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 Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 7:39 pm
She didn't know what she expected, she thought. Maybe for Destiny City to be a hole in the ground. But no, it was the same as it ever was; she recognized this street and that one. Storefronts rotated, sure, she didn't know half the shops on the streets where she used to patrol every night, but--it'd been almost two years. (God, had it really?) Of course things changed. Phone numbers changed, too, but she'd gotten an answer from Fritz when she texted, and--well, she was hopeful that he'd actually turn up. Not that she'd blame him at all if he decided to welsh. She kicked up her heels under the table, her ratty old shoes--her parents had money, but Elke had decided to stop caring around fourth issue at her Godforsaken Swiss finishing school, and these shoes were comfortable and got her where she needed to be, so--perched on the edge of the seat across from her. In the back, she texted Fritz, I'm the girl in the cloche hat.
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Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 7:55 pm
When he'd first gotten the text, he'd taken it with a grain of salt.
"I'm back," she'd said, followed closely by, "Let's have tea."
Fritz, in between these unexpected texts, had merely stared at them as if they were written in Hmong. It wasn't like he hadn't thought about her, or anyone from that part of his life, but out of all of them she had been the one that he had thought would stick around. Elke, after all, had been one his guides, especially back in the Surrounding.
Except apparently not, since it had been forever. And now he wasn't even certain if this was actually her or not, since the number wasn't one he recognized.
But, Fritz had deduced, upon the third text, which had given him a time and a place to meet; he would go, and he would see what she had to say - if it was really her, of course. If it wasn't her, if it was just some random person that had somehow figured out who he was, then he would just turn around and go back home.
Dressed in a pair of khaki pants and a teeshirt, a dark green sweater printed with a white moose on the front thrown over it, Fritz made his way carefully towards the cafe in question. He took his time, wondering how he felt about all of this, until finally he got to the place.
His phone buzzed. Fritz pulled it out of his pocket and eyed the screen and then the rest of the place, letting his gaze sweep over the patrons seated around until he finally spotted the girl in the cloche hat.
Nope, it was definitely Elke. Fritz gave a small sigh, stuck his phone back into his pocket, and wound his way past the tables, squeezing behind a particularly clustered one, and finally ended up at the right place. He slid easily into the chair across from her, crossed one leg over the other, and arched a brow.
"Long time no see, stranger."
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Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:00 pm
"Long time no see," she echoed, smiling up at the familiar-unfamiliar sight of Fritz. He didn't look all that different--more mature, perhaps, she thinks, but not really that different from the page she'd known. She wondered if everyone in Destiny City would be like that. Would she look at Babylon and just know him, like a snap of her fingers? It was a curious way to think about the past. As something, you know, current. She eased her feet off the chair and sat up finishing-school straight, sipped her tea daintily and said, "I'm sorry for leaving you like that, it was unconscionable of me. I should've said something, but it was so sudden... my mother and father called me home, they barely let me get a word in edgewise to my..." Elke trailed off, pushed holes into the paper napkin over her lap. There were so many Zodiacs she couldn't find, and the most troubling was her Grayson. He must hate her by now, she thinks. "...well, I didn't get to say goodbye. They sent me off to finishing school. In the Alps. Isn't that the silliest cliche?" Elke rolled her eyes and gestured to the waiter. "Get whatever you like," she said. "I only want to touch base. Please don't consider yourself beholden to me for it."
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Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:48 pm
He couldn't quite deny that he'd actually missed her. Elke had been one of the few people that he had come to depend on when he had first begun his transformation into Celsus, and that wasn't something he could take lightly.
Still, she had disappeared for so long, and he was slightly irritated by the extreme lack of communication. His own phone had been replaced several months back, but if she'd had his number all this time, she could have tried contacting him. Fritz toyed with the hem of his sleeve, looking up when the waitress passed by.
"Home?" he repeated, as the waitress disappeared and then returned moments later with a steaming cup of Earl Grey. Fritz lifted it and took a small sip, savoring the warmth. "So basically...you were uprooted, dragged off, and thrown to the land of chocolate and snow?"
His tone was lighthearted, slightly surprised, though he was trying to hide it. Something in his expression softened a little.
"So you're doing all right, then?" Fritz asked, in a much milder tone.
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Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 2:15 pm
"It sounds a lot like a fairy story, doesn't it," Elke asked, with a sardonic half-smile on her face. Or like the start of a horror movie. Not that her time out in Switzerland had been all bad--she missed speaking French. Why wouldn't one miss their mother tongue? She sighed and stirred her tea. "We weren't allowed cell phones," she told him apologetically. "Or I would have tried to keep in contact. Sometimes I think the Negaverse has it all right, with their teleporting." Being able to talk about her secret life was a relief, too. She smiled at her tea cup again and said, "I'm doing alright. I'm back now and I'm hoping to try to pull us back together… you're the only one who answered my text messages. I'm worried, Fritz. Do you know what's happened to the others?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 4:15 pm
Admittedly, he'd been a little irritated at first; Elke reappearing suddenly and expecting everything to be all peaches and cream was like expecting that the last year and a half of wondering and curiosity and annoyance would just disappear. But she was sorry, and so was he, and Fritz felt some of the irritation slip from his face. He let out a small sigh, adding a bit of sugar to his tea before taking another sip.
"Sometimes I wish the signet rings could transport us knights anywhere as well," he said, a bit ruefully. "As it is, it just takes us to our Wonder, basically, which is nice and all, but, well..."
He shrugged and idly tapped a finger against his teacup. A little frown had creased his forehead, a look of displeasure and some sadness mixed together.
"...no," said Fritz at long last. "No, I haven't. It's been so long, we've all sorta been...scattered."
He felt ashamed at her question, and at his own answer. The lack of communication had been partially his fault, after all - and he should have been the one to gather them all together, even without the proper leadership. The Princess had disappeared, Elke had disappeared, and the rest of the Zodiac had fallen away.
Fritz cleared his throat.
"Like I said," he mumbled. "I don't know where anyone else is."
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Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 4:57 pm
"That's fine," said Elke calmly. Honestly, she'd expected as much. When her family had called her home, there'd been almost no one except for the Pages. She wasn't sure how she could expect them to do better than Leo, or the Princess. They'd been basically children. "It's alright, Fritz, we'll find them again. I mean--I don't suppose you'd object to helping me find them?" It occurred to her that she was assuming an awful lot. "It's fine if you're too busy," she said. "I have been gone a while, I don't even know what you've been up to…" The waitress came by and dropped off her crepe. Elke cut into it neatly, perfect society-girl manners on display. She could almost forget that she'd spent three years of her life in a household full of men, except she remembered those years so fondly. "So what have you been up to? We've pretty much exhausted everything about me, so…"
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Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2013 8:49 pm
He was the first of the Zodiac Knights to actual reach Knighthood, which meant that some of the responsibility for the lack of communication lay with him. Fritz shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and gave Elke a wary look from under his lashes.
"I don't...object," he said slowly. "But I'm not sure how to actually...gather us all together again."
Then he flushed a little, sighed, and reached up, running a hand through his shaggy red hair. "I'd like to, though," he said, and gave Elke the first genuine smile since they'd both gotten here. "I've missed you, by the way. You look good."
Leaning back, he shook his head a little, shrugging one shoulder. "Not much to report. My brother got into a motorcycle accident a few months ago, so I took a little break from everything for a bit to take care of him. He's all right now, but he's gonna have a limp for a while. Maybe the rest of his life, we don't know. Oh, and..."
Fritz cleared his throat, a smile tugging at his lips. "I've been, ah...not sure how to say it, but I guess promoted is the right word? I'm a full-fledged Knight now."
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Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2013 9:12 pm
"That's alright," she said. "Let's you and I meet up on the Surrounding and we can talk it out while we check on the status of things?" Elke returned his smile, preened a little bit--she hooked a lock of ash-blonde hair behind one ear, proud as could be. "Thank you, Fritz. You're looking good, too--and congratulations on the Knighthood! I'm sorry to hear about your brother…" A thought occurred to her, and she sat up a little straighter. "Do you think he could be--" And then her phone buzzed once, twice. She picked it up, looked at the screen, and sighed. "Sorry, I have to take this and--is that the time? Goodness." Elke fished her wallet out of her purse with one hand, picked up her call with the other, and dropped a twenty on the table. "Make sure the waitress gets that, alright? I'll call you with the time for our next meeting." She offered Fritz another dazzling smile, and then left with a small wave over her shoulder.
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