plantfood | [For Veronica]

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veronica

[For Veronica]

There are many things about Henrich that drove Mathias crazy before Mexico and the ruins, things that now and then resulted in physical altercations or shouting matches which left them both feeling sheepish and hurt, but there is one thing Henrich was so good at. One thing Mathias wishes he could have learned from his brother, something he still can't quite seem to grasp no matter how hard he tries or doesn't try, as Henrich used to advise.

He's terrible with women.

It's been a month and a half since New Year's Eve and Mathias has done almost nothing to impress Veronica or further what relationship they might be developing. In fact, with the exception of assuring her there is nothing going on with Stacy, he's barely made any indication that he's interested in her, which he realizes is incredibly stupid. He's very interested and absolutely terrified. Coming to her while stuck as a woman hardly counts as making an attempt at getting another date, so earlier in the week, he'd gathered up all his courage and asked.

Which is why he finds himself heading down the path toward her hut, a bag with some food slung over one shoulder and his towel folded over the other. In a fit of panic, unsure what people do for dates on the island, he'd suggested dinner and swimming at the waterfall, hoping it isn't too forward to include swimming. Already he's starting to doubt himself, but he schools his face to blankness and then raps his knuckles gently against her door.

He can do this. It's a date, after all, he's been on dates before.

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"There are canoes, too," Mathias tells her, running his hand over the wall of the cave curiously, half expecting to find a passage hidden in the rock. There's nothing, of course, but he continues to touch the wall, then turns to look at Veronica. "I've seen them, down by the water. I know we can't go anywhere, really, but it might be nice to take one."

Maybe just the illusion of getting somewhere would be good enough. It was a start, anyway. Veronica smiled, following along, arms swinging. "I'd like that," she said. The stone was cool under bare feet, rough and dusty, but pleasantly so. Pushing up on her toes, she reached for the ceiling and came up short, not minding. "The going's still good, even if you don't get anywhere."

Mathias is a good guy, he really is, but he has to turn away when Veronica stretches up toward the ceiling. He doesn't want to push, but he knows if he lets himself watch her, he'll end up in an uncomfortable situation.

"We could get to the other side of the island," he points out, looking at Veronica over his shoulder, but just briefly. "Not very far, I admit, but it's something."

"Far enough," she said, her old dreams of traveling sleeping rather than buried. If not seeing Europe was the price she paid for peace in her time, so be it. "The company's good anyway. And there's always the other island. Been out there yet?"

Mathias shakes his head, trusting himself to turn around once more and he faces her. "I've heard a little bit about it, but not very much. Are we allowed to go over there?" He can't imagine there's someone stationed to stop them, but the last he's heard about it, the only people heading over were scientists or military.

Though, if he wants to be technical, he is military.

"Yep." Folding her arms, Veronica moved in closer, smiling. "Just hitch a ride on the Dawn Treader. You have to be able to handle staying a few days, though. They only go out there on a schedule." She'd been on board the day they'd discovered it, but with her Council duties being what they were, hadn't returned since. Admittedly, half the reason she'd signed up was to be able to say she'd served on the Dawn Treader.

"You know, just when I start to believe things can't possibly be any more strange, you tell me that we just need to hitch a ride on the Dawn Treader." Even knowing they would be riding on a fictional ship does nothing to dissuade Mathias from this idea, especially now that Veronica has mentioned they might have to spend a few days on another island.

"I think I could handle that," he decides with a smile, his hand falling from the rock wall to Veronica's shoulder. His fingertips trail down the outside of her arm until he can curl his hand around her own. "It would be an adventure."

"Mm, well, if you like that," Veronica teased, "I'll have to tell you sometime about when I served on Prince Caspian's crew. My nine year old self was practically swooning." Biting her lip, she smiled. "I do enjoy a good adventure."

Alright, it's cheesy, so screw me, but I'm pretty sure that right there - this hand-holding thing? Yeah, my heart just started going double-time. What can I say? I'm a sap.

"I think my twenty-four year old self may fall victim to a swoon," Mathias teases, although he isn't entirely joking. There's something incredibly surreal about hearing such a thing, even after all this time, and it's oddly appealing, too. That he can't quite explain, but he doesn't think he needs to worry about it.

"Just don't hit your head," Veronica deadpanned, stifling a smile. "I'm not carrying you out of here. But, you know, I mean, you're in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and Prince Caspian says he needs a crew... well, you sign up." Obviously. Opportunities were there to be had she'd never have been able to take at home, and she wasn't one to turn them down.

"Personally, I am just hoping that someone from Arrested Development arrives and becomes my very best friend. That could be only good," Mathias answers, grinning. That's not entirely true, of course, but he's choosing to believe that should a fictional person from his favourite TV show befriend him, it isn't going to be Buster Bluth.

"Yeah, I'd be careful what you wish for, buddy," she teased, turning to lean back against the cave wall. "That could go pretty wrong. Me, I've already lived the dream. Hanging out with Nancy Drew? Pretty much as cool as I imagined." Sure, it would have been better with a mystery to solve, but this was one time she was willing just to count her blessings.

When Veronica turns, Mathias does as well, unconsciously following as he studies her, considering what she's said. Eventually, he shakes his head, having reached a decision.

"I would rather hang out with you than Nancy Drew," he says firmly, just barely managing to keep a straight face. It isn't that he doesn't mean it, because he does. It's just that he still can't quite believe he can say something like that and mean it.

Veronica couldn't help smiling at that, a little flattered, even if it seemed silly to be. Well, no, there was nothing silly about that - Nancy Drew might have got chloroformed a ridiculous amount, but she'd still been a favorite of Veronica's. "I think I might be able to arrange that," she teased. "You might change your mind if you could've seen her, though. I mean, the books didn't lie, she was a real looker."

"It takes more than just a pretty face to impress me," Mathias answers and although he's smiling, he genuinely means that as well. There's a difference between that initial attraction and wanting to spend more time with someone. Everyone is fascinating in their own way, but too often it turns out to be only on the surface.

It's why he prefers to watch. Standing on the sidelines lessens the chance of disappointment.

"Besides, she would just get herself kidnapped and I, having spent too much time with her, would be a prime suspect," he points out, looking pleased with himself for having reached this conclusion.

Veronica laughed, pleased herself. "Well, then, I'd just have to exonerate you," she said. "It's rarely the prime suspect anyway. That'd just be way too boring." Or maybe that was just life as she'd lived it, not how real mysteries, whatever those were, worked out at all. Second-guessing her skill as a detective wasn't in the plan, though. It was one thing she knew she could do.

They're discussing a fictional crime against Nancy Drew in a cave behind a waterfall and yet Mathias can't remember the last time he's had a more successful or interesting date. He turns his hand up, his knuckles bumping gently against Veronica's palm before he laces his fingers with hers.

"I am too innocent looking as well," he decides, his smile widening. "No one would ever really believe that I could do anything wrong."

"Oh, no," Veronica protested, though she couldn't help smiling, hand pressed to his, "that just makes you more suspicious. The innocent ones usually have something to hide." Everyone had something to hide, but for all her exploits and mishaps, it was starting to seem like there wasn't much she'd have trouble telling him. What he had to hide was a different question, but she couldn't even work up any real suspicion right then, standing up a little straighter, a little nearer.

There's still that hint of teasing there, but Mathias considers what he might have to hide, taking a mental catalogue of things he's already told Veronica and, worse, the things she's already seen. Until Mexico, his life had been relatively normal, if privileged, and she already knows that.

It's hard to think of something he would hide from the woman who has seen him crying over his brother's body.

"I did try to steal a painting from a student art exhibit once," he concedes after a moment, his smile returning. "In my defense, it was very nice and I was only fifteen and a girl asked me to."

"Oh, an art thief," Veronica said, mock-impressed, "with a soft spot for the ladies. You got an early start." It was strange to think of just where she'd been at fifteen - a world away, not just in terms of location, but who she'd been. It was a long way off from now.

She liked now a hell of a lot better. "I... stole a lot of files. That was kind of a specialty. But never art."

"I got into a lot of trouble for it, too," he answers, grinning as he thinks back to it. The girl had denied involvement, his parents had grounded him for a month and he'd been suspended from school for three days. "It was the extent of my criminal activities."

Curiously, he lifts an eyebrow and asks, "What sort of files?"

Veronica shrugged. "School records. Medical records." Mostly she'd stuck to photocopies or had Wallace do it for her, but sometimes the urgency of the moment had required out and out theft. That had just been a matter of necessity. "Case stuff. It would sound so much cooler if I could just say art. Very Cary Grant in How to Steal a Million."

"I don't know," Mathias says, considering this. "Saying you've had to steal medical records for case stuff sounds pretty cool as well. Besides, I just stole a university student's painting. It was nice, but anyone was allowed to hang things in that display as long as they were a student."

"Yeah, but if you just leave it at 'art thief,' no one's the wiser," Veronica pointed out cheerfully. The closest she'd ever come was rearranging art, which really wasn't the same thing at all. In no frame of mind to want to think about Duncan or Abel Koontz, she shrugged and smiled. With an idleness which might have been faked, she lifted her free hand to drape across his shoulder. "And now they let me into nearly all the records. Takes some of the fun out of it."

"So you could look up anything you want to?" Mathias asks, lifting his free hand to the ends of her hair, his fingers tangling gently in the wet strands. "Then I should not have told you of my sordid past as an art thief when you could just find my file and read all about it," he teases, knowing full well there's no such thing in any file that may exist on him.

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