-Chapter 12-
A/N: I can't believe that this story has gone by so fast! We're almost halfway through the entire plotline now! Hmm, I guess I'll have to prolong that. Watch out, folks, because when I prolong a plot, it only means trouble. Also, I'd like to apologize to all of you Suspian fans. The past few chapters have been hectic for me, what with Peter and Analiese and Edmund and Avaline taking up so much. I was going to have a Suspian moment last chapter, but it was wayyy too long already!
OMG, just now, it just came to me. Edmund and Avaline's couple name! Get this... Edaline; it even sounds amazing! :D Review and tell me if you like it. Unfortunately, I've got nothing for Peter and Analiese. Tell me if you think of anything;)
Disclaimer: I do not own Narnia. I do own Avaline, Balmia, Jeffrey, Darren, Sophia, Peighton, Wilson, Analiese, Biff, Morgana, John. Wow, I had no idea I had that many OCs! I probably should cut down on that...
"Susan, are you sure he won't mind?" Analiese asked. "I mean, we aren't exactly on the best of terms, and I don't want to make it any worse by accident."
Susan stopped walking in the middle of the hallway and Analiese stopped beside her. "Analiese, what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
Susan raised an eyebrow. "You and Peter have been acting strangely around each other lately, and something has obviously happened. You used to be the best of friends, only a few weeks ago, actually. Now, you don't even look at each other!"
Analiese looked down, rubbing her arm nervously. She didn't answer; the two girls were silent. Then, Susan spoke again.
"An, I'm worried about Peter. He's never acting so... strange. It's not like he's in shock or anything, he's just quiet. And when he feels an emotion, it isn't displayed strongly like it used to be; it barely comes across his face. It's scaring us," the Gentle Queen said worriedly.
The blonde-haired queen looked up at her in surprise. "Us?" Susan gave her a confused look. "Who else has noticed?"
"All of us, pretty much. Edmund, Avaline, Caspian, me, Biff... I'm surprised that you haven't noticed, you being his close friend and all," Susan replied, her voice getting lower in suspicion at the end.
"I don't know, I guess I'm pretty out of it myself."
"Analiese, please. He's my brother and it hurts me to see him so closed off," Susan pleaded. "It's bad enough that Ed is acting like he is, but Peter? Something is definitely wrong."
The Courteous Queen sighed. "I'll tell you in the morning, okay? I just need to talk to him before I say anything," Analiese said warily.
"Promise?" Susan asked.
"I promise," she answered. "Now where is my new room?" She gave her sister-in-law a smile.
The two queens continued walking on their trip to Peter's bedroom. When they finally reached it, Susan raised her hand to knock on the door, but Analiese placed a nervous hand on hers. The Gentle Queen gave her friend a questioning look.
"Are you sure it's okay?" Analiese asked.
"Positive." Susan began to raise her hand to knock on the door again, but she was stopped again by her blonde-haired friend yelling, "Wait!"
Susan gave a huff of exasperation. "Honestly, An, what are you so worried about?! He doesn't bite!"
"I'm afraid he won't want me in there," she said quietly, looking at the floor.
"Peter really likes you, Analiese. He isn't going to kick you out. You're one of his best friends, and if there's one thing I know about my brother, it's that he would never let a friend down. And you two sleeping in the same bed isn't going to change that."
Analiese nodded, and Susan let the words sink in before speaking again, now in a more cheerful manner. "Ready?"
The nineteen-year-old nodded again as her sister-in-law knocked on the High King's door. She wasn't sure what to expect when he opened it, nor how to act when they were finally left alone. Her nerves were running high, and the fact that she would be sleeping in a bed with a husband she wasn't in love with frightened her.
In a few seconds, the large, wooden door opened and a young man with messy hair stood in the doorway. "Oh," he said, his tired face turning into a smile. "I wasn't expecting you so early."
"We gave you more than enough time to shower before we got here, so it's your own fault that you haven't yet," Susan replied, looking over her brother's messy tunic that he had changed into after the reception party. "Plus, it's two in the morning. I'm sure that Analiese is exhausted, so you'd better hurry so she has time to shower before bed, also. But now you'll have to wait until we can get Analiese settled."
Peter's eyes darted to his wife. He took in the pink and gold-trimmed under-dress that went with her wedding gown. She had taken off the white gown due to the weight of the fabric, and now stood in the sleeveless under-dress. Nerves made his face turn red with both embarrassment and worry. "Um, come on in, then."
He moved to the side to make room for the two young women to enter. Peter turned to quietly shut the door, and when he turned around, he found Susan lounging on one of the dark red armchairs. Analiese stood awkwardly next to her, looking at the floor.
"Um, Analiese, you can sit down if you want," Peter said, motioning to the other armchair, which sat in front of the fireplace across from the other. It felt weird asking her to sit there That was his chair.
Nonetheless, she gave a shy, "Thank you," and sat down. She held her back straight and sat politely, which was the exact opposite of how Susan was sitting, or laying, rather. She laid sideways on the chair, her head hanging off the back off the left arm. Her knees were bent and her legs hung off the end of the right arm. She lounged comfortably on the extra chair, which she had brought in the room as soon as she found out Peter and Analiese were engaged. Susan had wanted Analiese to have a place to sit before the fire just as Peter did in their bedroom.
"So," Susan said, "Go ahead."
Peter looked at his sister quizzically. "What?"
"Go ahead and take your shower," Susan replied, nodding toward the bathroom door.
"But Analiese-" Peter began.
"I'll stay with her. She probably wants some help getting around in here, anyway." Susan paused. "Now go!"
Peter opened his mouth to object again, but the Gentle Queen made a loud, scolding noise that made her older brother turn around and walk to the bathroom without another word.
The two queens watched him go and waited until they heard water running in the bathroom to talk. "I'll show you where everything is," the twenty-year-old Golden Age queen said, standing up and moving over to a fuzzy-glass door. You could see that it was glass, but it was impossible to see anything but blurry colors through it. It was a smart door for a closet, where people didn't want to be seen while changing. Susan gestured to it before saying, "This is the closet."
She opened the doors and allowed Analiese to enter first. The newly-crowned queen stepped in and opened her mouth in a smile of amazement. She stood in the middle of the huge, stylish closet, spinning in circles as she took in her surroundings. To her left were her clothes, to the right were Peter's, though he had one tiny rack and Analiese had the entire wall's length. On the back wall directly across from the glass double doors were white drawers with silver knobs attached to the wall. Analiese pulled one out and found various undergarments for herself. Curious, she pulled the drawer beneath that one. She blushed profusely when she discovered Peter's undergarments in the drawer rather than her own.
"Oops," she muttered, closing the drawer quickly and staring into space for a few moments in embarrassment. She heard Susan laughing from behind her. "What?"
"He's your husband, you don't have to be embarrassed when you see his underwear," Susan replied, still laughing.
"Well, I would rather us not see each other's private things at all, but-"
At this, Susan broke into a loud round of guffaws, holding her sides tightly and bending over at the waist. She had her eyes closed tightly, and tears from her laughter rolled down her cheeks.
"Susan?" Analiese asked. She walked the few steps over to the Gentle Queen and tapped her shoulder. "Susan, what's wrong?!"
"You-you said p-private things!" Susan gasped out.
"What?" It only took Analiese a few moments to understand what she meant. "Susan! That's horrible!"
"s-sorry! I g-guess I've been hanging out w-with Ed too much!"
And Susan was right. Edmund was the perverted man in the family. Directly after the Pevensies had returned from Narnia the first time, he had been given "the talk." His health teacher at the all-boys school that he and Peter attended had taught the class all about the reproductive system and puberty and such. That made for one heck of an awkward situation when he got home from school that day.
...
"So, how was school today, everyone?" Mrs. Pevensie had asked at dinner. She passed a dish of sweet potatoes to her eldest son, who was seated in front of her at the dinner table.
"Oh, it was great, mother!" Susan had exclaimed. She had only just turned sixteen then, and she always had a nice gossip story to share with the family over a meal. "Sammie asked Benjamin if he would go to the girl's choice dance with her, but he rejected her because he's going with Kelly."
"How is that a good thing?" Edmund asked sarcastically.
"Because, silly!" Susan giggled, turning to face her brother, who sat to her left, and pinching his cheek.
"Ow, let go," he grumbled, jerking away from his older sister and rubbing his cheek.
"Susan, why do you think it good that Benjamin rejected Samantha? I don't think it's very nice of him at all," Mrs. Pevensie said.
"Because, mother!" Susan exclaimed excitedly. "It turned out that he lied to Sammie because he really wanted to go with me and he was planning on asking me. But I-"
"I thought you didn't like Benjamin," Edmund commented.
"I don't," Susan replied, slowly becoming more and more confused.
"Then why are you going to the dance with him?"
"If you would let me finish, you would find out!" Susan gave a huff of exasperation, then smiled and continued with her story. "As I was saying, Benjamin was planning on asking me, even though it's supposed to be the girls asking the boys. But I really wanted to ask Henry to go with me. I knew that he had been holding out and had kindly declined all invitations so far because he was holding out for someone special, but no one knew who it was, so I decided to give it a shot. Well, right when I walked up to him, Benjamin walked up to me and asked me to go with him. But Henry heard and turned around and told Benjamin that he was taking me already. I was very confused because I knew for a fact that I hadn't asked him yet, but as soon as Ben turned to leave, Henry asked me if I wanted to go with him, and of course I said yes. So now I'm going to the dance with Henry!"
Susan finished her story with as much energy as she had begun it with, but when she ended it, you could hear a pin drop in the dining room. No one spoke a single word.
From next to Peter, everyone heard a tiny yawn, and they all looked to see Lucy with her eyes closed, mouth open wide, and hand covering it. When she returned to normal, she looked at her sister. "That was a good story, Susan. I like Henry."
"I do, too," Susan smiled.
"Ugh!" Edmund exclaimed." Why does everyone have to be so obsessed with the opposite gender? I mean, it's disgusting!"
"What are you saying, Ed?" Peter asked suspiciously. He was ready to fight Edmund and smack some sense into him High-King-style if his brother declared he was gay.
"I'm saying, you all do know the step after liking someone, right? Then there's love. And then, there's-" Edmund couldn't finish his sentence. He shuddered at the memory of his health class that day.
"Oh..." Susan, Peter, and Mrs. Pevensie said at the same time. It was obvious that they now understood what the youngest Pevensie man was talking about.
And from there on out, Edmund Pevensie had been the perverted Pevensie brother. Well, there's always one out of the bunch that turns out a little wacky.
"Yes, well, you probably need to stop that," was all Analiese said in response.
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It had been ten minutes since Susan had shown Analiese around, and the Gentle Queen decided to head to her own bedroom to go to bed. So Analiese stood in her new bedroom alone with only the sound of the steady rhythm of the shower's water in the bathroom to soothe her. She was standing by the tiny bookshelf, which held some of Peter's personal books that he didn't want put in the library, and was scanning the book titles for any that she recognized.
After a few more minutes of this, Analiese gave a big yawn. 'I'm tired, and I need to go to sleep. I'll just go get a nightgown and get in bed and deal with Peter in the morning,' she thought.
So she went over to the double doors of the closet, opened them, and stepped inside. She made sure to close the doors behind her, though she didn't know why. After all, with how long he had taken so far, it wasn't like Peter was coming out any time soon.
Analiese made her way over to the rack and the far end of her side of the closet, where her nightgowns hung on hangers. She looked through the rack, examining each one of the nightgowns. It seemed to her that Susan had had each one custom made by only the finest seamstress in all of Narnia, and maybe even the neighboring countries. There were pink, blue, yellow, purple, and all different colored nightgowns before her. All of the colors were very light, almost light someone had lightly shaded coloring on paper with a colored pencil. But they were all very pretty.
The Courteous Queen chose a nightgown at random and held it up to herself. It seemed to fit just right. It had long, puffy sleeves three small buttons that ended where the nightgown gathered right underneath the bust. The length was only to right at the top of her knee, which was scandalous in itself. Analiese had picked the light purple nightgown.
With a sigh, she undid her hair, combing through it with her fingers to undo the braids. Then, she reached behind her to unzip the golden zipper on the back of her under-dress. Sliding it over her head and placing it in the laundry basket, she then reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a clean pair of underwear. She was just about to slide the nightgown over her head when she heard a rustling outside the closet door. She turned around just in time to see Peter walking in, a towel wrapped around the lower half of his body.
Peter's eyes met Analiese's and they both froze in shock. Peter was only wearing a towel around him, and Analiese had on her undergarments but was clutching the nightgown in front of her.
"Ex-excuse me, I didn't know you were occupying the room. I'll be in the bedroom while you change," Peter said, and it was obvious that he was embarrassed at having walked in on her.
Once the door was shut behind him, Analiese quickly pulled the nightgown over her head, put her hair into a loose ponytail to sleep in, and stepped out of the room.
"You can go in now. Sorry about before," she said once she was in the bedroom. Peter only nodded and walked to the closet, shutting the door behind him. Analiese couldn't help but think of her husband. When he walked in on her, she had gotten a clear look at his well-built abs and the muscles of his arms. She had always been more attracted to the well-built men than the men with little or no muscle, but then again, what girl wasn't?
When Peter came back into the bedroom, he wore a thin, white night-tunic with plaid pajama pants.
"I've never seen trousers like that," Analiese commented. "Where did you get them?"
Peter looked at her in surprise. He hadn't been expecting her to say much, and him walking in on her was sure to make it awkward between them, but it seemed she didn't have any trouble getting back on track. "Uh," he began. "They're called pants. In England, we wear these pants and button-up, matching tops with them to sleep in. We call them pajamas."
"Pajamas?" Analiese said slowly, tasting the word on her tongue. Peter nodded to tell her she said it right. "Are they comfortable?"
"Yes, very comfortable. That's actually why I still wear them here. Even in the Golden Ages, I disliked wearing trousers to bed. They were so stiff. But I hadn't brought any pajamas here with me, so I had to suffer. But when we got transported here this time around, I had a full suitcase packed with me," Peter explained. There was silence, and then, "It's really late, or early, rather. We don't need to be sleeping in any later than we have to in the morning, so let's go to bed."
Analiese nodded and watched as Peter unmade the bed, then placed a clean, soft blanket on top of the sheets. He gestured to the bed, and she walked over to it.
"Thanks," she said. The Courteous Queen received a nod in response.
Peter walked into the closet, and Analiese was beginning to wonder what he was doing when he came out with a pillow and a blanket.
"What are you doing?" she asked as he laid the pillow on the chair and spread the blanket over it.
"Preparing to sleep."
"Um, the bed is over here," she told him with confusion on her face.
"I know; you're sleeping there."
"Yes, but so are you."
"No, I'm not." He saw her confused features and said, "Look, I know you're my wife and all, but we're not in love. Don't you think that it would be a little strange if we shared a bed?"
Understanding flooded his wife's face. "Oh," she said quietly. They sat in silence for a few moments, each going over the pros and cons of sleeping on the chair and sleeping on the bed, until Analiese said, "I'll sleep in the chair."
"Excuse me?" Peter asked.
"I'll sleep on the chair." Her husband stared at her as if she'd grown a second head. "It makes sense, if you think about it. It's your room, and your bed. Plus, you're the High King. You shouldn't have to make room for me. It's my fault that I'm even here right now."
"How is this your fault?" he said incredulously.
"If I had just accepted Lord John's marriage proposal, wouldn't even be in this room right now. We wouldn't even have met each other, I'd bet."
"Analiese, it's not your fault. I want you to fully understand that, okay? And I'm sleeping over here, and I will for the rest of my life, if I have to. Now, I'm going to sleep."
And so Peter blew out the candle on the bookshelf, stomped out the fire in the fireplace, and the High King and his High Queen lost themselves to fatigue.
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