And lo, with job prospects non-existent and the promise of uni to arrive in another two months time, the poor and very bored writer picked up her pen (keyboard) and began to write (type).

In other words, I'm going to attempt our well-beloved fanfic100 challenge with Jo/Laurie in order to starve away the emptiness of "I have no job and high school is fin".

Happy New Year everyone and I hope your holidays have been safe and pleasant. Don't fret (if you did, lord knows I obviously haven't) my other unfinished fics are going ahead, I simply need something else to occupy my preoccupied brain. Actually updates should be soon… very soon.

On to the fic ranter!

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Anything recognisable to the glorious fandom is regretfully not mine, but Louisa M. Alcott's. No profit and such is gained.

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Prompt 15: Blue

Rating: K

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In the haze of late summer afternoons, when all there was to do was laze about Jo would consider her future. Writing was always a large part of her hopes and dreams and she knew that her future would be incomplete without it, and so her career was easily settled. But the one thing that troubled her the most was the one thing she would never admit to anyone who walked the same earth as she.

A partner.

In fact, Jo had spent and inordinate amount of time dwelling over what became an issue. How was he to appear? Would he appear? Did she even want him? Would she need someone like that at all? A husband.

It was only when Beth's health became more frail and her circle of friends tightened that his shape took form in her head. He would have to be tall, with broad shoulders and strong muscles. She couldn't have a soft dandy for a husband, undoubtedly the only man about the house. He would have to have dark hair, preferably thick and long enough to cover his ears just slightly, for short, shaven hair was entirely unappealing against a tall figure in a fine suit as Jo had proof in her neighbour's fickle fashions.

But his features – was it too frivolous to consider his nose and mouth? Jo wondered as she rested against the tree whose branches arched over into Laurie's yard.

The boy had popped over that morning with forget-me-nots spilling over his hands as a present for Marmee and Jo had never been so touched as she was when he gave them to her mother, promising with shining eyes that he wouldn't forget them again like he had last month during the mid-term rush of exams.

Was it wrong to hope that the future-man would have eyes the colours of those flowers which now stood proudly in a vase by the front window?

A tall, broad-shouldered, dark-haired new friend stirred up the decisions Jo had made in her mind and she considered the depth of her dream-husband's morals, for his position had been set firmly after many afternoon's deliberations since Laurie began to stare more intently at her when he came by. Would he be versed in philosophies as the professor? Could he play an instrument the way her two dearest friends could? She wasn't sure. She didn't know.

But he had to have those blue eyes, even if the colour made her scowl and want to stay in New York forever.

A niece and nephew were born and the afternoons didn't seem any shorter, even with the presence of new, little and busy life as her younger sister continued to fade against the tartan sofa throw-rug.

Life grew to be a little more precious and so did her ideals.

He would have blue eyes, the same as the ribbon around Demi's head she nodded to herself, smiling briefly at her brother in law as he shuffled by with a babe in his arms, asking about Laurie and his visiting habits before the ridiculously tall boy clamoured into the room upsetting the babies with his loud, deep voice.

Jo spent a few more afternoons wondering when he'd grown up so fast under her watchful gaze. And why his own peepers seemed so much darker than she remembered, curtained as they were around his dark hair which had lengthened under her reprimands.

And why they seemed to be the wrong colour.

When Laurie strode up to Meg's gate with an energetic step and nervous hands but a friendly smile Jo didn't know where the future-man went in her mind and she felt deserted as he took her arm and beamed down at her.

Jo felt all her planning was for nothing as the proposal she was likely to receive only once in her life approached. She felt cheated. Laurie wasn't the man. Certainly he had the height, the stature, the beautiful hair. But the eyes! His were dark, black as night, the colour of Hannah's kettle, or the crow's wing. Not blue like Amy's best dress or the fine ink she bought once and never used.

It wasn't right, Jo decided as they stilled in the grove, half-way home. Without that colour, how could he be the man she had almost willed into being for so many days ends?

Laurie lowered his voice and pleaded with her until Jo sat patiently. It was when she turned to the posting beside her as Laurie begun to have his say that she found the blue. Wild forget-me-nots grew by the stump, standing proudly amongst the tall grasses that grew around them, their colour stubborn and unyielding on the wood's floor.

It was right, in fact it was perfect.

But why then, Jo mulled afternoons later, couldn't she say yes when she turned to face Laurie, whose dark eyes waited for her answer?