Title: Summer Night
Author: Kait
Rating: G
Pairing: Merry/Pippin
Summary: That fresh smell, that night sky...


Summer Night

the grass felt good under his head and the air smelled...right. the weight next to him was right too, and he was glad for it. It evoked an acute pang of warmth in his heart. Something he missed in everyday life. Something he had needed for years and was content to finally have.

it made him smile.

and the smell...oh god, the smell was of spring. he never realized that spring smelled, that it cast a feeling over them, awoke something deep inside of him that he didn't even know he had, something soft and newborn, but old at the same thing. something that reminded him of his childhood, of climbing trees and nicking fresh apples from the kitchen and running through the fields and feeling as if he could fly. it was beautiful, like the night was beautiful and his companion was beautiful. he wanted to save it somehow, bottle it up and hold it close to open on days when the world seemed bleak and cold and there was nothing quite as sweet floating in the air.

for now he was content to squeeze his eyes shut and ignore his responsibilities. he wanted to forget all of the things weighing down on him hypothetically and concentrate on the one thing weighing down on him literally, the lad with brilliant green eyes and a rumpled head of curls who was trying to count all of the stars in the sky. he opened his eyes and stared at his companion for a moment before squeezing them shut again and feeling the start of tiny tears pricking at his eyelids. for a moment that seemed to last several ages his heart ached with something that he did not understand. longing. a wish for life to be like this always.

it was gone in a flash.

as he opened his eyes again, his senses returned to the present, once again listening to the soft murmur of "one-hundred twenty-seven, one hundred twenty-eight..." and watching the slow rotation of the stars ahead. he would live for this night. he would spend every moment of this feeling living it out to the fullest. and he would worry about the morning when morning finally came.

.end.