ladynorbert | I've never done this before

clez,

sethoz, aren't you proud of me? ;)

Title: A River Runs Through It
Fandom: 'LXG: The EQniverse' - RPG
Genre: General/Romance
Character/Pairing: Tom Sawyer/Elizabeth Quatermain
Rating: G
Notes: Written for this week's

quote_ficlets quote. I think most everyone knows by now that Elizabeth belongs to me. Tom is played on the board by

clez. The story is based on the planned second mission for the game.

It was, Elizabeth reflected, not the sort of activity that she would have ever thought particularly entertaining. She had no real objection to sitting on a log on the riverbank; the scene was picturesque and, having been raised to know the herbalist's craft, she never minded getting dirty. No, the part that she never would have imagined herself doing was impaling a perfectly innocent worm on a barbed hook for the purposes of catching a fish.

Then again, it was surprising -- even slightly alarming -- how easily she could be persuaded to do almost anything...provided the person doing the persuading was over six feet tall, green-eyed, and possessing the messiest blond hair she had ever seen.

"I'm really not certain I feel comfortable with this, Tom."

It was a loaded statement, and perhaps he knew it. The duo had come to his old "stomping grounds," as he called them -- St. Petersburg, Missouri. They were preceding the rest of the League by a good two weeks. Tom had been alerted by his cousin Mary that strange events were happening near town, and the League had agreed to help him investigate the situation. To avoid attracting too much attention, however, he had gone ahead of the rest of the group on reconaissance. He had asked Elizabeth to accompany him, since no one in their right mind would ever think she might pose any sort of threat; more than that, they were devoted friends and he had promised to show her his birthplace.

Their relationship was shifting, however, and had been ever since...hmm. Ever since the day he promised to show her St. Petersburg, she realized. She had taken him to a formal London party, and things seemed to have changed between them that day. She knew, after a great deal of contemplation, what had happened on her end of the matter, and it brought terror to her heart because she was fairly certain that it couldn't possibly be mutual. Compounding the issue, Tom's return to St. Petersburg had reunited him with his former sweetheart, Becky Thatcher Phillips, and Elizabeth somehow suspected that neither Tom nor Becky had quite moved on from their previous attachment. So when she said she wasn't sure she was comfortable, she was not just referring to the slaughter of worms.

"It's not that hard," he insisted gently, favoring Elizabeth with the particularly lopsided grin that she sometimes thought, or more likely hoped, he saved just for her. "But -- here, I'll do it." He baited her hook deftly. "Now...c'mon, stand here." He helped her to stand and move closer to the edge of the water. "Used to fish here with Huck...but I won't ask you to wade out like he used to." Green eyes twinkled.

"I'm happy to hear that," she returned dryly, but she smiled. "What do I do?"

After a few minutes' demonstration, she had the general idea. Once she was settled into a routine, Tom smiled and cast his own line. They stood there in companionable silence for some little time, until Tom's line suddenly jerked taut.

"Ha! Got one!"

Elizabeth neglected her own line, so interested was she in watching Tom draw in his catch. He held the small fish up by its tail while he disengaged the hook; after a brief scrutiny, he tossed it back into the Mississippi and it swam away.

"Too little," he said in response to her querying look. "There's always a bigger fish."

"Is there?" she wanted to know. "I mean...what if...what if you threw away the best catch you could have made?"

He frowned thoughtfully at that. "Well, when you've caught what you're really after, then you don't let go."

She opened her mouth to reply, but her line, which she had been ignoring all the while, suddenly received a splendid jerk from something at the other end. She tried to tighten her grip on the pole, but all she succeeded in doing was losing her balance and crashing face-first into the water.

"Elizabeth!" Tom caught her about the waist and settled her on her feet again. She was drenched, and humiliated, and couldn't quite look at him. "Hey...hey, you okay? Let me see...you all right?"

"I'm fine," she muttered quietly. She let him guide her back to the log where she had been sitting. His long duster lay discarded nearby, and he picked it up and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Sorry," she added. "I...I should have been paying attention."

"Aw, it's okay," he assured her. "Long as you're not hurt, that's all that matters."

She chuckled suddenly. "Not going to throw me back and hope for a bigger one?" she teased.

He laughed too, shaking his head. "You know how I said there's always a bigger fish?"

"Yes?"

"Well...not always."

The quote was "There's always a bigger fish."