(Untitled)

[called_lioness]

Some days Lucy can't deal with her husband.

It's not a fault on either of their parts, and it's not to imply that she's angry with him, because she's certainly not

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[iustus_rex]

Edmund steps out of his painting

(a young boy (Arch) holds a baby (Ingress), his opal-colored eyes round and green with astonishment. "I was never this small," he declares firmly to his mother. "Or smelly."

She only laughs, and smooths a hand over his hair.)

and (only blinking a little) into the kitchen. He left a book here, on the table -- well, maybe on the counter -- okay, somewhere in this room, he's pretty certain, except --

Oh, dash it all, no, he left it in the living room instead.

[called_lioness]

He did.

Lucy's tears stop the moment she hears the first footstep and her breathing steadies the next moment as she bends a bit more over her tea and wipes at her eyes.

[iustus_rex]

She's left the lights mostly off, but that's not entirely, and Edmund hesitates just inside the painting.

"I say--" he starts, and then his tone changes abruptly to something both sharper and quieter with, "Lu?"

[called_lioness]

"Hullo, Ed."

Even voice. Even, and focusing on tea.

"Would you like tea?"

[iustus_rex]

"Ta," he says, after only a brief moment.

"I'd love some, if you've another cup."

They've done this before, many a time -- more often with him the one sitting in darkness or staying out half the night, but not always. The first trick is always to figure out just what sort of night it is.

[called_lioness]

"I've that and biscuits, even."

She hasn't touched the latter, and she's careful, when she pours for Edmund, not to let him see her face too clearly.

She's certain her eyes are red.

[iustus_rex]

He doesn't really need to see her face to guess, though in this light it's hard to be certain.

"Ta," he says again when she lifts the teapot from pouring, and settles onto the couch next to her to accept his cup.

There's silence as he takes a careful sip of the tea, slurping a little against the heat of it in a bad habit he only lets slip around siblings, and lowers his cup again to the saucer.

Softly, "All right there, Lu?"

[called_lioness]

"Not really," she says after a minute.

She's silent as she shifts and rests her head on his arm, just sitting for a few minutes.

"I quarreled with someone. I think it was a quarrel, at any rate. It didn't go very well."

[iustus_rex]

Edmund slips his arm around her shoulders in a loose half-hug.

Softly, "Wouldst speak of it, sister?"

Narnian courtliness can signal many things, among the Pevensies. Formality. Gravity. Exercise of authority.

Or, after so many years as children in England: it's just us. Nobody else is listening.

[called_lioness]

"I find myself questioning things, brother," she says after a pause, "I once simply knew. Or thought I did."

She sets the cup down enough to curl more against him.

Sometimes Lucy looks much younger than others.

"Can love be wrong?" is what she finally asks.

[iustus_rex]

Edmund breathes in, and out, and says nothing for a few moments.

"It hurts, sometimes," he says finally. "Afterwards, or what's done with it or for it. But I don't think it's ever wrong."

"Love is Aslan's."

[called_lioness]

"I know."

Only that, as her fingers trace around her neck for a moment.

"A man asked me tonight what right I had to make someone love me here. And I thought I knew the answers to give him, but now I wonder if I was wrong."

[iustus_rex]

"Thou, fair sister," Edmund says softly, "hast never made any love thee. It comes naturally."

"It's no question of rights. You forced no one to feel anything but what he felt in his heart."

He's guessing wrong about who this loving person might be, but knowing that Archibald meant Mary wouldn't change Edmund's cold contempt for him right now.

(Edmund is the tiniest bit protective of his sisters.)

[called_lioness]

"Thou, dear brother," she says with a small smile, "hast ever been biased."

She sighs and turns her cup a few times anyway.

"I know. And I ache anyway. And wonder if I was wrong to not leave when I first thought of it."

It's slow as she speaks, and thoughtful.

"Love is so simple and makes so much sense. It's everything else that confuses me."

[iustus_rex]

Edmund acknowledges his bias with a faint smile, but no more. (He admits he's biased; he also considers himself correct.)

"What else is it?"

Not clearly phrased, but his tone helps that.

[called_lioness]

"I--Milliways. All the in-betweens. Selfishness and taking care of self and where the difference lies. Why I'm sad and why I want. I don't know," Lucy shrugs, lifting a hand to absently bite at the thumbnail.

"I don't want to hurt anyone, and I will anyway when I leave."