They sat in groups, huddled bitterly over foul-smelling drinks or stood around, shoving each other harshly and laughing loudly in a way that didn’t sound like they were actually happy about anything at all.
Jesse finds himself pressing closer to Eduardo instinctively and he feels a rush of comfort warm his chest when Eduardo rests his hand on the small of Jesse’s back.
They’ve barely been in there ten seconds, Jesse trying to avoid catching anyone’s eye and wringing his hands nervously, when he hears a voice shout,
“Hey! It’s that guy!”
The owner of the voice is a young man, not much older than them, with a pinched, spiteful face. He is pointing at a poster on the wall and everyone in the tavern has fallen silent to look.
A large picture of Eduardo’s face takes up most of the poster, unmistakably him with his large eyes and wild hair and a wide grin on his face.
‘WANTED: EDUARDO SAVERIN,’ the poster reads, ‘LARGE REWARD.’
“Shit.” Eduardo breathes and Jesse holds his breath as everyone looks between them and the poster.
Then someone shouts ‘Ulrich! Man the door and don’t let ‘im escape! Vlad, run and find Armie! He was here yesterday, he shouldn’t be too far!’ and before Jesse knows it, they can’t get out again and someone is running out of the door to get this ‘Armie’ guy and Eduardo is very, very pale and Jesse feels like he might just be sick.
The general noise of the tavern returns as everyone goes back to what they were doing, keeping a close eye on Eduardo in case he tries any kind of escape and Jesse is finding it quite hard to breathe. He sits shakily on a bench and Eduardo sinks down next to him moments later, head in hands and breathing heavily.
No, thinks Jesse, no. He has not come all this way for Eduardo to be arrested and for him to be lost in the middle of nowhere with no idea how to get back and in a tavern full of frankly terrifying people. Plus, maybe Eduardo did steal a crown and maybe he does deserve to get arrested but...something about that doesn’t seem quite right. Eduardo doesn’t seem like a bad person. He actually seems like a very good person. Right? Maybe there is a reasonable explanation.
Jesse looks up and sees that they have sat at a table with three people about their age and thankfully they are all very much less terrifying than the rest of the crowd seems to be. He looks across at the man sitting directly opposite him, who is looking at Eduardo with a frown on his face. Jesse straightens his back slightly and coughs, causing three pairs of eyes to turn on him.
“Hello.” He says shakily, “I’m Jesse and this is Eduardo. Well I guess you know who he is.”
The man opposite regards him for a second before replying,
“Josh. And this is Justin,” he points to the man next to Eduardo on their side of the table, “and Emma.”
Emma is sitting next to Josh, opposite Eduardo and Jesse finds himself wondering what she is doing here in this tavern. He actually wonders what all three of them are doing here. Josh is tall and broad with blonde hair. His face looks like it would normally be kind if not for the serious expression it holds now. Justin is smiling at them as if he doesn’t care in the slightest that Eduardo is apparently an outlaw with his head in his hands and Emma is...well Emma is beautiful. They all look distinctly out of place.
“I - ” Jesse leans forward slightly and wishes he has Joe’s knack for persuasive eyes. He also kind of wishes Joe hadn’t loitered outside, he could do with the support, “I don’t suppose there is any chance you know of another way out? Besides the door that is?”
Josh snorts,
“As a matter of fact, I do but I’m not going to tell you.”
Eduardo lifts his head and looks pleadingly in Josh’s direction,
“There’s a way out?”
“Look, Saverin, I’m not about to help you. My best friend has been trying to catch you for the last month! What have you stolen this time, huh? Must be big to finally have a decent reward on your head.”
Eduardo groans.
“You know Armie?”
“Yeah.” Emma pipes up. She looks vaguely sympathetic at least. “Sorry, man but we’re with Armie on this one.”
Eduardo looks like he is legitimately about to cry and Jesse thinks that maybe these three people are some kind of...subhuman species for the look on his face to not be swaying them at all, even if he is apparently a genuine thief.
Jesse sighs,
“OK, here’s the thing,” his words are coming out fast and they all turn to watch him, “This is only the second day in my whole life that I have spent outside. My mother is very over-protective and I have been kept locked in my room for as long as I can remember. Yesterday my mother went away and Eduardo broke in to escape from your friend and now he is helping me because...the thing is I have dreamed my whole life of seeing the floating lights at the palace. Now finally I am actually in a situation where that can happen for me before my mother comes back and I am locked back away and I kind of really need Eduardo because he is the only one who’s ever....” he stops to breathe. They are all staring at him, fascinated, “...look I don’t care what he has done, I’m sure you will catch him soon enough but...do you think you could let him go just for the next few days? I...haven’t any of you ever had a dream that you would do absolutely anything to achieve?”
He looks at them pleading. His breathing is heavy with fear and hope and from too many words spoken way too fast.
Justin is the first to speak,
“Dude. You messing with us, man?”
Jesse is sort of confused by the question but the blank stare he gives in reply seems to be answer enough. Justin whistles.
“Seriously?” Emma says quietly, “You...Jesse, right?”
Jesse nods.
“Well Jesse, I definitely think Josh should tell you the exit.”
Eduardo and Josh both look at her wide-eyed.
“Emma!” Josh reprimands.
“Josh!” Emma mimicks, “For heaven’s sake, Josh, look at the guy!” She gestures to Jesse, “he looks like a lost kitten and there is absolutely no way I can deny a lost kitten! And as for this one,” she jerks her head at Eduardo, “well I find it hard to believe he is any real criminal with a face like that!”
Eduardo blushes. Jesse feels a surge of...something in his chest. Emma is beautiful and from the look of it, she knows just how beautiful Eduardo is as well. She seems lovely too. They’d be a kind of perfect couple. Jesse doesn’t want to know why this thought makes him feel so miserable.
Josh pinches the bridge of his nose,
“Emma, look, I feel for the kid, I do, but Armie will actually kill us if we help them escape!” He turns to Jesse, “man, I’m sorry about your whole overpowering mother thing but...I gotta...oh damnit, Jesse, your sad face is genuinely the saddest thing I have ever seen!”
“I am pretty sure that when Jesse cries, each tear kills a puppy somewhere.” Justin says and Eduardo looks like he would have laughed at that if he hadn’t been shaking.
Josh rolls his eyes but grins,
“And I’m sure that every time you say stupid shit like that, I creep closer towards losing my sanity.”
Emma laughs and Justin is pretending to look hurt and Josh is smiling and Jesse thinks that maybe, if his life had been different, these people would have been the kind of people he would have liked as friends. These would be the people he would hang out with and make jokes with and share meals with.
The sound of horses arriving makes Eduardo stiffen and inhale sharply and Jesse is about to have a genuine panic attack when Josh leans forward, grabs his arms and yanks him through the crowd - Jesse only just having time to grab Eduardo’s shaking hand in his.
They crouch behind the bar, unseen while all eyes had turned to stare out the window at the guards arriving, and Josh pulls on a trap door hidden partially by a very old looking rug.
“I cannot believe I am doing this but follow this tunnel and you will get to a gorge. Run across the gorge and there is a cave that should lead out to the forest path. Go.”
And with that he is shoving them unceremoniously through the door with a torch from one of the brackets above the bar and slamming the door shut again.
Next
Author: itsanoffblue, aka: likebluebutalittleoff
Pairing: Jesse Eisenberg/Andrew Garfield
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I am very sure that this did not ever happen even though I wish it did. Please don't google yourselves guys (but if you do, Andrew we love your eyebrows).
Summary: Tangled AU in which Jesse has magic hair that grows and shines when he sings, Andrew pretends his name is Eduardo and breaks into Jesse's tower and Joe Mazzello may or may not be a smug, ginger cat.
Words: 3,235
Notes: I found this chapter really hard to write and I don't have a beta so my sincerest apologies.
Previous
Jesse wakes up in the morning feeling a myriad of emotions that take him a while to identify through his sleep-fogged brain. He goes quite rapidly from confusion (why is Joe not waking me up? This isn’t my bed...); to panic (THIS ISN’T MY BED); to excitement (I am outside with Eduardo and Joe!); to betrayal.
Because Joe is a big, fat, ginger traitor.
Well OK so he is a small and fluffy ginger traitor but still, Jesse pouts about it because there on the other side of the remains of last night’s fire is Eduardo, face calm and impossibly young in sleep, with Joe curled up against his chest, purring away and clearly not intending to wake him up with a paw to the eye. Jesse glares over at Joe with a glower that he hopes says clearly ‘if you were a human you would be the biggest slut of them all!’ But judging from the way Joe just purrs louder and rubs his head against Eduardo’s chest, he shouldn’t add ‘intimidating’ to his list of personal traits.
Jesse’s stomach rumbles and he realises that he has no idea what to do about food out here. He stands up, stretching until his stiff limbs feel themselves clicking back into place. The floor is definitely going to take some getting used to. He goes to sit over Eduardo and lifts a hand before hesitating. Something tells him that it would be faintly creepy to be woken up by someone you only just met stroking your hair out of your eyes. He lowers his hand from where it is hovering over Eduardo’s head and rests it on his shoulder gently.
“Eduardo?”
“Nnnnnngh.” Eduardo doesn’t open his eyes but scrunches up his face in protest.
“Unless you have a different language where you come from and that was actually something incredibly intelligent you just said, I’m going to assume that you’re not a morning person.”
Eduardo cracks an eye open and shoots Jesse an incredulous look.
“How is it,” he yawns widely “that anyone can say that many words this early in the morning?”
Jesse shrugs, “I think it is mostly my stomach talking. I now completely understand what Joe goes through every morning.”
Eduardo sighs and sits up, Jesse’s hand falling from his shoulder and Joe trots off to clean himself.
“You,” he mumbles, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, “are ridiculous.”
“Says the man with what looks like a lion’s mane on top of his head.”
Eduardo pulls an exaggerated expression of affronted horror, “What?! Are you saying that my hair is not perfectly coiffed in a way that makes me look effortlessly suave?”
Jesse laughs and pretends to consider for a moment before replying “You know what? I think I might be saying just that.”
Eduardo gasps and clutches his chest, falling back onto the floor and exclaiming “Oh miserable day! Can one man be so cruel to one with hair so fine!?”
Jesse is laughing in earnest now and shaking his head in bemusement. Joe throws the two of them a look of contempt as only cats can and this only makes him laugh harder as Eduardo starts trying to tame his ridiculously unruly hair with his hands while still valiantly trying to maintain his look of hurt; his laughing eyes giving away that he is not hurt at all.
They find some apple trees nearby and a little pond with relatively fresh looking water. After they’ve splashed water on their faces and had a small bit to drink, Jesse takes off his shoes again and steps tentatively into the shallow water. The water only reaches his ankles and he grins down at his submerged feet. It feels almost as good as the grass did.
Eduardo has that look on his face again. The one he kept shooting him all of the night before that looks as if he is trying to decide whether Jesse is crazy or endearing. As if he can’t quite believe the fact that Jesse didn’t know what standing in a shallow pool of freezing water felt like until right this second or that he is finding it quite so exciting.
*
They’ve been walking for hours and it is well past noon when Jesse finds himself wanting to break the relative silence they have been travelling in. It hasn’t been awkward at all; in fact it was rather pleasant at first as they periodically made idle comments about the weather or the scenery or some other query Jesse had about the world but Eduardo has gone back to looking slightly disgruntled about the whole trip and this past couple of hours he has been getting quieter and quieter and Jesse can’t help himself.
“You haven’t tried to convince me to go home at all today.”
Eduardo looks at him with an almost hopeful look that kind of makes Jesse feel a little bit hurt, though he doesn’t know why.
“Why? Would you?”
Jesse shakes his head, “No. But you were much more argumentative yesterday.”
Eduardo shrugs.
“Yeah, well yesterday I didn’t really get the magnitude of the whole ‘I’ve never been outside’ thing. Plus, I know now you are perfectly determined not to be persuaded.”
He offers Jesse a small smile and Jesse shrugs,
“Well I’m sorry. I know you don’t really want to be here doing this but I...and I know I didn’t leave you much choice but I still appreciate it. I just couldn’t let the chance slip, you know?”
Eduardo shakes his head earnestly,
“Oh no, no, Jess you don’t need to apologise. You have a dream and you’re doing whatever you can to achieve it. I respect that. I admire that. I know if I had the chance I...” he sighs and rubs a hand over his face. “I admit this isn’t really what I had planned but I don’t mind. Not really.”
Jesse nods. He wonders what it is that makes Eduardo so reluctant to talk about himself. Aren’t friends meant to talk about what is bothering them? Are they even friends? Jesse doesn’t know what it is like to have friends. He has a mother and he has a cat and from what he knows of society, counting either as a friend, let alone a best friend, is well beyond sad. He wonders if Eduardo has friends; a best friend somewhere. Maybe a pretty girl or a handsome boy waiting for him at home. The thought makes Jesse feel a weird, tight feeling in his chest and a slightly nauseous feeling in his stomach. Maybe he is hungry again.
“So, you still set on not telling me why your mother keeps you in a tower?”
Jesse smiles to himself. Maybe Eduardo wasn’t the only one keeping secrets.
“Yep. You still sure you don’t want to tell me about where you come from and why you’re here? And why you were running? Oh! And why you stopped acting?”
Eduardo’s smile grew bigger as Jesse spoke and he laughs quietly.
“Touché, Curly. Touché.”
*
The sun is getting low in the sky and Jesse is tired. He is not used to walking, let alone for an entire day with nothing but the occasional fruit to eat. Joe had mewled and done his best ‘cute, persuasive eyes’ until Eduardo, who looks annoyingly no more fatigued than he had this morning, had caved and started carrying him. Jesse loved Joe but really if he had to walk all this way then he didn’t see why Joe should get out of it. I mean OK, sure so Eduardo probably couldn’t carry Jesse very far and in no world would he have any inclination to try but still. Jesse thinks it is probably weird to wish he were snuggled up against Eduardo’s chest right now. He assumes it is the aching feet talking.
To Jesse’s immense relief, they round a corner and see a small tavern with an old, squeaky looking sign that read ‘The Thirsty Scholar’. Eduardo raises an eyebrow,
“Ready to meet some new people, Jesse?”
“If there is food involved then I will definitely try to be.”
Eduardo looks nervous for a moment and stops walking so that Jesse has to stop too to look at him.
“Jess, I...” he sighs “just please try not to panic in there, OK? There are going to be lots of people and they are going to be loud and...” he lowers his voice, even though there is no one in hearing distance, “I think it might be best if you do not mention it is your birthday soon, OK? You can tell them about seeing the lights if you want to but...”
Jesse frowns, “Why?”
“Just - ” Eduardo runs a hand through his hair nervously and sighs, “trust me.”
Jesse knows the facts. He knows that Eduardo is on the run from the palace guards, he knows he had a Prince’s crown in his bag and he knows that he climbed into a stranger’s tower to escape arrest. But he also knows that with Eduardo looking at him with those pleading, earnest eyes, he is never going to do anything other than nod.
Eduardo is right. The moment they step through the doors into the tavern, Jesse wants to run straight back out again. There are so many people. Too many.
And OK, so Jesse has been convincing himself quite successfully the whole day that the only reason he finds Eduardo quite so...breathtaking was the fact that he had never seen anyone his age before and so, you know, of course he was going to find him beautiful because he only has himself to compare him to and, come on, Eduardo is so far beyond him in the looks department it is almost laughable but...for all Jesse knew all people looked like Eduardo and Eduardo wasn’t actually a particularly beautiful person at all. It has been something that has made him feel better about the embarrassing way he has to keep telling himself not to stare and his weird desire to touch his hair but now...well that theory is completely off the table. People are not like Eduardo. Or not these people.
These people were big, with huge arms just like the ones in the books. Warriors arms, some of them. But they weren’t handsome. They were terrifying and threatening and they had mean, angry faces. They sat in groups, huddled bitterly over foul-smelling drinks or stood around, shoving each other harshly and laughing loudly in a way that didn’t sound like they were actually happy about anything at all.
Jesse finds himself pressing closer to Eduardo instinctively and he feels a rush of comfort warm his chest when Eduardo rests his hand on the small of Jesse’s back.
They’ve barely been in there ten seconds, Jesse trying to avoid catching anyone’s eye and wringing his hands nervously, when he hears a voice shout,
“Hey! It’s that guy!”
The owner of the voice is a young man, not much older than them, with a pinched, spiteful face. He is pointing at a poster on the wall and everyone in the tavern has fallen silent to look.
A large picture of Eduardo’s face takes up most of the poster, unmistakably him with his large eyes and wild hair and a wide grin on his face.
‘WANTED: EDUARDO SAVERIN,’ the poster reads, ‘LARGE REWARD.’
“Shit.” Eduardo breathes and Jesse holds his breath as everyone looks between them and the poster.
Then someone shouts ‘Ulrich! Man the door and don’t let ‘im escape! Vlad, run and find Armie! He was here yesterday, he shouldn’t be too far!’ and before Jesse knows it, they can’t get out again and someone is running out of the door to get this ‘Armie’ guy and Eduardo is very, very pale and Jesse feels like he might just be sick.
The general noise of the tavern returns as everyone goes back to what they were doing, keeping a close eye on Eduardo in case he tries any kind of escape and Jesse is finding it quite hard to breathe. He sits shakily on a bench and Eduardo sinks down next to him moments later, head in hands and breathing heavily.
No, thinks Jesse, no. He has not come all this way for Eduardo to be arrested and for him to be lost in the middle of nowhere with no idea how to get back and in a tavern full of frankly terrifying people. Plus, maybe Eduardo did steal a crown and maybe he does deserve to get arrested but...something about that doesn’t seem quite right. Eduardo doesn’t seem like a bad person. He actually seems like a very good person. Right? Maybe there is a reasonable explanation.
Jesse looks up and sees that they have sat at a table with three people about their age and thankfully they are all very much less terrifying than the rest of the crowd seems to be. He looks across at the man sitting directly opposite him, who is looking at Eduardo with a frown on his face. Jesse straightens his back slightly and coughs, causing three pairs of eyes to turn on him.
“Hello.” He says shakily, “I’m Jesse and this is Eduardo. Well I guess you know who he is.”
The man opposite regards him for a second before replying,
“Josh. And this is Justin,” he points to the man next to Eduardo on their side of the table, “and Emma.”
Emma is sitting next to Josh, opposite Eduardo and Jesse finds himself wondering what she is doing here in this tavern. He actually wonders what all three of them are doing here. Josh is tall and broad with blonde hair. His face looks like it would normally be kind if not for the serious expression it holds now. Justin is smiling at them as if he doesn’t care in the slightest that Eduardo is apparently an outlaw with his head in his hands and Emma is...well Emma is beautiful. They all look distinctly out of place.
“I - ” Jesse leans forward slightly and wishes he has Joe’s knack for persuasive eyes. He also kind of wishes Joe hadn’t loitered outside, he could do with the support, “I don’t suppose there is any chance you know of another way out? Besides the door that is?”
Josh snorts,
“As a matter of fact, I do but I’m not going to tell you.”
Eduardo lifts his head and looks pleadingly in Josh’s direction,
“There’s a way out?”
“Look, Saverin, I’m not about to help you. My best friend has been trying to catch you for the last month! What have you stolen this time, huh? Must be big to finally have a decent reward on your head.”
Eduardo groans.
“You know Armie?”
“Yeah.” Emma pipes up. She looks vaguely sympathetic at least. “Sorry, man but we’re with Armie on this one.”
Eduardo looks like he is legitimately about to cry and Jesse thinks that maybe these three people are some kind of...subhuman species for the look on his face to not be swaying them at all, even if he is apparently a genuine thief.
Jesse sighs,
“OK, here’s the thing,” his words are coming out fast and they all turn to watch him, “This is only the second day in my whole life that I have spent outside. My mother is very over-protective and I have been kept locked in my room for as long as I can remember. Yesterday my mother went away and Eduardo broke in to escape from your friend and now he is helping me because...the thing is I have dreamed my whole life of seeing the floating lights at the palace. Now finally I am actually in a situation where that can happen for me before my mother comes back and I am locked back away and I kind of really need Eduardo because he is the only one who’s ever....” he stops to breathe. They are all staring at him, fascinated, “...look I don’t care what he has done, I’m sure you will catch him soon enough but...do you think you could let him go just for the next few days? I...haven’t any of you ever had a dream that you would do absolutely anything to achieve?”
He looks at them pleading. His breathing is heavy with fear and hope and from too many words spoken way too fast.
Justin is the first to speak,
“Dude. You messing with us, man?”
Jesse is sort of confused by the question but the blank stare he gives in reply seems to be answer enough. Justin whistles.
“Seriously?” Emma says quietly, “You...Jesse, right?”
Jesse nods.
“Well Jesse, I definitely think Josh should tell you the exit.”
Eduardo and Josh both look at her wide-eyed.
“Emma!” Josh reprimands.
“Josh!” Emma mimicks, “For heaven’s sake, Josh, look at the guy!” She gestures to Jesse, “he looks like a lost kitten and there is absolutely no way I can deny a lost kitten! And as for this one,” she jerks her head at Eduardo, “well I find it hard to believe he is any real criminal with a face like that!”
Eduardo blushes. Jesse feels a surge of...something in his chest. Emma is beautiful and from the look of it, she knows just how beautiful Eduardo is as well. She seems lovely too. They’d be a kind of perfect couple. Jesse doesn’t want to know why this thought makes him feel so miserable.
Josh pinches the bridge of his nose,
“Emma, look, I feel for the kid, I do, but Armie will actually kill us if we help them escape!” He turns to Jesse, “man, I’m sorry about your whole overpowering mother thing but...I gotta...oh damnit, Jesse, your sad face is genuinely the saddest thing I have ever seen!”
“I am pretty sure that when Jesse cries, each tear kills a puppy somewhere.” Justin says and Eduardo looks like he would have laughed at that if he hadn’t been shaking.
Josh rolls his eyes but grins,
“And I’m sure that every time you say stupid shit like that, I creep closer towards losing my sanity.”
Emma laughs and Justin is pretending to look hurt and Josh is smiling and Jesse thinks that maybe, if his life had been different, these people would have been the kind of people he would have liked as friends. These would be the people he would hang out with and make jokes with and share meals with.
The sound of horses arriving makes Eduardo stiffen and inhale sharply and Jesse is about to have a genuine panic attack when Josh leans forward, grabs his arms and yanks him through the crowd - Jesse only just having time to grab Eduardo’s shaking hand in his.
They crouch behind the bar, unseen while all eyes had turned to stare out the window at the guards arriving, and Josh pulls on a trap door hidden partially by a very old looking rug.
“I cannot believe I am doing this but follow this tunnel and you will get to a gorge. Run across the gorge and there is a cave that should lead out to the forest path. Go.”
And with that he is shoving them unceremoniously through the door with a torch from one of the brackets above the bar and slamming the door shut again.
Next