AN: Inspired by 30-originals prompt #15) Smile. (But I'm not doing the challenge!)
I'm sorry about the previous chapter! It was school influencing by brain, I'm sure.
Disclaimer: The characters belong to Alison Croggon. I can only play with them.
He had many different smiles. She had noticed that from the first time she saw him.
There was his "weary" smile, which was could be seen even when he had undergone the most tiresome and exhausting of trials.
There was his "fake" smile, the smile which usually said to her, "I am hiding something unpleasant," or "I don't want you to see how hurt I am," or even "I don't want you to see how much you've hurt me,"
This was the smile that usually made her feel worst, because, really, sometimes she had no idea what she had done wrong.
There was the "grim" smile, which was really a grimace. A sort of twist which she really didn't quite like because it was used in times where he was in pain in some way or other.
There was the "mischievous" smile, which usually made her have to try and force her own smile down, her lips always seemed to quirk upwards in response. It occurred often around his friends and the people he loved. He always seemed lighter when he was smiling that way.
And then there was his "tender" smile, which was usually for her, for when she rested her chin on his shoulder or when he stroked her dark hair. She wondered how many times he had given that look and she hadn't seen.
Lastly there was her favourite. And this one didn't even have a name. Not really. It was the smile he gave her when he discovered that she still lived, after the events at the Hutmoors. It was the smile he gave her when he kissed her without abandon and she responded. The smile that he had given her riding all the way back to Innail, where he kept on looking over his shoulder just to give it specially to her.
Whether it was a secret smile, or a triumphant one, an ecstatic one or just one of pure love, it was, Maerad thought confidently, definitely her favourite.
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