(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

{from here}

Sinric waits quietly in the light of the doorway, his eyes down until he heard Athelstan's footfall on the stairs of the veranda. He rises to offer Athelstan his arm. "You should come in where it's warm."

Comments

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric shakes his head. "You are not without me. I will always be here." He presses a hand over Athelstan's heart. "As I will always be."

[athelstanthescribe]

"I pray the door never steals you away from me. From us."

[thewidewideworld]

"Nothing, not even magic can keep us apart forever. I am in your heart as you are in mine. They are the compasses that will guide us home." He promises, kissing Athelstan's cheek as he starts to sing. This one is in an old form of Latin, the song of a sailor on his way home to the one he loves. For a heavily gendered language, the words give no indication of the lover's sex.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Find us", Athelstan says softly, stroking Sinric's shoulders. "If not here, then find us in our own time."

It never even occurs to him Sinric could forget them.

[thewidewideworld]

"I will." Sinric promises. How could he ever forget them when they are so much a part of him. "Even if I am old and ugly, I will find you."

[athelstanthescribe]

"And we'll love you still", Athelstan promises, "if the world hasn't changed your heart."

[thewidewideworld]

He shakes his head. "I would rather lose my heart than have to turn away from the people I love most."

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan nods. "As would I. Long may your love survive, then, even if you are kept away from us."

[thewidewideworld]

"Long may both our loves live, till we find each other again and can refresh our souls with each other's joy." He whispers, almost as a prayer before kissing Athelstan again.

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan sighs into the kiss, contented.

"I never forget one I've loved."

[thewidewideworld]

"Not you, nor Ragnar, nor my beloved Constantine. You are all as much a part of my being as my own blood." Sinric settles against Athelstan, at least letting the lethargy weight down his limbs.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Do you need to sleep, my love?"

[thewidewideworld]

"No." He tries to stifle the yawn that makes a liar of him. "I feel heavy and wonderfully sated. It is not a feeling I get to rejoice in often."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Then rejoice in it now." He touches Sinric's cheek. "As long as you can fight the sleep I see gaining on you."

[thewidewideworld]

"If you were healed, I would throw you down and wrestle with you now just to prove how awake and alert I am." Sinric growls playfully but his dark eyes are heavy and showing it."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Oh!" He mocks a look of fear. "Then I should be thankful I'm not healed yet."

[thewidewideworld]

"Hmm." Sinric growls playfully, kissing Athelstan's neck. "I'll let you off lightly this time."

Neither of them could suffer to be wrestled or held down but the joke is fun.

[athelstanthescribe]

As long as it's playful words, and he knows Sinric would never take it further than that, he can joke about it.

"Thank you for your mercy, Lord Sinric."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric falls into giggles ar that, unable to keep a straight face. "Lord Sinric?" Even the sound of it is ridiculous.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Perhaps it's a prediction. Perhaps you'll come back from the Far East a high lord of their empire."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric giggles again and settles down at Athelstan's side. "Decked all in silks and those soft little slippers with the pointed toes?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"You'd look wonderful. And who knows how men become lords there?"

[thewidewideworld]

"I do not. I shall have to ask Yan now that I speak his tongue better."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Is he in the palace now?"

[thewidewideworld]

He shakes his head. "Fortunately he and his father are due to our court soon. I was afraid I would now see him before the time came to go on campaign with my lord. We have much to plan."