unforgettable. || peter pevensie || complete

three

✳︎

Peter had no clue how, when, or where he'd managed to lose his younger brother. All he knew was that when he'd entered the train station, Edmund had been by his side, and now he decidedly wasn't. Brilliant. They hadn't even made it to school yet, and Peter had already lost one of his siblings. How was he supposed to protect them if they couldn't even stick together in a train station? Lucy and Susan had vanished off somewhere, likely shopping, and as the time was ticking further towards the time their train was meant to leave, Peter's blood pressure was rising. It was just like herding cats, dealing with his siblings.

The crowd of people in the train station was growing steadily by the minute, the different colours of uniforms (all of them were still ugly, but at least there was variation) forming a hideous rainbow. Peter was glad in that moment that he was tall, because he could scan over the heads of the gathered crowd to try and spot any sign of his brother. Still, all his searching provided no results. Where could he possibly have gone?

Peter wished Phoebe were there, something he'd caught himself doing far too many times recently. She could calm him down, balance him out, and he knew that his siblings would listen to her, even if they wouldn't listen to him. Peter reached up a hand, pushing his hair off his forehead. The train ride to school had always been stressful, but at least he could usually relax when they made it to the station. However, his siblings seemed determined to eliminate that possibility.

Sighing in defeat, Peter turned to walk up the stairs which led out of the station. Maybe his brother had felt a sudden need for fresh air - Peter knew he needed some right about now too. Still, trying to walk up the stairs was difficult, as the flow of people was generally moving in the opposite direction. Perhaps Peter could just go home, pretend he'd missed the train, and not go to school this year. It certainly seemed like a much more pleasant alternative.

"Oi, Pevensie!" Peter turned around from where he stood on the landing at the sound of the familiar nickname. His friends had started calling him by his last name the year Edmund had moved to the school, solely for the purpose of confusing his younger brother. It occurred to Peter now that it was rather a cruel thing, but he simply couldn't be bothered to tell them to stop, not when he'd been an insecure eleven-year-old who would do anything to be included. "Peter!" Peter blinked, starting himself out of his own thoughts.

"Carter!" James Carter was one of Peter's closest friends. After all, they'd both been shipped off to boarding school aged nine, and they'd been in each other's dormitory every year since - they kind of had to be friends. "It's been a while, mate." Peter's voice took on a nonchalant tone, trying to hide just how worried he was about his siblings. The other boy stepped up onto the landing, cracking a smile at Peter. The traffic down the stairs was passing around them now. Peter and James were important, and those other kids knew it.

"How'd it go up in the countryside?" Peter shrugged. It wasn't as though he could get through the story in a few brief sentences. What would he even say - that they got carried away to some magical land through a wardrobe? James almost certainly wouldn't believe that. "Fair enough. Countryside's not all it's cracked up to be, I'll tell you that." James' voice was light. Peter recognised that voice. James knew something, or at least he was trying to play it off like he didn't. Still, Peter chuckled a little.