AN: Okay so There have been A LOT of Caspian/Susan fics, A good amount of Caspian/Lucy fics, and a few Nerdy boy/Susan fics lately but I noticed that I haven't seen any Nerdy boy/Lucy fics and I thought it would be cool to be the first one to use that pairing and see if anyone else liked it. Also this might get slightly AU later on but I haven't decided yet.
"Guess who's here again?" Edmund asked Peter as he walked passed the half open doorway of his older brother's room.
"Easy." Peter said without even bothering to look up from his desk where he had all of the homework he'd brought home with him for the weekend from the university he now attended spread out in front of him. "Ash?"
Edmund nodded.
Peter let out a chuckle. "He's been coming around here for years now. Lucy was only nine when he first started coming."
"Poor chap, you would have thought he'd have gotten the hint by now." Edmund said feeling rather bad for the poor fellow.
"Well he is a bit slow." Peter shrugged, looking up now. "Remember how long it took him to figure out that Susan's name is not 'Phyllis'?"
Edmund remembered. "And then he thought it must have been her middle and/or nickname."
"He's got to get himself a girlfriend." Peter said, standing up from the desk and pushing the chair back in behind himself. "Or at least a hobby."
"I think that's sort of why he comes around here." Edmund pointed out. "He's smitten with Susan."
"Well, unless that hot scary place where the devil is said to rule suddenly freezes over, Susan isn't going to give him the time of day." Peter reminded him.
"Well maybe if they were the last two people on earth she might look briefly in his direction..." Edmund came up with. "...and then look away indifferently."
"Ash just doesn't get it." Peter sighed. "Susan only likes him as a friend."
"And it took her long enough just for that." Edmund put in.
"You said it." Peter agreed.
Only in recent years had Susan even considered him a friend. For the first two years or so when he came around visiting and being his chipper friendly self Susan had thought of him as more of a scab. Something you had to put up with until the day came when you could peel it off and throw it away. But after a while he'd started to grown on her in a friendship sort of way. She learned that he came from a good family and was quite loyal. And the fact that he was always there when she needed someone came in handy.
She'd thought of him in a much more friendly way when he'd gone out of his way to pick up her up from a party she'd gone to after she'd refused to get in the car with her drunk friends. Going partying, drinking a little, and flirting with young men was one thing. Actually being in a car with someone who'd had so much to drink that they actually mistook a dust bunny for their grandmother was quite another. And of course she would have never heard the end of it from Peter. Not that her parents wouldn't be upset. They would be but they'd calm down, they'd get over it and trust her again. Peter be furious and never forget about it. As the eldest boy in the family he felt he had an almost fatherly role and never let the younger ones forget it. Lucy and Edmund didn't seem to mind this. It was almost as if they actually liked having Peter's constant over-protectiveness hanging over them.
But Susan didn't. She was sick of it. She was sick of his constant checking up on her. She wanted to be her own person without big brother getting in the way. That's why she hated it when he was right.
"Don't go with Jenny, she'll get drunk..." He'd warned her.
And of course Jenny had to prove him right by taking on a dare that she could drink ten tall glasses of wine and then walk across the bar with expensive china piled on her head without dropping any of it. (Susan hoped no one in that bar planned to walk around it bare foot later).
She'd needed a ride home and she didn't want to call Peter. Yes, he'd probably be thrilled that she was smart enough not to ride home with Jenny. But he'd probably rub it in that she shouldn't hang out with people like that. He'd say friends like that were the reason she'd stopped applying herself in school and why she hadn't gotten into a university. That was the last thing she'd wanted to hear about at the moment. She just wanted to get home, bathe, and then crawl under the blankets and fall asleep trying to avoid the fact that her pathetic life was going no where. So who could she call?
It had come to her at that moment that Ash, pain in the butt though she'd always seen him as would probably be more than willing to come and give her a ride home. The owner of the bar had told her she could only make one phone call (Maybe that's why she felt like she was in jail?) on the phone because he didn't want her running up the bill. Odds were if she wasn't the prettiest young woman who'd probably ever even said two words to him he wouldn't have even let her use the phone at all.
Of course Ash had come and gotten her like the good friend that he was. Even so, Susan couldn't bring herself to like him. He might as well have had 'Just Friends' tattooed on his forehead.
While Edmund and Peter were talking, Lucy came by. She was no longer the short, round, freckled little girl with her fair wispy hair pulled back into side braids that she'd been when Ash had first started coming around. She had grown up into a rather tall, slender young lady of nearly seventeen. She had long thick hair that framed a merry face that was rarely without a cheerful smile. She wasn't nearly as beautiful as Susan but she did have a certain charm of her own. Of course boys knew better than to bother her. She had two big brothers neither of which would have thought twice about beating the snot out of any boy who tried to mess with her. But even if it wasn't for that, the boys probably wouldn't have looked twice at her after seeing her sister and her standing side by side. The comparison was like that of a pretty blue wild flower to that of a rose. The rose being the most striking to behold was always the one most likely to be picked.
Not that Lucy minded at all. She had long gotten over her envy of her sister. When she'd been a young lass of ten or eleven. awkward and shy and always shoved to the side with her lovely older sister got to be in the spotlight, then she'd felt pricks of envy. It was back then that she had been willing to cause wars to make herself the beautiful one. No more though. Lucy had seen the effect beauty had on her sister. She'd become vain and didn't seem to even care that all anyone ever wanted to was look at her, never even letting her talk. Everyone that is expect her family and Ash.
Ash loved to hear Susan talk. He enjoyed speaking with her. He didn't come around to just sit and stare at her. Lucy wished her sister would pay more attention to him. Ash was a lot better than pretty much every young man Susan had ever gone out with.
Lucy couldn't help but notice that just about every one of those empty headed so-called men had a few traits that ever changed. Tall with dark hair. Every single one of them. She wondered if it was because Susan missed whatever it was she thought she might have had with Caspian if she'd been allowed to stay in Narnia and was trying to make up for it with these lunkheads. But it was too confusing to try and know for sure. Susan was convinced that Narnia hadn't been real. She'd was pretty much always saying things like, "Caspian who? Oh, wait you mean the prince in that game we played as little children? Oh yes, I remember." Whenever Peter and Edmund brought him up. Lucy never mentioned him. She missed him a lot herself, though not in the same way Susan did. Caspian was to Lucy what Ash was and would probably always be to Susan, just a friend.
"Who was that at the door?" Lucy asked her brothers.
"Oh, it was just Ash." Edmund said as causally as most people might say, "It was just the wind."
Lucy nodded, she was used to everyone ignoring Ash. Peter and Edmund liked him well enough but they'd never been close in spite of the fact that they had attended the same boarding school for years and had a number of classes together. They just had different interests.
Edmund had been very athletic and had gotten into rugger for a while before deciding to look for a part time job and study different things with the free time he had left so that he could figure out what he wanted to do with his life.
Peter as always was the studious one of the family and was always as their mother often put it, 'Studying himself into an early grave'. He did however manage to get into one of the top universities which was more than could be said for his friends who'd told him to take it easy.
Ash wasn't like either of her brothers though. He didn't have many friends aside from the Pevensies. He was quiet and sort of shy. He tended to blend into the background of whatever room he was in. He didn't have any real interests that he ever mentioned. He talked about his family a lot and mentioned something about possibly applying to an affordable upper school next year but that was about it. They didn't know much else about him even after all these years. Oh, they knew some little things. Like that his favorite fruit was the pear, that he had pretty much every allergy known to mankind, that he loved swimming and was good at it but had unfortunately not made the team in spite of the fact that he went out for it every year. Lucy couldn't help but think it was only because he was unpopular that they never let him join, not because of a lack of skill. But other than that, they knew nothing about him. He was just, 'That boy who likes Susan'.
Walking down into the living room, Lucy spotted Ash sitting on the couch. Susan hadn't acknowledged his presence yet because she was in the kitchen talking to one of her friends on the phone.
"He did not say that." Susan gasped to whomever was on the other line. "He did? Well then what did she say? Well it's not true! I don't know who said that, I do not...she only said that because she's jealous...well of course not..."
Lucy rolled her eyes. That conversation was not going to end anytime soon. "Hello, Ash."
He smiled at her. "Hello, Lucy." he started looking through his backpack for something. After zippering and unzippering several compartments he finally found what he was looking for. "I was out yesterday, I saw this and I thought of you." He pulled out something in cream-coloured wrapping paper and handed it to her.
"You didn't have to." Lucy told him looking down at the buddle in her hands which felt a little heavier than she'd expected.
"I know." Ash shrugged. "I wanted to. I thought you'd like it."
"Thanks." Lucy smiled, tearing away the paper in spite of the fact that she'd always been told that the proper way to open a gift was to peel away at the tape that held the wrapping together. She simply couldn't help herself. Curiosity killed the manners.
Once Lucy had finished pulling back the wrapping she held a little glass lion the size of her fist. He was a beautiful lion made of the clearest most well made glass Lucy had ever seen. His mouth was open like he was yawning or else roaring. The light from the fireplace Mr. Pevensie had lit less than a half hour ago combined with the light from the lamp next to the couch shone brightly on the lion's mane and made it look like his face was surrounded by a rainbow of soft colours.
"It's beautiful." Lucy breathed softly unable to take her eyes off of the lovely gift.
"Well I know you like lions." Ash said modestly. "You're always looking at pictures of them and stuff. And you did get so awful excited when you read the Turkish word for lion in 'The thousand and one nights' last year."
Lucy blushed a little. Aslan. The Turkish word was Aslan. For her it was a reminder that she and Aslan would meet again some day. For Susan it was just 'proof' that Narnia was only a game they'd played and not a real place they'd ruled over.
"Peter was reading 'The thousand and one nights' when we were at the professor's." Susan had said in a very patronizing tone of voice. "And that's why in our play world there was a lion called Aslan."
Peter would shake his head at that but he'd never argue. After all, it was true what she said about him reading that while they were staying with the professor during the war and there was no arguing with a know-it-all like Susan had become.
"Thank you so much." Lucy gave him a light hug.
"You're more than welcome." Ash sighed. "Sometimes I think your the only person who actually likes me."
"Oh that's not true." Lucy turned crimson. "People like you."
Ash shrugged his shoulders sadly. "I guess so."
Still on the phone in the kitchen Susan's voice rang through the house. "No way! She said what now?"
"Any chance of her getting off anytime soon?" Ash looked at Lucy hopefully.
Lucy shook her head. "Sorry."
"Well, I have to get home early tonight, I promised Mum." Ash was probably the only person in his early twenties who could say that with out embarrassment.
"I'll tell her you were here." Lucy said weakly.
"Like she'll care." Ash seemed a little more down than usual. Maybe the fact that Susan would never like him was starting to sink it at last. He pulled a yellow rose out of his back pack and handed it to Lucy. "Could you give this to her for me?"
"Sure." Lucy said, running her fingers along the rose's smooth as marble petals.
"Thanks." Ash swung the back pack over one shoulder. "See you around."
"See you." Lucy said, holding the door open for him.
She watched him walk away down the street until he was out of sight. Poor guy. He'd always been there. Susan had better get some sense and remember exactly who'd helped her whenever she needed it. Who'd helped her study for a class she nearly failed? Who'd picked up her little sister when she bailed because of a social event she simply had to attend? Who'd let her cry on his shoulder when last year, Peter caught pneumonia and nearly died? Who went out of his way to make sure that his parents didn't have Turkish Delight for dessert the night the Pevensies came over for dinner because for some unknown reason (They never told him about Narnia) Edmund always turned green in the face and had to vomit whenever he caught a whiff of it? None of the boys Susan was always bringing around did all that, but Ash did. He honestly cared. And It upset Lucy to no end that Susan didn't.
AN: that's all for this chapter. I'll write/post more if I get some good reviews. please leave a review to tell me what you thought, I really want to know.