News to share. (Tag Faramir [OTA, threads assumed to happen before one with Faramir])

[needsthumpin]

The Ribbon smelled of beef stew, and warm bread. Kerai put a pot of crocuses on the table, and fussed a little with it's placement, wanting deeply to honor the one who was coming.

She wiped her hands on a towel, and smiled at her own nerves. She went back into the main room, resolved to wait calmly for her visitor.

Comments

[faramir_hurin]

Kerai wanted to see me, and now seems like a fine time. She said she had news, though she also said that she was well so I'm thinking it's good news. When I arrive at the Ribbon, it certainly seems welcoming (though it always does) and I do think it will be something good. Perhaps the stew could be for comfort, but the flowers are a little joy.

"I came as soon as I could, like my message said." She seems a bit nervous, but I don't know if good or bad. "You are looking well."

Not quite so thin as usual, not pinched.

[needsthumpin]

"I am well, thank you. You also look well, but that is not unusual." She smiled.

"I hope you still do after we eat. I made the food myself...except for the bread -- that is Mrs. Laura's."

[faramir_hurin]

"It smells very good," I say by way of compliment. "You're learning to cook, then. Is that why you have the healthy glow about you?"

I give a mock-stern look.

"I only mean that you look well-fed and... not exactly content. Your body is perhaps content." Like with Richard eating solid, healthy food and not protein waffles.

[needsthumpin]

"I have been working hard to eat well, according to the advice Dr. Huxtable gave me, and I will keep working at it, for the next seven months or so, to give the baby the best beginning I can."

[faramir_hurin]

"Dr. Huxtable?" Wait. "Baby?"

I am truly looking at her now, though all I see is a young lady, slim, in good health. It is too soon for there to be anything else, little as I know about it.

"Baby!? Truly?" I walk over to her slowly, hoping for a nod or some other affirmative action. I am going to hug her so tightly...

[needsthumpin]

Kerai nodded, breathless, eyes locked on his face.

[faramir_hurin]

It's obvious that she's not upset, not with all she has done and her healthy appearance. If she were upset, I would know even without Long Sight. That gives me free rein to let my happiness show--and pick her off the floor in a hug that I hope isn't too much for her condition.

"Kerai, that's wonderful." She was so worried about the possibility and now it's becoming real, but without the massive concern she had before. I can't believe I'm this excited.

[needsthumpin]

Kerai was both laughing and crying, as she clung to him.

"I'm so very happy. I used to be happy, and frightened, but now what frightens me is that I'm so happy I don't know how to feel so much joy." Which may not make any sense at all.

[faramir_hurin]

I'm laughing too.

"I used to think that I was not allowed to be happy. We are, both of us. Chuck, too." I'm going to have a little niece or nephew, sort of. "How excited is he? Do you glow together?"

[needsthumpin]

"Tremulously, I believe is the word for the way we glow, like candles new lit, but we glow." She pulled back to look in his face.

"Don't leave, please. I want you to be here. I want her to know you."

[faramir_hurin]

"We do not get to choose our coming and going, you know." I can understand her being worried. What if Chuck should go? What if she does?

"I think, and have thought for a long time, that I could go home if I wished it enough. I just think there's a reason I'm here. It's more than learning a lesson, I just have the feeling that I am supposed to stay here." I don't know why. "I'll go home eventually, but I think I'll not leave for a while."

It did not escape me that Kerai said 'she', but the village told her that already, even as it brought Glaurmir back to me.

[needsthumpin]

"Among my people, after the parents, the person who is most looked up to by the children in the family is the mother's older brother if there is one." She cleared her throat.

"I do not have one of the blood that is willing, but if you and we are still here, would you stand in that stead?"

[faramir_hurin]

"Kerai, I already feel as though I am your older brother. I would be honoured to stand in that stead." I blink a few times, but I know I can keep tears away.

"I am so glad that I know you and that..." I have to stop and laugh a bit. "That I was so slow in realizing all that time ago just what I could have had. You found Chuck, and it's so right."

She and I could not have been that way. It worked out perfectly, as I see things now.

[needsthumpin]

"I...am also glad of that." She frowned trying to phrase her thoughts in ways that didn't sound insulting.

"I needed someone for whom I could be everything, and you were not that someone, you are so sufficient in yourself. And the ill fit would have...worn on you, made you feel bad. You deserve better than that."

[faramir_hurin]

"I could not give all you needed, which I knew quite soon after you found Chuck. I could not be there for you when you woke in the morning--every morning--and I see how good he has been to you and for you. It's worth the hurt I felt then, because you got what was better, perhaps best, for you out of it all." What a strange thing, but my extreme lack of understanding then led to this.

"You deserve someone for whom you are everything. I cannot say enough how pleased I am for you, and for Chuck. I do not know him very well, but perhaps I will get to know him better now. I know his life has not been easy either and he deserves happiness too."

I laugh.

"I suppose there is time yet for him to become terrified about being a father." I believe they will do well.

[needsthumpin]

"We both had our terror to get over before we could even think of such a thing," Kerai laughed.

"I'm certain a little more terror will have seeped back into the will by the time the babe is due to be born, but for now there is only damp at the bottom." She let go the hug, but retained hold of his hand, and drew him in, and toward the table.

"Come in, sit. And tell me all that is happening with you."

The stew was in a slow cooker, and she served it by the simple expedient of placing a thick pad on the table, then the crock from inside the cooker upon it, and putting a ladle in. The bread, was served on a breadboard, too warm to slice, so Kerai tore it into several pieces, and there was butter, on a plate. No great sophistication. For drink there was cider.