fic: A Fine Mess

[c3childs]

Title: A Fine Mess
Prompt: Oxymoron
Bonus? no
Word Count: 571
Rating: K
Original/Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia/Robin Hood BBC
Pairings (if any) hinted one-sided Guy/Marian
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): Crossover
Summary: Maid Susan in the service of the House of Knighton in Locksley

Susan breathed a quiet sigh, frantically helping Marian out of her vigilante costume before her father came to check on his ‘ailing’ daughter. Upon her unexpected time trip, she’d been surprised that the old sheriff had taken her on as his daughter’s maid and somewhat delighted that Marian was such a rebel. It was dangerous for her, trying to help these people with the sheriff’s solitary goal seeming to be their utter dehumanization, but her bravery reminded Susan of a sister she missed dearly.

So Susan plucked a leaf out of Marian’s hair and was just tying on her corset when tromping hooves stopped outside the house.

“Oh, whoever could that be?” Susan teased. Of course it was Gisborne. The man was as taken with Marian as she was not with him.

“You have a very wicked sense of humor,” Marian scowled at her through the mirror above a table, strewn with hair brushes, pins, combs, perfume, a dagger, and a muddy cloak.

“Don’t despair, milady. We’re almost done, and you’ll be able to listen to Sir Guy talk about himself until you’re dizzy.”

She tied the last ribbon tight and turned to pluck a bright blue dress from the bed.

“If you’d done them any tighter, I could just skip it and go straight to dizzy. Honestly, you wouldn’t be so amused by this if he were after you.”

“Yes, well,” Susan shrugged and held the dress out for Marian to step into.

Knocking on the front door floated up the stairs followed by the door opening and boots thudding on the floor below. Muted voices could be heard, one clearly authoritative and demanding. The other, not.

“I’ll bet he’s down there, ordering my father around,” Marian muttered, slipping her arms through the sleeves.

Susan drew it together behind her and began on the row of buttons up the back.

“He is rather bossy, isn’t he?” she mused, grinning secretly behind the younger girl. “Still, he’s awfully pretty.”

“Susan!” Marian spun around.

“Be still,” she giggled, turning the outraged lady back around. “You deny it?”

“I – I will not agree to any of this! Pretty is perhaps the worst way to describe that man.”

“What would you say then? Tall, dark, and handsome?”

She was halfway done now and pushed Marian’s thick hair over the front of her shoulder and out of the way.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you liked him, Maid Susan.”

“Only his face,” she replied airily, finishing the buttons and picking up a brush to work through Marian’s dark mane. “The rest of him terrifies. He’s such a brute. It’s very unfortunate.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, he’s a brute, or yes, it’s unfortunate?”

She gathered her hair and pinned it all back with a handful of pins. Then added a few more for security.

“I will not be badgered by you any longer. I’d rather face the brute.”

“Fine then. Let me look at you.”

Marian showcased herself for inspection, trying to give Susan a mock glare all the while. Susan nodded once.

“Now smile…ah, well, you look in pain, but he’ll probably not notice. Try and act natural though. You might enjoy yourself. I’ll put your, ahem, gear away.”

Marian sighed heavily, walking toward the door.

“Heaven help me.”

“What do you think I’m here for?”

“Oh, I doubt that you’re heaven-sent, Susan. If you are, then we have more problems than I realized.”

Comments

[ami-ven.livejournal.com]

Very nice! You've written the interaction between these two very well.