Reed's Armory -- A Malcolm Reed Fanfiction Archive ..

Title: Inside and Out

Author: Mareel

Author's e-mail: [email protected]

Author's Web site: http://www.geocities.com/bdebpr

Fandom: Enterprise

Pairing: Archer/Reed

Rating: G

Category: Slash

Summary: Autumn warmth

Comments: This is the Ent_musing (LJ) Jonathan and Malcolm, and is simply a glimpse of their time together. As ever, my deep thanks to Kipli for ongoing inspiration.

Archived to Reed's Armory on 04/14/2008.

Outside, the crisp edge of autumn softens as it fades into winter. There will still be glorious days of golden light and warm air, but there are also wet, grey days where sunset is swallowed up by twilight before we can notice it.

Today was something in between. The rain was gentle, though persistent, covering the ground with the last of the leaves. Once vibrantly red and orange, they're mostly brown now, and the absence of the canopy around its edges makes our meadow look larger, less secluded, more open to the world.

We put on warm sweaters and walked the path we've come to recognize as 'ours' from the house down to the meadow, around it, and out through the trees into the wooded hills beyond. The rain felt cool on my hair and face, but with an arm wrapped around Malcolm's shoulder and his encircling my waist, the rest of me was warm. When we paused, he sheltered close to me, arms tightening around each other. Sometimes he turned enough to lift his eyes to mine and I could catch his lips for a kiss.

We'd hoped for a sunset; when we set out, the clouds were clearing a bit. But it didn't look like there would be anything to see by that time though... the overcast had returned as we turned back toward the meadow on our way home. As is our habit, we paused for a warm slow kiss in the meadow. It was raining harder now; I reached up to lift a strand of Malcolm's wet hair back off his forehead as the kiss ended.

But something about the light at that moment made me pause and turn us both toward the western edge of the field. The clouds had lifted just enough to see the sun just dipping into the horizon, painting that portion of the sky in purples and orange. It didn't last long, but we were both spell-bound until the moment passed. I pulled Malcolm close to me and wrapped my arms around him tightly, his cheek resting on my shoulder. I whispered the first words we'd spoken since coming back into the meadow.

"That was for us, love... a gift."

Malcolm nodded and lifted his face for a kiss. When it ended we slipped our arms around each other again and walked the rest of the way back to our cabin home in silence.

Back inside, the flickering glow of a fire and the warmth of hot tea were both welcome, but the real warmth was in Malcolm's eyes as I held him close.

And in my heart.