Arrange Your Face by Agelast

Chapter 1

I.

It is precious territory, he wants to say. I fought for it. I walked through ice. Undaunted, I found you. Brought you home.

(Home? But this is a foreign country, it doesn’t even smell like home. Between home that was and the present is a wall of ice, a sea of blood. Unreachable save for death. No. Start again...)

Findekáno finds that he cannot regret a single step he’s taken to come to this point, he can regret none of it, because this is precious territory, every inch of skin, every hair, wondering eyes, lips still cracked but no longer bleeding, hand still regaining its forgotten strength...

( His fault. And the guilt will never leave him. )

II.

All of it makes up Maitimo, his friend, his cousin, his love, who now looks at him with weary amusement.

Findekáno’s ardor was always remarkable for its transparency. That emotions show far too easily on his face, it was always his father’s complaint against him. (And not the only one, but it is too late, and not the right time, to think of those things.)

“Arrange your face, cousin. You give away too much,” said Maitimo, always quick to advise.

Findekáno, always quick to disobey, looks around -- no one is about -- and steals a kiss.