Fitting In - for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
grim_lupine
Oct. 12th, 2010 08:12 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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narniaexchangeTitle: Fitting In
Author:lovesrogue36
Recipient:grim_lupine
Rating: T
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers only through LWW. Some underage drinking but, you know, technically they're in their twenties.
Summary: Cricket doesn't suit Narnia and swordfights don't particularly suit the 1940s but Peter and Ed just have to find their own niche in the world.
Fitting in is a part of growing up but there are always that handful of children with extraneous circumstances that keep them from ever feeling a sense of belonging. Usually it either stems from an unstable home life or difficulty with social interaction. Rarely does it mean said children were only last summer kings and queens of a distant mythical land.
Rarely does not mean never though.
Their first days in Narnia (after the war, of course) were spent trying to fit in. It’s not easy to assimilate to the practices of Talking Beavers and goat-men, especially not when all you really want to do is play cricket. It’s not really so much to ask is it? With all the throne-sitting and crown-wearing and peace-keeping…
Peter and Ed just wanted to be boys.
Not that they didn’t love being kings! Please, don’t misunderstand. Ruling Narnia was like a new dream, a new challenge every day.
But sometimes boys just desperately need to hit a ball with a stick and for some reason, the rest of the Cair simply couldn’t understand that.
(Probably because they had never been human boys.)
(Nor did they know what cricket was.)
So the Magnificent High King, Peter, and the Just King, Edmund, set about teaching Talking Animals to play cricket. They needed teams after all. They couldn’t just play each other.
First they spent nearly an hour arguing over what to use as a bat. It had to be something sturdy and straight and none of the trees were as yet willing to let the boys have one of their branches for a game that sounded so ridiculous.
Much to Tumnus’ dismay, they eventually settled on Peter’s scepter.
Then came the issue of a ball. Ed thought a Hedgehog might be willing but the little spiny creature made it very clear that he was not. After much debate, they took a gourd of some kind from the garden and sawed off its stem. It wasn’t round, exactly, but it would roll.
They marked out the bases with rocks and began explaining the rules. By the time the Animals had decided to pretend to understand it was nearly dark and the Fireflies were too leery of being knocked from the sky by that green flying pumpkin to light up the field.
The boys never really quite got to play a proper game of cricket before it faded from their memories.
Cricket reappeared full force in their minds when they tumbled back through the wardrobe. Not that they much cared for it any longer. Their bodies might be boyish again but in their heads they were men, warriors, kings and, well, something of Casanovas.
Their friends didn’t understand what might have happened to them in the country but now they were… different. They both took up fencing (which might have been fun if they didn’t take it so seriously) and- girls. It was the second bit that most disturbed their mates at school.
For boys of 10 and 13, girls, for the most part, still have… well, they’re still… you know, strange.
Peter and Ed seemed to want to understand them, though. This wasn’t just the confused hormones of their friends, this was something different, something larger, and the other boys crowded around in secretive groups to discuss what had gone so terribly wrong in the Pevensies’ heads.
Peter had a girlfriend from the finishing school across the way before Christmas was even a glimmer in their minds. His friends watched in morbid fascination as he walked beside her down to the little flower cart on the corner and bought her a daisy. He tucked it in her hair and they stared as she laughed merrily, leaning in to shyly kiss his cheek in thanks.
Ed wasn’t much better although being that girls his age still thought boys were weird meant he had a hard time finding himself a girlfriend. His attitude toward love turned a bit cynical, even, as he tried to ingratiate himself with his former mates again.
“The girls will come around. Give them another term,” Peter promised, draping an arm across his brother’s shoulders as he took a swig from a bottle of red wine before passing it over to his brother.
Edmund sighed and sipped at the alcohol, the bottle heavy in his small hand. They sat down by the docks, their shoes beside them and their pants rolled up, feet dangling into the water. “I’ve got grown up desires and adolescent hormones,” he complained, making a face. “It’s not fair.”
“Maybe we ought to try harder to fit in,” Peter murmured with a sigh, looking down at his own hands and missing the familiar calluses he no longer had.
“Pshaw. Boy, we sure got the short end of the stick, didn’t we?” Ed ran a hand over his face and passed the bottle back.
“Hardly. We were kings,” Peter insisted, around a mouthful of wine.
Ed shot him a dry, dull look. “Operative word being were.”
“Still are. Once a king of Narnia, always a king of Narnia!” He held up the wine bottle as though it were a sword and he were triumphantly charging for battle.
“Oh, give me that. You don’t hold your liquor the way you used to,” Ed complained, snatching the bottle away from his brother and shoving the cork in it. “’Nother side effect, I suppose.”
“Come on, Ed, let’s go get you a girlfriend.” Peter dragged Ed to his feet, one hand gripping the smaller boy’s wrist. Ed grumbled about crazy, drunken High Kings but knew well, from experience, that Peter was not to be stopped when he was like this. So he simply followed along, letting Peter make a fool of himself as he offered his brother as ‘quite a catch’ to every pretty girl they passed, especially the older ones, with the pretty hair and all the curves. He snorted in laughter as one group of girls giggled about ‘oh how cute that is!’ and ‘don’t kids do the funniest things?’
“Come on, brother, our search for the perfect girl has come to a close, I’m afraid,” Ed reported, slinging an arm around Peter’s shoulders. “Let’s go try and fit in. How’s about a game of cricket?”
“Cricket! Yes, that sounds splendid, my very Just brother. We’ll need a scepter of course. Where do you think we could get one of those?”
“We could break into the Tower and steal one,” Ed suggested brightly, sounding almost too enthusiastic.
“Yes, excellent idea!”
A rather amused copper delivered two soaking wet young boys home to a house in Finchley that evening with the report they claimed they had been trying to steal some of the Crown Jewels.
“Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to try and scale a straight stone wall,” Ed admitted.
“No, just a scepter,” Peter kept insisting. “We wanted to play cricket. Don’t you understand? You need a scepter to play cricket. Besides, we would have put it back.”
(The copper assumed they were just trying to cover the fact they had slipped and fallen into the very cold water with an elaborately concocted fiction.)
Their mother never could quite understand what got into them in the country.
Original Prompt:
What I want: I would like a fic centered around Peter and Edmund back at school in England, and the way they are viewed by others--the way they seem to have changed, etc. Brother!fic or Peter/Edmund is fine, I love both. :D
Prompt words/objects/quotes/whatever: anachronisms
What I definitely don't want in my fic: As long as Peter and Edmund are the focus of the fic, anything goes. :)
Author:
lovesrogue36Recipient:
grim_lupineRating: T
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers only through LWW. Some underage drinking but, you know, technically they're in their twenties.
Summary: Cricket doesn't suit Narnia and swordfights don't particularly suit the 1940s but Peter and Ed just have to find their own niche in the world.
Fitting in is a part of growing up but there are always that handful of children with extraneous circumstances that keep them from ever feeling a sense of belonging. Usually it either stems from an unstable home life or difficulty with social interaction. Rarely does it mean said children were only last summer kings and queens of a distant mythical land.
Rarely does not mean never though.
Their first days in Narnia (after the war, of course) were spent trying to fit in. It’s not easy to assimilate to the practices of Talking Beavers and goat-men, especially not when all you really want to do is play cricket. It’s not really so much to ask is it? With all the throne-sitting and crown-wearing and peace-keeping…
Peter and Ed just wanted to be boys.
Not that they didn’t love being kings! Please, don’t misunderstand. Ruling Narnia was like a new dream, a new challenge every day.
But sometimes boys just desperately need to hit a ball with a stick and for some reason, the rest of the Cair simply couldn’t understand that.
(Probably because they had never been human boys.)
(Nor did they know what cricket was.)
So the Magnificent High King, Peter, and the Just King, Edmund, set about teaching Talking Animals to play cricket. They needed teams after all. They couldn’t just play each other.
First they spent nearly an hour arguing over what to use as a bat. It had to be something sturdy and straight and none of the trees were as yet willing to let the boys have one of their branches for a game that sounded so ridiculous.
Much to Tumnus’ dismay, they eventually settled on Peter’s scepter.
Then came the issue of a ball. Ed thought a Hedgehog might be willing but the little spiny creature made it very clear that he was not. After much debate, they took a gourd of some kind from the garden and sawed off its stem. It wasn’t round, exactly, but it would roll.
They marked out the bases with rocks and began explaining the rules. By the time the Animals had decided to pretend to understand it was nearly dark and the Fireflies were too leery of being knocked from the sky by that green flying pumpkin to light up the field.
The boys never really quite got to play a proper game of cricket before it faded from their memories.
Cricket reappeared full force in their minds when they tumbled back through the wardrobe. Not that they much cared for it any longer. Their bodies might be boyish again but in their heads they were men, warriors, kings and, well, something of Casanovas.
Their friends didn’t understand what might have happened to them in the country but now they were… different. They both took up fencing (which might have been fun if they didn’t take it so seriously) and- girls. It was the second bit that most disturbed their mates at school.
For boys of 10 and 13, girls, for the most part, still have… well, they’re still… you know, strange.
Peter and Ed seemed to want to understand them, though. This wasn’t just the confused hormones of their friends, this was something different, something larger, and the other boys crowded around in secretive groups to discuss what had gone so terribly wrong in the Pevensies’ heads.
Peter had a girlfriend from the finishing school across the way before Christmas was even a glimmer in their minds. His friends watched in morbid fascination as he walked beside her down to the little flower cart on the corner and bought her a daisy. He tucked it in her hair and they stared as she laughed merrily, leaning in to shyly kiss his cheek in thanks.
Ed wasn’t much better although being that girls his age still thought boys were weird meant he had a hard time finding himself a girlfriend. His attitude toward love turned a bit cynical, even, as he tried to ingratiate himself with his former mates again.
“The girls will come around. Give them another term,” Peter promised, draping an arm across his brother’s shoulders as he took a swig from a bottle of red wine before passing it over to his brother.
Edmund sighed and sipped at the alcohol, the bottle heavy in his small hand. They sat down by the docks, their shoes beside them and their pants rolled up, feet dangling into the water. “I’ve got grown up desires and adolescent hormones,” he complained, making a face. “It’s not fair.”
“Maybe we ought to try harder to fit in,” Peter murmured with a sigh, looking down at his own hands and missing the familiar calluses he no longer had.
“Pshaw. Boy, we sure got the short end of the stick, didn’t we?” Ed ran a hand over his face and passed the bottle back.
“Hardly. We were kings,” Peter insisted, around a mouthful of wine.
Ed shot him a dry, dull look. “Operative word being were.”
“Still are. Once a king of Narnia, always a king of Narnia!” He held up the wine bottle as though it were a sword and he were triumphantly charging for battle.
“Oh, give me that. You don’t hold your liquor the way you used to,” Ed complained, snatching the bottle away from his brother and shoving the cork in it. “’Nother side effect, I suppose.”
“Come on, Ed, let’s go get you a girlfriend.” Peter dragged Ed to his feet, one hand gripping the smaller boy’s wrist. Ed grumbled about crazy, drunken High Kings but knew well, from experience, that Peter was not to be stopped when he was like this. So he simply followed along, letting Peter make a fool of himself as he offered his brother as ‘quite a catch’ to every pretty girl they passed, especially the older ones, with the pretty hair and all the curves. He snorted in laughter as one group of girls giggled about ‘oh how cute that is!’ and ‘don’t kids do the funniest things?’
“Come on, brother, our search for the perfect girl has come to a close, I’m afraid,” Ed reported, slinging an arm around Peter’s shoulders. “Let’s go try and fit in. How’s about a game of cricket?”
“Cricket! Yes, that sounds splendid, my very Just brother. We’ll need a scepter of course. Where do you think we could get one of those?”
“We could break into the Tower and steal one,” Ed suggested brightly, sounding almost too enthusiastic.
“Yes, excellent idea!”
A rather amused copper delivered two soaking wet young boys home to a house in Finchley that evening with the report they claimed they had been trying to steal some of the Crown Jewels.
“Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to try and scale a straight stone wall,” Ed admitted.
“No, just a scepter,” Peter kept insisting. “We wanted to play cricket. Don’t you understand? You need a scepter to play cricket. Besides, we would have put it back.”
(The copper assumed they were just trying to cover the fact they had slipped and fallen into the very cold water with an elaborately concocted fiction.)
Their mother never could quite understand what got into them in the country.
Original Prompt:
What I want: I would like a fic centered around Peter and Edmund back at school in England, and the way they are viewed by others--the way they seem to have changed, etc. Brother!fic or Peter/Edmund is fine, I love both. :D
Prompt words/objects/quotes/whatever: anachronisms
What I definitely don't want in my fic: As long as Peter and Edmund are the focus of the fic, anything goes. :)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-12 07:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-12 09:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-12 10:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-13 08:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-14 02:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-14 12:57 pm (UTC)By the time the Animals had decided to pretend to understand it was nearly dark and the Fireflies were too leery of being knocked from the sky by that green flying pumpkin to light up the field.
Ahahaha, I love that you have pretend to understand, because I just get this image of all the Animals nodding their heads very seriously and secretly thinking "our Kings are so very strange..." XD
“Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to try and scale a straight stone wall,” Ed admitted.
“No, just a scepter,” Peter kept insisting. “We wanted to play cricket. Don’t you understand? You need a scepter to play cricket. Besides, we would have put it back.”
XD BOYS. Thank you again, this is wonderful!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-15 02:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-01 02:33 am (UTC)