@localwebslingers
continued from here
The words echo in his mind for a moment, and then another, and another. It tightens his chest and makes his breath catch in his throat. It wasn't even that Peter overstepped. Not as much as the fact that Halbrand wanted to, too. He'd been wanting to more often lately and it's a problem. Peter's becoming important to him in a way that is more than just friendship. More than casual. In a way he told himself he couldn't allow him to be. After Maerwynn.. he didn't think he could love anyone else in that same way. Not after it got her and his children so brutally murdered.
Deep down, Halbrand knows that they would have gotten killed either way. King or carpenter. But anxiety didn't often work like that.
However.. he's been staying on this island for a bit now and... dare he say he's starting to feel secure? The Sundering Seas were big and vast - Middle Earth is so far away. The enemy is so far away. And that is exactly why he doesn't want to go back. Because it's not safe there - but it is safe here. At least for now.
So when Peter kisses him.. well he freezes initially, the scar the loss of his family left across his heart, his soul, his entire being still aching like it had only just been carved, but there was a warmth to it too. One that he hadn't felt in a long time. One that warmed his heart from deep within, every single beat spreading the warmth further along his body. From his toes to the very tips of his fingers. It warmed him more than the fires in the shop had and it cleared some of the fog in his mind away. What even was he doing, keeping something as good as this from himself? And from Peter, too, who had been nothing other than patient and kind.
Halbrand had always thought that Peter wanted the same thing. Casual. No strings attached. One could hardly fall for someone like him. Someone who had done such horrible things. Someone who was so emotionally unavailable due to trauma...
But then he'd kissed him. And he can say that it's just tradition, and that he kissed his aunt that morning, but it's toeing that metaphorical line in the sand. It might not be stepping over it or even on it, but it's absolutely nudging it... and why would anyone dip in a toe if not to test the waters? The waters very clearly being something other than 'casual'.
It made him question everything in mere seconds - and provided the answers just as quickly. Because let's be real - if he didn't want it, he wouldn't even question it.. and therefor..
Instead of replying, Halbrand steps closer, hands cupping Peter's warm cheeks as his eyes fall shut and he presses his lips to the other's in a deep, passionate kiss and it felt so right. His heart began beating faster, spreading the heat even faster and melting away all of the ice he'd sculpted around his heart to try and keep it safe from rotting any further..