Flavour of the Day (19/10/16) [Divide and Rule]
Title: Out of Your Tree
Author: lost_spook
Story: Heroes of the Revolution (Divide & Rule)
Flavor(s): Flavour of the Day 19/10/16 (harum-scarum)
Toppings/Extras: Whipped Cream
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1266
Notes: September 1928; Edward Iveson, Christy Graves. (Edward & Christy having to contend with each other in AUs is always fun, and it occurred to me that there was at least some leeway for the odd moment between them in canon, too.)
Summary: Edward gets his first run-in with a troublesome member of the Graves family.
***
Edward was currently suffering several assaults on his fifteen year old dignity and uncertain as yet whether to stand on it or not. Firstly, Hanne - Mrs Graves - had kindly presented him with a toffee apple because, she said, she’d forgotten how old he was, and then he’d been sent out to play with Christy Graves, who was only twelve, and was now urging him to join him up the large tree at the bottom of the garden. Christy had already shinned up, showing off how easy he found it.
Edward gave up worrying then, since the toffee apple was still an unexpected treat and a good climbing tree was always a good climbing tree. He wrapped up the head of the toffee apple in his clean hanky and stuffed it in his pocket before climbing up to join Christy on a stout lower branch. Having done that, he retrieved the apple and set to work on it.
Christy watched him with undisguised envy, something that made Edward feel simultaneously better about the whole thing and rather guilty.
“Mother wouldn’t let me have one,” Christy said eventually, bouncing about so as to make the bough move.
Edward’s short acquaintance with Christy had already led him to feel sure that if that if that was the case, Hanne had good reason. Still, he held it out to him, feeling he could hardly do anything else. “Want a bite?”
Christy shook his head. “Better not.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Christy said in injured tones, before he broke into a grin. “Well, nothing much. It’s just, if you saw a plate of jam tarts set out, you’d think a chap was allowed to eat one, wouldn’t you? It wasn’t my fault if they were meant to be for the aunts. Somebody should have said!”
“I see,” said Edward, hiding a smile.
He concentrated on the apple, the toffee being hard to bite through, while Christy, getting rapidly bored, climbed upwards and suddenly announced his intention to show Edward that he could get right to the top of the tree. Edward watched him clamber on until he realised that the little idiot really meant to try. He dropped the remains of the apple and stick onto the grass below as he stood, pulling himself up by means of the branch above him.
“Hey, come back down!” Edward called up, tightening his hold on the tree in alarm. “It isn’t safe. Christy!”
“Pfft, safe,” said Christy, crawling further along his current branch, somewhere above Edward’s head already. He made it sway again and then abruptly fell off with a yell, left hanging onto the branch. “Um, help?” The branch bent further. “Ned!”
Edward tried to find the best way upward. “Yes, yes - hang on!”
“I am,” said Christy and then looked down again, kicking his legs about wildly. “If I end up in Mrs Allen’s garden, she’ll kill me!”
That wasn’t the greatest danger, Edward thought, pulling level with the younger boy. He reached out, but Christy was too far along for him to grab and pull him back. He took a deep breath and hauled himself up further, trying to edge out along the same branch, but then Christy finally lost his grip on it with a shriek.
Edward closed his eyes and then made himself open them again, searching for Christy, only to see him picking himself up out of the next-door neighbour’s shrubbery and grinning back up at him, apparently indestructible. He let himself breathe out again in relief.
“Hey! Quick, get the rope before the old dragon finds me. She’ll eat me!”
Edward looked about in confusion. “What rope?”
“The swing,” said Christy, waving his arms about. “Come on! The wall’s too high from here and she always keeps that gate locked.”
Edward glanced down but he could only see evidence of where a swing had been; a knotted loop of rope with a frayed or cut end still tied around one of the lower branches.
“It might not be there,” Christy added suddenly. “Mr Keynes did say he might get rid of it after I squashed the runner beans when I came off it that time.” He kicked at Mrs Allen’s rockery in his annoyance. “Oh, rats.”
Edward realised it was no time for saying that it served Christy right, even if it did, and instead hastily promised to see if he could find the rope, climbing down the tree and jumping back onto the grass of the lawn. His searches didn’t produce anything remotely like a rope, however, and he hauled himself back up the tree to tell Christy that he’d have to think of something else, only to find that Christy seemed to have vanished. Edward leaned over to see better into the other garden, but though he still couldn’t spy Christy, he heard the boy yelling out, so he climbed further along and let himself drop down after him into the other garden, landing unsteadily upright, but falling back afterwards onto the earth amid a patch of marigolds.
He propped himself up by his elbows, belatedly realising as he did so that Christy really wasn’t anywhere around and that an imposing woman in long black skirts was looming over him with a glowering expression. Clearly it must be the ferocious Mrs Allen herself.
“Er, hello?” he tried nervously, and then closed his eyes, waiting for the sky to fall.
When Edward finally emerged from Mrs Allen’s house, he found Christy hanging about by the wall, waiting for him. He seemed to have acquired a bandage on his leg and a slight limp, but was otherwise not much perturbed.
“She didn’t eat you then,” Christy said, almost admiringly. “What did you say to her?”
Edward shrugged. “I apologised and then we both agreed that you were a horrible little boy, and she let me go. What happened to you?”
“Oh, I realised I could get out if climbed over the wall on the other side, and Mrs Wendover’s all right - she had twin boys and she says they got up to all sorts. I forgot she’s got all those roses, though or I’d have tried to come down somewhere different. And then she had to fuss and give me a bandage, but she gave me these humbugs as well. Look, I here’s one for you.”
Edward took the humbug, since it seemed like fair payment. He was bound to be in trouble for this when they got back and he wouldn’t get far by trying to blame a twelve year old for why they’d run off and made such a mess of their clothes. Even his mild-mannered Aunt Anne would be annoyed by that sort of behaviour. “Come on - we need to get back before they miss us. They’ll worry if we’ve suddenly vanished.”
“Hey,” said Christy, his face lighting up, “we should let them - imagine, they’ll think we’ve been kidnapped or murdered. What a joke!”
Edward grabbed him by the collar in case he felt tempted to run away and pulled him back towards his own door. “Don’t be an idiot. Nobody would want to kidnap you, anyway, and if you don’t come back with me now, I’ll murder you!”
Christy popped his humbug into his mouth and thought about that while they crept up the garden path, hoping to sneak round by the back gate if it wasn’t locked. “How?” he asked with lurid interest. “Would you cut off my head?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” said Edward as loftily as he could, “but it’ll be very unpleasant, that’s all I can say.”
***
Author: lost_spook
Story: Heroes of the Revolution (Divide & Rule)
Flavor(s): Flavour of the Day 19/10/16 (harum-scarum)
Toppings/Extras: Whipped Cream
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1266
Notes: September 1928; Edward Iveson, Christy Graves. (Edward & Christy having to contend with each other in AUs is always fun, and it occurred to me that there was at least some leeway for the odd moment between them in canon, too.)
Summary: Edward gets his first run-in with a troublesome member of the Graves family.
***
Edward was currently suffering several assaults on his fifteen year old dignity and uncertain as yet whether to stand on it or not. Firstly, Hanne - Mrs Graves - had kindly presented him with a toffee apple because, she said, she’d forgotten how old he was, and then he’d been sent out to play with Christy Graves, who was only twelve, and was now urging him to join him up the large tree at the bottom of the garden. Christy had already shinned up, showing off how easy he found it.
Edward gave up worrying then, since the toffee apple was still an unexpected treat and a good climbing tree was always a good climbing tree. He wrapped up the head of the toffee apple in his clean hanky and stuffed it in his pocket before climbing up to join Christy on a stout lower branch. Having done that, he retrieved the apple and set to work on it.
Christy watched him with undisguised envy, something that made Edward feel simultaneously better about the whole thing and rather guilty.
“Mother wouldn’t let me have one,” Christy said eventually, bouncing about so as to make the bough move.
Edward’s short acquaintance with Christy had already led him to feel sure that if that if that was the case, Hanne had good reason. Still, he held it out to him, feeling he could hardly do anything else. “Want a bite?”
Christy shook his head. “Better not.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Christy said in injured tones, before he broke into a grin. “Well, nothing much. It’s just, if you saw a plate of jam tarts set out, you’d think a chap was allowed to eat one, wouldn’t you? It wasn’t my fault if they were meant to be for the aunts. Somebody should have said!”
“I see,” said Edward, hiding a smile.
He concentrated on the apple, the toffee being hard to bite through, while Christy, getting rapidly bored, climbed upwards and suddenly announced his intention to show Edward that he could get right to the top of the tree. Edward watched him clamber on until he realised that the little idiot really meant to try. He dropped the remains of the apple and stick onto the grass below as he stood, pulling himself up by means of the branch above him.
“Hey, come back down!” Edward called up, tightening his hold on the tree in alarm. “It isn’t safe. Christy!”
“Pfft, safe,” said Christy, crawling further along his current branch, somewhere above Edward’s head already. He made it sway again and then abruptly fell off with a yell, left hanging onto the branch. “Um, help?” The branch bent further. “Ned!”
Edward tried to find the best way upward. “Yes, yes - hang on!”
“I am,” said Christy and then looked down again, kicking his legs about wildly. “If I end up in Mrs Allen’s garden, she’ll kill me!”
That wasn’t the greatest danger, Edward thought, pulling level with the younger boy. He reached out, but Christy was too far along for him to grab and pull him back. He took a deep breath and hauled himself up further, trying to edge out along the same branch, but then Christy finally lost his grip on it with a shriek.
Edward closed his eyes and then made himself open them again, searching for Christy, only to see him picking himself up out of the next-door neighbour’s shrubbery and grinning back up at him, apparently indestructible. He let himself breathe out again in relief.
“Hey! Quick, get the rope before the old dragon finds me. She’ll eat me!”
Edward looked about in confusion. “What rope?”
“The swing,” said Christy, waving his arms about. “Come on! The wall’s too high from here and she always keeps that gate locked.”
Edward glanced down but he could only see evidence of where a swing had been; a knotted loop of rope with a frayed or cut end still tied around one of the lower branches.
“It might not be there,” Christy added suddenly. “Mr Keynes did say he might get rid of it after I squashed the runner beans when I came off it that time.” He kicked at Mrs Allen’s rockery in his annoyance. “Oh, rats.”
Edward realised it was no time for saying that it served Christy right, even if it did, and instead hastily promised to see if he could find the rope, climbing down the tree and jumping back onto the grass of the lawn. His searches didn’t produce anything remotely like a rope, however, and he hauled himself back up the tree to tell Christy that he’d have to think of something else, only to find that Christy seemed to have vanished. Edward leaned over to see better into the other garden, but though he still couldn’t spy Christy, he heard the boy yelling out, so he climbed further along and let himself drop down after him into the other garden, landing unsteadily upright, but falling back afterwards onto the earth amid a patch of marigolds.
He propped himself up by his elbows, belatedly realising as he did so that Christy really wasn’t anywhere around and that an imposing woman in long black skirts was looming over him with a glowering expression. Clearly it must be the ferocious Mrs Allen herself.
“Er, hello?” he tried nervously, and then closed his eyes, waiting for the sky to fall.
When Edward finally emerged from Mrs Allen’s house, he found Christy hanging about by the wall, waiting for him. He seemed to have acquired a bandage on his leg and a slight limp, but was otherwise not much perturbed.
“She didn’t eat you then,” Christy said, almost admiringly. “What did you say to her?”
Edward shrugged. “I apologised and then we both agreed that you were a horrible little boy, and she let me go. What happened to you?”
“Oh, I realised I could get out if climbed over the wall on the other side, and Mrs Wendover’s all right - she had twin boys and she says they got up to all sorts. I forgot she’s got all those roses, though or I’d have tried to come down somewhere different. And then she had to fuss and give me a bandage, but she gave me these humbugs as well. Look, I here’s one for you.”
Edward took the humbug, since it seemed like fair payment. He was bound to be in trouble for this when they got back and he wouldn’t get far by trying to blame a twelve year old for why they’d run off and made such a mess of their clothes. Even his mild-mannered Aunt Anne would be annoyed by that sort of behaviour. “Come on - we need to get back before they miss us. They’ll worry if we’ve suddenly vanished.”
“Hey,” said Christy, his face lighting up, “we should let them - imagine, they’ll think we’ve been kidnapped or murdered. What a joke!”
Edward grabbed him by the collar in case he felt tempted to run away and pulled him back towards his own door. “Don’t be an idiot. Nobody would want to kidnap you, anyway, and if you don’t come back with me now, I’ll murder you!”
Christy popped his humbug into his mouth and thought about that while they crept up the garden path, hoping to sneak round by the back gate if it wasn’t locked. “How?” he asked with lurid interest. “Would you cut off my head?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” said Edward as loftily as he could, “but it’ll be very unpleasant, that’s all I can say.”
***