Fic: Hope Is Everything
Title: Hope Is Everything
Author: fadedpresence
Fandom: Narnia
Characters/Pairing: Susan/Caspian, Peter
Rating: G
Word Count: 632 words
Summary: Susan waits for Narnia (Post-PC, movie-verse)
Notes: I have never written any Narnia before, so I hope it's okay *eep* It's been a while since I've written anything besides Twilight. Also unbeta'd. Comments are appreciated.
Days tick by.
Weeks tick by.
Months tick by.
And no matter how many times Susan finds her fingers tracing the shapes of the brickwork, the portal just doesn’t open. Will not open. Refuses.
The 8:15 train rushes past, filled with proud businessmen and nurses in training.
Nothing.
The 9:30 train flies through the tunnel, leaving nothing more than matching bricks on the other side.
No beaches. No magic. No Narnia.
She unwraps a sandwich and takes a bite. With all her waiting in the past, she knows that her hunger picks up around ten. Some mornings she’ll get a feeling and she’ll raid the kitchen for food to hide between books and an extra sweater. While other Pevensies sleep, Susan weaves through crowds and claims her bench at the station. Everything rests on that feeling.
Hope is everything.
When the 10:45 barrages past her, swirling her hair and stilling her breath, she’s still waiting.
Noon, 1:30, 2:15, 3:45, 4:00…
Girls do silly things for love, nobody can argue that.
“I saw the way he looked at you,” Lucy had spoken with gleaming eyes. The idea of love to Lucy was a mesh of held hands and stolen smiles, but perhaps an innocent’s view of love was better than anyone else’s. And yes, Susan had seen the way he’d look at her, too.
Sometimes the waiting stretches past supper time.
When those same nurses and businessmen return in the evening, their faces still proud and expressions drooping, she scuffs her feet against the hard concrete.
Another day gone. Another day waiting.
A hand presses to her shoulder, gentle and soft.
“Su…” says Peter, his tone sad and a little too pitiful for her liking.
“I know, I know…” Susan breathes outwards, not daring to meet his eyes. She’s afraid of what she’ll find there. He no longer brings Edmund and Lucy to search for her, and she’s grateful for that. They still have a chance to return… to live… to see…
It’s wrong, but sometimes when a day has been good, she can’t bring herself to look at them.
She knows Peter misses it, too… but he misses other things… things that don’t rest on the shoulders of love or something like it. Susan misses warmth, blushing cheeks and muted giggles over words that wouldn’t be important on other people’s lips.
She misses horseback rides at extreme speeds, arms clinging on to the waist of someone that isn’t her brother. She misses strong hands over hers, hearing battle cries, and hoping that they’ll live so they can just be.
The smiles, the laughs, the touches, the broken words… the… kiss… what they could’ve been all put together.
A romance? A frown dashes her face at the thought, only because she can never have it.
“I miss it, too,” Peter says for the thousandth time. “But we can never go back.”
She feels him sit beside her, but she looks in the opposite direction. Peter’s arm drapes over her shoulders and the weight of it almost feels invasive, heavy. He’s trying to be kind, but his attempt at comfort only threatens to bring her to tears.
Susan creases her lips together, tighter, fighting.
“Perhaps it’s all my fault,” she finally manages, her voice thick and struggling. “If I had never shown interest in Caspian… shown feelings for him… then maybe we’d be allowed back.”
It’s the only explanation she’s been able to come up with.
“Our time has passed, Susan,” Peter says, always rational and always a follower of the rules. Susan hates the way his voice sounds when he channels Aslan and adopts that tone of pride. She can scarcely stand it.
“No,” she challenges, meeting his eyes. “I wanted a boy to notice me. That’s my crime. What’s yours?”
Author: fadedpresence
Fandom: Narnia
Characters/Pairing: Susan/Caspian, Peter
Rating: G
Word Count: 632 words
Summary: Susan waits for Narnia (Post-PC, movie-verse)
Notes: I have never written any Narnia before, so I hope it's okay *eep* It's been a while since I've written anything besides Twilight. Also unbeta'd. Comments are appreciated.
Days tick by.
Weeks tick by.
Months tick by.
And no matter how many times Susan finds her fingers tracing the shapes of the brickwork, the portal just doesn’t open. Will not open. Refuses.
The 8:15 train rushes past, filled with proud businessmen and nurses in training.
Nothing.
The 9:30 train flies through the tunnel, leaving nothing more than matching bricks on the other side.
No beaches. No magic. No Narnia.
She unwraps a sandwich and takes a bite. With all her waiting in the past, she knows that her hunger picks up around ten. Some mornings she’ll get a feeling and she’ll raid the kitchen for food to hide between books and an extra sweater. While other Pevensies sleep, Susan weaves through crowds and claims her bench at the station. Everything rests on that feeling.
Hope is everything.
When the 10:45 barrages past her, swirling her hair and stilling her breath, she’s still waiting.
Noon, 1:30, 2:15, 3:45, 4:00…
Girls do silly things for love, nobody can argue that.
“I saw the way he looked at you,” Lucy had spoken with gleaming eyes. The idea of love to Lucy was a mesh of held hands and stolen smiles, but perhaps an innocent’s view of love was better than anyone else’s. And yes, Susan had seen the way he’d look at her, too.
Sometimes the waiting stretches past supper time.
When those same nurses and businessmen return in the evening, their faces still proud and expressions drooping, she scuffs her feet against the hard concrete.
Another day gone. Another day waiting.
A hand presses to her shoulder, gentle and soft.
“Su…” says Peter, his tone sad and a little too pitiful for her liking.
“I know, I know…” Susan breathes outwards, not daring to meet his eyes. She’s afraid of what she’ll find there. He no longer brings Edmund and Lucy to search for her, and she’s grateful for that. They still have a chance to return… to live… to see…
It’s wrong, but sometimes when a day has been good, she can’t bring herself to look at them.
She knows Peter misses it, too… but he misses other things… things that don’t rest on the shoulders of love or something like it. Susan misses warmth, blushing cheeks and muted giggles over words that wouldn’t be important on other people’s lips.
She misses horseback rides at extreme speeds, arms clinging on to the waist of someone that isn’t her brother. She misses strong hands over hers, hearing battle cries, and hoping that they’ll live so they can just be.
The smiles, the laughs, the touches, the broken words… the… kiss… what they could’ve been all put together.
A romance? A frown dashes her face at the thought, only because she can never have it.
“I miss it, too,” Peter says for the thousandth time. “But we can never go back.”
She feels him sit beside her, but she looks in the opposite direction. Peter’s arm drapes over her shoulders and the weight of it almost feels invasive, heavy. He’s trying to be kind, but his attempt at comfort only threatens to bring her to tears.
Susan creases her lips together, tighter, fighting.
“Perhaps it’s all my fault,” she finally manages, her voice thick and struggling. “If I had never shown interest in Caspian… shown feelings for him… then maybe we’d be allowed back.”
It’s the only explanation she’s been able to come up with.
“Our time has passed, Susan,” Peter says, always rational and always a follower of the rules. Susan hates the way his voice sounds when he channels Aslan and adopts that tone of pride. She can scarcely stand it.
“No,” she challenges, meeting his eyes. “I wanted a boy to notice me. That’s my crime. What’s yours?”