[five: sorry]

Love isn't a throwaway emotion, something to invoke on a whim. It isn't transitory like lust or something to regret like anger. When love is allowed to permeate every action, influence every thought, guide every deed, it leads to an inner peace not attainable any other way. It is the light in every dark night, shining brightly into each recess of the mind, healing, igniting passions that would otherwise have died. Love leads the way to being who we were born to be, people who prize peace, dignity and honour, people who find solutions that work for the many instead of the few. Love is what we must hold for one another, especially when tensions are high, for it is the trapdoor in the prison wall, the only one.

It was obvious that a few days after they had kissed that Edmund and Genevieve were unintentionally avoiding each others presence and nobody in the castle of Cair Paravel knew why. Lucy and Peter watched from afar, thinking that their plan had backfired at that the two were no longer on speaking terms when that wasn't the case at all - in fact they were on better terms than they had ever been but neither spoke to each other as they didn't know what to say.

Not only had they kissed once, but they had kissed twice and the two hadn't even spoken about it as they just rode back to the castle and went their separate ways after a soft goodnight was shared between them and from there it was as if it never happened. Genevieve was struggling with it all, she had an unrequited need to see Edmund again and to place her lips onto his again, It was as if after a little taste of his lips she had become addicted and she knew it was wrong, so wrong on so many levels but it was as if she couldn't function without it.

It was as if these feelings she had for Edmund couldn't end until her body ceases to function and her soul is released for whatever comes after. She hoped that somehow they are embedded into my soul, that their odd recognition of love would endure. Even on her dark days in the week her unknowing love for him rode underneath it all, keeping her mind from sinking into the mire that claimed her in the past. She knew that however deep she feared she'd fallen in the last decade, he would always be there like solid ground to steady her, giving her time to climb back into positivity and she didn't understand it. It was as if he was able to momentarily keep her heart together, like a safety pin keeping two pieces of fabric together, as he patched up all her problems until she felt so much better.

Genevieve sighed as she closed her book, knowing full well that she had been reading the same paragraph over and over for the last few hours, and laid down on the grass as she watched the sun slip beyond the horizon. She wanted to speak to him but she didn't know what to say. She needed to apologise, for not telling him why she asked him to kiss her in the first place but the truth is she didn't know how to apologise to him and when she did, tell him why she did it. She couldn't just go up to him and say Hi, Ed. Apologies for asking you to kiss me, it's just so I could evaluate all my options for marriage could she? Genevieve sighed again as she stood up and walked around the castle where she had a clear view of Edmund's clearly broken window (which she may or may not have broken last week) and balcony. Genevieve could see the light was on in his room and she could see a shadow silhouette pacing by the curtains and Genevieve sighed as she picked up some stones off the floor and looked to the cracked part of the window before she threw the stone.

Edmund however, after spending half an hour pacing around the room, settled himself on the corner of his bed, ready to indulge himself in a bit of reading before the evening was spent. The binding creaked, its spine aching with age and service, only for there to be little surprise when blossoms fell to his breast. Edmund pressed between pages he had hardly marked but the day before. He leaned his head back and placed the book over his eyes, allowed its knowledge to press gently against his eyelids. A smile crept and the air grew thick with a tenderness that couldn't help but make him breathe slower, deeper, happier. So someone was after his heart yet again.

Pat

Pat

Pat

Edmund lifted the book from his head as he lifted his head to try and see where the patting was coming from before he saw things being thrown at his wonder, one making it through where Genevieve had broken it last week accidentally. Edmund picked up the stone that on the floor and examined it, finding nothing curious about it before he opened his curtains and opened the glass window/door before walking onto the balcony and looking down, the stone still in his grasp as he noticed his best friend down on the ground, a sheepish smile on her face.

"Genevieve it's late." Edmund informed her and Genevieve just looked at him.

"We need to talk Ed, we can't keep avoiding each other." Genevieve told him straight and Edmund nodded before throwing the stone back down to her, which she caught as she smiled at him.

"I'll be right down."

"No, I'll come up." Genevieve said before she took a deep breath and started climbing the vines and shrub that covered the walls up to the balcony. Genevieve was doing well until she slipped at the last moment, closing her eyes as she waited to hit the ground but she didn't. Genevieve opened her eyes and realised that she hadn't fallen because she was being held in a tight grip - Edmund's grip.

"After all this time you're still clumsy?" Edmund questioned her with a laugh as he released his grip around her and allowed her to stand properly on the balcony.

"Guilty as always Ed." Genevieve giggled at him as they shared a soft smile.

"So..."

"Ed I'm so sorry for asking you to kiss me and then not explaining why. I was just so overwhelmed and confused because of Lucy and the marriage ordeal even Peter is getting on my nerves about it and I know you probably regret it but-" Genevieve rambled and Edmund just smirked at her for a moment, loving the way her face looked when she rambled.

"Gen..." Edmund started as he took her soft hand in his own. "I don't regret a thing."

"You don't?" She asked timidly, her eyes meeting his with held emotions she couldn't quite decipher.

"Why would I regret something that I thoroughly enjoyed?" Edmund asked as he smirked, watching as her cheeks went red as she looked away with a smile gracing her features.

"You...enjoyed it?" Genevieve questioned him again, not looking into his eyes until Edmund turned her face to face him as he caressed her cheek, a loving look in his eye. Their foreheads managed to press against each other again and Edmund was entranced in her eyes which seemed to be staring at him with an emotion he couldn't read.

"Can I?" He whispered to her, his hand under her chin as he made her look at her him and she nodded, unable to utter a word to him.

Finally his lips touched hers. Sparks flew in every direction, and the world was slowly disappearing around them, along with all of their worries, their troubles and their problems. She made him feel like none of that mattered. It was a small yet warm kiss and Genevieve honestly never knew a kiss so innocent could be so intimate and electrifying. Unexpectedly, his hand drifted to her hip. It settled there and pulled her closer. She inhaled sharply. She was against his warm chest, chiseled to perfection under his shirt. She splayed her hand against it, intending to push him away, but instead she left it there. His breathing quickened as did hers. He began nuzzling her neck with delicate kisses. So faint, they were whispers. She urged herself to push away, but couldn't. Her limp body began to tremble uncontrollably. His head was angled slightly to the side as his lips came closer and closer to hers. She was surprised to find her own lips parted. Their breaths mingled. Her heart fluttered inside her chest. At first, it was a delicate butterfly of a kiss. Then his arms encircled her and she slowly pushed him away.

"Ed..." She whispered, her voice drawling off as she couldn't find the words to say to him so she just smiled at her as they caught their breaths and Genevieve studied him thoroughly.

When he looked at her it was as if every ounce of breath was taken from her lungs floating into the air like midnight smoke. Every time he kissed her it felt like the world stopped, leaving just the two of them to wander the earth together. Every time he held her face between his hands it felt like he was untying all of her knots. Holding her for eternity in the arms she'd grown so accustomed to. This is what falling in love was like, a story you never wanted to end. For so long she had longed for it, and now she can't bare to lose it - lose this thing that makes her feel so complete.

They just waited on the balcony, held in each others arms as neither uttered a word as they forgot what was happening around them.

And didn't realise that somebody was watching with an unamused expression from above.