My Narnia oneshot for Christmas! Enjoy!
This story takes place in betwen LWW (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) and PC (Prince Caspian). This is the first Christmas the Pevensie children spend with their parents after coming back from the Professor's and thus their first Christmas after their visit to Narnia.

:)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Pevensie children, Narnia, or World War 2. I don't know who "owns" a war, it would be awesome if I did own Narnia, but I don't. I DO, however, own Ileana, Leah, and the gifts they give each other.

"Peter? Peter . . . Peter?" Peter vaguely recalled his younger sister Lucy calling his name for the past ten minutes.

"What, Lucy?" he asked.

"Who's the baby doll for?" she asked him, gesturing to the box he held in his hand. That morning, the four Pevensies and their mother Helen had gone Christmas shopping. They had taken an hour's drive into town and spent all day picking out presents for each other. To the children, it was strange to be back in modern England, as they were spending their first Christmas with their parents after the war and their first Christmas after the second Narnian adventure.

"Oh, that," Peter stammered, forgetting what he was holding. He had been staring at the box, lost in his thoughts the whole ride home. "It's for . . . it's for Ileana," he said at last. As soon as the words left his mouth he immediately groaned at how unrealistic they were. Ileana wasn't here, and neither was Leah.

"Peter," from the front seat, Susan placed a hand on her brother's knee. "I know how much you miss Leah and Ileana."

"It wasn't much help that we had to go back 1300 years later," Peter said. "I wanted to see her again."

Susan nodded. "Hey Peter," Edmund said, poking his brother in the ribs.

"What, Ed?" Peter asked, slightly annoyed.

"I fixed you up with a girl this Christmas," Edmund said. "She's coming over with my Betsy." Edmund was now fourteen and had fancied a girl, Betsy, for the past few months. Peter had finally forced him to ask her out, and they had been going steady for about three months now.

"Wow, Ed," Peter said sarcastically. "You're fixing me, almost eighteen years old, with someone six years younger than me."

"She's not!" Edmund burst out. "She's Betsy's older sister Sarah, and she'll be eighteen on Friday!"

"Boys," reprimanded Mrs. Pevensie from the driver's seat. "Break it up now, we're home."

"Ed," Peter spoke with clenched teeth, "Can I talk to you? Alone?"

Edmund shrugged and followed his brother up the stairs to the room they shared. "Ed, you and Susan have got to stop fixing me up with strange girls! You know how I feel about dating, especially after . . ." Peter trailed off, letting his brother fill in the blanks.

"I know, Peter," Edmund laid a hand on his brother's shoulder. "But we just want to see you happy again. You know that."

"You also know that the only way I'm going to be truly happy is if I see Leah and Ileana again," Peter said softly. He pulled a large gold band from his pocket and rubbed it. After they had come out of the wardrobe, the ring that had once been bound to his finger now slipped easily off. Peter always kept it in his pocket to remind him of what once was.

"Peter, Peter, wake up!" Peter awoke to his eleven-year-old sister bouncing up and down on his bed.

"Come now, Lucy," Peter said with a smile, "You're almost as bad as Ileana when she realized she got presents on Christmas."

Lucy giggled. "Come on!" she tugged on his hand, and he followed, lost in the memories of the last Christmas he had spent in Narnia, when Ileana was two.

"Dada!" Ileana clapped her hands as Peter walked into the nursery at around 6:30 on Christmas morning.

"Hey there, baby girl," Peter greeted his daughter, lifting her from the crib. "You ready to open presents?"

Ileana cocked her head to one side, an expression on her face that Peter thought cuter than cute. "Presents?" she asked.

Peter smiled. "Yes, sweetheart, presents."

Ileana squealed with joy. Leah stumbled into the room sleepily, rubbing her eyes. "What's going on in here?" she asked. "Why are you two up so early?"

"It's only 6:30, darling," Peter replied, grinning. "And besides, it's Christmas!"

Peter leaned towards his wife to give her a kiss, but was interrupted by Ileana squealing, "Presents! Presents, Mommy!"

"Yes," Leah said, stroking Ileana's hair, "there are presents." She paused and Peter kissed her before heading down the hall towards the main family room where the tree and the presents were waiting for them.

"Peter? Are you there?" Susan snapped her fingers in front of her brother's face. "Where were you?" she asked him.

"Narnia," he answered breathily.

"Thinking about . . ." Susan prompted.

"The last Christmas we spent in Narnia, when Ili was two," Peter replied. "How excited she was when I told her there were presents."

Susan smiled. "You miss them a lot, don't you?"

"More than you could ever imagine," Peter replied. "I had a wife and a daughter that were suddenly taken away from me and I don't know if I'll ever see them again. I regret never seeing Ili grow up . . . I hope she doesn't hate me."

Susan scooted closer to her brother. "I don't think she'll hate you, Peter—you didn't really have much of a choice."

"Presents!" Lucy announced, picking up the first one and reading the tag. "From Peter to Edmund," she read, passing it over.

Edmund turned the long package in his hands before tearing into it. Inside he found a box, inside the box a beautiful sword and shield with Aslan's crest carved into it. "How did you manage such a thing?" he asked, looking incredulously at Peter.

"I apprentice with the blacksmith, you know," Peter replied, "And he helped me forge it. He asked me how I was sure you'd like the crest—I just told him it was a brother thing."

"I love it, Peter!" Edmund exclaimed.

Lucy, still playing messenger, picked up the next one. "To Susan from Edmund."

Inside the package, Susan found a framed picture of the four of them, dressed in typical Narnian style. Lucy's cordial and dagger were easily identifiable, as were Susan's horn, bow, and arrows; and Peter's sword and shield. "Oh, Ed, how did you get such a thing?" she asked.

Edmund smiled. "I worked really hard on it."

"You painted it?" asked Lucy, looking from Edmund to the painting and back again.

"Betsy helped, as did the art teacher at school. Miss Dunn has had all four of you and said it looked the most like all your personalities."

Lucy smiled and picked up another package, but Peter picked up one and read the tag before she could speak. "To Lucy from Susan," he said, handing it to her.

Lucy tore open the package to reveal a stunning charm bracelet. Narnian-type charms hung from it, including a dagger, a perfume bottle, and a lion. "I love it, thank you Susan!" Lucy cried, hugging her older sister.

"Last one," Edmund said about an hour later, "To Peter from . . . Ileana?"

Peter reached for the package and opened it up. Inside lay a silver picture frame etched with the words "I Love My Daddy" and a painting of Ileana. "Where did you get this?" he asked.

Lucy grinned. "It's actually from me, but I thought it more appropriate given in the spirit of Ileana. Edmund's art teacher painted it for me in the likeness of Lydia, and I bought the frame at a thrift shop and cleaned it up a bit."

Peter hugged his little sister tightly. "I love you, Lucy. This is the best Christmas present ever."

"I love you too, Peter," Lucy said, hugging him back. She soon felt Edmund's arms around her, and looked up to see all four of them, hugging in memories of a Narnia-filled Christmas.

weeeee! wasn't that fun? :) Just as a side note: Lydia is the Pevensies' cousin, who looks pretty much exactly like Ileana. The only difference between Lydia and Ileana is Lydia has brown eyes while Ileana has Leah's green ones.

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