Title: Watching Peter
Word Count: 344
Rating: K for nothing more than implications.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein contained. I only own the text.
This is a very light Caspeter piece. It doesn't particularly have to be taken that way, that's just what I was thinking of when I wrote it. This is about when they went back to England at the end, and what Peter felt like without actually getting Peter's perspective.
Susan watches Peter with worry as he wastes away. He volunteered them to leave Narnia out of duty—if he hadn't, she would have anyway—but now she watches as regret gnaws away at him. She begs Aslan, sometimes, if not to let her go back, then at least to return Peter. She wonders if she and Peter really have learned everything they could have from Narnia. She doesn't know if they learned anything at all about love, just attraction and liking and affection. If we have only learned about courage and hate and battle, then we have learned nothing at all.
Lucy watches Peter with the faint recognition that something is wrong but no idea what. Peter has been acting odd lately, and she wonders if the last trip to Narnia has changed the rest of them as much as it changed Peter. But Susan acts only a little different--Lucy doesn't like to think of her sister and what she might be doing with the one boy she can't remember the name of—and Edmund is still as mature as he has been since their first visit. Maybe Aslan was right, she thinks, and Peter knows everything he needs. Maybe that knowledge is a heavy burden, learned with difficulty and brings change through its very nature. Peter must be very wise now to be so different.
Edmund watches Peter with understanding. He remembers the difficulty he had after leaving Narnia for the first time. He remembers how hard it was to reconcile the person he was in Narnia with the person he had to be in England. He isn't quite blind, and sees nearly as much as Susan, and he remembers how close Peter and Caspian were. Leaving such a friend, someone you had grown attached too was very difficult. He remembers the friends they left in Narnia the first time. It was almost like watching them die, to lose them in such a way. Edmund hopes Peter will get better soon, because it hurts to watch his brother mourn this way.