Porcelain

36

"You're a hero, Fleur!" Meg exclaimed utterly enthralled by Fleurette's tale, she peeked out from the towel which was over her head and looked at the blonde. "What? You are! You rescued a little girl!" Meg clapped her hands together and jumped up and down slightly on her bed from excitement. The other dancers were all equally interested by Fleurette's update of her day.

"Weren't you scared?" Alison asked, Fleurette looked at her. Admittedly Alison and herself never shared many words. Alison had an air of arrogance around her, and her steely eyes seemed to always stare unblinking at anything and everything.

Fleurette actually found her a little daunting. "Fear never crossed my mind."

"But you charged into a pond to save a stranger." Bernadette stated while tying up her straight black hair.

"Not many people would do that." Diane crossed her arms and nodded swiftly.

Meg pouted at the three women before smiling happily at Fleurette, who yet again peeked out from underneath the towel. "I think it was very brave of you, Fleur!" Meg exclaimed and plucked the towel off of her head. Fleurette shook her head and pushed her damp hair out of her face. By the time she got back to the opera house there was a huge amount of fuss around her. Everyone thought she had had some sort of accident, the one thing which seemed to confuse everyone the most was the happy smile on Fleurette's face.

Fleurette had repeated her story three times, once to the whole group, a second time to Andre and Firmin and Madame Giry and the third and final time was to Meg and the dancers which were here. Sniffing, Fleurette crossed her arms over her clean and dry long sleeved blue dress. "Perhaps I should have stuck around to see a doctor."

"You didn't swallow any of that mucky water did you? Lord knows what germs are in that pond."

"Thanks for that, Alison." Fleurette said quietly while looking down at her lap. Be fair she had swam in worse waters such as the lake down below.

"Oh, this has made my day!" Meg exclaimed and embraced Fleurette quickly before standing up. "My Fleur is a hero!" Fleurette looked up at her and smiled. She was acting like an excitable child, it humoured her slightly. "Wait util your sister finds out about this, huh?" Meg nudged her lightly on the arm. "Her and Felix can be enjoying their week away from the city doing what newlyweds do," at this the two pulled a face. "But," Meg smiled swiftly moving on. "Can either of them say they've saved a life? No! You can though."

"Meg, I think you're looking too into this." Diane said a little worriedly while standing up too. The dancer group had a rehearsal to go and attend. The only reason why they were up here now was because they wanted to hear the story from Fleurette's mouth. Fleurette sat and watched them all exit the room before standing up herself and walking out too. She walked quickly and quietly towards the kitchen, she grabbed what food she could and moved silently down the corridor.

Hearing a distant sneeze, Erik looked up from his position sitting in the boat and watched Fleurette appear. As soon as she spotted the boat and him she blew out the candle which was in her hand. "Hello, Erik." She smiled, he looked at her confused. "What?"

"You sound different."

"I do?"

"Like," Erik leaned forward and against the side of the boat. Fleurette looked at him confused still and waited for him to continue. "Like you are about to get a cold." Erik said while reaching out and pushing some of her hair away from her eyes. He frowned at the damp feel of it. "What have you been up to?"

"Swimming."

"Right," Erik moved away from the side of the boat and stood up. Holding out his hands, he helped the redhead into the boat and turned to steer it back towards his home. "I have to say, Fleurette it's not really swimming weather." Erik stated while quickly looking over his shoulder at her. She looked up at him as innocently as she could, he was telling the truth the weather outside was chilly despite the sun which was out.

"I may have...jumped into a pond..." Fleurette said slowly while watching Erik contemplate over her words. His reaction was one she expected, he looked at her with wide eyes and lost his concentration enough to forget to stop the boat from crashing against the stone shore.

"Sorry," he said quietly and then sat down on the seat in front of her. He sat looking down at the floor of the boat for a moment before frowning up at her. "Are you mad?"

Fleurette looked at him and shook her head quickly. "No."

"Are you sure?" Erik inquired. "I ask merely because most people don't just jump into ponds when they fancy a swim."

"You didn't hear the ruckus upstairs?"

"You know despite everyone thinking I lurk in the corridors and on the runways, I actually don't. No, I have no idea what you are talking about, Fleurette."

"I saved a little girl called Josephine from drowning." The woman in front of him smiled proudly with herself and her heroic act.

"That explains the swimming," Erik sighed and smiled lightly at her. "Well done." Fleurette smiled again and nodded slowly. "Come on, I'll go hunt out numerous blankets for you."

"What?"

"Remember the last time you went swimming?" Erik stated while helping her out of the boat and then walking off. He waved a hand casually over his shoulder at her. "Things didn't end too well, if I recall you ended up suffering from a horrible temperature and sat complaining."

"I complained once." Fleurette stated and then clicked her fingers and ran to his side. Erik looked at her confused while throwing a blanket around her shoulders. "You broke your promise!" Fleurette said and then laughed when Erik purposely draped a blanket around her and a part of it went over her face. Peeking out from under it she nodded up at him.

"I did not."

"I asked you to hold me to a vow of never swimming again. You broke your promise."

"Actually," Erik said while crossing his arms after he threw a third blanket around her shoulders. "I said I would try. That's a little different than a promise." At this Fleurette pouted at his words, turned on her heels and shuffled off. Erik smiled and shook his head lightly, there truly was never a dull moment when in Fleurette's company.

——

Reedited: 19/Jan/2022