Lucy couldnt sleep.
Again.
She blamed it on worry for her brother, for he had been injured in a violent slave trade battle at Narrowhaven two days prior.
He was fine, she assured herself. He had to be.
Lucy let out a sigh of annoyance as her wandering, fearful thoughts led her to hold her paintbrush for just a bit to long, allowing it to release a fat green drop onto the wooden floor beside her.
She was in her cabin on the Dawn Treader, sitting on the floor, trying to recreate the wonderful landscape from the their walk earlier with paint.
The nature walk across the Island with Caspian and Edmund, shortly before everything happened.
And now Edmund was still healing dreadfully slow, and Lucy still couldn't sleep.
She had taken to distract herself with mundane tasks like fixing seams as well as tidying up(and now it seemed painting), during these seemingly endless dark hours. A restless night pacing the deck had caused this, when in her anxious fervor she had accidentally tread not-so-lightly on poor Reepicheep's tail.
"Maybe I'll knit him some tiny socks to make it up to him", she considered, with a giggle bubbling up in her chest at the thought of a fearsome Reep in pink, fuzzy footwear.
She was so distracted by her new daydream that she didn't hear the footsteps until they were right behind her.
"Lucy?" The footsteps asked, Caspian's voice sounding sleepy.
Adorably sleepy, Lucy thought, and managed not to let out another giggle as she turned her head and asked "what are you still doing up?"
"Well, I suppose that I could ask you that same question Lu", Caspian remarked, sitting down next to Lucy on the floor.
Lucy decided to ignore the sound of concern she clearly heard coating his words. She hadn't meant to worry him, and she wasn't the one who needed to be worried after anyways, not with her brother still on bed rest.
Lucy sighed, "I tried to sleep, but I couldn't get this view out of my head. I figured I had to paint it before the clarity fades, oh isn't it just beautiful!"
Even she heard the false cheer she had forced into her voice.
Lucy felt Caspian lean in closer to get a look at her half-finished painting. She then realized her breathing had gotten shaky. She had no idea what had caused this sudden bout of nervousness.
"Beautiful" he agreed after a moment, his voice quiet and somber. Something in his tone made Lucy start talking before she even realized she had something to say.
"Oh, well, thank you. I wish I could have captured the sunlight better, I remember it being so lovely! I don't know what I did wrong with it, and sadly now I'm out of yellow paint..."
Lucy trailed off as she realized she was babbling. Caspian seemed to think it was funny, but he was able to turn his chuckle to a polite laugh at the last moment.
"Whatttt?" Lucy asked, trying to decide if she was hurt or amused by his response.
"Nothing," Caspian laughed. "It's just.." he closed his mouth with an almost painful bite to his lower lip before he could tell her she was cute when she babbled.
She had enough on her plate, she didn't need to deal with his emotions that were... confusing. And potentially harmful to their relationship. He couldn't handle losing Lucy over something as silly as this. No, he wouldn't do that to her. No matter how tempted he was.
"It's just what?" Lucy asked, deciding for now on being confused. He didn't respond after a moment, looking lost in a thought that had started to sadden his lovely face. She bumped him slightly with her arm. "Caspian?"
He forced a smile, "It's just that it's late, and you should probably get some sleep. You know Edmund wouldn't want you wearing yourself out with a lack of rest. He's going to be fine."
She knew that wasn't what he was going to say, and she wanted to argue with him. But not right now, not with that perfect smile gazing at her like that.
"I'm not wearing myself out," she mumbled, rinsing her brush.
Caspian stood back up, deciding to leave before he let something worse slip. He really didn't doubt that he would, and it was utterly unfair how beautiful she looked right then, with a little smudge of purple on her cheek.
"Still. Please, at least try to get some sleep." He hesitated, but when faced with her dubious look he added, "for me?"
Lucy let out a sigh "Fine, fine. I'll try to sleep." She was careful not to look at his too-perfect smile as he whispered a quiet "Thank you" before he left, so she wouldn't beg him to stay a little longer.
"Only for you," she mumbled as she got into bed for the second time that night.
She was asleep in minutes.
When she woke up the next morning, she opened her eyes to a lovely beam of golden sunlight shining through the window. Dazzling directly on to a small vial where Caspian had sat the night before. It wore a small pink ribbon, and was filled to the brim with new yellow paint.