safety pin • Edmund Pevensie #Wattys2019 [✔️]

twelve

[twelve: without me]

From the gate a pathway once gravelled, but now almost overgrown with grass, led up through a fair-sized lawn to a long, one-storied cottage, stoutly built, the windows and door of which were faced with stone, which, like that of the piers, was also stained with lichen. The grass, pushed itself high over the threshold of the door and almost reached the windowsills. The slates on the roof appeared to be nearly all perfect, but were covered with brown or grey patches of moss or lichen. A few of the slates had fallen away and exposed part of a rafter. The abandoned house stood in a composed way, as if it had chosen solitude for itself, as if residents were a luxury it could forgo. The floors had been a highly polished parquet, individual blocks lovingly placed and sanded to a smooth finish before the varnish was brushed on with fine bristles. The walls stood firm, the window frames strong, glass triple glazed and whole. All in all, it looked like a movie-set, a place waiting for life to come. The only give-away was the odour, well, that and the dust. It was musty and dry, but nothing opening the doors and windows couldn't solve. A good clean, some fresh flowers, perhaps the house would enjoy the luxury of company.

Genevieve ran her hand over the kitchen wall tiles, each one of them a smooth horizontal glass bar about two pencils thick. Perhaps pulled away from the wall they would be translucent, perhaps they would cast the irrepressible sunlight into the seaside tones they were. The deepest of them was like driftwood, another was the same hue as the sand at Cair Paravel which made Genevieve's heart plummet at the thought of her previous home.

Genevieve heard a loud thud and she quickly turned around and walked into the hallway to see Edmund collapsed on the floor, his hair all tangled and a silly look on his face. Genevieve giggled as she walked towards him, lightly kicking him in the shin as she watched his chest rise and fall. Genevieve watched as he tried to hold in a smile but ultimately failed as he opened his eyes and gave her a cheeky look as he admired her from afar.

He admired everything about her, from the way the breeze blew her hair to the soft British lilt to her voice. To him she looked like some kind of water sprite. But what really made him fall head over heals for her was the way she dealt with his problems as well as her own. She put them at ease better than any medication ever would. She truly was a miracle in his eyes. Seeing Genevieve was distracted, Edmund sat up and pulled Genevieve down into his embrace, causing an inhuman squeak to sound from her lips making Edmund laugh. Genevieve swatted his hands away before finding herself laughing along with him as they looked around the small cottage with smiles on their faces.

"Do you think we did the right thing by leaving?" Genevieve asked Edmund who looked at her in confusion before placing his hands around her waist and buried his head into her shoulder, making Genevieve shiver due to feeling his hot breath on her neck.

"I do," Edmund admitted before turning Genevieve around so he could look her in the eye. "Do you think we did the right thing?"

"I think we did the right thing for us but I can't help but feel guilty." Genevieve stated and Edmund looked at her in confusion for a moment before replying.