Who: Lucy and Jonathan When: Saturday 11th July Where: Park What: Lunch and meeting the new puppy Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
Lucy was sat on a picnic blanket in the park waiting for Jonathan, she’d suggested meeting there so that she could meet the new puppy and they could enjoy the nice weather. The pup could also then run around when he needed to. She had a full picnic basket and a bottle of lemonade as well as dog biscuits and water. Lucy was nothing if not prepared.
Raising her hand to her mouth she covered a yawn, her body was still adjusting to working late and she still wasn’t sure how to handle weekends so she was finding herself more sleepy while she struggled to adjust. While at work she was fine but the days she wasn’t tended to be when things caught up with her.
The park was a good place for Felix to run around in, and Jonathan was looking forward to meeting up with Lucy outside of the confines of the Romanian consulate and her desk which was conveniently three feet away from Vlad’s office. It seemed like all their hours had been weird lately, especially with Jonathan having switched back to working days while Vlad worked nights, during the time when he needed space to hammer out what the dreams had done to him. However, he was a bit better now, so Jonathan wrenched himself back into a later working schedule - honestly, he was used to the strangeness. Rather, it was due to being such a diligent law student dependent on the ambrosia known as caffeine. Study, study, study.
But at the moment he could relax a little, and after he changed into one of the few pairs of jeans he had and a t-shirt, he took Felix for a car ride - which the pup liked quite a bit. Then, leash clipped on him, he satisfied the requirements of looking fat with his tongue lolling out when he practically dragged Jonathan along into the wild blue yonder.
“Felix,” he laughed, approaching Lucy on the blanket. “...sorry, he must smell food.” And another person - he was excited to greet Lucy, wandering into her space to receive an abundance of attention and in turn give many puppy kisses. “Intinde-te,” he told the dog in Romanian, who promptly got settled, less zealous, but tail stump still wriggling with joy.
“Hey Felix” Lucy laughed as the puppy wandered over to her and she made a fuss of him, thanking him for the kisses he was bestowing on her. “You are so cute” she said, still fussing over him even as he calmed a little. “What did you say to him?” she asked curiously before standing to give him a hello hug, feeling a little freer to do so outside work.
“It’s good to see you” she said honestly, as they settled down on the picnic blanket.
“I just told him to lie down,” Jonathan grinned, returning the hug, then managing to get all 6’2 of him on the blanket and settled too - soon he’d have a furball in his lap, most likely, but for now he gave Felix a bone to gnaw on and that would distract him, holding his attention for a few minutes. Hopefully. “He knows mostly Romanian commands, but a few English ones too.” Ieși, or the ever-popular ‘get out,’ had more of an effect coming from Vlad when it was nighttime and Felix didn’t want to leave the comforts of human people bed. But then again, Vlad was always more stern anyway.
Then Flubber was given a scratch behind the ears, fondly, as he chewed and attacked the tasty bone. Nom, nom, nom - probably felt nice on puppy teeth and gums. “It’s good to see you too,” Jonathan added. “How have you been? I feel like everything’s just ridiculous and we never get a break.”
“Intinde-te” she repeated with a slight wince as she thought she may have mangled the accent, “It’s a lovely language. Or it sounds nice when you say it anyway” she told him.
She watched the puppy chew on the bone looking as happy as he could possibly be, she loved Aslan but he was an older set in his ways cat. Dogs seemed to be younger for longer and definitely had more love of playing. “It’s taking me a while to get used to working later” she admitted, adding quickly, “I don’t mind I just need to work out what to do on weekends without my body clock messing up. I’m glad you’re back to working later, I missed you when you weren’t. Not many other people visit the office very regularly”
Jonathan chuckled a little. “Not bad,” he complimented Lucy. “Work at the consulate for a little longer and you’ll start picking up more Romanian. It’s an interesting language though.” To really get the accent right you had to sound like...well, like Dracula. Heh.
He understood how difficult it was to figure out what to do with yourself on weekends, however, when you were working later hours. “Honestly, I think the best thing to do is just to keep the same schedule even if your social life takes a few hits,” he said. “Unless you force yourself to stay up all day on Friday or something, to accommodate, but that’s a drawback because then you just feel like crap the whole weekend.” Either way, binge sleeping on the weekends screwed you up - he definitely wouldn’t recommend it.
“I’ll pay more attention to the boss and see what else I can pick up” Lucy said with a wink, though it wasn’t a bad idea. She’d quite like to know a little more, it would be fun. Especially if she surprised Vlad with it.
Lucy nodded, “I think my social life can take the hit since I don’t have much of one anyway” Lucy said with a smile, “But I’ll give it a go, thanks Jonathan. It sounds so simple now you’ve said it” she admitted slightly embarrassed.
“No? You have to have more of a social life than I do. Or did. I don’t know, it’s probably picked up a little,” Jonathan smiled reassuringly at Lucy, right as Felix decided to see what was what here on the blanket. He abandoned the bone he’d chewed and drooled on in favor of poking that little black nose into the picnic basket, sniffing around, sniff sniff, his butt wiggling with pure unadulterated puppy joy because this was foooood. Not for him, but food all the same.
The sight made Jonathan sigh with feigned exasperation, and he nudged Fattie Harker-Dracul away gently since it was rude to just go barging in. “Sorry, I guess he has typical uncouth American manners, or lack of,” the lawyer-to-be joked. “I’ve been reading a lot of puppy psychology books which Vlad makes fun of me for, but oh well.” It was educational. And Jonathan basically read whenever he could - if he didn’t have his face stuck in a book, someone should probably call 911.
“I have some good friends, but I’m not really the party sort of girl anyway” Lucy said before laughing at Felix when he decided to explore the smells. “That’s okay, he’s a lot more well behaved than some” Lucy said, “Aren’t you? Hmm?” she added to the puppy as she reached out to stroke him, laughing when he rolled over so she could rub his tummy.
“Don’t worry, when Felix only listens to you he’ll regret laughing at you” Lucy teased with a grin, thought she couldn’t imagine anybody not listening to her boss. He had that air about him. “Have you picked up any good tips?” she asked, stroking the puppy one last time before using a wet wipe to clean her hands so she could unpack the picnic for them.
Oh no, a belly rub. That pretty much meant Lucy was Felix’s new best friend now. He would gladly accept such generous offerings, fat paws in the air and a shit-eating puppy grin on his face. Yes, see, much better behaved than some - he was even potty trained! Such a good boy. They’d have to take him to get him fixed soon too, which was going to be a delightful experience for the poor little chub.
And of course Jonathan used a wet wipe or two as well - the OCD wouldn’t allow for anything otherwise - and he said, “Next time you’ll have to let me make lunch, or whatever else. I’m actually not bad in a kitchen.” Contrary to what certain snobs also teased him about. “I’ve learned a lot about critical stages in Felix’s growth, however,” he went on. “The dog’s at the age where he’s testing his position in the family unit. It’s arguably the most important stage, the foundation for everything. The idea is to give him brief experiences in new surroundings, to get him acclimated to all sorts of situations.” Yep, Mr. Harker was a nerd, what of it.
Lucy had to admit that one of the sweetest things she’d ever seen had to be the way the puppy lay there simply enjoying the fuss. He was absolutely adorable but then so was his dad. When Jonathan started telling her about stages of doggie development she could see why Vlad had been teasing him. Though she found it very sweet. He was a nerd but he was a cute one.
“Ah so now is the time to be shown that you and Vlad are in charge” Lucy grinned, wondering how exactly that was going. “But new places is a good idea, make sure nothing new scares him in future or anything”
“Something like that. Though I think Felix already knows who is the softer one,” Jonathan admitted sheepishly. Then again, Vlad was the one who constantly fed him snooty organic treats and took him for walks at two in the morning while Jonathan slept. He really loved and spoiled this ridiculous dog, it was actually heartwarming to see.
And speaking of treats, Felix had discovered the ones Lucy bought - he had a radar for them, it seemed, and was enthusiastically digging for the goodies. Jonathan wouldn’t give him one yet, not without a sta in Romanian, which got him to sit. After that came a, “spune vă rog,” and the puppy made an adorable little rumbling sound. “That was him saying please,” Jonathan gave Felix the treat. Nomnomnom!
Then he went about pouring cups of lemonade for the humans. “Well! You’ll have to tell me what’s new with you. Anything not work related?” Now that they had a minute, before the next OC disaster.
“That’s because he’s a clever pup” Lucy said with a grin at the animal in question, she would totally be the soft one too. He was too cute for his own good. She chuckled as he hunted for the goodies, and she silently repeated the commands when Jonathan said them. It was almost too adorable. “Oh my god, that just might be the cutest thing I have honestly ever seen” and since there were talking animals in her dreams that said a lot.
“I’ve had some new dreams, it’s kind of like I’ve reached the end of a story. We won the battle and stayed in Narnia for years and forgot all about our lives back home” she told him, it had really been fascinating.
“Oh, right, Queen Lucy.” That made Jonathan smile - he thought it was amusing, her royal status. Especially since she said that she hadn’t been born into the role of a monarch, but rather...chosen? It was quite fascinating, and besides, he enjoyed hearing about the dreams of others - a bonus, if they weren’t dripping with horror and gore the way his were. Most of the time, he wanted out of his own but there was no way to stop them. You just had to hang on for the ride.
Felix went back to his bone, which meant that the grownups could probably eat something before the puppy demanded attention again, and for someone to likely toss a stick for him to chase. Jonathan would take the respite. “Honestly, I don’t blame you. I’d forget about my life too, if it was between that and Narnia. I’m sure you had many successful years of your reign.”
Lucy actually sometimes felt kind of guilty that her dreams were, mostly, rather pleasant. Yes, there was fighting and trouble but it was never truly worrying. There was a good feeling to them, that good would always conquer evil. But Jonathan didn’t seem to mind hearing about them, even teased her sometimes which amused her.
Moving the plate of sandwiches, mini quiches and a bag of crisps between them she smiled, “Actually we did, until we came across the lampost near the wardrobe, we went through it and all the years we’d spent in Narnia had only been hours in the real world but when we tried to go back we couldn’t. The wardrobe didn’t work anymore” which was a little sad really.
Oh, that was sad. “Kind of like growing up, or something along those lines?” Jonathan said, picking out one of the sandwiches. He was hungry, more so than he originally thought. “But at least you got the experiences you did. All those great stories, to tell your children and grandchildren.” If Lucy ever had any, of course. But he was a firm believer that just because the dreams ended, that didn’t necessarily mean the story itself was over. It continued on, as most things did - carrying forward over lifetimes and lifetimes.
Lucy nodded, “Yeah I guess so. I’m hoping that’s not the very end of it. I have a feeling they haven’t finished so I’m holding onto that hope” she smiled. She liked her dreams and didn’t want to not ever see Narnia again. “Oh I definitely have some stories to tell. It’s not often you get to be in a war with your leading General being a talking lion” She picked up a sandwich herself, she’d made them fresh that morning but the cookies she’d picked up from the bakery.
A talking lion? Well, yes, that seemed to be a once in a lifetime thing. Or perhaps Lucy would encounter her General Lion here too - stranger things had happened. “Hope’s not a bad thing to hang onto, even if sometimes it’s not easy to hold onto it,” Jonathan pointed out. “But your story does seem far from over. So I’ll cross my fingers for you too, and you’ll keep me updated.”
He liked hearing about the mythical, almost fantastical setting her dreams took place in. And in a way, in was inspiring too - because hope all too easily slipped through his own fingers sometimes. A little reminder to not give up on such concepts never hurt.