When the Sun Shone Warm upon Their Faces

A/N: My take on what brought the brothers to the States, what honed their lingual skills and what brought them to their subsequent lives.

Newbie here, so please be gentle…

Chapter 1: Untimely awakening

When she thought back to her first exposure to all things MacManus, she figured it had to have been when their crews were assigned and then they had to pair up, have a question and answer icebreaker that would have been uncomfortable if it hadn't been for the unassuming, transparently sincere guy with whom she would be spending two weeks in the mountains of North Carolina in this freshman orientation program that had seemed like such a good idea when all the acceptance papers arrived from Duke University. While backpacking for two weeks, students would undergo mental and physical challenges that would prepare them for the challenges of college, or so said the brochure.

Once arriving and seeing a flurry of totally new, unknown people, she was sure she should have stayed at home the extra two weeks to prepare herself for the shock of leaving home. And then she was paired with Connor MacManus to sit and just talk. Good grief, she thought, about what? He's not going to care about what I have to say. He's going to think I'm a total idiot. I feel like a total idiot and---

"I'm Connor." He said softly, when they stepped over to a spot on the lawn in the lovely campus gardens. She heard the Irish accent and it distracted her from her worries of wondering if she could carry a sixty pound backpack up mountain trails and if she these people were going to think she was weird and how nice it would have been to be back home playing in the garden with George. She already missed George's wiry coat, the way he smelled and how he could hear the refrigerator door open from anywhere in the house. She had not slept a night without George since she was eleven years old.

But an Irish accent. She loved Jack Higgins novels although she knew she should never admit to liking fluffy spy novels in such a supposed intellectual atmosphere, surrounded by all these prep school babies. Aristotle, Joyce, and Faulkner were the kosher reading material. Oh, she had delved into those authors and enjoyed them too but now she was brimming with questions about the IRA and the split with the PIRA. She wondered if he was from Ulster. Had he ever seen the endangered wild orchids in bloom there?

More importantly, Connor's voice was gentle, his countenance open and his eyes intent. Blue eyes, searching hers, piercing hers actually, looking for something. She got the feeling he was as nervous as she was. Probably more, she thought. He's thousands of miles from home after all.

Good grief, how could you be nervous when he was smiling at you? That smile was so unassuming and genuine. Then again, how could you not be nervous with that slightly shy but genuine smile directed at you?

Gorgeous, he was gorgeous. Not cute, not good-looking, not hot as her doofy friends back home would call guys. No, Connor was just outright gorgeous. So it was bad enough she was going to have to make small talk but also to have her sexual awakening at the same time. Just perfect, she thought, I'm just eighteen and my stupid hormones are kicking in. This was supposed to happen to women when they approached thirty, she thought, starting to get angry at this unplanned physiological response occurring within her as she stared back at this absolutely magnificent boy--because he was a boy--with his perfect deep blue eyes, perfect honey-hued hair, perfect sculpted cheekbones, perfect full lips, perfect—don't even start looking at the body, Leah.

"I'm Leah." She offered, a little scared that he could see exactly what was going on inside of her at that moment.

It must have been at that moment that their bond was made. Even though his gorgeousness loomed between them, although he never knew it, their conversation flowed as easily as a river. Immediately, they both confessed how nervous they were, full of second thoughts about the adventure ahead. Which one, the backpacking trip or college? Both, they agreed. When it was their turn to report to the entire crew what they had learned about each other, they had been laughing like idiots and still fully engrossed in their conversation, practically finishing each other's sentences. Glad yer here, Leah Winslow, Connor said, as they walked back to the huddle of their crew. She looked into his eyes at that moment, saw that he meant it and started to think she might be glad she was too.

To the rest of the group, they both just reported simple demographic facts: Leah was from Charleston, South Carolina and Conner was from near Dublin, Ireland—not Ulster and no, he had never seen the endangered orchids but they sounded intriguing. They shared no anecdotes or any of the other conversation they had shared. That conversation belonged to them and no one else. Something unspoken that she never could put her finger on dictated it.

On the trip, they stayed together, never ceasing their talk. They never ran out of things to talk about. Whether it was Connor's life back in Ireland, Leah's life in the US or Connor seeing his first hummingbird or laughing about how filthy they were or just anything, they chattered away. They slept next to one another every night under the tarp. After being yelled at to shut up and go to sleep, many nights they moved their sleeping bags out from under the tarp to watch the stars and talk before they eventually fell asleep.

Leah had no brothers and had never had a boyfriend, but somehow, she was perfectly content to wake up with Connor snuggled up to her every morning, his limbs slung over hers and face buried in her neck. He could make her laugh until she had a side stitch. Of course, everyone in the small group quickly came to love Connor with his good nature, willingness to carry the heaviest camping gear in his pack and endless supply of wry comments in the accent so different than their own, but he stuck close to Leah, and it made things so much easier. Suddenly she wasn't nervous at all about starting college, being miles away from home and starting this new chapter of her life. She didn't even care that she hadn't showered for nearly two weeks, about the endless amount of bug bites and the most bizarre of all: going to the bathroom while backpacking.

When the trowel kit was brought out, she and Connor both looked at the gardening spade in the plastic bag with a roll of toilet paper and a lighter, then they looked at each other. What do ya think the lighter's for? Leah shrugged. Then the crew was instructed that they were to dig a six inch deep hole, crap in it, then burn the toilet paper.

She felt Connor's finger push gently up on her jaw, which had apparently dropped out of its own accord.

Best ta laugh about it, he mumbled. Don't recall this in the fuckin' brochure, do ya?