Serious and Inconsequential matters.

Title: Serious and Inconsequential matters.
Author: Fishy (fishyz9@yahoo.com)
Beta: Kei.
Pairing: Glorfindel/Erestor.
Rating: PG15
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Notes: Fluff, slash, fluff.
Summary: Those three words exchanged.

Aditional note: This fic is quite similar to a previous one, just a reverse of roles, and a slightly different turn.

Serious and Inconsequential matters.


Satisfied with the small fire he had burning in the hearth, he stood straight, wiping the small remnants of soot from his hands down the front of his standard Imladris wear. His bow and quiver, along with sheathed sword, waited propped upon a stool near the door. Before donning them appropriately however, he glanced once more to the bed, and at the one who lay snuggled deeply and obliviously within the thick covers.

Well into the midst of winter were they, and cold mornings such as this were not unexpected. He sat upon the side of the bed, grinning at how Erestor had cocooned himself in the quilts and soft pillows for warmth. Looking briefly towards the window and judging by the dim light of dawn, he knew he would be expected in the courtyard soon. He reached to gently caress Erestor’s cheek, to stroke his hair, but smiled when realising Erestor was so engulfed in his sheets that he could only reach a single sleep-flushed cheek. He could see only one sleep glazed eye, and a tuft of mused black hair.

Shaking his head, he took a moment to simply look upon his fairly new and most precious lover. Erestor looked so perfect lying in his bed, in his sheets and in his room as if this were the very place he was always meant to have been. He wished only to lock Erestor in this room, to be greeted by such an adorable and stunningly peaceful homely scene every time he returned from his duties. But alas, too new was this courtship, and he had no right to yet make such playful pleas.

Leaning down, he kissed that flushed cheek just beneath the eye, and smiled as he heard Erestor’s breathing change from deep in slumber to sighing with wakefulness. He said nothing but watched, unaware of the loving expression on his face, as Erestor squinted one eye closed, then lifted his head briefly to look about his surroundings before resting back against the pillows and looking up at Glorfindel with the eye that was not hidden behind the pillow. His cheek became full and ripe as his lips, also hidden beneath the quilt he had pulled back up to over his nose, almost certainly smiled unabashedly.

“I love your bed,” he murmured. “I could live in your bed.”

“And there I could stay with you, content.” Glorfindel said, with an almost love sick sigh that he had given up any attempts to stifle and laughed quietly as he smoothed back the tussled black hair that now spread against the pillow.

Erestor grinned at having tickled the warrior so with his unkempt state, and felt a need to explain his less than pristine appearance. “’Tis a mess, I’m always a state in the mornings.”

“Nay, it is in the first light of dawn that you are at your most beautiful.”

“Beautiful,” Erestor repeated and, chuckling, lifted the quilt back over his head. He had never thought of himself as beautiful before, a trifle handsome perhaps, but no great beauty.

“Please,” Glorfindel said, a telling quiver of amusement in his voice, “let me look upon you before I must leave.”

Overcoming his uncharacteristic reaction to such simple yet touching words, he pulled down the quilt and tucked it beneath his arms. He watched with a skip in his heart as Glorfindel shifted and leaned one arm above him, just over his head, and gazed down as he ran a finger along Erestor’s chin.

“Winter bites bitterly this year. And my love for this bed only grows as does its warmth.”

“A fire is burning in the hearth, the room will warm up soon enough.”

“So thoughtful.”

“I know,” Glorfindel teased, and Erestor chuckled.

“I will be sure to extinguish it before I leave.”

“No,” Glorfindel near pouted as he grumbled. “Stay, always stay.”

Erestor laughed and took hold of the hand that caressed his cheek with his own. He entwined their fingers casually, pleased with how well they fit together.

“How much longer do I have you before you leave?”

“Only a bare few minutes, sweet Erestor.”

“Do not ‘sweet Erestor’ me. I am as shrew and sour as everyone says.”

“Nay, never,” And despite his mention of little time, Glorfindel began to relax against the bed, lying beside Erestor, his arm still resting above the dark head as their hands lazily swayed together in the air.

“I have an acid tongue.”

“You’re tongue is soft and dextrous.”

“My scowl is fearsome.”

“Adorable, damn it.”

“I am...”

“Stop it,” he chuckled and, smiling warmly, he leaned down to gently brush their lips together in a childlike, sweet touch. “Again I say, beautiful.”

Erestor sighed and took a breath that was deep and shaky, both from feeling what he felt, and from having Glorfindel so close, looking into him so clearly. "You make me beautiful, Glorfindel,” he whispered, almost coyly.

“Oh ….my,” Glorfindel breathed, grinning madly, and unable to think clearly whilst wrapped in their new closeness, here in this quaint and humble room that was steadily becoming warmer and warmer.

“I’m not letting you go, you know.”

“I must be out in the courtyard soon, you scamp.” Glorfindel huddled closer, feeling younger than his years would warrant, and touching their brows together as Erestor tilted his head up.

He saw Erestor quickly lick his lips, smile nervously, and then whisper in a cowardly quiet voice, “Not what I meant.”

“Erestor,” he breathed, closing his eyes at the romance of it all. Something foreign but utterly welcome to this old but suddenly rejuvenated elf. “I never thought I would have any of this. That such precious…” Words failed him for a moment. “Things such as this never happen to me.”

“We’re going to talk about… serious matters now, aren’t we?” Erestor asked, and he hunched his shoulder up to his ear, feeling rather nervous and showing it.

“I’m supposed to be in the courtyard…”

“Ah,”

Glorfindel reached out to tilt his chin up rather quickly, eager to soothe Erestor’s already unsure nerves. “They can wait.”

“Alright,” he nodded, and both lay there waiting for the other to speak. It was Erestor who succombed to nervous laughter first.

“Perhaps I should go meet my men after all,” Glorfindel spoke, chuckling at their cowardice.

“Perhaps.”

Glorfindel, after one last, lingering kiss, stood from the bed. He was pulling at the hem of his tunic, unaware of the mischievous grin Erestor wore behind him when with a ‘Umph’ he was pulled back down onto the bed and beneath the sheets.

“Erestor!” he laughed a moment later, as Erestor pulled the quilt over both of their heads.

Erestor’s shoulders shook as he laughed along. It was dark and stuffy beneath the sheets, which only served to spur on his silly mood. He rolled himself atop of Glorfindel and whilst rubbing his nose along Glorfindel’s, an old game between the young, his hand wriggled its way beneath Glorfindel’s tunic and now pulled at the laces of the warrior’s leggings.

“Ah-ah, now there isn’t time for that, as much as I wish there was. Oh how I wish there was.”

Erestor groaned in disappointment, but removed his hand none the less. “When do you return?” he practically purred.

Glorfindel pulled the quilt back down, stray strands of blond hair coming loose from their plaits, and his face slightly flushed. “This eve, Erestor.”

“Very well,” Erestor sighed.

He drew Glorfindel down firmly for another, deeper kiss, before pulling the sheets away from the warrior, and back around himself. “Off with you, whilst I still have what little will power remains to me.”

Glorfindel, with much regret, pulled himself from the bed and took up his quiver and sword, donning them appropriately.

“I am late,” he said plainly, neither accusing or that much caring, for his tardiness was made worthwhile by this quick spell of banter and tenderness with this new and maddening love.

“That you may be. What will you tell them?” Erestor asked, as he made himself perfectly at home and comfortable on Glorfindel’s bed, something that felt so right, and gladdened Glorfindel through and through to see.

“I shall tell them…” He thought for a moment as he absently adjusted the buckle of his belt. “I shall tell them that…that serious matters arose, of an inconsequential nature.” He spoke, and when Erestor frowned at the proposed contradiction, Glorfindel chuckled and, winking dashingly, added, “Just to confuse them.”

Erestor laughed aloud. “Delightful.”

With all fastenings buckled, Glorfindel stood ready to leave, “Well, I have no more plausible reasons to procrastinate any longer, now I shall really have to leave you lying as you are, naked in my bed.” He said it with such a genuine regret that Erestor smiled to him and beckoned him to the bed once more.

Such a simple thing as an embrace or ‘hug’ was taken for granted, Glorfindel thought. For as Erestor kissed him soundly, and then knelt up to hug him as his very own, just so, he sighed and pulled Erestor to him in a desperately tight hold.

With his hands roaming the slim back, barely finding strength to resist the smooth curve of Erestor’s behind, he heard the dark haired elf speak quietly into the crook of his neck.

“These serious and inconsequential matters you speak of….”

“Hmm,” he hummed, unrelenting in his embrace as he drew in every scent and groove of Erestor’s body deep into himself. The very feel of that soft, naked flesh against his own clothed form was on its very own, entirely unique and beautiful.

“As wise a distraction and fitting, if not confusing, explanation for your fellows as it is, you ah…”

“Yes?” It was on the tip of his tongue, dying to roll off, ‘yes, sweetheart?’ ‘yes beloved?’ ‘yes baby?’ ‘yes…husband?’

“You know that it is not serious but…crucial - for us both that is. And that…”

“Erestor…” and he did not restrain himself this time, “…sweetheart?” And even from that small, first endearment alone, it seemed as though he could feel Erestor try to move closer still, as if trying to crawl into him.

“And that it is not inconsequential in the very least, but deathly important for me, right? You know that?”

“I do.” He cupped the back of Erestor’s head, and stroked his hair and the length of his back once more. “Oh, I am right there with you, Erestor, do not doubt it. As frightening and new as it all is.”

“Good, good.”

He truly was late now, and as he slowly pulled away, he did not put up a fight as Erestor quickly drew him back.

“Just one more thing, before you go…”

“Anything, Erestor, tell me,”

“You know that…” He laughed suddenly, a nervous laugh, into the crook of Glorfindel’s neck. “Why is this so hard to say…?”

“Speak, speak to me.”

“You know that, that I am very much in love with yourself, yes?”

In momentary stunned silence he pulled back only a little to look into Erestor’s eyes, to face his suddenly flushed and very apprehensive lover. He stroked back mused hair, completely lost for words.

“Do you love me, Glorfindel?”

It was then he realised he had lapsed into blissfully shocked quietness for a moment too long. Without preamble he crushed their lips together, a hand gripping tightly at Erestor’s waist, the other cupping the back of his dark head as he plundered with a suddenness that made his beloved, yes, his beloved, gasp.

When they ended the kiss they were panting, and Erestor, confused, hopeful and near to yielding to anything that would have been asked of him right then, waited for Glorfindel to speak.

“Yes, yes, oh yes,” he crooned, then laughed and crooned and declared it again, “Yes.”

Erestor was smiling a wide, unafraid smile, one Glorfindel had never seen before, one that was so powerful, beautiful and entirely Erestor.

“I don’t know why but please, I need to hear it.”

“I love you.” He spoke, he felt, he rejoiced.

“You are kind to indulge an old heart that beats now as if it were young!” Erestor cried, cupping Glorfindel’s face, “I do not recollect ever feeling such bliss as this before.”

“I must be quite a picture,” Glorfindel said in a voice that did not sound like his own, still laughing, near to sobbing, utterly indescribable.

“Nay, you are beautiful.”

Glorfindel leaned close, close enough for his words to be read without the aid of speech even, and whispered, “You make me beautiful, Erestor.”

~*~

It had been hard to leave after such profound happenings, to tear each other away from a fumbling and naked embrace, clothing once again hastily discarded. Mismatching, misplacing, wet desperate kisses that could not have been more divine. The need to be connected again, to prove their words, had been propelled into the forefronts of their minds and made most apparent and imperative to them. Desperate and quick, both ungraceful and completely beautiful were their cries, closed eyes, strained muscles and ground-shifting climaxes.

He had found some resolve, a small and very much begrudging sense of duty, from somewhere deep within his conscience and had pulled himself away, leaving Erestor within his bed, naked, happy and peaceful in knowing that he could, in fact, live in that bed for as long as he wished.

He had faced his men, comically uncaring of every tapping foot and smirk, as he declared he had been attending to ‘crucial’ matters of deathly importance, so much more than serious, and not in the least ‘inconsequential’. He had ridden off with his bemused men, feeling braver and hardier than any other.

And Erestor? Erestor had remained in his bed, with a satisfied sigh, making the warmth between those sheets his home.

The End.