rains & mistletoes

o n e

SOMEHOW, IT ALL started in Australia.

Actually, it started long before Australia, but it was in Australia that it finally hits him right in the face.

She and Will came by to shoot their cameo for Dawn Treader. The three of them hadn't seen each other for months, not since the press tours for Prince Caspian. Of course, he lived just next to her so he really "couldn't get away from her if he wanted to" (her words) but he had been away from home for two, almost three, months now.

And she looked... beautiful.

Not that he didn't think her eye catching before. But he was so much younger then, all tangled hormones and toastie sandwiches.

This time, though, it was different. He didn't see her until she came out of Georgie's trailer, full lips in red lipstick, blue dress hugging all her right curves, and shoulder length hair in curls.

When she saw him, her face brightened. She strode towards him and before he knew it, he was engulfed in one of her bone-crushing hugs.

If he had been thirteen years old, he would have squirmed all his might and run away.

But he was far from being thirteen years old now.

And she looked so beautiful.

"I've missed you, neighbor," she said, peering up at him (he was three inches taller now.) Her hazel blue eyes glinted under the afternoon light and he felt blinded.

Skandar smiled down at her. "And I've missed you."

He was very aware of his sweaty palms around her waist.

--

She had broken up with his Oxford boyfriend.

"It's for the good, really." she said, lounging comfortably on his bed inside his trailer, feet tucked underneath, blue dress splayed around porcelain white legs. Her make-up was erased and he thought she looked even more attractive.

Michael had given them a break. He knew how close the four of them were and gave them time to spend together. A raucous dinner with Ben and Andrew after and Anna was practically dragging Skandar to his trailer to catch up with his life.

Not that he had done anything exciting lately. Without her and Will, the set wasn't the same. Even Georgie thought so, despite Ben and his sense of humor.

"How so?" He was standing rather awkwardly in the middle of the room, hands shoved inside his pockets.

"I never really liked him that much."

"Then why did you go out with him?"

"I don't know."

She was looking at him rather strangely. Or maybe it was just the rum.

But then, she started talking about home. How his parents almost always invites her for dinner every Sunday night (they had omitted that piece of information from him from their last several phone calls.) How Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson, the couple who lived right across from their houses, migrated to America. How Soumaya once invited her to a Harry Potter pub quiz and how they smashed that quiz (that he did know; his sister absolutely adores her.)

Skandar didn't remember sitting beside her. But when her hand brushed his, he almost felt electrocuted. Then suddenly, he was very aware of her. Of her slender neck as she pulled her head back to laugh at his jokes. Of the few curls of her hair that came loose from the messy ponytail she did hours ago. Of how she was only a breath away from him, hazel blue eyes shining, cheeks flushed.

When she left because it was late and they were probably the only people left awake (and because Isis would probably kill her for running off with her dress), allowing him to lie spread-eagled on his bed and to finally put his thoughts in order, Skandar decided it was the rum.

--

But the next day, when he fumbled his lines five times because Anna was there watching, he wasn't entirely sure anymore if it was the rum.

And it was then that it hit him, right in the face like one of those fists he had difficulty avoiding at school when he was just fifteen.

He's screwed.

--

"Are you alright?" Georgie asked him later that day. Anna and Will had only just left and Michael had given them a short break.

Skandar shrugged, trying to look like nothing was wrong with his thoughts when in actuality, it was a bloody mess. "Yes. I'm just tired."

"Are you sure? You seemed distracted all day. It's not at all like you."

"I'm always distracted, G."

"You fumbled a one-liner eight times, Skan." the girl replied, deadpan.

Skandar didn't respond, opting instead for his trailer for a bowl of very cold water to dunk his head in.

Oh, he's definitely screwed.

=

A/N:

Some quick notes:

• Filming for Dawn Treader started around July 2009 and ended December on the same year but premiered in London on November 30, 2010. About 2/3 of the film was shot in Australia.

• Skandar Keynes and Anna Popplewell were actually neighbours (though not literally next door neighbours) in London but didn't know each other until they got casted for Narnia.

• Michael as in Michael Apted, the Dawn Treader director. Andrew as in Andrew Adamson, the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian director and Dawn Treader producer. Isis as in Isis Mussenden, the costume designer for the three films.