𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙙 (edmund pevensie x reader)

X. Killing Two Birds With The Same Vengeful Stone

"Night." I say, furrowing my eyebrows at the odd exchange. And so we go to sleep.

—

The next morning is spent cooped up in our room, with several cups of tea and talk of a mastermind plan.

"Okay, so we know we need to get to the mountain." I say, and Ed nods. "And we know this will take a while."

"Yes."

"That's...it. That's all we know."

"Great, we are right on track." He smarts sarcastically.

"All we have to do is come up with a good excuse for leaving for that long of a time and then we're good, I don't know what you're so stressed about."

"No matter what excuse we use, Peter will still think it's strange that you and I have been wanting to spend so much quality time together."

"I know." I sigh. And then a fraction of an idea pops into my head. I furrow my eyebrows, trying to fully grasp the thought before it leave my brain altogether, "I know!" I pipe up when I realize something that just might work.

"What?"

I search for the right sentence, something to summarize my thoughts perfectly and get the point across. "Group camping trip!" Okay, yeah, that sounded a lot better before I said it out loud.

He squints at me, "Care to elaborate on that a little bit?"

I scratch my head, "The best way to make sure that Peter isn't suspicious of us leaving all the time, is to invite everyone on a group camping trip. Including him. We can hike up the mountain together, camp overnight. And when we get to the top, me and you will sneak off to retrieve the feather." He stays silent , "You don't have to say it Edmund, I know it's genius."

Edmund smiles, "It's not bad."

"It's good."

"It would be good—if we also had a good reason for inviting everyone on a group camping trip. I mean, I've never done anything like that. It would be completely random. Still suspicious."

He has me there. Well, almost. Because then another fraction pops into my brain, the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone.

"How about...I talk to Peter," Bird #1: make Edmund jealous, "And present him the idea." Bird #2: set the plan into motion.

His lips tip up in a foreign, forced smile, and I can tell by the lash of anger in his eyes that my stone has already hit bird #1. I can also tell that he knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that this is the only way to go about it.

The smile tightens, "Good idea. Yeah, that's smart." He takes a great, gulping sip of his tea.

"Okay, great. I'll just get ready and go pay him a visit right now, then." I stand up and smooth out my robe, eying him for a reaction.

He just shrugs and offers a cold response, "Hope your plan works." Oh. It already is.

—
I knock on the thick oak door three times nefire it carefully inches open.

"Y/N? What a lovely surprise. Need to come in?"

"Yeah, actually." I smile at the blonde-headed king, who opens the door wider and lets me into his chambers. I rehearsed what I would say the entire walk across the palace, and it's now time to put it to good use.

"How are you this morning?"

"Great. I slept really well, and, I actually came to talk about this idea I had last night." I say as we sit down on one of his couches, turning to face each other.

"I, uh,  actually have something to talk to you about, too." Something like guilt washes over his features so quickly I almost miss it, "But you go first."

I smile and compose myself, ready to put on a performance. "So, you know how Edmund and I took that trip the other day?"

"Of course."

"Well, while we were traveling I saw so many beautiful things. Things I had never seen growing up here." This is somewhat true, so I throw a little extra wonderment into my eyes to make it all the more believable, "It made me realize how little of this country I actually know." Peter nods sympathetically as I speak.

"To get to the point: I want to go on another trip, with everyone, Me, Edmund, Lucy, Susan, you, Caspian." I pause and think of something to add to steer him into the direction of the mountain, "And well, kind of embarrassing," I pretend to laugh nervously, "But I always wanted to climb a mountain when I was younger. I could have dreamed up anything I wanted, But climbing a mountain seemed like the best accomplishment I could ever have. It seemed so... freeing compared to how my life was then." I blink tears into my eyes, giving Peter the best of my acting abilities.

He is buying all of this, taking it in with a sweet look and sad smile. "I think that's a great idea. We could do Mount Archon. It's only a few miles West of here. Really beautiful. It would take a couple days to climb of course, we would need to camp out."

I burst out into a smile, disguising it as my sheer excitement at the thought of completing a childhood dream. I try to distract myself from the fact that I actually feel bad for using Peter like this by lunging forward and hugging him tightly around the neck. "Thanks! Could you invite everyone or should I?"

I pull away from the hug and he looks slightly uncomfortable, "I'll invite them, don't worry. And uh...about what I needed to tell you...."

"Sure. Go ahead." I say, my jaw almost sore from the smile on my face.

"I don't like...whatever this is." He gestures between us, and frowns "Whatever we have going on here. Our relationship."

No. No, no, no, no. "What?" I ask, smile gone and eyes wide. "Peter, what are you talking about? I thought we—"

"I—I'm going to be honest. I like you. Really, really do, actually. But it's wrong. You're married to my brother..." The emotions I feel are unexplainable. I feel panicked at the fact that I may no longer have means of making Edmund jealous, I also feel a deep sadness at the fact that Peter is one of the only people left who openly shows affection for me. I can't lose this yet.

"Peter." I cut off whatever he has been saying while I think, "Edmund is cheating on me. Has been since the day we met. There is no love in our relationship. Not even like." I hate that I have to lie. "We've started to get along a little...but it's nothing like how you and I are. I know it's wrong, but so is everything else! We might as well just accept it. Don't end this before it's even started." I plead with him, and at some point it's hard to tell when I'm pretending and when I really want him that much.

He nods then, his eye wide and searching. He understands, I realize.

Before I know what I'm doing, my hands are tangled in his hair and his lips are on mine. And then my back is hitting the couch and we're still kissing, deep and feverish.

"We'll get through this." He whispers against me.

A terrible sense of guilt swallows me whole. He thinks this is all for him.