GOLDEN SUN - P. PEVENSIE

I. iv. HYPNOTIC

ACT I SCENE iv: HYPNOTIC
PETER

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After a week of doing his best to remain sane, Peter was beginning to think he was finally losing it.

    Aelia Ghrian had taken over his every thought, even more so after the night at the pub. She had been so bold, nearly outdrinking him and speaking to him as if he was just another man who found her attractive and not her king. And he had been bold as well, drinking from her drink and letting her stare at him without checking her. He was not nearly drunk enough to excuse his behavior. Susan knew this, and heard her own rumors of the night through the grapevine. She had been giving him the silent treatment and had taken the letters back into her care. He hadn't been to visit her to apologize out of fear of running into Aelia.

    He wasn't afraid of the girl - she was hardly something to fear. The idea of running into her after the night at the pub was what scared him. He didn't know how he was supposed to act in front of her after that. He wasn't sure exactly how drunk she had been, either; what if she didn't remember anything and he was worrying himself sick over nothing? What if she remembered it all and wished for a second attempt? What if she was as mortified as he was and they could both go on and pretend nothing had happened at all?

    "You need help. Go talk to Tumnus," Edmund drawled from Peter's bed. He had welcomed himself into his brother's rooms hours before and sprawled out on the bed as Peter paced about and answered whatever letters Susan hadn't been able to carry from his chambers. He felt awful for making her uncomfortable and like he was encroaching on her friendship with her maid. He felt even worse because he wanted to talk to himself to figure out what to say to either of the women he feared seeing and his brother was intruding on his personal space by simply existing in the same room as him.

    "Will you please leave me alone?" Peter demanded, turning to look at Edmund. He had this smug smile across his face that made Peter want to practice for when he and Anatoly inevitably went at it again. There she was again- Aelia was taking up a permanent residence in his mind! It was simply unfair. "I have things to do that do not involve accepting snarky comments from my little brother."

    "How about from your little sister?" Lucy called from the doorway, Tumnus close on her heels. One was never anywhere without the other. "And what does Peter need to talk to Tumnus about, Edmund?"

"Ah, that happens to be a question for Peter and not me."

    Peter sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

    "You need not tell me anything you do not wish, your highness," Tumnus said meekly, looking at Peter from behind Lucy.

    "Thank you, Tumnus. You seem to be the only one in the palace who can respect someone's privacy," he said pointedly, looking at his siblings.

    "Aelia is respecting your privacy very well," Edmund commented dryly. Peter's head shot to look at him as Lucy gasped. "Oh..."

"Aelia? As in Susan's Aelia?" she demanded incredulously. At Peter's lack of response, she started shaking her head. "Oh, Peter...you can't..."

    "I am not!" he thundered, walking to his window and throwing it open. "Nothing has happened, and I'm almost entirely certain nothing will happen in the future. It is a passing fancy, that is all. We could never be together."

    "Together?!"

    Peter groaned again as Susan's voice sounded from his doorway next. At this rate, his parents would soon appear in Narnia and start berating him for his attraction to Aelia. He turned to face her fury and saw she instead looked sad. She had never looked this disappointed in him before.