[i saw a pretty artĀ and it inspired me so i ficced. mea culpa?]
He can feel Cabeswater breathing. He thinks of the steady, low thrum beneath his feet as the heartbeat, and laced through that is the gentle swell and ebb of...something. Energy. Life. Breath.
Donāt go, Cabeswater says, and he feels something cool and soft brush his ankle, the greedy cling of a young, tender vine. The tendril inches up under the worn cuff of his jeans, and he fights the impulse to kick it loose. Please donāt go.
He closes his eyes and lets himself feel it, the watery cling and sorrow of a dreamplace. A golden kind of sound hangs in the air, like a song waiting for a voice, and it stirs a deep, restless longing in him.
You have Aurora here to keep you company, he thinks toward the heartbeat, and the vine lets go quickly, slithering into the ground. Iāll visit when I come back. I wonāt be gone forever.
The vine snaps back, and it brings others, older, stronger, bursting up out of the ground. They latch around him, and a thousand tiny voices shimmer in the leaves. Donāt leave us!
āIām sorry,ā Adam whispers. āI canāt stay.ā
Then there are hands, large and rough and somehow familiar, cupping his jaw, his neck, fingers pushing into his hair. The vines release him and the air stills, Cabeswater holding its breath -- or is it just that he canāt catch his?
āPlease.ā The voice is as rough and warm as the hands, and just as familiar; even before he opens his eyes, he knows. Ronan stares at him, gaunt and shadowed, and the trees yearn toward them both, the way Adam can feel Ronan reaching for him and himself reaching back, a sweet ache pulsing through his hands where he clenches them by his side.
He tries to keep his eyes open when Ronanās mouth brushes his, open and tender and testing, not quite a kiss. Thereās a thrumming golden heat in the space between them, and when Adam inhales Ronanās exhale, he thinks he must know how the first man felt, lurching into life with the breath of God inside him.
āI love you,ā Ronan whispers, so quiet heād think he imagined it if it werenāt seared into his skin. Thereās a rough scrape of denim under his palms, Ronanās hips bony and sharp when he presses against him. āPlease donāt go.ā
He can feel a galaxy of stars sparking to life everywhere they touch, a universe being born in their kiss, shivering and sliding together. When it fades, he opens his eyes and finds Ronan watching him, waiting. He nods slowly, grip tightening on Ronanās hips. āOkay.ā
Ronan and Cabeswater release their held breath at the same time, and Ronanās smile tastes like the sun.