Susan Pevensie & Same Winchester December 12th | Ski Trip Shenanigans a random meeting + a little unexpected mistletoe
RATING: PG | Warnings: None of note
Christmastime was one of Susan’s absolute favourite times of year. Between the music, the food, the lights, and especially the time with family it all made for such a wonderful time. Honestly, the longer she stayed around the less eager she felt to get back to London. So far the ski trip had been rather enjoyable. She intended to join her brother and some others at the Charleston dance event later that day, but for now she enjoyed a little Susan time by exploring the Lockwood Gallery for some art. Having been in the future, let alone this future, for some time now she had gotten used to different variations of what others considered art. She had learned to appreciate the differences in what she found.
Susan sipped at a glass of eggnog, because let’s face it that’s the drink of the season and Susan would enjoy this time off.
Sam smiled as he spotted Susan, who’d clearly had the same idea as he had. Coming on the ski trip had seemed like a good way to get to know the people he was stuck in this strange future with better and he had jumped at a chance to visit this gallery while they were here. He was curious to see how art had changed in the last few centuries.
“It’s Susan, right?” he greeted her. Getting used to the fact that the likes of Captain American and the Pevensies were here was really something, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen his own share of weird back home. Or like there weren’t books and whatever else about him and Dean out there.
While everything had been positively strange for her at the beginning, she had grown more accustomed to odd events. Especially having to go through the process of remembering that these very odd things had been a very important part of hers and her siblings lives when they were only children. Where she once thought it was all play and games, once her own memory was jogged, she continued to feel immense regret for how she had treated her siblings, particularly Lucy. All she could do was make up for it.
A world in which so many different characters could be real could be overwhelming, Susan understood that. Perhaps if she had remembered her time in Narnia before coming here it would have eased the process just a little. Susan offered a polite smile when she heard her name. Turning toward the voice, she nodded, “Yes. Susan Pevensie. You’re Sam, right?” Susan may not always respond to the new arrivals due to her work schedule, but she did keep track of who was there.
Luckily for Sam, he was used to a lot of really weird things. Time travel, alternate realities, none of it was really new or surprising for him. What he wasn’t used to was being stuck somewhere for an extended amount of time without Dean. That was the part of this that felt the strangest, being here without his brother. He couldn’t help but envy the Pevensies for having each other if he let himself think about it.
He had to admit, though, that it was really good to be in a world without monsters, save the human variety. Sam had read back through enough of the news to know everything wasn’t sunshine and roses here, but he would have been more suspicious of a place that seemed perfect, anyway. Dealing with this kind of bullshit still seemed easier than the life he and Dean had back home. Here, there were no demons, no monsters. That was going to take some getting used to.
He nodded to Susan’s question. “Yeah,” he answered. “Sam Winchester.”
It was certainly an advantage to have a history and experience in the land of the odd. Susan hadn’t always remembered her own experiences in Narnia due to her own lack of faith. It was what had eventually blocked her from ever returning. Being able to have her siblings around was the greatest blessing Susan could ever ask for. She never truly felt complete without them.
Susan offered a pleasant smile and reached out her hand to shake his. “Pleasure to meet you, Sam. I trust you’re getting along just fine around here? It can be very strange for a time. Sometimes people don’t ever accept what’s happened, unfortunately.”
Sam nodded. “I have a lot of experience with weird,” he offered, “so this isn’t really that crazy compared to everything else.” His and Dean’s lives weren’t like other people’s and he knew that. He knew people would probably be just as weirded out by their everyday lives as they were about this whole situation. It made it pretty easy to take this all in stride.
“You’ve been here a while, right?” He’d heard the Pevensies had been among the first to be woken up, especially compared to most of the others here.
Susan chuckled and smiled with a little nod. “This is certainly not the strangest for myself and my siblings. It’s difficult to beat talking animals.” Had it not been for the help of her brothers and sister, Lucy in particular, Susan might have never truly remembered Narnia. Susan was the least likely to join in silliness or games, but she made room for it here.
Nodding, Susan responded, “Five years this month.” She shook her head and released a heavy sigh of disbelief, “I can’t believe it’s been that long. I don’t know if I would have survived without my brothers and sister.”
That part was harder for Sam to wrap his head around. Five years was a very long time to be away from home like this. “Five years. That’s really hard to imagine,” he admitted. He was sure having her siblings around had helped, but it was hard to imagine staying in one place for so long, with or without Dean. That just wasn’t what their lives were like, but he thought it did sound kind of nice.
“My brother and I moved around a lot,” he said. “Even growing up, I don’t think we were ever in one place even for 5 months, let alone 5 years.” There were some places they’d stayed longer than others, but Sam’s sense of home had never really been in a place. It had been Dean, mostly. Even their dad hadn’t been around much.
It was one, possibly selfish, reason Susan never wanted to return home. Back home, her siblings were gone. But being here… she knew they were safe. Well, as safe as they could be in this world. This place certainly came with its dangers, they’d learned that well enough over the years. “Looking back to the beginning, it was difficult. The transition and my brothers and sister helping me remember Narnia and the overall culture shock. I’ve come to prefer it here.”
“Were your parents in the military?” she asked curiously. She understood military families tended to move around a lot due to assignment changes. It wasn’t that different in her own childhood. Children had been ushered off to the countryside to keep them safe from the attacks. It was what had sent the Pevensie children on an adventure of a lifetime.
Sam shook his head. “They were hunters.” It was a simplified explanation for a more complicated story. “In my world, all the things that go bump in the night, the things you think are just stories made up to scare kids are actually real.” He didn’t think that would be a big shock after being here, but he had learned quickly that not all supernatural beings were created equal. “They’re not like some of the people here. In my world, they’re pretty much straight up monsters. My family hunts them. We protect people. It’s kind of our family business.”
He knew that explanation had left out a lot, but how much of his crazy life did she really want to know? He wasn’t going to put all of that on someone he barely knew.
As Susan listened to his family’s story, or at least a part of it, she nodded here and there. Actual monsters weren’t something in every world, she was well aware of that after all this time. Narnia had had its fair share of monsters, both real and figurative. They had taken many shapes back there. In her world outside of Narnia monsters took the form of people who meant to harm others, just as they did in this world. Susan smiled, “That’s an honorable family trade,” she said with a little nod.
A short moment passed before the mistletoe showed up. It was like magic, and honestly Susan wouldn’t have been surprised if someone in their group had cast a spell that made mistletoe appear out of thin air. She wasn’t sure if that was the case or if it had been there the entire time. Susan studied the little bundle a moment before stating, “It is tradition.” A moment later she took a step forward and kissed Sam’s cheek before offering a smile. There was no denying he was quite handsome, but Susan didn’t go around kissing boys she’d only just met. A kiss on the cheek was perfectly innocent.
Sam couldn’t help but smile back at her as Susan stepped forward to kiss his cheek. “Who am I to argue with tradition?” he asked, gesturing at a nearby coffee cart. “How do you feel about coffee?” He found he liked talking to her and he was hoping she’d let him buy her a coffee so they could sit down and talk some more.
With a little blush tinging her cheeks, Susan glanced at the cart before nodded. “I’ve found I like it a lot more than I used to. I’d love some.” She smiled again before beginning toward the cart. She couldn’t help feeling relieved none of her siblings had been around to witness any of this. Susan was certain she would never hear the end of it.