Maglor for @feanorianweek.
Inspired by a scene from my fic, What Fades Away.
Excerpt:
...Now he made his way toward his brother’s room, and he let his anger from the day before rise up again to burn away his regret at having fought with the younger brother who was also one of his closest friends.
Makalaurë was careless, so often lost in his own thoughts that he gave no thought to others, or to anything around him. It was something that Maitimo found endearing at times, but just now he resented his brother for his eagerness to escape into his music, leaving everything else behind. Though he would never dare to say so out loud, he felt that Amil gave her second-born too much leeway in this regard.
Coming to Makalaurë’s room, Maitimo balanced the tray with one hand and flung the door open, his recent bitter thoughts easing his shame over the spitefulness that made him want to startle his brother.
The door came to rest silently against a small pile of laundry—something Amil would certainly have scolded him for—and any noise Maitimo did make was lost beneath the waves of music that washed over him.
Maitimo came to a stop.
Caught despite himself, he quietly closed the door and moved deeper into the room. He set the tray down on the chest of drawers against the wall, cringing at the tinkle of glassware despite his attempt at noise a few moments before. He walked on light feet around the bed to the spot near the window where his brother sat with his harp.
He felt a pressure building in his chest at the poignant tenderness of the melody, earnest notes that tumbled forth in a hopeful spill. It was wistful, light, and so beautiful that at first Maitimo could not reconcile the sound of such moving music with the sight of his disheveled younger brother. But then Maitimo’s eyes began to really see, and his heart skipped a beat. The thick, dusty drapes had been thrown open, and the golden light of Laurelin had set his brother aglow.
Makalaurë’s partially unlaced blouse hung off one thin shoulder, and his silky dark hair was a tangle down his back, carelessly tied at the nape of his neck with a stray bit of ribbon. Maitimo’s eyes lingered on the slender fingers that danced over the strings, but then his gaze lifted to Makalaurë’s face.
The pressure in Maitimo’s chest squeezed around his heart in a painful grip.
Makalaurë did not tend to fuss over his appearance when he was at home, as caught up as he often was in his creative pursuits, so that Maitimo’s impression of him was most often of frayed braids, an expression too often pinched in thoughtfulness, and gangly limbs swimming in awkwardly fitting garments. Maitimo had allowed himself to forget the ethereal beauty of his brother when consumed by music. He studied Makalaurë’s face now and was filled with love for him.
Makalaurë’s eyes gazed somewhere beyond the confines of the room, and the ugly bruise that had formed over his pale, high cheekbone made something dark and fearful stir in Maitimo.
Maitimo suddenly had the inexplicable urge to keep his brother close at his side so that he might guard him against harm, and he moved nearer. He stopped though, surprised at himself for such strange thoughts, for what possible danger would they ever encounter here in the safety of the Blessed Realm?
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