AU Milliways

[therighttime]

The door opens from one pub to the next. A rosy-tinted, warm little English pub filled to the brim with uniformed soldiers and local girls, crowing and laughing and being alive, really feeling it for the first time in longer than any of them would like to admit.

The woman who is leaving that particular pub is tall - very tall, inches over six feet - shapely in her 1940s olive dress uniform. Her make-up is fresh, her tie in perfect order, her hair is even curled in classic victory rolls (it took three showgirls three hours to make it happen, but they're all used to it by now).

Stephanie Rogers is grinning, flush-faced and filled with joy as she waves to a dark-haired soldier at the bar and steps purposefully into -- another bar.

She recognizes a shift, a difference immediately, and keeps one hand on the knob even as she frowns thoughtfully at the room around her.

Comments

[abyssum_invocat]

Synthia manages a tiny smile. "I like to paint," she says. "And to read."

[therighttime]

Steph grins back, pleased. "Me, too. I learned on charcoal and pencils, but I love painting. What do you like to read?"

[abyssum_invocat]

"I like everything. Adventure books mostly."

[therighttime]

"All kinds of adventure? I read The Hobbit a while back and liked it a lot. That's a great adventure."

[abyssum_invocat]

She nods. "All kinds of adventure," she affirms; anything, really, that will take her out of where she is even if it's only for a few hours.

"I don't have that one, though. The Hobbit. Isn't it about a war?"

[therighttime]

"There are battles," Steph answers, thoughtful, "I'm not sure if it counts as a war. It's fantasy, it all takes place in a magic world with dwarves and wizards, and a hobbit named Bilbo."

She smiles, a little bashful. In her twenties and reading fantasy for children but the illustrations had been gorgeous. "I tried reading the normal adventure stuff, like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, but it's a little difficult to for me when the only river I've ever seen is the Hudson."

[abyssum_invocat]

"I've seen rivers," she asserts. "The Elbe, the Rhine. They're pretty, but I've only ever seen them from an automobile."

[therighttime]

Steph almost asks why she never went to play by them. The Hudson isn't crystal clear and doesn't smell sweet but she and Bucky still spent a good chunk of time running around by the water.

She chooses not to, for the way Synthia looks at her, for the way she speaks about her father.

"You know, they told me there's a lake outside. You want to go see it? You can bring the marbles."

[abyssum_invocat]

"Is it one like in the Alps?" she asks. "They're deep, and clear, and cold."

Always with the cold.

[therighttime]

"I haven't been yet," Steph admits, pulling her hand away from the girl's now that no one's upset anymore. "But if it's cold, maybe we can just sit by the fire. Marbles are easier to play on a flat surface but I bet we can find something outside, if it's nice."

[abyssum_invocat]

"We can see," she says slowly.

[therighttime]

"If you want."

Steph's just-- going to repeat that. As many times as necessary, until Synthia starts looking a little more comfortable around her.

[abyssum_invocat]

That could be a really, really long time coming, Steph.

"Okay. I'm...I'm okay to go with you."

[therighttime]

Steph's a blonde young woman running a special operations team for the Army, when most other women of her time are running households.

She can be patient for what she wants.

For now, she's going to smile and slide off the bar stool, holding out her hand in invitation. "Swell. Let's go play some marbles."

[abyssum_invocat]

Synthia looks at Steph's hand, and doesn't take it--she doesn't trust her that much, not yet. "Do you have some to play with, or do you want to use mine?"

[therighttime]

"I'll see if Bar has some extra," Steph replies, turning the sweep of her hand into a reach for the counter. "That way, we can trade while we play here but you'll still know which ones are yours when we're through."

Her knuckles rap gently on the bar and a bag appears, marbles a stark red, white, and blue compared to Synthia's swirled colors. Steph sighs for the color scheme but her smile is amused as she thanks the Bar.

[abyssum_invocat]

"Are the colors because you're an American?" she asks. She's seen a few of the soldiers--only through bars, and furtive looks when she's escaping from somewhere she ought not be just before she gets caught--but never spoken to any. Stephanie is the first Allied soldier she's ever spoken to.

[therighttime]

"Oh, absolutely," Steph replies, sounding amused. She grins at Synthia and passes the bag of marbles from one hand to another. "Is one of your marbles your favorite color?"

[abyssum_invocat]

She nods. "Blue is my favorite color. I like to look at the stars when I can, when it's dark enough at night."

She holds up the one marble that has almost a perfectly flat spiral of milky-white and sparkling flecks of color. "Like this one."

[therighttime]

Steph stoops a little to peer at the marble, her smile going soft. "Oh, wow, that's neat. I like that one.

"I never looked at the stars much back home, but we're in Europe right now. The sky's so clear, looks like I could just reach out and grab one to keep."

[abyssum_invocat]

"Sometimes it is where I am, and sometimes not. The weapons my father makes glow, they drown out the stars." She says it while looking at the marble intently, before standing. "When I was very young, I lived in Berlin. But the sky's clearer where I am now. It's a little better, but only in that respect."

[therighttime]

Steph's smile is soft as she leads the way through the crowded bar, to the second door she assumes they both can see - she's been watching people go in and out all afternoon.

"Maybe everything will be better someday," she says, and it's not an empty reassurance. She sounds thoughtful, curious, as if she truly hopes it could be. That the world will be a better place for everyone, everywhere.

"Until then, the little things are important. Like the stars." She grins, just a little. "And marbles."