Author's Note: This is my first ever fan fiction. It is VERY much movieverse and follows the plot very closely - the books don't offer much fuel for the Caspian x Edmund pairing. If you are offended with the boy/boy stuff, don't even bother reading. Please read and review - constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged, but flames are not. I've done my best to edit out grammatical errors, but I'm no English major and if you catch anything particularly horrifying please let me know.

None of the characters, ideas, places, etc. belong to me, they belong to C.S. Lewis, Warner Brothers, etc. - I in no way own or have any claim to them. The first part especially is directly from the movie (I feel like it's a good lead in).

~Chapter 1~

Caspian

"Your majesty!"

Tavros' deep voice boomed through Caspian's thoughts as the young King stood contemplating the seven faces that hung on the wall of his cabin.

"Enter!" Caspian called to the minotaur.

"My king!" Tavros burst into the room. "My king, there are people in the water! Children by the looks of it!"

Caspian paused for only a second. Children? In the water? The Dawn Treader was very much at sea – how could children have come to be in the water. Unless… The king sprang to his feet and rushed past the minotaur.

The crew was amassed at the bow of the Dawn Treader. As their king approached, the men parted quickly and looked to Caspian for orders.

"Your majesty!" Reepicheep called down from his perch atop the prow. "There are three of them! If we do not get them out of the water immediately, we shall sail right over them!"

Without a word, Caspian dove gracefully over the edge and plunged into the water. He made after a girl who was floundering in the water and seized her around the waist.

"It's alright!" he reassured her. "I've got you!"

"Caspian!" the girl gasped in delight (or perhaps it was just breathlessness)

"Lucy!" he cried happily. For it was indeed Lucy the Valiant. She grinned broadly at him as he pulled her towards the ship.

"Edmund!" Lucy called towards a dark haired boy who had not yet realized that they were being rescued and was still swimming for his life. "It's Caspian!"

"Are we in Narnia?" spluttered the boy, turning in the water.

"Yes!" Caspian laughed "You're in Narnia!"

A fair-haired boy was protesting loudly and fighting wildly against his rescuer. Caspian raised an eyebrow at Lucy, but she merely laughed.

Back on the sturdy deck of the Dawn Treader, the crew gathered around curiously as Lucy was wrapped in a blanket.

"That was thrilling!" Lucy giggled, looking no worse for the wear at being nearly run over by a ship.

"How in the world did you end up here?" Caspian asked her, accepting a blanket of his own.

"I have no idea," Lucy replied, looking slightly puzzled but no less excited.

"Caspian!" a voice rang out behind them.

The young king turned to behold a young man drenched in sea water but looking quite as happy as Lucy. Whereas Lucy had the same fair hair as their eldest brother, High King Peter the Magnificent, Edmund's dark hair was more like that of Queen Susan's. The Just King had grown in the time since Caspian had last beheld him and he was now nearly as tall as Caspian. Although Edmund was not quite as broad in the shoulders as Peter, he was no longer a scrawny little boy and had an casual, loping grace. He had filled out and was a good deal more handsome than Caspian remembered him being.

"Edmund!" he greeted the younger boy, embracing him warmly and wrapping the blanket about him. "It's great to see you!"

"It's great to see you!" Edmund returned.

"Didn't you call for us?" Lucy asked.

"No," Caspian answered her, just as puzzled as the two Pevensies appeared to be. "Not this time."

"Well," Edmund interjected, grinning widely at Caspian, "Whatever the case, I'm just glad to be here."

For the briefest of seconds, the two kings locked eyes and Caspian caught his breath as a slight shock shot up his spine. Edmund's gaze reminded him very much of the Queen Susan's, and the effect was rather unnerving.

At that moment they were interrupted by a high-pitched shriek and the three of them turned to find the third member of the rescued party struggling with a large mouse. Reepicheep's valiant attempts to aid the boy ended in a magnificent scuffle, a hysterical tirade, and an eventual loss of consciousness upon the boy's first-ever encounter with a minotaur. The ungrateful rescuee, it transpired, was a relative of the Pevensies. Eustace, he was called, and having been on board for less than five minutes he was already giving Caspian a headache. Despite Reepicheep's rather tempting suggestions that they "throw him back", Eustace was left in the care of Tavros.

"Men!" Caspian announced to the crew. "Behold our castaways! Edmund the Just and Lucy the Valiant: High King and Queen of Narnia!"

Edmund and Lucy beamed modestly at the men as they bowed in respect to the king and queen of old. Caspian reflected that despite the fact that they were still quite young (and sopping wet, to boot), they appeared to him every inch the legendary royalty that his tutor had once told him tales of. Lucy held herself with dignity; her eyes were kind, and her smile shone upon her face like the dawn. Edmund stood as nobly as a grown man and had a steady, just gaze.

Caspian shook himself mentally, finding that he had been staring at Edmund a bit longer than was appropriate. Perhaps, he thought, Edmund reminded him all too much of Susan. Realizing that Edmund and Lucy were both looking expectantly at him, Caspian gathered himself and led them off to be properly dried.

Edmund

"He's grown even more handsome," Lucy sighed, gazing at her reflection.

"Beg pardon?" spluttered her brother, shrugging into a vest.

"Caspian!" Lucy said, "He's changed quite a bit."

"Lucy!" Edmund admonished her "That's Caspian you're talking about! Anyhow, I reckon he fancies Susan still, and we're most likely going to be returned to Cambridge soon, and… and… and you're too young to be thinking about boys like that!"

"That's rubbish," Lucy retorted, "You're only a year older than I am! And back home you're always going on about how unfair it is that we're treated like children! Besides, I'm not saying I fancy him; I was only commenting that he's quite good looking."

Edmund shook his head. Girls! Susan was bad enough about boys, not Lucy too!

Lucy was not entirely wrong in her evaluation, though. Caspian had changed, Edmund reflected. Gone was the uncertain prince that the Pevensies had rescued three years prior and in his place stood a king just as magnificent as Peter had ever been. Caspian now held himself with confidence and his noble Telmarine features were indeed quite handsome. His dark eyes were expressive, and at the same time mysterious and unreadable. Upon first being reunited with the older king, Edmund himself had felt a momentary awe.

It was not just Caspian's appearance that had changed either. If the crew of the Dawn Treader was any indication, Caspian was well loved and respected by his subjects. Edmund could not help but feel a stab of jealousy, although he hated himself for it. Here was Caspian, bearing Peter's sword and ruling a country. The contrast to Edmund's life in England where he was treated as a child and a burden was not slight.

This jealousy was not an entirely new feeling to him. Although he had never truly resented Peter for holding the position of High King, Edmund had felt slightly envious of his older brother on more than one occasion. These episodes had mostly occurred in the early years of their reign, and as time went on Edmund had accepted his role and buried those feelings.

Edmund squared his shoulders and followed Lucy, who was making impatient noises at him. He knew all too well that emotions such as jealousy and spite could lead to terrible ends and had long ago resolved to never again allow them to control him.

Caspian

Once dry and clothed, the Pevensies joined King Caspian in his cabin. Lucy was delighted in having her cordial and dagger returned to her once more. Caspian had thought Edmund would be just as pleased to see that the relics of the Golden Age had been kept safe, but instead Edmund became rather stoic upon seeing Peter's sword, Rhindon.

"It's yours. Peter gave it to you," Edmund said when Caspian tried to hand the sword to him, and Caspian detected an edge in his voice.

A strange look had flickered across the younger boy's face like a shadow. Did Edmund resent the fact that Peter had chose to present his sword to Caspian rather than to him? That hardly made sense. Edmund had left with Peter; he could not possibly have expected to receive the sword. Perhaps Edmund considered Caspian unworthy of carrying Rhindon? Caspian decided to let the matter pass, and indeed thought that it might have been a figment of his imagination or a trick of the light… or maybe it was his own insecurities that had caused him to misinterpret Edmund's reaction.

In an effort to lighten the moment, Caspian pulled out Edmund's strange flameless lantern that had been left behind.

"I did save this for you though," he grinned at Edmund as he tossed him the lantern.

The moment having passed, the old friends then turned their attention to the current situation. Lucy and Edmund were quite impressed to learn that Caspian had brought peace across Narnia in the time that they had been absent. He told them of his quest to discover the fate of his father's exiled friends, whose faces were the ones that hung on his wall. There was still no clue as to why the younger Pevensies had returned to Narnia, but they all trusted that a reason would be revealed in time and were happy of it for whatever reason.