Fic: Lovelornity

[lirazel]

I'm working furiously on izi's birthday fic, so expect some Firefly soon.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this little bit of a fic.  It's a bit rough, but it wasn't going to get any better, so here it is, at ineffort's request.

Title: Lovelornity
Fandom: Little Women
Rating: G
Character/Pairing: Laurie POV, angsty Laurie/Jo, necessary Laurie/Amy
Disclaimer: They're Louisa May Alcott's.
A/N: Title from a track on the soundtrack by the brilliant Thomas Newman.
Dedication:  Because May wanted Little Women fic and I live to make her happy.  I hope you like it, love.
Summary:  He tells himself it was a close thing, his escape from a life with Jo.

It's easy to love Amy.  She’s always delighted him, from the days when she mispronounced words and put on airs like a miniature duchess.  She made him laugh, though he often had to disguise his laughter with coughs so as not to hurt her tender feelings.  She adored him and it was easy to adore right back. 

She still makes him laugh with her earnestness to prove herself grown-up and cultured, but there’s a vulnerability lurking there in her fierce desire to be judged on her own merits, to break away from the shadow of Meg’s grace, Jo’s passion, Beth’s compassion, and he can’t help but respect that.  It will be easy to be a good husband to her, to take pride in her golden beauty as she floats along on his arm—she’s the only March girl who feels comfortable at parties—to sit with her before the fire at night and talk, to shower her with the pretty, delicate things she so enjoys, to be a good father to their children.  So easy.  So very, very easy.

He tells himself it was a close thing, his escape from a life with Jo: he was so cursed lucky that she had the fear foresight to say no and keep both of them from happiness making a monumental mistake.  Marrying Jo would have been a dream disaster.  She would have been completely perfect unsuitable as Mrs. Lawrence, with her enchanting awkward ways and her habit of flying into beautiful tempers.  Too passionate was his Jo, too given to speaking her brilliant mind.  The parties and balls he is forced to likes to throw would have been hilarious massacres, with Jo offending pompous, irritating important people right and left.  His damned reputation would have been ruined.

 She would have cared not a fig for the petty lovely things his money could have given her; she would have insisted on running all around the world and getting into adventures scrapes.  They would have had glorious horrific rows all the time and making up would have been a joy chore.  He yearns shudders to imagine what their children would be like, their home warm messy and alive never quiet.  He would never have to get a chance to rest, and he would have been happy miserable.  Every day would have been wonderful difficult, a gift labor, never boring easy.  He would never have been able to live without her marvelous exhausting challenges.

Yes.  Things have definitely turned out for the worse better.

Comments

[serendipily.livejournal.com]

Oh damn you for being just so ... bluntly poetic .... *sighs*

It is easy to love Amy. Sweet beautiful young Amy, because she's classic and because she's the perfect picture wife and yet ... he logns for someting so exceptionally different. HIs LIzzie Bennett, silly and everything. *giggles* But much more boyish, much more.

The crossed out little fragments of words, showing his mind in process, just ... it's Laurie. Laurie and his sesnative little ways and that's what makes him so loving. Goddamn, I love how he is "happy" that he never married Jo. *sighs* Oh the loveliness ...

[ineffort.livejournal.com]

OH HONEY. I do not like this one bit. I adore the living hell out of it.

This is perfect and despite its length it reads like an entire story on itself. Laurie's voice is perfect, I could hear little Christian Bale in my head as I read this and the style/tone fit perfectly with the way Ms. Alcott herself wrote them.

You kept it canon! I don't know why that sentence ends with an exclamation. I guess it just makes it all the more bittersweet and it is my belief that he never ever got over Jo completely.

The strikeouts were brilliantly utilized here. Because Jo and Laurie did really cover the whole spectrum and they were volatile and perfect and completely messed up at times and you got that all here.

And omg, AMY. His relationshiip with Amy actually broke me more than anything else I think. Because even though, he chose her in the end, she isn't the fighter that Jo is and that first line where he had to cover his laughs because she'd be hurt was exactly them.

I really want to throw back lines at you here, but in all honesty, there wasn't a word out of place or misaligned and this totally made my week.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, YOU. I had no doubt that you would get it and spawn something brilliant, but this? This was so much more than I was expecting.

You rock worlds. ♥

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

You replied to this a lifetime and a half ago, and you were wonderful, as usual, but that was right before I went on my unexpected hiatus and I never answered it and so you never knew how much I appreciated that you liked it. ;)

SO ANYWAYS.

I'm back. And replying.

I am so glad that you loved it. I love writing for you or with you in mind because you're so generous in your enthusiasm. And because you're awesome.

I'm so glad you thought that the voice was correct--I worried a bit about that because I'd obviously never written him before. So huge sigh of relief here.

And yeah! I couldn't not keep it canon for some reason. And I'm glad to provide you with more evidence to support the "never getting over Jo" idea.

I'd never really done the strikeouts thing before, so I'm glad it worked. It was very, very fun.

His relationshiip with Amy actually broke me more than anything else I think. Because even though, he chose her in the end, she isn't the fighter that Jo is and that first line where he had to cover his laughs because she'd be hurt was exactly them. That's exactly what I was going for--that you'd still love Amy, that this not turn into Amy-bashing, because it's not her fault, poor thing. She is who she is.

Anyways, I really am thrilled to the extreme that you liked it.

You rock worlds more. ;)

[serendipityxxi.livejournal.com]

Oh, Laurie! This was so fabulously true to character! And an effective use of the strike through! What a different life our dear Mr. Lawrence would have lived had Jo not turned him down *sigh*

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I was hoping that the strike-through wouldn't be too overdone, but I loved the idea of it, of him editing his own thoughts. Again, thank you so much for your kind words.

[ava-leigh-fitz.livejournal.com]

THIS IS SO SO GOOD LAUREN. SERIOUSLY.

You've got the sisters spot on, Amy especially and your Laurie. Oh man, you've got Laurie down pat. And I know May's said it but your use of the strikeouts is so so well done. Like, seriously. I never would've thought to use those but it really highlights the differences between his relationships with Amy and Jo.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU, LOVE!

I had so much fun writing it, so I'm soooo glad you thought they were in character. And I loved using the strikeouts but thought they might be a bit much, so again, so glad you didn't think so.

Thanks as always for being so kind to me!

[worldwasasong.livejournal.com]

Just found this and I adore it! Though I love the books/movie endings and find them fitting, I also love Jo/Laurie and definitely think he thinks of their (lack of) marriage like that. :) Great writing too as always - concise yet you described their lives together so well, and the strikeouts were really well-done.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I, too, think the book/movie endings are fitting, but as a little girl, it seemed so wrong to me that Laurie and Jo never happened. This was my attempt to indulge said little girl.

concise yet you described their lives together so well, and the strikeouts were really well-done. Thank you, hon! I can't think of better praise than that!

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

Okay this actually made me tear up. Sniffle.

Actually I think I'm going to go cry now? Loved this, obvs.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Awww! Thank you! I'd forgotten about this fic till just now, but I'm glad you liked it! It was loads of fun to write.