It was not unusual for him to be nervous before a battle. Loving to ponder about the meaning of his existence before something that was to set his fate, Edmund put on his royal armor. Some parts of this war reminded of the past, of the history that seemed to repeat itself even in a place like Narnia. It was not the first time King Edmund The Just was putting on his silver Narnian armor and going to battle. He looked at himself in the mirror, knowing that if he survives this it wouldn't be the last time he looks at himself like this.
On the other side of the Narnian camp, Angelina made her way through the tents in search of Caspian. She still wasn't sure of her abilities, even though she was confident in them. There was no way the witch would win this time, Angelina's mind was set on victory and she wasn't going to let anyone stand in her way.
"Caspian?" She entered the tent, walking into Edmund in the tent instead.
The King was a bit startled, not expecting her to be looking for Caspian, and in his tent too. "He's is on the other side." Edmund smiled a bit.
"All these tents look the same, I can never tell." She shook her head in frustration.
"Well, we are going to plan out the battle for the last time, so Caspian will be here anytime." Edmund fixed his armor in the mirror.
Angelina ran her eyes up and down his body, it scared her how different he looked in his suit of armor. She didn't even realize she was staring until she heard his voice, "anything interesting you see?"
A smirk quickly covered the pale face of the just king and he crossed his arms in front of his chest looking at Angelina and waiting for her excuses.
"You look so different in your armor." She sighed without giving him a smile. He looked more official and determined than he usually did. The bright and happy Edmund was replaced by someone serious, someone who was ready to spill blood.
"I'm supposed to look different. Do you not like it?" Edmund squinted his eyes and tilted his head a bit. She might have been afraid of him, she had never seen him in his armor before.
"Not that I don't like it, it just makes me feel like something bad will happen. Something bad always happens when a good man has to go to war." Angelina took a deep breath and wanted to forget that the battle ever existed. She wanted to be back in the castle with Edmund chasing her down the garden, both trying to express their mixed feelings towards each other.
"How do you know I am a good man? I could be completely rotten inside and never show it to you, I could have a dark side." He spoke with such remorse that it made her think of the things she didn't know about him.
"I know you betrayed your family a long time ago, a very long time ago. Edmund, you are not your mistakes." Angelina tried to encourage him.
He thought for a moment, hanging his head, "I know. However, there are so many things you don't know about me, things you might never even know after this battle." A smile cracked on his face, when he was in pain, Edmund used humor to get by. There was a possibility of him dying, and he was preparing himself more for it than her.
"Don't even talk about that! You will survive this, you will remember to come back no matter what. We are in this battle together and I promise you Edmund Pevensie we will go back to Cair Peravel." She jumped to his side and cupped his face with both her hands, looking deep into his hurt brown eyes. Staring at them for eternity was an easy task, but letting them go was hard.
"And if I don't. If I die. Will you still write me letters?" His smile faded.
Angelina shook her head in disapproval of what he was saying, "as long as there are windows in heaven and paper on this earth, I would write to you every day."
"Good. Besides, I can't imagine going a day without your beautiful words to help me get by." He turned to face the mirror once again.
She walked up behind him and looked at her own reflection next to the tall king, "my words are not that beautiful, I just write what's on my mind."
Edmund turned around to face her, "then your mind is beautiful."
There was a moment in which Edmund Pevensie wanted to lean down and kiss her. He wanted nothing more than to do that, his last wish and resort. However, the entrance of Caspian stopped Edmund from pursuing his wishes. Cursing him under his breath, Edmund moved away from her a little bit, to not alarm anyone.
Angelina quickly grabbed onto Edmund's armor and started fixing it, pretending to be busy while providing them with an excuse and explanation of being this close to each other.
Caspian bowed and Angelina made her way out of the room taking a look at Edmund one last time. It was unspoken, the pain between them two as they looked into each others eyes and prayed that it wouldn't be the last time. Fear covered both their hearts as Angelina left the tent and Edmund lost sight of her.
Her training with Susan was going to start in a few minutes since they had a few hours before the battle. She didn't really want to be around any Pevensie except for Edmund even though there were only two on the battle front.
"Your aim is off, are you distracted?" Susan asked Angelina as the girl held onto the bow very loosely.
Angelina put the bow down, "I'm sorry, you're right, I am distracted."
"Forget about him. Just for now, pretend he doesn't exist." Angelina knew exactly who Susan was talking about.
"How is that even possible? Aren't you worried about Caspian?" She tried to get something out of the cold as stone Susan who at the moment had all her focus on the battle.
The Pevensie girl sighed, "it's hard, but it is doable." She raised her bow up in the air and shot a perfect arrow that landed right in the middle of a tree.
Angelina knew she had to do something to take her mind off of Edmund so she shot her arrow into the tree too which landed right beside Susan's.
"Now you got it," the girl smiled, "let's continue."
Edmund was looking at the small watch on his hand every single second. There was only an hour and twenty minutes left till the battle. His heart raced with worry and then suddenly excitement. He knew that he had to see her and talk to her, he had to embrace her and kiss her especially if it might be their last time. When Caspian explained the final steps to the battle to Edmund and the rest of the leaders, the young king rushed out of the tent in search of Angelina. To him it seemed like his heart raced faster than ever before, and it wouldn't settle until he laid his eyes on her.
The sun lit her face up as she picked up the arrows from the ground, ready to put them into a stack for later. Angelina was focused on her work, not noticing Edmund close behind. He didn't care how to start the conversation in the moment so he decided not to start one at all. Taking her by the hand, Edmund pulled her into the tent in front of them, deep enough for no one to see and close enough for them to quickly get back to camp.
Without explanation, Edmund pushed her up against a wardrobe that had most of the armor in it, and connected their foreheads. Fast breath took over both their bodies. Being lost in the moment, Edmund knew that this was his only chance, perhaps even last, to be completely real with her.
"I'm scared. For the second time in my life, I'm scared of a battle." He chuckled, not yet losing all of his pride.
She grabbed his face with both her hands, "don't be scared, you are King Edmund." All she managed to whisper out, a whisper mixed with sadness and longing. "You will come back, you will come back." She kept repeating as they rocked back and forth in each others arms. She tried to smile, to lighten up the clearly gloomy mood they were both in.
"I can't promise that." He closed his eyes, furrowing his eyebrows, his nose scratching up her cheek to her ear.
"Yes you can, you can promise anything." She desperately tried to get any hope out of him, her fingers naturally tangling themselves in his raven black hair.
Edmund grabbed her by the shoulders and leaned down, "you are impossible." He applied his lips to hers, shutting her up completely. There was pain in his heart and his chest, desperately searching for something to cure it with.
A billion things ran through his mind. He questioned his sanity and if it was the right thing to do. Her soft wet lips didn't seem to move under his and he almost regretted his choices. She never seemed to kiss him back. However, Edmund pushed his doubts and regrets back as he pushed her up against the wardrobe completely and deepened the kiss knowing that it might be the last time he would ever taste her lips.
Finally, her lips started moving against his, taking her out of her shocked state. She didn't want him to let her go, she wanted to forever stay in this moment. He was her fools gold and she was his. No matter what happens there seemed to be distance between them, but neither of them cared at that moment. The kiss that started out with a need, ended with a tender letting go of mixed emotions and emptiness. Perhaps it was the effect of the war on their emotions and the desire to be loved, but neither of them cared.
Edmund let go first, "I'm sorry, but I don't regret anything and I sure as hell don't regret this." He caressed her cheek.
"I don't either. Perhaps one of us does die today, but no matter who it is. I am in love with you Edmund Pevensie." Now she had enough courage to say it first, forgetting that one time she promised to never let a man ever make her feel so vulnerable and real.
"And I, I am completely in love with you. And if time is not the only obstacle between us, I do not want to think of anything else." He felt like he lost a part of his pride as he said those words to her, a part of his pride which was bad.
"I have to confess, I am a horrible man, and you would probably hate me if you knew what I have done and what I think of doing, but I don't care right now, I don't care about who I am." His fear of love seemed to be fading with his pride. Edmund no longer cared about who he was, he cared about who she made him become.
Her curious mind decided to go further, "why were you so afraid of love?"
"Because I thought I was incapable of it. Because I painted a perfect picture of someone in my mind and pursued that for a long time. Let me tell you something Angelina, you have completely destroyed that picture and now I can see what is truly important." As humble as he was, it took him a lot of strength to say that. He too had promised himself to never feel so deeply.
"I hope that the picture I destroyed wasn't important then-" She said, smiling to him and biting her lip gently.
Edmund smiled, "that picture was a mask, an excuse until I found you."
"I don't even understand how you actually fell in love with me of all people?" She shook her head, her insecurities surfacing up.
"Do you have to have an explanation for everything?" Edmund asked connecting their foreheads again.
"I do, so tell me, why me?" She kept insisting.
Edmund sighed, "very well. Because you are a complete opposite of what I expected yet everything I every wanted. You are an impossible figment of my imagination until you become reality. You are the person I cannot completely uncover. You challenge me, you make me seek. You are life itself when it comes to that. It doesn't matter what size you are or what you think you look like, it matters what I see, and I see a pair of blue eyes that keep me sane."
Her mind once again went wondering back to the war, "please don't die. Especially now, after such a perfect speech," she said as she heard men outside shouting that they're ready for battle. The sound of many men marching off to their deaths.
"Please stay with me," Edmund looked at his watch, "for an hour."
"I will, as long as you promise not to talk about war." She managed to smile even though her heart didn't want to.
"We will talk about us." Edmund pulled her down to the ground and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
There was silence in between that strange period. People were waiting on the battle, some were training. Some sat in their tents praying. Others relied more on concentration and thinking. And others, others were in love, so they sat in a lonely tent, far away from people, talking about things that would get their mind off the horrible battle to come, just for a while, just for an hour. He teased her about her hair, and she told him that he was an impossible child who only pretended to act like a stuck up king. In response he would call her a baby, and she'd say, but I am only your baby. Angelina hated the sound of the word and the way people used it excessively in her century, but then she noticed the allure and pleasure of hearing someone call you that. However, Edmund had better ways to call her, he called her love, and darling. With two arms wrapped around her waist, he sat her in between his legs, taking in the perfume on her neck, trying to remember the moment forever. She shivered every time he stuck his nose to her neck, making goosebumps cover her arms.
Edited: 4/22/2020