Behind Marmee's chair

"Hello there."

Jo jumped a little at the intrusion, quite sure she would've been left alone awhile in her cove behind Marmee's chair.

She glanced up to see Laurie's brown eyes, deep and large like doe's eyes, looking warmly down at her over the top of the cracked headrest. There was one lock falling carelessly over his right eyebrow, lending him a boyish, carefree look which made Jo's already warm and fuzzy heart melt a little further.

Jo mentally beat herself up. It's a darn lock of hair. Everybody has hair!

Calmly, and quite collectedly, she replied, "Hi."

Laurie's eyebrow twitched a little.

Alright, maybe not that calm and collected.

She returned the smile, and Laurie's face went back to normal.

All the way from the kitchen, the entire household heard with immense clarity and brevity, "Ma'am, he took my cap, that boy; he snatched it right off this head here, and crumpled it ball-like, yes he did!"

Jo's eyes met with Laurie's in an instant and he snorted with laughter, before clambering over the armrest. He shoved Jo further in to the corner behind the chair, and with some measure of difficulty, folded his legs like a garden chair, and deposited himself beside Jo, who started breathing a little hard.

I don't know what IS wrong with me. Sitting behind Marmee's chair with him like this and I'm getting all flustered. Really, Josephine March, I don't know what's coming over you.

But Josephine March did know what was coming over her, only refused to closely look at it, quite quite sure it would frighten the wits out of her.

"Hide, hide!" Laurie muttered, still holding in laughter as he sat down, the whole of their lengths pressed up against each other side by side in the shadowy corner.

Jo forgot everything at the feel of Laurie next to her, and her mind went rather blank for a moment.

"Jo?"

Oh, golly. I've done it now. Look at her, upset as anything. Her face is all…queer.

He dropped a browned scrap in to Jo's lap.

Jo snapped to it, picking it up, and scrutinized it.

"What is this, exactly?"

"Uh…Hannah's cap."

"I thought so."

Silence.

"Laurie, boy, I'm not letting you asneak off round no back door with my only cap. If you thinks you gettin' away with this, you is most most wrong. Laurie!" Then hissing to herself in defeat, "Bah," Hannah returned to the kitchen, her domain, where she comforted herself by scrubbing pans with renewed vigour.

Jo smacked Laurie on the shoulder.

"Really. I ought to turn you in. Look how you've exasperated her."

"Only a bit of fun, eh? Let the college boy have his pranks if he's not allowed to play them in school." Laurie's eyes twinkled.

Laurie's eyes always twinkled, but at close range, they rather dazzled Jo, who didn't dare to say anything for fear it would come out intelligible and only serve to embarrass her. She settled for smacking Laurie again, before solidly stamping out all the little voices piping in the back of her head, warning her against twinkling eyes and brown curls, and settling herself comfortably against his shoulder.

"Good dinner?"

Couldn't be other wise with you there.

"Very satisfactory, thanks."

"Thanks? What do you mean, thanks? I say, take it back. You and your grandfather were the ones behind the entire orchestration. Marmee's never bought ice-cream and sausage together in her entire life. Crazily expensive."

"I live to please."

Pause, in which Laurie's fingers moved restlessly, wanting to creep over Jo's lap and pick up the hand there, which was tracing the faded little flower patterns there.

"You enjoyed it then?"

Jo heaved a sigh. "I'm so full, I feel like I've eaten enough to last a week. It was a gorgeous dinner, Teddy. Totally extravagant, but absolutely gorgeous."

"Glad you liked it. I'll have you know I drew up the menu and sent it over by post from college so grandfather could get things ready."

"You didn't!"

Soft laughter. "Alright, maybe I didn't, but I certainly did some things. I did have some thing to do with the menu, certainly."

"It was quite possibly the …biggest dinner I've ever had the pleasure of consuming. I mean, turkey on a day not Thanksgiving?"

Groans from Laurie. "Alright, alright. I know you don't care too much for turkey, but I like it. Hannah did a bang up job on it."

Another pause, in which Jo determinedly clamped her fingers into fists, bunching up her skirt, so they wouldn't do something stupid. Finger combing somebody's hair, for instance.

Shadows suited Jo as well as dappled sunlight, and her skin was the other feature which was praise worthy, apart from her luxurious hair, which had grown considerably since the notorious hair cut. It hung down in thick, glossy waves of chestnut, over the chest which Jo always privately moaned over, so discreet and modest was it.

Jo had actually grown up some, and wore her hair up most of the time, which hardly suited Laurie, but for today she'd let it down, and it tumbled over her shoulders, which were admittedly more shoulder blade than flesh.

Her skin looks soft. It always looks soft, but now it looks…soft soft. Soft. I wonder if she'd flinch if I touched her. Just put my palm against her cheek.

Jo was fixedly staring at her boot laces, quite certain Laurie was glaring at her profile.

Columbus, Laurie's turning funny.

Laurie was rudely interrupted in his sentimental observation of the smooth length of Jo's neck by a little voice.

"I spy a Laurie!"

Without waiting for invitation, Demi pushed his way in to the little corner, quite roughly tumbling over Laurie's middle, exerting an "oof!" out of the young man as tiny knee sank in to full stomach.

"Aunty Jo, I wants to sit on your lap."

There wasn't very much space, but they made some.

They were all quiet for a short while, as Demi squirmed in his aunty's lap, trying in vain to find a comfortable position in a lap that was possibly the worst place for a toddler to cuddle in, so sharp angled and bone jutting it was.

"Aunty Jo. You need to eat more."

He settled down at last, Laurie laughing silently at Demi's comment, which made Jo flush, all too aware of her thin frame.

Laurie tried to snuggle a little closer, but Jo caught on at once, and shoved him with her shoulder. "Teddy! We're in this God-forsaken corner with about four inches square of floor to share; I have this little pudding on my lap and you want to come closer? Away!"

"I think he's more peas than pudding. I'll take him, if you prefer. Gosh, is the little fellow asleep already?"

Jo glanced down at the curled up fellow, sooty lashes laid dark against flushed cheeks, gravy and cranberry stains and other unidentifiable grease marks on his front.

"He cavorts like a little goat, then falls asleep all over the place; won't wake at all, not if the house burns down around him."

"He sounds like me. I say, when are you going to open your presents? I'm dying to see what Grandfather got you; the package is most queer, and it weighs bricks. Been poking at it all day, and I still can't figure out for the life of me what it is." Laurie fingered Demi's sleeve, and immediately withdrew it, finger pulling a thin thread of goo with it, face twisting in distaste.

"My presents, not yours. I saw that bundle, the red one with the shiny ribbon. I daren't think what he got me, he lavishes such awful amounts of money on us, Beth especially. No, no, I don't begrudge Beth a thing, only every time he gives us something, I feel an inane urge to give something back. Something other then burnt cakes and knitted scarves. All of which he doesn't need."

Laurie's feet tapped a little rhythm on the floor, and his brows scrunched up, an endearing motion which always made Jo admire the 'benevolent brow', the 'artist's brow'.

"Nonsense, he loves them. I assure you, he eats every last one of those burnt offerings. Won't let me eat them, either."

Jo's face warmed, pleased.

"He might choke on them one day. The last batch was ridiculously hard. He bought me this new ink, this delightful shade of green. Really, I've never seen such ink. I was going to make bread, but even that's too hard for poor me. So in went the cookie dough, and out came those little pellet-missile-things. But he knew I was baking something, and came over to fetch them himself, and I hadn't any choice but to let him see. He ended up taking the whole tray away with him. I'd have thrown them away otherwise; they aren't fit to used as anything but cobblestones."

Laurie laughed, then tried to stretch. Bones were audibly heard clanking, and they groaned simultaneously.

"Let's get out of here. Hannah will have forgotten all about it by now."

"I'll be darned if she does. Here." And Laurie slyly tucked it down Demi's shirt, which resembled a rag cloth more than a shirt.

With difficulty, the three tumbled out of the corner, Demi snoring peacefully, sleepy bliss apparent on his face throughout the episode, in which Jo, clumsy to a fault, somehow trod heavily on Laurie's finger and Laurie's shoe came off.

Amy spotted them at once, emerging from the dark hole, and zoomed in on them.

"Jo March, I don't care to ask what you two were doing in there-" at which both Jo and Laurie coloured slightly, Laurie only wishing they'd been doing something that would justify the slight rose spreading on Jo's cheek, - " but we want to open presents now." At Jo's bemused face, Amy added hurriedly, "Your presents, sister."

Jo carefully laid Demi down on the couch, where he rolled over Jangles, who tried to meow but squeaked instead, as Demi neatly flattened him down, before disappearing under fat cushions in the far corner of the sofa.

Linking arms through Amy's and the other through Laurie's, Jo allowed herself to be led to the kitchen, where many joyful faces awaited her.

I know this entire chapter was nothing more than a filler, which doesn't have a thing to do with the plot, only I like playing around with Jo and Laurie so much, so forgive my weakness and pray I manage to move on.

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