^ [open post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan doesn't believe in the mansion spirits, but she is being followed by something in a way that makes little sense.

It begins when she wakes up. Opening the drawer to the sideboard in her room to retrieve tea, she finds another gold chess piece wrapped neatly in ribbon. Lancelot didn't put it there - it hadn't been there when she made her pre-sleep cuppa the night before, and she woke up when he did and sleepily saw him off to his training; he hadn't gone near the drawer. She shuts the chess piece firmly away, makes her tea, and dresses blearily for her own archery practice.

There's a new bow in the closet, too. To her pleasure, it's a heavier one that requires a stronger pull - she's quite got used to the draw of the ones the closet first supplied to her.

After her shooting routine, she finds a lipstick in the precise shade Ingrid used to wear on the bathroom vanity. When she's showered and dressed for the rest of her day, she finds her favorite pastry - a sort of breakfast roll she used to get from the shop by the tube station she'd walk past on her way to work, back in London - on a platter in the kitchen.

It's when she opens one of the closets in the hall off the library to return a pile of laundered wash-cloths that she receives both some clarity and a deepening of the mystery: a jumble of assembled balloons tumbles out, made of some queer material and filled with a gas that keeps them afloat. The writing on them reads: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN PEVENSIE.

She stares at them, perplexed.


Susan's birthday post! Three days (by our reckoning) and eight months (by her reckoning) early! Feel free to have your puppets run into her in any reasonable location at any point during the day; she's just going to be accumulating more Stuff she can't get rid of as the day goes on.

Comments

[lanselos_du_lac]

He returns the smile with a similar one of his own, meeting her eyes. "It does. Often."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Perhaps we ought to try some new hobbies together once the weather gets dreary again," Susan suggests.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Oh! I should like that," he says, brightly. "What dost thou propose?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, I hardly know where to start. There's ever so many pastimes, you know. We might learn a craft, or find new games to play, or seek a different sort of exercise..."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Thou couldst learn to fence."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

The reservations Susan had about tools of close combat a year ago are still reservations she holds. She dislikes violence, though she quite enjoys her archery training. (She's less likely now to insist that she's better at a distance - she no longer believes many the layers underlying this sort of claim.)

But more than that, she loves this man - this darling, wonderful man who has learned so many things just to be able to discuss her interests with her. "If you teach me," she says, eyes twinkling, "and turn it into a flirtation, then I suppose I could."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He glances over, a little surprised. "I can easily turn it into a flirtation, but I did not expect thee to agree."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You love swordplay."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"That is true, but thou needst not."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"No," she agrees. "But you've done ever so much to familiarize yourself with my interests. I should like to try the same. If I find I don't enjoy it, I shan't persist, and we can find a different sort of activity that suits both of us." A new sort of dance, perhaps, or additional lovemaking.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Very well," he looks pleased and lit up. "I shall find a suitable practice blade for thee."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She curls a hand over his cheek. Pleased, and a little smug, she says, "The look on your face right now makes giving it a shot more than worth it."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Really, now. Is it such a good look?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, yes. Rather."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He laughs and pauses long enough to kiss her cheek. "I am glad thou dost find me pleasing."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Always," she says, smiling helplessly. "Speaking of pleasing... when shall I learn the nature of your surprise?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot leans in briefly to kiss her temple -- that smile is very, very good. He says, "In truth, thou hast already seen a portion. I would take thee picnicking, as we did when we first decided to proceed. I know I missed the date, but a year of happiness is worth celebrating."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh!" she says, her expression soft and pleased. "Oh, Lancelot, that's lovely."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I love thee," bumping her shoulder a little. "We can stay out as long as thou likest. Thou'lt see the rest coming up here in just a moment."

Indeed, they are coming close to the spot where they had taken that picnic, all those months ago. Lancelot has set up the blanket, carefully weighted it down, and there is a little spray of flowers besides. He has set things up a little closer to the treeline, in part because he has also set up a little shelter -- a makeshift tent and bedroll -- and prepared an area where they might have a fire, if they choose.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"My goodness!" Susan exclaims, leaning up to plant a firm kiss or three on his cheek. "Look at all of this. You've put ever so much work into this, haven't you? How tremendously lovely."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He laughs, looking very pleased indeed, "I have, I admit."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You perfect darling." Susan kisses his cheek once more, then goes to settle on the blanket, arranging herself in an appealing sort of posture with her legs stretched out, twisting to look at Lancelot. "I'm so terribly fond of you."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I am terribly glad of that." He pauses a moment to look at her, his expression all bright affection, then comes and sets the basket down and settles across from her. "Thou'rt beautiful."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes," Susan agrees, striking another pose, tilting her head back so that her hair - which is mostly loose apart from being pinned back from her face, and carefully wrangled from its usual straightness into shining waves - cascades over her shoulder. She skims a hand down her side. "And isn't this outfit so marvelously flattering?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot laughs, delighted, "It is. Know thou, it would cause a terrible scandal at court."