Only for You (Meg "Oh! La La" Giry)

[Mister Y]

Erik had no idea what had drawn him to the village that evening, but he supposed the walk would be healthy for him. He'd only been to the village once before, for Christmas, and he thought maybe he'd explore it a little more sometime. He just wished he'd picked a warmer day to do so. Pulling his long coat closer around him, he peered through shop windows and into the pub, which was filled to the brim with all sorts. This village was SO strange.

In the centre of the square of the village, there was a large fountain. He walked to it, taking a seat on the side and watching the people go by. A few of the passer-by called him "Ben" for some odd reason, like they knew him. He must have a doppelgänger of some sorts around here. Apparently, no one from the Manor ventured down here often except for the odd one or two with jobs down here...

[Meg "Oh! La La" Giry]

Meg took the cup graciously from the barista, turning it around so that the mouth piece faced her. She smiled and took a cautious sip of the steaming coffee. "Thanks, Linda!" she said as she walk-skipped out the door.

Linda waved to her. "Anytime, Meg!" She then went back to taking another customer's order. It seemed to Meg that Starbucks was always busy, no matter what time of year, and the coffee was better than anything she'd ever had back home.

She liked to come to the village weekly, just to get away from the dreary landscape of the manor. Even when it was cold, it was refreshing to associate with people who didn't know about her past, even if they found her language a bit old-fashioned. Phrases like "Golly!" and "babycakes" and "gee" were really out of style she found out... But she said them anyway, unwilling to change herself in this sense, since she prided herself on being a real talker.

The dancer walked down the sidewalk and pulled her puffy, fur-collared, creamy white coat closer together and adjusted her bright red scarf (eat your heart out, Christine!) around her neck. She liked to look fashionable when she went to town, so she studied women on the street and figured out what they liked to wear best. She found by raiding her closet that everything she needed was right there waiting for her to try on. The result was her new modern wardrobe!

2013 was her kind of time. Women could be free to do and say what they wanted to, and were practically equal to men in most things. No one found her abrasive in town, and no one told her to hold her tongue when she spoke out of turn. In fact, she thought people rather liked her here, and it was like heaven. She wasn't sure she ever wanted to go back.

Meg found a spot to drink her delicious mocha coffee in the square. She sat on the edge of the large fountain, now dry with the winter but still beautiful. She twirled a thick strand of her hair around her gloved finger, singing one leg up to rest on the slab of concrete. Looking around her eyes hovered over the dark back of a man. Soon, her lips began to tremble with the cold, despite having touched the hot liquid.

It was him! She turned back around, her eyes wide. Every time she saw him her heart beat faster... What was he doing in town? She'd never seen him here, or anywhere else for that matter. Did he see her? Was it really him? She pulled back her thick hair slightly and merely glanced again. Luckily, he'd turned his head a bit, and she saw the stark white of his mask. What should she do...? Should she talk to him? The last time they spoke was the Christmas party, and he seemed so shocked to see her.

Well, he wasn't exactly with anyone. He was all alone, and she hated seeing him alone... Before she could second guess herself, Meg got up and walked around the side of the fountain, biting her lip and holding her breath. She came very near to him but tried to be inconspicuous until she spoke.

"Mind if I sit here?" she asked shyly, cautiously. She didn't wait for his answer and sat down, lest he turn her away... She never knew what went through his mind...

[Mister Y]

Erik turned his head, looking up at the woman who'd asked to sit by him. Hopefully it wasn't one of the teenagers who kept asking for his signature. He saw a familiar face looking back at him as she sat down. It was Meg! So she was out and about in the village too? Well...at least there was someone here who he knew...

"Meg...How are you?" Erik was never one to talk much, and he didn't really see much of the Giry girl. Madame Giry was the one who constantly bothered him, but it seemed that she wasn't around here. His shyness at her presence was almost immediately apparent. He turned his position so that he could talk to her better, though he wasn't sure if he wanted to talk at all...

He only interacted in social situations when the time called for it. He felt most comfortable around kids, and least comfortable around women. Men, he could handle well enough, but he didn't like many.

He supposed, however, that talking to someone familiar would help him. Perhaps talking to her would relax him a little. He hadn't been feeling too well since Christine Emilie had slapped him in the garden, then pretended like it didn't happen at the Christmas party. She confused him...she confused him so much.

[Meg "Oh! La La" Giry]

Meg hadn't really had a conversation with Mister Y since probably a couple years before they left Coney... They used to talk all the time, in fact he was the one who taught her English, but then they both got so busy doing their own separate things that she'd lost track of their makeshift friendship.

His initial words seemed harmless enough, though he was a bit distracted, she could tell. If only she could talk to him as frankly as she used to, before she started to have hearts in her eyes... Meg fluttered her eyelashes, not flirtatiously, but shyly. He was the one man she couldn't bear to... well... bear it all in front of. She turned more toward him as he did to her, taking great care not to knock her knees suggestively against his. Though it was mighty tempting...

"Oh, I've been alright. Just getting by... I like this century though, how about you? It's different, to be sure, but I've always thought, well... we were a different sort of breed anyway." She smiled at him, shrugging her shoulders and sipping her coffee. "And you, Mister Y? How-how have you been?"

'Aw, cool it Meg! Stop fumbling over your words like a little schoolgirl!' she thought to herself. She bit her tongue lightly in her mouth to keep her from saying too much... Or too little, really. She never knew what could throw him into a tizzy, or depression.

[Mister Y]

Erik nodded, listening to her talk. He'd hardly talked to her since they had set up Phantasma...Her English had gotten better, that was for sure. When he'd taught her English, she'd had so much trouble with the words. Now she spoke it naturally. She seemed so Americanized now...She asked him how he'd been, stumbling over the words a little bit. Well, it was cold, perhaps she was getting chilled.

"I've been fine, thank you. A little confused, to be honest, but fine overall. Would you like to go inside, somewhere? Perhaps we could get something to eat while we're here. My treat?" Erik rubbed his gloved hands together, wringing his fingers. Cold had never been too appealing to him. He liked warmth, and the comfort it provided.

[Meg "Oh! La La" Giry]

Meg smiled slowly, not brightly and cheery as her normal way, but in a soft admiring way. It didn't matter what he said, she just loved to hear him talk. "I'd love to, honey," she laughed. "Honestly, I was just going to ask you the same thing, since you look so chilly." The woman longed to reach out and warm his hands in hers, in fact gazed at his gloved fingers for a quick moment. Before he could notice anything she hopped up, twirling around in her boots.

"You haven't been here much, have you? I never see you around..." She'd wanted to add that she'd like to, though she always felt a number of things she didn't say.

When they began to walk, Meg eyed Mister Y's empty arm. Before she could form a second though, she snaked hers through it the way she would through a girlfriend's arm. Her heart pounded in her ears, but she smiled up at him in a coquettish manner. "Innit it nice to walk around in broad daylight? This place isn't nearly as crowded and hectic as New York is, am I right?" She looked away, afraid she might betray her emotions in her eyes, so she sipped her coffee as she gazed at the people bustling by...

[Mister Y]

Erik tensed a bit when she winded her arm through his. He'd never offered her his arm, but she'd taken it regardless. She was getting rather bold. What would Madame Giry have to say about her daughter's behaviour? He smirked a little bit.

"No, I don't really get out much. This is only the second time or so that I've been out here in the village..." He looked at Meg, giving her a wry little smile before drawing her off to the village pub. It would be MUCH warmer in there...

Inside the pub, there were a few people sitting at the bar, but the restaurant seats were relatively empty. He walked with her over to a little two-seater booth in the corner, waiting for her to take a seat before he did.

[Meg "Oh! La La" Giry]

When they stepped into the pub, Meg melted with warmth. The coffee suddenly seemed hotter in her hands, though the gloves protected her from being burnt. She let Mister Y lead her to the little booth, and she swiftly sat down before him. Her eyes roamed the bar... She'd been there before, she admitted to herself. On quite a few occasions, including one Christmas eve...

But enough of that. Her regular bartender was there, but he wouldn't mention her to Mister Y, not from the steely look she gave him from across the room. Meg set her coffee on the table and smiled up quickly at her companion. "You should come out here more often. It's really nice..." She crossed her legs and sipped her drink, leaning a bit closer to him the way a friend would for better conversation. "I wouldn't mind showing you around. I come to the village often."

She wouldn't tell him why... Oh, there were the shops, and the nice cafes and friends she'd made... But if she told him she came to the village to escape being near him, and the heartache it caused... What would he think? What does he think of her, anyway?

"Mister Y..." she said, her eyes drifting down to the table. She wanted to ask him, did he miss Coney? Did he miss her mother, the business, what they used to have? Or were they better off here, in the place of second chances...? She wondered if she deserved one, after... Well, what she'd been thinking about Christine before they came here wasn't in the friendliest of ways... "Never mind," she said, shaking her head and staring behind him.

[Mister Y]

Erik slipped into the booth, feeling eyes on him. On his mask....people here knew his name, knew who he was. Was he on a "Wanted" list? No, no, he couldn't be...he hadn't encountered the police...Meg was speaking to him. He turned his head to look at her when she spoke to him. His body language was stick straight in the booth. He wasn't quite used to this.

"Come out more often? I'm not really much for the outdoors...but if you know good places, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to show me." He looked around at the other occupants of the bar. He got distracted, however, when Meg made to ask him a question.

She addressed him, but then discarded her question. What had she wanted to ask? "No, Meg, go on." He inclined his head toward her, egging her on.

[Meg "Oh! La La" Giry]

Meg didn't know if he'd actually want her to go on, but apparently he did. She could never tell with him, of course... Sometimes he'd care, other times he wouldn't. She wasn't sure if she should be thankful or upset that this was one of the former times.

"Oh... I was just... Thinking about... Do you ever think about Coney much?" she blurted, her face heating up. She took a sip of her coffee to hide her compressed lips. "What I mean is, not that you miss it or you don't miss it. I mean do you think about... what happened to us? Why we've done what we've done..."

Her voice was quiet, as if she didn't actually want to be heard. "Oh, I'm just rambling, don't mind me. What would you want to listen to me for, anyway...?"

Yes, she wished he had good reasons to listen to her... But to him she was just a chess piece, a useful pawn in a grand game. He just wanted Christine... That was what Coney was for anyway, to lure Christine... was that what she was for, a flashing billboard sign? "Come see the great "Oh! La La Girl" while you wait for the main attraction... the Songbird of the Century!"

Meg's eyes were tense and near blank as she remembered... Couldn't she ever be the starring role?

[Mister Y]

"Coney?" Erik reminisced. Had he thought about why they were at Coney...? Well....

"Yes, actually..." He looked off at the bar, and a waitress caught his glance and busied herself grabbing menus for him and Meg. "I think about my life quite often, really....my past, my present...the future...But to be honest with you, it's all so confusing to me, I can't help but ask if I'm over-thinking everything..."

He looked back at Meg. Did she contemplate about her life since the incident in Paris...? What did she think about? Her spot as his leading showgirl? He'd never really taken her as much of a deep thinker, she was always so...upbeat.

The waitress came over, placing the menus on the table, then said she'd be back in a moment so they could decide what they wanted to drink. Erik slid his menu in front of his place, but he hardly looked at it...He was more focused on talking right now.

[Meg "Oh! La La" Giry]

Meg shifted in her seat when the waitress brought their menus. She wasn't even all that hungry, but she didn't want to seem rude... At least not in front of Mister Y. She opened it, but didn't look at it too much. Mister Y had 99.9 percent of her attention... Not that he cared.

She smiled, glad that he at least answered, though she was as confused by his statement as he seemed to be with his life. "Over-thinking? How so?" Meg crossed her legs and leaned against her palm, though she accidentally brushed Mister Y's own legs with her foot. She slid back in her seat to make distance, finally realizing she was as close to the edge of the table as she possibly could be.

Her face heating up, Meg quickly took up her drink and started sipping, but not before muttering a barely meaningful apology. She began to stare at her menu, repeating to herself over and over "Just act natural... Keep calm and carry on, that's what these Brits say, don't they? Keep calm and carry on, keep calm and carry on...!" It didn't help that she felt like sand was being poured down her throat.