Not Asleep. LOTR: Riding (Legolas/Gimli)
Okay, I had gone to bed. I was lying there in the dark. And then this decided to pop up, and I knew if I went to sleep it would be gone by morning. Grrr. Not sure if this is it, or if it's the beginning of something longer. Any feedback/comments always welcome regardless.
Riding (LOTR, L/G)
By our third day on horseback, he gained enough ease to loosen his clench upon my waist. When we mounted again after a pause at noon, his hand slipped to rest upon my thigh, and he did not regard it. I could feel the low rumble of his voice in his chest as he spoke with Aragorn, and the heat of each separate finger like a brand, heavy as iron upon me.
* * *
I had ridden beside him before, long miles, else I would not have noticed there was something like stiffness in his shoulders. I thought him wearied by sharing a mount. We stopped for the night, and the two of us walked a short way afield, looking for forage. I told him Gimli might ride with me the next day. He refused in haste, before I had hardly finished speaking, and he would not meet my eyes.
I said nothing more.
* * *
There was faint color in his face when they came back to the fire that had caught under my flint and tinder. I did not ask what they had been talking about.
There had been little enough room in my mind for much beyond staying on the blasted horse. Ridiculous place for a dwarf, dangling above the ground on one of these great beasts. It had seemed a lesser evil to leave my hand unmoving upon him, even when I felt him stir beneath it and realized my mistake.
I was more careful, the next day, to keep my hands resting on my own legs. Yet before the morning wore away, he leaned back against me, and I saw the color rise again, slight but marked along his neck.
I put my hands back on him, and he trembled a little, like a sword under the hammer, nearly ready for cooling.
Well hey, at least I wrote something new in one year. :>
Riding (LOTR, L/G)
By our third day on horseback, he gained enough ease to loosen his clench upon my waist. When we mounted again after a pause at noon, his hand slipped to rest upon my thigh, and he did not regard it. I could feel the low rumble of his voice in his chest as he spoke with Aragorn, and the heat of each separate finger like a brand, heavy as iron upon me.
* * *
I had ridden beside him before, long miles, else I would not have noticed there was something like stiffness in his shoulders. I thought him wearied by sharing a mount. We stopped for the night, and the two of us walked a short way afield, looking for forage. I told him Gimli might ride with me the next day. He refused in haste, before I had hardly finished speaking, and he would not meet my eyes.
I said nothing more.
* * *
There was faint color in his face when they came back to the fire that had caught under my flint and tinder. I did not ask what they had been talking about.
There had been little enough room in my mind for much beyond staying on the blasted horse. Ridiculous place for a dwarf, dangling above the ground on one of these great beasts. It had seemed a lesser evil to leave my hand unmoving upon him, even when I felt him stir beneath it and realized my mistake.
I was more careful, the next day, to keep my hands resting on my own legs. Yet before the morning wore away, he leaned back against me, and I saw the color rise again, slight but marked along his neck.
I put my hands back on him, and he trembled a little, like a sword under the hammer, nearly ready for cooling.
Well hey, at least I wrote something new in one year. :>