Hey Nightmare, where did you get them teeth?

Lochlann would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous, and Lochlann couldn't lie.

Only he wasn't completely nervous. His bandaged knuckles rapped against Emily's door and he took a step back so when she opened it and then slammed it in his face he wouldn't stub his toe against the door frame again.

Mostly, his feelings were clear: excitement and apprehension.

He was excited to see Emily. He was determined to do this right, this crawling through his head. But he was also nervous. He'd been practicing. He took lessons with a nightmare, and now Lochlann felt like he had something under control.

But it was letting Emily see the most intimate parts of him and Lochlann couldn't help but wonder what she'd think.


@Nightstripe

Lochlann braced himself when the door opened but, instead, Emily was pressed up against her. He responded automatically, as if he'd been waiting for her hug the entire time, and Lochlann embraced her. It felt so good and the unexpected contact sent a rush of happiness through him.

Emily tugged him inside and he came easily.

He shook his head. The very last thing he wanted to do was eat. He was a little hungry and being so close to Emily just made that worse, but he pushed it down deep

"No," he said. "I'll be okay. Unless you want to, in which case, I'm happy to join you.'

Emily kissed her and now Lochlann was caught off guard. He kissed her back and when she pulled away and rested her head on his shoulder, his body was positively humming with excitement.

Was he ready?

“Honestly, I don’t know,” he told her. “But I’ve been practicing. And we’ll never know unless we try, right?”

He was nervous that she wanted to see more of him. He didn’t want to show her any more of those painful memories. He’d been working on reliving the moments of his life that had been good. He was ready to share those with her.

When she brought him the photos, Lochlann’s face lit up. His mouth opened into a surprise “o” and his eyebrows lit up. The skin at the corner of his eyes crinkled and tilted upwards just as his lips did.

Now, it was Lochlann’s turn to pull Emily close to him and plant a quick kiss on her lips.

“Thank you,” he said.

Lochlann had so very few photos that he cherished each one he had. TO have a gift like this meant more to him than he could put into words.

Emily was beckoning towards her bedroom and it was the one of the few times that a beautiful girl was beckoning towards her bedroom and Lochlann felt…nervous. But he came willingly and settled onto the edge of the mattress.

“Alright,” he said. He hoped that everything Mel taught him would help.

It was an interesting role reversal for Lochlann to have a beautiful woman tell him that he was delectable. He blushed and then covered his face with his hand so she couldn't see him laughing.

"Emily," he said. "You're adorable."

As she led him into the bedroom, he said, "I don't have many photos of the people I care about, so it means a lot to me."

She led him into the bedroom and then, she wrapped her arms around him and Lochlann settled into her grasp. One of his hands traced lazy circles on her side. He was a mixture of pleasure and apprehension and he let Emily savor him as much as he savored hers.

And then it was dark.

Lochlann was ready this time. He'd been practicing. Instead of thinking of the dark, of the cloying, cool darkness of the lake or the frighting darkness of the sea, Lochlann thought about the barn and then...

They were in the loft of a horse barn. It smelled of fresh hay and timber. Emily was standing by the window and Lochlann picked himself up from the hay he'd been laying on.

"So this is....Dubh Cabyll," he said, pulling a piece of hay out of his hair. The barn they were in was huge. It had several stalls beneath them and the loft up top had a separate room. This section was filled with hay and there was a latter that went beneath them. The thick beams in the center were hand-carved with knotwork and horses. A knife rested next to it in a pile of sawdust, as if Lawrence had just walked away to get a drink.

"My uh...my family lives here, well, not in the barn" Lochlann told her. "This was the first day we got the horses."

He hesitated and then held out his hand for her.

"Do you want to see?"

"United States," Lochlann said. He bumped her back and then gave her hand a gentle squeeze back.

Truthfully, Lochlann had forgotten which state they were in. He was in Mississippi for a while, then Missouri. Maybe they were in upstate New York?

He knew without a doubt that it wasn't Alaska. They were continental somewhere. He just...didn't remember where.

When she said that she'd never seen a horse up close, Lochlann was surprised.

"Well, this is a good way to see them, because they're in my head, so they can't actually do anything to you," he said. He'd have to take her to see real horses sometimes. "Not that real horses are really inclined to do much to you. They're more likely to run away."

He let go of her hand a moment only to jump off the edge of the loft and into the pile of hay, motioning for her to follow her. He'd catch her if she preffered, but the hay was thick and soft. When they were put together, he'd lead her out the large barn and onto the grounds.

Dubh Capall farm was located down near the river flats. Since this was Lochlann's memory of it, things weren't how they actually were now. In reality, the fields had grown in, there was a fence, and Lochlann and Lilly had painted the house.

In this memory, there was a truck with a trailer out in the field, and that's where Lochlann led Emily.

The truck was driven by his brother, Lawrence, who was leaning out the window. He looked a little bit like Lochlann, with the same dark curly hair and green eyes, but his face and hands were wider, his nose a little longer. He was remarkably handsome and had the air of a cowboy to him.

There was a Lochlann in this memory, too, only he was several years younger than Lochlann was now. He was thinner, much thinner, and wearing an Armor for Sleep tshirt. His hair was still a mess and he didn't have any of the scars he did now.

Dream Lochlann pulled open the back of the trailer and took a step back, yelling something at his brother in Welsh. Lawrence yelled back.

"The thing about horses," Lochlann told Emily. "Is that, even though they can see better in the dark than people, their eyes don't adjust as quickly. They also don't trust their depth perception. So getting them in and out of trailers can be a hassle."

He leaned against the paddock fence and pointed to the trailer.

A few moments later, a large black horse came out, tossing his head. It was the first Friesian his father bought. Lochlann was embarrassed that he couldn't remember what they'd named him.

"What do you think?" he asked her.