Rain

Disclaimer: Seriously, y'all… Everyone knows that I own nothing… Well, not exactly nothing, but nothing that you are about to read about.

Author's Note: This was written at a rather late hour at night after a nine-hour drive home from vacation to try to cure boredom. (Getting back from vacation and realizing that you're home for the summer really can instigate extreme boredom.) It was also written during the time that I should be working on Chapter 8 of MGJV, which I'm sure all of you will be happy to know! ((Dodges flying tomatoes thrown by angry MGJV readers))

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It was storming outside.

King Peter sat on his window seat and stared out the window. He watched the rain drops fall down, splashing on the grass, on the ocean waves, on the trees, on the country of Narnia. He watched the lightning flash, illuminating the darkness that both night and dense cloud coverage created, giving brief images of the country he was responsible for. He listened to the thunder crash, undoubtedly scaring all the younger creatures of Narnia.

Speaking of which… He wondered if Lucy was asleep. It was, after all, nearing midnight and high past time that the girl was in bed. Still, it was possible that the loud thunder had awoken her.

He knew that Lucy didn't like thunderstorms. He wasn't quite sure why, but she had always hated them. The fear was understandable in a young child, but as Lucy was nearing her twelfth birthday, it was rather strange that the storms still frightened her as much as they did.

There was another bolt of lightning, followed quickly by the crash of thunder, and Peter got up quickly and left his room.

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It was pouring outside.

Queen Susan sat in a large, comfortable arm chair in the library, reading a book. She was trying to ignore the rain, as she had never really liked it. Susan was more in favor of the crisp, cool, cloudless days that were common around October. Rain was just so dreary and depressing… Susan was glad that it looked like the storm might be starting to subside.

However, Susan hadn't always disliked thunderstorms. She could remember a time when she was younger, before Narnia, when she liked to watch the rain fall. After all, as her mother used to say, rain wasn't all bad. It was cool and refreshing, it kept the days from being quite so hot in the summer time. And rain was what made the flowers bloom.

But then the war came.

A flash of light and a loud roar – two characteristics that resembled both thunderstorms and bombings.

After the start of the war, Susan no longer liked thunderstorms.

And at first, she hadn't minded rain, as long as it wasn't accompanied by the lightning and thunder that she associated with bombs. But as the war went on and the air raids came closer and closer to home, Susan started to think of the rain as ashes. Ashes and rubble, falling down from the sky after a bomb had exploded.

After this point, Susan no longer liked rain at all.

Susan wondered if this was why thunderstorms had always scared Lucy so. She had been quite young when the war began; maybe she couldn't remember the time before the air raids. And so maybe she had always thought of thunderstorms as bombings, and maybe that was why they still scared her so much now.

Lucy!

Susan realized that she must go to her sister at once.

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It was raining outside.

Edmund had just realized this, as he sat up in bed. The thunder had awoken him from a deep sleep.

Edmund had always liked storms. He liked the adrenaline rush that the heavy winds, bright lightning, and loud thunder brought to him. He liked the excitement, the passion, the energy of a storm. He loved the smell of rain, the feel of it splashing coldly on his skin, the taste of it on his tongue. He loved the rumbling of thunder in his ears, the flash of lightning before his eyes.

He got out of bed and went to his window. He could tell that the storm was retreating, that it had been much heavier before and was starting to diminish. Already, the crashing of thunder was becoming lower and lower rumbling and the bright flashes of lightning were becoming less and less frequent.

Sadly, he had slept through the heaviest part of the storm. He wished that he hadn't missed it; he loved thunderstorms.

However, he knew that his sisters did not.

He had always wondered why. He remembered that when Susan was younger, she had liked to watch the rain with him… It was mesmerizing, almost. But Lucy had always been very afraid of storms, and after awhile, Susan began to dislike them as well. Peter had always seemed rather unconcerned about the rain, concentrating all his attention on comforting his sisters. Edmund wasn't quite sure how Peter felt about thunderstorms.

Oh, his sisters! Surely Lucy would be awake and frightened!

Edmund threw on a bathrobe and walked out the door of his bedroom.

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It was sprinkling outside.

Lucy had awoken in the middle of the night to rain pouring down on her windowpanes, the blaze of lightning flashing across the sky, and the crashing of thunder rolling across the hills. But only moments after she awoke, Peter burst in through the door, and he went immediately to her bedside to comfort her.

"Lu, it's alright, I'm here," he had said, enclosing Lucy in a hug.

And she had known that everything would be alright.

Only moments after Peter arrived, Susan came in as well, and climbed into bed with Lucy.

"Lucy, it's going to be okay, shhh," Susan had said, stroking Lucy's hair.

And she had known that everything was going to be okay.

And several minutes later, Edmund came through the door, and sat down next to Peter.

"Hey, Lu, are you okay?" he said, patting her gently on the arm.

And she was. She was okay.

Lucy smiled as the storm began to fade, and it became only a light rain shower. Her siblings were all around her to comfort her. They were there for her. They loved her.

And now, with her brothers and sister smiling back at her, she realized that she was no longer afraid of the rain.

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Author's Note: A little short, but hopefully good. Tell me what you think.

And incase anyone was wondering, I actually did write this during a thunderstorm which has subsided now (that I was actually supposed to have my computer turned off during, so that an electric surge didn't like fry my computer… but oh well!).

Ahh, I love thunderstorms…