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[sunbaked_baker]

It is winter in New Arcadia, and Rae doesn't approve. She approves even less of curfews that require everyone under sixteen to be home by sundown, especially when sundown in just two hours after school ends.

So that might be why there is a ten-year-old girl stretched out on one of the big boulders by the lake, soaking in the summer sun as she reads terrible tales about vampires and demons.

Comments

[street_sparrow]

"Well, somebody's looking happier today", Gavroche says, stopping by her rock with a smile.

[sunbaked_baker]

The girl looks up at him, questioning - it takes her a moment to place where she had seen him before. Her replying smile has a kind of sheepish. "Yeah. It's... a much better day."

[street_sparrow]

"I'd be really worried if it was any worse", he says lightly. "Mind if I come up?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Sure," she replies, scooting to make room for him on the boulder. "It's nice up here."

Just about as far from winter as one can get.

[street_sparrow]

He climbs up easily and settles on a flattened surface.

"It really is. Catches the sun really well."

[sunbaked_baker]

"That's the idea," Rae smiles. "It's winter back home. Too cold and grey and dark to spend any time outside, so this is perfect."

[street_sparrow]

"Where's home?" he asks curiously. "I don't think you said, before."

[sunbaked_baker]

"New Arcadia's my city," she says, proud of her backwater city even if it's not one of the big, important places. "What about you?"

[street_sparrow]

"London Below", Gavroche tells her with palpable pride of his own, both for that and when he adds, "But I was born in Paris."

[sunbaked_baker]

"London below what?" she asks, but then she beams. "Oooh, Paris. I've seen pictures, but I've never been. It looks so pretty."

All the art! And architecture! And food!

[street_sparrow]

"Below, and above and around, the London everybody knows about. It's magic, you can only see it and its people if you already know they're there." He beams back. "Paris is the best city in the world."

[sunbaked_baker]

"If you can only see it if you already know it's there, how do you find out about it?" Rae asks, fascinated. Then she grins. "Like this, then, huh? By meeting someone from there?"

[street_sparrow]

"Basically, yes", Gavroche confirms. "My adopted father met a woman from there, here, and married her, and now we live with her there. Sometimes people from the normal world it's part of can get there, if they drop out of the normal world in the right circumstances."

[cook_the_rude]

There is a man Rae has met before nearby, relaxing in the sun with a bottle of beer.

[sunbaked_baker]

The lake isn't icy today; it's probably quite pleasant, if you like swimming. But Rae is more the relaxing-in-the-sun type, too.

She waves at the man, though she can't remember if she ever got his name...

[cook_the_rude]

"Good afternoon, Rae," he calls from where he is sitting, which isn't far enough away for him to shout in order to do so.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Hello!" she replies, with a smile. "How are you, today?"

[cook_the_rude]

"Warm and sunny, thank you," he says. "I must be careful I don't tan too much. It's winter at home."

[sunbaked_baker]

"It's winter back home for me, too," she nods, well understanding the desire to be outside when it's pleasant and warm in Milliways and bitterly cold in one's own world. "Lot nicer here, even without summer ice-skating parties going on."

[cook_the_rude]

"That was an odd event," he agrees. "I hear there are lake parties in winter sometimes as well."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I haven't been to one of those, but I bet they'd be fun. There could be a bonfire and s'mores and things. Probably swimming in the lake that's been magically warmed up."

To fit with the ice-skating parties in summer.

[cook_the_rude]

"I think that is how they work," he says. "Anti-cyclically."

[sunbaked_baker]

"To give people a break from whatever season they're currently in," she grins. "That's what we're both doing right now, right?"

Down with winter! Boooooo.

[cook_the_rude]

"Just so," he says, smiling. "Spring flowers in a cold and wet autumn would work as well."

[sunbaked_baker]

"It'd be a nice reminder that things always come back around again, even if the days are currently getting shorter and colder."

The sun will always come back. That's what it does.