The Path of the Brave [Edmund Pevensie]

Chapter XIV: To The Death

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?"

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"Edmund, WHAT THE FUCK." That had been her sole thought from the moment she heard him challenge Miraz himself. Still, she waited for them to be far enough away to start disrespecting him. The boy only walked back towards their camp, the victorious smile from seconds ago erased from his face. He didn't answer; he was too concentrated in battle strategy to listen to her. "That was most definitely not the plan!"

"Well, it was mine." He allowed himself to say. "Did you really think I would let my brother--?" He cut his sentence short. Die. He would not let his brother die. Except now it was his own fate.

Alex stopped in the middle of the field. "You could have told me."

He turned. "You would have said no." 

"Of course I would have said no! You idiot..." She murmured, taking a hand to her head. "But we could have thought of something else. Something that did not include you--" She cut her sentence short. Dying. Something that did not include him dying. She tried to keep the idea out of her mind; she wasn't going to give him up for dead yet. "Just...something else."

"Not before war broke out. Not before Lucy and Susan found Aslan." He sighed. "This is the only way." He had been clearly thinking about it a lot. Thinking about how to save his siblings, and Narnia, and her. He sounded like he had... accepted his destiny. 

Which she couldn't stand. And it showed.

Her face displayed a mixture of emotions as she got closer, her boots stomping on the grass. But he could only concentrate in the part of her face which said she was furious.

Edmund expected Alex to punch him. He imagined her pulling a flashlight out of nowhere and knocking him out with it, just like she had done with that one guard back in the Telmarine Castle. Maybe she would stab him with the dagger in her belt, save him the humiliation.

When she was in her final steps to him, Edmund closed his eyes with fear. His eyebrows furrowed expecting it to hurt. 

<< I deserve it. >> He thought, as his imagination played a clip of Alex's fist colliding with his face in his mind.

But it didn't. There was no hit, or curse, or flashlight. Just a hug.

"Your heroic act sucks." She muttered, her words barely being understandable due to her face being hidden in his armour. The knot in her throat wasn't helping either. 

He laughed, finally opening his eyes. It took him a second, but he retrieved the hug. He smelled the forest in her curls, it wasn't half bad. "It kind of does." Edmund answered. It was nice, he could get used to it; the warmth of their bodies, the touch. Yeah, it was alright.