Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: This is my first Chronicles of Narnia fic, because I just saw the movie yesterday, and it's been ages since I read the books. Edmund is my favorite character, because he's just all too human, and I always thought the relationship between Peter and him was more complex than simple resentment or jealousy.
It chafes, sometimes.
Though he has come far from the ten year old that first set foot in Narnia, hungry for attention and resentful of his perfect older brother, some of the old insecurity still remains.
Because even though he can fight well, Peter is better, and when they race in the forest, Peter almost always wins, and he's a king, but Peter is High King.
He doesn't resent him anymore. He loves his brother and would die for him, and they become all the closer when they return to dreary England and are conscious of the feeling of being trapped in a body to young for them.
But it still chafes, sometimes.
Because he feels like he has no talents of his own, that he will always be living in his brother's shadow, and to make everything worse Peter is always so kind to him.
And then there comes those nights when he can hear the racking sobs coming from Peter's room, and he sees that his older brother dreams about failing Narnia, failing Susan and Lucy and him, about Edmund with the witch's sword buried in his shoulder. And Lucy is asleep halfway across the house, and Susan has given up the world of lions and dwarves for one of lipstick and stockings, so Edmund is the one who settles by Peter's side and strokes his forehead gently, planting a kiss on his temple.
And he sees that for all that his brother is High King, Peter the Magnificent, his perfect older brother, he needs someone with him then, and that someone is Edmund.
When Peter's eyes open, blinking tears away, and he sees Edmund there next to him, the look on his face sends another jolt of realization at Edmund.
He may not be High King, but in those few hours as he lies next to his older brother, he is the most important person in the world to one person.
He thinks that that may be enough.