This is Home

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the persons, places, or things in The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.

Thanks again for everything. You helped me shatter my previous review record! You guys were right, by the way; the chapters do come from chapters in the Chronicles. This one comes specifically from chapter 2 of The Last Battle. I'm going to use at least one from every book because I'm just fair like that. Anyway, that's where I got my inspiration from. Thanks to everyone for your reviews and great ideas which I must say are pretty awesome and I feel compelled to use some of them.

Chapter 7: The Rashness of the King

Eventually Susan and Caspian walked back home and dried off. They were very thankful for the warm bath, which Peter was relieved to see they took separately, and the hot chocolate that was waiting for them when they arrived. All the Pevensies attempted to apologize to Caspian but he just waved them off and told them that they were forgiven. After the Pevensies' mom fretted a bit more about Caspian and Susan, they all went to bed.

The next day, the clouds fled and the sun shone brightly in the sky, all traces of the previous day's rain gone. Yet, the Pevensies and Caspian still weren't outside. They were all crowded in Peter and Edmund's room again discussing what they should do.

"We have to find out what Caspian's supposed to learn," Peter earnestly said, frustrated that his siblings couldn't agree with him. Caspian just sighed and listened to them talk about him...again. Frankly, he didn't care why he was here; he just wanted to be with Susan, wherever that may be.

"Aslan never meant for us to know. We always just realized what we learned after everything was all said and done. Don't you think it would be the same way this time?" Edmund argued logically. All of a sudden their mom popped her head into the room and stared at them incredulously.

"What are you all still doing inside? Get out there, it's a lovely day and I'm sure Caspian would like to see a bit of London. Wouldn't you, dear?" She asked pointedly to Caspian.

"Yes, I would like to see London very much," Caspian was happy that she brought it up. Ever since he got here all he had seen were the subdivisions in Finchley and the Pevensie and Scrubb(Eustace's family) households. Not to mention the car ride, but he hadn't been really looking out the window. There had been something far more interesting right in his lap. Mrs. Pevensie nodded approvingly at Caspian's agreement and left the room.

"Suck up," Peter grumbled as he stood up.

"Pardon me?" Caspian was unfamiliar with this phrase. How does one "suck up?" He wasn't quite sure.

"Let's go play cricket in the park or something. What do you say?" Susan interrupted before anyone could attempt to explain exactly how you "suck up" to Caspian. He jumped up, and kissed Susan square on the mouth. He didn't know what cricket was but he knew it involved leaving the house, so he thanked his lucky stars he Susan had brought it up.

"Yes, thank you! Let's go play cricket in the park or something!" Caspian hugged Susan tight in gratitude and repeated her exact words so he wouldn't make a fool of himself again.

"Hey, you used a contraction! Well done." Susan smiled at him. Who cared if he just copied what she said, he still said it. Small victories.

"Bleh, yes let's leave before I vomit." Edmund shook his head at their painfully cute moment and searched around in their closet for their cricket bat and ball.


They walked to the park which wasn't too far away, plus it was a nice stroll in the pleasant weather. Caspian tilted his head back towards the sun and closed his eyes just taking in the feeling of being outdoors again. He felt something warm slide into his hand and looked over to see Susan walking beside him grasping his hand. He smiled at Susan and they continued to follow the others hand in hand.

This felt so strange to Caspian, to be simply walking down a street and holding the hand of the woman he loved. He never could have dreamed these would be the circumstances in which he would be with Susan but it felt so right at the same time. He almost felt normal; like he was just a simple man, not really a king in an entire different world. In a spontaneous feeling of happiness, he leaned over and kissed Susan on her temple. She looked up at him a little surprised at how openly affectionate he was being. Not that she was complaining.

"Hey, what was that for?" Susan smiled and released his hand in order to wrap it around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I love you," He said simply returning the embrace by wrapping his arm around her shoulder. Grinning like a fool in love, which she kind of was, she stood up on her tippy toes and kissed him softly on the lips. It just felt so natural to say those words to her now, as if he could finally say what his heart had been trying to tell him for a while now.

"I love you too," She replied making his heart flutter a little, as they came upon their destination. They found a pretty wide open area and started setting up the wickets. Peter proceeded to explain the extremely complicated rules to Caspian who thought his head was going to explode with words he'd never heard like "bowler" and "wicket."

Edmund volunteered to bat first to show him how it was done, so he picked up the flat looking bat and got into position. Peter got his running start and chucked the ball as hard as he could to hit the wicket, but Edmund hit the ball after a bounce and sent it flying off to the side. Edmund started to run as fast as he could between the wickets as Lucy ran and got the ball and threw it back to Peter.

"So, See how I...ran between the wickets? That's how you score...points. When Peter...gets the ball back...my turn is over." Edmund explained in between gasps for air. Caspian thought he actually semi-understood the idea of the game. So, they started to set up to play for real this time; real meaning that they weren't actually going to keep score at all. Susan would start out being the catcher, Edmund and Lucy would play the field, Peter would be the bowler, and Caspian would attempt to bat first.

Peter ran up and chucked the ball but he threw it all little too close to Caspian so on instinct he jumped out of the way. Caspian looked up at Peter to see if he did that on purpose but his face was unreadable. So Caspian stepped back in as Susan threw the leather ball back to Peter giving him a warning glare. What exactly was he playing at?

Peter threw the ball again this time Caspian swung the bat a little late and missed. Frustrated but by no means defeated, Caspian tightened his grip on the bat and narrowed his eyes in concentration. Susan set back up the wicket which had been knocked over and once again threw the ball back to Peter. She was glad to note that Peter wasn't really trying to hit Caspian.

Once again Peter threw the ball and it bounced once and Caspian connected with it this time. It went sailing off pretty far. He kind of just stood there smiling proudly at his accomplishment.

"Run!" Susan yelled, just as excited as Caspian. He grinned back at her and started running between the wickets as he had seen Edmund do. Meanwhile, Lucy was running after the ball which had been hit clean over her head and back into another group of boys who were playing tag. One of the boys, who couldn't have been older than twelve, grabbed the ball before Lucy could get to it.

"Thank you, may I have that back, please?" Lucy asked nicely as she looked behind her to see Caspian score for the fourth time already and still going strong. The boy looked at her smugly and tossed the ball around in his hands as if daring her to take it.

"No, actually me and my friends have been wanting to play cricket. So, why don't you give us your bat and wickets as well?" He was bigger than Lucy and she knew she wasn't going to be able to get the ball back. At that moment Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Caspian, who had noticed the little confrontation, ran up to the group of boys and came to stand behind Lucy. While the other boys outnumbered them, they were older than them.

Peter walked up to the boy and had every intention of walloping him in the face and just taking the ball back, but Susan stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He looked at her and sighed, he knew he shouldn't get into anymore fights. Had he learned nothing in Narnia? Shaking his head he stepped back behind Lucy and thrust his hands into his pockets to prevent himself from hitting the annoying boy.

"We would like to continue our game. Could you please hand us back our ball?" Susan tried to be patient and she thought she did a pretty good job of it.

"Shove off, bitch," the boy spat at her. No matter what world you were in, that word was not acceptable. Caspian did what Peter had wanted to do: he stepped forward and walloped the guy in the face. It only took one punch to send the kid flying to the ground. Caspian felt bad that he had to do that to a kid so much younger than himself, but he needed to be taught a lesson. Caspian dragged the boy by the front of his shirt to look him in the face. The boy had blood dribbling down his chin from his nose.

"I suggest you apologize to her. Now." Caspian's eyes were dangerously dark as he looked into the boys slightly fearful blue ones. The other Pevensies were slightly dumbfounded at the scene before them. Susan finally came to her senses and put a comforting hand on Caspian's tense arm which was gripping the boy's shirt. She was temporarily distracted by the tight muscles underneath his skin but quickly shook those thoughts out of her head.

"That's really unnecessary. He doesn't have-," She started, but Caspian interrupted her. He normally wouldn't interrupt her but he felt he had no choice.

"No, Susan. If he does not learn this lesson, then he will spend the rest of his life thinking it is appropriate to treat people that way, and it is not. I will not allow him to speak to you that way," Caspian said fiercely, then looked to the boy and hissed, "Apologize, or I will make you."

"I...I'm sor...sorry," He stuttered and Caspian released him. In the heat of the moment they all forgot about the ball and turned to leave, no longer in the mood to play and to distance themselves from those beastly boys. The group of boys who had been watching their "leader" the entire time had seen that the older kids could obviously beat them up so they backed off, not really wanting a confrontation, and headed out of the park.

The rude little boy still had the ball, and he was a lot braver now that he was a fair distance away from Caspian. He shouted a "hey!" to them and all four Pevensies plus Caspian turned to see what the commotion was about. The boy immediately pelted the leather ball at Caspian's head. Not being prepared to move, the ball hit Caspian squarely in the eye and flattened him to the ground. The boy may have been a jerk but he had good aim and a strong arm. Being the cowardly preteen that he was, the boy ran off as fast as he could just in case one of them chased after him, but no one did.

Caspian sat up in the grass and held his face where he'd been hit and mumbled, "I do not think I like cricket."


Okay, so don't hate me. That needed to happen, believe me. Also, I know next to nothing about cricket. I'm from Virginia, not exactly the cricket capital of the world. I did do a tad bit of research (namely Wikipedia and youtube, I know not very reliable) but I'm sorry if I messed up anything. Please forgive a Yankee and set me straight gently. Thanks again for reading. :)