the passionate

crushes blooming and meeting trumpkin

Attempting to avoid looking like a tomato in the face, I quickly left the two in the room, finding the boys leant up against a tree nearby. I made my way towards them, the sound of my footsteps on the grass catching their attention. Peter snapped his head in my direction and acknowledged my new outfit with a nod and an approving look.

"Not too bad, Shay. You fit into Narnia pretty nicely. Are the girls done changing yet?" The blonde king questioned. I gave him a small nod, making him smile in relief, patting Edmund on the shoulder. "Thanks. We should change, Ed." And he strutted into the room of chests, literally leaving his brother behind.

Speaking of, he hasn't said a single word since I walked out here.

I turned my gaze towards him, only to find his brown eyes already on me. His head was tilted as he kept his stance against the tree, his eyes narrowed in thought and a hint of a smile on his lips. I raised an eyebrow at him and tapped his shoulder, snapping him out of whatever trance he was in.

"What is it, love?"

Fuck. So much for not blushing over this boy.

"What did you just call me, Edmund?" I kept up a small smirk, despite the internal screaming that was going on in my head. That was single handedly the easiest way to cement me falling in love with him all over again, just in person.

It didn't help that he was insanely adorable when he found out his slip up, his freckled face holding a light pink dusting as he scratched the back of his head with the most innocent look in his eyes. "I'm sorry, is it okay if I call you that? If it makes you feel any better, that's just a common term people use in England when referring to others."

I'm not an absolute idiot, and I know he's lying, but I'm gonna let him have this because it's Edmund.

I nodded at him, my smirk becoming a gentle and reassuring smile. "Yeah, that's fine. I honestly didn't mind it, I was just curious as to why," I explained, halfway honestly. But it's not like I'm going to tell him that I've been dreaming of this man to look me in the eyes and call me that since I was a little kid. He'd think I'm insane.

Edmund shrugged, looking me up and down for a moment before speaking. "Honestly, you look good in Narnian clothing. It suits you." The genuine smile on his face gave me butterflies, helping absolutely no one in this situation. Before I could respond, the sound of approaching footsteps made me turn and the dark-haired king looked over my shoulder. At the sight of Lucy and Susan, I mentally groaned since these two probably saw at least a little bit of our interaction and are definitely going to tease me for it.

Susan walked over and grabbed Edmund, gently pulling him from his relaxed position against the tree. "Peter is already done changing, Ed. You need to hurry up so we can get going soon," she said both softly and sternly, and I'm impressed that she can pull that off. Then again, it's Susan Pevensie, and I know better than to question a goddess such as she.

The boy nodded at his sister with a small sigh and nodded at the three of us before heading down the stairs to change. As soon as he was out of sight, the two queens turned to me with the biggest smirks on their faces. I simply shook my head no with the coldest glare I could muster, and they looked between each other before dropping it. I appreciated it immensely, since I didn't want to get grilled about Edmund every single time we had a damn interaction.

Like, I don't mind sometimes, and it would be nice to have a girl talk, but this is gonna be a long trip if they're not gonna give me a moment of peace.

Not even five minutes later, the kings emerged in their own outfits. We all started walking, and I'm guessing that they were just following paths that they recognized, because there was no discussion on where we were headed. For that reason, I stayed in the very back. Pros being I wasn't getting lost and I could admire Edmund shamelessly. Cons being that if anyone decided to attack from behind, I'd be the first to die.