𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 | 𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐑

Chapter 33

Middle of the night and I couldn't sleep like the others did, resting my eyes were enough for me, but what concerned me was the ranger, laying on his back in bed, a forearm over his eyes. He was trying to sleep, I had seen him going over to Éowyn in the great hall, the poor shieldmaiden had a nightmare.

It was strange though. Seeing him like this, and I went over to him and sat on the bed, resting one hand on his chest gently. "Aragorn?" He couldn't stop the groan of pain that escaped him. "Not so loud..." He all but pleaded. I blinked, surprised. I hadn't expected to see him prone in bed and clearly in pain. "Forgive me. Are you alright?" I asked him worriedly. "It is my head." Aragorn replied after a moment of what appeared to be contemplation. "It... Aches greatly."

I frowned, furrowing my eyebrows at his reply. "Your head hurts? Like a headache?" He let his arms fall next to his body. "Yes, but worse. Far worse." I tilted my head, now leaning closer to him and moving my hand to his neck. "You don't have a concussion or something, do you?"

"No, this pain is something that happens at times, has been since I was a child." It didn't take me long to understand, and I clicked my tongue in sympathy, even as my frown deepened. "A migraine then, probably. That's what we used to call them in Blue Earth. Too bad I don't have any pain killers."

My grandfather was prone to them and had been for as long as I could remember. They sucked. A lot. "You're not going to feel better like this then." I never knew Aragorn suffered from migraines, I guess there are still a lot of secrets to unfold.

It wasn't as dark as I would have preferred, the moon was shining through the windows. "Where does it hurt?" I asked softly. "What part of your head?" When he showed me, I brought my own hands to his head, running my fingers through his hair, before beginning to knead. I wasn't particularly gentle either, the motions firm.

Gentle kneading could barely even be felt over the pain of a migraine. It took a few minutes, long minutes at that, but Aragorn soon began to relax, the pinch in his brow starting to fade, much to my relief. I eased in my motions a little now, pausing in the kneading occasionally to run my fingers through the man's hair. He seemed to have fallen asleep. That was good too. Sometimes sleep helped migraines, well, when it wasn't the thing causing them in the first place.

Eventually, I stopped kneading altogether, and simply stroked his hair, the motions oddly soothing, even for me...

Aragorn woke slowly, looking around the room and then set his eyes on mine. "How are you feeling?" I asked him, eyes searching his face carefully for signs of pain. "Does your head still hurt?"

"No, the pain has faded." And the smile I gave him in answer was sweet and gentle. "Have you dealt with such pain yourself?" I appeared caught off guard by the question at first and nodded. "I did, and my grandfather had been getting them since I was a child, much like yourself. We have medicine that sometimes helps with the pain, but since we've come here... We didn't have any of that to help him."

Aragorn frowned, a hand coming to rest on my cheek, his thumb absently stroking up and down. "Fortunately." I continued a moment later, a rather coy smile on my face. "When I got a little older, I learned of something else that can help counter any head pain. And this, luckily, mostly always works. Well, works often enough."

Aragorn raised a brow, curious. "Oh? What aid might that be?" I grinned. "Orgasms." The Dúnadan choked, beyond startled by the answer and could only stare, grey eyes wide, the hand on my cheek frozen in place. "Yep, orgasms." I chuckled this time. He didn't seem uncomfortable by what I just said, but I noticed him becoming a bit nervous, as strange as that may sound. A few moments of silence passed by, the both of us not saying a word for a few minutes, until... "I saw you... With Lord Éomer."