narnia au;

[illuminescent]

how did you get here? through a wardrobe, or through death, or maybe a portal gone terribly astray. a ring. the roar of a lion. in the bottom of a cup. because you were looking for something, or missing something. no matter how you got there, this is where you belong.

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[illuminescent]

[She goes still for a moment. She gets up, though, pulling a robe over her shoulders.]

I will go speak to him, I will make him understand.

[curlytop]

[George reaches for her, catching her wrist to stop her.]

Lucy, stop. He wasn't angry.

[illuminescent]

[She looks at George again.]

No?

He will not ask me to send you away?

[She's moving to hold his hand in hers, tightly.]

[curlytop]

[George tugs her closer.]

He will not. He doesn't want you to be hurt, but in that much we're agreed.

[illuminescent]

[Her arms go around him, but she still looks a little confused.]

Then why are you so solemn?

[curlytop]

Because I don't like that we must hide, and the more people who know about us anyway, the more pointless it seems to hide.

[He presses a kiss to her cheek.]

There's nothing for you to fight against, my queen. Only my...melancholy.

[illuminescent]

Oh.

Oh.

[She says it carefully, and her fingers tug at his.]

If you wait for me to dress, we can wander away a bit. And be ourselves.

[curlytop]

I would like that very much, my queen.

[He lifts her fingers to his lips and kisses the tips.]

But we can't run away every time I'm feeling a bit mopey, and you don't have to indulge me.

I'll learn to be content.

[illuminescent]

My love.

[He calls her my queen, and she calls him my love, so he remembers. They have different stations, but they are equals in so many things.]

I like to indulge you. I enjoy it. It makes me happy, to see you happy.

[curlytop]

[He's glad of the reassurance, and he tugs her closer, holding her against his chest]

Then you may indulge me, and I will endeavor to be happy.

[illuminescent]

[She wraps her arms around his waist, and breathes him in.]

Give me a moment, then. I'll find something simple.

[She thinks she will be wearing a lot of simple clothing from now on - things she can manage herself, so George doesn't have to go anywhere.]

[curlytop]

[He kisses the top of her head.]

Shall I call your maids?

[illuminescent]

No no.

[She nudges him a little and goes to the closet, taking her robe off to get dressed.]

You will have to learn to help me dress soon, I think.

[She's giggling a little.]

[curlytop]

[He sits on her bed to watch.]

I'm happy to learn at any time you'll teach me. Unless you'd rather I asked your maids for lessons?

[illuminescent]

I think they would be too shocked to be of any help.

[She tugs her overdress on and starts tying up the laces of the bodice.]

[curlytop]

No doubt the giggling would cause distractions.

Come here.

[He gestures her closer.]

I think I could manage that.

[illuminescent]

[She comes over to him, and she laughs a little, smiling as she hands the ends of her laces to him.]

They already like you. They would find you completely charming.

[curlytop]

[George has tied many, many laces of several different kinds in his life. He's never taken as much care as he does with Lucy's.]

Would that all of Narnia were like your maids, he smiles at her, my love.

[illuminescent]

All of Narnia would love you, if they knew you.

[She watches him lace her up, and then watches him tie them, and she takes his hand to kiss the palm.]

[curlytop]

[George cups her cheek in his hand and bends to kiss her forehead.]

Perhaps.

[He's unconvinced, but it's hard not to judge Narnia by Calormene standards sometimes.]

Where do you want to go, majesty?

[illuminescent]

The beach?

[She beams a little.]

It would be a glorious thing. It is a beautiful day.

[curlytop]

Aye, let's go to the beach.

[He grins. The beach is one of his favorite places, mostly because it's where they went on that first night, when his whole life changed.]

[illuminescent]

[They head down, and no one looks at them twice; there is a benefit to George being hers in more ways than one, and it's that wherever Lucy goes, of course George follows. The beach is abandoned today, even thought it is a warm day, and Lucy is already tucking her skirts up into her bodice, wanting to keep it up out of the sand and the sea.

She waits a bit to dip her feet in the water, the sand rocking over her toes.]

The first time I brought you here, you looked as though you had never smiled in your life.

[curlytop]

[George peels off his boots and sighs as he wiggles his toes in the sand. He rolls his breeches up above his knees and straightens, watching Lucy a moment before he says anything.]

Before Calormen, people would say I looked as though I'd never frowned.

[Sometimes he remembers what that was like, but even his memories feel like they happened to someone else.]

[illuminescent]

Truly?

[She knows that he does not wish to go home - he has said it himself, to her - but she wonders if he would have been happier, there.

She walks a little in the frothing waves.]

I should like to imagine such a thing.