Bring me to life

Chapter 12

 The dressmakers had appeared again the following day, torturing her again with their measures and proofs.
Faramir had laughed at her bored expression, but he had remained there to keep her company.
Once alone again, she sighed deeply, collapsing playfully on the couch.
“Oh, Valar! Boromir has to hate me to inflict this punishment!”
"Oh, I bet he doesn't." Faramir grinned mischievously from his armchair, laying the book he was reading upon his knees. "And I hate to tell you this, but I fear that you'll have to get used to that. He already talks about 'having some proper dresses made for Kreshen', so go figure.. you're done for."
“Oh Valar!” she exclaimed, raising her eyes at the ceiling in an exasperated gesture, pretending to be an innocent victim.
“I better escape now, maybe I’d have some possibilities… What do you say, could I use your blankets to lower myself down the tower?”
Faramir chuckled quietly in response, and grimaced a little. "Nah, he'd catch you even before you'd reach the ground. Your only chance to escape is to hit him in the head with a pan and flee while he's still unconscious.. but then I would catch you, so don't even try that."
“Hey you are supposed to be my friend, you know that?” she smirked then, chuckling quietly.
“Oh, well, that means that I just have to suffer there. A poor little girl trapped among dressmakers… what a torture…”
"Poor, poor Kreshen" he smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Trapped in a tower with a swarm of pitiless dressmakers and two debauched brothers, with no hope to ever get rid of them.. what a truly cruel fate is that of yours! I do not envy you, at all."
Sighing deeply with broken hearted expression, the girl stood up, pretending to be walking to the fireplace.
A moment later she had jumped on Faramir, tickling him mercilessly, trying to trap his wrists with one of her hands.
At the unexpected assault he shrieked playfully, laughing all the while and waggling beneath her, but he didn't actually try to free himself. After a few moments of ruthless struggling he was able to free at least one hand to tickle her back, leaning to nibble her neck at the same time, still chuckling helplessly.
Laughing back, the girl tried to free herself, playfully calling for help now and then, teased both from his tickling and from his nibbling.
But she stopped immediately when the door opened and Boromir walked inside.
"Dear Valar, I thought he was torturing you!" he chuckled, leaning against the doorframe and watching amusedly the two, his disheveled and giggling brother and his Kreshen, flushed and beautiful as always.
Somehow, such a sight made something stir deep inside him. And it wasn't jealousy, at all, not this time. Suddenly, the urge to hurl himself on them and tickle them to death was almost overwhelming, and for once he didn't hold back. A moment later he was flinging himself to the couch, trapping Kreshen between him and Faramir, and trying to tickle her despite the tangle of limbs and the helpless laughters.
"Oh Valar, Faramir! Whose side are you on? Hold her still!"
"I wish I could!" Faramir laughed, shaking his head. "You are holding my wrist, you dullard!"
“Let me go!” Kreshen cried out, between a bust of laughter and another. “You traitors!”
Soon she gave up and just laughed out loudly, too tired even to try and free herself.
Faramir, too, eventually surrendered. "I give up, I give up, just get off me! I'm crushed!"
"Just when I was starting to enjoy myself.." Boromir whined in response, smirking, while he stood up and helped Kreshen to do the same.
"Owww.."
Said girl stretched lazily, smiling at Boromir while helping Faramir to stand up.
“I was complaining about the torture you inflicted on me…” she chuckled. “Those dressmakers are killing me”.
"Oh, why?" Boromir asked, suddenly truly concerned, turning to look at her. "Are they impolite or rough with you?"
"I believe they're just nerve-racking" Faramir grinned. "She's not used to remaining as still as a statue while they measure."
“No, I’m not used to that” she grinned back, gently squeezing Boromir’s hand to reassure him.
“When I was at the village I hardly had just one dress…”
Boromir smiled in response, and raised an eyebrow. "Well, you'll have plenty of them very soon. A different one for each day of the year."
Faramir was in the meantime adjusting his crumpled clothes, smiling to himself. And wondering if they were even barely aware of the fact that they were acting like a real couple.
“I don’t need them” she said softly, kissing his lips.
“It’s no use to have hundreds of dresses when I’m always in this room…”
"It's just for the time being, Kreshen" Boromir reminded her gently, "Things will change. Soon."
"I should really.. take care of Anor" Faramir smiled then, nearing the door. It was an excuse of course, and he was more than sure that at least Boromir had understood at once. But he had to leave that room, to grant them some time together. It was obvious to him that they needed it.
"He needs a good grooming, that's for sure. I will see you later."
Kreshen looked at the door, smiling at Boromir.
“He’s incredibly sweet. And he loves you a whole lot” she said, referring to Faramir.
“But… I don’t think that things will change…I…I love you so much but…What could we do? I would never be accepted…never…so I’ll always stay confined there”.
Boromir thought about her words for long moments, frowning at the mere thought that he could actually be the cause of her doom. And she could be the cause of his. Their possibilities were very few.
"We'll go away then" he whispered, gathering her lithe form within the circle of his strong arms. "If something like that will happen, we'll go away from here. And start anew, just the two of us."
“I don’t want it” she said sadly, averting her gaze. “You love Gondor and your family. And you’ll suffer to leave them. I can’t allow you to do such a nonsense. Even if I should vanish into the night. Maybe it would be better. I shouldn’t have fallen for you. It will only make us suffer a lot… I should have remembered my place… I’m sorry”.
"Don't be" Boromir whispered, tightening the embrace. "You're the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me. I'd give up anything, anything to be with you, so don't even think about leaving me. I would find you, Kreshen. And bring you back home."
“May I show you something?” she asked then, finally raising her eyes to meet his steady gaze.
Boromir raised an eyebrow at the proposal. "Of course" he replied, eyeing her curiously. "What is it?"
Without a word, the girl opened one of her drawers, shifting some tunics and taking her drawing.
“When you…when you departed, Faramir told me to draw something to distract myself” she explained, somewhat awkwardly. “He told me to draw something I loved. And…the only thing I could think of…you…I couldn’t figure out anything but you…”
Said that, she turned the draw to let him see it.
Breath caught in his throat when she turned the panel to show him her handiwork. He'd had many, many portraits of him done, usually commissioned by his father, but never before had he seen something that pure. It was him, just him. Not the soldier, not the captain general of the army, but the man. A smiling man, too.
"Kreshen.." he murmured in awe, still looking at the drawing in front of him. "It is.. breathtaking. Beautiful. Is.. that how you see me? After all you've been through because of me?"
“I think I’ve been in love with you for a long time now. It’s just that…I hadn’t realized that” she murmured, still clutching the panel in her hands.
“And I was suffering for I thought that you would have never returned my love. I thought that you would have laughed out loudly to see this draw…”
"Laughed?" he asked, without even trying to disguise his astonishment, grey eyes leaving the drawing to meet hers.
Only Kreshen and Faramir were able to see him as a person, as an equal, just as a man. And she had thought that he could have laughed at her?
Nonsense.
He approached her quietly, taking the panel from her hands to lay it carefully on the table, and then he was cupping her face with the utmost gentleness, smiling tenderly at her. At his beloved, insecure, adorable Kreshen, the most prized of treasures.
"I could never laugh at you, my love, ever.. I want it framed and.. and may I have it hung in my room? Will you allow me to keep it?"
“Yes” she smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck.
He hadn’t laughed. And to her great pleasure, he wanted to frame her handiwork and hang it into his room. It was more than she had dare do hope.
“I love you so much…I’ll never tire to say it”.