milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Eustace enters from outside, shaking snow off his hair, cheerful and red-cheeked. He heads for the Bar for tea, and then for the fire.

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Amy blinks. "Horribly embarassing names for Caspian?" she asks. "Why do I suddenly suspect there's a story here?"

". . .Well, because turnabout is fair play, and he said you're good at names, too. . ."

Eustace does not want to admit his nickname.

"Did he?"

She tends to call Caspian . . . well, 'Caspian.' And 'dear my lord brother,' but mostly when she's teasing him.

"And what exactly are you turning about?" she asks, and oh but that smile is full of mischief.

A beat, and she adds. "Or I suppose I could ask Caspian . . ."

He sighs.

"Well, when we were on the Dawn Treader, we landed on the Lone Islands and got captured by these slave traders. This was before the whole dragon thing, you understand. And, well, I was rather a prat those days, and. . ."

He pushes a hand into his hair and sighs again. "Sulky, all right?"

Eustace has really bad luck with the whole name thing.

Amy, to her credit, manages to keep an almost straight face.

Key word being "almost."

But at least she doesn't laugh.

"Oh, we'll have to think of something to turn that about," she says. "I'm just not sure what."

"Nor can I," he admits.

Thinking face. Forehead all wrinkled. No good icon for that, though.

"Well, have you ever seen him do anything embarassing that's nickname worthy?"

"Nothing springs to mind, no.

". . .X?"

It takes Amy a second, because that joke is hard to get when you hear it that when you see it.

And then she giggles. "That might work," she says.

He smiles. "Doesn't have the same ring as Sulky. Even I'll admit that."

"Well, no. But it has the advantage of still being applicable. So he can't really object."

He laughs. "It does, at that."

"I think I rather like it," she says, decidedly.

"And if that fails, you can ask him about his horse, which could prove suitably embarassing."

There is intrigued eyeing.

"His horse?"

Amy nods. "Not Kiseki, his other horse."

Beat.

"Killer."

". . .Killer."

Amy nods again, and if Caspian were here, he'd probably find the smile a little alarming.

"Killer," she repeats. "His warhorse."

As Caspian is not here, Eustace takes the mischief in her eyes as a good sign.

"Yes? What sort of warhorse?"

Caspian would probably now find the smile more than a little alarming.

"A pink one."

Beat.

"About so tall." She indicates the appropriate height for a My Little Pony.

Another beat.

"With glitter."

"..."

Eustace breaks down laughing.

Eventually -- ". . .pink?"

"Pink. With a green mane and tail."

Amy actually has a perfectly straight face. Through a great deal of effort, but perfectly straight.

"He was a gift."

Eustace tries, once, to school his face into some semblance of seriousness.

And then she says "green mane and tail" and he loses it again.

"From who, may I ask?"

"Me," she says, and her tone implies that that should be the single most obvious thing in any world.

Also, the straight face? Pretty much gone.

"Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."

Said between laughs.

"Well, he had told me he wanted a horse of his own. And then someone gave it to me, and I didn't want a horse, especially, so . . ."

Amy's eyes are actually starting to water from all the laughing.