“Why do you wear your hair so long?”

“Why do you keep yours so short?”

The man has no answer to this, and walks away. Smugly, Erestor smirks and looks back to the itinerary posted outside the council chambers. I simply smile.

I hate when his hair is short – only rarely have I seen it that way. Not because it makes him look ugly, as he claims, but because I am selfish. I like it better this way, to watch it ripple down his back, to see it curve around his backside. When he braids it, I like it less, but I still like long braids that reach the back of his knees better than the short black curls that are hidden under the length of it all.

He swims unashamedly naked in a hidden little pool near to the house, and when he emerges, I like to see it cling to him like a second skin. Often I go with him, under the guise of mere friendship, just to watch. One day, he sat down upon the rock where I had been basking in the sun and wordlessly handed me a comb while giving me a puppyish look. Since then, I have taken a great delight in knowing that although we may be only just friends in his eyes, I am the one he trusts the most. He trusts me with his pride, and my joy.

Maybe he does not know how intimate an act it is for me to carefully tend to his raven hair; then again, perhaps he does. There is a smile playing on my lips now, and I realize I have been daydreaming as he waves a hand before my face and snaps his fingers. “Fin. The meeting is starting.”

“Oh. Right.” Before we filter into the room with the others, I say, “I was thinking of a swim after the council. Are you free?”

“Sounds lovely,” said Erestor. “The usual place?”

I barely manage to nod. My heart pounds faster to know that we, he and I, have a ‘usual place’. Our own little spot away from everyone else. “Yes, the usual place,” I say.

“Good. I will see you after the meeting, then,” he tells me, walking into the room to mingle about with the others.

I follow, and before I split away to take a seat beside Elrond on the other side of the room, I say to him, “See you then.” He may never know how hard it is for me not to add, “I love you” each time before we part, no matter how short a time before we shall see one another again.