I haven't taken a break from writing Spring Awakening, I SWEAR! It's just that I lost this document before so I had to retype it :( Still a children fic since it's so fun to write. This takes place about a week after Through the Darkness Comes the Laughter ends and definetely before Until She Smiles (if you haven't read those stories, I recommend it...but maybe in order, so TTDCTL, then this then Until She Smiles). The girls are ten and the boys are eleven and I just made up the mothers' names. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it! There's a lot of Wendla/Melchior and, of course, Moritz/Ilse. Brownie points for anyone who spots foreshadowing and references!
Disclaimer: ...witty disclaimer, witty disclaimer, witty disclaimer...I can't think of a witty or clever disclaimer so I'll just stick with the traditional one. I don't own Spring Awakening!
"But Mama!" ten year old Wendla pleaded as her mother tried to push her and her three friends out the door.
"No buts Wendla! You know that we have our weekly tea today!" said Frau Bergmann as she looked back towards the living room where Frau Stiefel, Frau Gabor and Frau Neumann were sitting. The four mothers, who were all good friends, would meet every Thursday for their 'weekly tea' at Frau Gabor's house and, every Thursday, they would alternate who had to get Wendla, Melchior, Moritz and Ilse out of the house. This week was Frau Bergmann's turn.
"Can't we just stay in Melchi's room?" eleven year old Moritz asked. "We promise we'll be quiet!"
"No, no! Don't you kids like to play pirates?" Frau Bergmann asked. "Then go play! Have fun!"
"But it was raining yesterday and the ground is all muddy!" cried Ilse, wearing her new sky blue stockings. "I don't want to get my pretty stockings wet and dirty!" she said as she smiled at Moritz, who was starting to turn red.
"Then go do something else! Go down to the bridge!" cried Frau Bergmann, frustrated that the kids didn't want to leave.
"Really? The bridge?" asked Melchior, always the rebel. His ears perked up at the 'forbidden' place that they weren't allowed to go to.
"NO! No, no, no, not the bridge, my mistake!" said Wendla's mother, realizing the mistake she just made. "You can go anywhere else, just not there and not in the house!"
"I don't get it Mama! Why not in the house? We promise we won't leave Melchi's room and we'll be quiet! Why can't we stay inside?" asked Wendla.
By now, Frau Bergmann had managed to push the children out of the house. "Because...because you'll disturb the cat!" she cried and slammed the door, laughter emerging from inside the house.
"You don't have a cat, do you?" Wendla asked Melchior.
"Nope," Melchior shrugged and sat down on the grass outside his house.
"I don't get it!" cried Ilse. "Why do we always have to leave? We were just about to make new swords for everyone for our next game of pirates! Georg said he wanted to have music notes on his and Thea said she wanted hearts."
"I don't know," said Melchior. "Mama doesn't like to have any children in the house when they have their weekly tea. She said that it would distract them."
"But why? We can be quiet," said Moritz as he sat down beside Melchior.
"Mothers...don't bother to tell us the truth," muttered Wendla as she paced the front yard, trying to think of something to do.
Ilse sighed and sat against the front door, trying to think of something fun when she heard laughter through the doors, and quietly heard one of the mothers say "Melchior" and after a while another say "Wendla."
"Do you know you can kind of hear what they're saying? Apparently they're not very quiet," said Ilse, pressing her ear against the door as another fit of laughter came from inside the house.
"Really?" said Melchior as he ran to press his ear against the door and Ilse shrugged, sad she couldn't hear much else. "Cool, I always wondered what they talked about."
"Melchi, are you sure you should be doing that?" asked Moritz, a little anxious to hear what they were talking about.
"Why not?" he said, struggling to hear more of what they were saying. All of a sudden, an idea came to him. He ran to the side of the house to where the window of the living room was and pressed his ear against the side of the house.
All three children ran to where he was. "Melchi, what are you doing?" asked Wendla.
"You said we needed something to do today, right? Well, why don't we listen in on their conversations?" said Melchior, feeling slightly mischievous.
"Melchi, we can't do that!" said Wendla.
"Why not? It's not like we have anything else to do today. Besides, haven't you always wondered what they talk about?" asked Melchior.
"I have!" cried Ilse and ran to where Melchior was, pressing her ear against the house.
"But what if we get caught?" asked Moritz, slowly walking to where Melchior and Ilse were.
"I haven't thought of that yet..." Melchior trailed off. "But I'll think of something," he said as Moritz shrugged and joined them.
"Come on, Wendla!" said Melchior. "I think I heard them say your name!"
"Really?" Wendla asked, curious. "Well, maybe this will be fun!" she said as she ran to stand and listen beside Melchior.
"Ilse, Moritz, go on the other side of the window," said Melchior, grateful the curtains were closed. "Wendla and I will stay on this side."
"Will they see us?" Ilse asked as her and Moritz crept to stand under a tree right beside the house.
"No. You're standing under the tree with the low branches. The leaves will cover you," said Melchior as he and Wendla went to stand behind the bush so they wouldn't be seen. All four of them pressed their ears against the side of the house, Wendla and Moritz sitting, Melchior and Ilse standing. Another fit of laughter came from inside the house.
"They laugh a lot, don't they?" said Moritz, struggling to hear more.
"Liesl, your daughter has the cutest blue stockings. Where did she get them from?" the children heard Frau Bergmann ask.
"They're sky blue stockings, technically, and she got them from Moritz," Frau Neumann answered, patting Frau Stiefel's knee. " Aren't the two of them adorable?" she asked, unaware both Ilse and Moritz were both blushing and awkwardly not looking at each other as Wendla and Melchior were quietly giggling.
"Not as adorable as Wendla and Melchior!" said Frau Gabor. "Don't you see the way they act around each other? It's like I can picture the wedding bells!" she continued as the mothers laughed. Wendla and Melchior turned tomato red and Ilse and Moritz were laughing, trying to be quiet.
"You're the one who wanted to hear what they talk about!" whispered Ilse to them as Moritz gave her a high five.
"Now, now, ladies settle down. When did we start discussing weddings? I wanted to participate in that talk!" said Frau Gabor. "Melchior hasn't got a good suit," she said jokingly.
"Mama..." Melchior muttered to himself, upset at all this wedding stuff, as was Wendla who had her face in her hands.
"Oh, please, it goes without saying. How long have we been saying that our children are going to get together?" asked Frau Neumann. "It's almost as if we don't even need to push them together. They're doing it themselves!"
"You know what the whisper is?" said Frau Bergmann as the others leaned in, as did the four children outside. "They all like each other!" she said happily as the mothers and the children outside gasped. "Why else would Moritz buy Ilse those darling little stockings and Ilse spend the evening with Moritz?"
"What?" Frau Neumann asked, apparently not aware of that last little detail.
"Oh...oops. Sorry, Liesl, I thought you knew," Frau Bergmann admitted, but continued. "And anyways, my little Wendla seems to love spending time with Melchior, and they're always...with each other. Always partners. I bet you right now, the two of them are together, still with Moritz and Ilse, but partners of some sort," she said, not knowing that it was completely true. Wendla and Melchior both had their head in their hands, completely embarased.
"You can't possibly know that," said Frau Stiefel.
"I don't need to. That's how it always is!" Frau Bergmann defended.
"Oh!" Frau Gabor suddenly gasped. "We should have a double wedding. Do you know how marvelous that would be?" she said as the mothers started to giggle.
"What!" all four children said together, furious that their mothers were practically planning out their entire futures. Their mothers didn't hear, though. They started rambling on about wedding essentials so fast that the children couldn't figure out what they were saying. Wendla, Melchior, Moritz and Ilse didn't focus too much on it, considering they were all embarassed at what their mothers were saying.
"Oh, now, I think it's a little too soon to be talking about weddings just yet!" said Frau Stiefel, breaking up the commotion. "They're much too young...give it a couple of years!" she said laughing.
"To our children!" Frau Neumann toasted.
"Our children!" the other mothers toasted, raising their teacups in the air and clinking them together, laughing.
"Why do they laugh so much?" Wendla quietly wondered out loud. The rest of them shrugged.
"Why do they insist on planning out our futures?" Moritz asked, all of them shuddering at the thought of it.
"Oh, I look forward to these weekly teas every week, don't you?" said Frau Bergmann.
"Yes, it's almost an escape!" said Frau Gabor.
"No putting up with the children or our husbands..." Frau Neumann trailed off.
"Why do they say that like it's a hassle?" Ilse wondered.
"We should really have more 'girls days,' shouldn't we?" said Frau Stiefel. "I don't know about you, but once a week simply isn't enough!"
"No, you really shouldn't," said Melchior. "It's more than enough!"
"Is this really what they talk about every week?" Wendla asked.
"Us?" said Moritz.
"Yeah, and..." Wendla started. "Weddings," she shuddered.
"Fanny," Frau Bergmann asked Frau Gabor. "Do you mind if we open the curtains? It's such a beautiful day out and this way we have sunlight."
"Oh, absolutely!" Frau Gabor said as she stood up to open the curtains. "I'm actually surprised I didn't think of doing that before." All four children gasped and attempted to flatten themselves against the side of the house so they wouldn't be seen as they heard the curtains open.
"Isn't it a lovely day today?" Frau Stiefel commented as she walked up to stand beside Frau Gabor.
"Yes, beautiful, isn't it?" Frau Neumann said.
"Hmm..." Frau Gabor trailed off. "Do you ladies think it's time to trim the plants again? I mean the bushes are starting to look a little messy. Who knows what little animals could have gotten in there!" she said as Melchior and Wendla crouched to the ground, still hoping they wouldn't be seen, that is until Wendla found a bug on her dress.
"Ew, get it off!" she said and tried to swat it away as Melchior shushed her and covered her mouth with his hand. "They'll hear us," he whispered as she nodded and took his hand off of her.
"And that tree..." Frau Gabor continued. "I thought it was a little random to have in our yard..."
"Why?" Frau Bergmann asked. "Lots of yards have trees in them."
"Oh, I know. It's just that I think it would be better if we had a nicer tree. I mean this one has ridiculously low branches, I don't know how that happened. I've been trying to get my husband to chop it down."
"I think it's fine. I mean-" Frau Stiefel started to say until something caught her eye. "Who's that I see out there?" she asked. The children quietly gasped and tried more than ever to stay hidden. By now, all four of them crouched on the ground, trying their absolute best to remain hidden. They heard the rest of the mothers go to the window, desperately praying that they wouldn't see them.
"I believe that's..." Frau Neumann trailed off, trying to figure out who it was they saw. "Thea and Anna." The children sighed, glad they weren't discovered. "I wonder what they're doing..." Frau Neumann trailed off as they all sat back down on the couches and chairs. The four children outside the window sighed with relief when they heard the adults go back.
"So as I was saying before-" Frau Bergmann said before she was cut off by a knock at the door.
"I wonder who that could be," Frau Gabor said as she went to answer the door while the other mothers waited.
"Oh. Why hello Thea, hello Anna," she said, opening the door to reveal two girls.
"Thea and Anna?" Ilse quietly asked, wondering what the two girls were doing.
"Oh, hello Frau Gabor," they heard Anna say. "We were wondering if Melchior, Wendla, Ilse or Moritz were here."
"They said they were going to make some new swords!" Thea said excitedly. "Are they here?"
"Oh sorry, girls, but they're not here," Frau Gabor said as the mothers in the living room started to laugh, though the children couldn't quite hear what they said.
"Again with the laughing?" Ilse whispered.
"We're having our weekly tea and the children usually go somewhere else," Frau Gabor continued.
"Oh," Anna said, Thea looking a little sad. "Well, do you know where they are?"
"Sorry, girls, I'm afraid not."
"Okay," Thea said. "Anna, let's check by the river!" she said as Anna nodded.
"Bye!" they said together and ran off.
"Goodbye girls," Frau Gabor said as she closed the door. It wasn't until she entered the room of laughing mothers that she realized something.
"Uh, ladies..." she started. The other three turned to look at her. "We don't know where our children are."
"Of course we do. They're off playing somewhere," Frau Neumann said, sipping her tea.
"Wow..." Ilse said, rolling her eyes.
"They don't even know where we are," Wendla realized.
"No, no ladies, you don't understand," Frau Gabor continued. "We. Don't. Know. Where. Our. Children. Are." she said again, annunciating every word so that they would get it.
The children were a little shocked when there was silence for a few seconds. About five seconds after Frau Gabor stopped speaking, they heard the other three gasp in unison.
"Yeah, now they get it..." Melchior said.
"We don't know where our children are!" Frau Bergmann said frantically.
"That's what I just said!" Frau Gabor replied, starting to put the dishes away.
"What if they went out to the city?" Frau Stiefel said, her voice full of panic.
"Or wandered off with those horrid artists in Pria...pri..." Frau Neumann said, the name escaping her for a minute.
"Priapia!" Frau Gabor said running in from the kitchen.
"Real smart, Mama," Ilse said as her and the other children heard the mothers frantically moving around the living room.
"I'm guessing they're..." Moritz said. "Pacing?"
"You'd think they would get it sooner, right?" Melchior said.
"No!" they heard Frau Bergmann suddenly yell. "What if they..." she trailed off.
"What?" the other three said.
"What if they went to the bridge?" Frau Bergmann responded, her voice filled with panic and terror.
"NO!" all the mothers yelled together.
"We have to find them!" Frau Gabor yelled to the others and ran out the door, the other mothers following. The children discreetly watched as their mothers ran around the street, trying to figure out where their children ran off.
"Melchior! Where are you?"
"Wendla! Has anybody seen my Wendla?"
"Moritz! Is Moritz anywhere?"
"Ilse! Don't hide from me! Where are you?"
Eventually, the four mothers finally decided to split up to find their children once they decided that they weren't anywhere around the block. Wendla, Melchior, Ilse and Moritz all watched as their mothers ran off in different directions, asking anyone if they had seen their children. When they were out of sight, Wendla, Melchior, Ilse and Moritz came out from their hiding places to stand beside one another.
"So..." Wendla started. "What do we do now?" The rest of them shrugged.
"Should we go after them?" Ilse wondered.
"Let them worry for a bit," Melchior said as he leaned against the house. The others nodded, finding this answer to be perfectly acceptable.
"What should we tell them?" Moritz asked. "I mean when they finally find us?"
"Hmmm..." Ilse said, trying to think of something. "We were at somebody else's house?" she suggested.
"Nah, they're probably going to check with other people," Wendla said. "We went to the town square?"
Moritz shook his head. "They'd go check there, too. What do you think, Melchi?"
"Honestly..." Melchior started. "I think our mothers looked ridiculous running around like that!" he said laughing. Wendla, Moritz and Ilse joined in.
"They looked really weird, didn't they?" Wendla said, laughing.
"Oh!" Ilse said, interrupting the laughter. "Our wigwam!"
"What?" Moritz asked.
"Come on, Moritz!" Ilse insisted. "Our wigwam! We can say we were playing there! I don't know about you, but my Mama usually forgets that's where I go most of the time!"
"Right!" Melchior said. "I don't even know if my Mama knows about our wigwam."
"Really?" Moritz said. "We play there all the time!"
"You and Ilse play there," Wendla said. "When we play pirates, Melchior and I have a special tree where we hide."
"Wendla!" Melchior said. "You just told them about it!"
"Oh," she said, realizing her mistake. "Oops. Sorry, Melchi!"
"It's okay," he said, putting his arm around her shoulder.
"Ew," Ilse said. "Get a room you two," she said teasingly, giving Moritz a high five.
"You know, now that I think about it..." Moritz started to say. "I think our Mamas were, well, right."
"About what?" Wendla said, clearly not bothered by Melchior's arm still around her shoulder.
"About us," Moritz said. "I mean planning weddings is just way too much, but...do you get what I mean?" he said, looking straight at Wendla and Melchior.
"Ew!" Wendla said, shrugging Melchior's arm off her shoulder. "But that's just...icky."
"You did not just call me icky," Melchior said.
"Not that, but..." Wendla started to say. "Ew."
"Well, we're gonna have to prove them wrong, right guys?" Ilse said.
"Right!" the other three responded.
"Good!" Ilse said. "Now there's just one last thing that needs to be said."
"What?" Wendla, Melchior and Moritz said together.
"Last one to the wigwam has to tell our Mamas where we were!" Ilse shouted as she started running.
"And has to hold hands with Hanschen!" said Wendla as she and the boys started running.
"But we're boys!" Moritz said.
"Exactly!" said Wendla, gaining a lead on Ilse.
"Gross!" Melchior said, him and Moritz tied.
"Come on!" Ilse shouted to the others. The four of them ran only like children can, not a worry in their carefree minds.
I will bake cookies for anyone who reviews! :D