I think this is one place in the world where a surprising number of people would not mind at all. And they can walk through his - their - city, for a while, arm in arm. Stop for lunch at a new restaurant, wander onward, look at the new tower in the East section, it’s impressively tall as human construction goes.

It is a good city. He’s not sure whether his demand that Telumë build him a country actually had anything to do with it but he’s delighted with how it turned out.

He’s very proud of it! 

By late afternoon Telumë’s feet are kind of sore, and he’s content to wind their way back to his house, greeting everyone they pass.

(Maitimo is so delighted by the personality Telumë turns out to have in peacetime.)

Well, it’s the correct shape to be here, right? And more fundamentally than any of his specific traits, Leareth - Ma’ar at the beginning - was someone who tried to become the best shape he could be, to achieve his goals.

He lets them into his house. Stops in front of one of his tapestries. “This looked so beautiful last night.” He still feels like he can see it in a way he never did before.

"I'm getting kind of curious about this drug."

“It is very odd!” Telumë heads to the kitchen and looks for where he put the rest of the herbs for it. “Are you hungry?”

"I could have dinner."

Telumë isn’t a particularly creative about food, when he’s just feeding himself, but he has one of the magical refrigeration boxes, and right now it contains some savory pastries and a container of soup which he can reheat with magic.

They can sit at his dining table and eat, while the sun turns slanting and golden through the window; one of Telumë‘s strongest architectural preferences for his house was that there be plenty of big windows, and his room has a skylight too.

The drug kicks in halfway through. He can tell because he’s suddenly captivated by a sunbeam, staring at it, awed by how much beauty can fit in something so ordinary.

"- you all right?"

Telumë turns to look at him- oh, his husband is so pretty, he could stare at him forever. 

Yes, he says happily. Love you. 

Awww. Love you too.

Telumë makes a halfhearted effort to eat more; it tastes better than usual but he’s also distracted by everything. Mostly by Maitimo. Finally, he gives up and sort of flops against him. 

You are very good, he says cheerfully - probably he means something more detailed than that but words are sort of hard.

Snuggle snuggle. I am very evil! Less evil than I used to be but still, far more evil than average.

He laughs. For some reason it seems very very funny. Well, I am also more evil than average. I murdered all those people. 

If you bring them back it doesn't count! It's just kind of like punching them. Punching them fifteen years into the future.

The mental image that gives him is even funnier. Telumë giggles and kisses Maitimo. Takes his hand, pausing to stare at it for a moment and wonder how he's never even noticed how beautiful Maitimo's hands are.

...This drug is very strange, he thinks briefly before losing track of it again. It's pretty lovely right now. 

Maitimo will kiss him back! And snuggle him! And sing a silly song about how love is like Treelight sparkling on the surface of a river.

Telumë is so happy and so thoroughly distracted, the song is so pretty, lines from it keep setting off little whorls of thought that don't go far because Maitimo is filling most of his attention, Maitimo is so shiny and bright and the most important thing in the universe - eventually he thinks, sort of plaintively, that the snuggling is very nice but they're still at his table and could probably be snuggling more if they went elsewhere. 

They could! They could go to Telumë's bed and then Telumë could be much more thoroughly snuggled.

Telumë would like that!

(He drags together his thoughts, briefly and with great effort, to wonder if he took a stronger dose of the drug by accident or if he's just more affected because Maitimo is here, he thinks that he could string words together better yesterday, but it's not like it really matters, Maitimo's here and so he's safe and everything is fine and he can be helpless for a little while.) 

Maitimo is going to kiss him! And sing to him! And pet his hair!

Telumë isn't sure if this is approaching what it's like for Quendi to have their hair petted, but it's pleasant and distracting enough that he's basically incapable of thoughts, for quite a long time. 

- at some point it occurs to him that Maitimo has hair too, which he knows is very soft, and he wants to touch all of the soft things right now, so he squirms over enough to reach for Maitimo's braid - pauses for a moment in case Maitimo doesn't want that...

How sweet of him! Maitimo wants that (and has faster reflexes than impaired Telumë anyway.)

Maitimo is going to try to be slightly less distracted because probably one of them should retain some common sense. However he is only going to aim for 'slightly' and he will still be very thoroughly distracted if Telumë wants to pet his soft soft hair a while.

(Maitimo is sending want and love and more).

It is so soft, it has to be the softest thing in the world, and Maitimo being distracted is the most adorable thing in the world, and he's so burstingly, overflowingly happy, it seems very unfair that Maitimo can't feel that directly as well, but he does his best to convey it by making that thought public, and by kissing Maitimo and running his hands through his softsoftsoft hair some more.