Calm: Not showing or feeling nervousness, anger, or other strong emotions

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Caspian does not know where he is. He does not know where he is, why is — oh. Of course. He is at Professor Kirke's house. That was foolish. Where else would he be?

It is nearly dawn, he sees, through the window. That moment just before the sun sheds light over the horizon when the sky is the deepest blue it ever gets. He watches the sun rise fully in this moment of peace. He had never taken the time to watch the sunrise in Narnia. This is the first memory he will have that has no shadow.

The sky is still blooming when Sanya knocks. He lets her in, jolting out of the peace and into the real world.

They go down to breakfast together. Caspian makes not-Narnia memories. He stays far away from Oscar and treats Professor Kirke with a healthy dose of respect.

Professor Kirke explains to the two of them afterwards in private that they are free to do anything and everything they want, on condition that no one is intentionally hurt and they are back for meals. "Though you needn't be back for meals as long as one of you informs Mrs. Macready and you take some food with you on your adventures." They tell him they understand, and then half-run outside to explore the place they'll be living.

It takes only days for them to find their favourite spot. A glade, not far from the house but invisible until you were practically on top of it. Even when they stick to the others in moments of budding friendships —which are becoming more and more frequent as time passes— the clearing is their secret.

It's here that Caspian asks Sanya his biggest favour. "Will you— will you teach me how to fight with a sword? I know how, more or less, but I don't really have any strategy when I fight and I know it."

She twists from where she'd been absently fiddling with a dead branch. He thinks it might be funny to an outsider that a thirteen year old boy was asking an eleven year old girl to teach him to fight properly, but he's not an outsider and there is no one watching. "You want me to teach you how to fight?" When he nods silently, she grins. "Absolutely. Let's get to it, then."

They search for and gather long sticks to use as wooden swords, neither is foolish enough to ask Professor Kirke for real ones. Brush is cleared from a medium-sized circle in the center, which Caspian dubs the fighting ring. Finally, when the branches have been whittled into a crude sword shape and the ring is completely clear, Sanya stands in the middle and begins to tell him exactly how to wield a sword, how to fight.

By the second week, Caspian is permanently exhausted. Sanya doesn't go easy on him as she pokes holes in his defences, pointing them out as she does. They spar each time after she tells him how to fix the worst of them, but Caspian notices that she's getting more picky with his techniques. He hopes that means he's getting better himself: he certainly has the bruises to show for his hard work. He doesn't mind these ones, because he's working hard and improving, they aren't pointless.

After months of this, one day, Sanya doesn't point out his failed strategies. Instead, she asks him after she wins their duel what he did wrong. He answers her after some thought, and Caspian knows that he's right. She doesn't often give praise during their training sessions, but she does now. "Exactly. You've gotten quite good at using a sword."

He likes being here, he thinks.

~~~

"Figure skating." Sanya's statement sounds more like a question. Dianne nods impatiently, gestures outside. Caspian knows that there is a very very small lake, though really it's closer to a large pond, on Professor Kirke's property. It looks like a picture. He didn't realize it was used for 'figure skating,' though.

"Well, I suppose you could just call it skating. Have you really never tried it at all before?" The lake-pond had frozen a week ago, and although Dianne and Elizabeth had been practically vibrating with anticipation, Louise and Oscar had refused to let them on the ice until it had been frozen for some time.

Caspian catches Sanya's glance. How exactly would they explain that they have never skated before because he'd grown up to fear the sea and by extension any large body of water and she'd spent the last however-many years trying to get back to her husband? They couldn't, the same way they couldn't explain why they only ever nodded whenever London or anything of the outside world was mentioned. They couldn't truly explain anything. He knows how to deflect questions or suspicion, thankfully.

But skating. Somehow, Dianne and Elizabeth coax them all into skates left lying in a closet, all of which fit one of them. Even little Daniel takes a pair, though Oscar and Noah stick close to him and don't let him touch the blades. Sanya is hesitant to accept the skates, but does so after being subjected to Olivia's hyperactive bouncing with excitement (she has a look in her eyes like Susan's with Lucy, it makes her look older than her body is).

Running and walking to the lake in their gear, they group together naturally. Caspian stays with Sanya, of course. He couldn't exactly do anything else: although they've both been accepted by the others for weeks now, nobody else could understand him, nobody else is from his old world. Louise and Eric supervise every one of them. Daniel and Olivia run ahead like fauns to a revel, shadowed by Oscar, Noah, and Bridgette, who constantly keep the two younger ones in their lines of sight. Elizabeth and Dianne take the back, talking of their newfound interest in the same thing.

Caspian knew the lake was frozen... but he couldn't expect something like this. Hoarfrost lines the branches of low-hanging trees, snow dusts the taller ones. Winter in Narnia was pretty, but winter by the lake... this is beautiful. Cold and unyielding, but beautiful. Even better, the lake is big enough and enough of it is solidly frozen that he's sure everyone will be able to have their own spaces and still keep close together.

He can't help wondering if Sanya is as stunned as he is. He can't quite tell, when he looks at her. So instead, he fastens his skates wrong and Elizabeth helps him untangle them and lace them properly. It's not nearly as hard to walk on them over the ground to the lake's edge as he thought it would be.

Sanya grabs him. She grabs his arm to steady herself in order to join him where he looks to Dianne, who has taken it upon herself to be the teacher, even though Louise, Eric, and Caspian are all older. Sanya's the same age. She inspects all of them before announcing that since she and Elizabeth are the only ones who have any sort of experience on the ice, they'll be in charge. Eric quickly denies this fact, saying that he'd been quite good at skiing in his city, so he isn't incapable because how different could they be? Dianne accepts him somewhat begrudgingly, demanding to see his skill. When he passes her test, she's marginally more happy and instructs him to take charge of Louise, Oscar, and Daniel.

When Dianne has divided everyone, Caspian and Sanya are the only ones with her. "She took one look at my balance and decided it," Sanya mutters lightheartedly to him.

If Caspian falls before even getting two metres away from the shore, nobody has any room to laugh at him without laughing at themselves and absolutely no one can actually prove it, not even the others. They do laugh, but besides, Sanya does the same thing seconds later. They all fall, at some point. Even the teachers. So, they all are laughed at at some point. Whenever one of them falls, though, the closest person helps them up while both are laughing. Caspian even swallows his nerves in honour of the wonderful day and helps Oscar right himself after a particularly spectacular wipe-out. If he gets as far away as he can to recover and stop shaking after Oscar claps him on the shoulder in thanks, no one notices, not even Sanya. She's biting on her lip while Eric takes over Caspian can see now why Louise and Oscar had been so insistent that they wait longer than the first day the lake had frozen: the ice is thick enough now to hold them all, and to bear the weight of eight different children falling suddenly. Even Louise stumbles when she attempts a specific turn, and though everyone laughs, it is not cruel.

At one point, each of them would have been frustrated by the failures of the day, but today no one's temper frays. Whether it is because none of them are immune to the tumbles or because no one can concentrate on bad feelings when they have to focus instead on skating properly, Caspian certainly doesn't know. It's nice either way, and he can ignore the lines of fear in his heart for a time.

Caspian and Sanya help each other, Caspian concentrating on not tripping anyone as he learns to keep his balance for faster attempts, and Sanya's attention targeting not stumbling and taking Caspian down with her. He's very aware that she hasn't let go of his arm in a while, but Caspian can't bring himself to worry.

There are whooping laughs when Dianne herself trips while showing off. Even Eric and Elizabeth hide chuckles as the latter hoists her to her feet, but nobody holds back when she bursts out laughing and making fun of herself.

It feels somewhere between as if they had spent years here and as if no time at all has passed when Betty and Mrs. Macready find them to bring them back to the house for supper.

A/N:

Sorry sorry! I kept wanting to address something else with this chapter but the timeskip wouldn't have made sense to read so instead you get 1.7k words of pure fluff (absolutely no angst embedded I have no idea what you mean). Caspian is so pure I love him. You'll get the Pevensies back with Caspian and Sanya around next chapter I can't wait!

Next chapter... last week of April?