Who: Cristóbal Pérez and Nathan Lazarus What: Two kings of Narnia finally duel. Where: Camelot training rooms When: Thursday, October 26; afternoon Warnings: TBD but most likely none Note: Feel free to assume that any Camelot characters you have could have come to watch, since I'm sure gossip spread.
Cris had been waiting for this duel for half a year but it felt like it had been a lifetime since Nate had announced himself to Camelot Combats as the reincarnate of Peter Pevensie and Cris had fumbled his way into a challenge. It hadn't been exactly how he'd meant to greet the man but once they'd started talking it was like his brain had leaked out of his ears and suddenly he'd found himself announcing that they were in some sort of competition before stumbling forward with ridiculous bravado and absolutely no idea what he was doing. He hadn't gotten any better at talking to him since then either. Nate was a real combat veteran, someone who knew what he was doing while Cris still felt like a giant pretender even with all the practice he'd gotten since joining Camelot. He'd never seen anything more intense than the training exercises that they did. Even the duel that he'd challenged Nate to was all just pretend. They wouldn't really hurt each other.
It hadn't helped at all that Nate was just as handsome as Cris had always imagined a High King of Narnia would be. He'd have been a bit starstruck no matter what Nate had looked like but this was worse than that. He thought he'd kept it well-hidden; no one had teased him about his hero worship anyway which meant that either they were being mercifully kind (which didn't sound like Scott) or he'd kept it tucked as close to his chest as he'd been trying to. There were small favors at least even if Cris would have preferred it if meeting Nate hadn't felt like a punch in the gut in the first place. At least facing him like this wouldn't mean talking to him. It was the talking where Cris always found himself really tripped up and he couldn't even blame the fact that English was his second language for all of it. A little at least but not the fact that he seemed to have no control over what he said when Nate was involved.
He took an easy stance with his sword in the guard position while he waited for Nate to be ready. Maybe after this was done Cris would be able to start acting normally around the other man. There wouldn't be anything hanging between the two of them at least. That had to help something. He and Nate could just be coworkers instead of coworkers with a promise of something between them, even if that something was only a duel and even if it was only hanging between them in Cris's head. Nate probably only saw it as a funny challenge. A joke. Cris saw it as... he didn't know, actually. All he knew was that he wanted badly to prove to Nate that he could beat him.
Of course since it was Camelot word had spread like wildfire. Cris had expected to see some of their own department come to watch. Most of them even. He tried not to make it too obvious that he was scanning the crowd for Ángel. As much as it would make him feel better to see whether Ángel approved of his stance after all the footwork that he'd practiced with Cris, he needed to look confident. He needed to look like he knew what he was doing and not like a child whose heart was thundering in his chest just knowing that there was a chance that all of these people would see him fail horribly. Even if Cris didn't win he needed to put on a better show than he was sure he was capable of and suddenly he wasn't sure at all that this was actually a good idea. It was too late to back out now though. Backing out now would just make it even more obvious that Cris didn't think that he could do it.
"Not too late to forfeit," he called out to Nate. He'd worried that the sound of Juárez in his voice would be thick enough to choke him but Cris's accent was crisper than he'd ever heard himself before. For a moment he hoped that Ángel, who sounded like home, wasn't there to hear him trying to sound as American as the man on the other side of the training ring. "No one would think any less of you." Nate wouldn't know that Cris was talking to himself, advice that he was just as likely to take as Nate was. It was too late when they were in the ring with a crowd gathering no matter how much Cris realized now that he hadn't been ready to be the center of so much attention. That wasn't very kingly though; he pulled himself up a little straighter and held his head a little higher. If he did a good enough job posing maybe they would all believe it.