@standbetween. [ BRAID ] sender, sitting behind the receiver’s back, begins to braid their hair.
thom’s hands are gentle & deft, not that it’s especially surprising. she wouldn’t have asked him to tend to her hair if she thought he would be rough. as gruff & rugged as he presented himself to be, elethea knew him to be a tender - hearted man. his presence was a comfort in such troubling times, it made her feel safe to know he was close-by. perhaps that was why she sought him out instead of balfour. “do you have much practice braiding, thom?” she asks, regarding the neatness of the braid. no loose strands tickled her neck or fell about her face as he set about his work. balfour had the practice of tending to their mother’s hair, which was why her brother had any skill with it at all. did thom used to have someone he would tend to? it occurred to elethea that, despite knowing him for as far as long as she had, she knew very little about his life before he was castle cousland’s guard captain. shame settled over her, ashamed that she hadn’t thought to ask about it before, when she had known him since childhood. she stretched out her hands to take in some of the campfire’s warmth, to appear casual in her inquiry, and not as if she was interrogating him. “you're better at it than bal, though don’t tell him i said that.”