Thank you. to Heyna Blackstar for your review! I managed to get this chapter edited in a much more timely fashion than the last so time to get into some serious questions.

The Fire – Cor

"Alright," said Cor. "I have a question."

He and Aravis were sitting a few metres away from their beacon, eating coconut.

He quite liked coconut but seeing as it was all he'd eaten for two days now, he was starting to get a little sick of it.

After they'd built the beacon, they'd made a huge sandcastle together and a sand horse and sand portraits of each other and then Cor had decided to go swimming. Not least because he was quite sweaty and hot at that point and he suspected he also smelt awful.

And he did generally prefer not to smell awful around Aravis. So he'd waded out into the sea and sunk into the water up to his neck.

Aravis had joined him a few moments later and they'd swum around the shallows for a bit, flicking water at each other and diving for shells.

He'd found a particularly pretty swirled shell which he'd then gifted to Aravis to solidify their newfound peace. And it did seem to work. She'd smiled when she'd taken it and she'd kept it with her for the rest of day. Currently, it rested in the sand next to her as they ate their coconut dinners.

"What question?" said Aravis.

"What do you think of Lord Arigan?" said Cor. "Truly."

Aravis raised an eyebrow and Cor tried not wince. He was sure she could see right through him, but the question had been eating at him since they'd arrived in Narnia and he was feeling bolder with his shell settled in the sand next to her.

"He is okay, I suppose," said Aravis.

"Okay?" said Cor. "You spent the whole trip flirting with him."

"I was not flirting with him," said Aravis indignantly. "I was just being nice. And he had a collection of Narnian folktales I wanted to read."

Cor blinked at her. "Narnian folktales?" he said.

"Yes," said Aravis.

"So you didn't happen to notice he was also very handsome?" said Cor disbelievingly.

Aravis raised her eyebrow again and Cor fought the heat that crept up his spine.

"No," she said after a moment. "He's not my type."

Cor's heart thudded. He thought about the dark-haired Narnian with his smooth milky complexion, quite different from Cor himself who had blonde hair and gingery freckles all over his cheeks.

And that brought Cor to another question, one that had been eating at him for far longer than since they'd arrived in Narnia.

"So who is your type?" he said, as casually as he could.

Aravis shrugged and stuffed a piece of coconut into her mouth so she couldn't talk and when she swallowed, instead of answering, she said: "Who's your type?"

Cor's cheeks heated. He was suddenly very conscious of her curly hair and brown skin. "I don't know," he said. "I haven't given it much thought."

"I guess you only want to marry a princess, don't you?" said Aravis. "Now you're a high and mighty crown prince."

Cor snorted. "A princess?"

"You don't want to marry a princess?" said Aravis, frowning.

"I don't know if I would get on much with a princess," admitted Cor.

"Why not?" said Aravis.

"Well, as you like to keep reminding me, I am a fisher's boy at heart. I think if I were to marry a princess, we would not see eye to eye on many things."

Aravis gave him an appraising look, then stuffed another chunk of coconut into her mouth.

"I think it would be difficult to find a princess who understood what it was like to be a runaway fisher's boy who spent most of his life in a poor fisher's hut," continued Cor, then shook his head before he thought too much about his background and who he'd been when he'd met Aravis. She'd grown up a Tarkheena, though she seemed to understand him well enough. He supposed they'd both been runaways. If he hadn't turned out to be a prince, they'd have likely been poor immigrants together in Archenland or Narnia. "Can I ask you another question?" he said.

Aravis gestured for him to continue. But he hesitated because this question was perhaps the question that had eaten at him the longest. But she'd told him she thought Lord Arigan was only 'okay', so maybe he could risk it. He could always downplay it later.

"Er, what do you think of me?" said Cor. Aravis frowned. "Truly."

Aravis shrugged, her fingers fiddling with the shell at her side.

"Come on," said Cor. "Do you think I'm 'okay'? Better than 'okay'? Worse than 'okay'?"

"You're you, Cor," said Aravis. "You're in a league of your own."

Cor scowled. Maybe he shouldn't have asked. Of course, she was just going to use it as an opportunity to insult him–

"Wait, in a league of my own in good way or a bad way?" he said.

Aravis grimaced and when she spoke next, the answer seemed ground out like it pained her.

"A good way," she mumbled.

Cor grinned so wide he could feel his cheeks hurting. Aravis looked away, face tingeing red.

He nudged her. "Well I think you're pretty amazing too," he said.

"You do?" said Aravis. He nodded. "Better than a princess?"

"A hundred times better than a princess," said Cor.

Aravis' grin was smaller and more secret than his, but it was there. Before he could think better of it, Cor brushed her hair away from her face.

And this time she didn't tense, so maybe that was why he said what he said next.

"I think you're really beautiful too," he said.

Aravis' eyes widened. His whole body felt too hot again, but it was true. He did think she was beautiful. And now that they weren't competing anymore, he could admit it without feeling like he was losing points.

Aravis held his gaze like she was waiting for him to make a joke or follow his compliment with an insult, but he gave her his most sincere smile. For a long moment, she just stared at him and he felt like a fisher boy entreating a Tarkheena again. But then she brushed his hair away from his face also.

"I think you're really beautiful too," she said quietly.

His heart beat quickened.

"Do you?"

"Don't let it go to your head," said Aravis. Then she touched his cheek, his lips. He shuddered. He wanted her fingers to never leave his skin again.

"Can I ask you a question?" said Aravis now. He nodded, too lightheaded to refuse her anything. "Why do you want to try to prove you're better than me?"

Cor shook his head. "I'm not trying to prove I'm better than you," he confessed. "I never really wanted to be better than you, Aravis. I just wanted to be enough."

Aravis nodded slowly. "You are enough," she said.

He touched her cheek, her lips. She shuddered. "You too," he said.

And then he wasn't sure who moved to who, but they were together. His lips against her lips, his hands in her salt-curled hair, her hands on his salt-stained skin.

His heart was racing and his thoughts were dizzy, but this, he realised, was what it felt like to be enough.

And for anyone also reading 'Brothers of Archenland', I know I left you on a cliffhanger there too, but I am not above doing that again here ;) More soon!