I hope I have not rusted too completely that I am unable to give a satisfactory ending to this story.

Crimson

…

"Peter?"

Lucy's voice jolts him from his staring towards the gate at the entrance to their train platform. She's standing between the train doors, her suitcase in hand, waiting for him to board.

"She didn't come." He says, bewildered. He had seriously thought that he had seen something change in her eyes that last time he had spoken with her.

"She's not ready," replies Lucy, "not yet, at least."

Peter allows Lucy to take a hold of his hand and pull him inside the train with one last look towards the gate to make absolutely sure. He takes a seat across from Edmund and manages a weak smile for his cousin and friend.

Edmund's eyes are also far away, tightness at the corners of his mouth.

"Aslan would say that we cannot know someone else's story," says Lucy into the tense silence.

"But it's Susan!" retorts Edmund, clenching his hat within his hands in agitation. "It's Susan, Lucy!"

Lucy smiles enigmatically. "Exactly. And while I many not know the paths of her life and where it will go. I can make what I would call...a very educated guess."

Peter is still holding Lucy's hand and sharing a grin with Edmund when he blinks his eyes in sudden darkness and is aware that his chest hurts.

"Clearly I can't even let you go on a simple campaign against giants anymore, brother!"

Peter can't stop the smile, even as it aches across his bruised face, when Edmund suddenly makes his presence known.

"Why, just three weeks without my expert advice and you're shipped back home to mend!"

Edmund throws himself onto the armchair next to Peter's bed, obscuring Peter's view of the moonlit grounds but outlining the sharp angles of his face in the light. Peter thinks his brother must be going through another growth spurt.

"You know the solution don't you?" Edmund asks, slinging his crown to the side and taking great care to crush his carefully pressed dinner robes.

"No?" he continues dramatically, when Peter remains silent (in truth it hurts to speak). "You're just going to have to convince Su that I'm not needed here to attend these ghastly parties and that you need me by your side to ensure your survival!"

Edmund sits upright, his brown eyes gleaming in the moonlight as he looks at his brother, head to toe.

"Actually, I don't think you'll need to talk at all. Do me a favor and try to look especially wounded these next couple of days, will you?"

Peter tries his best attempt to sit up and groans instead as his ribs ache. Edmund's face splits into a mischievous grin.

"Splendid. That'll about do it!" His face sobers somewhat as he gets to his feet and together they struggle to bring Peter upright. "Still hurt?" he asks, in his quietly worried way. Before Peter can open his mouth Edmund brushes aside his own question. "'Course it does." He straightens somewhat but sits on the bed at Peter's side. He stares down at his brother and Peter can feel his eyes taking in every injury, assessing how long he will have to maintain this façade of cheerful carelessness for the throngs of well wishers, some of whom are downstairs at this moment. Edmund's asking himself how long he can maintain a show of control and power to the spies that have gathered in the court to assess Narnia's strength with her High King so devastatingly wounded. Peter squeezes his brother's hand with as much strength as he can. He knows Edmund can do it. It is Edmund who doubts himself. Edmund squeezes back but snorts a huff of laughter through his nose as he shakes his head.

"Next time duck when a giant aims its club at your head, idiot."

"It takes one to know one!"

Peter turns his head to welcome his defender. Lucy rustles as she walks into the room because she is encased entirely in ruffles.

"Don't even!" she warns Peter as she struggles to pull herself onto the large bed beside him and catches him trying not to laugh. Lucy's fifteen, gangly, and desperately trying to prove to her elder sister that she is grown up. The gown says it all.

"I just can't do it, Peter!" she sighs and Edmund huffs another amused snort as she throws off her heels and hitches up her dress in order to snuggle carefully into his side. Peter encases her under his arm. Very carefully, he stretches his neck until he can press a warm kiss to her forehead. To him, she is always beautiful. Lucy sighs again, content this time.

"I've tripped four times, torn a hole in the train of my gown, spilt wine on my belt and managed to stab Lord Patters with the heel of my shoe."

Edmund actually lets out a loud laugh and Peter watches fondly as Lucy allows her own lips to tug into a rueful smile.

"You'd better watch it, Ed. Su's noticed you're gone," she says, eyebrows raised.

Edmund's laugh cuts away and he curses, but with humor, "She's impossible to escape, I tell you, Peter!"

Lucy lifts her head, suddenly curious. "How did you escape? I heard that Su had a guard on you the whole night to make sure you stayed at the party."

Edmund schools his face into a very solemn countenance. "With great difficulty, let me ensure you, My Royal Sister." He nods his head decisively. "It involved a cheese wheel, a pineapple and the naming rights of my firstborn son. He will be called Brkahendomly, in case you were wondering."

Peter and Lucy stare at Edmund. He quirks his lips into a small smile before the three of them lose it. Peter holds his sides best he can with a broken elbow as he struggles not to laugh. Lucy howls into the pillow and Edmund lets his head fall to the bed, his shoulders shaking.

They make such a ruckus that they almost miss the footsteps.

Quick as a flash Edmund and Lucy are up, trying to hold back their giggles as they search for hiding places. They aren't very quiet at all with quite a few pushes and shushes and shhhes going on as they clamber over each other. Peter thoroughly enjoys watching his siblings act like silly teenagers rather than Kings and Queens and so it is with a smile on his face that he greets his sister.

Queen Susan enters the High King's Chambers, takes a glance around, spies Lucy's high heels, still lying on the floor and Edmund's crown, discarded on the sofa and lets out a weary sigh. Peter reaches out his good hand and she shakes her head, closing the distance between them. She clasps his fingers in hers and he squeezes her fingers lightly. He sees the light tug of her smile as she sighs again and reaches up to pull off her own golden circlet, discarding it on his bedside table.

"Really you two. Are we playing hide and seek like children now?" Susan asks the general vicinity.

There is an explosion of giggles from inside the closet and it wriggles violently before Edmund comes bursting out of the doors.

"No shoving!" he cries as he staggers out.

"You tried to sit on me!" Lucy retorts indignantly as she struggles out of the closet, her dress getting in her way.

"It's not my fault you look like you're one of Peter's ceremonial jackets!"

Lucy stops struggling, her face aghast. "I don't look like a ruffly jacket!" she turns concerned eyes to Susan. "Do I?"

Susan smiles and reaches out her arms to her sister. "Not at all." She holds Lucy by her shoulders, corrects her posture slightly and smiles down at her sister, lifting Lucy's chin with cool fingers. "You look beautiful. In fact, the visiting Prince Corin could not take his eyes off of you, sister!"

Edmund laughs again, "Corin is so young he is impressed by any female who bestows him a smile!"

Lucy sticks her tongue out at Edmund under Susan's arm as she throws herself back on the bed beside Peter in a fit of embarrassment.

"Careful." Susan chides, her eyes sharp on Peter's face as he struggles not to groan at the jostling. "You forget your brother is hurt."

Edmund takes the moment Susan is distracted and Lucy is contrite to cross his eyes and pull a grotesque face at his younger sister in retaliation.

"I saw that," Susan says mildly. Edmund jumps in surprise, as her back has been to him the entire time. Lucy giggles in triumph, but cringes as Susan raises her eyebrows in warning. "And you. No poking your tongue out." Susan softens the chiding with her fingers, gently pushing Lucy's hair back from her forehead.

There's a gentle silence as Edmund makes his way back to his armchair and throws himself into it. Peter thinks Edmund will one day do himself damage the way he throws himself around. He feels Susan's eyes and turns to meet her acute gaze. He sees that she understands that he will heal but also that she is struggling, trying her best to keep them together, their little family, while he is otherwise detained. He squeezes her hand gratefully and she breaks their connection and turns enquiring eyes to Edmund, a wry smile tugging at her mouth

"Well. I was waylaid on my way here by a very excited dwarf who told me my nephew was to be named brackenwingwam or some such –"

She doesn't get to finish because she's set them off again, all three of them. Peter raises his eyes to the ceiling in the hopes that he can stop the chuckles threatening to turn his mild aches into stabbing pains.

Lucy is curled back into his side, one of her hands clasped in Susan's. Susan's other hand is encased within his own grip. Edmund has shucked his shoes and has tucked his feet under Peter's knee, a spot he knows is unhurt.

Peter aches something fierce and he cannot yet talk, but he will not take the cordial. This is all a healing remedy or a painkiller he needs. His strength. His family. He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes in contentment and...

...even though the pain in his chest is enough to make him cry out, there is no air in his lungs to do so. There's something foreign in his side, slicing him open, letting the blood ooze sluggishly. There's a warm, sticky sensation at his temple. There are so many sounds all at once that he can hear nothing and yet his heart beats so heavily that he can feel the throb of it all over. He vaguely thinks he should be panicked, trying to find Lucy and Edmund. Worried that Susan is not here and hasn't been for a while. But there's a roaring in his ears and it sounds all so hauntingly familiar. Peter closes his eyes.

And opens them.