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Violet and Quigley walked carefully across the frozen pool until they reached the bottom of the waterfall. "Good luck!" Klaus called, from the archway of the ruined library. He was polishing his glasses, as he often did before embarking on serious research.
"Good luck to you!" Violet replied, shouting over the rush of the mountain winds, and as she looked at her brother, she remembered when the two siblings were trying to stop the caravan as it hurtled down the mountain. Klaus had wanted to say something to her, in case the drag chute and sticky substances hadn't worked. Violet had the same feeling now, as she prepared to climb the frozen waterfall and leave her brother behind at the ashy remains of the V.F.D headquarters. "Klaus-" she said.
Klaus put his glasses on and gave his sister his bravest smile. "Whatever you're thinking of saying," he said, "say it when you return." Violet nodded, and tapped the candelabra against a spot on the ice. She heard a deep thunk!, as if she were tapping something very solid. "We'll start here," she said to Quigley. "Are you ready?" she asked him nervously. "If we wait until we're ready-" "-we'll be waiting the rest of our lives." she finished for him as they turned to look at each other and then began their climb up the frozen waterfall of Mount Fraught.
It took Violet and Quigley almost no time at all to work her invention properly, and to push the forks into the ice just far enough to hold them there, but not so far that they would be permanently stuck, and once both of them were in position, Violet had to reach up as far as she could and tap the candelabra on the ice above them to find the next solid place to climb. For the first few steps, it seemed like ascending the icy slope in this manner would be impossible, but as time went on, and the two volunteers grew more and more skillful with the fork-tipped climbing shoes and the candelabra ice tester, it became clear that once again Violet's inventing skills would carry the day, a phrase which here means "enable Violet Baudelaire and Quigley Quagmire to climb up a frozen waterfall after bracing themselves for the journey".
However, before long, they were both starting to grow very tired and were having trouble keeping their eyes open with the cold mountain winds blowing on their faces. "We should rest," called Quigley down to Violet, who was regaining her footing after almost slipping, "I see a ledge. It's not much further." he said as they continued climbing before Quigley made his way up to the ledge before he helped Violet up. "Here, I got you," he said as he pulled her up and started blushing. "This ledge is solid. We should sit here to get our strength back," he said.
Violet nodded. "Good idea. You're an excellent climber," she said to him as she smiled. "You're an excellent inventor," he said as he smiled back at her. "Thanks, but let's not celebrate yet. There's still a long way to go."
"Celebrate when you're half done,
And the finish won't be quite as fun." recited Quigley as a sad look formed on his face. "My sister wrote that."
"Once we find Sunny, we'll search for Duncan and Isadora. Speaking of which, she is a good poet and her couplets have come in handy more than once. When we were at the Village of Fowl Devotees, she led us to their location by hiding a secret message in a series of couplets." she said fondly, as she smiled at the memory of her, Klaus and Sunny reuniting with Isadora and Duncan before they tried to escape in the Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home with Hector, and sighed sadly.
Quigley chuckled. "That does sound like something Izzie would do. I wonder if that's a code she learned from V.F.D, or if she made it up herself." Violet smiled thoughtfully. "I don't know. She and Duncan were the first ones to tell us about V.F.D, but it never occurred to me that they might already be members. When I think about it, however, the code she used was similar to the one our Aunt Josephine used. They both hid a secret location within a note, or notes in Izzie's case, and waited for us to discover the message. Maybe they were all volunteers. Maybe all our guardians have been members of V.F.D, on one side or the other of the schism," she said with a curious look in her eyes.
"It's hard to believe that we've always been surrounded by people carrying out secret errands, and we never even knew it," Quigley said in disbelief before he heard a scraping sound and saw one of Violet's gloves start to fall. "Your glove!" he exclaimed worriedly as he looked over at her.
Violet looked down at the falling glove and then back up towards the top of the slippery slope. "We'll get it on the way down. It's also hard to believe that we're climbing a frozen waterfall in the Mortmain Mountains and yet, here we are. You know, if you have to hide a headquarters, it's a beautiful place to do it. Aside from the remains of the fire, this is a lovely view," she said in awe as she looked at the pink and blue mountain sky.
"Very lovely indeed," Quigley said, but he was not looking at the view beneath him. He was looking beside him, where Violet Baudelaire was sitting.
"On the edge of your seat" is a phrase used by one to convey great excitement and devotion to the program you are viewing or participating in. It is a phrase that is used to describe you, the distressed and weeping person currently reading this, who felt great excitement when you were under the incorrect assumption that my associate, Mr. Snicket, would reveal what happened between two friends halfway up a frozen waterfall on a chilly afternoon. It is also a phrase Mr. Snicket often used in his commonplace notebook whenever he was describing a musical performance by the woman he loved dearly.
Well, after a bit of investigating of my own, as well as a few setbacks involving a most unfriendly mail delivery person, the metal, monstrous mouth of a trash compactor and the broken hearted crocodile's cousin, the vegetarian alligator, I have finally been able to write a very finely detailed account of what happened between Violet Baudelaire and Quigley Quagmire during the few minutes they had rested on the icy ledge of the Mortmain Mountains.
Long ago, when I was just a young boy and the same age as Violet's brother, Klaus, or maybe even younger than that, I had just recently been abducted by my ankles and driven away to the Mortmain Mountains myself and I had been dropped off in the middle of the icy wilderness and had to wait a total of nine whole hours and had to rely on my survival instincts before I was granted entry into the once beautiful establishment that served as the V.F.D headquarters, and during those freezing cold and bitter nine hours, I had no company with me, and almost certainly no company to tell me that the view that I provided to said company was lovely.
Nonetheless, a word which here means "even so", my cheeks were very much red by the time the Vernacularly Fastened Door opened and I was ushered inside into the headquarters, where a steaming mug of hot cocoa and my first eavesdropping lesson awaited me.
Many years later, when I was a young man and I had disguised myself as a box of pastries so I could hide out in the storage room of a cupcakery to avoid my enemies finding me, as Violet Baudelaire and Quigley Quagmire sat on the icy ledge of the Mortmain Mountains, Violet's own cheeks were red as well, although for a vastly different reason.
"I beg your pardon?" asked Violet. Quigley looked straight ahead once more, his own cheeks also very red, though I am less certain to the cause of his reddened visage, as mine and Mr. Snicket's research on the Quagmires is less extensive than our research on the Baudelaires.
"Do you ever think about what you'll do?" asked Quigley suddenly as he turned to look back at Violet, his hands trembling nervously as he shivered.
"What do you mean by that, Quigley?" asked Violet as she watched his hands continue to tremble from the cold.
"Like, after all this. Whatever this even is. Do you know where you'll be afterwards?"
Violet shook her head "no" and frowned. "I barely have an idea of where I'll be in a few hours, much less another day. Even with my inventing smarts, I could never attempt to predict something like that."
Quigley shrugged. "Fair enough. I'm kinda the same way actually. Duncan and Izzie always used to say I worried too much about what was gonna happen in the future," he said with a small smile on his face as he shivered again.
Violet couldn't help but chuckle. "I can believe that. So, tell me, Quigley: Where do you think you'll be after all this is over?" she asked with a small smile on her face.
He couldn't help but smile. "I hope to be reunited with my siblings so we can all live happily ever after. And then, after we all turn eighteen and inherit our family's sapphires, I'd love to spend all day working on any new maps that I might make. It sounds silly, I know," he said with a sad, faraway look in his eyes.
Violet smiled again and put her hand on his shoulder. "I don't think it sounds silly, Quigley. You're following your heart, and I think that sounds absolutely wonderful. Speaking of which, after my siblings and I inherit our own fortune once I turn eighteen, I would love nothing more than to have a nice, large inventing studio where I can work on all of my inventions in peace," she said as her eyes began to shine brightly.
Quigley sighed contently. "That sounds like a nice way to live, I think. I just have one question."
Violet nodded. "Sure. What is it?"
Quigley looked away from her as his cheeks turned red again. "Do you......do you think your inventing studio would maybe have room for a cartographer?" he asked shyly as he looked everywhere but at her as he began to shiver once again.
Violet's head snapped up and she looked at him quizzically. "What?"
"It's just that......if I want to create maps of new and uncharted territory, I might need a few inventions to help me with that. Such as a printing press, for example," he admitted sheepishly as he rubbed his neck and his teeth began to chatter.
Before she could even stop to rationally think about what she was doing, Violet reached out and took his hand in her own and scooted closer to him.
"I'd love to have you there," she replied sincerely. "Although, I do have a question of my own."
Quigley nodded and shivered as his teeth chattered together.
"What did you mean by calling the view lovely, Quigley? Ever since you said that, you've been really nervous," she said with a calm forcefulness laced in her voice as she looked over at her shivering, messy-haired companion.
Quigley sighed in defeat and looked over at Violet with a sad, regretful look in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm not nervous. I'm anxious, Violet. Ever since the night of the fire when I was separated from my siblings and I arrived at Dr. Montgomery's house, I've been very lonely as I tried to find them again and I've had almost no one to keep me company, aside from Jacques Snicket and a very friendly and kind judge I met on the trolley while I was on my way here. So I guess it just slipped out of my mouth since this is my first time being alone with company. I'm sorry. I totally understand if you hate me now."
Violet sighed as her face softened and she scooted closer to him. "I understand where you're coming from, Quigley. Ever since we lost our parents in the fire that claimed our home, my siblings and I haven't had that many moments of privacy either. So, I'm glad that we can have these few moments to keep to ourselves. However, I do wish I could've met you somewhere much warmer," she said with a smile on her face as she shivered.
Quigley chuckled. "As do I. But if you want, we can huddle together for warmth," he said as he started to lift his arm, but paused when he saw the blush on her cheeks. "If that's okay with you."
Violet nodded. "That's fine with me. And if we end up going on another adventure together, we'll be used to each other's company," she said as the blush on her cheeks grew wider.
"A fair point," remarked Quigley as he draped his arm around Violet's side, which made her have butterflies in her stomach.
To have butterflies in your stomach is an expression that means to feel very nervous, yet excited at the same time, about something you will or are about to do and that is exactly how Violet Baudelaire felt as she sat next to Quigley Quagmire. She was uncertain of how to proceed with what she was about to do, and unlike the boy sitting next to her, she was rather wary of uncharted territory.
"I wonder, though, if you'll still have an appetite for adventure after all this is over," said Quigley calmly as he turned to look at her.
"I think I would be able to handle it. My siblings and I have survived worse, so what's the worse that could happen by embarking on a new adventure?" asked Violet softly as she also turned to look at Quigley, and found his face a few mere inches away from her own.
Slowly, he raised his hand up to move the hair away from her face, and as Violet leaned into the touch, she heard her heart beating loudly in her chest as she blushed harder than ever.
"What if......what if I want to take the first steps of a new adventure with you starting right now?" asked Quigley softly as he cupped her face in his hand.
"I once read that life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all," mused Violet aloud as her eyes softened as she looked at the boy sitting in front of her and smiled contently.
"So, is that a yes I hear, Violet Baudelaire?" asked Quigley hopefully.
"That is indeed a yes you hear, Quigley Quagmire. There's no one I'd rather go on a new adventure with than you." she said sincerely as they leaned in, and with that, met each other's lips in a soft and delicate, yet passionate first kiss. And as they pulled away, Violet saw stars, which is an expression that means to "have experienced something so intense that you feel almost lightheaded and dizzy," which is certainly how she felt after she and Quigley pulled away.
As you already know, Violet Baudelaire was an inventor, just as both I myself and Mr. Snicket are writers, and a close associate of mine and fellow volunteer, Nathaniel, is an accountant just as another close associate of Mr. Snicket's and fellow volunteer, Jacquelyn, is a welterweight boxer. However, unlike writers and accountants and welterweight boxers, inventing things is not a trait that the general population would associate with a soon-to-be fifteen year old girl.
But that never bothered Violet one little bit. She had lots in common with girls as much as she did with boys, but was never one who liked or enjoyed being labeled particularly "girly". However, during this moment as she sat with her friend on the icy ledge, Violet felt as if any other normal soon-to-be fifteen year old girl would in this situation. She felt purely excited to have been able to share her first kiss with Quigley Quagmire.
And with that, as the sun began its descent behind the icy peaks of the Mortmain Mountains, the two officially more-than-friends resumed their climb up the frozen waterfall with small secret smiles on their faces.
Their exchange was one that would forever haunt their every waking moments after they were separated, until they had thankfully been reunited following The End of our story. And for once in my miserable and depressing life, I am happy to report that the plans the two young ones made while they rested on the icy ledge were not foiled by misfortune, and in fact that the knowledge of the other's dreams allowed them to find one another again in a quiet world that had become so large in the wake of the Baudelaires absence.
That piece of the story, however, will come later. For now, content yourselves, dear Quiglet shippers, with the knowledge that Violet Baudelaire and Quigley Quagmire's story is one that might just have a happy ending, after all. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------