Chapter 1 - Even a King Needs to Cry Sometimes

Disclaimer: You know the drill. The only thing I own are the socks I'm wearing. Everything below belongs to the amazing C.S. Lewis.

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Narnia – December, Year 1001

-During the time in which Peter was 14, Susan was 13, Edmund was 11, and Lucy was 9.

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Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy stumbled into the kitchen, covered in snow. They'd been busy playing outside in the first major snowfall of the year, and were ready for some hot cocoa.

The siblings took their usual seats at the long, royal dinner table. "So we've been in Narnia a year now!" Peter exclaimed.

"A full year! It's hard to believe," Susan agreed, brushing some snow off her warm, beautiful winter dress. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold and her hair was windblown.

"A full year as Narnia's best queen," Lucy joked with a smile.

"Best, really, Lucy?" Susan said in mock seriousness. Then her face broke out in a grin and she replied, "Well, after we get our hot chocolate and go back outside, I might have to show you who is Narnia's best snowball-thrower!"

"That would be me!" Peter said from the head of the table, raising one hand.

"Oh really, Peter?" Lucy said. "Susan and I might have to gang up on you!"

"And Edmund too!" Susan added.

"Edmund will surely be on my side. The old boys versus girls snowball fight! What do you say, Ed?"

Peter, Susan, and Lucy looked over to Edmund. They began to realize that he had been even quieter than usual all day long.

"Edmund?" Lucy probed tentatively.

"Oh, whatever is wrong, Ed?" Susan asked gently, placing a hand on her brother's shoulder.

Peter looked at Edmund in concern, and then he caught sight of the falling snow outside the window.

"It's snowing," Peter breathed.

"Yes, Peter, we know that perfectly well. What we would like to be concentrating on right now is Edmund," Susan said to her elder brother quietly.

"Peter's right," Edmund said quietly. "It's snowing."

"Yes, Edmund, we know all about the snow. We were just outside playing in it, remember? But I'd really like to get to the bottom of what's making you so quiet today. What's upsetting you, really?" Susan said, in a well-meaning yet overly-maternal way.

"Oh, Edmund," Lucy said, understanding about the snow. "It's all over now – she's dead! The White Witch is dead, and Aslan's forgiven you; all of Narnia has forgiven you. We've forgiven you! Now, cheer up, Ed! After all, Christmas is coming soon. Our first Narnian Christmas!"

"Oh," Susan said quietly, understanding about the snow as well.

"It's not our first Narnian Christmas," Edmund said glumly.

"Our – our first one together, though, right?" Lucy said hesitantly. "And that's all that matters."

"I ruined the first one," Edmund continued, ignoring Lucy's comment. "While the three of you were chasing after me and meeting Father Christmas, I was betraying you all to Jadis. I picked Turkish Delight over my own family. What a lovely Christmas last year was," he said sarcastically.

"Edmund! Ed, don't think that way! It's just like Lu said – we all forgive you. Let's put the past behind us, Ed. Please?" Peter tried to console his brother.

"That's right, Ed," Susan said, regaining her composure. "We don't want to remember it any more than you do. So let's just forget about it, all right? Today should be about celebration – the first big snowfall of the year! Not about regret and sadness."

"Please, Edmund? I want to go out and play some more! And it won't be any fun if you're moping," Lucy gave her brother the puppy dog eyes that she knew he couldn't refuse.

"All right, all right," Edmund said, a smile starting to show on his face. "But Peter and I will most definitely prove that boys are the better snowball-fighters. And then we'll see who's moping!"

"That's the spirit, Ed!" Peter said.

"Peter's right, that's the spirit! We knew that you simply just couldn't sulk all day."

"That's not what I meant!" Peter protested. "I walking about his spirit about the snowball fight!"

"Oh, is that right?" Lucy said, jumping out of her chair. "Well, Su and I will prove to the both of you who's better!"

Peter and Edmund were on their feet as well, pulling their winter coats back on, ready to go back out into the snow.

"Wait!" Susan protested. "We haven't even gotten our hot chocolate yet!"

Laughing, the siblings sat back down to wait for the cooks to finish making their hot chocolate.

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"Ha! Take that!" Susan yelled, tossing a snowball at the opposing side and then ducking back behind the snow fort that Lucy and herself had created.

"Hey!" came Edmund's protest as the ball of flying snow hit him squarely in the nose.

"We'll get you for that one, Su!" Peter shouted.

"Oh no, you won't!" Lucy hollered, lauching a snowball towards Peter and then stooping back below the top of the snow fort, going into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

"You think you can hide behind your fancy snow fort, but you can't! You can run, but you can't hi—I mean… er… You can hide but you can't… deflect my snowballs?" Edmund stood, stumped, for a second. In his moment of thought, a snowball struck him in the stomach.

"What? No fair!"

"Well, I don't think these Queens are playing fair, now are they, Ed?" Peter joked while rolling another snowball.

"I agree with you, High King!"

Meanwhile, another snowball landed right atop Peter's head.

"Fall back, fall back! Retreat! We need a new battle plan!" Edmund called to Peter, running towards the doors into Cair.

"Hey! No fair! You can't just do that!" Lucy shouted, following Edmund, snowball in hand.

"I guess it's just you and me then, Su," Peter said quietly, a glint in his eyes.

"What was that, Peter?" Susan asked. Her answer was a snowball to the head.

"Ha! Take that!" Peter said.

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After night had fell and the four Kings and Queens had to withdraw themselves from the snowball fight, they sat once again at the dining table, sipping hot cocoa.

"Well, Lucy and I certainly won!" Susan said, breathlessly.

"That's for sure, Su!"

"I don't think so! If anything, the two of you should lose due to unfair play!" Peter disagreed.

"Unfair play? I would say retreating to the castle is unfair play!"

"I had to go to the bathroom!" Edmund protested.

"As if we haven't heard that excuse before," Susan teased.

"I would have to agree with the girls on that one, Ed," Peter said. "Sorry, mate."

"Listen, I'm going up to bed. I'm getting tired," Edmund said quietly. He left the kitchen and began to climb the stairs, to the others' protests.

"We were just playing, Ed!"

"You didn't even finish your cocoa!"

"You can't be tired already! Edmund, please come back!"

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Up in the peace and quiet of his own bedroom, Edmund could think. He was freer to be himself, less the King and more the boy. And most of all, he didn't have to worry about pleasing his siblings.

Today had been a hard day for Edmund, one of the hardest in Narnia so far. Seeing all that snow falling reminded him so much of the events a year ago – something he would have much rather forgotten.

Now, up in his bedroom, he didn't have to worry about pleasing his siblings, and today had been a hard day, after all. An emotional day. So the product of all of that, plus his tiredness, was that he broke down and began to cry.

He sobbed for who knows how long. When his tears finally began to subside, and he began to think about how unmanly and unkingly his weeping had been, he noticed a gentle hand rubbing his back.

He bolted up in his bed immediately. "Susan!" he said indignantly. Not only was his room a private place, and not for girls, but it was especially off-limits when he was crying!

"Hey, now, it's okay," Susan patted him on the shoulder. "Even a King needs to cry sometimes. I thought you just might like a shoulder to cry on." She smiled at him. "You don't have to bottle up all your feelings inside, you know. I'm your sister. I want to help you."

"Well, watching me cry isn't helping anyone! It's just embarrassing," Edmund protested, but in a softer way.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise," Susan replied.

"Not even Lucy? She'd laugh at me."

"She would not! But I won't tell her."

"Not even Peter? He'd surely think it wasn't very manly of me to be wailing like I was."

"He wouldn't think any such thing! But I won't tell him, either."

"Yes he would, Su! I'm so – " Edmund paused. He wasn't sure if he should tell Susan about this, but she did promise after all to not tell Peter or Lucy about him crying. Maybe she could be trusted with this as well. "I'm so worried about letting Peter down…"

"Oh, Edmund!" Susan pulled her younger brother into a hug. "Peter is so, so proud of you. He loves you so much. We all do! And would you like to know a secret?"

"What?" Edmund asked, for once not trying to pull out of his sister's embrace.

"Even Peter cries sometimes."

"Really?" Edmund said, shocked.

"He surely does. As I said, even a King needs to cry sometime. Now, how about we go finish that hot chocolate of yours?"

"It'll surely be cold chocolate by now," Edmund replied with a hint of a smile.

"Then we'll make some more! Come on, Ed!" Susan said, grabbing his hand and pulling him up.

"All right, all right," Edmund said, and allowed his sister to drag him down the stairs to the grand kitchen.

While he and Susan were sitting at the table, sipping their hot cocoa, his older sister continued to comfortingly pat his back.

"Everything's okay now," she assured him quietly.

Now, Edmund thought as he sipped his hot chocolate contentedly, he knew for certain why they called his sister Queen Susan the Gentle.

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Author's Note: Well, I'm on a roll today! This is my second chapter in one day, compared the usual rate of zero!

I really am planning on seeing this to the end, all fourteen chapters that there are left, as long as it's well-liked-enough. I just fell in love with the idea of seeing little bits of the Pevensies' best moments in Narnia, and trying to show examples of them exhibiting the characteristics that their respective titles suggest.

I hope you enjoyed this. Please review. I really would like to know if this is worth continuing.