Summary: "And why must you stare at me while I'm sleeping?" Edmund and Peter have a midnight conversation in Cair Paravel. Oneshot.
A/N: Nothing to say, really. I love these two, and I love their brotherly relationship and how they try to protect each other. I'm sure most of us have imagined a scene like this. This is just my version. Hope you like it. Also, I didn't really INTEND to reference Friends, but it seemed to have happened anyway. Really, I wrote this with no Friends episodes in mind at all. Title is from a song by The Hush Sound. Check them out if you haven't already, they're awesome.
Disclaimer: I love CS Lewis. I think he'd be an awesome person just to know and talk to. I'd never try to steal his awesome characters, ever. In other words, nothing is mine. It all belongs to the awesome guy I wish I'd had a chance to know.
Edmund woke unexpectedly in the middle of the night. Blearily blinking his eyes open, he caught sight of a shadowy figure standing over him and jumped, startled.
"I say, Peter," he protested, attempting to calm his still-racing heart from the surprise, "what are you doing?"
Peter smiled awkwardly. He was standing over Edmund's bed, dressed in a simple tunic because, as Edmund noted sulkily, he really should be asleep in his own bed. "Couldn't sleep," Peter admitted.
"Indigestion?" Edmund offered somewhat venomously, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
The smile melted off Peter's face and his eyes became blank and unseeing. "Nightmares," he corrected.
Edmund frowned. He didn't like the look on his brother's face. Pushing himself over to the side of the bed to make room for Peter, he asked, "What about?"
Peter sat down next to Edmund, shrugging. "Come on," Edmund coaxed. Peter sighed.
"To be honest, they're about you," he admitted, not looking at Edmund. Edmund squirmed a little, feeling a bit awkward, and said nothing. "I keep thinking it was all a dream," Peter continued softly. "That you didn't really come back to us. You didn't really...escape her. That she..." he trailed off, unable to say it.
"Killed me?" Edmund finished for him, quieter, even, then Peter. Peter sniffed, and Edmund was thankful for the darkness so that he wouldn't see the tears he knew were in his big brother's eyes. "It's been over a week," Edmund began, then stopped suddenly and rolled his eyes. "Please tell me you haven't been standing over me every night since the battle."
Peter laughed weakly and sniffed again. "You're usually a very heavy sleeper," he said. Edmund sighed in exasperation. "If you hadn't woken up tonight, I could've kept on doing it."
Edmund rolled his eyes again, and Peter chuckled. "And why must you stare at me while I'm sleeping?" Edmund demanded.
"I just...need to know that they're just nightmares," Peter sighed.
Edmund wasn't quite sure what to say. "I'm sorry," he said presently.
"What for?" Peter sounded almost outraged that Edmund would apologize to him now.
"If I hadn't gone with her - if I hadn't betrayed you - you wouldn't be having nightmares."
"Don't be ridiculous," Peter scoffed, "what's done is done. It isn't your fault."
"But it is," Edmund protested. "I'm so sorry."
Peter looked at Edmund seriously, watching the moonlight reflecting off his brother's brown eyes. "I forgive you," he said solemnly. "Now, will you forgive me?"
"For what?" Edmund asked, confused.
"For the way I treated you before. I was awful."
"Of course I forgive you," Edmund said easily.
Peter wrapped his arms all the way around his little brother and squeezed hard, kissing him soundly on the forehead. Edmund sqwaked in protest, but secretly didn't mind at all. They stayed that way for a few minutes, until Edmund broke the silence saying, "You know, you're crushing my ribs."
"Shut up, Ed, don't be a prat," Peter responded, holding tighter. He heard Edmund chuckle quietly, then felt a pair of arms wrap around him in return. It was good to have his brother back. This was the Edmund he remembered, good-natured and mischievous, fiery temper, but easy forgiveness. Before the soul-swallowing resentment had taken hold, and the Edmund he knew was taken over by an imposter, who looked and sounded like the real thing, but was rude and cruel, bullying his sisters and smartmouthing his parents and Peter. That intruder had been washed away, it seemed, and Peter once again had his best friend.
Eventually, Peter heard Edmund breathing heavily in his ear. Of course he would have fallen asleep, the boy could sleep through anything. Peter let himself relax around his brother, and within a few minutes, he, too, was asleep.
--
Lucy awoke when a ray of sun fell across her face. Almost simultaneously, she heard a knock on her door.
"Lucy? It's Susan."
"Come in," Lucy called, climbing out from under the covers. Susan entered, looking a bit concerned. "What's up, Su?" Lucy asked, frowning.
"Peter wasn't in his room," Susan answered, "and none of the guard have seen him at all this morning. He's not in here, is he?"
Lucy shook her head, crawling out to the foot of the bed. "Have you looked in Edmund's room?"
"Not yet," Susan answered.
Lucy giggled. "You should have looked there first, silly," she said as though it were obvious, slipping off the bed and crossing the room to get her dressing gown. Susan stared after her as she headed for the door.
"Why?" Susan asked, following.
"Because," Lucy said over her shoulder as she marched down the corridor to Edmund's room, "Peter's been spending hours in there every night."
"How do you know this?" Susan cried.
"Because, Susan," Lucy explained painstakingly, "I listen, and I see things. I pay attention."
Susan rolled her eyes as Lucy stopped in front of Edmund's door.
"Well, go on," she urged, and Susan rolled her eyes again and opened the door.
There, as Lucy had suspected, was Peter, still asleep with arms around Edmund, who was cradled against his brother's side, head resting peacefully on his shoulder. Of course, both their mouths were hanging open, which rather ruined what would have been quite a perfect picture. Despite this minor detail, Lucy's face broke into a wide grin, and she clamored up onto the bed on the other side of Edmund, and wrapped her arms around his neck, effectively waking both him and Peter.
"What - " Peter began, then saw Lucy and smiled. He stretched his arms, which were rather stiff, and then adjusted himself so that he was now embracing both of his little siblings. Edmund rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as Lucy planted a kiss on his cheek and settled in with her arms around his waist. Peter looked up at Susan, who had her arms crossed over her chest and was looking conflicted.
"Well, aren't you going to join us?" he asked.
Susan stood still for just a moment, then smiled and climbed into the bed on the other side of Peter, who took the arm closest to her and wrapped it around her shoulders. The four of them lay there like that, entwined in and through each other, as they joked and laughed and told stories and made plans. Eventually, there was a knock on the door and a badger poked its head in, politely asking if the royals would be wanting breakfast soon, and they reluctantly agreed it was time to get up.
The girls left to change before breakfast, and Peter was about to go to his own room, when Edmund stopped him by calling his name. He looked back expectantly.
"Any nightmares?" Edmund asked.
Peter grinned. "None," he said. "You were right here all night."