(Untitled)

[highking]

Peter Pevensie enters the bar from the House of Arch, through the magical portrait on the wall. He gets dinner from the bar--a lamb chop and green beans--and sits down with it by one of the windows looking outside. It's really very fine out there, he thinks; maybe he'll take a walk or a ride after he eats.

[ Please read.]

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[awesome_lilly]

Lilly's glancing out the window too, trying to decide if she and Indy might want to escape the Mel-Mike reunion by camping out tonight. She doesn't see Peter, which is just as well.

It's been some time since he was someone she kept an eye out for, after all.

[awesome_lilly]

"And how exactly did you come to that conclusion?" Lilly asks, lifting her chin again.

"By talking to me? By trying? Or did you just decide that dealing with it would be too hard and so clearly, running off was the most kingly choice you could make?"

[highking]

His jaw clenches. "I did try. I tried for months, every way I knew how, to be your friend, but nothing I did was ever right. It always all went, went to shit, just like this."

[awesome_lilly]

"Uh, excuse me?"

Her tone is not exactly polite.

"You tried for months to be my boyfriend, and it went to shit because we don't really define that word the same way."

[highking]

Direct hit.

His face closes up like a stone fortress. "A chap can't help how he feels, Lil. I can't help being in love with you."

[awesome_lilly]

That's not a bad return blow. Lilly takes a deep breath.

"I know you can't always help how you feel, but that doesn't mean you have to act like... I don't know. Some bizarro-world version of the guy who actually used to be my friend as well as in love with me."

[highking]

"I haven't changed, Lilly," he says obstinately. "It's you who pulled away from me. I just let you go. I just stopped chasing."

[awesome_lilly]

"No, you just stopped doing everything," Lilly replies.

"God, it's like you decided being dead meant you had to act like a corpse. You stopped coming to the bar, going anywhere outside of the House of Arch, talking to your friends and from what I hear, you barely even spoke to your family. What happened?"

[highking]

"You," he spits bitterly. "And tonight I came here for the first time in weeks--I was happy! My sister is getting married to my best friend. It was a good night! And then you. Why should I ever bother with this nonsense again?"

[awesome_lilly]

"Me? I'm your problem? You were a king, you faced down witches and armies and ruled a strange country for years, you dealt with a world war in ours, and yet one dead girl in a bar at the end of the universe can ruin your whole afterlife?"

Her hands clench at her sides, knuckles turning white.

"Bullshit. I'm not the problem, Peter. Your self-centered obsession with acting like nothing exists except for you and your misery is the problem and you need to deal with it. I'll give you a hint: remove your head from your ass, look around you, and think about someone other than yourself for a change."

Lilly's on her feet now, glaring at him.

"But that's all you're getting from me till you can behave like something other than a spoiled little brat who broke his favorite toy."

She whirls around, heading for the stairs.

[highking]

For a long furious moment, Peter stands stock still, his only motion a gentle shaking with rage and misery. Then he bursts out the back door into the night air.

Looks like he's going to get that walk outside after all.