called_lioness | (no subject)

As he does, eventually, smelling slightly of the stables and with wind-tossed hair that suggests he'd taken the Hope out for a night sail on the lake. Casting a smile at her, he shrugs out of his shirt and heads to wash his face.

His voice drifts out over the sound of running water.

"Hullo, Lu. Had a nice day?"

"Rather," she calls back, and stands, walking over to the bathroom to lean against the wall and watch him.

"You?"

"Quite," he says, drying his face off and blinking away some soap that had gotten in his face.

"I've been meaning to get Mal out for a sail. I really ought to talk to him about it before the summer starts to close."

"You should," she agrees.

"But first we should talk, before my sister drives me mad asking me about our wedding."

"All right," he says, and turns to go back into the room, taking her hand and leading her back with him, sitting on the bed and pulling her down next to him.

"I admit to being not terribly surprised that Susan was asking." He grins, and a few light freckles show scattered across the tan of his nose and cheekbones.

"I was shocked," she says, seriously, before grinning.

"So." And for a moment, she looks a little helpless.

"What...what do you think weddings are like, anyway? I don't know. I mean, for you. My knowledge of Narnian weddings is a thousand years older than yours."

"Lu," he says, laughing, "my wedding was a huge affair, with a week-long party, I hardly have any idea what a normal, traditional wedding might be, though I went to a few smaller ones. And Susan's."

He shrugs one shoulder, slightly, and grins at her with a hint of ruefulness.

"And that really isn't the sort of thing I want here, with you. I'm not sure--what have the weddings been like that you've been to?"

"I don't--Adam's and Alanna's was unusual. Other's...generally in a church, but I don't want that. Even if we could."

She looks a little ashamed at that, for a moment, before it passes.

"I just--vows and rings and a cleric, generally, in England. In Narnia, of course, they were different."

"Rings!"

He looks embarrassed.

"I'd forgotten--I'm sorry, Lu," he murmurs, rubbing at the back of his neck. "They weren't part of it in Narnia--we exchanged garlands, instead--though I remember Edmund telling me about the one he gave Kitty, when--

"And Susan and Cuthbert had them too. I'm sorry, Lu," he says, again, slightly crestfallen.

"Stop that."

His hand's pulled from his neck into her lap and held in both of hers.

"Why on earth would you be sorry?"

"Well, I..." he begins, and then meets her eyes, and laughs.

"All right. I'm just sorry I didn't think of it being a custom you know. Besides, we can have rings at the wedding, if we like."

"We could have garlands, too. No reason not to. But what were the customs, then? You see? I don't know." She looks a little crest-fallen at this.

"I'll tell you about England if you tell me about Narnia."

He lifts his hands, a little helplessly.

"Besides the garlands? Oh, I suppose it isn't all that different in the basics...there were vows, and I stood with Drinian. But it wasn't in a chapel," he remembers. "It was outside, in the orchard, in the springtime, and the trees were all in bloom. Her father married us."

Pauses. "Though that was a little different, I remember. Most weddings hadn't any sort of celebrant, now I think of it."

Lucy blinks.

And looks at him.

"None at all?"

"Who would they have had?" he asks, simply. "The Lion?"

She rubs her jaw, a little, and tries not to look to troubled.

"I suppose not. I'd say you could've, but you had far more Men in your time than there were in ours. Do you--well, do you want a celebrant at ours?"

He looks a little uncertain.

"Well..."

And tries not to bring his hand back up to his neck.

"Whom would we have? Is there anyone...?"

Though he is thinking of one, and wonders if it might be possible.

"Adam offered," she says brightly.

It's a joke.

Laugh, Caspian.

"Su'll never let me hear the end of it, if we don't have one," she adds, more seriously.

He really does get the joke.

Really.

A few seconds too late, but eventually!

"If it's important," he says bypassing the comment altogether, "we'll have one, Lu. We just need to find someone for it."

"Adam did offer," she admits, "but I'm not certain that's a wise decision. And I'd rather have him do something else instead."

She looks a little sheepish as she says that, as she's already asked Adam to do something else.

"It's important," Lucy says, finally. "Do you think--do you think Aslan might?"

Caspian looks across the room at the admittedly very uninteresting wall, and shakes his head.

"I don't know," he admits. "If he were here--but we couldn't just expect him to be here."

A small smile.

"He's not a tame Lion."

"No, not tame."

And she smiles as she says it.

"But we could ask."

"Aye," he says, and reaches out for her hand to twine their fingers together, smiling back.

"We could."

"Then we will," she says, simply.

And then winces, a little, at the thought of Adam and Aslan meeting.

"Er. I--asked Adam to give me away."

"Ah," Caspian says, uselessly, after attempting to come up with something better and failing miserably.

"Well. That's good, then."