A little caspeter drabble before Peter duels Miraz. Enjoy!
Peter is standing still in the middle of the overheated room as Edmund drags the strings of his pauldron taut and twists them into a knot when Caspian appears is the doorway. He watches as Caspian takes a step into the room, then steps back as if unsure whether he is allowed to enter or not, and decides to put his mind to rest.
“Caspian,” he says as amicably as he can, and holds in his smile when the Prince startles. “Come in, sit.”
Caspian tilts his head, then slowly steps into the room. He is not yet dressed for battle, but there are three weapons on him— his sword and two daggers. Peter lifts his arm so that Edmund can attach the buckle, but does not take his eyes off of Caspian, who sits down gingerly on the cot before turning to him with an uncomfortably straight back and curious eyes.
“This is your armour from the Golden Age, I presume?” he asks, head clocked like a dog, watching as Edmund finishes with the pauldron and moves onto the arm bracers. Peter buckles them up this time, Edmund holding the metal pieces together so he can drag the strap and pin the metal down.
“You presume correctly,” he says, lips twitching up into a sad smile. A pang echoes through his heart at the memory, but he still continues speaking. “It was one of the gifts from Lucy on our fourth coronation anniversary— our previous suit of armour suffered irreversible damage at the hands of the Giant King Bhisa during the Second Rebellion of Ettinsmoor.”
Caspian eyes the armour again, taking in the gold details on the edges, the embossed details that displayed a lion rearing on its hind legs.
“Your sister has a tasteful eye,” he says quietly, and Peter lets out a bark of laughter. Edmund snorts as he steps away and drops down on the cot next to Caspian, who looks a little apprehensive as Peter continues to laugh, the younger King cackling beside him. “I don’t understand— did I say something absurd or—”
Edmund doubles over, arms wrapped around his stomach as he wheezes, and Peter shakes his head. “No, no,” he chortles. “It is simply that, well— Lucy has horrible taste in aesthetics, and she knows it. She consulted Suzenn when having this made.”
Edmund’s cackling slowly dies out, and Peter sighs, leaning against the wall. He breathes in silence for a few seconds, and sighs when Caspian opens his mouth, then closes it again and bites his lip.
“There is something troubling you,” he says matter of factly, and Caspian sighs.
“Well, it—” he huffs, eyebrows furrowing, and Peter pushes himself off the wall to get closer. Caspian looks up, fists clenched where they rest against the edge of Peter’s cot, and his lips twist into a frown. “Why did none of you even consider sending a challenge of single combat between Miraz and I? I know I am not as excellent as you are, but I am still a capable sword wielder and—”
“And the only figurehead of an oppressed people.” Edmund.
Caspian twists his head to the side to give the King a confused look, and Peter absently trails his gaze over the line of his nose as it scrunches. “What?”
Edmund pushes himself to his feet with a rough exhale, then pats Caspian on the shoulder and walks out without a word. Peter sighs when Caspian shoots the empty doorway a look that is half confused, half annoyed, and finds himself agreeing with the sentiment.
“Edmund enjoys being a man of too few words a little too much,” he says exasperatedly, and smiles at the chuckle his statement elicits. “What he wishes to convey,” he explains, “is that you are too important a person to risk sending to die— you are certainly capable with a sword, but we have no guarantee that you would not lose the duel. You are the person we wish to put on the throne. You are the figurehead. You cannot die, Caspian. We need you alive.”
Caspian’s frown deepens, and Peter has the sudden urge to press the tip of his finger to the divot between his eyebrows, to ease the expression off of Caspian’s handsome face. Such intense worry does not belong on such a beautiful face. “But you are High King,” the Prince says slowly. “Your siblings are Rulers with you. If I die, you four would continue to fight, would you not?”
Peter closes his eyes, feeling the armour press into his skin, feeling his skin heat with the flames that burn just out of reach. He blinks and locks gazes with Caspian, lips set into a serious line.
“Verily, we would fight for Narnia till our last breath,” he vows solemnly, and the words settle into his skin just as they had in the times long gone, when he had uttered them before every battle he fought. Now, he utters them before battle once again, a High King without a Kingdom. “However, we have no wish to rule over Narnia.”
His time to rule is done. He had his chance, and he knows he did well, and now it is time to let go. He does not need to rule, and neither does he want to. He says as much to Caspian, pushing as much earnestness into his voice as he can. “Our reign is over— we are simply here as help, as assistance, to place the crown upon your head. If the future king is dead…”
Caspian’s frown immediately clears, and his eyes widen in realisation, and he breathes, “then so is the revolution, and so are the Narnians.”
“So you understand,” Peter says with a nod, reaching over to the table so he can pull on his gauntlets. “We may be the golden past of Narnia, but you, Caspian— you are the hopeful future of Narnia. This is why we cannot afford a single mistake in ensuring your survival, why we must send out a champion to fight in your name instead of you yourself lifting up your sword.”
“Why must you be the champion? Why not anyone else?” No sooner has he finished speaking, does Caspian realise what he has said, and ducks his head in embarrassment. “I apologise, I had no intention of being rude.”
Peter grins, hopelessly endeared by the flush that has climbed up the Prince’s cheeks, and leans forward to gently flick his forehead. He scrunches up his nose into an annoyed frown, and Peter laughs quietly.
“We would not label curiosity as rudeness.” Amusement is apparent in his voice, and Caspian definitely notices it, going by the way his annoyed frown deepens. “You are free to ask all the questions that you want to ask. As for why not anybody else, well— duels may only be fought between knights. I am the only knight apart from Edmund in our army, and Edmund is to be my second.”
Caspian purses his lips and stares at Peter, hand reaching up to grab his gauntlet covered wrist. Peter almost wishes he had left off wearing the gauntlets for later, but he pushes away the thought and focuses on the way that Caspian turns his eyes to the side and refuses to meet his gaze.
“But…,” the Prince chokes out quietly, “what— what if— what if you die?”
Peter stills. He stares at the boy sitting on his cot, hair sweeping across his face like a silky curtain and fingers clutching his gauntlet. He presses his lips into a straight line, then breathes deeply and reaches a hand out, tilting Caspian’s chin up with gentle fingers. He goes down on one knee to come level with Caspian’s face, and waits until his eyes lift up.
“That will not happen,” he says firmly, confidently. “Trust, Caspian, that Our life will not be taken by a Kinslayer.”
Caspian exhales, swallows, then nods slowly. He leans forward to press his forehead to Peter’s shoulder, and Peter places a hand on the back of his head.
“We shall fight as your champion knight in the duel,” he murmurs quietly into the scant space between them. Caspian smells of leather and sea salt and the soft summer air, and Peter longs to simply hold him close, to wrap his arms around him and never let go. “And when victory is Ours, the throne of Naernia shall be yours, Caspian.”
Caspian raises his head from Peter’s shoulder, black eyes glittering madly and lips parted just so, and Peter feels all his breath leave him in one silent exhale. The firelight from the torches turns the other man’s skin burnished golden, and Peter wants to drag a fingertip over the strong line of his eyebrows, over the straight bridge of his perfect nose, down his high cheekbones, along his sharp jaw, over the seam of his plush lips.
“Well then,” Caspian breathes, quiet and almost like he is not in control of what he is saying, “it is only right that my knight would carry my favour.”
He leans forward and presses his lips to Peter’s.
Peter kisses back on instinct. He closes his eyes and wraps an arm around Caspian’s waist, dragging him forward by that and the hand still on the back of his head, till he is sliding off the cot and onto his thigh with a muffled sound of surprise. He marvels at the softness of those lips, at the feel of hands coming up to cup the sides of his armoured neck, fingers splaying over the mail coif and reaching under to brush lightly against his jawline. Distantly he wishes he was not wearing armour if only to feel that warm touch on bare skin, and then it suddenly occurs to him what is happening.
He pulls back with a sharp intake of breath, the cold douse of realisation of his actions spilling over the warmth that had spread through his chest.
He opens his eyes, and immediately regrets it; Caspian’s cheeks are dusted deep red, rosy lips parted and dark eyes wide almost as if he is surprised. His hair is a little messed up under Peter’s hand, and he is still only a hair’s breadth away. The sight makes Peter long to press forward and take, take, take, more and more and more, but he unwraps his arms from around Caspian.
Before he can say anything, however, Caspian bolts.
Peter is left alone in the room, still down on one knee that is starting to ache and his arms hanging limply at his side, staring at the empty doorway with the phantom feel of soft lips pressing against his own.