"Maitimo, do you truly doubt me that much? And even if you did, do you think I can let you wander off on your own, given the state you are in and what you have just told me?"

There it is, the two sides of this relationship, always together: the private and the public, the personal and the political. The romantic and the pragmatic, maybe. Fingon doesn't know. All these years, and balancing them always feels just out of reach.

Protecting Maedhros, letting him have rest and stability and a tie to life- that seems the best way forward for all concerned. But he can't forget, can't he, that Maedhros needs to be guarded against himself at times. Perhaps above all other things.

This new fear of flame is more proof of that than Fingon has ever expected to see. You burn brighter than your father, Son of Fire, and lovelier as well part of him thinks, I never wanted to see you afraid of it. But to Maedhros he only nods.

"Then we can stay here tonight. And for as long as you need."