Give Me A Look Like I'm Way Out Of Bounds (for Anne and Jack)

[eliotwaugh]

Eliot rubs his hands together, his breath fogging as he reactivates the warmth spell keeping him comfortable while he waits in the park. It's bleak and overcast, the sky the sort of thin mean gray that holds a potential for snow, but he doesn't expect to be outside for much longer. A few yards away at the entrance to the garden, the Darrow Horticultural Society has put up a sign proclaiming a showcase of tropical blooms at the Conservatory greenhouse. The sign is garish and amateurish, more like a palm tree set-piece from a high school production of Guys and Dolls than anything approaching good advertisement, but the greenhouse itself is a grand art deco edifice with a stepped roof and the silhouettes of leafy branches visible inside even at a little distance. Eliot smiles in a tight line as he thinks about being really warm, with air that doesn't sting to breathe. He checks his phone for the third time and huffs a sigh.

It's not that he has regrets, and it's not that he's nervous. There's nothing to be nervous about, certainly not because the actual execution of this outing doesn't match the idea Eliot had when he'd first heard about the flower show. So if he's early it's because he doesn't know Anne well enough to be casually late; if he's pacing by the entrance it's because perhaps he had too much coffee with his lunch. And it's cold out. That's all. It's a miserable day and he is determined to have a good time, as soon as the pirates actually show up. 

Comments

[jackrackham]

"We're late." By a glance at the sky, he can tell that it had taken them a little longer to get here than he'd expected, but only by a few minutes. When Jack spots Eliot pacing in front of the greenhouse he picks up his pace just a little, eager both to be somewhere warm and to stop Eliot from standing outside in the cold waiting for them.

He's excited about this outing, and happy to be sharing it with both Eliot and Anne. The idea of having something familiar to show Anne is a comforting thought. Besides each other, there hasn't been a lot here in Darrow that feels like home. Exciting, too, to be able to show Eliot a piece of what that home is like.

"You should have waited inside," he says. He flashes Eliot a quick smile, then looks up at the beautiful structure before them. He's never seen anything like it before. The construction is impressive, though he assumes that he'll be able to enjoy it more once they're safely indoors. "It's fucking cold out here, come on."

[annebonny]

There is a plenitude of both time and reasons for Anne to regret this decision, her concession to accompany Jack on this little outing. Not that she isn't interested — this place, as he'd described it, certainly sounds interesting, even nice. And she won't pretend to herself she's not relieved he asked her along. Someone needs to keep an eye on him, and on his magician. But it makes her uneasy all the same, Jack's cheerful urgency, the eagerness that propels him forward. He's always like this round Eliot, she knows that now, but knowing and being accustomed are two very different things. And she knows what to expect from Eliot, too smart and too charming, desperate to please them both for, she suspects, different reasons. She feels exhausted just thinking about it.

That, and it's fucking cold out.

But it doesn't matter. If she'd said no, Jack would've asked why, or he would've been hurt, and that ain't worth any of her current discomfort. She's here for him; she's been through much, much worse for him.

Jack's grin on seeing Eliot still catches her off guard, and she only offers Eliot a gruff nod, barely looking at him as she brushes past to go inside and out of this miserable weather.

[eliotwaugh]

“Oh it was all right, really.” Eliot smiles, because Jack’s grin is infectious and because Anne’s opinion of him is clear and sharp as crystal, and he’s determined to be all the more hospitable in spite of it. “And anyway I didn’t want to see it without you.”

The air inside is a welcome change, and Eliot groans in relief. It’s warm and humid and smells of earth and vegetation and it feels so much more alive in here than outside that he’s practically beaming as he slips off his scarf and shrugs out of his coat.

“This is honestly a much nicer space than I’d thought,” he says, looking at the vine-draped archway leading from the entrance to the main garden. “A town like this, you think...I don’t know, little old ladies feuding over petunias or something.”

There doesn’t appear to be any sort of ticket-taker waiting around, but he does see a little wooden box for suggested donations. Eliot drops a few bills in and picks up some brochures. He suspects Anne wouldn’t want one but gets enough for each of them regardless.

“Anyway,” he tilts his ead toward the archway. “Shall we?”