Title: "The Preacher's Lullaby"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: PG
Summary: They spend many nights like this, but tonight, Nathan needs Josiah.
Warnings: Slash
Word Count: 600
Date Written: 15 June, 2012
Challenge: Originally written, but not used, for a M7Land LJ comm challenge/contest
Disclaimer: Josiah Sanchez, Nathan Jackson, all other recognizable characters mentioned within, and The Magnificent Seven are οΎ© & TM CBS, The Mirisch Group, MGM, and Trilogy Entertainment, not the author, and are used without permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
They had spent many a night like this, curled up tightly into each other's loving and reassuring arms, and Josiah knew they would spend many more. Tonight, for a change, it wasn't because of his dark birds. It was, instead, Nathan who needed him tonight.
Thunder rattled the windows. Lightning slashed through the church's windows as it lit up the sky outside once again. Nathan trembled in Josiah's strong arms, but he held him tight. His lover's head was beneath his chin, but he turned his head and laid his gravelly cheek upon his smooth flesh instead.
He knew every memory that passed through Nathan's mind during this time and had seen the scars left by most of them. He traced his back tenderly now, knowing the deep and long scars that lay just below the thin fabric of his shirt. Nathan was the sweetest man he had ever known, and yet he had been hurt so terribly.
A silent rage filled Josiah as he thought of all the tortures that had been inflicted upon him just because of the color of his skin. One day, he would like to meet up with his sweetheart's former master. He would give him something to remember him by, when he did, and make sure the cuts ran deeper than they did on Nathan's skin.
Yet no amount of retribution could ever return to his love the calmness of spirit that a man untouched by others' sins should have. No matter what Josiah might do to the monsters who had hurt him so badly that the mere sound of a major storm like the one howling outside could scare him so deeply that he barely recognized his own name, the marks would remain on his flesh, and the injuries would still be there on his soul. Although everything in Josiah wished fervently for it to be different, the Preacher knew there was nothing he could do to change what had happened to his love, but he would make sure that nobody ever laid a hand upon him in rage or hatred again.
He rocked him back and forth now, as the storm continued its rage, and whispered verses to him, both of the poetry and from the Bible. He began one of his favorites. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want." He wished that were so, but rage still filled him every time he thought of those he loved and the merciless torments they had suffered.
"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters." One day, they would lay down together in the green pastures, but it was on nights like tonight that Josiah wondered if, even then, his rage would be assuaged. It would have to be, he thought, for only the Lord could make things right. He would take their fears and anger away. He would restore their souls and remove the marks from their bodies. He would make all things right.
Josiah kissed the top of Nathan's head and continued whispering and believing throughout the night. The day would come when they'd lay together in rest without fear or worry of the past or future. All would come right, and on that joyous day, they would rejoice together and be forever free of all the torments of the brutal, mortal world.
Nathan trembled again. Josiah stopped preaching and whispered instead the truest words he'd ever spoken, "I love you, Nathan," over and over again until, at last, his love was cajoled and rested in the protection of his steadfast arms.
The End