Cafuné

[gwenchan]

 

Fandom: Odissea
Characters: Odysseus, Penelope

Prompt: Antica Grecia
Tag: pre-canon; missing moment, slice of life

Stretching her legs on the kliné, Penelope hums contently. She must say, her husband's lap makes for an incredibly good cushion for her head, in one of those rare moments they have managed to carve for themselves and them alone. 

In the hearth the fire burns brightly. 

Odysseus' fingers card delicately through her locks.

"I like your hair," he says, tracing the profile of one of the braids she decided to wear for today’s hairdo. From time to time she can feel his fingers playing with the pins and fibulas that holds everything in place.

“You’ll ruin it,” Penelope chides, but only half-heartedly, in the peacefulness of the moment. 

“I’ll help you fix it later.”

“Oh, would you?”

Her husband is certainly a man of many talent, blessed in strength and wit, excellent with the bow and proficient with the sword, but feminine’ hairdos are a whole other universe. She's still open to be surprised, though.

And, yes, it’s quite the relief when he gently removes the first pin, easing the tension and pull she has felt at her scalp for the whole day. Slowly, thick and lustrous curls bounces on her shoulders, cascading down to her waist. Maids and other women have always praised her for such beautiful locks, one thing she inherited from her nymph mother, praises not always free from envy. 

The same voices saying he was pretty but, alas, never as much as her cousin. A mouth a little too large, a nose a bit too long.

"I got a letter from Menelaus and Helen," Odysseus says. "I'm invited to partake in a festival there."

"Are you going?"

It hurts a bit they didn't invite her as well, her who has been a princess of Sparta,but as a married woman her place is to stay at home. 

Making a throaty sound, he taps on her head, but not in an annoying way.

"I think yes. To keep good relationships. I won't take long."

He has never liked leaving Ithaca for long periods of time. All he needs is here. But for Penelope sometimes this island feels too tiny. She can't help a sigh and it doesn't go unnoticed.

"You miss it there, don't you?"

It isn’t really a question. She shrugs. Her loyalty now is meant to be for Ithaca and her new family. 

"A little. Sometimes." 

She especially misses the greenery of the fields around the city. Ithaca is a barren island, and small, offering little for recreation. More than anything she misses the freedom. At least, within the limit set by society, Odysseus treats her as a peer.

“But I like it here."

If her husband catches the lie, he’s courteous enough to ignore it. Penelope rolls on her back. "Aren't you supposed to have a council soon?" 

Knitting his brows together in a clear sign of annoyance, Odysseus snorts. "Must you remind me?"

Though Laerte hasn't officially abdicated yet, most of the administrative duties falls on Odysseus as the heir and king-to-be, one who would rather be in the fields plowing the soil than discussing tributes all over again.

Not showing signs of getting up he keeps playing with Penelope's  hair, even stopping her attempts at lifting her head.

"Odysseus …"

"Do you have places to be?"

There are always places to be, always work to do, but nothing so urgent she must jump to her feet immediately. 

"No," she admits

"Then," he says, leaving no space for discussion, "they'll have to wait a little longer.