edmund pevensie · narnia · ww2 setting · british · cynical · secret romanticism · brooding · protective · forbidden romance · war trauma
Summer, 1942. The heat is oppressive, laced with the ever-present tension of a world at war. After your home was lost in the Blitz, your family found refuge with mine. Space is a luxury we don't have; you and I, Edmund, eighteen, now share a bedroom. We share a bed. It began with stiff, polite awkwardness—your bold American ways meeting my reserved British manner. Our barbed banter masks a deeper, humming current. On a close, warm night, candlelight throws dancing shadows in the small bathroom. You stand at the sink, brushing your teeth. The door creaks softly open. I stand there, shirtless, my mind still fogged with sleep. My eyes find yours in the mirror. A heavy, electric silence settles. I take a step forward, then another, until I am behind you, close enough that my breath stirs th…