(no subject)

[last_adam]

Adam lays in the bed at Crowley's flat, bruised and battered. The girl- Lucy, it was Lucy who'd helped him here. Lucy had tried her drink again, and it hadn't just tasted bad this time, it had burned. Burned all the way down, and Adam choked and begged her to bring him here.

He knows he's alive- most of the time, anyway. But it hurts to breathe, and it hurts to move, and it hurts to be. But he is.

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[last_adam]

He nods, carefully.

"Better."

And this time, there's a definite smile on his face, before the pain.

[called_lioness]

She winces for him before kissing his forehead. "I wish I could do something."

[last_adam]

He manages to get out a quiet

"Are 'ready"

before disolving into a coughing fit.

[called_lioness]

"Not really." She feels helpless, rather, as she smoothes his hair again. "I--I could get you something to drink, or tell you a story, or get you a blanket, or...a radio, if there is one..."

[last_adam]

He opens his eyes to look at her.

"Water... story?"

He lets Lucy's hand go reluctantly, and watches her until she reaches the kitchen. When she's returned, he's very painstakingly moved so that there's just enough room for her to stretch out.

[called_lioness]

She glares at him for moving even as she stretches out next to him and hands him the water carefully. "What sort of story would you like?"

[last_adam]

He carefully sips from the glass, and manages to get some in his mouth, with only a little down his front before handing the glass back to Lucy.

He turns and smiles at her.

"Story ... you"

[last_adam]

Adam laughs, and when he does, there are tears coming from his eyes.

"Beautiful Queen Lucy knocks Dashing King Edmund into the river. How noble."

[called_lioness]

She smiles slightly. "Well, Susan was really the beautiful one. Which isn't to say that I wasn't pretty or anything, mind, but she had...an air, I suppose, to her. Much more elegant and such than I was. And I was all of thirteen at the time, mind." And then her smile turned into a grin. "And he looked hilarious when I did, anyway."

[last_adam]

"You are."

[called_lioness]

She looks down for a moment, blushing slightly, before, quietly, "Thank you." Then, "But it was fun, yes. Most time in Narnia was, really. Not that a lot of it wasn't hard work, too. And not that all of it was fun. Some of it was rather horrible. But overall...it was lovely."

[last_adam]

He smiles at her, and when he speaks, his voice is a little stronger.

"Sounds nice."

[called_lioness]

"It was. I missed it when we came back. Mostly the people, really. The friends we had. But I wouldn't have made any of the others I have since then, if we hadn't left, so I suppose it worked out well for me." She eyes him. "Do you want more water?"

[last_adam]

He nods, and tries to prop himself up before taking the water again. It hurts to move, but he feels like an invalid laying on his back.

After he's done with the water, he's almost able to speak in a clear voice, although it's still quite quiet.

"Too nice to me."

[called_lioness]

"Not really." She sets the water aside again and pulls her knees up slightly, resting the side of her head on them as she looks at him. "Just nice enough, maybe."

[last_adam]

Adam sighs, leaning his head back against the wall, and letting it slide a bit to the side, so that it's lightly propped against Lucy's shoulder.

"M'I nice to you?"

[called_lioness]

She smiles just a bit and carefully and lightly puts an arm around him. "Yes. You are."

[last_adam]

He nods, tiredly.

"Need to be."

There's a pause, and his breathing evens out. He hasn't fallen asleep, though.

"Talked to your brother today. Before... before. He did his drawing."

[called_lioness]

"That's right. It's Thursday. I'd forgotten." Her fingers carefully brush at one section of his hair. "Was it a nice talk?"

[last_adam]

"The pictures came out nice. He's talented."

The feeling of her fingers running through his hair is soothing, he leans into her shoulder a little more.

"He told me that you talked to him about me."

[called_lioness]

"He is," she agrees, then pauses for a moment.

I'm going to kill him.

"Yes," she agrees, "I did."

[last_adam]

"He wouldn't tell me what you said, though."

[called_lioness]

She smiles slightly. "Good. I needn't yell too much at him then."

[called_lioness]

Lucy sets the glass on the nightstand before looking back at him, thinking. "The third summer we were in Narnia--the first time, I mean, of course--Peter received his first marriage proposal. Which was rather a shock to us all, really, for all we should have suspected it, because...well, we were rather used to the idea of being rulers by then, but we weren't quite finished thinking of ourselves as just children, too, even if no one else treated us like them. But...well, really, we weren't even before that, you know. Peter stopped being a child when he killed the Witch's wolf, and Edmund when he helped kill the Witch," and perhaps before, but Edmund's secrets aren't hers to tell, and she shan't, "and Susan and I...Susan and I watched the Witch kill Aslan. And I don't think you can really be a child after that.

"But it was nice to pretend still. Sometimes, anyway. So at the end of the summer, the four of us went out hiking, which probably wasn't very monarch-like of us, but no one objected, either. And I knocked Edmund into the river, and the naiads came out and played with us. It was really quite fun."