“Fraser,” said a deep, sure voice beside me. Fergus and Marsali both glanced back in surprise, and Jamie nodded. His eyes met Fergus’s, and he smiled faintly.

“Fergus Claudel Fraser,” he said, slowly and clearly. One eyebrow lifted as he looked at Fergus.

Fergus himself looked transfixed. His mouth hung open, eyes wide black pools in the dim light. Then he nodded slightly, and a glow rose in his face, as though he contained a candle that had just been lit.

“Fraser,” he said to the priest. His voice was husky, and he cleared his throat. “Fergus Claudel Fraser.”

We’ll learn. Together.

César Domboy and Lauren Lyle on the Most Awkward Part of Their Outlander Romance

"Technically, we have the same dad!"

www.elle.com

It’s a shame the cutest character on Outlander is married—or, at least, kind of married. Fergus, the former child pickpocket now played by César Domboy, has taken up with Laoghaire’s oldest daughter Marsali, played by Lauren Lyle. In Sunday’s episode, they revealed they had gone through a handfast ceremony, a pagan ritual in which a couple bind themselves to each other. Such a marriage isn’t official in the eyes of the church, and Fergus and Marsali’s has yet to be consummated—something Jamie is trying to prevent for the time being. (Good luck with that.)

So who are Outlander’s latest young lovers? During a break from shooting, Domboy and Lyle sat down with ELLE.com in Cape Town, South Africa to talk binge-watching, Marsali and Claire’s fraught relationship, and whether it’s awkward that Fergus and Marsali kind of have the same dad (…yeah, kind of).

So how did you get the part? Were you an Outlander fan? Had you read the books?

César Domboy: Before the first testing, I didn’t know anything about Outlander, actually, so I watched episodes with young Fergus, because it would be good training, to start with. The scene I auditioned with, it’s not in this season, but much later on, when Fergus has an intense scene with Claire. I guess they wanted to see how I would handle that. And then they hired me, and I was very thrilled to be in it, so I started watching the show from the beginning, binge-watching, so I am all caught up. Young Fergus was so good, that when I was watching Romann Berrux, I decided to pick up a couple of things he was doing.

Lauren Lyle: I didn’t know much about it. In Scotland, I heard other actors talk about it, because when it started, everyone was like, “There’s this thing…” But even though there was a buzz about it, I had never seen it. When the casting notice came through and my agent described the part to me, it was like, “She’s this young girl, she’s feisty, she doesn’t give a damn about propriety,“ and I was like, “Alright, so she’s basically me.” Then [the casting process] went over the course of a month. I went out from London, where I live, and met all the team, and the next morning, got the call with the offer! Which was really cool.

What was it like when you met your doppelgangers, so to speak? The younger version of your character, the parent of your character…

Domboy: I hate that kid. [Laughs] It’s my part! Just kidding. Yes, we met, and he’s so cool. I felt a bit weird, because I was stealing his part. I didn’t want to do his voice as much as his moves, because he was a kid, and Fergus would sound older now anyway. So I picked up more things from him, like language and facial expressions. And he had a very precise way of moving his body in the scenes, too, because Fergus is a pickpocket, so he always had his hands dragging everywhere, trying to feel everything around him, or maybe trying to steal something. But now I only have one hand! [Laughs] The other one is a wooden hand, which is a prosthesis, and that makes everything more complicated. I was not used to that, and I had to learn to manage that, but it does not limit Fergus. He can still do everything!

Lyle: Nell Hudson, who plays Laoghaire, my mother, she’s like two years older than me! [Laughs] We’re almost the same age, and she’s my mom! The two of us were like, “We look the same! That’s so weird! How is this going to work?” But she’s great. She’s amazing. Everyone talks about her being evil, or the badass of the whole thing, which is true, and Marsali certainly takes from that. We don’t meet Marsali when she’s growing up, but she’s so young, she takes after a bunch of people when we start going on this journey.

In a way, Jamie and Claire are parents to you both.

Domboy: It’s really super intense, and lovely, really moving. Fergus can’t believe it. He had mourned her, his mother figure. He thought she was dead. And she’s here, and she’s like, “Fergus! You’re all grown up!” “Yes, I am!” [Laughs] They go back to bonding right away. That’s the first scene I ever shot, me and Claire. And you learn that I’ve become Jamie’s right-hand man…using my one good hand! If he asks me to do something, I do it. But I’m also like his best friend, and his son—his foster or surrogate son.

So what are Jamie and Claire like as parents?

Lyle: My very first day was shooting that scene where I walk in on Claire and Jamie. [Laughs] So awkward! Even though Marsali and Claire are not friends at all, she really likes Claire…and then they do become friends. She doesn’t act like a mother to me. She should be a little kinder to me and set an example, but she chooses not to. She’s quite happy to look me up and down, and let me know that she doesn’t need to respect me, and that’s what I respond to, instinctively. I go, “Okay, maybe I need to respect her,” and I think that’s why they bond, because they have similar traits. That’s why they clash, too.

And then with Jamie, we’ve got this fraught relationship with each other, because he’s not really my dad. I actually resent him a lot of the time, due to my mom. I don’t consider Jamie and Claire parents at first, because they are sort of an inconvenience to me. But then he lets Fergus and me be together! Which is a big thing, because we’re fighting for this relationship. So once Jamie grants us that, there’s a whole new respect between the four of us. We become a team.

Domboy: Neither Jamie nor Claire are what you might call strict parents. And neither Sam nor Caitriona wanted to act their parents like strict parents. Sam’s idea was to change it, to loosen it up even more. His intention was more like, if there is something Jamie doesn’t want Fergus to do, he might say, “I don’t want you to do that,” and that’s about it. He doesn’t want Fergus to be too serious. He wants him to have fun, not to be complicated. If we can have fun, that’s what we do.

And yet, here you are, running off to get married…

Domboy: All the women are in love with me. [Laughs] Because of the wooden hand! Fergus was born and raised in a brothel, so he knows a lot about women, and he’s around a lot of women. But he’s not greedy. The audience will want to root for this. It’s young love.

Lyle: I don’t think Marsali has met that many men. There’s really no one else around. Fergus is the only option!

Domboy: I’m your only option! I’m your only hope!

Lyle: I think they’ve grown up together, sort of, and they have a bond of some kind. And also, I don’t think love has to make sense. I mean, technically, we have the same dad! But it’s not incest. And Marsali is so brave that she gives up her whole life. She’s from a teeny little farm, and she doesn’t have that much of an education, and yet she throws herself on this boat and goes after what she loves, and doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks.