hiraeth

fifteen

A/N: chill, wholesome chapter with enne and ed bc I needed it djdhshh

xv. Edmund

To steal or not to steal. That is Edmund's current dilemma as they head west.

The car ride is awkward, to say the least. He sits behind the wheel, tapping his fingers against the surface  and glancing in the rear view mirror every few minutes. Peter and Nia are asleep, with Peter snoring and Nia murmuring in random intervals, which spooks him to no end. Enne keeps her eyes peeled open in the passenger seat for potential threats, holding the map and the compass in her hands.

It had been Peter and Nia's idea to hijack a car (A terrible idea, really. And don't get him started on Enne's driving. Nia had taken over for her and now it was his shift). The thing is, none of them are particularly good drivers, and all Edmund knows is he has to keep his foot on the gas peddle and try not to lead them to death via a ditch.

Luckily, they were on was a long, two lane road that was mostly void of other cars, and although it was incredibly lonely, he was relieved to have time to clear his thoughts.

Except, this only lead to more rumination, and he's stuck between a rock and a hard place because he wants to trust Nia and Enne, but hates feeling like a pawn in a chess game.

He voices this much out loud to Enne, unable to carry the weight of it anymore.

"Go ahead," she says airily. "If you think it's for the best."

Those weren't exactly the words of comfort he had been expecting from her. Enne had been quiet around him since they met, and he initially presumed she was just shy. But she seemed okay around Peter despite having known him for only a little longer. It makes him uncomfortable, kinda, that she doesn't try talking to him. He's not sure why, though.

"What do you mean?" he asks, watching the sun dip below the horizon.

"Steal the compass," Enne clarifies, making intense eye contact with him for a split second. She looks away just as quickly, dangling the chain and said object in front of her. "Try it and tell me how that works out for you."

He knows he won't do it. He knows that she knows he won't do it, and he realizes Enne is messing with him and this makes him both embarrassed and ashamed to have even thought of it in the first place. But she doesn't say "I told you so" when he goes quiet, and he keeps his gaze straight ahead.

"I promise Nia and I have no ill intentions," she emphasizes after a while. "You know it, don't you? You can feel it, too: the four of us are connected through a larger purpose than a random prophecy."

Logically, he understands that part, because all of them losing their memories can't be a coincidence.

No one else denied the possibility of them having been acquaintances before landing waist deep in this mess, but no one jumped on the topic willingly either. He noticed how Nia had snatched glances at Peter like a puzzle she was trying to solve, and Peter did the exact same thing to her when they thought the other wasn't looking. It was awful to watch. Enne had merely nodded at his theory and dipped out of the conversation via zoning out hard.

She was voicing it now, though, for his sake.

He manages a slight nod.

~~~

Edmund doesn't expect to enjoy the rest of the drive, but somehow, talking to Enne feels easy.

They avoid the glaring issue of their impending doom and direct more focus on random topics, mostly to keep each other alert as darkness falls. Admittedly, it took a while for both of them to open up, but they settled into a natural ebb and flow once Edmund brought up his favourite game.