The Dance
Summary: "Please Peter? Just one dance." How can Peter refuse Lucy? Pure fluff and sibling bonding.
Disclaimer: The usual- I don't own the Pevensies, Aslan, or Narnia, etc.
Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain.-Martha Graham
The rain fell in a rhythm that Lucy would have found gentle and soothing, except for the fact that it was the third time that day the rain felt the need to pour down upon the bleak atmosphere of London. She glanced out the window and watched the earth and the leaves gladly soak in the water. For a moment, she was transported back several years, to a time before she was a teenager, before she had to give up a bit of her imagination. She made a deal with herself long ago that she wouldn't try to hold on to her imagination and brightness as she once had, mainly because those traits could only exist in small quantities in London, but that she would not relinquish even one bit of her faith in Narnia, and in Aslan.
Peter had just returned home from his University for Winter break, and here they were, stuck inside because of the rain. Most of the time, Lucy loved the rain. She loved to watch it come down with grace and ease. She even loved to dance and run in the rain, but the last time she did that she had caught the cold and now her brothers both insisted on making sure not even a drop touched her head. However, even Lucy could only handle so much of the precipitation.
As it was, the four siblings were in the living room, all sitting rather gloomily and not talking to each other. Edmund sat on the end of the couch by the crackling fireplace, his dark eyes peering into the bright flames. His mind was not in the living room with the rest of his body. Lucy considered shouting and yelling, just to see his startled reaction, but decided to let him rest in peace.
Susan was sitting by the coffee table, pulling on her red shoes. She had been planning on spending the day with her siblings, but as soon as the rain started pouring down, she had picked up the telephone and made other plans. When the other three Pevensies were forced to stay inside, they talked to each other, and Narnia almost always came up. Susan knew this and didn't want to have to face them, so she made plans to go to the cinema with some of her friends.
Peter sat on the other end of the couch from Edmund, a schoolbook opened in his lap, though not once had he even made the guise of actually reading. His eyes slowly moved from each of his siblings. Susan to Edmund to Lucy, and then the cycle began again.
Lucy was staring out the window, partially watching the rain, and partially thinking about another rainy day that started with a game of hide and seek and ended with a game of far larger proportions and consequences.
The doorbell rang, bringing each Pevensie out of his or her reverie. Susan calmly stood and walked to the hallway. She bid her siblings a polite goodbye, and then stepped into the cold, wet air and shrill giggles of her three friends.
As Susan left, the tension in the room eased but the silence did not.
"What are you thinking, Lu?" Peter asked as a way to break the silence.
"About another rainy day," Lucy softly replied, "Another rainy day, several years ago, when the war was still on, and we were in a house in the country with an old professor and his ill-mannered housekeeper. Another rainy day when we started out playing hide and seek and ended it by fumbling back out of a magical land into that same country house." Lucy recounted the memories as if they had happened yesterday. She could remember everything about that fateful day- the way the rain smelled, even the way the unpolished wood in the wardrobe had felt beneath her small, light hands.
"But that first day, when it rained, and we walked through the wardrobe . . . the rain turned to snow, and the sternness of Mrs. Macready turned into the hatred of the white witch, and all the goodness and kindness I've ever felt turned into something so much bigger in Aslan . . . and somehow, us four ordinary children turned into Kings and Queens."
Edmund had now turned his eyes from the fire to his younger sister with a small, but still bright, smile on his face. "I'm not sure you've ever been ordinary, Lu." He said it as a teasing remark but underneath he meant it as a compliment.
Lucy gave no reply but a small, slapping hand motion, as if she was trying to swat at a fly. Peter was still looking at her, as he was sure she would have more to say if given the chance.
"And I remember the days at Cair Paravel. Having to rule and make political decisions- that part often gave me headaches. But it was worth it, for all the friends we met. And the balls and feasts we often attended- I remember Susan fussing over dresses, even then. But it was different . . . she could live without those things at the time. I'm not sure she could now." Lucy's eyes took on a hint of sadness. "I remember all those grand Narnia dances we learned. Peter was always the best at them."
At this, Peter blushed a bit, but did not deny Lucy's claim. The Narnian dances were more complex and graceful than the English dances they all had learned, but yet Peter still found the Narnian dances more natural, though he would never admit it to his siblings. Well, not in front of Edmund anyway, who would latch onto it as an opportunity for teasing.
"Well then," Edmund said with a twinkle in his eyes, "Maybe the Magnificent Peter should give a demonstration of his dancing skills."
At this sentence, Lucy's eyes brightened. She hopped off the seat, for her legs still couldn't quite reach the ground when she sat all the way back in the chair, and took Peter's hand. She was a teenager now, but she knew the way to get Peter to acquiesce to anything was to act much, much younger, so she gave her eldest brother long, soulful eyes and a pout befitting a child.
"Please, Peter? Just one dance?" Peter sighed. He couldn't resist Lucy, and she knew it. To his side, Peter could hear Edmund's quiet laugh. He shot his brother an annoyed look, but he wasn't truly upset. He took Lucy's hands in his own and lead her to the middle of the living room floor, the carpet soft and inviting beneath his feet.
His smile could not help but to grow as he lead Lucy around the floor. His younger sister was light and fluid, and she seemed to float around the room. They were both so use to the dance, no matter how complicated it was, that their minds were on a different time and a different dance.
Lucy remembered how easily Peter could once move her around the ballroom floor. Here, he was still a strong and stable lead, but his muscles had lost some of their strength and his body was not as built and sculpted yet as it had once been.
Peter remembered how Lucy had been taller, coming up to his chin instead of just his shoulder, and how her light, flowing dresses would twirl around in a dance all their own. Here, she was still graceful and elegant, and shone with a beauty all her own, but she was in a plain dress that brought him back to the fact they were not, in fact, in Narnia, but in England.
They continued the dance. It was rather long and hard to do without any music, but they managed it. In the background, they could hear Edmund softly humming a Narnian song. Peter gave Lucy a final spin as the song ended. She pulled her brother into a hug, whispering a "thank-you" in his ear.
"My pleasure, Queen Lucy the Valiant," Peter whispered back as he kissed the top of Lucy's head. It had only been for a few minutes, but they had been able to bring a piece of Narnia back to England. Lucy gave a sigh of contentment. If the only things they could still grasp of Narnia were in their memories, than the three of them would live those memories out in any way they found. As glorious as the moment had been, it was over, and now an uncomfortable silence was once more setting in over the three siblings.
As Peter silently took his spot back on the sofa, an idea came into Lucy's head. With a grin, she made her way over to Edmund.
"I don't think it's really fair Ed didn't get a chance to dance. What do you think, Peter?" Lucy asked, the twinkle never leaving her eye. Peter, sensing Lucy's plan, stood back up and towered over Edmund.
As Edmund realized the plan his siblings were conspiring, he hastily started to protest, but his yelps were soon cut short as Lucy, with quite a bit of Peter's help, dragged him to his feet. Lucy eagerly led him out to the middle of the living room where she had just finished her dance with Peter. The smile never left her face.
"So, King Edmund, which dance shall we do?"
-Finished-