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2012-05-27
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CCXII. Such great heights

Summary:

Prompt (TFLN): Road to El Dorado (AU), Miguel/Tulio
"do we own a ladder"
"We do not."
"then how am i on the roof"

Notes:

Work Text:

Erm... Miguel scratched his head. "Well," he said to himself, "This is quite an interesting turn of events, I must say."

Carefully turning his head, Miguel looked behind him to see his exact position, as he carefully crouched down onto the mission tiled roof. The sun was baring down on him, and the stone would be hot through his trousers, but Miguel felt a tad bit of vertigo. He wasn't willing to take a plunge just because of a little heat.

Once he was sat upon the roof, arms around his knees, and as balanced as possible, Miguel hunched forward to take another quick look at the ground. Yes, he was as high as he thought, and much more fond of the ground than he knew. "Honestly, I didn't know we had such a big house. Good for us..."

'Hmm'ing to himself, Miguel leaned back again and squinted, looking around the rolling hills of desert currently surrounding them.

"Tulio!" Miguel yelled out abruptly. "TULIO! HELP! TULIO, HELP!" And called on like that through quickly drying lips until Tulio came hobbling (he'd stubbed his toe approximately five times while running out of their room, down the stairs, and around a few unnecessary corners, to get to the door) out of the house, turning frantically about, presumably looking for Miguel.

"TULIO!" Miguel shouted, this time quite pleased.

Miguel watched as an eyebrow reached new heights on Tulio's face, and his eyes widen upon tipping his head back to find Miguel, also at new heights.

Tulio curled his fists onto his waist and peered up momentarily. Then, of course, after still not being able to see through slit eyes, raised one hand up to block the sun. "...Miguel? I - I don't want to alarm you, but... you are - a bit compromised."

"Yes, yes, Tulio, I have noticed this. And I was just wondering: Do we own a ladder?"

Sticking out his lower lip, Tulio thought, and then shook his head. "Um. No. We do not."

With furrowed eyebrows, Miguel looked Tulio carefully in the eyes (as much as he could from his position) and said, "Riiight. Then how am I on the roof?"

Tulio searched the ground, then paced for a few uncomfortable moments (uncomfortable for Miguel) before looking up to the roof again. "Frankly, I'm not certain. Did you, somehow, learn to fly, and forget to tell me?"

"I don't think so," Miguel said slowly, thinking about it. "However, I do remember something about rope, last night. Yes. Hmm..."

"Rope." Tulio thought aloud. "Rope." Then, "Yes, I'll be right back."

"No! No, Tulio. Don't leave me!" Miguel yelled, panic pumping into him, daring him to stand up and call even more attention to his desperate need to not be alone during this very trying time.

"I am not leaving you! I am going to take a look around the house."

"Oh. Heh, well, of course you are. No big deal. Pfft."

After a few minutes of investigating, Tulio returned to the front of the house and, shaking his head, looked to Miguel with a half smile on his face.

"Rope last night, indeed. Miguel!" Tulio called up.

"Well? What did you find?"

"Have you checked the chimney pipe?"

"Hm, no." He looked toward the peak of the roof, and then decided to carefully crawl to it. Once he reached the point, he placed his hands on top of the roof, and held on as he looked for the chimney. Around it was a noose. "Ah..." he said, and nodded. "Yes! Yes, I see the problem!" he yelled to Tulio, though, truthfully he wasn't quite getting the whole picture.

When Miguel had cautiously returned to a spot from which he could see Tulio, it was explained to him. "Yes. It seems you threw the rope up, got it hooked, and then tied it to the tree. I can only assume you climbed the tree, then did all this, and shimmied your way up there."

"Yes. Yes," Miguel nodded, now very sure of himself. "Or. Wait, why?" He cocked his head to the side.

"You tell me," Tulio said, tone smug.

Feeling a tinge of a headache coming on, Miquel winced. "I'd rather not tell you?"

"I was wondering why you weren't in the house when I came home, but I just thought perhaps you decided to be uncharacteristically responsible, go get some food for when I come home, make me a meal since I'd be exhausted from my trip."

Miguel smiled, "So you did bring home some winnings!"

"Well," Tulio began, looking a bit sheepish now, "That's not really what I said. I just -"

"'Uncharacteristically responsible' - you owe me an apology, Tulio. Now you'll never know why I'm up here."

"Oh... Miguel, I think I can guess. You missed me terribly, and to ease your pain and sorrow, you went and drank all of our wine, and then sat yourself on top of our roof so you could better await my arrival, hm?"

"No," Miguel said, avoiding Tulio's eyes. "I'm not nearly as pathetic as all that," he said, cheeks becoming rosy. Tulio just grinned toothily at him, ego boosted.

"Now, I'm going to try to come down the way I came up, and I'm going to pretend I don't mind being on this roof, and you're going to come around to meet me, and you're going to catch me, if and when I do fall." Miguel always found a bit more assertiveness when his pride had been insulted. And because Tulio liked both the cause and effect, he nodded in agreement and disappeared around the corner.