Chapter Text
“I’ll be right back,” Beleg told him, and bent down for a brief kiss before wandering away into the woods.
Túrin blushed furiously, hyperaware that all his men were staring either at him or Beleg’s retreating figure. Not that he blamed them, he thought giddily, his thoughts all running together, because he too appreciated the look of Beleg’s fine ass in tight leggings, but at the same time the idea of the Gaurwaith lusting after his lover, his husband, made him fiercely jealous, and also of course they’d stare at their captain being so thrown off balance, some of them were probably laughing at him and the others were probably scheming how to rattle him like this again—
Deep breaths, dearest, Beleg’s voice whispered in his mind, and Túrin took a shaky breath. It was shallow, but the next was not so much, and the next even deeper, and so forth until he’d gotten himself under control. He wished he could thank his beloved, but alas! he was no elf, and the bond worked only one way.
Túrin blinked into the fire, then dared a glance up at his men. They—they weren’t staring. They were chatting and eating, celebrating a successful hunt, acting utterly…utterly normal. Like they hadn’t even noticed.
Had they noticed? Or had they just not cared?
“Relax,” said Beleg, emerging from the trees to sit beside him. He rested a hand on Túrin’s shoulder, squeezed gently, then kissed him again, soft and sweet. “They know about us, do they not? It is no matter for an ellon to kiss his bonded, even in mixed company, if the kiss is chaste. Are your mannish customs different?”
I wouldn’t know, was the truth; Túrin’s life had been spent among elves and the rougher kinds of men, and even in his distant childhood he had never been good at picking up on customs and norms.
He shrugged. “I’m just. Self-conscious,” he mumbled, wondering not for the first time how it was that such an elf as Beleg could love him so.
Don’t be, Beleg murmured, leaning his head on Túrin’s shoulder. “You are great among men, and they know that.”
“And you are great among elves, Cúthalion,” Túrin retorted, startling a laugh from his husband.