This is a sequel to my fics Your spirit calling out to mine and Fascination (they can be found through my profile) and makes more sense if you have read Your spirit calling out to mine.
Some keywords for the whole fic: romance, marriage, family, some fluff, some angst, implied sex, years of the trees
Chapter length: ~850 words
A/N: In honour of the stupid coronavirus, I'm writing more about my favourite couple (don't tell the others). The title is from The Amazing Devil's song Fair which fits Carnistir and Tuilindien rather well.
These ficlets vary in length and in where they fall on the fluff-angst-scale. This first chapter is the shortest, kind of a prologue. Next chapter will be posted on Sunday.
Chapter I / The still, quiet light of morning
Carnistir has always disliked mornings.
They were loud and messy and chaotic when he was a child, and barely better as an adult in the last years he lived at home since Ambarussar are capable of creating a remarkable amount of noise and chaos between just the two of them. Tyelko is also, still, as irritatingly raucous a morning person as he was as a child, and the only reason he and Carnistir didn't have as many quarrels at the breakfast table as adults is that Tyelko has been gone from home a lot since he gained his majority.
Carnistir has always been the opposite of a morning person. He always finds it difficult to pull all of himself away from Irmo's realm at once: for the first two or so of hours after rousing, he is scatter-brained and irritable and wants to go about his morning routines in peace and quiet.
Since he married his routines have changed, but all for the better. Mornings are slow and quiet now. Tuilindien isn't a morning person either, and they live in their own house where they can decide the rhythm of their day.
It brings him great happiness every morning to wake in the same bed as Tuilindien, and that happiness is compounded by how they wake up every morning.
They usually rouse around the same time but whichever of them does first will get closer to the other: roll closer and throw some limbs over them, or grab tighter if they're already holding onto each other.
Slow movements, and gentle, quiet touches in the mingled light of the morning that shines in through the gaps in the curtains covering the tall windows.
One or both of them will whisper 'good morning' either in words or in spirit and reach out mentally, and they will touch that way , reuniting after a night of walking different memories.
And then they simply… stay there for a time.
No sitting up instantly, no leaving the bed, no making love, not even talking or touching beoynd a few soft caresses and words.
For the first time in his life Carnistir takes the luxury of waking slowly and sweetly. And how sweet it is with Tuilindien, with her soft, flower-scented hair and languorous limbs wrapped around him, or all of her tightly in his hold.
For the first few days he tells himself that he indulges and delays beginning the day's tasks only for her sake, for it seems to be what she prefers. But he never was much of a one to lie to himself and soon he admits that he could not enjoy it more.
'Tuilë', he murmurs to her one morning when they have both shaken off the last of sleepiness. 'I adore mornings with you.'
Tuilindien's eyes are darker than usual in the limited light of their bedchamber. 'Mornings are a very special time', she agrees.
'As restful as the night itself', he says. For him, it is easier to keep an even mood all day when he has had a slow, pleasant morning.
She kisses him gently. 'I am glad', she says, and rises from bed and goes to pull the curtains open.
They have stayed in bed even longer this morning than usual, and the light that fills the room is almost pure gold. It surrounds Tuilindien with a radiant glow, her golden hair that tumbles down to her hips a brighter-than-usual glory of indescribable beauty.
'Come back to bed', Carnistir says with a dry mouth.
She turns from looking out to the garden to looking at him. 'I thought you were roused enough already. I am sorry if I rose too early.'
'I am, and you didn't, but come back.'
She comes and smiles at him and dives into his arms, understanding his meaning at last, at once.
In the end they get out of bed so late that once again Tuilindien worries about their servants making fun of them.
They fit into each other's lives with about as much ease and difficulty as they expected. The ease comes from discussing it all – schedules, mealtimes, occupations, engagements, pastimes – in person and in the many, many letters they have exchanged over the years; and from the shared life in their new house being equally new to them.
Carnistir lived in the house first, when it was still half-unfinished, but he had few routines then that he wants to take to his married life.
They build up their new life out of plans and compromises, his likes and hers, new things and old, and somehow all the parts fit together well enough, aided by affection and care where they might otherwise have friction.
Carnistir has never worked less in his life, because he wants to have plenty of time with his wife. His family makes fun of him but he doesn't care, because Tuilindien does not work that much either, only enough that at the end of the day there are ink stains on her fingers for him to kiss.
A/N: In the next chapter, Carnistir and Tuilindien spend time with his family.