First off, I am so pleased you enjoyed your story. I had the most miserable time because I kept thinking ‘this isn’t a story!’ all the way through. It’s more character study than story, which is sort of cheating. (At least I think so.)
This was not the bunny I had originally, but I got to thinking about Faramir and bondage and what it would take for him to be involved in something like that. What is bondage about? Trust, to me, and I see Faramir as such a generous lover that it could be (amusingly) frustrating to whomever he was with never being able to get a ‘word’ in edgewise. He could not be with another soldier simply because of issues of rank and command, so who? In thinking about these things, I came up with this. It was a logical progression—where did Mallen learn this? Why isn’t Mallen a soldier? All the little things that answer the plot hole questions, including the ‘what does Gondor in general think about all of this?’
I’m trying to find the blush in this. I suppose that last segment… Sex and love together, who’d have thought? And men together speculating on future wives—why not? These men are both too loving not to share with others in the future. I’m going all sappy, but love isn’t a finite thing and I wanted to imply that maybe in the future there’s a place for all of this in both men’s lives.
Again, thank you for your review and I’m so glad you enjoyed it.

I’ve read this story with much liking, much interest and not a little fascination at all the themes running through. On first seeing Faramir, and Mallen, they both made me smile. I’ve messaged a few thoughts on to you (please let me know if it does not arrive). Here, I would like to say that the prompts were ingeniously applied to a pair of warm, likeable characters, in a reciprocating exchange of give and take. Faramir and Mallen take things a step further in trust and enjoyment, driving inhibitions into abeyance. This reduces Faramir to a wilder pleasure than he has been used to, and so in turn he can understand how Mallen might also want to experience the same enthusiastic treatment. Two caring people find out how they can give more, and accept more, as a result of Mallen’s experiment.
The story mentions Mallen’s past as well, which gives another layer of sexual experience, with a young man whose fortune has been less happy. However, he was also able to trust enough to give, and to receive. Mallen’s character, his gentle kindness, his inability to be in the military, Faramir’s insistence on giving rather than accepting, and Mallen’s frustration over this, all make more facets and layers to the story. Humour, enjoyment and warmth pervade the tale from first to last, and Faramir has a lot of fun learning how neither of them need to treat each other with kid gloves. In the end, Faramir jokes about how in taking control he could be giving up control. Giving himself over to passion of a more demanding kind is something that he has discovered he does not mind at all – either way round!
Thank you for a thoughtful, fun, and gentle story, passionate and caring, with people I could warm to and enjoy, and (ahem) blush with! Erfan