Possibly my favorite chapter. I was gonna do Peter and Edmund's chapter next, but I started this one first and couldn't stop. So I am officially changing my order.

With Susan

It was while he was on his way from his and Edmund's room that he heard it. The lullaby his mother used to sing for all of her children when they had trouble sleeping. It was a low, sweet melody that any of them could recognize anywhere, and the voice singing it this time sang it beautifully.

Peter followed the melody, knowing in his heart where it would lead him.

Stepping once again into the girls' room, he found his eldest sister sitting on her bed, brushing her hair with their mother's delicate, silver hairbrush, given to her on her most recent birthday. Susan hardly ever used it, worried that she would break it. She once said, jokingly, "Have you seen all the tangles in my hair after I come home from school? Honestly…a rake would be more appropriate."

Yet here she sat, guiding the glinting silver object through her hair. Slowly. Carefully.

And he knew something was wrong.

Even as he sat down next to her she continued her singing. Never missing a word. Never changing pitch or note. She never considered herself a singer, but for this song…

She ended on a soft note and swallowed, never ceasing her strokes, never looking at him. "Is there something you wanted?" she asked, not unkindly but softly. He said nothing in response, only continued to sit there and watch the silver brush making its way down her silky brown hair. Tentatively waiting for her to explode.

Her lower lip began trembling. She sat there with unsteady hands as she brushed her hair. A heart wrenching sob came out, and she bent over and let the tears fall, crying noiselessly, their mother's hair brush on the floor.

Peter bent over and picked it up, placing it on his lap as he reached out to pull Susan closer to him. Still crying softly, she ducked her head under his chin. They simply sat there like that; neither knowing how much time had passed. He rocked her back and forth repeatedly until her breathing evened. Slowly she leaned back, lifting her eyes to meet his, and gave him a watery smile.

"Sorry about…this." She gestured weakly to her face. "But considering how things are going these days I guess you're used to it by now, huh?" She ducked her head again to hide the second 

bout of tears that threatened to fall. But almost immediately he lifted her chin to meet his gaze again.

"I've seen you cry before, Susan." He said softly. Then he sighed. "It's nothing to be ashamed of." The reason for her tears was certainly understandable. She and her mother had been very close all her life, a mother-daughter bond that was almost impossible to break. And she had always been loved by her father, who adored both her and Lucy and spoiled them to no end whenever the opportunity presented itself.

She smiled a small smile, which he returned. "Besides," he said a mischievous glint in his eye now, "you used to cry over everything when we were little." She raised her eyebrows at him.

He laughed. "Honestly, Su. Bugs. Monsters under the bed. And all I had to do was look at you and stick out my tongue and you would bawl for hours and hours." She gave a cry of mock indignation and made to hit him, but he got up and danced out of her reach, the brush once again falling to the floor. Susan leaned over and picked it up, beginning to brush her hair once more. "We seem to have slightly different takes on the past, young mister Pevensie." She giggled. "It was you who was afraid of the monsters under the bed."

Peter rolled his eyes at his sister, walking back toward her and sitting on the bed beside her again. "I was 4."

"All the same…"

He looked over at her again. The sibling he has known the longest. Though not as jubilant as Lucy, nor as quickly witty as Edmund, or even as headstrong as Peter every day of her life, she was still the flower of the family. Beautiful, intelligent, and caring. They had been close as children, and had maintained their relationship even with the coming of the other two siblings. Recently, it had seemed, the he and his sister had done more arguing than cooperating, and kink in their friendship he knew would take time to work out. Still, no matter how much she snapped and yelled at him, he loved her endlessly all the same.

It was while he was thinking over this that he gently tugged their mother's hairbrush out of her hand and, smiling at her questioning look, began to brush her hair for her. Her smile only grew. "If Edmund came in here, he'd laugh at you." She reminded him.

"And I'd teach him a lesson. Easily dealt with." He grinned, continuing his soft strokes.

She sighed. "I don't know what's going on with him these days. It really upsets me."

"Don't let him get to you, Su. He'll fix himself eventually." At least he certainly hoped so.

Minutes passed, with them just like that. Susan yawned at some point, and Peter put down the brush.



"Someone's tired, I think." He smirked, earning a small slap on his chest from his sister as she leaned back on her bed, pulling the covers back and scooting underneath them. He stood up, leaned over, and gave Susan and a kiss on the cheek. "'Night, Susan."

"Goodnight, Peter."

As he made to walk out of the door she called out, "And don't you dare walk into your room noisily to wake Edmund up, understood?"

He grinned.

"Whatever you say, Susan." Goodness, she knew him so well.

Like it? Hate it? Anything you wanna see next? I am indeed open to suggestions. Love you guys…and review!