wordsontongue | Old Stones (Reply)

Title: Old Stones
Author:

helena_s_renn
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Prompt(s): #17: secret, "My soul has grown deep like the rivers" and a picture of Wharncliffe Lodge
Disclaimer: As always, this is fiction. It never happened.

It had once been the village hall, then a school, then what served as the local boarding house. Sean got it for a song; the building was, at the time, only a year or two away from becoming unrestoreable. What he was spared in purchase price, he made up several times in renovation costs.

But being determined and possessing a previously-unknown frugalness that would make his granny proud, Sean began the work himself, with his own hands. Whenever numb fingers or an aching back caught up with him, he only had to walk outside to know it would be worth it.

Their home, if Viggo accepted of course, sat near the edge of a ridge overlooking a long valley. Trees and grass changed by season; little rivulets ran through the rolling hills and around fields, rising and falling with the rain. The whole countryside seemed infused with pervasive secrets and lore, and Sean felt it was his job to suss them out, one by one. He took frequent walks, so that he and the ancient village could get to know each other, not only the inhabitants but the buildings, stones, trees, and the ground itself seemed to have a life of its own.

The day came he had to call for plumbers, electricians and people to put in a new heating system and windows. The place was cold in the winter. Sean didn't doubt the heat he and Viggo could generate but the confines of their bed were probably the limits of that. So far, he hadn't chosen furniture, hadn't slept in the place, either. He didn't want to jinx it. For Viggo's studio, and maybe a spare corner for his own in it, he picked the southern third of the upper floor - all open, loft style, so the artists would feel at home.

Things were coming together. In early spring, Sean turned his attention to the ramshackle back wall and weed-infested garden that hadn't been tended in years. It would take more than journeymen to fix that, but he had time.

In summer, he fetched Viggo from Heathrow himself, and they came home. From Viggo's first look at the place and delighted grin, it was that - home. "It's so absolutely you, Sean ... how could I not love it?" And he kissed the front door, then his lover's lips.