^ [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 laughs, "Well then, we shall continue to observe thy feast day."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Right now, for example," suggests Susan. "In that lovely tent you've set up."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He flushes and his smile crooks into a grin. "Aye, lady, that we may."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan pulls away just far enough to grab at the open of bottle of wine and drink deeply from it, maintaining eye contact with Lancelot the entire time. "One more for the road?" she says, eyes sparkling, offering him the bottle.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Of course," accepting it. He takes a healthy pull, then carefully sets it aside. "Shall we?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

For this, she can bear the horrid few moments of separation when she climbs off his lap and into the tent. Once inside, she arrays herself into an appealing position, and then gestures for him to follow. "You have my leave to undress me," she says, faux-prim, as he closes the flap. "But leave the necklace on."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He smiles at her, moving close. "An thou canst be sure to guide me, I shall."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And if I should like to see your best efforts without my guidance?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Lady, as thou knowest I always put in my best efforts for thee."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, I do know," she says, drawing him to her.

--

After, she climbs off of him and curls up at his side, pressed in close, her head resting on his shoulder. The bedroll is a little uncomfortable, but she doesn't mind, instead focusing on the feeling of his arm around her waist. "We ought to have brought the picnic in with us," she says, unbothered. "Now one of us shall have to get dressed if we want more of it."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Oh, I am brave enough to manage," he says, lightly.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"My valiant knight," she smiles, but the smile is (admittedly) a little shaky, as the warmth suffusing the tent starts to contend with the chill on the air outside. It's already become quite clear that this is one of their couplings that has resulted in her feeling particularly clingy, loathe to be apart from him. It's a reaction to sex that she would have considered uncharacteristic a year ago, and she's still not entirely certain what to make of the shift toward this sort of response.

Perhaps, in this moment, it's that she's overwhelmed by the counterpoint of the clarity and depth of her feelings for him and the muddled complexity of her feelings about this time of the year. She takes a deep breath and snuggles closer.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot shifts to wrap both arms around her, kissing her hair. "Brave enough," he says, "for anything thou dost bid me."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She manages an impish smile at that. "Anything, eh?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Aye, Susan," kissing her forehead. "Anything. I love thee so well."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh," she says, breath catching, eyelashes fluttering. It's not a surprise, of course; he says such things often. But it still takes her aback sometimes. She tilts her face towards his. "Then perhaps I might bid one more kiss?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"That, my lady, is simple," pulling her closer yet, kissing her with focused intent.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I love you," she sighs, when she finally breaks the kiss and settles back against his chest. "You make everything so much better."

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot keeps her close, shamelessly cuddling her. "I am glad. That is my dearest wish."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It occurs to me," she starts, and then stops - it's a thought tonally inconsistent with their date.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Softly, as he runs a hand along her back, "Say on, sweet."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It's only... I'm older than Peter, now. And I'm very nearly older than Edmund ever got to be, even in Narnia." Lucy goes without saying, but Lancelot was there when Susan aged past Lucy's oldest point; he read the letters she wrote.

[lanselos_du_lac]

He presses a kiss to her hair, holding her close and rubbing her arm. "I imagine that not thinking on it is not possible," quietly, "but with me thou mayest say anything that is on thy heart."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, my heart, I know I may." She tucks her arm across his chest. "This is something I do try not to dwell upon."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I agree thou shouldst not dwell on it," nuzzling her again, "but thou shouldst not ignore it. That is the advice thou wouldst give to me."