Title: Men of their Word
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia
Warnings: Genderfuck. (boy!Susan and boy!Lucy)
Word count: 1000
Prompt: Chronicles of Narnia, all-male!Pevensies and female!Rabadash, it's not that we don't like her well no, actually, it is.

AN: Meet Peter, Samuel, Edmund and Lucas Pevensie. This was supposed to be three sentences and then it turned into this. Awesome prompt! Thanks so much to grim_lupine for the quick beta. You rock, Nikki!

She was beautiful, Princess Raba of Calormen. There was no way of denying that. Edmund watched her dance with his brother, but a feeling of unease wouldn't refusing to leave his stomach. Nothing about the girl suggested that there would be anything wrong about her; except her eyes. They were so cold and calculating, which made Edmund shiver and it reminded him too much of someone else he once knew.

Sam was clearly enamoured and continued dancing with her all night, neglecting his duties and every other girl in the room who was desperate to dance with him.

Edmund took a deep swallow of wine before locating his brothers. Peter and Lucas stood side by side looking over at Sam and Princess Raba. Lucas had a look of disgust clearly written all over his face, while Peter looked curious and concerned.

Walking over there, Lucas started talking as soon as Edmund was within earshot: "She was incredibly rude towards Tumnus today." He didn't specify who "she" was, as they all knew. "I was standing with Tumnus in the north-east corridor, when she walked up. Both I and Tumnus bowed to her, and she curtsied back, but only to me! She completely turned her back on Tumnus as if he wasn't even there. She asked me if I could escort her to the gardens to look for Sam, and throughout the entire conversation, she didn't acknowledge Tumnus once!" Lucas sneered in the direction of Sam and the Princess. "I hate people who are false."

Edmund nodded. "But be careful of what you say to Sam," he cautioned. "He's clearly interested in her."

Lucas huffed in disgust. "The sooner they leave, the better," he said and emptied his wine.

"Be still, brother, Sam is coming," Peter said.

Sam and Princess Raba had stopped dancing. Princess Raba walked over to her ladies-in-waiting, while Sam was headed in their direction. He walked as if in a trance. The man looked as if he was close to skipping across the ballroom and all the other three Pevensie boys steeled themselves.

"She is the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on," he said by way of greeting.

"Aye, she is pretty," Edmund said, while stepping on Lucas's foot in case he said something stupid. Lucas looked at him, confused, and Edmund raised his eyebrows in a way that he hoped would convey to Lucas as "please keep silent!"

"She is marvelous, magnificent!"

Edmund raised his eyebrows in surprise, then looked over at Peter, who seemed to be very close to pointing out that no, he was the Magnificent around here. But it seemed he decided that that was a joke for another time.

"Brothers, she might be the one, the girl I have been waiting for." Sam's voice had a dreamy quality to it and Edmund instinctively reached out and pinched his arm. "Ow! Whatever did you do that for?" Sam asked, confused.

Edmund shrugged. "You looked like you were under a spell, so I had to check."

Sam scowled at him for a second, before turning to Peter. "She's the one who I'm going to make my queen."

Peter, Edmund and Lucas looked at him in shock, before Lucas all but yelled, "Hold your horses there, brother! Are you completely mental?"

Sam turned to Lucas with a concerned face. "Do you not like her?"

Lucas kept silent. "She makes me laugh, and when she looks at me I feel like I'm the most important man in the world," Sam said this with a soft, quiet voice and Edmund just knew they would never be able to talk him out of this.

"You have to at least visit her home before you do anything else," Edmund said.

Peter looked at him and seemed to understand where he was going with this. "You'll have to speak with her father before you tell anyone else. Not even her. Keep your intentions to yourself. One rumour and you're doomed."

Sam looked at Peter, happy that they had decided to be on his side, but slightly confused at as to what he meant.

"You do not want the Calormene to know what your intentions are. For then you are as good as engaged and getting out of it will get trickier," Edmund clarified.

"But I don't want to get out of it!" Sam exclaimed.

"Not now, but if you should change your mind, you wouldn't don't want to be bound to anything. A Narnian king doesn't break his word," Edmund said gravely, willing Sam to understand. It seemed like this the girl had stolen his brain as well as his heart. "I want you to go to Calormen and stay there for at least two weeks," Edmund continued. "And during those two weeks you will not commit to anything before telling me. Will you promise me that, brother?"

They looked at each other, Sam's blue eyes meeting Edmund's brown and Sam nodded. "You will come with me?" he asked, and Edmund nodded. "Why all this caution?" Sam said.

"Well, Sam," Edmund said with smirk. "If you engaged yourself to this woman after only knowing her a few days, then telling told the entire world about it, but then suddenly changed your mind, Calormen would be more than angry at us. I will never let you marry someone you don't want to marry, but it will be a hell of a lot easier to get you out of this if you never make your intentions clear. And we'd want to do anything to keep Peter from going to war, right?"

Sam smiled and gave them all a brief hug, before looking for his lady love again. Before leaving he turned to them and said, "But you do like her, don't you?"

The three stayed silent.

"You will try to like her?" Sam said, slightly offended.

Peter and Edmund nodded slowly. Lucas stayed silent. Like Edmund had said, Narnian kings are men of their word and they would never promise something they couldn't keep.

finis.