Story [Narnia] Touches of Restoration (Edmund Pevensie Oneshot for Monday Mush Mania)

Title: Touches of Restoration

Fandom: Narnia

Author: devilinthedetails

Genre: Mush; Family; Drama.

Characters: Edmund; Aslan; Peter; Lucy; Susan.

Summary: Edmund and all the touches that assure him that he is restored to his family.

Author's Note: Written for the Monday Mush Mania Challenge #11-Just a Touch. This seemed like the perfect moment to write about for me because I have always loved that brother and sister hug between Lucy and Edmund.

Touches of Restoration

Edmund and Aslan stood on the summit of a rocky ridge outside the camp. Although he had eyes and ears only for Aslan, feeling humbled and transfixed in the presence of this Great Lion he had betrayed who was now speaking to him so softly like the whisper of the wind and not a rumble of thunder, he could still sense Peter emerging from the tent where he had slept while Edmund had been rescued.

Staring at him with arrows of judgment and cautious consideration that lodged in Edmund’s back, neck, and shoulders. Stabbing him repeatedly with grief and guilt for everything that had been lost between them--everything that could never be the same because he was a traitor and a bad brother--but not inflicting a mortal wound.

A heartbeat later, he could feel, as if Aslan’s presence alone made him more sensitive, heightened his awareness of and connection to his siblings, his sisters coming out of their tent.

If he hadn’t been able to feel their emergence, he would have known of their awakening from slumber because Lucy chose to announce it with the cry of sheer delight in his return and unthinking forgiveness of his crime that could only come from someone as young, pure, and innocent as her. “Edmund!”

He looked over at her. Saw her about to run to him. About to hug him. Saw her captured in Peter’s lightly restraining arm and guided back. Saw her shooting Peter a confused glance before she understood that Edmund was having a private moment with Aslan that it wouldn’t be right for her to interrupt.

Right. Edmund found himself stumbling over the word like a boulder in his path. One could always rely on Peter to know and do what was right. To judge others for not doing right. For wandering off the right way that was so obvious to him but sometimes so clouded to others who just got confused and lost. Maybe it was something innate to overbearing big brothers. That natural sense of right and wrong. That intuitive judgment of everything under the bright sun and wheeling stars.

Edmund felt his own gaze seeking out Peter’s. In his brother’s eyes, he didn’t find the unconditional welcome he had heard in Lucy’s voice. Nor did he find the hard condemnation he had so feared. Instead, he saw only hesitancy and a strange reserve in his brother’s eyes. As if his brother wasn’t so confident in his ability to say or do the right thing all the time after all.

His brother, he thought, had never looked quite so human, so vulnerable and uncertain, as he did now. This revelation stirred a compassion toward his older brother that he hadn’t felt since the war broke out and Father had marched off to fight in it. Because to be human was to be unsure. To be flawed. To be frail. To be lost. Yet somehow worth finding, worth loving, anyway.

He focused his gaze again on Aslan, who met his eyes, the windows to his lost soul, with all the patience and the grace contained in the universe. In Aslan’s eyes, he saw that it was time for him to return to his siblings. To discover within himself the courage to face them again because Aslan would be behind him to support and strengthen him always. That firm promise of eternal comfort, endless solace, in his gaze.

He stepped forward. Off the ridge and into the grass where the tents of Aslan’s army were pitched. Toward his siblings, whom he both wanted and didn’t want to approach, hoping they would find it in their hearts to forgive him, but fearing they wouldn’t. Each step taken by his nervous feet that longed to flee and leaden legs that did not want to move at all seeming to stretch for a country mile. Not needing to glance over his shoulder to check that Aslan was following him. Trusting that the Great Lion was there behind him no matter what. Feeling that reassuring presence like a father’s firm, steadying hand on his shoulder. The touch of ultimate trust and guidance that made him feel safe but not small.

Aslan was beside him by the time he reached his siblings outside the tent where the girls had spent the night. Edmund was grateful for the Great Lion’s solid presence beside him because he didn’t know what to say to his siblings, and so it was an indescribable relief that caused his knees to tremble when Aslan addressed his siblings with the sort of calm finality no creature would dare to argue: “What’s done is done. There is no need to speak with Edmund about what is past.”

A forgiveness. A grace Edmund didn’t deserve. An encouragement to look to the hopeful future always and not dwell on the pain, the wrongs, and the resentments of the past. A freedom from guilt and anxiety.

Then Aslan stepped away, granting them privacy in their reunion, but Edmund knew in his blood, bones, and spirit that Aslan wasn’t truly leaving them. That they weren’t alone. That Aslan was somehow watching over them benignly. Waiting for them to be reconciled.

Peter’s gaze was so hard, so stern, so like unshatterable granite, though. Edmund felt his eyes and his chin sinking instinctively to the ground. A gesture of submission but also of despair. The despair he had not felt when speaking with Aslan, who had managed to wipe it away. The despair and the shame he felt staining him again.

“Hello,” he mumbled awkwardly, because he didn’t know what else to say. He knew he sounded rude and ungrateful. Like the sulky, spoiled boy he didn’t want to be any longer. His words an inadequate reflection of the love for them that he bore in his heart. Hoping his clumsy, sullen words would somehow be enough to make them forgive him. To make them love him again.

He saw a smile split Susan’s face, and Lucy made a sound like laughter before lurching herself across the space between them and wrapping her arms around him. He returned her embrace, resting his head on her hair. Feeling its softness beneath his chin. Remembering what it was like to touch his little sister. To enfold her in his arms. To feel the love and peace between them that washed away all resentment and wrong. To press his cheek into the soft strands of her hair. To look down on her with a grin on his face because she was his little sister, and he was her big brother, and nothing, not even his betrayal, could ever truly change that. She loved him, and he loved her.

For a moment, that love between them was all there was in the world. All there needed to be in the world. Then he felt Susan beside him. Touching him gently on the shoulder--like their mother, like the mother she had tried to be while they were separated from their own as bombs broke over London, like the mother he hadn’t appreciated her trying to be but would from now on. A sign she wanted to hug him to.

When Lucy fell back, still beaming like the sunshine overhead, Susan pulled him into a hug, and he could feel the joy and relief he felt at being reunited echoed in her touch.

“Are you all right?” she asked as they separated. A question that once would have irritated him. That would’ve sounded too condescending to his prickly, prideful ears. A question that now only seemed like a proof of her love for him. Her concern for his welfare.

“I’m a little tired,” he answered, trying to be honest with her but also not wanting her to worry about everything he had been through now that he had managed to survive it despite all the odds because of Aslan’s mercy and power.

“Get some sleep.” Peter tilted his head toward the tent. A dismissal. An order. A test to see whether Edmund could finally be good and obey.

Edmund wanted to roll his eyes at his big brother’s bossyness. To bristle and argue that he wasn’t so tired that he needed sleep even if he was bone-tired.

But he didn’t want to argue quite as much as he wanted to be good. To prove that he could do as he was told for once.

He moved away from Susan--away from the comfort of her touch--and toward the tent that Peter had indicated.

“And Edmund.” Peter’s voice just when Edmund had thought he was safely past made him swing around, wary of what implacable command or unfeeling reprimand his brother would offer next. Instead, he saw Peter’s stern face finally soften into a wry smile. “Try not to wander off.”

A smile. An absolution. A joke, which was something Edmund hadn’t heard from Peter since Father went off to war, and Peter had tried to take his place. A bridge opening between them.

A bridge Edmund crossed with his own crooked, answering grin.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha As always, thank you so much for your thoughtful comments!I'm so glad that you found this piece delightful because it was a real treat for me to be able to write about one of my favorite Narnia movie scenes full of love and redemption.

I really wanted to show Susan's maternal side in this story and how while once that might have irritated Edmund, now he can appreciate that maternal instinct in her and understand both how much she loves him and how much he loves her. So it makes me so happy that maternal side to Susan shone through in this fic.

I always loved how Lucy was so sweet and spontaneous in her joy at seeing her brother. How much she just wanted to run to him and hug him. There is just so much love in that. Like she doesn't even have to think about forgiving him. She just does it naturally and in an instant. So powerful to see which made it very nice to write a tribute to this scene.

And I'm so glad that you appreciated the insight into Peter. I do think a lot of the sternness we can see from him at times comes from him just wanting to be a good father, a sort of man of the house, to his younger siblings. He is still learning how to be a leader and a man in many ways even though a lot of leadership and maturity has been thrust on him because of the difficulties of World War II. But he still does love Edmund a lot even if he doesn't always know how to express it.

It's magnificent to hear as well that you felt Aslan's warm presence suffusing the whole story, because I very much wanted Aslan to be there throughout the story. I really think it is through Aslan that the siblings are ultimately able to find absolution for the past and move forward into the future with the needed grace, strength, and love. And writing about Aslan always brings a warm, soothing feeling to my heart. Which is part of the reason why Narnia fics are great comfort ones for me to write.

 

@Nehru_Amidala Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! I can definitely picture Ed's guilt lingering for awhile after betraying his family to the White Witch, but one of my favorite scenes in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe being warmly welcomed home and forgiven by his siblings and Aslan in their own ways. I agree that Edmund's story in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has echoes of the Prodigal Son about it. I also get reminded of the Biblical Judas who betrayed Jesus. With the main difference that Edmund (like the Biblical Apostle Peter) repents his betrayal. With the Bible, I always think that the main difference between the Apostle Peter and Judas is that the Apostle Peter repented his betrayal of Jesus. And that repentance made all the difference with the Apostle Peter. As well as with Edmund in Narnia. Edmund has definitely been through the wringer, but now his healing can begin, and his family and Aslan will be with him on his journey! Thank you again for your kind words, and I'm so glad that you found this story to be fantastic.

@DaenaBenjen42 Thank you so much for reading and commenting!I'm so happy to hear that you found this story a joy to read and that you felt it was well-done since it was a moving piece for me to write!

 

@DarthIshtar Thank you so much for reading and commenting! I'm so happy that you loved this look at the reconciliation that occurs between the Pevensie siblings because this moment is one of my favorites from the Narnia films, and it was a treat to be able to explore it in more depth. I definitely wanted to acknowledge both Edmund's need for repentance and grace, but also how his siblings--especially Peter--needed to offer Edmund their love and forgiveness. And how Peter in particular needed to sort of soften his treatment of Edmund because that stern approach was only driving Edmund away from the family. So really it becomes a story of family forgiveness and restoration that leaves a hopeful feeling in my heart!