Edmund observed Corin discreetly, as he had been since the boy had arrived in Narnia. The normally rambunctious youth had been acting most unlike himself: drawn, pale and silent.

He had spoken scarcely over a dozen words over the past week, and Edmund had resolved to determine the cause of his silence.
As Corin glanced, for the umpteenth time at his oblivious twin Edmund reflected that it shouldn't prove too difficult.

Cornering the adolescent proved to be much harder, however. Corin seemed to have an uncanny sense of perception; enabling him to realize when he was being followed, which Edmund would have admired, had this sense not been directed at evading him.
He cursed as the wily youth slipped out of his sight, leading him to yet another dead end. For Aslan's sake, this was his castle!

How Corin seemed to know every nook and cranny was beyond him, and it was on the growing list of things to interrogate the prince about. As soon as he found the wretch, that was.

Finally, Edmund took control of the situation when Corin erred, turning left and leading them into the library. Edmund moved quickly, closing the doors and barring them with a lance borrowed from the suit of armor beside the door.

Corin acknowledged his defeat, though the smile he'd been wearing throughout the chase had slipped off his face.

"Quite a chase," Edmund observed quietly. "I had no idea that you had such extensive knowledge of the castle."

Corin looked innocently at the Narnian king. "I was simply taking a stroll through the castle, and decided I wanted to read. If I'd had any idea that His Majesty wanted to accompany me, I would of course have slowed down. "

Edmund rolled his eyes, but was silently relieved that Corin seemed to be himself again.

There was still a hint of melancholy in his eyes, though the blond tried to cover it with a fake smile.
"How's Cor?" The king inquired out of the blue.

Corin let the fake smile slip off his face; realizing the Just King had discovered the reason for his sudden unhappiness. "I wouldn't know," he replied, and then asked a random question of his own: "how can you tell if someone loves you?"

Edmund closed his eyes, the answer coming easily to him, as he thought of another blue eyed blond he knew. "You see it in their eyes," the look of fondness in Peter's when Lucy did something particularly brave, when Susan showed her boundless mercy yet again, and even when he solved a complex problem with ease was hard to miss. "They love spending time with you, they can be themselves around you, they do things they don't like doing for you, they always stand up for you and they wouldn't be able to live without you."

Corin, who'd been turning paler and paler as Edmund continued his list, bolted out of the room almost before he was done talking.

Edmund looked bewilderedly at the spot where his younger counterpart had been, wondering what he'd done wrong.

Corin dashed out of the library at breakneck speed, racing to the guest bedroom he shared with his brother. He collapsed onto the bed, and buried his head under his pillow, feeling rather as though he had been stabbed in the gut.

King Edmund was close to his brother, anyone could see that. That meant he knew what he was talking about when he listed the signs of love.

Corin had known it before, known. Why then had he hoped? No matter how much he'd tried to convince himself, to steel his heart, there'd always been a part of him that still wouldn't listen, that kept him open, vulnerable. That part of him was the reason he ached, why tears bled through his pillow.

He had proof now.

It wasn't a mere speculation or errant doubt, it was fact.

His brother didn't love him.

AN: More nervous about this one. Edmund is so hard to write! And... yet I can somehow grasp how his mind works.. I hope I've conveyed that. Probably going to write two more chapters, the last of which will be Cor's POV.