Eustace sat cross-legged on the Pevensies’ sitting room floor, tongue sticking out in concentration as he strung another piece of popcorn onto the garland that already spanned half the room.
“Look at this one,” cooed Lucy around her mouthful of two candy canes as she pulled an ornament out of the box she and Susan were hovering over. “Mother gave it to us the year we went to stay with the professor.”
“And this one,” said Susan, “From when Edmund was a baby.”
Eustace cast a glance in their direction, though he couldn’t tell the difference between these or the last twenty treasures that had gotten nearly the same reaction.
“How can girls stand to be so sentimental?” laughed Peter from the sofa. “They’re ornaments, they’ll all look the same once they’re on the tree anyway, right Eustace?”
“Uh, y-yeah,” he said with an uncertain chuckle.
To their credit, none of the others acknowledged how awkward he sounded.
“Well, seeing as you don’t seem to care about your childhood,” said Lucy with an indignant pout that looked rather like a peppermint walrus, “I’ll just have to care about it for you.”
Peter chuckled and popped a fluffy white kernel into his mouth as soon as the girls weren’t looking. His garland was notably shorter than Eustace’s, though his bowl was almost empty.
Susan looked around the room. “I think I’ll go check on Edmund, he’s been in the kitchen for a while.”
Lucy jumped up to follow her at once, and before Eustace could protest, both girls were out the door, leaving him alone in the sitting room with Peter.
He swallowed hard and stared down at his garland.
“Are you sure you’re comfortable down there?”
Peter was too good to let the awkward silence stretch out for long.
“I… um…”
Great, nailed that one.
“Why don’t you come sit up here?” Peter patted the cushion next to him.
“Uh…” Eustace tried to think of a reason to protest, but anything he hadn’t already used sounded rude. If he argued now he would just be making the atmosphere worse. “Okay.”
He gathered up his project and moved carefully to the sofa, perching on the very edge and taking a piece of popcorn from the bowl between them to string on his thread.
“Am I really that intimidating?”
Peter’s voice was good-natured, but Eustace wanted to shrink in on himself all the same.
It wasn’t that Peter was unfriendly. Just the opposite, in fact. But that was just it.
How many times had Peter been friendly when none of the others would even talk to him? When his singular goal in life was to make everyone else just as miserable as he was? How many times had Peter struck up a good-natured conversation only for Eustace to throw childish jabs and insults?
He’d been avoiding the older boy ever since he’d been invited for Christmas, too ashamed to face him directly. Because now, of course, Eustace knew the truth about Narnia. He’d been there twice himself, and he knew exactly who his cousins were.
With Edmund and Lucy it wasn’t that bad. At least they’d never put up with his beastly behavior in the first place. But he just couldn’t bear the fact that High King Peter the Magnificent, whom Narnians still spoke of in reverence a thousand years after his reign, had given a pathetic child like him so much grace.
He tried to come up with an answer that expressed any of this, but his words seemed to be failing him. “It’s not you, I mean- you know how I’ve been…”
“Ahh, so that’s what it is.”
Eustace glanced up at the older boy, who, to his surprise, didn’t look the slightest bit cross. His face glowed softly in the light from the crackling fireplace, just as even and kind as ever.
“You needn’t worry about that, you know. It’s all in the past. Ed and Lu told me all about what you did on the Dawn Treader, and for Caspian’s son.”
Eustace hung his head and hoped the dim lighting hid his flush. “Yes, well, I suppose, but-“
“You sound exactly like Edmund.”
Eustace opened his mouth but then closed it abruptly and furrowed his brow. None of that sounded anything like Edmund. “I… do?”
“All this trying to convince me I should hate you. He did the same thing for ages after, well, he told you what happened his first time in Narnia.”
Eustace nodded, remembering the conversation clearly.
“He thought everything that happened wasn’t punishment enough, thought I should be angrier with him. He used to do things just to bother me so we’d get into a fight.”
“He did?”
Peter nodded, absentmindedly eating another piece of popcorn as his garland lay forgotten to the side. “He wasn’t much younger than you are now, actually.”
“What happened?” asked Eustace, forgetting himself for a moment and leaning forward.
“Well eventually I figured it out when he almost set Cair Paravel on fire.”
“What?”
“Just the kitchens, actually, trying to burn my favorite mince pie. But I think he learned his lesson after he nearly lost his eyebrows.”
Eustace stifled a giggle at the matter-of-fact statement, and Peter grinned.
“And,” said Eustace, collecting himself again, “You weren’t angry with him?”
Peter shook his head. “Maybe a little at first, but I’d already forgiven him for what he did. He was the only one who hadn’t forgiven himself.”
Eustace bit his lip.
Peter reached over and patted his back.
It was a gesture so simple yet so overwhelming that Eustace could hardly imagine he deserved it.
“Between you and me, you’re a lot better than Edmund was,” added Peter as he squeezed the younger boy’s shoulder.
A shy smile tugged at his lips. “Thank you,” said Eustace, not sure which part he was thanking him for. “And I really am sorry, for everything I did, before this year.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Peter plucked another popped kernel from the bowl.
Eustace glanced at him and then picked one for himself, crunching down on it just as the girls reappeared in the doorway.
“Hey!” said Lucy, “Don’t eat the decorations!”
“He did it first!”
“Did not,” said Peter with feigned innocence.
Eustace turned on him indignantly and Peter laughed, a hearty, golden laugh that made Eustace crack a smile in spite of himself.
“I see you two are finally getting on,” said Edmund who’d come in just behind the girls. “Now Susan can stop elbowing me every time I- ow!”
Susan handed him a bowl of fresh popcorn and pointed him toward the sofa.
“Oh good,” said Peter, “We were getting low.”
Eustace popped another kernel into his mouth and grinned at Edmund. “Didn’t burn anything, I hope?”
Edmund paused in his tracks and glanced between him and Peter, who was laughing again in spite of obvious efforts to stop himself.
“PETE-“
The End