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deemoyzaTitle: This Precious Time When Time is New (7,046 words)
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: The Blue Castle
Rating/Warnings: Teen and Up / Mild Sexual Content
Characters: Valancy Stirling, Barney Snaith
Relationships: Barney/Valancy
Summary: The first three days of Barney and Valancy's marriage, during which they find that no matter whether their love is "real", they are inexorably drawn toward one another, mind, heart, and body.
Notes: Written for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rarepairexchange.
"Ah, Good Luck," Barney said, bending down and scooping the cat into his arms, "curious as ever. I suppose now is as good a time as any to make acquaintances. Lucky, I'd like you to meet my wife, the dear Valancy Snaith."
The word "wife" was enough to set Valancy's heart trembling, but hearing her full married name sent a shiver throughout her body. It was real; it hadn't all been a feverish dream. Old Mr. Towers in Port Lawrence, the little slanted mirror; driving through the darkened woods, the canoe, the kiss—it had all happened so quickly, so perfectly, that until that moment, Valancy feared she might wake up, not in her bed at Roaring Abel's house, but back in her own dreary room, the last few weeks nothing but the product of her overactive imagination.
She reached out and scratched Good Luck between his ears and he purred, wriggling and stretching until he had transferred himself from Barney's arms to hers. "What an adorable cat you are," she cooed at him, her words dissolving into a laugh as Good Luck craned his neck to press a cold little nose against her chin. "And friendly, too!"
"I always suspected he'd be, though he's never had a chance to warm to anyone but me. I dare say, he took to you far more quickly!" Barney leaned over and stroked Good Luck's head, and Valancy was struck at once by how familial the moment felt, though the thrill was quickly followed by a pang of regret at knowing that this was as close as she would come to anything resembling a family of her own.
"I take that to mean we made the right decision," Barney continued, glancing up at her with a smile. "You can always trust a cat's intuition."
Valancy nodded, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks under the intensity of Barney's gaze, tempered as it was by happiness, or relief. "You said you have another cat?" she managed to say.
"Banjo. He's around here somewhere. Not as forthcoming as Good Luck, but a fine creature, nonetheless." As if in response to his own name, a large gray cat poked his striped head over the back of a chair with a deep and lazy meow. "Ah, right there, I might've guessed. In his chair."
"His chair?" Good Luck had begun wriggling at the sound of Banjo's meow and Valancy bent to release him from her arms.
"Pretty much. Won't let me or Good Luck sit in it. You might try to, but I guarantee, he will sit and stare at you until you leave." Barney lit a lamp, bringing the rest of the cabin into colorful detail: the stone fireplace and the bearskin before it; an almost offensively red sofa draped with silver wolf skins; a little stove for cooking; and, against one wall, to Valancy's delight, a tall bookcase filled with books of all sizes and thickness. She wandered over to the shelf and ran her fingers along it, glancing at titles in passing.
"What a lovely little cabin," she said. "I've only been here a few minutes, and it already feels more like a home than did the house I've spent all my life in."
"It is cozy, and sound. I hope you don't mind the décor; almost all of it is old Tom MacMurray's."
"Even the sofa?"
"Especially the sofa." Barney brushed the red plush. "Don't know what got into his head with that one."
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: The Blue Castle
Rating/Warnings: Teen and Up / Mild Sexual Content
Characters: Valancy Stirling, Barney Snaith
Relationships: Barney/Valancy
Summary: The first three days of Barney and Valancy's marriage, during which they find that no matter whether their love is "real", they are inexorably drawn toward one another, mind, heart, and body.
Notes: Written for
rarepairexchange.Fic excerpt
They walked through the door hand-in-hand, and in the moonlit darkness they were greeted almost immediately by a lithe little creature in a striped coat, who proceeded to sniff daintily at Valancy's ankles."Ah, Good Luck," Barney said, bending down and scooping the cat into his arms, "curious as ever. I suppose now is as good a time as any to make acquaintances. Lucky, I'd like you to meet my wife, the dear Valancy Snaith."
The word "wife" was enough to set Valancy's heart trembling, but hearing her full married name sent a shiver throughout her body. It was real; it hadn't all been a feverish dream. Old Mr. Towers in Port Lawrence, the little slanted mirror; driving through the darkened woods, the canoe, the kiss—it had all happened so quickly, so perfectly, that until that moment, Valancy feared she might wake up, not in her bed at Roaring Abel's house, but back in her own dreary room, the last few weeks nothing but the product of her overactive imagination.
She reached out and scratched Good Luck between his ears and he purred, wriggling and stretching until he had transferred himself from Barney's arms to hers. "What an adorable cat you are," she cooed at him, her words dissolving into a laugh as Good Luck craned his neck to press a cold little nose against her chin. "And friendly, too!"
"I always suspected he'd be, though he's never had a chance to warm to anyone but me. I dare say, he took to you far more quickly!" Barney leaned over and stroked Good Luck's head, and Valancy was struck at once by how familial the moment felt, though the thrill was quickly followed by a pang of regret at knowing that this was as close as she would come to anything resembling a family of her own.
"I take that to mean we made the right decision," Barney continued, glancing up at her with a smile. "You can always trust a cat's intuition."
Valancy nodded, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks under the intensity of Barney's gaze, tempered as it was by happiness, or relief. "You said you have another cat?" she managed to say.
"Banjo. He's around here somewhere. Not as forthcoming as Good Luck, but a fine creature, nonetheless." As if in response to his own name, a large gray cat poked his striped head over the back of a chair with a deep and lazy meow. "Ah, right there, I might've guessed. In his chair."
"His chair?" Good Luck had begun wriggling at the sound of Banjo's meow and Valancy bent to release him from her arms.
"Pretty much. Won't let me or Good Luck sit in it. You might try to, but I guarantee, he will sit and stare at you until you leave." Barney lit a lamp, bringing the rest of the cabin into colorful detail: the stone fireplace and the bearskin before it; an almost offensively red sofa draped with silver wolf skins; a little stove for cooking; and, against one wall, to Valancy's delight, a tall bookcase filled with books of all sizes and thickness. She wandered over to the shelf and ran her fingers along it, glancing at titles in passing.
"What a lovely little cabin," she said. "I've only been here a few minutes, and it already feels more like a home than did the house I've spent all my life in."
"It is cozy, and sound. I hope you don't mind the décor; almost all of it is old Tom MacMurray's."
"Even the sofa?"
"Especially the sofa." Barney brushed the red plush. "Don't know what got into his head with that one."
