From The Inside

30

The faint glimmer of hope which flitted into Beorn, was something which could not be ignored. He laid, head propped up against one hand, the other lay across Ylva's stomach, watching as she finally got some decent sleep. Perhaps confessing to what was really up caused ease to envelope her; whereas she suddenly felt at ease, Beorn felt hope. Back before he had met Ylva, he had believed that he was alone; for a year in the darkness of a cage, he was led to believe that he was the lone skin-changer left to dwell in Middle-earth. Just thinking back to those times caused his mood to darken ever so slightly. It quickly lightened though as Ylva whispered something in her sleep and huddled closer to him.

A year of pain and gloom got split and torn apart when he had seen her. He had felt hope then, it was small and flickering. But he had felt hope when he first spied her trying to escape. It was the hope and realisation that he was not alone. Even if they were parted, they had each other to some extent. And then when they had exchanged words for the first time, his hope at no longer being alone grew. Slowly, tentatively, the last thing he wanted was for himself to feel hope only for it to get shredded and destroyed. But it hadn't. That hope had grown, and it had turned slowly to love, love which was returned to him so strongly.

Being alone would have been a painful fate. Though Beorn was more than sure that he would have been killed rather than let go, that would be if he hadn't escaped first. But he wasn't alone, and he was with hope. The smaller female supplied such necessities, not just those which one would receive from a mate, but she gave him peace, though she was not exactly a peaceful person, always having to do something, but she made him feel at peace. She was home, wherever she was, he felt at home; like he truly belonged.

She had admitted to not being able to imagine her life without him. But he felt the same. That wasn't to say he wasn't happy with his own kin, but Ylva was here now and they weren't. She was his life, and he was sure that it went the same for her. With a sigh, he finally settled by her side, night had come and though he was sure she would sleep well, he still could not help but watch over her. Shutting his eyes, he tried to relax; in truth, though he felt pride that they were going to be parents, hope for their races not dying with them, he could not help but feel a little confused.

They were of different species, which meant that their child would take after one of them more so than the other, or have a mixture of both of their traits. He would freely admit that he did not think interspecies children were possible. He had lived a long life, even before meeting Ylva, and he had never heard of anything as such. But then, when he briefly opened his eyes to look down at her, Beorn reached up and placed his hand against her cheek, they were a bear and a wolf. But they were also a man and a woman.

With a quiet groan, he frowned and sat up. This was too much thinking to be happening when he was trying to settle to sleep. Perhaps the onset of parenthood had kicked in for him and he couldn't help but feel slight worry, along with the hope. Feeling gentle hands on his shoulders, he looked over at Ylva, he had had it in mind to go for a walk, he got as far as placing his feet on the floor before pausing. Though he wished to clear his mind, he did not want to leave her.

Ylva frowned gently, she could feel how tense he was. Kissing him on the shoulder, she took to trying to relieve some of the tension from his muscles by softly running her hands on his shoulders. The relieved sigh made Ylva smile, her plan seemed to be working. "What is the matter?" She whispered while working her hands down his back. Beorn opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder at her. Ylva frowned slightly at the confused look in his brown eyes. "You're letting your thoughts run away with you, Beorn." She stated while leaning against him and placing her chin against his shoulder. She looked to him with a small smile, "You need to rest just as much as me."

"Actually I think you need to rest more than me." Beorn said heavily and distantly while trying to keep focused on their conversation and not at the feeling of her soft hands running up and down his back. It was all very distracting in all honestly.