Eomer paced the golden hall of Meduseld, his boots striking a discordant note with every step. He had been pacing and cursing under his breath ever since his latest encounter with Grima, and only when he saw his sister entering the hall in a flurry of white velvet did he cease his pacing to draw a calming breath. "Eowyn!"

She rushed toward him. "Brother, what ails you?"

He hissed, "Grima, as ever. I swear, had we not been brought up so carefully, I would wring his pale neck and cut out that forked tongue and..."

Eowyn shushed him by placing a finger across his mouth. "Let us not talk of these matters here." She glanced toward the king where he sat, hunched over in his spell-induced daze. He was likely incapable of following a conversation, but who knew for certain.

"Come to my room," Eowyn said softly.

Eomer took her hand and kissed the finger which had silenced him, bringing a rare smile to her sweet lips. Then he followed her across the hall and down the two corridors to her chambers.

Once inside the serenity of his sister's domain, Eomer relaxed somewhat, and drew his first easy breath in days. He deposited his heavy outer armor on the center table and sat down.

Eowyn poured him some mead from a carafe, and Eomer took the chalice gratefully. "For days now, I have been telling the king about orcs roaming free across our lands. He hears me not, but Grima does." Eomer's words came harshly. "If there only was a way to be rid of him, perhaps we might reach the king..." He drank deeply, wiping the remnants of the sweet libation from his moustache. "We migth be able to talk to the decent man we know to be hiding under that shell."

Eowyn nodded sadly, seated now in the chair closest to her brother. "If only there was some way to lift this evil spell he is under." She sighed. "It pains me so to see him like this."

"Oh, Eowyn." Eomer took her hand once more and held it tightly in his own, before lifting it to his face and resting his cheek against it. "What pains me is to have to leave you in this prison while I must be out with my riders in a futile attempt to keep Rohan safe. To leave you with a half-dead king, and a plotting, scheming weasel, and now..." He sighed, and his eyes met Eowyn's, where tears sparkled, unshed.

"Theodred may not see more than another day or two," she said, and could not quite suppress a stifled sob.

"My darling sister!" Eomer drew her from her chair to rest on his lap, and wrapped his arms around her slender waist. It was how he had often comforted her when they were children.

Eowyn's head fell on his shoulder and she sighed into the smooth material of his tunic. "I fear for you, Eomer."

Knowning his sister too well to treat her like a silly, fanciful wench, Eomer admitted, "We must expect that Grima and his duplicitous master are weaving some kind of plot to be rid of me as well." He held her tighter when he felt her tremble in his arms. "Know this, Eowyn," he said steadily. "I watch my back closely, and have others do the same, and I will not be assassinated by one of Grima's minions. But he could still... banish me."

Eowyn's fingers bunched the thick brocade on Eomer's shoulders more tightly, and he began to rub his hands soothingly up and down her back.

"Eowyn," Eomer whispered against her ear, stirring the golden hair playing around the delicate shell. "If that should occur, rest assured I will return. I will find a way." He pushed her back a little to look into her glistening eyes. "I will not leave you for long with Grima, whom I do not trust around you for even a moment."

Eowyn nodded. "I know this, Eomer."

"He has his bloodshot eyes set on you, sister," Eomer continued heatedly. "He watches you, day in, day out, as though you were some ripening fruit to be harvested at just the right moment." Eomer's hold of his sister tightened. "Never let him be alone with you, do you hear? If I am not here to protect you, let your good sense guide you in this."

"I promise, Eomer." She nodded, stroking his cheek with a tender hand. "My protector..." she said affectionately. "I know that even from afar, you would watch over me."

Eomer smiled, though it was a bitter smile, and he held her head against his neck once more lest she saw his anger at his helplessness too clearly in his eyes. Holding her like this was a sweet memory of their lost childhood, and yet far more real. It had always been this way with them; inside Eowyn's chambers, everything was safe and warm, no matter what happened in the cruel world outside.

"Let me stay here with you this night," Eomer murmured into his sister's sweetly fragrant hair. "So that I might watch over you while I still can."

Eowyn nodded against his neck, and sighed contentedly. Having Eomer close comforted her as nothing else could.

Smiling at her lassitude and the yawn he could feel against his skin, Eomer stood and lifted her in his arms, carrying her to the wide four-poster bed before the barren fire-place. Yes, he would keep her safe while he still could. Safe and warm and comfortable.

After quickly and efficiently lighting a fire in the long unused grate, as well as a few candles about the room, Eomer poured himself some more of the mead before settling on the bed beside his sister. He smiled at her gentle features, still able to relax so entirely in her sleep. Eowyn was brave, he knew, but he was only too aware that her courage alone would not protect her. He was once against glad that he had thought to teach her to defend herself with a sword.

He pushed his worrying thoughts from his mind to concentrate on simply being at her side. For how much longer, who knew. Reaching out, he traced her high cheekbone with his thumb in a gesture seeming too tender for such a strong, battle-hardened hand.

"I love you, Eowyn," he said softly.

"As I you, my brother," she murmured, sighing contentedly in her slumber.

Eomer's heart clenched. 'Not quite as I do, I fear,' he thought. Reluctantly, he drew back his hand, fearful that he might begin to caress her full lips or slender neck before he could stop himself.

Surprisingly, Eowyn clasped his hand before it could retreat, and her slim fingers held it, quite firmly, against her stomach.

Eomer laid his hand flat, knowing that the warmth of his palm against her middle would soothe her in her sleep. Indeed, she sighed contentedly, threading her fingers through his where they lay against her bodice.

Eomer closed his eyes, trying to keep his breathing even enough to avoid waking Eowyn. The warmth of her flesh beneath her soft gown penetrated his hand and sped the flow of his blood throughout his body. He grappled with his conscience, his desire to let his hand roam even a little nearly overriding his good sense. It was wrong to desire ones own sister. It was wrong to hunger for her, to feel the need to bury himself in her warmth in every way possible. Was it not?

Eowyn stirred, as if her brother's thoughts made her sleep restless.

Eomer considered getting up and leaving, but just then, her grip on his hand tightened and she drew it upwards, placing the open palm over her heart. Eomer inhaled sharply.

"Do not do this to me, my sister," he whispered desperately, hoping against hope that her subconscious might heed his plea. Instead, she shifted slightly, and the tips of his fingers brushed along the warm skin bordering the neckline of her bodice. It was the most intimate touch they had ever shared in a lifetime of cuddling and tight embraces, and it took Eomer's breath away.

Eowyn sighed, and her breast heaved under Eomer's palm.

Whether or not she knew that his hand rested there, he could not say, but he knew he must resign himself to drawing it away.

"Mmm..." A smile played about her lips, and she shifted closer still, Eomer's hand pressed between them as her head came to rest in the warm arch of his neck.

"Heaven help me," Eomer whispered with his eyes closed, but his free arm automatically moved around Eowyn's shoulders to draw her nearer.

She snuggled against him, her soft lips brushing Eomer's neck lightly.

He dared not move, lest the spell be broken, but when Eowyn's fingers moved up the side of his neck to play with his bearded jawline, he reconsidered.

"Eowyn," he whispered, hoping to get her attention and make her shift in her sleep. She did, but further into his embrace, her hand now trailing around the back of his neck to slide into his long golden mane while she rubbed her soft cheek against his bearded chin.

Not daring to breathe, or even think, Eomer struggled to ignore the proximity of their mouths, the way Eowyn's honeyed breath shivered across his full lips on each exhale. Could he conceivably kiss her and claim it to be nothing more than brotherly affection? Yes, perhaps. But he himself would know better, and besides... would he be able to stop there?

When her soft lips touched the corner of his mouth, Eomer gasped. He grew so tense, he barely noticed that he was crushing Eowyn against his body much too hard.

Only when she whimpered did he loosen his grip on her back. "Forgive me, darling sister," he muttered apologetically, and retrieved his hand, only to find his wrist stilled above Eowyn's collarbone as she turned to lie on her back.

Her eyes, so blue and wide, stared up at him, and Eomer dared not even contemplate how his flushed skin, and no doubt desire-darkened eyes, must look to her. He closed his eyes and took a steadying breath, missing the tender smile to caress Eowyn's lips.

When he felt soft, warm skin beneath his shaking palm, his eyes flew open once more, and he found that his palm now cupped Eowyn's slender neck.

"Heaven's, Eowyn," he gasped.

She laughed softly, not allowing him to remove his hand. "I want you to touch me, Eomer. I know you think I do not, but I do."

"Do you know what you are saying?" Eomer asked, his heart beating loud enough to be heard in all of Edoras, he was certain.

"I am saying that I love you more than I have ever loved, or ever could love, another," Eowyn said without a trace of hesitancy or fear in her voice.

He should have known; Eowyn had always known her own mind once it was made up. "Oh, Eowyn," Eomer exhaled. His hand, still on her neck, moved upwards of its own accord now, and the pad of his thumb caressed the underside of her delicate chin, making her smile.

"Kiss me, brother," she requested, and now there was the barest trembling in her voice after all.

Eomer leaned close enough to taste her breath in the air between them, and watched her eyes close beneath his own. When he touched his lips to hers, the shiver running through her shot straight through his own body as well.

What started as the lightest touch soon turned deeper, more demanding, and within moments, Eomer had parted his sister's sweet mouth beneath his own, and touched the tip of his tongue to hers.

She moaned, her entire body pressing up against Eomer, who used his free hand to stroke the golden tresses back from her flushed face, while deepening the kiss further, now pushing into her delicous mouth and searching out every nuance of her taste.

If what they were doing was wrong, Eowyn refused to care, and Eomer could no longer help it. She drew him inside herself, where already, his heart and soul were at rest. Her arms held him close, and her fingers clutched the burgundy fabric of his tunic as she shifted under him, desperate to feel to what extent she was able to arouse him. When she did, she gasped into Eomer's mouth, and her legs parted to feel him more intensely.

Eomer murmured her name when he next ceased kissing her to take a breath. "Tell me, darling sister, what you would have me do. I am mad with desire for you, and I do not want to go too far."

Eowyn arched her neck to nip playfully at Eomer's bottom lip, then lay back on her pillows once more, her eyes a deeper shade of blue than Eomer had ever seen them. "Do what you will, brother, and know that it is what I wish. What I have wished... for a long time."

"You are so certain," Eomer said, kissing her cheek tenderly.

She nodded. "If you are soon to leave me, let us be lovers this night, so that I will have something to remember and keep me warm while I await your return." She smiled for a brief instant, then grew serious once more. "Please."

Eomer nodded, and when she breathed a sigh of relief, he kissed her once more, while his hand searched for the closure of her dress beneath her back. He undid the heavy velvet, and felt her shiver when his fingers played over her spine and shoulder blades.

Eowyn shifted until he could draw the dress over her shoulders, and helped him release her arms from their confines. To remove the dress completely was easy then, and left her lying beneath Eomer dressed only in a long, sheer slip which was like a veil upon her fair body.

Eomer let his eyes roam over his sister as he had never dared before, his hand tenderly touching and petting a patch of skin here, a gentle rounding of flesh there. "There can be no woman fairer than you, my love," he said breathlessly, bending his head to kiss the swell of her breast while his fingers slipped beneath the halter of her slip and drew it from her shoulder.

Eowyn moaned softly when his beard tickled her sensitive flesh through the thin fabric, and her sudden movement bared more of that flesh to Eomer's roaming lips.

His full lips were weather-roughed but gentle on her skin, and gentler yet when they found a rosy nipple exposed by Eomer's clever hands. He played her with the tip of his tongue, and Eowyn felt wetness seep from her in anticipation of what else he might do with that tongue.

As if Eomer could read her mind, he ceased his ministrations, and smiled at her, before shifting on the bed and sliding down her now mostly exposed body. He watched her eyes grow wide when he pushed her slip up to her hips, and lifted one slender leg to trail his tongue along the tender flesh.

Her breathing had quickened almost alarmingly by the time Eomer's mouth was upon the inside of her pale thigh, and when he parted her legs further and touched her in her most tender spot, Eowyn spasmed uncontrollaby.

She was certain she could feel each stroke of her brother's tongue against her seeping flesh, and the scratching of his beard against her skin only heightened the sensations.

Mewling softly, Eowyn lay as still as she could, save her roaming fingers against Eomer's temples and in his long hair. Never, in all her fevered fantasies of her brother coming to her bed at night and making her his own, had she dared dream of this. When she finally succumbed, her cry was almost instantly silenced by Eomer's swift possession of her mouth.

"Can you taste yourself on my lips?" he whispered against her ear while combing back her sweat-soaked hair with his fingers. "How delicious you taste? Can you taste it, too?"

Eowyn nodded, catching the tip of one of Eomer's fingers in her teeth before drawing the entire digit into her mouth. When she released it once more to find his deep brown eyes shining nearly black, she breathed, "I did not know such pleasure existed."

A smile tugged at Eomer's lips. "Will you let me show you more pleasure yet?"

"Yes!" Without hesitation, Eowyn unbuttoned Eomer's shirt and pushed it back off his broad shoulders, which she took a moment to caress with trembling fingers, before fumbling with the closure of his breeches. She felt his heat and hardness under her palm, and struggled more quickly, eager to feel him inside her.

Once she had released his weeping arousal, and helped him rid himself of the rest of his clothes, she looked askance even while her hand closed around his hard shaft, squeezing it tightly.

Eomer's eyes closed at that first touch, and he bit his lip hard to keep himself under control. "Let me take you, Eowyn," he pleaded. "I fear I cannot wait much longer."

She nodded, and with her legs still parted and her hand on Eomer's shaft, she guided him inside, carefully but without hesitation. She knew reasonably well what to expect, and only the softest cry told Eomer that he had breached her maidenhood.

"A gift... beyond anything I could have ever expected," he said haltingly, lowering himself to lie fully upon Eowyn. She smiled, and he dared to begin thrusting into her, slowly at first, and more forcefully when her breathing grew shallow and rapid.

Eomer raised her left leg and hooked it over his hip, running his warm palm up and down the underside of her trembling thigh. He kissed her deeply, his tongue as forceful as his hardness inside her.

"I love you, Eomer!" Eowyn whimpered, arching her neck, tears trickling from the corners of her eyes as they fixed upon her brother. "Make me remember this night."

And Eomer did. He pushed into her once more, then pulled out, and turned her pliant body around while relieving her off her slip.

Eowyn inhaled sharply when he had her kneel before him with her thighs pressed together tightly. His own thickly-muscled thighs clamped around hers like a vice as he opened her with his fingers, then drove himself inside her again, deeper than before, but more gently for the varying position. She cried out, the long, golden waves of her hair cascading over her arched back and falling past her waist.

Eomer leaned over her, inhaling the scent of her hair and the vanilla fragrance of her flushing skin, as he continued to piston inside her until he felt her clench around him and moan deeply. Only then did he allow his own release, leaving all but a stray trickle of his seed inside her womb.

They fell on the bed beside each other, and Eomer drew his sister into his arms and cushioned her head on his heaving chest. He stroked her hair tenderly as he kissed her damp forehead. "I love you so much, Eowyn. Oh, I will never forget this."

"Nor I." Eowyn sighed, snuggling close. "And before the cold sun rises again, we will make more memories yet, sweet brother." She smiled up at Eomer with an impish turn of her lips, and his laughter rumbled in his chest.

And then it died, because Eowyn had slithered down his body, and with a slender hand wrapping around Eomer's once more half-erect shaft, she brought the tip of her tongue to taste herself on him, and mingled with him.

The taste of bittersweet memories. For cold nights to come.

End