Author: SunriseRooftops
Disclaimer: All rights to their respective owners, I own nothing!
A/N: So, these two have become my personal favourite lately and this is the latest in my quest for more Robin/Susan shipping out there! :D
When I write Narnia, I follow the movies – partly because it makes making art and videos all the easier for the stories, and partly because the characters are older and can be put into all sorts of contexts.
This is a one-shot, a very long one (sorry!) and if you manage to finish reading it, I'd love a review.
-Sun
The full account of a once-in-a-lifetime-love-story
by Susan Pevensie
I was on the ground, the guard circling me. I was breathing heavily, trying to get away from him, when he shifted; suddenly the horse on the other side of me, his clothes different. I no longer heard the horse I had sent Lucy off on, but instead I saw someone come running down a hill. Crawling right up against a log, I was about to panic – the quiver on my back did me no good when my bow was several feet away.
But he stopped, the man running down the hill, he stopped and he picked up the bow, pulled an arrow from a tree and he aimed at the man on horseback. He screamed a name, the man on the horse did, but somehow the name was just another thing that was out of place to me right then. He came forward, a hand at the hilt of his sword and he pulled it. The man on the horse however, as the rest of the armoured men, they seemed to hurry to get out of there the moment he had aimed my bow at them. He stopped, for a moment, and looked at me before he knelt down on the ground, looking at something.
I knew him not by his confident stride, or his tussled hair, nor was it the way he spoke or looked around him. I couldn't help but wonder if the stories I had been told, if they were all true. The man, kneeling in front of me, picking up the shards of a necklace from the ground, he seemed too familiar for me to be truly comfortable. But still, I felt the smile on my face as I got up off the ground.
He had saved me from the guards, the bandits, as he had called them. With my bow and arrow he had taken them all on, and won merely by showing them what was in his grasp. That's how I truly knew who he was, and where I was. I looked at his brown clothing and felt him take a step towards me as he reached out, handing me my bow.
"You are safe," he declared. I nodded and smiled.
"Yes. I am."
He then looked at me in a way I had never been looked at before. It was a look that searched my face, trying to read my whole body and way of being. I have no clue as to what his initial conclusion was, but he seemed content.
"Thank you," I added, after a mere pause. "For helping. For saving me." There was a rueful smile on his lips, and I could not ignore the fact that for a man who lived off nature, he smelled very good.
He leaned his head in close to mine and whispered. "I am sure we can find some common ground and a way for you to repay me, maid-" The word hung in the air as a question.
"Susan."
"Susan," he said, and then took a few steps back, laughing as he went. He looked over his shoulder at me and that quirky smile struck something in me. "Are you coming, Susan?"
I nodded hurriedly and gathered the few things I had left.
How I had gone from a brawl in Narnia to a forest fight in Locksley, I did not know. But I knew one thing. The man they had called out to as Robin Hood while he fought my battle, he had my eternal respect and admiration. And that was how I, Susan Pevensie, Queen of Narnia, met the legend Robin Hood for the very first time.
I got changed out of my dress at the house of Marion and the old Sheriff, suddenly getting into a dress much like the purple dress I had worn, but shades different in style. The fit was about the same, Marion not much larger in any area than me, and the murky red dress she had given me was similar in colour to the shards of a dress I had been in when Robin brought me there. At first she had been appalled by the very looks of me, but had quickly warmed up when Robin had told her how he happened upon me in the woods, being attacked by the new Sheriff's men. She had shook her head and taken my hand. "This will not do," she had commented and led me up the stairs.
So I changed into the dress and felt a bit fresher, but undoubtedly insecure. I missed my breastplate, the chain-mail and the feeling of being utterly safe. I would go mad in the dresses this woman wore, I would have to see a tailor and see to getting proper dresses sewn up, in my size and style. The bodice didn't fit the way it should, and thought it should not have bothered me, it did.
I left the room that belonged to Marion and went down into the living area. Robin glanced at me, and then fixed his gaze at me in a slightly stunned look. Yet again, he looked at me like no other man had done before. Perhaps it had been his years of war, or his drowning passion for the maid Marion who was being so distant, but something about him made me feel the age I had been when I had left Narnia the first time. Well in my twenties, and no longer a child in any way. I had always been to old for my body, when we returned to London. Here, I guess my age shone through differently.
"You look lovely," Marion commented and I bowed my head in thanks, offering them both a warm and cheerful smile. "Now Robin, what will you do with her?"
"She comes with me," he said, a matter of fact and no discussions about it would be made.
"Robin! She's a girl," Marion protested and I already knew her protests were sullied with double agenda. A girl in such close quarters with the man she secretly loved, as well as me having to put up with living in the forest. 'Tis was time I spoke up.
"Excuse me, but I would much rather enjoy living outside, like I am used to, than be locked up in a house."
I realized it was only half a lie, but when the looks on Robin's face turned into a wide smile and the look on Marion's into complete dissatisfaction, I somehow knew I had made the right choice. It was bad of me to want to gain the affection of an outlaw, but then again, Caspian, whom I a day before had been in the affairs of ignoring, trying to find a way to not like at all, in his way had been an outlaw too. So maybe there was such a thing as being attracted to the 'bad boys' of either world I inhabited. In that moment, I somehow wished London and my life there had been my only worry. But yet again I was a million miles from home, and all I wanted was to sleep out under the stars, the one thing I knew was the same.
We walked.
It was a simple day, the sun shining and the birds chirping, just another run of the mill days for Robin, telling me about his men. Will, Much, Little John, all of them already old friends of mine, since childhood. But he told me things no book ever had brought up, or no legend had ever told me before. How Much hated cheese, but still ate it with great vigour. I was told of Will Scarlet and his family, and all my notions of Will being Robin's half brother were destroyed in mere seconds. A whole lifetime worth of believing shattered by the man himself. What an odd thing. However, Robin Locksley, was one of the most down to earth men I had ever met. Even more so than either of my brothers.
As we passed a bush in full bloom, I watched him run his hand over the petals, the smell swirling against us and I turned, beginning to walk away. But he had stopped.
"The first day I was home, this was in full bloom too. I was quite sure the flowers would have withered by now," he pointed out, and I turned, stood still, then walked closer to him, looked at him as he looked at me. "The day I returned from the Holy land, Susan, seeing this in full bloom, that was the one sign I needed to tell I was truly home."
I smiled at him, but it was a slow and almost sad smile from my part. He laughed, without reason, and I graced the plant with heavy fingers. My whole arm suddenly felt filled with lead. I squinted up at the sun, and he followed my fingers with his eyes, looking down. The feel of the petals was like silk, nothing the flower at home had ever felt like.
He smiled, looking away, hiding his smile as he looked to the ground. But I could see it. Clear as day. And it almost made me want to smile too, but I didn't, I merely pulled back my hand and looked at him with a slightly annoying stare.
"So, how long until we are back where you live?" I asked, starting to walk away from him. He followed, still the smile playing around the corners of his mouth. He wetted his lips, my eyes searching his face for more of that smile.
"Maybe an hours walk," he finally let out, almost scaring me since the silence had settled between us so uncomfortably.
"You have told me of your men," I said, almost mimicking my own Queen self from the days gone by. "Do you wish to tell me the story of you and Marion?"
He laughed, a baffled and somewhat confused laugh that made it easier to be around him. "That story isn't much to tell," he said at the end of the laugh. "I asked her to marry me and we broke it off before I left for the Holy land."
"There's more to each love story," I mumbled, thinking of the façade I had put out of my disdain for Caspian. Still, now, I missed his brown locks and his smile. I almost wished I was back with him. Even though this living legend was proving to be quite the distraction. And when the thought had entered my mind, it didn't willingly leave. Maybe Robin was more than just a slight distraction? His smile had lured a laugh out of me. And these days that was rare.
"Would you marry someone you didn't love?" he asked, taking me very much by surprise.
"What do you mean?" I asked, my brow furrowing and a hand nervously running through my hair.
He sat down by the campfire, and looked at me over the flames. "I loved Marion," he said, giving a soft nod. "But sometimes love just isn't enough."
"Yes, Robin, love is enough," I corrected him. I tried to see what the shadow on his face was, if it was a shadow from the fire or if it was something else entirely.
"It should be," he said sadly, and looked away from me.
In that moment I was glad the other men had already gone to bed. I put down my piece of bread and went around the fire to sit by him. He barely noticed me there, right up next to him, until I put a hand on his shoulder. He flinched and looked surprised to see me quite that close.
"But to answer your question, no, never a man I didn't love."
He looked sad, looking at me with the same shaded eyes.
"What's wrong, Robin?"
"Marion. She's marrying Guy-"
"Oh, Robin, don't worry. She won't go through with it. She loves you."
And seeing the hope in his eyes, already after two short days, it was a soft and slow kind of torture, reminding me of a time when all I had hoped for was Caspian's attention.
I wondered where he was, and what he was doing.
I awoke the next morning to someone singing. It was a horrible sound that cut through the peaceful forest leaving me with a slight ringing in my ears as it stopped. I looked up, until this moment oblivious to the fact that I had fallen asleep by the campfire, and saw Much standing there with a gleeful smile. I rubbed the grainy feeling out of my eyes and smiled back at him, squinting as the sun shone from behind, making him more of a silhouette than a man.
"Mornin'," he chirped happily and I nodded in response.
"Morning."
"So, how 'bout you help me with breakfast?" he said, showing off the plate of things he held. I looked up at him with doubt.
"Is it because I am a woman?" I questioned, and soon the happy laughter of Robin filled the small clearing.
"No. It is because he," he nodded at Much. "Is a rubbish cook."
I laughed, feeling more secure when Robin sat down next to where I was sitting on the ground, only on the log. He had a few inches to his advantage, always making me look up at him.
"You slept so tightly last night, I hadn't the heart to wake ya," he explained, pulling a twig from my hair. He held it up as proof of what he had done and let it go, the small thing falling on the ground next to me.
"It's been a strange few days," I confirmed and he looked at me, giving me a hand as if to help me up to the log, and I took it. Moments later I was perched on the log, next to Robin, helping Much make breakfast. It smelled heavenly.
"So, Susan, where do you come from?" Robin, finally, asked me. What was I supposed to say? Narnia? London? The country? It was all country at this time, even the big cities were country comparing to where I had grown up. Oh lord…
"London," I managed to get out, my voice as shaky as a newborn calf trying to stand. At least I didn't fall head first into the grass…
"Really? You don't sound it," he commented, and those eyebrows almost met in the small space between them. I managed a smile and poked the breakfast, trying to distance myself from the sound of a roaring London in my head. The trains, the cars, the honking, the people and the bikes, the bells and paper boys, it all came screaming back to me. I had forgotten it the moment I set foot on the beach in Narnia along with my sister and brothers, the London I had left behind, the world we so willingly seemed to leave for a place none other knew existed. And here I was, in a land much like my own, only I was centuries ahead of them. So what would be the proper answer for that question; where did I really come from?
"We just moved there," I said, swallowing hard. "From a small farming community just off the coast." It was all lies, but at least I had lived by the coast for all those years I had been a Queen of Narnia. A lump settled in the back of my throat, and I felt tears burning in my eyes. It was most inconvenient, but I bit down, feeling my teeth grind together and I looked at Robin. "I left my mother, sister and two brothers behind to find a new place, somewhere I might find work." Another lie. And they came so easy to me, but telling them to him felt so wrong. "I just wish I knew they were all right." Not a lie. I missed Lucy and her happy face, Edmund and his sour way and Peter's grave way of looking at things. I missed my mother and the way she would talk to us while getting us ready, as well as herself. The tea she made us in the morning, and even though it was the same, the difference in taste it had to the tea she made in the evening. I actually blinked back the tears, one of them still escaping down my cheek. Robin caught it, before it hit my dress, and put his hand over mine.
"I miss my father," he confessed. "I miss my mother too. Losing family, in any way, Susan, isn't supposed to be easy and feel good. They are a part of who you are. And who you were."
If he only knew who I had been, who I was, and who they were, he might not be so understanding. Not that we were evil or unjust, but one war had been fought because of us, and another was about to begin with us at the helm. I shut my eyes and wished for more sleep. I did not yet wish to greet that day so eagerly.
Robin wouldn't let me though. He poked my side and told me the bacon was burning. And so the day was truly on its way…
"Guy wants to see her," Marion breathed heavily, looking from me to Robin.
How had she found us, we had been moving all day!
"What?" Robin asked, his eyebrows riding high into his forehead.
"Guy of Gisborne wants to see Susan."
"How does he even know about me?" I asked, my voice pitching at the end, not entirely my own fault as Robin's tone of voice had unsettled me and the way Marion was breathing and acting, it seemed it was life or death.
"He saw you leave with Robin the other day, he came to call on me only moments after you had left."
"That's bad," Robin said, as if none of us had gotten that little flash before he mentioned it.
"Yes, thank you, Sherlock," I snapped, sarcasm dripping, and then came the confusion from the people in front of me. Who was Sherlock? Oh this would have to wait. "So he wants to see me? Is there a real reason, or is it just to scare me, or even to scare Robin?" His name felt so familiar by now.
"It might be both," Marion said, exhaling a long sigh.
I shook my hair lose over my shoulders, giving up on the clips I had had in it, and looked at Marion. "When?" If I did not go to meet him, he would come to me, no doubt, and that meant come to Robin and the other men. I couldn't allow that, by any means.
"No," Much shrieked, and I was flattered. I turned around and looked at them.
"I have no choice. This is for your safety much more than mine, surely you understand Robin?" I pleaded, looking into his eyes, my own swimming with hope of his understanding. But there was none.
"He will put you in prison."
"So be it," I said, dignity straightening my back and my stance suddenly different. I think they all saw the shift in me, I know I felt it as clear as if it had been a slap to my cheek. I was no longer the girl Susan Pevensie, standing before a dozen men in shabby clothes and a woman who's heart belonged to one man, and her hand to another. I was by all means the queen I had been the day I left Narnia those years ago. Robin's face reflected the change; his view of me changed and something fell into place within him. I still wonder what that might have been.
"Tell him I will meet him at the Locksley manor, tomorrow at noon."
"He also told me to tell you, Lucy says hello."
My heart squeezed, my guts wrenching and I felt out of breath. I noticed the ground meet my knees, but I didn't feel the impact. My hand tore at the collar of my dress and I felt as if someone was sitting on me. "I cannot breathe," I managed to get out, tears spilling from my eyes onto the ground. Robin was beside me on the ground, his hand on my back, running it up and down in an attempt to settle me.
"Who is Lucy?" he asked quickly.
"Air," I gasped, feeling the snug bodice of the dress I had managed to get sewn up from a tailor that owed Robin, it tightened around me. There was no room. There was so little space in it, I couldn't move and my ribs pressed against the fabric when I tried to breathe. I was feeling tired, the black around the edges of my world not helping as I chocked on nothing.
"Knife," Robin barked, unable to get to the one in his boot, sitting crouched down by me like that. I don't know who handed it to him, or really what happened next, but I woke up in a cave dressed in the dress Marion had lent me the other day.
"Who's Lucy?"
I did not answer. I drifted back into darkness.
I woke with a start, screaming for my sister. Robin stood a few paces away, his back turned to me. I stood, silently, and picked up the breastplate I had worn when he first met me. Slowly, and without him even turning to acknowledge me, I put it on and then, standing at a landing, I said his name.
"Robin Locksley, you wished to know me," I said, softly. He turned and looked at me, at the crest in the plates.
"Who is Lucy?" you inquired again.
"She is my little sister. And I was sure I had sent her to safety." I knew my face had a look stone to it, in that moment, and his reflected it.
"What are you hiding from me?" he asked, and I felt my heart skip a beat.
"Everything I could manage. I am not merely Susan, the daughter of a woman who's been widowed. I am Susan Pevensie, and though the words sound like madness, it is all I have. I am not another girl."
"I never thought you were," he replied quickly. I smiled, stepping down from the rock.
"I was born to be more," I continued as I walked towards him. "My sister, like me, is born to be more, only she has to be where she is needed. I was sure she was left behind when I was-" My voice broke, in a very un-queen-like way, and my eyes watered yet again. "If Guy has Lucy, then there is only one thing I can do."
"No."
"Robin."
"If you go in there, and trade your life for hers, don't you know how it will end?" He said the words, his voice calm, but his face blazing with anger. I nodded. He shook his head at me.
"She is my sister-"
"You are-" He interrupted, only to struggle with the words. "You are different."
His sweet eyes settled on me, looking into mine and for a moment it was truly just Robin and me in the entire world. "And for you to see me, to finally see what I am, Robin that is something I will always wish for, always dream of. But I need you to let me do this. She is my sister, and saving her life is more important. She is young, she is still innocent in ways I have never been. She can see the magic in everything, and that is what will bring her back to where she belongs. But she has to be outside, in nature, among the trees. That is her magic. Mine…" I reached a hand for the bow in his, and he let go. "Mine is in my weapon. In my bow. In my arrows. In my anger. In my need to live and save. It's in my passion-"
His lips met mine, the time for talking was finally done. I closed my eyes and revelled in the feeling of his lips against mine, his hands at the small of my back and the heat that rolled off of him. I soaked up every moment, every particle he had to offer me. And then we parted. I took his bow, his arrows, even his sword, and told Little John and Much to come after me, take Lucy back to the forest. They agreed.
I left Sherwood Forest that day, and knew my feelings for Caspian had opened a door. But behind the door there had been a room, vast and empty, and now the room was inhabited, filled with every little memory I had of him.
Walking out of Sherwood Forest, I wondered if I could close that door again, unlearn what I had learnt and make the inhabitant homeless?
"Susan!" she cried, coming running towards me.
"Lucy!" I caught her, there outside the Locksley manor. Then I pushed her behind me, towards the edges of the forest. "Run Lucy, John and Much are waiting to bring you back." And I saw my little sister run for the forest, greeted by the giant that was John. I looked over my shoulder, turning around slowly. There he was, smiling, Guy of Gisborne.
"It is a pleasure," he said, his voice like velvet. He was a handsome man. I could see why Marion has agreed to marriage despite her detest for him.
"Likewise, I am sure," I replied, taking baby-steps towards him. He smiled.
"When I heard your sister tell the tale of where she had come from-"
Oh Lucy!
"-I was intrigued by the fact that a girl I had never seen before visited a house I visit quite often these days."
"Me."
"Yes." He opened the door. "Do come in, we have a lot to talk about."
Nightfall came too soon, and I sat in the windowsill looking out at the stars. I remembered Guy's voice all too well still, and it haunted me.
"Lucy might not make it through the night." His whispers in my tired head were so far from anything I wanted to think of right then. I wanted the kiss, Robin's lips and his warm hands, I wanted to remember the forest and the sun and everything good about the world I had been in for the past week, unknowing of my feeling for a certain legend.
I should have known.
"Marion is set free, much to her and Robin Hood's pleasure."
Hauntings; evil, evil hauntings. I closed my eyes against the cool night air and let out a slow breath. Robin would be happy, he could finally be with Marion. He would ask her for her hand in marriage and they would live out their days, as the legend told, happily until the end of their lives.
I wiped a tear from my cheek and got up from my seat.
Dressed in nothing but the nightgown I had been provided with, I descended the stairs and Guy was on his feet to greet me.
"I accept."
"How soon?"
I counted back, thinking about how many days Lucy had been stuck here and how soon she would have to get back before things got out of hand.
"It's after midnight," I said softly. "I guess tomorrow would be a good enough answer for you?"
"A Saturday wedding," he laughed. I smiled at him. His laugh was intoxicating, even if I knew he too loved Marion. It was, however, not meant to be Queen Susan and Robin. Or Guy of Gisborne and maid Marion. The tale was meant to end with Robin Hood and the maid Marion happily married.
There was no mention of Susan Pevensie, or the love Guy of Gisborne bore for Marion.
I was now a footnote in my own history. I suppose stranger things have happened. Even to me.
There was a harsh knock on my window later that night, and I sat right up in bed, reaching for my bow only to find it missing. From the shadows I heard a laugh.
"You really look lovely when you sleep," he teased and I laughed at him, trying to keep myself from shaking my head at him. At Robin.
"What are you doing here?" I asked in a hushed voice.
"Looking for you," he whispered back in a strained way, half in mockery of my own whispers. Still, I couldn't but smile at his attempt to amuse me. Something deep in the pit of my stomach seemed to suck, make me feel like I was falling through a tunnel. I grabbed the sides of the bed, feeling suddenly dizzy with it all.
The weight increased at the foot of my bed, and I lit the candle on my bed stand to see him sitting there, smiling like only he could.
"Did you miss me already?" I teased him, but the happy grin slowly faded. My voice almost wavered as I spoke again. "I assumed since Marion was released of her engagement, you would be celebrating." My eyes were down; I tried my hardest to not look at him, fought to not see his reaction.
"I don't understand," Robin said slowly, after a long silence. "I understand you wanting to save your sister, but I could have helped, we could have saved her without-" He broke off, and I had to look up. He was angry. Why? At me? I had done what I needed to in order to save my sister! Surely he had to understand.
"She's my sister, I couldn't risk it… She's more important. Her destiny, it's the destiny of worlds. I'm just, I'm merely me. A pretty face with a bow and arrow and that is all that is expected, in some cases only my pretty face is what is expected of me. To marry off, and marry well." I knew the bitter taste in my mouth, and I was tired of thinking about the prejudice that had been bestowed on me since I returned to London after the war. I was looked upon like I was all beauty, no brains. It bothered me. Even sitting in that bed with Robin, it bothered me; I didn't want him to think of me that way.
"Promise me something," he whispered, but there was no question there.
"Anything."
"That you will never again call yourself just a pretty face. Susan, you are beautiful…" His eyes were so close they looked like they were deeper than any well. He leaned in, and caught me in a kiss that stole my breath away. My heart hammered in my chest.
"Susan?"
Guy's voice pulled me from a sleep-like state. I hadn't slept all night. I hadn't been able to shut my brain off since Robin kissed me. I was struggling just to get out a reply for the man waiting to marry me at the other side of the door.
"Yes?"
"Are you decent?"
"As much as can be expected at such an early hour," I said softly and the door opened gently. He smiled at me and somewhere behind all the ruggedness and all the bad, I hoped there was a decent man. Someone I could stand being married to.
"I thought I should tell you, we marry Saturday."
I laughed. "That's tomorrow!"
He shone like a light. "Indeed. I am off for the day and I will spend the night in town, but fret not, there will be someone here to keep you safe. And to bring you to the church tomorrow."
I nodded, plastered a smile on my face and tried my best to seem genuine. "See you then."
He bowed out and closed the door. I was crying before I even heard the front door close.
Tomorrow? Already tomorrow, I had no time. I had no time to make sure Lucy was well, I had no time to tell Robin - to tell him anything really. It was such a mess and all I wanted, all I really wanted was to be back in Narnia cornered by those guards that had chased me and Lucy. That way none of this would be happening.
"Are you alone?" a voice whispered through the window and I nodded, before remembering the voice could probably not see me.
"Yes."
He climbed in through the window and looked at me. His eyes were a little red at the edges, and I knew he hadn't slept either.
"Will told me," he started, then had to clear his throat. "Will told me you are getting married tomorrow. What are you doing Susan? You don't love him!"
I looked at him and smiled, my eyes filling with water. "Better me than Marion; she loves you so much. I couldn't let it happen, it's supposed to be you and Marion."
That crease between his eyes made me think this time I might have said one thing too many.
"We're supposed to be together? Susan, what are you talking about?"
So I told him. I told him how when he found me, I had been running with Lucy to find Aslan. I told him about Caspian, my brothers and Narnia. I told him about the years of feeling like being exiled in London because of us not being able to get back to Narnia. I told him about the battle with the witch and about finding Narnia in the first place. I told the story backwards, all the way back to when I had been telling Lucy the story of Robin Hood and his merry men while we were hiding in a bunker in London as the war destroyed our city.
He stared at me, not saying anything.
He stared at me, barely moving to breathe.
"You," he chocked out, and tears fell from his unblinking eyes. "I knew something was different about you," he mumbled.
"Robin," I reached out to touch him, but he took a step back.
"I just need to think for a bit. I don't want to leave," he said, finally looking at me normally again. "Could we, just not speak?"
I nodded and sat down on my bed, waiting.
A solid hour must have gone by until he said something again.
"So, you know everything about me?" he said, sitting down in the open window. I nodded.
"Yes. Or, maybe not everything, but as much as can be expected from a legend."
"A legend. So we're not just changing our time, are we?"
I felt proud as I shook my head, his eyes glistening still. "No, you're changing the lives of little boys and girls everywhere, for a very long time. And not just the children," I added, putting a hand over my heart. "Yours and Marion's love story is the stuff of fairytales, and adults dream of having the kind of connection and love the two of you have. Some look for it all their lives…"
"So, really meant to be, me and Marion," he said, looking distant. I felt a knot in my stomach, but nodded.
"Very much so. Destined to be. She's headstrong and a fighter, like you, but she's also soft and caring, and brings out the nurturing side in you. I don't know what you'd ever do if you'd lost her, in the legends."
I looked at him and I couldn't believe how far away he seemed, only five feet away, perched in my window. But Robin suddenly looked to be miles and centuries away from me. A sob broke from my chest before I could stop it, I gasped at the pain in my chest and tears welled up in my eyes. Suddenly a world without Robin seemed impossible.
He was on the bed beside me in seconds, holding my hand and holding his other hand on my shoulder. "Susan?" he asked, worried. "What's wrong?"
I shook my head, and felt ill. My head started swimming. "I just…" The words wouldn't come but I kept trying, kept stuttering. Kept failing.
"So, you have to go back, don't you?" he asked, either trying to my mind off what I had just said, or take his mind off the story he was still digesting.
"Yes. But I don't know how. Or if it's even possible…"
"What about that guy, Caspian?"
I laughed. "Are you seriously asking me about Caspian? When you're the one in my bed?" He laughed too.
"I guess so. Look, Susan," he started, but I put a finger over his lips.
"Whatever it is, it can wait…" So I kissed him. I kissed him like it was the last time I would ever kiss anyone, like it was the first time it really mattered and pulled him into my bed. It was like magic, being with Robin. He was tender and sweet, but made my toes curl in the best of ways. I wanted to stay forever. But, fate I guess, had other plans.
"Get ready," a man barked from outside my room after having heard that I was still in there. I kissed Robin and got out of bed, taking the dress from its spot resting on a table. It was very pretty and reminded me so much of what my gowns in Narnia had looked like.
I looked over my shoulder so see Robin smirking back at me. "What?" I asked and he still didn't wipe that grin of his face.
That's when I realized I was walking around the room, naked. I blushed something terrible and threw the white wedding dress on. "Supposed I shouldn't wear white now," I said, more to myself than to him as I looked in the mirror. He came up, the sheet from the bed wrapped around his hips, and kissed my shoulder.
"Just because you are no longer a maid," he whispered, kissing my neck. "Does not mean you are not virtuous." I spun around and kissed him, my arms tangling around his neck and his hands letting go of the sheet.
An abrupt knock on the door interrupted what I was sure would have been another very nice time.
"Yes?" I barked at the intruder.
"Time to go," I heard, a sweet female voice.
"Marion?" I whispered to Robin and he nodded. I shook my head and pushed him away from me. I stuck my head out and said I just had to get my hair done. She nodded and went away.
"What is she doing here?" Robin mumbled as he was getting dressed. I shrugged. What could I say?
"Guy probably forced her," I said. "It wouldn't be the first time."
"True."
I looked at him, all dressed in his pants and shirt and I felt sick to my very core. I didn't want to marry anyone right now. I was still a child in many ways. Though one way less since last night, and I was grateful it had been Robin on not Guy on our wedding night.
He came towards me; it was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes and sighed. He held me to his chest, like he had done once in the forest, and I leaned into him. "Promise you'll miss me?" I said softly.
"I'll miss you as soon as you walk out the door," he said, and I could hear a smile in his voice. But I also hear… Was that a horn?
Yes.
It was.
It was my horn!
"Robin, whatever happens, promise to not let go of me?" I said, burying my nose in his chest.
"Why?" he asked, his heart beating faster in his chest.
"Because something incredible is about to happen!" I looked up and smiled at him, and he smiled back.
Next thing I knew, I was in the middle of an abandoned battle field. I was still clinging to Robin, but we were no longer alone. My sister and my brothers, as well as Caspian and Aslan were looking at me.
Robin looked… Confused would be too mild of a word. He looked like someone had torn him from time and space. Which someone had. Me.
"Are you okay?" I asked him and he nodded, a faint smile on his lips. I let go of his one side, my hand resting at the small of his back as I turned away, looking at the people looking at us. I smiled, my eyes catching Lucy's, Edmund's, Peter's… Caspian looked like he was in pain. Robin's arm rested in the small of my back, as mine did his, and I looked up into his eyes.
"Where are we?" he whispered, his voice husky.
I was about to tell him, bus Aslan spoke first. "Robin of Locksley, welcome to Narnia."
And that is when my brave hero fainted – when the lion started talking.
"Don't get up too fast," I said, as I started moving again. "You hit your head."
He looked up at me and looked more than confused.
"Narnia," I reminded him. He nodded and leaned against me, his head on my shoulder. I smiled. At least he wasn't mad at me for taking him with me. I just couldn't bare leaving him, what choice did I have?
"Did the lion talk?" he muttered and I laughed a little.
"Yes. He did. Animals talk. I told you."
He looked at me, a little annoyed maybe, but mostly too sure of what he had been told his whole life. "Animals don't talk, Susan, not at home, not in Locksley, not in the Holy land – animals growl or bark or moo, but they never-"
I nodded once. "Talk, I know."
"So, now what?" He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the gurney in the tent. Why the tent was there, I didn't know, nor care, but Caspian had carried Robin here after he fainted.
"Now I face my family, and try to explain." I took a deep breath. "But first we have to return to the castle, where Caspian belongs. The people needs to see him, and our support for him."
He nodded and then he caressed my cheek. "Next time, tell me what's about to happen?" he smiled.
"Promise."
"Good."
Three days later we reached the castle, me and Robin on foot since there weren't enough horses as it was. When we finally arrived, Aslan asked to talk to me alone.
I left Robin by the gates, and walked with Aslan through the walkway, feeling like I belonged again.
"You and Peter will not be returning," he told me. "Your time in Narnia has runs it course. And you have a new destiny to fulfil," he said. I looked over at Robin, his head bent down. I was sure he was tired. But there was something more. A sadness in his appearance.
"Yes, but it's not mine to fulfil."
"You will take the place of another," he said, and this time there wasn't as much of a riddle to what he told me. I returned to my family and talked to Peter.
I found Robin in the fields outside the castle, wearing his under-shirt and his pants, helping the farmers with the hay. I put a hand on his shoulder and he looked around and greeted me with a huge smile.
"Hi," I said, and he bowed his head.
"How did it go, your highness?" he asked me, slightly mocking to the tone. I laughed.
"All is not well in the kingdom yet," I said with as much mockery as he had. "But in all honesty, things are looking very well."
"You changed-" He pointed to my dress.
"Yes, my wedding dress was dirty. They'll have it back to me tomorrow, for when everyone is returned to their rightful place." I saw the same sadness in his eyes, but he smiled all the same.
"How about we go do something else today? Like, practice shooting."
"I'd like that."
We were all gathered in the courtyard, standing around the tree that would bring the people from Narnia to our world, to Earth. Everyone had said there piece, but me. Robin stood silently by my side, not holding on to me or even looking at me.
Everyone knew by now that Peter and I wouldn't be returning to Narnia. Ever. "Caspian," I said, stepping forward. "I know…" The words got stuck again. "When I left I was falling in love with you," and he smiled one of those dazzling smiles at me. "I was gone for quite a while, and things have changed." I looked over my shoulder at Robin, who was looking at me and Caspian, whispering. "I found love somewhere else." Then I turned to my family and Aslan. "And since I am no longer needed in Narnia… I wish to return to Sherwood. Not London. I want to stay with Robin." I turned back to Caspian. "Please understand," I pleaded, with all of them.
Caspian embraced me, and I thanked him, stepping away, back into my family.
"You're not coming home?" they stuttered and I shook my head.
"My place isn't in London or even in Narnia." I looked at Robin and then at Aslan, who nodded. Both of them. "I have another destiny to fulfil, one everyone will hear of soon enough."
Robin put his arm around my shoulder.
"Then you go first, Queen Susan, with your man, into your new life. Best of luck, Robin of the Hood. And treat her like the queen she is."
"I will," Robin smiled, looking down on me.
I said goodbye to my sister, my brothers, Aslan and Narnia, and then I followed Robin through the tree.
One might wonder if it was a happy end for Susan Pevensie, queen of Narnia, or if she simply got her heart broken and lived alone in the forest for the rest of her years, hoping to get back to her time and place.
Well. Queen Susan, or even Susan Pevensie, was a name heard only in the home of Robin Hood, when no one else was around. To the world, after the tragic and too early passing of maid Marion, Susan Pevensie was the one who passed, and Marion the one who lived. In the years to come, Susan grew to like the name Marion, and the role she now shouldered as the wife of Robin Hood. Much like Wendy took care of the Lost Boys and Peter Pan, Susan became the common sense of Robin and his merry men, the one to help plan and speak up as a voice of reason. She was considered as much of an outlaw as Robin, and also a sinner who had taken to bed with a man she was not married to.
But the rumours died and maid Marion's good reputation was restored. Over the years Susan upheld the good name of Marion and fought for justice, as well as for her family; her two daughters and her son, not to mention her husband.
The secret of Susan Pevensie being Marion was taken to the grave by all who knew, be it from old age of from meeting the tip of Robin's – or even Susan's – arrows, none would live to tell the tale of Susan Pevensie and Robin Hood. But many would come to tell the tale of Robin Hood and maid Marion.
The End.