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“Can you feel his face?”
It was late and they were nursing brandies before the fire in Hal’s living room.
“The body’s?” said Bolaire. “Yes, in a way. That is, I know where he ends and I begin.”
“I’ve been watching you eat,” said Hal. His eyes were in shadow, obscured but for a rim of firelight dancing along his eyelids. “It takes time for his mouth to appear when you open yours, but when it does, he’s flush with your entrance. Surely there’s a moment when the air between you closes.”
“Do you often watch my mouth, Hal?”
Hal shrugged.
“Lately.”
“Why?”
Hal tipped his head back and against the wing of his chair. “I’m curious about you.”
“It’s true,” Bolaire said. “I feel his lips against mine often.”
“From the inside?” Hal, throat exposed.
“Just so,” agreed Bolaire. “As you may recall, it’s not a smooth surface back there. You can see my features in reverse. He molds himself into me, like water into a stone cavern. Sometimes, I feel his breath get trapped in the space between us.”
“How does it feel?”
“Hot and choked. He’s very afraid in there.”
Hal said nothing. Of course, Bolaire could see in the dark.
“Do you hurt him on purpose or because you can’t help it?”
“You know, I’ve never thought to consider it,” said Bolaire, introspectively. “I’m sure under the right circumstances, I could make him more comfortable.”
“The right circumstances.”
“I simply don’t care about the comfort of our Crow Keeper friend here. It satisfies me to be cruel to him, now I think about it.”
“But someone else,” Hal persisted.
“Someone else,” agreed Bolaire. “I imagine under the right circumstances, his breaths would come quite easily for me.”
They watched each other.
“Come here, Halandil.”
Hal rose and crossed the space between their chairs. Bolaire spread his legs.
“Kneel.”
Hal knelt. Bolaire leaned over him, stroked his hands through salt and pepper locks, slid one hand behind Hal’s head and the other to his cheek, cupping his face upward so that their faces were very close. Hal listed into the touch, hooded eyes wide with wonder.
“When you’re ready, Hal, I don’t think I’ll want to wear anyone else ever again. You’ll be the last.”
In the warm dark, Hal exhaled.