ext_354691 ([identity profile] fallen-april.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] milliways_bar2007-01-18 10:38 pm
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Sometimes disappearing into one's room for a few days to work on an idea is a good thing to do. And that's what April's been doing the past few days. That and teaching a certain troublesome kitten to use the litterbox.

However, she is downstairs now, sans notebook and kitten, and is sitting by the observation windows with a mug of hot chocolate, sipping on it slowly while she watches the universe end.

She is more than open to conversation.

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-19 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
Faramir slips out of his chair and into the one beside her instead of across. He rests a hand gently on her shoulder.

"Was it painful?"

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-19 05:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Faramir lowers his hand, slowly, the way he would approach a frightened animal, until his fingers brush against the line on her arm.

"Fear," he says in a low, rough voice, "is... a great motivator. Even to the end of life. That is where my own story starts. I think you know it."

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
Faramir pulls his hand away. He becomes instantly and expertly alone within himself.

"What... part would you like me to recount?"

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
Faramir closes his eyes.

"Lately I have had... dreams. Call them nightmares, or visions -- I do not know which is closer to the truth. But I have seen through sleeping eyes my father's death. I have felt again the fire in my flesh, and smelled the smoke and the ashes -- not merely those of the fire I was saved from, but the ever-present plaguewinds bearing ashes from Mordor into Ithilien... my own land now, Ithilien..."

He opens his eyes, pale and grey. "And then I dream of my mother."

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
"I dream that we stand upon a high wall overlooking the sea in Dol Amroth, and the gulls circle above us. It is like another dream I have of the wave that covers everything. It comes, oh yes. And it rushes towards us, but the wall his high, and we are safe. She is afraid for me, but even as she stands to protect me, I push her into the surging water. I look down at my hands, and they are my father's, wrinkled and old." He pauses, breathing deeply. "I hardly remember my mother's death. I was too young. But she always longed to be near the sea, where she was born. But for the River Anduin nearby, Minas Tirith was landlocked."

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 04:43 am (UTC)(link)
"The dream ends," he says softly, "in darkness. I flee from all things and am alone. And that is all. Loneliness."

He cannot look at her. He dislikes confessing any pain that is so deep to him.

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
He freezes. It's so unexpected a thing, and he is so unused to physical affection. He's not sure whether he should sit still and thank her, or return the gesture... but eventually, slowly, automatically, he finds his arms around her, and his head against her shoulder.

And it's just a little harder to breathe.

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 05:30 am (UTC)(link)
He takes a deep breath and slowly, painfully, wrenches himself away from her.

"Thank you," he says, his own voice slightly unsteady.

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
Faramir isn't sure what miracles are anymore.

"You... are a good friend. I am happy that Boromir has found you."

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
Faramir sits quiet and still and peers hauntedly at the window.

His hands in his lap twist the hem of his tunic with silent desperation: the only crack in his otherwise calm mask.

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
The Prince squeezes his eyes tightly shut.

"I should go."

He doesn't move.

[identity profile] gentleprince.livejournal.com 2007-01-20 06:15 am (UTC)(link)
He does not, as a habit, lie.

"Because it's exactly the opposite of what I think I want to do."

And it has nothing to do with attraction. Nothing to do with anything like that. She's Boromir's, and somewhere out in space and time, he has an Eowyn who he is loyal to not because he is honor-bound to be, but because no other woman in this or any other universe could ever satisfy his heart the way she did in their short time together.

It's all to do with the fact that she's the one who took his hand. He feels like a child awakening from bad dreams...

...but it's been 33 years since the last time he was a child awakening from dark dreams and had anyone to go to but his brother.