I wrote Only a Mistletoe Kiss as a stand-alone work, but then a couple reviews on it asking for what happened afterwards made me realize that a sequel was in order for it. So now, several months later, I present... A Curious Realization.

Jill stared out of the front bay window, tapping her fingers on the windowsill as she lost herself in a train of thought. Four days ago had been the Christmas party where she had bumped into Scrubb - and that had turned out very oddly, with Scrubb acting nearly flirtatiously and resulting in him kissing her under the mistletoe. Then yesterday she had gone to Peter and Edmund's flat for tea, where Scrubb was staying for the holidays, and the subject hadn't been touched by either. Everything had been completely normal without the slightest trace of awkwardness. Or perhaps with the slightest trace of awkwardness. Yes, Jill had to admit, it had been slightly awkward between Scrubb and herself.

In other news, Jill had thoroughly enjoyed meeting both Peter and Edmund and hearing the firsthand accounts of some of their experiences in Narnia. They'd swapped stories about the Giants and the Marshwiggles especially, since Jill hadn't come into much contact with any of the other Narnians.

Jill was jolted out of her thoughts when she saw Scrubb coming up the front walk. "What on earth is he doing here?" she wondered, suddenly feeling quite nervous.

The bell rang and Jill automatically opened the door. "Hullo, Scrubb," she said.

"Hullo, Pole," Scrubb said. "I was wondering if you'd like to go into town with me. I've got some mail to send to my parents."

"I'll ask Mum," Jill said, then added awkwardly, "You can step inside and get out of the cold."

Mum was more than willing to let Jill go into town with Scrubb (or as Mum called him, Jill's "young man"). So it was that Jill found herself putting her coat and hat on and beginning the short trip into town with Scrubb. "Tea with your cousins yesterday was quite fun," Jill said after a few moments of silence, absolutely determined not to let things be awkward.

"Yes, it was!" Scrubb said enthusiastically. "They like you very much, you know."

"Oh!" Jill said, quite pleased. "I'm glad. I like them very much, too."

"Good! We'd like to have you over again for tea before you and I must go back to school," Scrubb said.

"I'd like that very much," Jill said eagerly. "It was so good to talk to other people about Narnia."

"Hey! You've got me to talk to about it," Scrubb protested.

"Well, besides you," Jill said.

"I know," Scrubb laughed. "I'm just teasing you."

They fell into silence after that, and Jill's mind wandered to the events of the other evening. Scrubb must have also been thinking of that, for a few minutes later he said, "Pole, I'd like to - well, I mean, about the other evening - what happened with that - I, ah, I - "

"We don't have to talk about that if you don't want to," Jill said awkwardly, looking straight ahead.

"No, no," Scrubb said hastily. "I think we ought to talk about it."

"Whether you'd like to and whether we'd ought to are two very different things, Scrubb," Jill said.

"But we need to, Jill," Scrubb said, using her Christian name. "You know we need to."

"Or we could just ignore it and keep on being friends like we used to," Jill argued, walking a little faster.

"Oh, come on, Pole!" Scrubb exclaimed, grasping her hand and turning her towards him. "Do you really want to be just friends?"

Jill caught her breath. "Don't you?"

"Oh, hang it all," Scrubb muttered in a low voice, and then he kissed her. Jill seemed to lose consciousness of anything else other than his hands on her waist, and her hands on his arms, and his lips over hers. It was over all too soon, and Jill found herself looking into Scrubb's dark brown eyes. "I love you, Jill," he said in an almost tender voice, if that were at all possible from Scrubb. "Is there any chance - I mean, er, do I have any hope - ?"

"Yes," Jill breathed, realizing in an instant that she did love Scrubb; and before he had a chance to say anything else, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, clinging to him fiercely as his lips moved over hers. "I love you, Eustace," she said, pulling away and placing hand on his cheek.

"I'm glad," Eustace said huskily, bringing his hand to her face and tucking behind her ear some loose hair that had fallen into her face. He was about to kiss her again when suddenly Jill realized there were people watching.

"Perhaps later," she said, jerking her head to the side. "We're in public, you know. It's not good manners."

Eustace looked up and saw the people watching from the other side of the street. "I suppose you're right, as usual," he said reluctantly.

"I'm always right," Jill said with a smirk as she took Eustace's arm and they began to walk again. Things were all right now between her and Eustace, and not only all right but even better. The world couldn't have been more beautiful to Jill as it seemed to be right then, muddy and grey and damp as it was, as her arm was twined with Eustace's and she was conscious of his hand on hers as they squabbled good-naturedly and laughed endlessly. All was right between Jill and Eustace; all was right with the world.

And that is that. I fully intend to write many more one-shots focusing on Jill and Eustace and their relationship. They're terribly fun to write about. Jill and I are very similar, and I enjoy writing Eustace's character more than any other character from CoN, with the exception of perhaps Edmund. So be on the lookout in the future for more stories about this pairing!

~ The Authoress