aesc: (mmm nice [sheppard])
aesc ([personal profile] aesc) wrote2007-07-12 10:30 am

.ficlet: Sound of Walking Barefoot

Just a small, quiet piece for [livejournal.com profile] dogeared, who wanted boys in sweaters for her ficlet prompt. Nantucket AU. *curls up*


SOUND OF WALKING BAREFOOT

One October morning, John drags Rodney out of bed – their nice, warm bed – and takes him on a forced march down the beach. On their way out the door, Rodney casts a longing, envious look at the cat, who is curled up in the warmth of the corner behind the television.


The wind whips down the shoreline, scattering sand. The sea rose bushes, stripped bare, shiver in their hiding places under the dunes. When he breathes in, Rodney can smell salt and the chill that comes down from the northeast, and out in the sound the wind has made the water a chaos of waves.

“You do realize we’re the only people crazy enough to be out on a day like this, right?” The beach’s case of umbrella leprosy has cleared, no screaming kids, no sunbathing girls for John to flirt with to annoy Rodney to the point of kissing him in public. A lone gull lands at the high-tide mark, is briefly the only other living thing on the beach before it flies screaming away. “Wait, you’re the only person crazy enough to be out here, seeing as you made me come.”

“I like it like this,” John says, tugging at the collar of his turtleneck. Rodney stares at the patch of skin below John’s ear, where the collar brushes up to hide it. That skin is soft although it overlays the strong curve of John’s neck, and no matter where they are – bed, kitchen, whaling museum – it’s warm and tastes like salt and smells like John.

“Quiet,” John continues. His sweatered arm brushes against Rodney’s, soft organic rasp of black wool and green. The sand rasps, too, under bare feet, still damp from the tide.

“Hm.” The sand slows their progress over the beach, slows everything to that awkward shuffle – thought, the pace of words, everything except the wind, which rushes through John’s hair to dishevel it even more. John pulls at his collar again.

“Stop that,” Rodney grunts. Distracting, John’s skin, the line of his neck, covered up by his collar – “Come here.”

John comes with a tolerant smirk, allows Rodney to push his head to the side, to push his collar down and away and find that small stretch of skin, familiar salt-scent and John, the tautness of it over muscle. A small corner of warmth in the wind, though the curve of John’s body shelters him from some of it now, and his breath across Rodney’s cheek is warm, too.

John tugs on a loose yarn on the cuff of Rodney’s sweater, finds the dropped stitch at the hem and his fingers sneak inside, under wool, the cotton of Rodney’s t-shirt to the skin beneath, faintest touch along his belly as he leans in to kiss Rodney’s mouth, and Rodney shivers.

“You cold?” John asks, and in the light, the grey light, his eyes wear white flecks like the sea.

“No,” Rodney says, fingers along John’s jaw at the border of collar and flesh. “I’m okay.”

-end-

[identity profile] sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 02:44 pm (UTC)(link)
sahdlfkhasdf oh, mmmmmph, I want a John to kiss right there, where his skin smells of home. asdhjflasf mmmph.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I want a John to kiss right there, where his skin smells of home.

Mmmph, me too! And a Rodney, while I'm at it.

[identity profile] slian-martreb.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 02:45 pm (UTC)(link)
mmmmm. this is perfectly lovely for early in the morning reading.

I quite like this -it’s warm and tastes like salt and smells like John. and ...slows everything to that awkward shuffle – thought, the pace of words, everything except the wind,

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 11:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay! Thank you so much :) It's fun early morning writing, too.

[identity profile] dogeared.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 02:55 pm (UTC)(link)
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee oh this is just exactly perfect. The cold empty beach, and soft organic rasp of black wool and green, and John and Rodney and skin and A small corner of warmth in the wind, and “You cold?” John asks, and in the light, the grey light, his eyes wear white flecks like the sea, oh oh oh this is so beautiful. ♥!


asdfaslkj *longs for fall* *and boys* *wraps self up in ficlet*

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
♥♥♥!!!

*wraps self up in ficlet*

*cuddles up with you and sweatery boys!*

[identity profile] mangst.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
lovely

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
:) Thank you!
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[identity profile] beeej.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
*squee* Bare feet and sweaters on the beach in the early morning light. *squees some more* October is my very favorite month of the year, too. So perfect. :D

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
*squeal* Thank you! Mid October is my very favorite time of year, when the trees have changed and the sun still likes to stay out, but the breeze still says winter. *wriggles happily at the thought*

And David! And Joe!

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[identity profile] yin-again.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 04:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh. A world of oh. Thank you so much for sharing this.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, thank you! Oh. :)

[identity profile] twincy.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
*meebles*

Damnit, you're making me long for autumn and windy beaches and and sweaters. But this is lovely, so you're entirely forgiven.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I am hoping for fall, though it's actually quite nice out at the moment. Still, they're promising more horrible heat next week, not more nice coolness and breeziness. So I want to be there on that beach with them, bundled up in my favorite sweater and barefoot.

[identity profile] feanna.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
It's lovely. The empty beach all for them alone and sweaters and... ahlkjbhflksh!!
(You reminded me that I like weather like that, when it's windy and you can bundle up and go outside. It's just that it's been raining for weeks and it's cold enough to make me wish the heating wasn't turned off for the summer. It's so bad I forget that it is supposed to be summer. But when it's not always I likewind and rain.)

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:20 pm (UTC)(link)
You reminded me that I like weather like that, when it's windy and you can bundle up and go outside.

Oh, I love that too! I'm all for being outside when it's nice, but there's something about going out in the wind that I love. Maybe it's because I can go back inside and make hot tea and curl up :)

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[identity profile] feanna.livejournal.com - 2007-07-12 21:47 (UTC) - Expand

[identity profile] foxxcub.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Awww, yay! Sweaters and beaches and snuggling! :)

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I love going to the beach when it's cold and windy--maybe even more than when it's hot and crowded :D
siria: (Default)

[personal profile] siria 2007-07-12 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)
*wraps self up in ficlet*

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
*cuddles you both*

[identity profile] adafrog.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh beautiful. Love them out while it's stormy.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you!

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
\♥/
aurora: (Default)

[personal profile] aurora 2007-07-12 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Mmm, gorgeous!!

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
*snuggle* Thank you! Now to make myself angsty for your post-apocalyptic fic :D

[identity profile] callmerizzo.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
“You cold?” John asks, and in the light, the grey light, his eyes wear white flecks like the sea.

Ohh, what a gorgeous sentence. ::: shivers ::: That's poetry! The entire thing is gorgeous, actually... just exquisite writing, with a quiet tone and a soft, lilting cadence and descriptive lines like "The sand slows their progress over the beach, slows everything to that awkward shuffle – thought, the pace of words, everything except the wind, which rushes through John’s hair to dishevel it even more. that make me see the two of them walking awkwardly across the sand, see the wind whipping John's hair around his face. Just beautiful.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh thank you so much! Lately I've been doing a lot of my writing to slow, meditative piano, which is why everything's been so quiet, I think :)

[identity profile] hyperfocused.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
This is lovely, and hits so many kinks for me: my sweater kink, my neck kink, my "descriptive writing that invokes all the senes" kink...

(though for some reason I always imagine Rodney being sensitive/allergic to wool)

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much! :)

(though for some reason I always imagine Rodney being sensitive/allergic to wool)

I can see this, if only because Rodney is the kind of person who believes in the value of synthetic fibers. (He likes MREs, after all.) But that's why he has a t-shirt on underneath--long-sleeved t-shirt ;)

[identity profile] the-acrobat.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Mm... my favourite time of year. You're making me homesick.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I adore fall. I love it even more when I'm near a beach so I can go walking. But now I'm landlocked, so I can't :/

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[identity profile] tropes.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)
That is the very best time to go to the beach.

God, I miss Massachusetts.

[identity profile] tropes.livejournal.com 2007-07-12 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Also, because I am a genius: Beautiful piece. Just gorgeous beyond belief. <3

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[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com - 2007-07-12 23:52 (UTC) - Expand

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[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-13 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
\♥/

[identity profile] rinsbane.livejournal.com 2007-07-13 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
mmm, gorgeous images. I'd love to be in a place like that. Love that fain touch along Rodney's belly - there's something so intimate about that, a little moment of "hey there."

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-14 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
a little moment of "hey there."

*squish* Thank you!
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[identity profile] dossier.livejournal.com 2007-07-14 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
This is lovely, and I'm seized by a particular image that fits this perfectly. You should go stare at [livejournal.com profile] beaniesheppard 's banner.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-14 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
You should go stare at beaniesheppard 's banner.

Oh, I have done this :) I wrote a comment!fic for the otherwise-than-McShep kissing commentfest at her LJ and it took me a few minutes to get past the drooling over her banner and actually post :)

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[identity profile] beanie-j.livejournal.com - 2007-07-15 04:12 (UTC) - Expand

[identity profile] sloganeer.livejournal.com 2007-07-14 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
It's not sweater weather where I am at all, but I would wear a sweater just so John would play with the hem.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-14 12:56 pm (UTC)(link)
but I would wear a sweater just so John would play with the hem.

Hee! I'd wear anything just so John would play with it :D

[identity profile] ifylla.livejournal.com 2007-07-14 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
i love you.

end.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-14 08:52 pm (UTC)(link)
\o/ Thank you!
ext_1771: Joe Flanigan looking A-Dorable. (Default)

[identity profile] monanotlisa.livejournal.com 2007-07-15 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, this is beautiful. I love your writing, I do.

“You cold?” John asks, and in the light, the grey light, his eyes wear white flecks like the sea.

Mmh.

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-15 02:09 pm (UTC)(link)
*wriggles* Thank you so much!

And I think that's my favorite line :)

mmm, pretty

[identity profile] kormantic.livejournal.com 2007-07-15 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)
and so so nice.

Re: mmm, pretty

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-15 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
:) Thank you!

*licks your icon*

[identity profile] stillwaters11.livejournal.com 2007-07-17 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
What gorgeous imagery! That spot on John's neck will forever be a favorite for me. Lucky Rodney!

[identity profile] aesc.livejournal.com 2007-07-17 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much!

Lucky Rodney!

Indeed :)

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