balletrat | (no subject)

*Meg takes a moment to make a face at him, as her elbow is rudely displaced, before returning her attention to the screen, where Renault is insisting that Laszlo won't leave Casablanca without his lady companion, and making another face.*

Bet it'd be easier if they did split up.

*Andrew returns, and hands her the popcorn.* Shh, you'll see.

*On the screen, Rick Blaine is asserting that he sticks his neck out for nobody.*

*It's so very Han Solo of him, Andrew's always thought.*

Bar neutrality, *Meg murmurs, and delicately picks up a piece of popcorn to pop into her mouth as Rick settles in for some verbal sparring with the German official.*

Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?

*Meg leans forward, unconsciously; the popcorn bowl teeters dangerously.*

*It's not particularly my beloved Paris, Rick says.*

Andrew looks sideways at Meg.*

*Meg catches his glance a second later; deliberately, she makes herself lean back, with a tiny rueful shrug, as if to say 'what can you do'?*

*He considers giving her hand a comforting squeeze, but ... isn't really sure it'll be all that comforting.*

*On the screen, Victor Laszlo and Ilsa Lundt are making their entrance.*

*The next portion of dialogue gives Meg a chance to relax - it helps that the dialogue is with a member of the Resistance - and by the time Renault comes over to chat up the new arrivals, Meg's almost completely at ease again.

Enough, at least, so that when Renault tells Miss Ilsa Lundt that if he were a woman, and he himself were not around, he would be in love with Rick, Meg can shoot Andrew a quick amused glance.*

Yeah, I always kind of wondered about that, *Andrew says thoughtfully.*

*Serenely:* I think it's sort of sweet.

*The movie plays on.*

*Andrew gets up again to fetch drinks around the time Ilsa's telling Sam that he used to be a much better liar.*

*Leave him alone, Miss Ilsa, Sam says as Andrew sits back down and passes Meg an iced coffee. You're bad luck to him.*

*Meg accepts the ice coffee, glancing at the screen a little ruefully.

As Time Goes By begins to play, a furious Rick storms in, and Rick and Ilsa make eye contact for the first time in the film, before the addition of Renault and Laszlo creates one of the most tense conversations in film history.

Not that Meg knows this. But by this point, she's enthralled, regardless.*

*Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, sulks Rick Blaine drunkenly, she walks into mine.*

Classic line, classic, *mutters Andrew.*

*Meg almost turns her head to comment - and then is arrested mid-motion, as the screen fades in from Rick to a shot of the Arc de Triomphe.*

*Ilsa remarks about picking a time like this, with the whole world crumbling, to fall in love. Rick agrees, and wonders aloud where she was, say, ten years ago.*

*Andrew glances at Meg again.*

*Meg glances over at Andrew at the same time; seeing him looking at her, she drops her eyes.*

Ten years ago? Let's see . . . yes, I was having a brace put on my teeth, *says Ilsa, saving Meg from having to come up with any answers of her own.*

*A little later: Rick has asked the train conductor if he can marry them, and Ilsa's just stopped crying. I love you so much, she says, and I hate this war so much...*

Oh, it's a crazy world. Anything can happen. If you shouldn't get away, I mean, if, if something should keep us apart, wherever they put you and wherever I'll be, I want you to know that I -

*Meg fixes her eyes steadily on the screen.

She's getting rather a feeling of deja vu.*

*So's Andrew, maybe.*

*It's a crazy world. Anything can happen.*

You don't know the half of it, *he mutters, barely audible.*

Crazy universe, *Meg murmurs; and on the screen the scene shifts to a train station, and Rick waits for Ilsa, who will never appear.*

* * *

*It's later, and the bar is in full swing. Rick is breaking up a bar fight between a German officer and a French officer who'd had a difference over women and politics (specifically, over Yvonne).*

*Andrew's been trying to translate the French, with help around the edges from Meg.*

*And, appropriately enough, the camera soon pauses to focus on an elderly couple learning English.*

Liebchen, uh, sweetness, what watch?

Ten watch, *answers the wife, as Meg starts to snicker.*

Such much?

*And the Hungarian girl Annina is talking to Rick about a moral dilemma. If someone loved you very much, so that your happiness was the only thing that she wanted in the whole world, but she did a bad thing to make certain of it...*

Nobody ever loved me that much, *says Rick; and Meg wonders if he considers that a good thing, or a bad.*

Oh, but if Jan should find out! *cries Annina.* He is such a boy. In many ways I am so much older than he is.

*Meg sneaks a sideways look.*

*Andrew's watching the screen.*

*Where Rick is saying: Yes, well, everybody in Casablanca has problems. Yours may work out. He excuses himself brusquely, and Annina murmurs a toneless thank-you.*

Salaud, *Meg murmurs.*