^ [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]

The setting is as he hoped it would be, as is the look on Susan's face. She's lovely, yes, but more than that she has come to feel essential to him in a way he would never have guessed when they first met. To see her happy, to see how she's opened up since that time, is a tremendous gift. He is not going to take it for granted.

"I suppose," he says softly, "that we should eat."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I could eat," Susan agrees, but she makes no move to sit up. Instead, she just shifts enough to stroke her knuckles against his cheek.

[lanselos_du_lac]

His smile is soft, warm. "I would not have thee starve."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"How could I starve, when you surfeit me so?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

He asks, as if this is novel information, "Do I really?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Dear heart," murmuring, "are you scrounging for compliments again? Very well." Susan uses the leverage of their close hold to pull him in for another kiss, unhurried and deep.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot lets himself chuckle a little, delighted by her, and then sinks into the kiss, tangling fingers gently in her hair.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

When she pulls back, she's breathless, and she drops her head back onto his lap. "Very well," she says, trying to affect an airy tone and only partially succeeding. "You have my leave to feed me the choicest morsels in that basket of yours."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"That's well, since I only brought the choicest items."

He leans over and tugs the basket closer, opening the lid and making a show of considering options.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"How terribly thoughtful." She makes no move to sit up and investigate, but she is watching him closely. "What have you brought, incidentally?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I have grapes and strawberries, cheese and bread, some crisp beans from the garden, and Laertes and I baked handpies with lamb yesterday," brightly. "I also have tea and wine. And chocolate."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan does twist her head at that, obviously impressed. "You've been a busy little beaver, haven't you?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Aye, so I have," chuckling. "It was important to do this well."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You've taken ever so much care," she says, softly, and then teases, "I've got a sneaking suspicion you should like me to feel cherished."

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot looks down at her, "I should. I owe the bulk of my happiness here to thee. I shall not forget that, nor would I let thee wonder if I have forgotten."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I hope you know I feel the same way," says Susan, reaching to pat his chest. "Do you know, you already made me feel like a whole person again for the first time after - after everything, when we were just pursuing friendship? I like to think that if you never asked to kiss me, your mere friendship might still have made me miles happier than I ever thought I might be again. But," she adds, tone softening from conspiratorial to besotted, "I'm ever so grateful and glad, every day, that you did."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He clasps her hand, kisses her palm, and says softly, "As am I. I am glad I was so bold."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Surely you knew the reception to your question would be a favorable one," says Susan. "Even though I was striving terribly hard to ignore your good looks."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He flushes, "Is that so? I admit, I was not at all certain thou wouldst agree or feel the same way. I am unused to wooing anyone, let alone a dear friend I would not wish to lose."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I seem to recall something about propositioning you within thirty minutes of meeting you," Susan points out. She's warm all over, and it hasn't got anything to do with the autumn breeze. She turns her hand in his and squeezes. "I suppose it doesn't matter how experienced one is when you've got the compatibility we've got." It's her turn to draw their joined hands to her mouth; she kisses his knuckles. "And the commitment. I'm so pleased we both took the chance despite our respective causes for hesitation."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I am glad, too," softly. "The chance is turning out very well, I think. We suit one another, and I can speak well with thee. I trust thee. And now thou mayst proposition me whenever thou likest."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes," Susan agrees. She watches him for a moment, very visibly considering whether she might illustrate his point and proposition him immediately, before also visibly deciding to wait a little while longer. "I believe I should like to start with a strawberry," she says, "and I suppose I've also got a question."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"As my lady commands," lightly. He reaches into the basket to find the little box of fruit. "And I will answer any question thou dost have."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Well," starts Susan, eyes tracking the movement of his hands. "We've been at this for a little over a year."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Yes, that's true." He pulls out a strawberry, holding it up with a silly flourish. "Hence our outing today."