For King and Country ⭒Caspian x Reader⭒

Chapter 21

Caspian's breath hitched in his chest. The darkness shrouded his face, his expression indiscernible, but the warm press of his lips against mine gave me every answer I needed.

"I love you too," His hand cupped my cheek, "I think you already knew that though."

"I don't really know what to say now," I said, burying my face in his chest, the smile on my face unerasable.

"You don't have to say anything," Caspian stroked his hand over my hair as we laid together. 

The sounds of the festivities in the feast hall were just a dull roar in the background as Caspian held on to me. I had never felt more at home at that moment, my bare feet resting against his quilted duvet; wrapped up in the arms of the man I loved.

"You know something-" Caspian leaned over to the side table lighting the candelabra; pausing his speech, leaving me watching him as he held his hand around the tapered candle to let the flame flicker to life. 

"You were saying?" I said as Caspian laid down next to me again, the warm light casting its fluttering light over the stone walls and the contours of his face.

"I was saying something wasn't I?" Caspian said, tapping a finger against his lips.

"Don't be a tease," I said, laying my head on his chest once more; my ear pressed into him—the steady cadence of his heart lulling me into a haze. 

"Very well then," Caspian said, settling deeper into the feather-down mattress, "I was going to say...I remember the first moment you started to occupy my mind."

"And when was that?" I said, turning my head up to look at him. 

"It was when we had had a row in the observatory when you first arrived...I was determined to simply coexist with you after that," Caspian's arm tightened around me, "But you strutted into the garden and sat at my table, and when you turned your head up to the sun...I was done for."

"I recall you watching me," I said, spreading my fingers across his chest. 

"Your hair cascaded down the back of the chair," Caspian smoothed a hand over my hair, "And the way your neck was exposed to the light.  You looked like you had descended from a realm I would never be allowed in," Caspian traced the curve of my neck with one finger.

"You were hardly the one that should have been afraid of what the other thought. I was the one with a muddied history," I traced patterns into the fabric of Caspian's shirt. 

"Please don't say that ever again," Caspian tilted my chin up to meet his eyes, "You were never ruined."

"You always see the best in everyone don't you?"

"Until they prove me wrong, and what was done around in your family's name isn't your fault," Caspian's eyes were sincere as if he could rewrite history only with his intention.

We laid there a moment more letting it all seep in. It felt as if I had had the privilege of loving him for years, that we were two old lovers settling in after a long day talking about our days till the candles burned low, but the newness of the feelings we shared still set a shining halo over the mundane. 

"But I didn't tell you the part when I knew," Caspian sat up and leaned over me, "After the ambush on our camp and we stayed in the cabin. I knew. Sitting by the fire with you, laughing. Falling asleep at your side, I knew that moment I would love you whether you ever felt the same way or not."

A knot formed in my throat watching him lean over me. His whole face bled emotion as if he were watching a sunrise dawn on a new world; a new creation.