Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. They belong to the wonderful C.S. Lewis.
Title: What Happened After Their Arrival From Narnia
Author: digoryandpolly
Language: English
Genre: Family/General
Rating: K
Form: One-shot
World: Earth (London, Eustace's house)
Characters: Edmund and Lucy Pevensie (this is NOT a pairing), Eustace Scrubb and Alberta Scrubb
"Then all in one moment there was a rending of the blue wall (like a curtain being torn) and a terrible white light from beyond the sky, and the feel of Aslan's mane and a Lion's kiss on their foreheads and then – the back bedroom in Aunt Alberta's home in Cambridge."
What Happened After Their Arrival From Narnia
Lucy couldn't sleep. She kept on squinting in her bed. She was already missing Narnia even if it's only hours that had passed since their last visit. She tried to doze off by shutting her eyes but the fact that she and her siblings are not going to Narnia kept on popping up in her head. She looked at the clock and wasn't surprised that it was already midnight.
She got up and walked toward the painting hung just above the mantelpiece of her fireplace. She stared at the ship, thinking what Caspian was doing right at the moment. She thought about Narnia, the country she and her siblings ruled for a long time.
She went inside the loo and washed her face with cold water. Then, she heard someone opened the Scrubb's front door and closed it again. She looked outside her window, overlooking the street, and was wondering who could that be and found Edmund in the front garden, sitting on a rock with a lamp at his side. He was staring at the sky which was dotted with lots of stars. The moon was so bright that its light flooded half of Lucy's room.
'Maybe he's also missing Narnia,' Lucy thought. Then, without thinking, she took her own lamp from the bedside table and sneaked out to the front garden.
Lucy opened the front door quietly and peeked outside. She saw Edmund, surprised as if he just saw a ghost. Then, Edmund sighed in relief.
"I thought you were Aunt Alberta," he said. Lucy went outside. "Can't sleep, either?"
"Yes," Lucy answered. She walked toward Edmund's direction and sat on the grass beside him, Indian-style.
"I wonder what they are doing right now," said Lucy after a moment of silence between them. She began pulling up the grass in front of her.
"Who? The Narnians?" Edmund asked, still gazing at the stars above them.
"Yep."
"I was wondering the same thing, Lu," Edmund replied. He sighed. "So, this is how they felt when Aslan announced that they're not coming back."
"Peter and Susan?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah."
"It's such a shame that we're not coming back, you know, as Narnia was already our second home," said Lucy.
Edmund didn't reply. He was busy staring at something in the sky that had caught his attention. Lucy followed his gaze and realized he was staring at the brightest star in the sky.
"Lilliandil?"
Edmund looked at her. "N-No, I'm not thinking of her. She might end up with Caspian, you know, and that's okay for me. I just miss those times when we were tracking the star that was Lilliandil."
"Me, too," Lucy agreed.
There was another pause. Lucy continued uprooting the grass and Edmund was staring at the sky again.
"You know, I'm quite jealous of Eustace returning to Narnia once more," said Edmund.
"Yeah. But who knows? Maybe someday we're going back to Narnia, too," said Lucy with a hint of hopefulness in her voice.
"That's not possible. Aslan said we're already too old to come back," Edmund said.
Lucy thought about the conversation she and Susan had in the woods while Edmund, Peter and Trumpkin were sleeping.
"During our second visit to Narnia, I felt like Susan didn't want to come back. She even said to me that she didn't expect our comeback and she's already contented with her life here in London before that visit," Lucy said. Edmund just sighed.
"People also change, Lucy."
"But isn't it sad when you heard someone say that they don't want to go to Narnia anymore? I mean, Narnia is a wonderful world. Why would someone say they don't want to go there? Especially Susan for she was once a Queen of Narnia," Lucy asked.
Edmund shrugged. "Are you not still sleepy?"
"I guess not," she replied. "You?"
"A little." Edmund yawned and his eyes looked tired already.
"You should go to sleep, Ed," said Lucy with a smile.
"Are you sure you'll stay here?" asked Edmund.
"Yes," replied Lucy with a smile.
"Okay. Just don't stay up too long and don't go outside the gates," said Edmund. He stood up and went inside with his lamp.
Lucy looked up. The sky was so beautiful but some stars began to disappear. Lucy saw the Orion constellation. She usually sees it whenever she goes out at night and star gaze. Suddenly, she saw something move on her right. She quickly glanced at the right and found a lost cat. The cat's had yellow and orange fur and somehow it reminded Lucy of Aslan. The great lion. The creator of Narnia.
'You've already stayed up too long, Lucy,'the words formed in her mind. 'You should go to bed now.'
Lucy stood up and brushed the grass she uprooted off her night gown. She picked up her lamp and went inside the house.
"Where were you last night?"
Lucy, Edmund and Aunt Alberta were in the living room the next day. Aunt Alberta sat on her sofa while Edmund and Lucy were standing two meters away from where she was sitting, their hands on their backs and their heads facing the ground.
"W-We were sleeping, Aunt," Edmund replied.
"Liar. I know you sneaked out to the front garden and stayed there until midnight," their aunt said.
The two youngest Pevensies didn't reply. Then, they heard someone go down the stairs quickly with loud thumps every step. It was Eustace.
"It's my fault, Mum," said Eustace. Since their arrival from Narnia, he started calling his Parents Mum and Dad instead of their names.
"What?" asked Aunt Alberta with a surprised look on her face.
"It's my fault," Eustace said again. "I told them yesterday to star gaze at night so that they would forget all their…" He looked at his cousins, who were also looking at him. "…problems."
"Problems? Wh-What Problems?" Aunt Alberta spat.
Eustace opened his mouth but Lucy piped in.
"E-Edmund and I miss our family. You know, Peter and Susan and our parents," said Lucy.
"Well, that's not a problem because you'll be reuniting with your family soon after the war ends," said Aunt Alberta. "And you, boy." She pointed at his son. "I want to ask you some questions."
Eustace took a few steps toward his mother's direction. "Yes, Mum?"
"I was wondering why you started calling me Mum and not by my name," she asked, her eyes narrowing.
"Ummm… I- I just realized that calling you by your name and not Mum or Mother isn't respectful," Eustace replied.
"And your cousins told you that?"
"N-No. The idea just came into my mind."
"Okay. And one last question. I was also wondering why you suddenly stopped fighting with your cousins. Well, I'm not saying that it's not good, making friends with them. But why?"
"Th-The idea just popped up in my head," her son replied.
"Very well. Okay, you may all go now and get out of my sight."
Eustace, Edmund and Lucy went upstairs and inside Lucy's bedroom.
"Eustace, was that for real?" a surprised Edmund said as he closed the door behind him. "What did you do that for?"
"I-It's nothing," said Eustace, half-smiling.
"No, it's not. You saved us, you know," said Lucy.
"Why did you become good to us?" Edmund asked. "Did you eat something or what?"
"No, I didn't… eat anything." He looked toward the painting. The painting that sucked and transported them into Narnia.
"Oh." The word came out of Lucy's mouth. The idea of not coming back to Narnia entered her mind again and thinking about it was really painful for her and Edmund.
"Well, you'll come back again someday, Eustace," said Edmund.
"I know. But it's sad that you're not coming with me next time," Eustace replied.
"But it's still okay. Who knows? Someone you know might come with you, too," said Lucy.
"Yeah, I hope so," said Eustace.
The three of them stared at the painting for a moment. Then, they heard Jill Pole, Eustace's friend, calling them from below. They stared at each other and laughed.
"Who knows, Eustace? It might be Jill Pole who is going to be your companion," said Edmund.
Eustace just shrugged and they went outside except Lucy, who stared at the painting for a moment before closing the door of her room.
"Only two more things need to be told. One is that Caspian and his men all came safely back to Ramandu's Island. And the three lords woke from their sleep. Caspian married Ramandu's daughter and they all reached Narnia in the end, and she became a great queen and the mother and grandmother of great kings. The other is that back in our own world everyone started saying how Eustace had improved, and how "You'd never know him for the same boy": everyone except Aunt Alberta, who said he had become very commonplace and tiresome and it must have been the influence of those Pevensie children."
End
Author's note: Did you like it? Tell me your insights by reviewing this fanfic ^~^