[fic] high time (try to feel okay) [narnia] [susan and peter]

title: high time (try to feel okay)
author: bantha_fodder
fandom: narnia
rated: no sex, but there are incesty themes, so rate that how you see fit.
i do not own anything herein.

For Plastics.

With thanks to Miss Liz.

And with a lot of love to Sloane, who set me on this path in the first place.

Then, after a bit, Susan came down the tree. She and Peter felt pretty shaky when they met and I won't say there wasn't kissing and crying on both sides. But in Narnia no one thinks any the worse of you for that.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

***

Susan reaches across the table. "Peter," she says, "Will you pass the salt?"

When their fingers brush, she shivers.

*

Susan leaned back in her throne as the emissaries filed out. "Brother," she said, "None of them please me."

Peter looked at her and frowned. "Sister," he said, "Not here," and Lucy laughed at Susan's mistake. Lucy was not a cruel girl, nor a mean one, although seeing her laughing at her sister's mistake could make one think she was. She laughed because they all found the task at hand distasteful, and they needed the levity.

Selecting a husband for Queen Susan was important. The wrong husband could create war between Narnia and neighbouring countries; the right husband could create strong new alliances and trading partners, and secure Narnia's position for many years to come.

Susan did not want a husband at all, and as the Kings and Queens of Narnia swept out of the Great Hall, she bit her lip and in her head she listed the reasons why she did not wish to marry any of the day's supplicants.

Susan threw herself into a chair in Peter's study. "I hate them all!" she cried, and Edmund smiled.

"Any particular reason?" he asked.

"Because they're breathing," said Lucy, and she was not wrong,

"I don't want to leave Narnia!" said Susan, and met Peter's eyes. "No country could be home to me but this one."

"Sister," said Peter, as he rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, comfortingly. "Calm yourself. I will never let you leave Narnia." Susan rested her own hand on his and smiled.

Susan's trust in her brother was not misplaced, for she knew he would find a way.

*

Peter sprawls on the couch in the library, leafing through a novel he's never read before. Beside him, Susan lies, using his shoulder as a pillow as she reads aloud to Lucy. On the floor, Edmund draws.

Their mother leans against the door frame. "It's nice to have you home," she says, and Lucy smiles at her.

"It smells different," says Lucy, and Edmund throws a pencil at her.

"You just miss the perfumes," he sneers, and as their mother scolds him for throwing pencils, Susan meets Peter's eyes.

"You must be missing words to be reading that so fast," interrupts their mother, and Susan looks away.

*

King Peter took audience without his siblings, and the emissaries muttered amongst themselves until the Faun Tumnus called for silence.

"My sisters," said the King, "felt it was too nice a day to be inside, and my brother went with them to see they did not get lost."

When the emissaries spoke, he listened attentively, as befit the High King of Narnia, and sent them on their way without accepting any offer.

Each kingdom wanted Queen Susan to come to their country far away, and the Queen Susan was not going to leave Narnia.

*

Peter finds her in the darkness of the front room, kneeling on the settee, chin resting on her arms as she looks out the window.

"Susan," Peter says, "Come away from there."

His candle splutters out, and he watches her silhouette in the moonlight.

Susan rests her head until it's horizontal, and for a moment he wonders if she's gone to sleep.

"Peter," she says, and her voice is low, honey-filled, and he is reminded of long, golden days and long, soft nights, scented with perfumes and filled with songs and his heart misses Narnia and all that came with it. "Peter," she repeats, and pats the seat beside her. "You always make the darkness go away."

So he sits beside her, and in the silence, they remember who they are.

She is just as soft as he remembers.

*

"Thank you, Peter," said Susan, and she flung herself into his arms.

"Susan," he admonished, "You are lucky it is just us here. Queens should be more respectful, more calm." He smiled at her after, though, and she looked away, knowing he was only teasing.

"We had the most wonderful afternoon," she said. "Lucy has been learning to play the pipes, and when she played for us it was all so jolly that Edmund could not help but get up to dance!" Susan laughed.

"I can see you had a lot of fun without me."

Susan gripped his arms and shook her head. "Don't think we did not miss you," she said, earnestly, "Because we did. It is never the same without you. The four of us should always be together."

"Yes," said Peter, "The four of us should."

*

Susan goes out late, and when she comes home the sun is almost rising. Her mother raises her voice. "I don't know what you're up to," she says, "But it's unacceptable."

"You will never understand," yells Susan, and Peter wonders how she is getting the money for dresses and lipsticks.

He would ask, but she avoids him, and he cannot pretend that he does not know why.

Lucy puts her hand on Peter's shoulder, and he turns to her. She shakes her head, and when he turns back Susan has stormed up the stairs, alone as always.

*

When the High King Peter married Queen Susan, the whole of Narnia celebrated for five days and five nights. They danced during the day and long into the night, and when they fell into their beds they dreamed of dancing and drinking and honouring the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, and when they woke up they did it all again.

The only things Narnians love more than weddings are babies, but they knew there would be none of those.

*

In class, Elizabeth drops a note by Susan's hand as she walks past. George from next door wants to ask you out, it says, and Susan crumples it up; drops it in the bin to hide the evidence.

When he asks, she says yes, and as they walk down the street she watches the curtains twitch.

She laughs.

*

My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."
The Last Battle

END.



endnote: from Tris' prompt: Susan and Peter marry in Narnia, because it is okay there, and then they come home and they forget. Only they don't.