第 119 页

“Are you enjoying the taste of my sweater?” Curufin cocked an eyebrow, and Finrod grinned and nibbled at the wool.

“Mmm, delicious.”

Outside on the quad, the clock tower chimed the hour, and Curufin started slightly, moving under Finrod’s weight resting against him, then settled down, his hands smoothing over Finrod’s chest and then coming to rest on his shoulders. This time, when Finrod bent down, he caught Curufin’s lips deliberately and kissed him, long and slow, and Curufin’s hands tightened on his shoulders before pulling him closer.

By the time the clock tower chimed again, a half hour later, they both started up in some surprise, Curufin’s hair ruffled and Finrod’s cheeks flushed. A neat pile of papers on the desk had been disturbed.

“Is it 5:30 already?”

“Let me check my… Yes, I suppose it is.” Finrod leaned over to check his phone, then rested his forehead against Curufin’s. His collar was undone and his eyes were shining, his hands re-settling at Curufin’s hips. “Do you need to head out?”

“No, they cancelled my lab.” Curufin twisted his fingers through Finrod’s hair with enough of an edge of roughness that Finrod caught his breath, his flush deepening.

“Curvo – ”

Curufin smiled. “Do you like this?” he whispered. “Nothing but a thin door between us and the world? Do you like it unkempt and filthy?”

“Mmm, I – ” Finrod’s eyes flicked over Curufin’s body, and then to the floor. He frowned. “Filthy? Curvo, there are exactly two pieces of paper on the ground.”

“Like I said.” Curufin ran a hand through his tousled hair, rather pleased with himself. “And I’m sure I look a debauched mess.”

“You have maybe three hairs out of pl – You know what, it doesn’t matter.” Finrod caught Curufin around the waist and pulled him close, kissing him hungrily. “You are impossibly sexy either way.”

“Like ‘darling’,” murmured Curufin, widening his legs so that he could pull Finrod between them. “ ‘Sexy’ is not one of those words I am particularly fond of. Find another.”

“Maddening. You are utterly, impossibly, irresistibly maddening.”

“That I can live with,” said Curufin and wound his hands once more into Finrod’s hair. There was a busy silence for another few minutes, broken only by Finrod gasping slightly as Curufin bit at his lower lip. Then Curufin said, “I told my father about us.”

“That’s nice,” said Finrod distractedly, and then he pulled back from Curufin’s hands. “Wait, what? Say that again.”

Curufin ran his tongue over his lips. “I told my father about us.”

“Oh. What did he say?”

Curufin shrugged. “He already knew.”

“What?”

“He saw us outside the hospital that night.” Finrod’s arms had dropped back to his sides, and Curufin leaned back against the desk, casually flicking a hand through his hair to neaten it, straightening his collar. “It seems he was just waiting for me to tell him myself.”

“Why didn’t he ask you?”

“He thought maybe ‘it’ hadn’t lasted.” Curufin examined a loose thread on his sleeve. “Which to be fair wasn’t an unreasonable expectation.”

“Oh no?” said Finrod softly.

Curufin ignored this. “He didn’t explicitly criticize my choice, though. I mean, he didn’t comment on you one way or the other, but he did not air any personal objections.”

“That’s…something.” Finrod had pulled back slightly.

“I mean, I don’t think he was delighted, but he said he wasn’t going to fight these battles anymore.” Curufin looked studiously at the carpet. “Which I suppose means at one point he would have fought my decision, but now it doesn’t rank as a priority.”

Finrod pulled in a breath and let it out in a long sigh, like something had just become clear to him. He laid his hand on Curufin’s leg. “Curvo, when was the last time your father reacted to something you did with anything but explicit praise and support?”

Curufin’s face was expressionless. “Probably the time I called him and told him we weren’t going to speak anymore.”

Finrod touched Curufin’s cheek. “Is this why you’re feeling so ‘reckless’?”

“Of course not.” Curufin scoffed. “I just wanted to mention it had happened, and I forgot about it until now.”

“Maybe it would be a good idea for me to actually meet your father. I don’t think he and I have actually interacted much all these years, and this way he could get a better sense of who I am and my – ”

“No.” Curufin shook his head decisively.

“You don’t want us to get to know each other?”

“You don’t understand how these things work. Not with him. Don’t push yourself onto him.”

“I wasn’t going to push myself anywhere, Curvo,” said Finrod, his voice a little sharp.

Curufin narrowed his eyes. “Don’t get all offended on me, it’s not like you’ve rushed me home to introduce me to your family either.”

“That’s not fair! I would love to – ”

“Whatever, that’s not the point. The point is that you don’t have to fall over yourself to try and make my father like you, he has enough to handle right now without another bit of melodramatic family theater. He has to deal with his step brother very publicly announcing an attention-grabbing congressional bid, and the last thing he needs is further distraction from that side of the family.”

Finrod’s eyes flashed, but his voice was calm. “I do apologize on behalf of that side of the family. The sheer nerve of us living our lives without getting your father’s approval.”

Curufin’s face darkened in anger, and he started to respond angrily. Then, abruptly, he laughed.

Finrod glowered at him.

Curufin put his head on the side and regarded him. “You should be scathing more often, Ingo, it’s kind of refreshing.”

"What an effective derailment of my emotional response."

"Yes, it was, wasn't it?"

Finrod sucked in a breath, his momentary anger fading slightly. “Contrary to popular opinion, I am capable of losing my temper.”

“I know. It's good for you to practice being angry on occasion.”

"I'll keep that in mind." Finrod's posture loosened somewhat, and he leaned forward against Curufin again. “After all, I am always eager to keep you refreshed.”

"Good." Curufin touched Finrod's lips a moment, then pushed at him impatiently. “Move up.”

Finrod shifted over so they were side by side leaning against the desk, and Curufin straightened his sleeves in a businesslike way. Finrod watched him.

“Are we just done now?”

Curufin started, almost losing his balance. “What? Are we done?” He stared at Finrod.

“Done with,” Finrod gestured to their rumpled clothes. “Making out, I mean. We seem to have shifted gears into, well, fighting instead.” He glanced at Curufin and his expression softened. He carefully smoothed down the shoulder of Curufin’s shirt. “I’m not done with you.”

Curufin nodded, and pointed. “Your shirt is unbuttoned.”

Finrod did up his collar and laid his hand on the desk, his fingers brushing against Curufin’s. They stayed in silence for a while, and then Curufin turned his head. Fixing his eyes somewhere around Finrod’s throat, he said carefully, “I am not used to making choices of which my father does not fully approve. I mean, in the past year or so I have gotten slightly more accustomed to the notion, given certain circumstances, but I hardly planned to make a habit of it or anything. For the most part, my opinions and those of my father have aligned, and that is a notion I am comfortable with.”

“To be fair, he hasn’t explicitly disagreed or objected. Remember his reactions to your brothers; he practically disinherited Maitimo and Tyelkormo. Isn’t this better?”

“Well, obviously. But I don’t want his approval simply because he’s too exhausted to have opinions on our lives anymore.” Curufin scowled. “This bland acceptance because it’s better than a fight…that’s barely better than disapproval. I’d rather elicit an emotional reaction of any kind, positive or otherwise, than some sort of defeated default.”

“Because your assumption is that if he doesn’t say convincingly enough that he is happy and delighted, then he must secretly be opposed.”

“Not even that secretly. I know he is opposed to my decision, he’s just not saying so.” Curufin looked at his lap and smoothed his hands over his thighs to press away any wrinkles in the fabric. “Being on the other side of something from him is new. It makes me…question myself. I do not like questioning myself.”

“I can understand that,” said Finrod softly.

“It takes some adjustment, is all.”

“I can understand that too.”

Curufin’s jaw worked, and he swallowed once or twice before he finally said, “I’m not done with you either.”

Finrod didn’t say anything, but leaned forward and kissed the corner of Curufin’s mouth. Curufin closed his eyes and turned his head and kissed him back, his fingers curling around Finrod's on the desk. Almost unconsciously, they shifted around to face each other, and their feet stirred the pages that had fluttered to the ground. Outside, the clock chimed a third time, but it was a long time before they paid it any heed.

* * *

“Ouch,” said Glorfindel, and shifted his elbow.

Ecthelion immediately stopped moving. “Are you okay? Did I do something – Should we – ”

“No, it’s fine!” Glorfindel grinned over his shoulder. “Just had a little – oof – charley horse, but lemme stretch out my arm and we’ll be set.”

“Do you want to rearrange? Maybe another position will be more comfortable for you.”

“That’s okay, I like this fine.” Glorfindel reached back to touch Ecthelion’s hip reassuringly. “Keep going.”

Ecthelion nodded, and started moving again, and Glorfindel closed his eyes and dropped his head back on Ecthelion’s shoulder.

“Ahh.”

“Does that feel okay?”

“Yes.” Glorfindel hooked a leg behind Ecthelion’s knee, spreading his legs further apart and securing Ecthelion against his back. “Mm, yes.”

“Good. You – Oh, god, you feel really good, Glorfindel.” Ecthelion’s breathing was heavy, his hands shaking a little where he clutched at Glorfindel’s hips, and he moved them up, wrapping his arms over Glorfindel’s chest. “I can’t believe how good you feel.”

“And here I thought I was going to be a letdown,” said Glorfindel breathlessly, and Ecthelion made a muffled noise of protest. “I thought you were supposed to spend all your time in the barracks imagining this, and getting yourself riled up for how mind-blowing I am in bed.” He laughed. “Joke’s on you, there, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”

“You’re doing a very good job,” said Ecthelion, panting, and pushed Glorfindel’s hair aside to kiss his neck. “You need to be reprimanded for suggesting you could ever be a letdown, but yes, you are correct, I spent quite a bit of my nights in the barracks imagining this. Oh! Damn.”

“What?”

“The condom came off.”

Glorfindel laughed again and collapsed down onto his side as Ecthelion pulled back and rummaged around for a while. “Comedy of errors, huh?”

“I’m sorry,” said Ecthelion, who was trying to grab more lube from the bedside table without falling off the bed. “I should be far better coordinated than this.”

“No worries,” said Glorfindel, propping his head on his hand as he waited. “This gives me a chance to really examine your room, seeing as I didn’t get much of a chance to look earlier before we dove into bed. It’s quite a… room. Don’t you think you might be taking ‘Spartan’ a little too literally?”

“I got rid of a lot of my stuff before basic.”

“Yes. Like, everything.” Glorfindel raised his eyebrows as he scanned the sparse shelves. “Not to say I don’t like being somewhere private with you, no matter the furnishings, but ‘monastic cell’ might be more accurate description for this than ‘bedroom.’ If it wasn’t for the fact that you’re looking for another condom right now I’d be wondering if you took a vow to have sex with no one but God.”

“I promise I took no vows.” Ecthelion was back, his chest solid against Glorfindel’s back, his voice a warm murmur in Glorfindel’s ear. “Do you want to keep talking about my décor, or do you want to keep going?”

Glorfindel smiled brilliantly and tipped his head back until he could kiss Ecthelion on the lips. “I could do both, I’ve gotten really good at multi-tasking.”

“Have you?”

“Yes. Since you left, I’ve gotten really good at talking to you on the phone with one hand and…not talking with the other.”

“Those phone calls helped my barracks imaginings quite a bit, let me tell you.” Ecthelion sat up and tapped Glorfindel’s hip gently to urge him up with him. This time he pulled Glorfindel up onto his knees and slid against him from behind so that Glorfindel was straddling his lap. “Can we try it like this?”

“Yes.” Glorfindel shifted experimentally, and slipped a little. “Damn, Thel, think you used enough lube?”

“The bottle got – ah – away from me…”

The bed creaked complainingly once or twice and then settled into a steady, low creaking beneath the less steady breaths and half cut-off moans. As Glorfindel pressed his hips back, Ecthelion gasped and then coughed as he half inhaled a strand of Glorfindel’s hair.

“Hah, shit. Sorry!” Glorfindel reached back, making to tie his hair into a knot, but Ecthelion grabbed his wrist and folded his arms around Glorfindel’s chest, immobilizing him.

“Leave it,” he whispered, burying his face in Glorfindel’s hair. “Leave it, please.” Glorfindel shifted, his hair falling back over his shoulders, and Ecthelion groaned. “Glorfindel - ”

“Yeah?”

“I’m getting close.”

Glorfindel laughed again, delighted. “Yes. Do whatever you have to – Oh dang, charley horse again.”

Ecthelion groaned as Glorfindel resettled himself. “Ahh, please…”

“Like that?”

“Yes. Oh god, Glorfindel…” Ecthelion’s arms tightened convulsively around Glorfindel’s chest, and Glorfindel closed his eyes, throwing his head back and his own breath quickening as Ecthelion shook silently through his orgasm.

It took Ecthelion a minute to collect himself, but then he extricated himself carefully, pressing a tender kiss to Glorfindel’s shoulder before he shifted back and Glorfindel toppled over to the sheets with a pleased groan. Ecthelion slipped off the condom and tied it off, then returned to Glorfindel on the bed, who was lying happily against the pillows.

“You didn’t finish,” whispered Ecthelion, running his hands down Glorfindel’s chest. “Let me do something for you.”

“Mmm.” Glorfindel caught Ecthelion’s hand and kissed it. “Don’t worry about it.”

“But – ”

“Trust me, I am very happy.” Glorfindel stretched out and pulled Ecthelion against him, kissing him to demonstrate the veracity of his happiness, and Ecthelion yielded to being pulled against his shoulder.

“If you say so.”

They lay together, Glorfindel still grinning irrepressibly at the ceiling while Ecthelion closed his eyes and nuzzled at Glorfindel’s throat. It was a moment of almost impeccable peace and contentment.

The calm was broken by brisk footsteps in the hallway, a perfunctory knock, and the door opening almost immediately.