Work Text:
(Carl’s POV)
I rubbed at my tired eyes.
Getting the hang of these crafting mechanics was tedious work, but finally I was seeing results I could be happy with. I checked the new items in my inventory one more time before closing out the screen, satisfied. Donut, Katia, and Mordecai hadn’t returned yet from the Silk Road. I was just thinking about reading a few more pages of the cookbook when a faint noise reached my ears.
It sounded like… singing?
I poked my head out of the craft room to listen more carefully. Definitely singing. But it wasn’t English.
Was that German?
A line I clearly recognized drifted to my ears:
“Von 99 luftballons… Auf ihrem Weg sun Horizont…”
Yup, definitely German.
I crept closer to the main area of our personal space and spotted Juliet, rope in hand with one ear bud in and the other dangling down near her chest. She was whipping the rope around in what looked like a random pattern, but it would come back to her hand with a knot in it. Then she’d undo the knot and start all over again.
Two times.
Three times.
Four.
I’ve seen this kind of maneuver before when I was still in the service—it was called a flying bowline knot. This whole time, she didn’t stumble over a single lyric.
I didn’t even know she spoke German.
Of course, there was probably a lot I didn’t know about Juliet. Not that these facts mattered in any way.
Except, somehow, they did. And that thought was deeply unsettling.
She turned then and our eyes met. In that one brief moment, she looked happier than I’d seen her this entire floor. Totally unburdened. With eyes that sparkled like she was amused by whatever private thought occupied her mind.
In the immediate following moment, I saw those same eyes widen in surprise. That’s when it occurred to me that I had been caught. Not just innocently walking in on her doing something private.
I had been caught actively watching.
When had I leaned up against the doorway? And why couldn’t I, even when her whole face went bright red, bring myself to look away?
I rubbed my hands together, straightened my posture. “You speak German?”
Juliet fiddled with the rope in her hands. “Not really. I took it in high school and learned that song for extra credit.”
A memory from my sophomore year sprang to mind and I shared it without thinking first. “We had to memorize that one Billy Joel song for my American history class.”
Whatever embarrassment I’d inadvertently caused Juliet evaporated in an instant, replaced by a broad grin. I knew that look in her eyes.
I had said too much.
***
“Oh my god, I love this song!” Donut exclaimed the moment she crossed the threshold into our personal space. I snapped my singing off with an audible clacking of teeth, but Juliet continued barreling through the second chorus of We Didn’t Start the Fire unbothered by the interruption.
Donut joined in without missing a beat. I guess leaving the radio on the oldies station had an effect on her.
Katia plopped down on the couch to watch the show. Mordecai, to my horror, was staring at me with his unsettling toad eyes and an expression that clearly read ‘what the actual fuck, man?’
I caught a glimpse of Juliet, smiling broadly, from the corner of my eye. Donut was standing proudly on her shoulders. Even Katia had joined in, but she clearly didn’t know the lyrics as well.
I found myself starting to smile.
I realized then that I simply didn’t care.