Little girl's dream
Characters: Becca Truscott, Conner Branstone
Authors: kate_lamb (Conner is Elle's, but she let me borrow him for a moment.)
Date Set: Summer 2026 (Becca is 16, Conner is 25)
Rating: Anyone
Summary: Becca contemplates the years she's known Conner, and the discoveries she's made throughout them.
Jackson brought her butterbeer and Becca gave him a smile of thanks before moving away from the bar to find a little table with a good view of the ‘stage’. It was really just an area that had been partitioned off from the dance floor and currently it held a single man with a fiddle. Conner Branstone. He was her cousins’ uncle, her own uncle’s brother-in-law, and she’d known him as long as she could remember.
When she was very young and she and her siblings came to visit with their cousins, Conner was often the one tasked with keeping tabs on them as they ran around finding mischief - her cousins always found mischief. When she was a little older and Paige was busy snogging one of the local boys and her cousins were busy trying to get a rise out of her straight-laced brother, Becca would slip down the road to Conner’s workshop and watch him transform discarded bits and pieces into things of beauty. He never seemed to mind her company. He never sent her away.
In the evenings, Murphy’s was the place to be. All of Clovelly was a place for family, so no one thought anything of children going to the pub to listen to the music and dance among the adults. Becca was eleven the first time Conner’d taken her for a turn on the dancefloor. He was a man she liked and trusted, but she didn’t think anything more of the warm feeling in her chest that night. She was still a little girl then, getting ready to head to Hogwarts for the first time.
She was thirteen when she realized that Conner’s easy smile made her stomach feel fluttery; fourteen the first time an innocent wink made her blush. Becca was sure he’d assumed it was just adolescent hormones running amok, but she knew it was more than that. None of the boys at school made her feel this way. It was only Conner, with his open friendliness and quick laugh, the man who could find beauty where no one else could.
At sixteen, nothing had changed except for Becca’s awareness of how close and yet how far she was from finishing school. She was a bright girl and she didn’t delude herself. Conner was ten years her senior and men in their mid-twenties didn’t want school-age girlfriends, even if she’d reached an age where such a relationship was technically legal. In two years she’d be free though. She didn’t understand why no one had realized just how wonderful he was and taken him for her own, but she was glad for it just the same. In her secret thoughts, she hoped it was because he was waiting for her, just as she was waiting for him, and that maybe fate had intended them for each other all along.
On stage Conner finished the reel with a flourish and another fellow came up to take his place. He spotted her in the crowd and grinned as he ambled her way.
“A pint and then I’ll want a dance, dove,” he said, giving a wink before heading to the bar.
Becca watched him go. Two more years.
Authors: kate_lamb (Conner is Elle's, but she let me borrow him for a moment.)
Date Set: Summer 2026 (Becca is 16, Conner is 25)
Rating: Anyone
Summary: Becca contemplates the years she's known Conner, and the discoveries she's made throughout them.
Jackson brought her butterbeer and Becca gave him a smile of thanks before moving away from the bar to find a little table with a good view of the ‘stage’. It was really just an area that had been partitioned off from the dance floor and currently it held a single man with a fiddle. Conner Branstone. He was her cousins’ uncle, her own uncle’s brother-in-law, and she’d known him as long as she could remember.
When she was very young and she and her siblings came to visit with their cousins, Conner was often the one tasked with keeping tabs on them as they ran around finding mischief - her cousins always found mischief. When she was a little older and Paige was busy snogging one of the local boys and her cousins were busy trying to get a rise out of her straight-laced brother, Becca would slip down the road to Conner’s workshop and watch him transform discarded bits and pieces into things of beauty. He never seemed to mind her company. He never sent her away.
In the evenings, Murphy’s was the place to be. All of Clovelly was a place for family, so no one thought anything of children going to the pub to listen to the music and dance among the adults. Becca was eleven the first time Conner’d taken her for a turn on the dancefloor. He was a man she liked and trusted, but she didn’t think anything more of the warm feeling in her chest that night. She was still a little girl then, getting ready to head to Hogwarts for the first time.
She was thirteen when she realized that Conner’s easy smile made her stomach feel fluttery; fourteen the first time an innocent wink made her blush. Becca was sure he’d assumed it was just adolescent hormones running amok, but she knew it was more than that. None of the boys at school made her feel this way. It was only Conner, with his open friendliness and quick laugh, the man who could find beauty where no one else could.
At sixteen, nothing had changed except for Becca’s awareness of how close and yet how far she was from finishing school. She was a bright girl and she didn’t delude herself. Conner was ten years her senior and men in their mid-twenties didn’t want school-age girlfriends, even if she’d reached an age where such a relationship was technically legal. In two years she’d be free though. She didn’t understand why no one had realized just how wonderful he was and taken him for her own, but she was glad for it just the same. In her secret thoughts, she hoped it was because he was waiting for her, just as she was waiting for him, and that maybe fate had intended them for each other all along.
On stage Conner finished the reel with a flourish and another fellow came up to take his place. He spotted her in the crowd and grinned as he ambled her way.
“A pint and then I’ll want a dance, dove,” he said, giving a wink before heading to the bar.
Becca watched him go. Two more years.