Sweet Dreams
By SugarHighNutcase
Yes, another Peter/Ed fic. Incest? I dunno. You decide. Some may say the ending is incest-ish, but it may not be. It's up to you. Please review. Enjoy!
Peter ran to his fallen brother, his sisters panting behind him. He knelt next to Edmund, whose breathing was shallow and ragged, his eyes unfocused, his blood spilt on the soft grass.
Peter grabbed his brother's hand. It was cold, but as long as Ed was still breathing-
Susan had Edmund's head in her lap, and Lu pulled out her cordial, giving their dying brother a drop of its contents.
For a moment, Edmund struggled to swallow. When he did, he licked his lips and shut his eyes slowly. His breathing had stopped, and the siblings looked on in horror as Edmund passed away.
Susan and Lucy cried and held each other as Peter's world shattered to pieces.
"Edmund," he whispered, as though saying his name would bring him back. "No. No! Ed!"
"ED!" Peter yelled, thrashing about in his bed, and finally sitting up, desperately trying to catch his breath.
The door burst open, and Edmund ran into the room. "Peter! Peter, it's okay," Edmund said softly as he clambered up on his elder brother's bed. "It was a dream. Nothing more."
Peter looked at him in confusion. "You died."
"It was a dream, Peter." Edmund gazed worriedly into his brother's eyes. "Are you okay?"
Peter started to say yes, he was, and for Edmund to get back to bed, but something in his younger brother's eyes told him not to be noble and to tell the truth. "No. I'm not, Edmund." He sighed, and put his head in his hands. "Ed, it's been a month since the battle, one month since we've been crowned, and I'm still having nightmares about-" He stopped, unsure.
"Me," Edmund supplied.
Peter looked up. "Yeah. You. You dying because of me. You sacrificing your life to save mine, when I've been a terrible brother to you."
"Terrible? What are you-"
"Ed," Peter cut off his bewildered sibling. "I have been. I've been a horrible brother to you. It was all my fault, everything. I should have paid more attention to you, I should have treated you better, but I didn't, and the whole thing with the Witch was my fault."
"Peter," Edmund said, a small smile playing on his lips. "The thing with the Witch- you can't blame yourself. I was the one who went to her. I was the one who turned traitor. I betrayed my own siblings; you can't blame yourself for my mistake."
"But I was the one who drove you to betrayal. If I hadn't been so hard on you, if I hadn't treated you so badly, if I hadn't acted like I didn't care, you wouldn't have turned to the Witch."
Edmund was silent for a moment. A frown appeared on his face, and he appeared to be thinking.
"Okay," he said finally. "So maybe we both messed up. But, Peter, you can't dwell on what might have been; on the "what if"s. I'm here now, and I'm okay."
"Ed," Peter whispered, as though afraid that saying it too loudly would make it all worse. "Ed, I failed you. I was supposed to be protecting you, but I- I couldn't. You say I made a stupid mistake; fine. But because of that, you nearly died. I failed to protect you, and I'm sorry." A few tears slipped out of Peter's blue eyes as he remembered that moment on the battlefield when he had believed his baby brother to be dead.
Edmund, seeing his brother's pain, wrapped his small arms around the larger boy's body, pulling him into a hug. Peter returned it reluctantly, feeling terrible inside and wanting to scream and cry, but didn't. Be strong for Edmund, he thought.
As if sensing his brother's thoughts, Edmund whispered into his ear, "You don't have to fake it, Peter. You can cry; it's alright."
And so Peter cried bitterly into his brother's shoulder, thinking of his failure, and what the consequences might have been; thinking of how he'd promised to protect his family, and how despite his promise, he was the one being comforted. And Edmund let out a few tears as well, crying for his brother who was so selfless; who had cared for them as best he could when they were sent away.
And soon enough, Peter had fallen asleep. Edmund grinned at his elder brother's peaceful demeanor as he slept for the first time in weeks without any nightmares.
And the next morning, their sisters found them lying in the bed- Peter underneath the sheets, Edmund on top- with their arms around each other, and Edmund's head on his brother's chest.