Woods Outside Camelot, Wednesday Morning

[bitchprince]

It had gotten increasingly harder to escape the castle now that spring approached. There were preparations to be done, last rations to be distributed carefully so that everyone would have enough, farmers to protect. It was exhausting, was what it was, and Arthur relished the chance to get out for a ride.

Eventually he made it back here, to his usual spot deep in the forest by a small brook. He got off his horse and sat down on the pebbles by the river, breathing in the air.

A little peace and quiet.

It took him about fifteen minutes to get terribly sick of it, which was when he flipped open his phone and started calling numbers. Really, Merlin's magic held up surprisingly well with these things.

[[ open for phone calls, etc. ]]

Comments

[thatsamilkshake]

"Is it spring there too?" Francine asked, frowning up at a cloudbank that was already trying to move in on her little spot of sun. "We don't always match up."

[bitchprince]

"Spring is... approaching," Arthur said, glancing up through the canopy. "The trees will sprout green soon enough."

[thatsamilkshake]

"It's late May here; we've got plenty of green, when the windstorms aren't blowing it away." Francine's forbidding look must have cowed the clouds; they stayed put, not moving into the path of her sunshine.

Okay, so she liked to pretend she could control the weather with a look.

"Anyway. Did I tell-- no, that was Casey." Sorry for the comparison, Arthur. You...were both blond? "I got a job! It's just part-time, but it's something to do for the summer."

[bitchprince]

Arthur gave the phone a brief squint, as if trying to determine whether he was being insulted. The jury was still out, though, having not met Casey, nor any idea whether it was a man or a woman (though he'd settle on man for the moment). "And what may you be laboring at this summer, then?"

[thatsamilkshake]

You just go right on thinking that, Arthur. Until you meet her.

"I'm helping out at the on-campus day-care center, where the professors and some of the older students leave their kids while they're in class."

[bitchprince]

"Taking care of children seems right up your alley," Arthur said, in a stunning display of the obvious. "Do try and keep Katina away, though."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Actually, I was thinking about asking her to come in and help with their art projects!"

Because that would go well.

[bitchprince]

"...Don't be ridiculous." A beat. Then he laughed. "Good one, Francine."

[thatsamilkshake]

"I'm serious! I think they'd have a lot of fun fingerpainting with her. And she could count it as a summer extra credit project, maybe."

[bitchprince]

"But it's Katina," Arthur asid, incredulously. "Are you trying to get them killed?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"Katchoo wouldn't put kids in danger!"

Probably not, but she'd teach them words, Francine.

[bitchprince]

"Depends on what you'd call 'danger', doesn't it?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"Well, they might be in danger of learning what %$#^*%#%$#%@@@%$#@%$#^#$!$#!$#** means, I guess," Francine conceded reluctantly. "But I'm sure I could get Katchoo to watch her mouth."

[bitchprince]

"You... may want to think about what you just said," Arthur said, after a moment. "'Tis still Katchoo. She's not exactly renowned for her restraint."

[thatsamilkshake]

%$#^*%#%$#%@@@%$#@%$#^#$!$#!$#**. He...wasn't wrong. "I guess you might have a point. I don't want to get fired during my second week there."

[bitchprince]

"I often do," Arthur said, humbly. "...You are good for money?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"You want to sell me?" Blame the coffee she didn't have with her doughnut this morning. "Oh! Heh. Yeah, we're okay. I'd just rather not pay for pizzas and movies with my college fund, you know?"

She might feel differently if she'd ever taken a look at the totals on that account.

[bitchprince]

"I suppose that's wise," Arthur said. He was using That Voice that one used when one didn't have a clue and yet did not want to appear to not have a clue at all. "Taking care of one's finances."

[thatsamilkshake]

"They're mostly your finances," Francine pointed out. Which was part and parcel of why she felt guilty spending them on anything but school.

[bitchprince]

"Well, I can hardly come back and collect them," he said, reasonably. "Unless you'd like me to explain to my father what a dollar is."

Slightly missing the point there, Arthur.

[thatsamilkshake]

"They do have places you can exchange dollars for gold, you know. They're called jewelry stores."

Like Francine could lecture anyone on point-getting.