history × we don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

[pristineismyhat]

The middle of a war is a far from ideal time to try for a baby. It may well be the very worst time to try for a baby, though Narcissa has no other experience to compare it to and less and less desire for any. A baby - no, an heir - is a necessity, an unspoken condition of marriage. She promised to love, honour, obey and for the love of Merlin, get

Comments

[byrightsinhell]

Lucius hears her trying not to be heard and is instantly worried. Narcissa was never the kind of woman for dramatic scenes, thank Merlin, so he can presume she actually means him not to hear her. She might have been successful, had his mind not been wandering at the time. Still, if she wants her privacy, he can allow her that. He'll ask her about it at supper.

Or at least, this was the plan until he hears muffled sobs coming from her room.

Lucius is up and heading for her side before his brain has fully processed what he's doing. At first he's afraid she's hurt, or that something went wrong at her appointment. Injury, illness.

Lucius has steeled himself, as much as a young man can, to the possibility of his own early death. But he would be utterly unprepared to loose Narcissa.

"Love - " He comes in. There's nothing immediately wrong, so he isn't quite sure what to do. "What is it?" He comes to crouch in front of her.

[pristineismyhat]

Narcissa's plan - to take a bath and steady her jangling nerves before she put herself back together to go and find him - is coming apart at the seams before she's even had a chance to implement it, and she blinks wide-eyed at him through her tears for a moment as if she can't quite understand how he came to be in front of her. Actually answering seems thoroughly beyond her and she presses her lips together, her fingers tightening in the flimsy fabric of her bathrobe.

Her eyes well up again as she tries to stop weeping in front of him, trembling with frustration. "I'm all right," she says, in absolute defiance of the obvious.

[byrightsinhell]

"Cissa..." He touches her cheek. "Please."

She's scaring him. Narcissa never comes apart, and he really isn't at all sure what to do. He wants to fix this. But he keeps calm; years of learning to do just that kick in, and he doesn't let his fear take him over.

[pristineismyhat]

"Nothing is wrong," she says, and it sounds unconvincing to her own ears as she presses her thumbs under her eyes against further tears. "I promise, there isn't anything wrong-"

The way she says it, half-helpless, is a little disconcerting.