Title: An Awful Lot of Trouble

Summary: Edmund comforts Lucy after she is slighted by a boy.

Rating: K

Pairings: None

Disclaimer: All of the characters from The Chronicles of Narnia belong to C.S. Lewis, Douglas Gresham, Walden Media, Disney, Fox, and possibly several others as well. I'm not making any money by writing this story.

Author's Notes:

This story takes place in the Pevensies' home some years after Edmund and Lucy return from their adventure on the Dawn Treader.

I've never been able to see any of the Pevensies matched with anyone. This is just an idea.

Thanks to Stephanie Deux for her help in catching my strange grammar :)

An Awful Lot of Trouble

Edmund came in from rugby looking for something to eat. There were voices in the sitting room, but he ignored them.

Likely some of Susan's friends, he thought with a shudder.

He knew he ought to be polite and say hello to them, but as he thought he might prove rather unchivalrous in his annoyance he opted to stay in the kitchen. He raided the cabinets and the ice box and shoveled a large amount of food onto a plate. He was just about to tuck in when he heard the front door close and the sound of Susan's reproachful voice from the hall.

"You can't speak to people like John Walling that way! You're a young lady now Lucy, and it's high time you began to act like one!"

Then the door closed a second time; the next moment Edmund heard feet dashing up the stairs.

He set his plate down and went into the hall. When he reached the end of it he scowled in the direction of the door. Lucy rarely thought it was worth defending herself and Edmund would not stand for his sister to be maligned, but Susan was becoming haughtier by the day and it was often all he could do to keep her from chiding Lucy when they were together. But he could deal with Susan later.

Edmund found Lucy in the upstairs corridor; he rounded the bend just in time to see her slide down the wall. She made a soft, sad little noise and brought her arms around her knees, but looked up at the sound of his footsteps. She dabbed at her eyes and looked down at the floor, ashamed to have been caught crying. He slid down the wall to sit beside her.

"What's got you so upset, Lu?"

Lucy shook her head.

"It's not that idiot Walling?"

Lucy didn't answer.

"What did he say to you?" demanded Edmund. Susan's friends could be a bit cruel about her siblings these days, but he would not have them saying malicious things to Lucy.

"Nothing," said Lucy, but she went a bit pink in the cheeks, and Edmund had a sneaking suspicion he knew what afflicted her.

"Ah," said Edmund, and Lucy turned a darker shade of pink.

She leaned her head on his shoulder and sniffed, but she would not look at him. Edmund had not wanted to think that Lucy fancied anyone; after all, Susan's reckless delight in boys (among other things) had drawn her away from her siblings in recent years. But he could read Lucy well and he'd seen girls look at Peter the way Lucy had begun to look at Walling, and he supposed she was bound to fall for someone sooner or later.

Edmund sighed. Walling was a decent sort (at least he had thought so before today; Edmund could not think what he suddenly saw in Susan), but Edmund could think of several things he would rather do than discuss such things with his little sister. Still, with Peter away and Susan ignoring the lot of them he supposed it fell to him to see about mending Lucy.

"Look here Lu," he began hesitantly. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. But you've got to see he's useless."

"It isn't about how useful he is," said Lucy, slightly bitterly, but she could never really be bitter and she almost laughed at her own silliness. Edmund put his arm around her and waited for her to come out with it.

"It's just," she said in a very small voice (and more to her hands than to her brother) "I've thought of him for an awfully long time. I've never really thought of anyone the way I thought of him. And- and he came by today, and when he said he wasn't here to see you I thought perhaps he'd come to see me- I know it's ridiculous but I did think he might have- and then I found he'd come to take Susan out, and that she's quite taken with him, and then I embarrassed her somehow (she wouldn't even tell me how) and now she's angry with me and he thinks I'm a child."

Edmund tried not to smirk and Lucy smiled a bit herself as she tried to shake him off her.

"I know I'm a child now Ed, but I wasn't acting like it, really."

"I'm sure you were a perfect lady."

Lucy put her chin up. "I was. But he does fancy Susan so," she added a bit longingly.

Edmund caught the slightly resentful note in her voice and he felt a twinge of sympathy as he recalled how small he had sometimes felt in Peter's shadow. He let Lucy lean a bit closer.

"I suppose it's hard for you," he said carefully, "to have to watch them all with Susan."

Lucy looked up at him in earnest surprise.

"Oh no, it isn't that. After Aslan and Narnia I really don't think there's anyone on earth who could make me feel the way Susan believes her beaux will. I just… I really liked him, Ed." She sniffled, and Edmund thought for an awful moment that she might begin to cry on him, but she did not. "I thought he might have been different, is all. He had an almost Narnian air about him," she added wistfully.

"Perhaps that's what draws Su to him," mused Edmund.

"Oh Ed, do you think so?"

He didn't really, but there was such hope in Lucy's voice that Edmund hated to quell it. He wondered at Lucy, so quick to give up her own happiness if it meant helping anyone else. He hoped Susan was only too taken up with herself to notice how Lucy felt about his idiot of a friend and that she was not being deliberately cruel to their sister.

"It might," he allowed.

Lucy sighed and looked away.

"I don't want to take him away from Su. I suppose I just wish he thought I was good enough for him."

"Good enough? Lucy! You're a Queen! What does it matter what he thinks? Who thinks the world of you?"

Lucy had grace enough to look embarrassed.

"Aslan," she smiled, and Edmund grinned at her.

"And what of all those ridiculous princes? They were for ever seeking your hand, Lu! Pete and I had to beat them off with sticks, or don't you remember?"

Lucy nudged him.

"You never did any such thing," she mumbled, but it was a somewhat happier mumble.

"Besides," said Edmund, "I don't remember you wanting to marry any of them. None of them were good enough for you."

"Oh I suppose they were all good enough," said Lucy genially. "But I never really considered it… I was just so happy with you and Su and Peter." Lucy snuggled up to him and for once he allowed it. "I never wanted our life in Cair Paravel to end. I didn't want to be married and taken away from all of you."

"None of us wanted that," said Edmund. "Not even Susan, really. But she didn't mind going on adventures to weed out the bad eggs," he smiled ruefully.

Lucy laughed, but there was sadness in her laughter. She remembered Edmund going off on such adventures with Susan, and she hoped terribly he would not follow their sister into her present folly. With Peter gone she did not think she could have borne it.

Girls had taken to both of her brothers before, but nothing ever came of it; however much they fancied them they also thought Peter and Edmund rather odd, and neither Peter nor Edmund cared much for girls who spent all their time on clothes and hair and lipstick and could not be bothered to think about anything important.

But suppose he's changed his mind, she thought, and she moved unconsciously closer to her brother.

He caught the look in her eye and squeezed her shoulder.

"I'm not going anywhere, Lu. Neither is Peter. And you know Aslan isn't."

Lucy relaxed.

"Did- did you ever fancy anyone, Ed?" she asked quietly.

Edmund's ears went a bit red but he gave no other indication that this question bothered him.

"Once," he said softly. "But that was long ago."

"Oh!" said Lucy. "In Narnia, do you mean?

Edmund smiled.

"There was nothing in it really; we were both so busy in our kingdoms. She was from Archenland, you know. But for a little while I thought… well." He smiled at her, and it was as though he were returning from a dream. "I just don't think there's anyone here who could compare."

"Oh," said Lucy a little sadly.

How dreadful for Edmund to have lost his lady love, she thought.

Edmund rubbed the back of his neck, and Lucy hoped he wasn't sorry he'd told her.

"Why didn't you ever tell us? Surely you knew we wouldn't have made fun of you."

He grinned.

"Of course you would have, and don't try to pretend any different." Lucy inclined her head toward him and smiled softly. "Anyway it wasn't that. Peter figured it out anyway."

"Of course he did," said Lucy lightly, and Edmund laughed.

"I just- I didn't want to tell anyone. It was-"

"More special that way," finished Lucy softly. "I know."

They sat like that a while longer, Lucy thinking faraway thoughts and Edmund thinking of beating Walling at rugby.

"Well," said Lucy presently. "I suppose you're right."

"About what?"

"Oh, everything, I suppose."

She smiled, and he smiled back at her.

"I've been told I'm very wise."

Lucy laughed at him. Relieved to be done with the conversation, Edmund stood up and helped Lucy to her feet.

"Thank you, Ed," she whispered, "for consoling me. I know you didn't want to."

"Of course," he said graciously, "any time."

She reached up and kissed his cheek, and to his credit Edmund didn't shove her off.

"So long as you don't make a habit of it," he added.

Lucy wrinkled her nose.

"I should think not. Boys are an awful lot of trouble."

Edmund chuckled and led her down the stairs, hoping at last to get something to eat.

"Just you remember that."

Fin.