Faramir Fiction Archive

In Ithilien (R)

06 January 2011 | 531 words

Title: In Ithilien
Author: LadyLovelace
Rating: R
Pairing(s): Faramir

A Young Faramir meets a mysterious stranger during his time at Ithilien.

Ithilien is a haven for Faramir. When Boromir is not at Minas Tirith, the younger brother does everything he can to return to the forest. And now that they are both men, no longer boys who can find an excuse to laze about the palace, Ithilien is more of a sanctuary than Faramir would ever have his father know.

The number of Rangers, though, has dwindled of late. They are called back, reassigned, moved. As though Faramir is not permitted to have a friend in the world, including Boromir, who has been sent away to Dol Amroth indefinitely. But even Denethor knows that he cannot leave the forest entirely unguarded, so a handful of men – strangers to the young captain – are left behind.

Faramir has never come across the lore that makes the forbidden pool forbidden, but he suspects it’s something to do with his father. So he uses it as a personal bath when the others aren’t there. Part of him hopes he’ll be caught – not to be put to death, nothing so morose as that, but to see if his father might pay him some heed then.

He is caught, eventually, by a tall, broad, muscular man stepping into the water with him. He doesn’t actually recognise him, but unless he killed one of the other Rangers for their uniform, he is one of them. Probably new, then, but he isn’t exactly young, either. It’s hard to put an age on him.

There is no fear for Faramir as he approaches. Curiosity, certainly, and an odd sense of calm, but nothing else. He doesn’t try to resist when the stranger leans in to kiss him. He might have been the one to start it after all. Honeyed words fall from the other man’s tongue, he calls him clever and beautiful and special, and Faramir is well beyond ready by the time they both reach down.

He wonders briefly if this will ruin him for all others, but then sets the notion aside as fanciful and goes back to enjoying soft kisses in the afterglow. He vaguely remembers being pulled out of the pool and wrapped warmly, and whilst be doesn’t remember falling asleep, he must have done at some point.

It is a week before he’s sure that that was not, in fact, one of his Rangers. Their numbers have not changed, and none of them are the same man. He still tends to think of him as his, though. He considers whether or not he will share this information with Boromir when he returns, and he tries to remember if he’s read about any creature which would benefit from anonymous sex in some way other than the obvious, because it seems like a lot of effort to go to otherwise. He can think of nothing, and decides merely to tell his brother that he is truly a man now, and that any further details would be ungentlemanly.

Many years later, he spends a lot of time looking at the King and wondering if that could have been the man he met then. Of course, he’ll never ask, but he might enjoy the sneaking suspicion nonetheless.

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