A/N: Written for Fandom Stocking. Sort of hand-wavey in regards to their ages, and assume Lucy is slightly aged up (in literal, physical age) from the book, but still potentially squicky. Set during Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Young

When Lucy sees Caspian again, it has been only one year for her but three years for him. Caspian may be older than Lucy looks, but he is younger than she feels.

He smiles often, and laughs. He has not forgotten who it was that helped him gain his throne and three years of being king still have not shaken his almost child-like adoration of Lucy and Edmund and their siblings, of the kings and queens they once were but are no longer. (The queen you will always be, Caspian says, and it fills Lucy with a strange but pleasant warmth.)

Best of all, Caspian does not treat her like a little girl. He speaks to her as if she is his equal in all things, and he treats her like a friend, which is no small thing. Sometimes they stand on the deck and watch the waves, because Caspian loves the sea as much as Lucy always has. He is so proud of his first ship and Lucy thinks that even were the Dawn Treader the ugliest ship she had ever seen (which of course it isn't - it is not the most beautiful ship Lucy has ever sailed on, but all Narnian ships have a beauty of their own),she would love it just for that.

Lucy misses the music and the dancing she had always known on long voyages, voyages with her sister and her ladies. She tells Caspian so and he looks sad for a moment until he holds his hand out, palm up. Lucy stares.

Caspian smiles at her, a soft, gentle smile that is yet full of amusement. "Who says we need musicians playing to have a dance? Come, Lucy, we will make our own music."

So Lucy beams at him and takes his hand, lets him spin her around the deck. They fly in twirling circles and Lucy can still remember all the steps, can remember them like it was only yesterday she was dancing with suitors at balls thrown in her honor. She can't stop smiling, a flush rising in her cheeks, and soon the sailors start tapping out a beat with their feet. There is a ruddy glow in Caspian's cheeks and his hair glints golden in the sunlight.

Lucy thinks that was the moment she fell a little in love with Caspian.

"We're going to leave again, aren't we, Ed?" Lucy asks, sitting next to her brother on the deck, bent knees angled together.

"We always leave," Edmund says, the sound of his voice echoing the ache Lucy feels in her heart.

Lucy sighs, stroking the wood of the ship beneath her fingers. "I suppose it isn't fair to ask for more time."

Edmund doesn't say anything for a while and they simply remain together, each with their own thoughts. Then he says, "I think we should make the most of what time we have. It is a gift."

Lucy threads her fingers through Edmund's and squeezes his hand.

That evening Lucy tells stories. Caspian listens in rapturous attention, as he always does. She starts with a story from when she was queen, a humorous tale about the twin princes of Archenland, Cor and Corin, but then Caspian asks her for a story from her own world. Lucy thinks and settles on a story of fairies and a prince and princess, and she tells Caspian about a princess who pricked her finger on a spindle and fell into an enchanted sleep.

When she finishes, Caspian digests it in silence until he asks, "Are all the princesses from your world like that? Waiting for a prince to sweep in to their rescue?"

Lucy laughs at his offended tone. "I'm afraid that most of our tales were written by men. I suppose they wanted to always be the heroes, saving damsels and gaining glory."

"Well, then I think perhaps they should take a closer look at their women," Caspian says and Lucy blushes.

"Perhaps they should," she says and when Caspian touches her hand she doesn't move it.

This time is a gift, she thinks. When I leave I want to have no regrets.

Lucy knows that you are only as young as you feel and she does not feel very young.

End