Of New Beginnings - Anne with an E Fanfic

An Idea- Anne

Cole and Mi'inan stumbled through the door two full hours after lunch, soaking wet, boots covered in snow and mud, dripping all over the carpet, and laughing.

   The housekeepers shooed them up to their rooms to change out of their soiled clothes before muddying the entire house, and the wheels in Anne's mind began spinning from where she watched in the kitchen as soon as they had retreated up the stairs.

   She had rarely seen Cole laugh like that, much less with someone who he had just met.  Moreover, they had come through the door dripping wet, when it had only been yesterday that Cole had refused to go on a walk to town with her as to not spoil the hems of his new trousers in the snow.  It was freezing outside, and they were both soaked.

   Judging by the look of shock and confusion on Gilbert's face at the state that Mi'inan  walked through the door in, she gathered that much of the same was true for him.

   And so she came to the conclusion that really, any fool with two eyes and a working brain would have come to.

   Something was going on between those two.

   Something important.

   Something big.

   For someone as careful as Cole to be so carefree, for someone as cautious as Mi'inan to be so unreserved, there could be no other answer.

   Anne abandoned kitchen duty as she walked up to her room to think over the situation.

   Knowing what she knew about Cole, meaning that he was "homosexual", (Anne had never liked the word "homosexual".  It was too flat, too technical.  It needed to be happier, gayer, more imaginative.  That's something for her to work on), and having seen, and commented on, how pretty Mi'inan was, the possibility of feelings going beyond friendship, at least on Cole's part, was very large.  And, she had noticed the way he had studied Mi'inan's face when they were sketching on that window seat.  It went beyond what an artist does for their subject.  Yes, Anne was quite positive that Cole would need very little meddling, if any, to end up infatuated with Mi'inan.

   The sticky business came when she thought about what to do with Mi'inan.  The boy was a mystery.  Gilbert had known him longer than anyone here, for more then a month.  From what she'd heard, they had been inseparable, and even he couldn't interpret many of his looks or remarks, even with simple things.

   So, how to figure out wether or not he was like Cole?

   If he is, she thought, he wouldn't want to tell me, or anyone for that matter.  It's much to important and delicate a situation for him to disclose so easily.  And besides, even if I could force him into telling me, I wouldn't.

   So, how to get him to tell me without actually telling me? 

   Hmmmm...

   She walked down the hallway and to her room, her pace a steady metronome for the racing beat of her thoughts.

   If not through his words, then...

   Through his actions!

   She had finally reached her room, and was pacing the floor, tapping her finger on her cheek.  Back and forth, back and forth, from her door to her window and back again.  She made at lease ten rounds before an idea came to her.

   Ah-ha!

   Now, there's an idea, she thought.  We could find the most attractive man, physically and mentally, possible, and make him interact over and over with Mi'inan.  If Mi'inan is indeed like Cole, there is no way he would not develop feelings.

In two more rounds, the idea was scrapped.

   No, she resolved.  That won't work.  If it did, I would already know, because we have Gilbert. There would be no way to tell wether or not he liked him.

   She continued to pace, surely giving poor Maid Heatherman, who was trying to nap in the room below her, a splitting headache along with the desire to walk up the stairs and stop the pacing herself by throwing Anne out the window.

   Back and forth, back and forth.

  Well, I will surely never be able get him to do anything that confirms my suspicion, and by trying, I'll just confuse myself further.  He would have had years of practice at hiding what he's really feeling. This really is a terrible puzzle.

   She paced for a few more rounds, just listening to the sound of her new white boots on the wooden flooring.  For the second time recently, she became so focused on her own boots and the steady sound of their tapping, that she became distracted. She strayed from her circuit and her shin knocked against a footstool, scraping it across the floor. She stumbled, regaining her balance before falling.

   Her eyes snapped up, pacing stopped.  She stood still for a few seconds, mind racing, before she snapped her fingers, and smiled.

   "Not through actions, through inaction!"

   And with that, she ran back downstairs to set her plan into action.

   Wow, I finished this chapter WAY faster then expected!

   Thank you so much to everyone who is commenting and voting, it really means a lot to me!

   -C