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Rand has memorized the feel of Perrin’s hands holding his.
He strokes at the creases of his knuckles with his fingers, eyes closed, memorizing the bumps of the callouses spread over his palms. Yet while Perrin’s hands feel rough from the years spent working for the blacksmith, his grasp is anything but harsh. When he reaches over with a free hand to tuck stray, autumn-red hair away from Rand’s face his broad fingers are gentle.
“Can you remember when we were children?” Perrin says softly.
“Of course. I remember the time we’d spend cloudgazing—”
“Or the time you tried stealing a sheep from Tam as a gift for me.”
“Light, of all the things to remember…” Rand rolls close in the grass to hide his face in Perrin’s shoulder. “Mat and I got caught in Cenn Buie’s apple tree planning that one.”
“No, it was a sweet thing of you to do! I still think maybe asking Tam for permission might have worked better, but it all solved itself in the end.”
He closed his eyes, inhaling the faint but fragrant aroma of lavender trailing against the spring breeze. The grass is ruffled by the slight wind which makes the leaves of the trees rustle. The sunlight is warm on his skin, and just in the distance Rand can hear the gurgling of a stream.
“Alright. That was a little funny,” Rand mumbles. “And it’s strange to think I’d loved you for so long, and you me, yet neither of us realized. We just kept running around in circles.”
“We were just children then.”
Rand opens his gray eyes and pulls away to stare at Perrin’s warm gold. Warm, firm lips dot a small kiss to his forehead.
“But we’re in the here and now. And that’s what matters.”
He looks up to the pale, bold blue of the sky smothered in puffy white clouds. Eventually they will have to get up and leave, grass staining their hands and clothed knees in green, and find their way back with the imprints of the earth pressed to their skin. But for now…
“I love you, Perrin.” He leaves a small kiss to Perrin’s nose.
“And I you.”
Again Rand remembers that they will have to go back. But he knows there will be more spring afternoons spent in the meadows in the days that follow, and many more days with Perrin throughout the seasons then, too.