Title: The Scent of a Woman
Rating: K
Character/Pairing: Cheery, Angua (Implied Carrot/Angua)
A/N: This is a short fic originally written for the LJ community 31days, originally posted on September 25, 2007, theme: Are you on Melrose Avenue?

It was as pleasant a day as could be expected in Ankh Morpork – the sun was peering cautiously from around puffy white clouds, as if double checking that it was, in fact, safe to come out(1) and there was a noticeable lack of rain, garbage, or human bodies falling out of the sky, both things that made Sergeants Littlebottom and Angua intensely happy. Without things falling out of the sky, all they had to worry about were the things popping up out of the ground, burrowing out of the river, or lying in wait for them to trip over as they attempted a normal patrol.

Cheery was relieved to be out in the air a little bit. Commander Vimes liked to keep her behind the desk at Psuedopolis Yard, greeting visitors and directing them as necessary. "You have a cool head, Sergeant Littlebottom," he'd commented once, making Sergeant Detritus terribly jealous.

"Err… shall we get lunch?" she posed to Angua hesitantly. The full moon was due in several days and around this time of month Angua was sensitive to comments about what she was eating, or wearing, or the weather, or how her hair looked, or whether or not people were making eye contact with her.

Thankfully, Angua merely shrugged, nodded, and said absently, "Carrot said there was a dwarf tavern he wanted to try. He's patrolling down by Melrose, if you want to meet up,"

This was normally the type of statement that would blow by any other member of the City Watch – and possibly even Cheery. However, Cheery had recently gotten into romance novels – real bodice rippers that Sally had lent to her while encouraging the dwarf to continue exploring her feminine side. Cheery had been blown away by the books – a dwarf bodice ripper would involve mourning of perfectly good chain mail. These novels involved men and women embarking on a romance with absolutely no confusion as to who was the male and who was the female this time around.

"Melrose Avenue is all the way across town!" Cheery exclaimed, finding herself nigh overwhelmed with the sheer romance of the idea. "Are you and Carrot really – I mean, you can tell he's there, from here? You can scent his trail from this far away?"

She cut herself off abruptly at the look Angua was giving her. She looked troubled, and Cheery wondered if she'd said something wrong. "What?"

"I just asked Nobby for a copy of the patrol schedule," Angua explained.

(1) the sun had learned the hard way that it was always best to check before making an appearance. Storms got cranky when the sun barged in unannounced and then rainbows were brought into the picture and it was a little known fact that rainbows, for all their glory and symbolism, annoy the ever living hell out of every single other type of weather, the lousy divas.