"Exam Nerves" by Lyra
Mar. 31st, 2019 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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b2memB2MeM Prompt, Card and Number: "Test Anxiety" (Person vs. Self, N37), with a tongue-in-cheek side helping of "Fëanor wasn't nuts (just misunderstood)" (Fëanatics, N32)
Format: Ficlet
Genre: Vignette
Rating: Teens
Warnings: there's the teeniest tiniest bit of sexual tension
Characters: Nerdanel, Fëanor
Pairings: Nerdanel/Fëanor
Creator’s Notes (optional): This is set at a future point in the storyline of Golden Days. Familiarity with that story may help with a detail or two here, but isn't strictly necessary. Erenwen is Nerdanel's middle sister in my 'verse. - I hope to incorporate this into the main story at some point - once it gets there!
Summary: In the night before his examination, young Fëanor comes to Nerdanel for some cuddling... and reassurance.
Exam Nerves
Erenwen had gone to the dance that evening, which was usually an invitation for Fëanáro to sneak into my room after his evening bath. Nonetheless, I was surprised when I heard the familiar tap on the door, followed by the sound of the door opening and closing after my whistle of acknowledgement. I had expected that he would have other things on his mind on the eve of his examination, and was half worried and half flattered as I put away my book.
"I thought you'd be too busy to visit tonight," I said once we had broken our kiss. He tilted his head at that. His hair was wet, his smile careless and confident as ever. I wondered whether he had forgotten about the examination, or whether it had been rescheduled.
"No, it's still set to begin tomorrow. Laurelin's second hour," he said when I asked about it. "But that's no reason to miss my favourite appointment, is it? I don't think I'd sleep much, either way."
I remembered that I hadn't managed to fall asleep at all in the night before my examination, and nodded understandingly. "Hmm. That's true. So you are worried after all! I was wondering."
"Of course I'm worried! It's easily the second most important thing I'll do in my life," he said, and I couldn't help rising to the bait, asking, "Only the second most important? Then what's the most important thing?"
"You will find out," he said, nuzzling my throat. I giggled even as the delightful tingling in my stomach began.
"Naughty boy!" I said. "Come, let us lie down. Just because you don't intend to sleep doesn't mean we can't use the bed."
He smirked - very naughty indeed, I thought to myself - and we squeezed into my narrow bed. As ever, it was exciting to feel him so close, and so much of him. I leaned in for a second kiss, which he eagerly returned, and I could feel him grow hard inside his loincloth. My hand snuck into the wrapped fabric, and he moaned in response, a welcome opportunity for deepening the kiss. It would have been lovely to play on in this manner, but I felt that it was my duty to prepare Fëanáro for the upcoming exam.
So I withdrew my hand from his loincloth, stroking his chest instead. "You should still try to sleep. Don't worry too much. I don't think anyone would dare to let you fail - they're all too eager to please your father."
"I know," he said, not sounding reassured at all. "That's exactly what I'm afraid of!"
I blinked, half-sitting up. "I can't follow."
Fëanáro grabbed my hands, as he liked to do before making his point. "I'm afraid they'll make the examination too easy."
"Too easy! Curufinwë Fëanáro, you are out of your mind!"
"I am not," he said with as much dignity as a naked young man could muster. "You said it yourself: they're all eager to please Father. I'm afraid they'll turn this exam into a farce that every idiot apprentice could pass. I want to earn the title of master! I want to show the world that I'm not just a spoiled princeling who gets the title as a tribute to his father. I know everything there is to know about the craft! What if they don't let me show it?"
I had to admit that this would be unsatisfying. Frustrating though my own exam had been (particularly the obscure Telerin driftwood sculpture), at least there had been no doubt afterwards that I had earned the right to call myself master craftswoman. Being handed the title as a favour would be embarrassing even for a mediochre apprentice; for someone like Fëanáro, who practically breathed, ate and drank forge-craft, it would be humiliating in the extreme.
"Anyone who's seen one of your sickles knows that you know the craft," I said to console him, settling back down against his shoulder. "And if they don't ask any hard questions, you'll answer their simple questions and use them as a starting point to expound on something more complicated. I'm sure you can think of something."
"Hmm. I probably could," he agreed, burying his nose in my hair. I was certain that it must be smelling of iron and stone dust, but he did not seem to mind. "Yes. If they make it too easy, I'll just remind them of what an examination should be like."
"That's the spirit." I still couldn't help but point out, "Normal apprentices would worry about their exam being too hard."
"Well, I'm no normal apprentice," Fëanáro said huffily. "Normal apprentices probably wouldn't seduce their master's daughter the night before the examination, either." He sighed. "I wish you were one of my examiners. I know I can trust you to properly grill me."
There was a certain irony in that, I thought. Father was naturally exluded from the board of examiners, since it was his own apprentice being examined, and because I was Father's daughter, I was also expected to be too biased to sit with the other masters. But as Fëanáro said, I would have made sure to ask him questions worthy of his talent.
"They're probably afraid I'd be too harsh with you," I retorted, making him snort with laughter. Since his nose was still stuck in my hair, it was the strangest sensation on my skalp, warm and ticklish.
"I sincerely hope you won't be," he said and re-emerged from the cloud of my hair; but when I frowned in confusion and asked him to explain what he meant, he only smiled mysteriously.
With this fic, I've completed the N-row on the "Person vs. Self" card, so... Bingo? :D
Format: Ficlet
Genre: Vignette
Rating: Teens
Warnings: there's the teeniest tiniest bit of sexual tension
Characters: Nerdanel, Fëanor
Pairings: Nerdanel/Fëanor
Creator’s Notes (optional): This is set at a future point in the storyline of Golden Days. Familiarity with that story may help with a detail or two here, but isn't strictly necessary. Erenwen is Nerdanel's middle sister in my 'verse. - I hope to incorporate this into the main story at some point - once it gets there!
Summary: In the night before his examination, young Fëanor comes to Nerdanel for some cuddling... and reassurance.
Exam Nerves
Erenwen had gone to the dance that evening, which was usually an invitation for Fëanáro to sneak into my room after his evening bath. Nonetheless, I was surprised when I heard the familiar tap on the door, followed by the sound of the door opening and closing after my whistle of acknowledgement. I had expected that he would have other things on his mind on the eve of his examination, and was half worried and half flattered as I put away my book.
"I thought you'd be too busy to visit tonight," I said once we had broken our kiss. He tilted his head at that. His hair was wet, his smile careless and confident as ever. I wondered whether he had forgotten about the examination, or whether it had been rescheduled.
"No, it's still set to begin tomorrow. Laurelin's second hour," he said when I asked about it. "But that's no reason to miss my favourite appointment, is it? I don't think I'd sleep much, either way."
I remembered that I hadn't managed to fall asleep at all in the night before my examination, and nodded understandingly. "Hmm. That's true. So you are worried after all! I was wondering."
"Of course I'm worried! It's easily the second most important thing I'll do in my life," he said, and I couldn't help rising to the bait, asking, "Only the second most important? Then what's the most important thing?"
"You will find out," he said, nuzzling my throat. I giggled even as the delightful tingling in my stomach began.
"Naughty boy!" I said. "Come, let us lie down. Just because you don't intend to sleep doesn't mean we can't use the bed."
He smirked - very naughty indeed, I thought to myself - and we squeezed into my narrow bed. As ever, it was exciting to feel him so close, and so much of him. I leaned in for a second kiss, which he eagerly returned, and I could feel him grow hard inside his loincloth. My hand snuck into the wrapped fabric, and he moaned in response, a welcome opportunity for deepening the kiss. It would have been lovely to play on in this manner, but I felt that it was my duty to prepare Fëanáro for the upcoming exam.
So I withdrew my hand from his loincloth, stroking his chest instead. "You should still try to sleep. Don't worry too much. I don't think anyone would dare to let you fail - they're all too eager to please your father."
"I know," he said, not sounding reassured at all. "That's exactly what I'm afraid of!"
I blinked, half-sitting up. "I can't follow."
Fëanáro grabbed my hands, as he liked to do before making his point. "I'm afraid they'll make the examination too easy."
"Too easy! Curufinwë Fëanáro, you are out of your mind!"
"I am not," he said with as much dignity as a naked young man could muster. "You said it yourself: they're all eager to please Father. I'm afraid they'll turn this exam into a farce that every idiot apprentice could pass. I want to earn the title of master! I want to show the world that I'm not just a spoiled princeling who gets the title as a tribute to his father. I know everything there is to know about the craft! What if they don't let me show it?"
I had to admit that this would be unsatisfying. Frustrating though my own exam had been (particularly the obscure Telerin driftwood sculpture), at least there had been no doubt afterwards that I had earned the right to call myself master craftswoman. Being handed the title as a favour would be embarrassing even for a mediochre apprentice; for someone like Fëanáro, who practically breathed, ate and drank forge-craft, it would be humiliating in the extreme.
"Anyone who's seen one of your sickles knows that you know the craft," I said to console him, settling back down against his shoulder. "And if they don't ask any hard questions, you'll answer their simple questions and use them as a starting point to expound on something more complicated. I'm sure you can think of something."
"Hmm. I probably could," he agreed, burying his nose in my hair. I was certain that it must be smelling of iron and stone dust, but he did not seem to mind. "Yes. If they make it too easy, I'll just remind them of what an examination should be like."
"That's the spirit." I still couldn't help but point out, "Normal apprentices would worry about their exam being too hard."
"Well, I'm no normal apprentice," Fëanáro said huffily. "Normal apprentices probably wouldn't seduce their master's daughter the night before the examination, either." He sighed. "I wish you were one of my examiners. I know I can trust you to properly grill me."
There was a certain irony in that, I thought. Father was naturally exluded from the board of examiners, since it was his own apprentice being examined, and because I was Father's daughter, I was also expected to be too biased to sit with the other masters. But as Fëanáro said, I would have made sure to ask him questions worthy of his talent.
"They're probably afraid I'd be too harsh with you," I retorted, making him snort with laughter. Since his nose was still stuck in my hair, it was the strangest sensation on my skalp, warm and ticklish.
"I sincerely hope you won't be," he said and re-emerged from the cloud of my hair; but when I frowned in confusion and asked him to explain what he meant, he only smiled mysteriously.
With this fic, I've completed the N-row on the "Person vs. Self" card, so... Bingo? :D
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Date: 2019-03-31 09:22 pm (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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