Reunion at Sea

Reprieve

"It's nice to have a peaceful day." Pascal said as he sat with Maximus and Ruddiger, leaning against a fence near Varian's home.

"Yeah." Ruddiger nodded. "We have been way too busy lately. Sorry my old colleagues are assholes." He got up and went to pick three apples, tossing them at them.

"Meh." Pascal shrugged, catching his apple as Maximus did the same.

"You know, usually when things are this quiet, Eugene attempts to propose again." Maximus said thoughtfully. "Think he's going to do it today?" He took a bite of his apple.

"What's this about a proposal?" Sven said eagerly, bouncing over to join them. Maximus choked on his apple piece and groaned after Pascal helped him dislodge it. "You know, I know all about love. I was raised by love experts! I bet I could give you some great pointers!"

"None of us are proposing." Ruddiger said, picking another apple and tossing it to Sven, who yelped as it hit him in the face and knocked him down. "Whoops."

"I don't think Eugene needs any advice." Maximus said as he walked over to help the reindeer-man up.

"Ohhh, the Queen's boyfriend?" Sven asked excitedly. "I bet I have loads of advice for him!" He bounced on his feet, turned, scrabbled his feet a bit and took off running.

The trio stared after him, processing what happened, then gasped.

"Hey, wait!" Pascal hopped off the fence and they ran after them together.

–

Varian looked over from his book as he saw them running by and sighed, shaking his head. "What are those guys up to, now?" He muttered, leaning back against the tree he was sitting under.

"So, this is where you live?"

He jolted and looked up to see Elsa leaning against a fence. He closed his book and got up, holding out a hand to still Hamuel, who had been about to get up to address the visitor. "Your Majesty." He bowed at the waist.

"Please, just call me Elsa." She smiled gently and walked over to him. "It's...more comfortable. Besides, shouldn't I be bowing to you? You're the Celestial."

Varian blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "U-Uhm, yeah. Heh. Do you want to come in? I can make some hot cocoa."

"That would be wonderful." She agreed, and they started off to the manor, Hamuel quietly following. "Your village is very pleasant, very green and full of life."

"Well, we're working on the 'full of life' part. Mr. Miller sent messages out to the other people that evacuated, letting them know the rocks are gone and we're repairing the place." Varian nodded.

"I meant the flora and fauna, but that's good to hear." Elsa nodded. "Varian, I've been wondering something."

"Yeah?" He looked at her.

"I've been hearing...talk about you coming back to Corona wearing some...fancy magical outfit that reminded people of...me?" Elsa asked with amusement.

Varian groaned. "Ohh, that. Yeah, uh, when I first got the Moonstone, it decided to give me this fancy outfit with a super long cape and everyone was making jokes about my taking fashion advice from you. I was stuck in that thing until I learned to control the rocks, and I was determined to figure it out myself instead of having the answer given to me. I'm weird like that."

"May I see it?" She asked with an amused smile.

He sighed. "Okay, but you need to show me yours, too. I've only heard about it, never actually seen it."