AUTHOR'S NOTE/UPDATE: Due to an error on my part, I accidentally labeled this "In Progress". It was supposed to be a oneshot. I apologize to those who followed it and have been waiting ages for it to update. I only just realized my mistake, so I don't have anything else written/planned for it. I will try my best to write more for this, but it might be a while. I am so sorry!
Water swallowed Edmund down, tearing the world out from under him and with it, a long year of growing frustration and longing. Then the force of the plunge pulled him deep into the blue-green depths, down to where the sky was a faraway shimmer above him and his heartbeat slowed to a pounding in his ears. And he remembered how miracles worked.
You couldn't have Wonderland without earning it. Adventures contained as many tears as laughs. And few worlds worked the way of Never-Never Land.
Time didn't stand still.
He broke the surface again, sound and light rushing back to pummel him. Gasping for breath, he fought the waves and his adolescent muscles, trying to remember the practiced ease he'd used to swim with as the Just King.
But that was years and years ago, in this world—now more years than ever.
After defeating the White Witch, a year had passed for him and his siblings before they found themselves in Narnia again—an ordinary year which had seemed to drag on forever, but still, only one little year. In the land of the lion, though, a hundred years had come and gone, taking everyone the Pevensies had known and loved with them.
Now Edmund was back in Narnia again, and again it had only been a single year on Earth. But in Narnia…
Then the shadow of the great ship—more clearly Narnian than ever—loomed over him, and he and his sister and his annoying cousin were being hauled aboard.
Edmund squeezed his eyes shut as his feet hit the deck, making a pretense of wiping water out of his face. In reality, he couldn't bear to look around and see strange faces once again.
Couldn't bear to not see one face in particular—
"Edmund!"
His eyes snapped open as a remembered voice called his name, an instant before warm, familiar—oh so wonderfully familiar—arms wrapped around him under the guise of draping the soaking teen in a blanket.
"Caspian!"
Edmund grinned up at the young king, winding one arm around him in return as they walked over to where Lucy was smiling all-too-knowingly at them. Even Eustace, dripping next to her and scowling, couldn't ruin his mood.
He should know by now that adventures were like worlds; every one had its own rules. What was it that Lucy said Aslan had told her? Things never happen the same way twice…
He surreptitiously leaned closer into Caspian, who tightened his grip around Edmund's shoulders in response. Around them, the warm Narnian sun scattered diamonds on the waves and pulled the rich scents of wood and salt and tar out of the ship.
And so what if time wouldn't stand still for him? Right now it was moving him along at Caspian's side, and he knew that whatever tears this adventure brought them, it would give them its fair share of joys too.