Snowed in [For Henri]

[adifferentlife]

Two days and Sybil is more than tired of this place. She had packed enough clothes to last the three days they would be there, but being snowed in meant that she had loaned out much of it to friends. The suite that had seemed so large their first night now seemed cramped, even more than her training quarters had. That morning Rene had returned rather racously, and now Sybil sought silence in the bedroom. She also needed something to wear, her simple day dress tired and worn after a full 36 hours.

Her own bag was empty other than something she had hoped to wear for Henri on a more romantic night. That night had never come to pass, and now she found herself forced to go to his bag in the hope of a shirt or something that she could slip on and still be decent in the outer rooms. She pulled a button down shirt out of the bag, pleased at the size, and thinking it would do well over a pair of tights. It was only when she went to hold it up against her that she saw the box that had tumbled out of his bag.

Tempting, she can't help but crouch to pick it up. Pandora's box, perhaps, yet she opened it anyway. What she saw inside surprised her, the brightness of the diamonds both unexpected and welcome. Had he meant to propose? She stood, still in her day dress, staring at it, unable to do anything else.

Comments

[jaimemieux]

Combeferre’s new year’s day plans, carefully constructed over the last few weeks, had fallen to pieces as the snow piled up outside. These first few days of the new year had brought not the romance and hope he had expected - that both he and Sybil had expected, if not in entirely the same way - but instead makeshift meals by a harried but helpful staff, and trapped friends piling into their rooms, and worry over how long they would be trapped. In fact, Henri and Sybil had found barely a few minutes alone, hardly enough time for a proposal. Or the right circumstances for one.

Most of the trapped guests and staff are in the ballroom, and Combeferre, too, takes the opportunity to slip away, not realizing in the general commotion of so many people in so small a place that Sybil has done the same. He could do with a nap, perhaps a shower, while the rooms that were meant to be theirs alone are blessedly unoccupied.

But when he returns the key and nudges open the door, he is startled by what greets him. There is Sybil, standing near their pile of luggage, and in her hand sits a small and terribly familiar box.

He swallows, and carefully shuts the door behind him.