Part 8-The Sweetest thing.

"I don't know what other people seeor what they think is love

But I know what it means to me

I fall in love so easily

And it's hard to let your guard down

Something you never wanted to

But I gave you my heart and if you turned awayI guess I'd be screwed, but..."

Aragorn woke up with The Bouncing Souls playing and with someone's head lying on his chest.

Raising his head carefully as to not aggravate the headache he could feel thundering in his temples, he then let out a sigh of relief when he saw the familiar gold and black of Lee's hair. Satisfied that he didn't have Eowyn or Arwen on him, he gingerly lowered his head and blindly reached out to shut off his CD player. After a few tries, he finally shut off the music and relaxed in the stillness of the morning. And swore that he'd never let his drink go unguarded whenever the witches were about.

As he thought of this, he shifted slightly and looked at the clock hanging on the wall in front of him. He let out a subdued sigh of relief when he saw it was only nine in the morning. Good. He had at least two hours in which to get sober, get cleaned himself and the house cleaned up before his dad came home before he went out and met Boromir.

"Hgrraunged. I don't wanna get up."Aragorn's thoughts were pierced by the sleepy mumbles coming from the hung-over elf now slowly stirring to wakefulness from Aragorn's chest.

"Then get off of me." Aragorn told him, his tone utterly dead-pan as he spoke.

"Huh? Estel?" Legolas' head shot up, an unbelievably cute expression of confusion on his face as he looked at his brother which was quickly replaced by a wince before his head flopped back down.

"What exactly am I doing here? And where the hell are my clothes?" Lee muttered, still face-down on his brother's chest, his arm flopping this way and that in a really poor attempt to gather his clothes.

"How the hell should I know?" Aragorn retorted as he shoved the elf off of him and sat up, wincing at the throbbing in his temples that signalled he would most definitely get a thunderous headache before long. The wince deepened when he noticed his stomach lurching alarmingly at his sudden movement. This was not a good start.

On the plus side, he still had all his clothes on and he was in his bedroom. That was good. Right?

Legolas groaned and buried his face in his arms. "You're Estel Aragorn Strider. You should know these things." he mumbled crossly before lifting the blanket and looking down at himself.

"Yes. Got my pants on. Zipped up too." Aragorn rolled his eyes at the comments and was about to make what could have passed as a witty remark in their hung-over minds when his stomach decided it would be a good time to rebel against him as payback for last night's activities.

Deciding that being sick took precedence over being funny, Aragorn quickly ran out of the room and into the bathroom directly across the hall from his room.

"Shut the door man!" Lee heard Max yell before the sounds of violent retching reached Legolas.

His first thought was. "Why the hell is Max here?" The second thought was: "Why didn't Estel close the damn door?" The third was promptly thrashed when he felt himself turning green and he too made a mad rush to the other washroom in the house and thus realizing why it was impossible to shut the washroom door when you're going to be sick as fucken dog in seconds.

"Fucken hell! Why can't you guys shut the damn doors?" Danny yelled out.

"I swear! Fuck man! You guys got something against shutting doors? Is it against your religion or something?"

Hearing this made Aragorn both groan weakly and to promise himself that he wasn't going to EVER let Arwen, Eowyn and Eomer into his house again for as long as he lived.

- "What the hell are guys doing here?" Aragorn asked Max, Glor and Danny, who all looked a little worse for the wear as they sat around the dinning room table waiting for Legolas to finish making the coffee and to find the alka-seltzer, club soda and limes to cure their hang-overs.

"Too drunk to walk home." Max mumbled, his head in his arms as he sat slumped over the table.

"Dad would have fucken killed us. He's pissed enough about Arwen being such a slut, he'd skin us if we came home pissed out of our trees and with Danny sucking face with Glor here." He said as he gestured to the pale elf that looked like death warmed over.

Drinking really didn't agree with Glorfindel at all. Most of the time he was the semi-sober one, since he liked to get stoned more than he liked to drink. But it seemed that he had fallen victim to the "spiked drink" brigade of Eowyn, Eomer and Arwen, who didn't like him ever since her brother had started going out with him back in Grade Eleven.

"Shut up." Danny ordered grumpily, but with little enthusiasm, since he too had a turn worshipping at the porcelain gods that morning.

"Did everyone go home allright?" Aragorn asked. The others nodded unenthusiastically.

"Oh. Eowyn puked on your drive-way, by the way." Glor added softly.

Aragorn winced at this. He still had a headache and was still looking precariously green even though he had taken a shower and had taken some aspirin as well.

"Does your dad know about you two?" Aragorn asked in an effort to quell his poor stomach down before he got sick again.

"Yeah. He told me he knew when I first put on one of Arwen's aprons and was playing house." Danny grinned slightly at the memory. The others just smiled, since they recalled being suckered to play house with Arwen and Danny at one point or another when they were kids. Legolas only shook his head as he came to the table with the glasses of Club Soda with Alka-seltzer and lime juice mixed in for the others to drink and hopefully make them seem human or elvish again before noon.

"It's the making out with Glor that he doesn't like. He thinks it's bad manners to be sucking face all over the place. I guess Arwen's little displays grossed him out."

Aragorn snorted. "Tell me about it. I swear, when I was going out with her, I was always afraid that she had sucked my tonsils out or something. It was sick man!"

Max raised his head long enough to sniff at the drink set in front of him and smile lop-sidedly at Aragorn.

"And to think that half of the school wouldn't mind getting their faces sucked by her. Or Eowyn." He commented before he took as sip of the Club Soda.

"You know, I'm actually surprised that you lasted so long with those two." Glorfindel commented as he also drank down his soda in a rapid succession of gulps.

Aragorn raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

Glorfindel nodded. "Yep. I mean, those two are obviously harpies at heart. It's not a huge wonder as to why they stick together, You know."

Max laughed slightly. "Aww. Lay off him, Glorfindel. He was just being nice to them." He then frowned at his drink. "Besides, do we really want to make ourselves sick again, talking about those two this early in the morning?"

"Yeah. No shit, eh?" Glorfindel muttered, getting up and putting his glass in the sink.

"How's the living-room looking?"Aragorn asked as he leaned back and stretched out his arms in order to work the kinks out. Having Legolas sleep on him for most of the night hadn't really done much for him and he was still feeling pretty achy despite taking a shower before showing up at the semi-council happening at the table.

"Not too shitty. Trowa cleaned some of it for us." Max replied. "He said that it was the least he could do after Duo tried to hit on Glorfindel."

Danny's left eye began to twitch at this information.

"He did what?" He then turned to his boyfriend, whose face had gone very pink and who was refusing to look at him in the eye.

"Nothing happened, Elladan. Relax." Max soothed his brother, who looked like he was going to hunt down the little violet-eyed prick who had dared to even look at his Glor.

"Glor punched him one after he wouldn't quit it." Max told his brother, who had now lost the angry, "I'm gonna kill the bastard hitting on my partner" look and was now doing his best not to give him a sappy, cutesy smile of mixed appreciation and surprise at his actions.

"Idiot." Glorfindel mumbled, his face still a nice shade of pink. Danny grinned sheepishly before he grabbed Glor and gave him kiss on the forehead.

"Yeah, But I'm your idiot." He murmured, making the others sitting at the table roll their eyes at the sappiness on display before them.

"Cut it out guys. You can screw each other silly later. Right now, we gotta clean the house so that Estel can get laid tonight." Lee told the elves sternly as he began to bustle around the kitchen, his hangover cured by both his elven powers and by the club soda mix he had made.

" He's finally going to get laid tonight?" Danny asked, ignoring the indignant splutters coming from Aragorn's corner of the table. Glor giggled, while Max grinned widely. It was great to take the piss out of Aragorn sometimes!

Lee grinned as he began to wash the small stack of dishes sitting on the counter.

"We're hoping."Lee replied, getting another round of spluttering from his brother. "Maybe it'll help him be less uptight!"

"LEE!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

//"Where are we going?" The small woman didn't reply. She just kept on walking through the field of half melted snow. His little brother clutched his hand tightly. It felt sort of sticky, but it was warm.

They kept on walking, but he could tell she was getting tired. And it was getting darker. Her hair didn't seem as dark as it always was. It..was..fading. Fading to a straw colour.

"Mama?" He was beginning to be afraid now. Her hair was changing as they walked. Walked. From where? Why where they walking? Where were they going?

She couldn't go on now. She was too tired. They wouldn't make it. She fell to the white ground, and he saw her green eyes were also faded and bruised with dark smudges underneath.

The white behind her head made her look pale, fragile. Too fragile. He didn't have the words for the emotions in his chest, but he knew that she was going to leave him and Miri.

"Mama?" He called out to her, hoping she's smile and tell him that it would all be fine. That she would stay with him and Miri. That things would be the same again.

She smiled at him. His eyes were prickling with tears, but he wouldn't let them fall. He had to be strong. For Faramir. He had to be. There was no one else. If his mother left..

"Boromir, Faramir." Her smile was growing faint, but it was still there. "Don't forget. To live by your emotions. Never forget that."//

"Fuck!" Faramir frowned at the sound of his brother's voice. Although he didn't give a damn about how much he swore, since he did it himself, he was kind of concerned about the little ones hearing such language when they were so young.

He was going to tell his brother to cool it, but the words died in his throat when he saw the drawn expression on his brother's face as he got up from the bed, which had only them as its occupants.

"Boromir?" His brother ignored him and walked to the window. He turned and looked outside, his arms wrapped around his body, shivering slightly as he did so.

"It isn't snowing." Boromir muttered as he rubbed his arms roughly. "It isn't snowing." He repeated, his eyes fixed on the scenery outside. "It isn't snowing."

Faramir swallowed hard and slowly got out of the bed and went to his brother, who was still repeating the phrase under his breath as he kept on rubbing his arms as if to warm them up even though the room was at a comfortable temperature.

"Boromir?" He whispered as he put his hand lightly on his brother's shoulder. "What is it?"

"I saw her." Boromir admitted after several moments of silence.

Faramir frowned, unsure of what his brother was talking about.

"You saw who?" He asked, his voice still hardly above a whisper lest he scare his brother away into the silence that he would use as a shield as he battled his demons alone.

"Mama." Boromir finally replied, his voice a harsh, broken whisper as he spoke.

Faramir's eyes widened at the admission and he wrapped his arms around his older brother in an effort to give him a measure of comfort. Boromir hardly, if ever, spoke of Finduilas Denethorson is such a loving and simple term. Most of the time, he referred to her as "Mother". He never used the other word unless he was upset. Or if he had just been haunted by memories that only he knew about and would refuse to share with anyone.

"It was cold." Faramir raised his head and looked at his brother, who still had that deadened and tragic look on his face as he spoke.

"And we were walking through a field covered with snow. She was so tired though. She couldn't walk any longer. And she laid down. She spoke to us, and she was changing. Her eyes were faded and so was her hair. She died in that field."

Boromir lowered his head and drew in a shuddering breath before practically collapsing into his brother's arms. "She died in that field."

Faramir soothed his brother with gentle words, carefully stroking his hair as he tried to get himself under control again.

"I hate that dream. I hate it." Boromir whispered brokenly.

"Every time I try to get together with someone, I have that dream. As if I was warning myself from getting to close to someone lest they go away like she did. I hate it."

"Aragorn won't be like that, Bor." Faramir assured him.

"I know he won't be. He isn't Casey. He never will be like that. He isn't!"

Boromir laughed softly. "Can I be sure of it Faramir? Can I?"

"Yes." Faramir said, his voice of quiet conviction.

"I know that he is. Even though I only met him briefly, I know. He stayed with me when he didn't have to. He took care of a stranger, for fuck's sake! Do you think Casey would have done the same thing? No, he wouldn't. Nor would he have willingly stepped in and helped you like he did. Or are you forgetting that?"

Boromir shook his head. "I don't think I could forget my knight in shining Vans."

Faramir chuckled at that description of Aragorn. "No, I didn't think you would. He's quite the gallant figure in those shoes."

Boromir couldn't help himself and laughed at the remark. "To think of it! Me, having a knight!"

Faramir grinned, glad to have broken the mood that Boromir had woken up in.

"He is more than a knight, Boromir." He said softly, making his brother look at him closely.

"Don't let the memory of that shit-head ruin you for him. Casey isn't worth not taking the chance of being with him."

Boromir nodded before he pressed a soft kiss on his brother's forehead before ruffling his hair playfully and releasing himself from his arms.

"What the hell would I do without you?" He asked, his voice a husky whisper as he moved away to the bureau drawer.

"Nothing. You'd probably just sleep your days away. Or read manga all the time!" Faramir shot back. To which Boromir replied by throwing his old U2 t-shirt at him. Faramir laughed and easily caught the ragged bit of cloth that Boromir slept in and tried to ignore the large pattern of scars that decorated his back.

Even though the pattern could be called artistic, it still was self-mutilation. Or sibling mutilation, he reminded himself as he reached over to his arm and rubbed at the raised scars that were hidden by the cloth of his shirt. They had carved patterns into themselves and had somehow gotten artistic as they did so, enlisting each other's help when they needed to get elaborate.

He wasn't ashamed of the scars, but he was uncomfortable looking at them, since they were a reminder of all the bad times that had nearly broken them if they hadn't been able to find strength in each other and in the pain and blood they willingly inflicted onto themselves.

Boromir's scars were different from his in that they were carved to represent a pair of broken angel wings that stretched from his spine, covering his shoulders and most of his upper back. Some of the tips touched his rib-cage at the front. He also had an upside down cross in the middle of his back and the words "Vicinum" underneath it. A product of his break-up with Casey.

Faramir himself had lines on most of his arms. No pattern, just thick scars. Except for the upside down crosses on both arms with the slogans "SIN" and "MEA" above them. But not too many people saw them, since he usually wore long-sleeved shirts even in the summer. They were his badges and the words only held meaning for him alone, a treasure that he guarded extremely carefully.

"Where are the little ones?" Boromir asked, turning around and taking Faramir out of his thoughts, a gesture which he was immensely grateful for lest the urge to take a razor-blade and carve out more stuff began to re-surface.

Even though he did it when he was upset, lonely or hurting, sometimes, he would just get the *need* to see blood flowing. Need it like a freaking drug which he wasn't sure if he wanted to say no to.

Faramir frowned. He had been half-asleep when Celeborn and Galadriel had taken them, so he wasn't really sure where exactly they had gone off to.

"Ehm. The park I think. Mom and Dad are going to spend the day with them, I think."

Boromir nodded. "Oh. Okay. I guess I can go meet Aragorn today then."

Faramir gawped, then grinned at his brother."Oh yeah!! You've got a da-aa-atee!" Faramir crooned out teasingly.

Boromir blushed slightly. "Shut up. It's not a date. We're just gonna meet at Whyte and go for coffee, get to know each other. Nothing more."

Faramir laughed. "Sounds like a date to me."

Boromir growled and stalked out of the room and into the bathroom, leaving Faramir to snigger to himself.

~*~*~**~*~*~*~

An hour later found Boromir sitting in the smoky interior of the Sugarbowl, a half-finished cup of coffee in on hand and a cigarette in the other. He had gotten there about ten minutes earlier and was now watching and waiting for Aragorn, getting more and more nervous as the time passed.

"I feel like such a girl" He muttered to himself before taking a drag of his smoke.

"He said he would come." He told himself as he took another swallow of the warm coffee. "So why the hell am I so worried?"

He put the cup down and took another drag, letting his attention idly wander to the other patrons in the small, eclectic café. Most of them were older couples, professors and university students with books, papers and writings pads in front of them as they either study or write the bare bones out of an assignment. He watched the students with idle interest, his thoughts wandering here and there as he saw a girl's pen scratch out loopy letters on a yellow pad of legal paper when he felt a soft tap on his shoulder that made him jump in surprise.

"Whoa." He heard a rich, deep voice say before Aragorn appeared and sat down in front of him, a lock of dark hair falling into his eyes as he did so.

"What?" Boromir asked, putting out his cigarette the minute that Aragorn had sat down.

"I never knew you'd be so jumpy." Aragorn replied, smiling slightly. "I wouldn't have tapped you if I had known you'd act that way."

"Aah." Boromir replied as he took as sip of his coffee and looked at the other man sitting in front of him as he tried to desperately find an avenue of conversation to break the ice.

Aragorn was looking great as always. Although the dark hair looked very tousled, it made him look as if he had just rolled out of bed after a session of great sex. His clothes, although expensive, looked rumpled and hastily thrown on.

"I rushed over here." Aragorn explained sheepishly, running a hand down his rumpled shirt when he noticed the intense scrutiny Boromir was giving him.

"Lee and I were busy cleaning the driveway after the party and I lost track of time. Sorry I'm so late." He apologized, hoping that Boromir hadn't been waiting there for ages before he showed.

"It's okay. You're here now, that's all that matters." Boromir replied, drinking the last of his coffee and standing up.

"Do you want some coffee?" He asked as he took his cup, his movements somewhat abrupt and stilted as he went to get a refill.

"Ah. Sure. I could use a cup. Especially after last night." Aragorn accepted, rubbing his forehead wearily. Boromir noticed the pained look on his face and laughed softly.

"You gotta tell me all about it after I come back with your coffee then." Boromir said, his voice holding a high tone of amusement that made Aragorn smile feebly.

"For a cup of coffee, I'll do anything you ask." He conceded, putting his head down on the table.

"Hmm. I'll take you up on that offer sometime, Strider." Boromir replied, winking at Aragorn before he went up to the counter.

Aragorn was glad that Boromir hadn't seen the blush that had spread over his face at that remark. Even though he knew that the remark was made as a joke, he couldn't stop his mind from coming up with a bunch of scenarios straight out of the porn flicks that Eomer had lent him when they were in grade ten and curious to know exactly what the hell sex was about. Except that instead of a porn actress or Eowyn taking the action, it was Boromir.

He could see it as clear as day too. Those green eyes glassed over with lust, the golden hair with its red and blue streaks spread wantonly over a pillow as his head was thrown back, back arched with pleasure as...Groaning slightly, Aragorn buried his face into his arms. Jeezes L. Gallagher Christ. Why the hell did his imagination have to work overtime this early in the morning?

"Here's your coffee." He groaned again at the sound of Boromir's voice. There simply was no rest for the wicked was there?

"Thanks." Aragorn said in a voice muffled by the fabric of his jumper. He was ready to die of humiliation now. Scotty, anytime you're ready, you can beam me up.

"Are you that tired?" Boromir asked, misinterpreting the reason why Aragorn wouldn't lift his head.

"Sort of. More like disgusted." Aragorn replied, lifting his head enough to look at Boromir.

"Why?" Aragorn grinned and brought the cup closer to himself, hoping that Boromir had added milk and sugar to it even if he hadn't asked for them. He had. Perfect. He was ready to feel a little more human now. Especially now that his imagination has left him alone.

"Eowyn puked in my driveway and we had to clean that and the house up." Aragorn replied.

"Shit man. That sounds like you had some wild party." Boromir replied, effectively shutting down the regret he felt at not having gone when the chance had presented itself.

"Yeah. I guess you could say that. Especially with the strip twister and the block streaking."

Boromir laughed."Let me guess. Duo Maxwell and Yohji Kudoh were there right?"

Aragorn smiled briefly before taking a sip of coffee. "You are familiar with their games?"

Boromir nodded. "Those guys are just..." He shook his head before taking a sip of his own coffee.

"They're wild. Always were, if I remember correctly."

"You were friends before?" Aragorn asked, his curiosity perked at the drabbles of Boromir's past.

"You could say that. Duo was after me when we were in Joe's and Yohji and I met through Thom York when I was thirteen." Boromir replied, his face sort of closed as he spoke.

"Sounds like you had a very interesting past." Aragorn noted, his voice neutral.

The blonde man shrugged. "I guess. It wasn't interesting when I was experiencing it, though. It was just life."

"I guess you would think of your life that way when you experience it."

Aragorn commented, studying the abstract geometric patterns on his mug as he thought about the bits of Boromir's past.

"It's partly that and partly because it's something I'd rather not remember, to tell you the truth. It wasn't the best of times for me or my brother and I'd rather not think about it now."

Aragorn nodded

"I understand. I didn't mean to make you relive the past, Boromir."

Boromir smiled slightly.

"It's okay. I know that you weren't prying. I guess that if I heard about Yohji and Duo for the first time I'd think that way too. No problem."

Aragorn nodded again.

"Well. Can you tell me more about yourself? It wasn't like we had time to actually find out who we are that day."

Boromir laughed softly.

"No kidding."

He took another swallow of coffee before he began to speak.

"Do you want the David Copperfield version? Where I was born, who my parents were, what schools I attended, all that stuff?"

Aragorn shrugged.

"I don't want to force you to tell me things, Boromir. I just want to know about you cause..well..you fascinate me. You really do. I just want to know what stuff makes you who you are. I want to know whether you like soccer and why. Who's your team and why you think a particular striker sucks. If you have read Anne Rice or Trainspotting and if you liked them. I don't want to know the stuff I can find in a file or stuff that I can readily tell about you."

Boromir couldn't help himself and laughed heartily at Aragorn's words. Faramir had been right, he reasoned as he looked deep into those blue eyes. Aragorn was nothing like Casey. He was more than Casey could ever be.

"Oaky. But I have to give you some "file Information" as you put it, before I get to the good bits."

Boromir said, waggling his eyebrows a bit as he said the last words, making Aragorn nearly snort coffee up his nose at the image of what the good bits would be about.

"My brother and I were born in France. My mother died when I was about five or so. I don't know who my father was. My grandma took us in, but she died when we where around seven. We have been living in foster homes ever since. The end for the file bits."

Aragorn laughed again at the description of Boromir's file bits. Never had he been told about anyone's past in such a strange and clipped manner. It was both weird, interesting and refreshing enough that it didn't sound boring. It also was so glossed over that the painful bits weren't really apparent if you hadn't really been paying attention either. Hmm..

For some bizarre reason, the matter of fact way that Boromir listed off his "file bits" helped break the thin sheet of ice that had been between them the minute that their pasts had come up for discussion. After Aragorn had told him exactly that, Boromir had visibly loosened up and was now being more open, more animated with the story of himself and his past.

Even though it was a weird list of quirks, like his fondness for watching any vamp flick, Watching anime while doodling the characters in his notebook, or eating mint chocolate chip ice cream with mandarin oranges while reading classics (He was the only man that he had ever met that would freely admit to reading "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights") or watching "Shakespeare in Love" and "Dogma" for the quotes, his fear of the dark when he was a kid, how he snuck into a cemetery at midnight to see if there really were ghosts around, Aragorn found himself enjoying the conversation. Lee had often joked about his desire to know so much about people and that he should really look into either becoming a sociologist or a psychologist, since he liked to know exactly everything that made a person tick and why. It had bugged him when Lee had teased him that way, since it made him sound like some kind of obsessive weirdo that would stalk anyone at a moment's notice.

But in truth, he only cared to know things about the people that he cared deeply about. The ones that he wanted to stay in his life and be with him for as long as possible. He didn't care that much about anyone else. Only the ones that had proven to him that they would be strong enough to withstand whatever information he would throw at them and still want to be with him.

"Well, that's the most of it. The nasty bits come later, I guess. Is that how it goes in relationships?"

Boromir asked, feeling a bit awkward at having said so much about himself. Although Aragorn had wanted to know about him, he still felt like a twit for having spoken so long without a break.

Aragorn shook his head.

"Well..it depends what kind of nasty bits they are. If it's stuff like you, I don't know, leaving your underwear to ferment in a pile for weeks on end, maybe. But if it's stuff like conducting satanic rituals in the basement.."

Here Aragorn smiled impishly while Boromir's lips twitched into a grin despite himself at the strange things that had come out of the other man's mouth.

"Well, I would appreciate it if you'd be kind enough to tell me before I find you in the middle of one of your rituals."

"Okay. I'll make sure to do that. I understand that goat blood can be a bitch to get out, so I'll do just that." They chuckled at the image that comment brought up before Aragorn spoke up.

"I guess it's my turn to spill the goods, right?"

Boromir waved his hand and took a sip form his luke-warm coffee as he waited for Aragorn to tell him his own file stuff.

And he did, punctuating it with self-deprecating comments that made Boromir chuckle as he listened to his own set of weird hobbies and personality traits after reciting the boring file bits, which where being born in Ontario and being sent to a parochial school at his mother's insistence, where he was first called by his middle name due to some clerical error, but had kept on using since he didn't like other people apart form close friends and family using it, their move to Alberta and his enrolment in St. Anthony's which earned him a place in St. Ig's, the reason why Legolas was his brother for all intents and purposes due to a tradition his mother refused to give up.

Then came the weird list. Like his fondness for Shakespeare and any play he could scratch up money to go to(That's if they were actually good), historical and fantasy novels (The well written kind), Weezer, U2 and the Tea Party, but he liked rocking stuff like the Clash, Dropkick Murphys and Bouncing Souls as well(Not bad for an alternative, huh?) And how Legolas teased him horribly about his need to know things about people. Partly the reason why he broke up with Eowyn and Arwen so many times and never really established a relationship with them.

"Who's Eowyn? The blonde one with the wimp for a brother?"

Boromir asked quietly, making Aragorn cringe at his thoughtlessness at having brought up Eowyn and her dick of a brother up.

"Uh..Yeah. Her."

Aragorn, at that moment, wished that there was a trapdoor right under his feet that could swallow him up and save him from the embarrassment that he had unwittingly cast upon his own head.

"The dark haired one is Arwen. She's the dark-elf's sister. Danny."

Boromir nodded.

"I think they just went out with me for the association, to tell you the truth."

Aragorn continued, his tone thoughtful as he spoke.

"I don't think they really liked who I turned out to be. Or else I was just too weird for them."

Boromir snorted.

"I know the feeling. You only go out with them because you don't want to be mean. But when you go out with them, they bore you to death. And you can't say that you'd rather be banging your best friend or hers than them because they've got better conversation unless you wanna get your ass kicked for sitting on the fence."

"When did you know?"

Aragorn asked, keeping his voice low as he spoke.

Boromir thought for a bit before he replied.

"I think when I was fourteen that it all came into place. I was going out with Trowa's sister and making out with Lee at the arcade at the same time. I guess that was when it fell into place."

He smiled slightly before drinking the last of his coffee.

"And you? When did you realize it, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I don't know. I guess when I saw you. I just..felt like you were the one."

Boromir smiled slightly before he stood up, not sure as to what to say to that.

"Do you want to go to Whyte Ave now? I figure we have stayed still enough."

"Sure."

Aragorn wasted no time in drinking the rest of his coffee and following Boromir out the door.

Once outside, the blond man squinted up at the sun before he spoke to Aragorn.

"You weren't lying when you said that you loved me in the hallway, were you?"

"No. I wasn't."

Aragorn replied, coming close to Boromir.

"I don't lie about serious matters."

"I know that much about you even before we sat down and talked."

He looked away at the ravine behind him before he spoke again.

"I guess I owe you an answer now, don't I?"

Boromir asked, turning to Aragorn, who looked at him expectantly.

"Yes. You do. But I have to ask the question properly first."

Aragorn replied, holding out his hand to Boromir.

"So will you stay with me?"

Aragorn asked, his voice sounding sort of scared as he spoke. Even though he was positive that the answer would be yes, he still felt jittery and nervous as he waited for the answer to his question.

Boromir laughed softly before he took the offered hand.

"Of course. I'll never voluntarily leave you."

Aragorn cocked his head to one side before moving in closely and giving him a light kiss that was almost a whisper of a touch on his lips.

"I've never heard someone answer that way, but I'll take it as my answer."

Boromir nodded before he threw his arm around his lover and gave him a peck on the forehead.

"It's the most honest answer I can give you. And the one I mean the most."

Aragorn nodded.

"You're dangerous, you know."

He commented, half-quoting a song.

"Why? Cause I'm honest? Or because I don't know what I want?"

Boromir teased him, earning himself a hard thwap on the arm for his troubles.

"Let's go to Whyte, shall we?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hurry up, Arwen!"

Eowyn complained, shifting her shopping bags from her left hand to her right.

"Yeah, Yeah."

Arwen drawled, adjusting the blue-tinted shades she had just bought into her dark hair before turning to the slightly green Eowyn who was leaning against the counter of the clothing store waiting for the dark elf to finally get going.

"I thought you liked shopping."

Arwen commented as she finally hefted her bags and began walking out of the store with a dejected looking Eowyn at her side.

"Not when I'm hung-over."

The human girl replied testily as they walked down the busy sidewalk.

It was true that she enjoyed shopping most of the time, but having a hangover and having embarrassed herself in front of Aragorn and that beautiful lanky blond boy with the laughing emerald eyes had really decreased her enjoyment of the activity. All she wanted to do was go home and sleep away the day until she felt like herself again.

"You shouldn't have drank so much then."

Arwen commented acerbically as she peeked into another shop. Eowyn took opportunity of the pause and get her stomach under control.

"I didn't realize you had spiked my drink."

Eowyn shot back in reply, flipping her long blonde hair out of her face and pushing her dark maroon shades up her nose.

Arwen grinned impishly.

"Sorry. I was actually trying to get that little bitch Glorfindel, to tell you the truth."

She gave Eowyn a light nudge before they resumed walking again.

"Which, I might add, you did. The poor bastard was spending time with the porcelain god when Eomer took us home."

Eowyn replied, looking up at the clear sky.

If she hadn't been feeling so shitty, she would have been utterly thrilled with the weather. It was just so perfect! If only she could have Aragorn to share it with.

She frowned and turned to Arwen.

"Why the hell do you hate him so much anyways? Isn't he just a quiet little guy who just paints all the freaking time?"

Eowyn asked as she pictured Glorfindel, his pale face in deep concentration as he touched up whatever painting he was working on in art class at that particular time. She recalled him clearly since they shared an art class and actually were fairly civil to each other there, since Arwen wasn't there.

Arwen turned and looked at her friend.

"Yeah. When he's not around to suck my brother's face. I hate that little queer bastard."

Eowyn raised an eyebrow at the comment.

"Okay. So why did we flash him and your brother then?"

Arwen's lips curled into a wicked smile.

"I just wanted to get a rise out of them, that's all. You know how Elrohir gets whenever I have any fun."

Eowyn's lips pursed, but she said nothing. She knew that there was more to that little incident, but she would just rather wait until Arwen spilled it. The dark elf could be a real bitch if pressed for any information at all, so she just let it drop.

"So where else do you want to go?" She asked, tactfully changing the subject.

It was the only way, she had found after years of dealing with the temperamental elf. Tact and giving in had saved her a whole lot of headaches in the best of times. Even though they were friends, she didn't really trust her. The only one that had that privilege was Eomer, and she would never have it any other way.

"Hmm. Let's go to Southside sound. Maybe they'll have some good stuff there." Arwen decided.

Eowyn nodded and they continued on their merry way to the used cd store. Although the place stocked really weird music that neither of them really listened to, it was still a fun place to look through. Sometimes they also met fairly cute guys there and it added to their amusement, since they could then flirt with them as they browsed through the racks.

"The only problem with the place is the fact that it smells like old cat."

Arwen told Eowyn as they pushed the midnight blue door open and entered the store.

Eowyn smiled for the first time that day and was about to add her two cents worth when Arwen stopped dead in her tracks, making her stumble and nearly knock both of them onto the floor.

"God! What the hell?"

She asked angrily, straightening herself up after regaining her footing.

Arwen didn't reply. Instead, she walked away from her friend and up two guys holding hands that were at the far end of the store poring over the punk section.

Shaking her head, Eowyn followed right behind her in order to prevent Arwen from doing something really bad to people that they didn't even know. It seemed that they had been taking turns bailing each other out of trouble recently and it was quite frankly getting exhausting. Considering that Arwen was as vengeful as a bloody viper once she felt she had been slighted.

"Arwen!" What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Eowyn hissed at her friend as she tried to grab her arm and pull her out of the store before she did something they would both regret later on. But due to her elven heritage, Arwen easily avoided her friend's hand and marched up to the two guys.

"Arwen."

Aragorn said the name in a weary tone as he put the cd he had been looking at down. Behind him Boromir had tensed and had let go of his hand. Even without looking at him, Aragorn knew that he was getting himself into a fighting stance. He had found out that Boromir was fairly jumpy and would often meet a perceived threat to by preparing himself for a physical fight.

"What are you doing here?"

He asked her, hoping that she would just pester him slightly and leave him and Boromir to their date.

It had been going well so far and he was determined to make it end well. But if Arwen didn't leave soon, it looked like it wasn't going to despite all his hopes.

"Looking for cds. You?"

She asked, pointedly ignoring the man beside him.

"The same. Boromir wants to buy some cds."

He replied, his voice still polite, but not at all open or welcoming as it usually was.

"Aa. So are you free tonight?"

She asked, still not willing to let it drop despite Eowyn's frown and Boromir's pointed glares. What the hell was that guy's problem anyways?

"No. I'm going over to Boromir's house. I wanna meet his parents."

Aragorn replied, shifting his eyes over to the International (Noise) Conspiracy Cd Boromir had given him earlier to look at.

"Why? He's your girlfriend or something?"

Arwen asked, an edge to her voice as she spoke.

"Cause it's a thing you usually do when you're going out with someone."

He replied coolly as he picked up several more cds that they had set apart before Arwen had arrived.

"You're kidding."

Arwen stated flatly, as if she would unmake the situation by stating otherwise.

Aragorn closed his eyes briefly before he turned back to his ex-girlfriend.

"No. I'm not. Believe it or not, Arwen, Boromir is my boyfriend. Now if you excuse me, I would like to pay for these."

Aragorn grabbed Boromir's hand and literally dragged the other man to the counter, leaving a furious Arwen and shell-shocked Eowyn staring after them.

"Come on."

Eowyn recovered before the elfin girl and was now doing her best to get her out of the store before she humiliated herself any further.

Although Arwen let herself be led out of the store, her eyes were still glittering furiously as she glared at the two men at the counter who were busy with their purchases and were ignoring her completely as if she hadn't just talked to them.

"Faggots!"

She hissed as she passed them. But neither man paid her any attention. Aragorn calmly received his purchases and Boromir nodded at the clerk after the bag had been handed to Aragorn before they left, not even wasting a glance in either girl's direction.

Arwen and Eowyn exited the store right after, but went in the opposite direction that the two men had taken.

"Fucken faggot!"

Arwen spat out as she cast a look at Boromir.

"Arwen, calm down."

Eowyn ordered her friend. Really, Arwen could be such a bitch sometimes.

"How do you expect me to calm down when that fucken Nancy boy just turned Aragorn into a queer?"

Arwen spat out, her tone so corrosive that it made Eowyn flinch.

"Look, Arwen. Let's go home. There's no sense in talking about it in the middle of the street. It's not going to change anything at all, Okay. Let's go home."

Arwen was silent for several minutes, her chest heaving with every hard breath she took before she actually nodded her head at Eowyn's suggestion.

"Yeah. Let's go home. I'll deal with that whore later."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Aragorn sat on the picnic bench with his head in his hands and with Boromir stroking his hair.

"You don't have to, Estel."

Boromir told him. Although his voice was low, it was utterly paining him to see Estel so hurt by the cutting words Arwen had just called them. He could handle being called a fag. What he couldn't handle was seeing Aragorn be hurt by such cruel words.

" I don't want to see you like this. If it's going to hurt you like this, we can.."

Aragorn raised his head and shook it forcefully.

"No."

Aragorn stood up and grabbed Boromir's head, forcing the other man to look into his eyes.

"I just found you, Boromir. I don't care what people call me. What they whisper about me. They can go fuck themselves for all I care. I'm not going to give you up so easily now that I've found you, Mein Elskelde. You hear me?"

Aragorn demanded before he drew his stunned lover forward and began to ravage him in full view of the shoppers and loiterers that thronged around Whyte Ave.

Part Nine-As You Like It.

"When you're on a golden sea

You don't need no memory

Just a place to call your own

As we drift into the ozone"-Weezer

"Are you coming over today, Estel?" Boromir asked as he pulled out his lit text from the shared locker that they occupied.

"Nah. I gotta stay after school today." Aragorn replied as he picked up his notebook and stuffed it into the green depths of his rucksack.

Boromir pushed his hair out of his face and frowned at the answer.

"Did you get in trouble somewhere?" Boromir asked.

"Nah. It's just that Elrond is holding the play rehearsals today and rumour has it he's going to have Shakespeare this year."

Aragorn explained, running his hand through his messy brown hair which now sported a thick, blood-red streak in the front, his three-month anniversary present from Boromir.

"Aa." Boromir replied before slapping himself in the forehead, making Aragorn roll his eyes.

"What is it now?" Aragorn asked good-naturedly.

"Faramir is going to be there. With Lee. And knowing those two, He'll be late and I'm going to have to deal with the chibis all by myself until he gets in!"

Boromir groaned theatrically and threw himself on his boyfriend, batting those long eyelashes of his for all he was worth as he wrapped his arms around Aragorn.

Aragorn sighed heavily. For someone that said he couldn't act worth a lick, Boromir was doing a hell of a job at playing his beauty up to get whatever it was that he wanted from him. Usually, it worked. He'd give him that. But today, the try-outs were the only thing on his mind.

He loved plays and would participate in them whenever he got a chance. Last year, he had been Jean Valjean in the school production of "Les Miserables" and he had loved the role immensely. But his real ambition was to be in a Shakespeare play. He didn't care which one it was. All he cared about was getting a role. And even though Boromir was wetting his lips and batting those eyelashes like he was thinking of doing very, very, naughty things to him if he gave in, the reward of being in a play was more tempting than his boyfriend's bait.

"Estel..." Boromir breathed out, his mouth moving dangerously close to Aragorn's own. In turn, Aragorn moved away, since he knew full-well that if Boromir kissed him, his mind was going to go to other places and the play would be forgotten. Or...

A light came on, making him grin wickedly to himself. He could have it both ways. He could get Boromir to do those delicious things to him *after* they both went to the try-outs. Perfect.

"Boromir.." Aragorn purred, pulling Boromir closer to himself.

"Yes?" The blonde man asked, his mouth mere centimetres away from Aragorn's.

"I'll do whatever you want, and that includes watching the Chibis *and* getting a taste of that mouth of yours if you go to the try-outs with me."

Boromir's lips were already on Aragorn's and he knew that he had sealed the deal that had been offered to him without saying a word. Once he had realized what he had done, Boromir pulled back and furiously began to scrub his lips while glaring at Aragorn, who was grinning like an idiot.

"You are such a sneaky little twerp." Boromir stated softly. Aragorn grinned.

"But you love me anyway." Aragorn replied, coyly batting his own lashes.

Boromir snorted before he gently pushed the other man away from himself.

"Don't push it." Boromir teased him before reaching out and messing up Aragorn's hair.

"So you'll do it?"

Boromir looked up at the ceiling as if he was trying to get an answer from the deity that supposedly lived up there before he looked at his boyfriend.

"Yeah. Why not?" He shrugged, shouldering his old rucksack.

"What's the worst that could happen?" He asked cheerfully.

"You might get some culture." Aragorn replied sweetly. Boromir glared at him.

"OW!!"

"Wimp. Let's go find a phone to let my mom know we're going to be a bit late."

~*~*~*~*~

"Okay, who else is trying out for the role of Rosalind?" Elrond asked as he looked over his notes.

The students that had come to try out where sitting around the drama room either reading the play they had just been told they would perform, laughing, talking or in some cases, sleeping. Practically no one was paying attention to him or Mrs. Luthien, the drama teacher, since they had all had their turns and were just waiting for the adults to tell them to go home.

So it was no surprise that Mr. Elrond didn't get an answer right away.

There were only three girls left to try for the role and so far, he hadn't found anyone that would really suit the role of the feisty, outspoken heroine. So far, the girls just hadn't had the fieriness needed for the role or they simply couldn't command the language. Especially when it came to the longer speeches. He needed to find his romantic lead soon, or else he would have to can the idea of using "As You Like It" and instead using his second choice, which was "Macbeth".

"I am, Mr. Elrond" Arwen spoke up as she stood up, her copy of the play in one perfectly manicured hand that was tipped with an innocent looking pastel colour that matched her sweater and pants perfectly.

"Very well. I want you to come with me and Mrs. Luthien to the other drama room and read out Rosalind's part in act 3, scene 2, starting from line 361."

Arwen nodded and followed the two dark haired elves out of the room, her expression unreadable as she passed Aragorn and Boromir, who were sitting close to the exit as they ran lines.

In those three months that they had been together, Arwen had done her best to try and sabotage their relationship. She had pretty much outed them to the whole school and had done her best to spread rumours about Boromir and his supposed shady past as well as tried to trap Aragorn and making it look as if he was cheating on Boromir with Eowyn.

But each of the attempts had failed, since Aragorn and Boromir had just shrugged the incidents off and gone on their merry way as if nothing had happened, thus strengthening the respect of most of the students in the school.

Even Eomer had backed off. Even though he personally hated Boromir for the humiliation he had suffered at his hands at the beginning of the school year, he had gained some grudging respect for him after they had played indoor-soccer together. He also had known Aragorn ever since they were kids and even though he sometimes was a wanker, he somewhat honoured old ties and flat-out refused to get involved in Arwen's snipe-war and had forbidden his sister to do so as well.

Eowyn, to everyone's surprise, had not followed Arwen's lead at all. Mostly because of her brother's mandate, and mostly because Arwen had used her as her pawn in trying to trap Aragorn. That incident had strained the relationship between the two and even though they did spend some time together, the intimacy that had existed between had been seriously damaged. So now, Eowyn was finding herself either hanging out with Eomer, or Glorfindel and Danny, much to the disgust of Arwen, who had taken up with Estella Bolger and Rosie Cotton.

And so Arwen had to admit that it had been a spectacular failure and had finally stopped her little war. Now, all she did was ignore Aragorn and Boromir when they were in public. In private, she seethed at having Aragorn taken away from her by that scruffy bastard. As far she was concerned, Aragorn had always been hers. Ever since they had been children, she had planned on having him as her own. No one else had come close to being what she wanted. Only him. And Boromir was going to spoil that dream of hers. A dream she simply couldn't let go off, no matter how much she may have wanted to.

But right now wasn't the time to dwell on it. She had a part to win and win it she would.

"Her highness has passed." Faramir muttered as he and Legolas took a break from reading the play. They had already tried out for the parts that they wanted and were just waiting for Aragorn to go out and try for the part of Orlando, which was going to be held after the trials for Rosalind's part had been held.

"Thank God!" Lee muttered as he stretched out and lay down on the floor, his eyes half-closed, but still focussed on Faramir, who looked up at the exposed beams and lights stuck in the ceiling.

He sort of felt like a bit of a perv when he was surreptitiously looking at Faramir, since the boy had just recently turned sixteen and he was quite a lot older than him. But he couldn't help but to admire him. He was fairly pretty, with his flaming green eyes and soft blonde hair and still-boyish features that had a very delicate quality that made him appear extremely fragile.

A quality that made him want to take him, embrace him and protect him from all the evils that would try to hurt him. Even though he knew that Faramir was as feisty and tough as his older brother, maybe even more so. He still couldn't get over the time that he, Faramir and Boromir had gotten busted for flinging paint-filled balloons at traffic. He was fairly sure that it had been Faramir's idea to do that in the first place and Boromir's quirk to fill them up with tempera paint.

Recalling that escapade made Legolas smile as he kept on studying the boy in front of him. It was sort of funny that he was seeing Faramir in such a different light now. Before, when they were much younger, he had merely seen him as Boromir's little brother who tagged along at every opportunity. The one that could come up with wicked inspirations once in awhile, the one that kept Boromir sane. He had been so wrapped up in Boromir, especially when Faramir came down with encephalitis, that he never really took notice of the younger boy. Even when he got better and the whole fiasco with Casey and their relationship had occurred, he just thought of Faramir as someone that hovered nearby.

But now, after being in drama, art and literature with him, Legolas was beginning to notice Faramir was his own person. Even though he hovered near his brother, he wasn't just another version of his older brother.

What he noticed about him was that he was thoughtful, and quiet, but not as intense as his older brother. He was also more comfortable with himself and it showed with the easy way that he would give a smile or a gesture. Unlike Boromir, who only lost his reserve around a handful of people, Faramir was always warm.

"Like Spring." He had written in his notebook once as he had watched him bent over his work, his baseball cap sitting slightly askew on his streaked blond hair and an adorable frown on his face as he concentrated on his writing.

It was funny, he realized as he tore himself away from his observations. Boromir had been born in April, and should have brought spring up in his mind, but he didn't. He reminded him of late fall, a coldness that signalled the beginning of winter. A remoteness that couldn't really be breached. Although Estel's influence was changing the impression, it was still there.

"Which part where you trying out for?" Faramir asked as he studied the dark beams.

"Hmm. I don't know what I'll get. I tried out for Corin and Touchstone, but I guess it'll be either or. You?"

Legolas asked as he tried to keep his tone and face neutral as to not give him a hint as to what he was thinking.

"I tried out for Jacques and Duke Senior, but Mrs. Luthien was giving me these odd looks that I can't make head or tail out of, so I have no clue what kind of part I'm going to get."

It was not surprising that Faramir had tried out for those parts. More often than not, he thought that Faramir did fulfill the role of wise councillor in his own life. Not often for good purposes, but he still fulfilled it. He also had a hidden passion for Shakespeare that made his command of the language apparent, making Legolas think that he would most definitely get a plum part in the play.

Legolas frowned at the mention of "weird looks" sent out by the drama teacher.

"What kind of looks?" He asked as he sat up and looked closely at the younger boy.

"I dunno. Kind of like she's plotting something that I may not like very much." Faramir replied as he turned to look at Legolas.

"Kinda like this." He said before giving Legolas an approximation of the look the drama teacher had given him as he read his lines, which was a very thoughtful, yet calculating look.

"Oh yeah. It sounds like she's planning something." Legolas agreed, trying very hard to keep the smile off his face as he looked at Faramir.

"Gack! I hope it's nothing evil!" The younger boy exclaimed, laughing slightly at the thought of gentle Mrs. Luthien doing something evil to him.

"You never know with those drama teachers." Legolas replied, his brown eyes shining with mirth as he looked at Faramir. "They have plans that us mortals do not know about."

Faramir snickered before he reached out and gave the elf a small shove. But the elf was ready for him, having guessed what his reaction was going to be and had reached out and grabbed Faramir's wrist before he could touch him.

It probably wouldn't have amounted to much, but Faramir had put more force than necessary into the shove and that added with Legolas pulling him forward only served to make him fall onto the elf.

So it was quite a shock to Faramir to find himself lying on top of his friend and secret crush, their mouths just a finger's width apart.

Neither of them moved. Or blinked. Or even breathed. If it had been other people, they would have just laughed it off and pretended nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Despite being an elf, Legolas had a tendency to be clumsy, so he probably would have played that up to ease the embarrassment that this particular incident was bound to cause.

But both of them knew that clumsiness hadn't been in a factor in this situation. And even though neither of them had given hints to their emotions, there was a decidedly thick tension as they stared at each other as they decided exactly what to do regarding this little situation.

Legolas was undecided mainly because he didn't know if it would be a good idea to hit on one of his best friend's little brother. Although he was finding Faramir attractive, he didn't want to do anything that would cause a rift between himself and Boromir. They had finally re-kindled their dormant friendship and were as close as ever. And Legolas was damned if he was going to fuck it up. And sure way to do it was to make an unwanted pass at Faramir.

Faramir couldn't make up his mind mainly because he wondered if Legolas would see him as a weird little kid. Ever since he found out what sex was, he had fantasized about Legolas. Not directly at first, since his first images always had him as a girl dressed in a long, medieval dress. But the images then began to change, and bit by bit, the image of a male Legolas began to replace that shadowy woman.

He then knew, when Boromir had come home with the elf, that he had desperately fallen for him. He tried not to show how he felt for the elf, but it hurt to see them together. But there was nothing he could do, since he wasn't about to steal his brother's happiness away, especially after what Casey had done...

Faramir pushed that thought away as quickly as it came. He didn't know the details, but he suspected that Casey had done something terrible to his older brother. Terrible enough to have driven Boromir to attempt suicide and nearly succeed after he was torn away from Legolas and sent to St. Joseph's.

He didn't want to think about it since he knew that Boromir refused to say anything about the incident. He had accepted the comfort given to him, but wouldn't really open up about it. It was an issue that he really didn't want to ever touch.

Okay. So what was he going to do with Legolas? Should he take the risk and do what his libido was telling him to do? Or should he get off and chalk it up as something not to do again?

Unfortunately, his libido wasn't listening to what his mind was saying at all. Especially when Legolas impatiently squirmed underneath him, making their groins brush against each other. The friction cause Faramir's better judgement to fly out the window and for his lust to take the gears.

Which explained why when Aragorn and Boromir were called to read their parts, they were treated to the sight of Faramir and Legolas making out as if there was no tomorrow.

Aragorn and Boromir only looked at each other as they saw the sight before them before Boromir tapped his boyfriend on the shoulder.

"Cough it up." He told the dark-haired boy, holding his hand out for the twenty dollars.

Aragorn groaned. He was so sure that he was going to win this bet! Ever since Aragorn and Boromir had noticed the subtle and not so-subtle hints that the elf and Boromir's brother had been throwing at each other, they had made a bet as to who would initiate the relationship. So far, Aragorn was positive that Legolas, who had seemed the more aggressive one, would be the one to do it. But he had been proved wrong, as the sight before them showed, so he owed twenty bucks to Boromir.

"You're not worried about them?" Aragorn asked as he reached into his pocket to produce the money.

"Faramir's old enough to make his own decisions. I can only do so much to protect him and this is one area where he should be left alone without having me interfere."

~*~*~*~*~*

"Check it out." Glorfindel whispered to Danny as he then pointed to Lee and Faramir making out at the far end of the drama room.

"Sweet." Danny smirked as he watched the human and the elf get it on.

"I was wondering when they'd finally stop circling each other and actually do something about it."

Max added his two cents in as he flopped onto the ground and watched Eomer and Eowyn whisper to each other at the opposite end of the room. Even though they weren't a threat any longer to him and his own, Max was a firm believer of keeping an eye on potential threats at all times.

"Yeah. It was utterly sickening to watch them giving each other the googly eyes and not do anything at all about it." Danny muttered as he lazily ran a hand through Glor's hair.

"Well, not everyone else is as horny as you brother." Max pointed out, a smirk on his face as he spoke.

Danny spluttered at this, knowing that he couldn't say anything regarding this comment. He was about to tell Max to fuck off though, when Glorfindel spoke first.

"Hey, just out of curiosity, is Legolas a Sindarian or an Eldar elf?"

Max and Danny looked at each other before shrugging. They had only known Legolas for two years, and in that time, the subject of their heritages had never come up. Aragorn, who had always been the closest to the blonde elf didn't know either.

"Don't know. Why do you ask?" Glor shook his head and laid down in Danny's lap.

"Just wondering." He replied as he then began to play with the end of Danny's long braid.

Danny and Max tried to get the elf to explain his reasons, but Glorfindel refused to tell them, aggravating his boyfriend and brother to no end. For someone as mellow and easygoing, he could be totally stubborn at the most unexpected times.

~*~*~*~*~*

"So, Elrond. Have you found your Rosaline yet?" Mrs. Luthien asked as she made some notes on a sheet of loose-leaf after Boromir and Aragorn had left.

Elrond frowned and shook his head as he read over the list that he had compiled.

"No. My first pick was Arwen, but she just isn't suited for the role. Something is lacking within her." He sighed.

"But I have no other ideas for the role. But if I cast her as Rosalind, we lose our Orlando, since she would probably throw a fit over having to play opposite Aragorn. And that would wreck the entire play, since there si no one that could play the part as well as Aragorn can."

Mrs. Luthien nodded as she nibbled at the end of her pen. She had an idea how to fix the problem, but she didn't know whether Elrond would be open to her suggestion.

"What about Boromir Denethorson?" She asked Elrond, tapping her pen on her sheet of paper.

Elrond looked at her thoughtfully.

"What about him? Do you want to put him in the place of Aragorn, even though he isn't too keen on being in a play." Mr. Elrond reminded his fellow teacher.

Mrs. Luthien frowned slightly at this piece of information. She had forgotten about Boromir's reluctance to read for a part, since he had done so well at playing opposite Aragorn as the other boy read his lines.

They had such a natural chemistry together that it had been a pleasure to hear them playfully banter as Orlando and Rosalind. As she had watched them do that, the idea had come to her. Instead of having a female do Rosalind, they could have Boromir play the part instead. And if anyone complained, they could back it up with the fact that the plays had been performed by men and boys in drag and they were just harking back to tradition with this particular move.

"I think we can sidestep that." Mrs. Luthien replied, waving her hand away at that small obstacle.

"As for your earlier question, I don't think we should replace Aragorn as Orlando. Rather, I think we should have Boromir be Rosalind."

Elrond raised an eyebrow at this suggestion. He had been toying with the idea when he saw the boys in the room earlier and had briefly considered it as an alternative after having six girls read for the part, but had dismissed it when Arwen had read. Arwen had usually been good enough to have the leads in the two prior plays, and he had been counting on her to be good enough to take the part. But she had fallen short and the idea that was now being presented to him was terribly appealing. Especially when he realized that this was the only way that he would be able to salvage his play.

"Do you suppose he'll be open to wearing a dress onstage then?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Boromir?" Boromir looked up from the novel he was reading to kill time as he waited for Aragorn to use the can. Rehearsals had been over for ten minutes, but they hadn't left since Aragorn had first forgotten something in his locker. When that had been fetched, he needed to use the john. Boromir had opted to wait outside with a copy of "Oscar and Lucinda" and a discreet cigarette, since he and Faramir had made a deal not to smoke anywhere near the chibis, since Pippin had a terrible fear of cigarettes and would freak out if he even smelt them on either of them.

He smiled inwardly when he saw that it was Legolas. A fidgety, mussed-up Legolas who was looking as if he was expecting punishment. A very painful punishment.

"What is it Legolas?" He asked, his eyes automatically returning to his book. It wasn't that he was being rude or stand-offish, but rather, he wanted to give the elf time to compose himself before he told him about what had already happened between Faramir and himself.

"Ah." Legolas could be fairly eloquent when the occasion called for it, but when he was nervous, his vocabulary was reduced to about a seven-year-olds. Make that a human seven-year-old. And he had every right to be nervous. Despite the fact that he had vowed to himself not to make a pass at Faramir, he had broken that vow the minute that he had shifted under the boy.

It was true that he hadn't been the one to start anything. He had only moved because he believed that Faramir hadn't wanted anything in return and just wanted to get up. Even though the boy was light, it was still a trial to have him on top of him. So he had moved.

He had never guessed that it would have led to Faramir suddenly turning aggressive and nearly sucking his face off. He couldn't say that he didn't enjoy it. No. Quite the opposite. He actually enjoyed it immensely. Especially when Faramir had brushed his hand against the tip of his ear and nearly made him lose control on that cement floor.

They probably would have ended up doing something naughty on the floor of the drama room if it hadn't been for Elrond and Mrs. Luthien coming in and pretty much telling them that the list of parts was going to be placed on the bulletin the next day and it would be nice if Mr. Denethorson and Mr. Mirkwood would stop trying to copulate on school grounds as well. Even with that barb, it had been hard to tear themselves apart from each other.

They had finally managed it though, when Faramir pulled him outside and told him that he loved him. Crazy as it may have sounded, he did love him. Desperately. Ever since he had set eyes on him all those years ago. He wanted him for himself.

"The only thing I need to know." Faramir had stated, his light green eyes suddenly darkening with pent up lust, desire, love and hope as he pressed the elf against the cement wall of the school.

"Is whether you feel that way about me, or whether you still carry love for my brother. If you do, I won't press this issue again. But I have to know whether you care for me or if you care for him."

Legolas had nearly cried with happiness when he heard those words. It was sort of a strange reaction to have to such a thing being said to you, but he was happy. There was no other way for him to feel. He wasn't going to be alone any longer. Nor was he going to be just the watcher.

With those emotions swirling about in his brain, he had leaned forward and given Faramir one of the deepest kisses that he had ever given anyone. It was so full of raw passion, sexuality and desire that it had taken Faramir at least a couple of moments to get his bearings back

"Holy Shit." Faramir had whispered as he had reluctantly pulled away from the Sindarian elf.

"My god. I think I need a cigarette just from that kiss." He had muttered as he fished around his pockets for the crumpled half-pack he kept in his front shirt pocket.

Watching him go through those motions made Legolas laugh lightly. Even though Faramir was his own person, he still shared many quirks with his brother. One of them being the habit of giving compliments without making themselves or the person receiving it feel self-conscious. A habit that warmed his cold heart even more than the first brush of Faramir's lips had, a warmth that made him truly smile since the last time that he had been with Boromir.

As he had then watched Faramir smoking his cigarette, his green eyes still wide and dark, he had been seriously thinking about asking Faramir to come back to his and Aragorn's home to possibly do something very carnal and something that involved a half-empty bottle of Baja Rosa and being totally naked on the kitchen floor. But before he could actually get around saying those things to his new lover, Faramir had thrown water on that idea by commenting that he wouldn't mind it if Legolas came home with him, Boromir and Estel.

Hearing those two names made Legolas realize that he was going to have to find Boromir and explain what exactly was going on between him and his beloved younger brother lest Faramir decided to get frisky at the wrong moment and incur Boromir's wrath at anyone touching his younger brother in an overtly friendly way.

So that was the reason why he was standing in front of a seemingly disinterested Boromir, completely and utterly tongue-tied as he tried to find the words to approximately say:

"Yeah, well, you know, Boromir, we have been good friends for a long time. Hell, I even lost my virginity to you when we nearly exorcised your demons. But see, I am about to start screwing your little brother. You know, Faramir? The one we both love unconditionally? Yeah. Him. And I was just wondering if that was going to be okay with you or if I should just keep all knives and other weapons away from you before you decide to permanently destroy me. So what do you say about that?"

Never before had he been caught in such an uncomfortable and script less situation. But he felt that he had to do it no matter what. He had to know whether it was fine to express his emotions to someone that was so close to his once great romantic love and now, his great love. He had to know whether having a romantic attachment was to mean him sacrificing the other person he cared about. Because if it did, he would gladly exchange the romantic passion for the more stable and more secure one that friendship and fraternity offered him. And so he must take that step into the unknown and hope that everything would turn out. Or deal with the fall-out that it would create. Whatever that may be. A possibility that scared him more than he cared to admit.

There was no way to predict the variables in this equation. He hated going into any situation without at least two plans up his sleeve. Having lived with no mother and a violent and erratic father and absent siblings not there to protect him had given him a need for stability that had to be satisfied at any cost, lest he lose control of himself and plunge into the horrifying panic attacks that used to plague him when he was younger. Like the one that was encroaching on him right now.

"Leaf, if it's about my brother, don't bother." Boromir spoke up, breaking through the silence that had fallen between them as Legolas tried to work out the variables and consequences of his actions. Somewhere in the tangled messes that his mind had decided to divide itself into, he was aware that Boromir had stepped in at the most opportune moment.

It had always amazed him that Boromir had somehow always known when exactly to speak when he had begun to slip into that dazed state and bring him back from the swirling red abyss that made up his panic attacks. It was funny that he could do that for him. He never questioned the connection that enabled such a thing to be possible. He just accepted it. And sorely missed it when he and Boromir were torn apart from each other.

Although his attacks had been infrequent in the last few years, he occasionally had them. And he dreaded them, since there had been no one to prevent them once they had set in. Not even Aragorn in his concern had been able to banish the horrifying images and emotions that accompanied them.

So it was a good thing that even though the unavoidable situation with Boromir had sparked off his attack, that the human was there to snap him out of it.

Legolas swallowed hard and opened his mouth to speak when Boromir shook his head, put his book away and reached over to embrace the shell-shocked elf who was seemingly been turned to stone.

"I know. Even though you both have tried to hide it, I know that you care for each other. There is no other person that I would have with my brother, nor is there another person that I would have be with you, Leaf."

Boromir told the elf as he comforted the elf in order to make him escape the harsh wasteland that his mind became on these occasions. Boromir wished at that moment that Legolas hadn't brought up the topic. For god's sake! They weren't in some sappy Victorian novel where the eldest male relative needed to give consent every time his younger siblings were being sought after!

Sometimes, elves and their mannerisms really irritated him. Even though he had been adopted by a pair of them, there were things that they did that really got on his nerves. And the ritualistic formality that they infused practically every aspect of their lives was one of them. Especially now that it had made Legolas nearly enter another one of his attacks.

"You..You mean it?" Legolas breathed out, his hands grasping the folds of Boromir's leather coat so tightly that he was leaving fingernail marks in the old leather.

"Yes. I would never have said it otherwise, you dork!" Boromir chided him softly.

"You're like my flesh and blood, you dolt! There is no way that I would turn away from you."

Legolas pulled away from him and looked up at Boromir's face. He then laughed, feeling slightly stupid at having even doubted for a moment that Boromir would be upset over his relationship with Faramir. But then, maybe his judgement was impaired by all the endorphins being released by his brain at the advent of being with Faramir in that way.

"Ah. Yeah. I forgot." He admitted a bit sheepishly as he scratched at his messy hair. Boromir smiled before he pushed a bit of his hair away.

"Don't worry about it." Boromir replied, gently caressing the elf's face. "We all do, sometimes."

Legolas nodded and embraced Boromir once again when Aragorn and Faramir showed up from opposite directions.

"Damn. You guys find terribly interesting ways to keep busy." Faramir noted as he came up to them, his voice holding no note of jealousy, only quiet amusement as he watched Legolas blush prettily before he came towards him.

"Yeah, well, you guys take long time to do anything. We had to do something." Boromir teased his brother as Aragorn punched him hard in the shoulder.

"Wanker!" Aragorn cried as before Boromir yowled out in pain, making his brother and Legolas laugh softly.

"That hurt you know!" Boromir protested indignantly as he rubbed his shoulder. Aragorn smiled.

"I know. That's why I did it." Boromir scowled at his boyfriend.

"You're terribly sadistic aren't you?" Aragorn only smirked in reply.

"Yeah well, sadistic or not, we have to get home before the chibis begin to freak out and the parental units go on the rampage."

Faramir reminded his brother as Legolas snuggled up to the human boy, a gesture that didn't go unnoticed by Boromir and Aragorn. They exchanged a look, but refrained from commenting on it. Instead, they just agreed with Faramir and walked over to the far side of the school where Aragorn had parked his beloved Royal Blue P.O.S. Dodge that had been a present for his seventeenth birthday.

Once they had gotten to the car and managed to arrange themselves comfortably enough, they then headed off to Boromir and Faramir's house amidst a loud cacophony of their voices, shuffling books, paper baggies and weezer's "Pinkerton." blaring from the speakers.

~*~*~*~*~*

"Boromir!" Pippin squealed as Boromir appeared in the doorway. Without wasting another moment, he ran towards the tall human and wrapped himself around his legs, hugging him with all his might.

"Hey Chibi!" Boromir greeted him, reaching down and ruffling the small hobbits' hair.

"You're late." Merry reproached him as he greeted him, his actions a bit more restrained but still infused with much warmth as he hugged Boromir, then ran towards Faramir and wrapped himself around his legs instead.

"Sorry Chibi. We had a play to tryout for." Faramir told the little one.

Merry made a face at being called "chibi", since he felt that at nine, he was too old to be considered little more than a baby like Pippin was. But he secretly liked the fact that the two humans had bothered to take the time and give them a nickname. It proved to them that Boromir and Faramir believed them to be more than nuisances and that little fact cemented a binding loyalty between them.

"The elf lady is putting supper on." Pippin informed Boromir as he tried to climb up the older human's leg and into his arms, but failing miserably, since Boromir wasn't exactly like the trees he found easy to climb.

"Aa. I guess we came just in time, right?" Boromir asked as he peeled Pippin from his legs and lifted him up to perch comfortably on his hip.

"Yup." The hobbit agreed before he leaned in and whispered in what he supposed was a quiet voice.

"She made chow mein tonight. And we got tiramistu too." He added, his blue eyes sparkling at the thought of eating the sweet, chocolatey dessert.

Aragorn and Boromir looked at each other and barely managed to hide the smiles that were creeping up on their faces at the hobbits' actions. Even though they thought he was adorable, it would probably hurt his feelings if he thought that his hero and his Auntie Estel were laughing at him.

"It's actually Tiramisu." Merry told Faramir as he led Faramir and Uncle Legolas to the dining area that had a great view of the kitchen and all that was being made there. Which of course made it one of the favourite places of the hobbits to be at.

The two hobbits had somewhat adjusted to living with the two elves and the two humans. Although they had several fears that couldn't be easily laid to rest, they had done their best to find their place in the dynamics of the house.

This was done fairly quickly after they had gotten over their fear of being hit or tormented in any way by Celeborn and Galadriel. They had also managed to find a slow affection for them and had learnt to trust them like they trusted the two boys that they incessantly followed around if given the chance. Which had led to some embarrassing moments when Boromir and Aragorn had tried to grab some time together when they were over at Boromir's house.

Like Pippin walking in on them when they were *this close* to actually doing something, which although made Boromir laugh, made Aragorn grit his teeth and wonder if it was part of some cosmic plot to make sure that he would die a virgin if it kept up any longer. Even though it was cute that the little hobbit, in his overalls and t-shirts would come bounding in and jump on Boromir's bed to show him something he had just drawn, it was getting damned annoying having to quickly roll over and zip up his pants while Boromir distracted the little curly haired wonder.

He watched then, as Galadriel greeted all of them with that quiet and serene manner of hers and bade Faramir and Merry to set more places at the table. Celeborn came in from the basement, a bottle of Sprite in one hand and a smudge across his nose. He nodded at the boys and was about to put the pop on the table when something that only he could sense nearly made him drop the pop.

The slight mishap made Galadriel look up from the pastry she was putting the finishing touches on. Celeborn met her eyes and shook his head ever so slightly, making her nod. The boys didn't notice the signals and just sat down at the table, each boy with his partner and surplus hobbit sitting beside him. Once the adult elves had sat down, the food began to be passed around and conversation was the usual supper kind, although for some reason, Celeborn and Galadriel didn't seem to want to speak much and Faramir looked like he was struggling with something under the table for most of the time.

After supper had been finished and the table had been cleared off, Pippin and Merry were herded off to finish their homework while Legolas and Aragorn declined to stay. Usually, they swooped down on the house and sometimes stayed so late that they would just sleep over and head out to school the morning after. But tonight, they had way too much homework to do and they both knew that if they stayed, no one would get anything done.

So that left Faramir and Boromir nothing to do but to go downstairs and just chill, since they had finished their work in the spare that they shared during fourth-block.

After they had locked the door to their room, Boromir switched the stereo on and put in "London Calling" before he settled down on his and Faramir's bed and pulled out his novel from his discarded backpack and began to read.

Faramir just hurled himself on his side of the bed and stared at the ceiling before finally getting bored and pulling out a sketchpad to doodle on while he waited for the right time to bring up a topic that had been weighing heavily on his mind ever since Legolas and Aragorn had gone home.

He had noticed that Legolas was...well, more affectionate than usual. Quite a lot more, in fact. He had had a hard time keeping the elf's hands from going down his pants during dinner. It wasn't like he didn't want them to be there, but he figured that getting a hand-job at the dinner table while eating tiramisu beside your dad would probably be considered a pretty bad show of manners.

All he hoped for was that everyone would just think that he had been fighting with Lembas the whole time rather than his boyfriends' fairly grabby hands. Because if the story ever got out, he didn't think he would be able to live it down.

"Spit it out, Faramir." Boromir finally ordered his brother as he put his book down and looked at his brother, who was still staring at the blank page in front of him as he tried to make sense or tail of the thoughts running around in his head regarding the elf.

Blinking slightly, Faramir looked up at his brother, who was giving him that "look" that only older brothers wearing wire rimmed reading glasses can give you. The look that makes you feel like an idiot for trying to solve your problems when the guy in front of you, who has had more experience in the damned situation. Which in this case was true, since he was pretty sure that Legolas and Boromir had gone all the way during the brief time that they had been together.

Realizing this, he then decided to take the plunge and tell Boromir of what had passed between him and Legolas during supper. Taking a deep breath, he then told him of what Legolas had been doing and of the elf's strange behaviour ever since they had gotten in the car.

After he was done, he had to wonder if he had said something wrong to Boromir, who looked as stunned as Lemmy, the neighbour's pet lemur, when they had accidentally pitched a waffle ball over the fence and conked the poor bugger and knocked him out of the tree he had been perched in.

Faramir blinked several times and was about to prod his brother into talking when he spoke out of his own volition.

"I don't know exactly what the hell is going on with him, but I know that he wasn't acting like that when we were together."

He frowned as he then put his book away. He was sure that Lee's behaviour was explainable, but he couldn't recall the information someone had shared with him that would help clear up the mystery. He knew that it had to do with a particular kind of elf, but he wasn't utterly sure of exactly what the hell it pertained to. All he could recall was that it had to do with sex.

"Well, why the hell is he acting like that right now? I mean, don't get me wrong, I like it a hell of a lot, but it's kind of unnerving having an elf acting like the school bicycle while you're trying to eat supper with your family."

Faramir said as he put the sketchbook away and looked at Boromir, hoping he'd be enlightened by his older brother.

"I think it's got something to do with sex." Boromir replied carefully. "I'm not sure what, but I think it just affects some elves. I guess."

Faramir raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean you guess?"

Boromir threw a pillow at him for being insolent.

"Exactly that. I was stoned when I was told about it, you twit."

Faramir dodged the pillow and hurled his own at Boromir, who gave him the finger before catching it and hurling it back at him.

Grabbing another pillow, he then twatted his brother a hard one that nearly knocked him off the bed.

"Jerk!" Boromir yelled as he grabbed a discarded pillow and began defending himself with it, giving Faramir several hard blows before the pillow was snatched out of his hands and thrown back at him.

"Twit!" Faramir yelled back before he whomped Boromir a hard one that sent him flying onto the hard cement floor of the basement.

"You SUCK!" Faramir called to his brother who was lying on the floor, laughing and flipping his brother the bird as he tried to rouse himself up enough to get up and onto the bed again.

"Fuck you!" Was the tart reply as Boromir finally managed to make himself climb up into bed again and give Faramir a hard punch in the shoulder.

"I love you to." Faramir replied sweetly before he lay down and began to look at the poster of Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" that Boromir had tacked up on the ceiling.

"Yeah. Yeah." Boromir said as he picked up his novel and prepared to be immersed in it once again when Faramir spoke up again.

"Does it hurt the first time?" He asked, keeping his eyes on the ceiling as he spoke.

Boromir groaned inwardly. He knew that such a topic would have to eventually come up, but he really didn't feel like explaining the ins and outs of gay sex to his little brother. It just somehow felt, well, wrong. The idea of Faramir having sex was just so alien to him that it made him cringe when his little brother himself brought it up.

But there really was no way around it, unless he wanted his brother to have it as hard and not as comfortable as he had had it the first time with that fucker. Thank god that Legolas had been there afterwards. If he hadn't been, chances would be that he'd probably would have gone even more insane than he alreadwas.

Taking a deep breath Boromir then put his book away again and looked at his brother.

"Yeah. It hurts. Well.. It's not the same..eh...let me explain it..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Hey, Estel, Boromir!" Legolas whispered to the two humans sitting in front of him in English.

"What?" Aragorn asked, letting his head drop backwards onto the Elf's desk.

"The cast list is up in the main hallway." Legolas replied, tapping his brother's nose lightly.

Aragorn smirked at the elf and was about to make a run for the main hallway when the door slammed shut, signalling that Mr. Elrond had just entered the vicinity and he would have to wait yet another block to know whether he had scored a part or not. Sighing, he reluctantly lifted his head from the desk and looked at the front of the class. It seemed that both his sex life and his personal life were terribly intent on frustrating him and then some.

Even though there were signs that Boromir was willing, there were also signs that something just wasn't right. Like when they would get into it, Boromir would become utterly passive. But not the kind of passiveness that would signal consent. Rather, it was the passiveness of someone that cannot get away from whatever will come next.

Although he tried to get Boromir to get past that by letting him initiate any intimacy, as soon as Aragorn would touch him, he would just turn extremely passive. That, along with a muted jumpiness when they were alone were enough to make him suspect that Casey had done more than just broken Boromir's heart.

He hadn't wanted to think about it. Hadn't wanted to even acknowledge the possibility of it ever having occurred. He didn't want to voice it, not even to himself lest he make it true by giving it a form with words. But as the signs kept pointing to that particular direction, he knew that he couldn't keep closing his eyes to the truth that was sitting on the doorstep of his mind and yowling to get in.

He didn't want to bring it up with him, but he knew that if he was planning to actually have a decent and healthy relationship with Boromir, he was going to have to prod into the dark waters of a very painful past and see what he could possibly do help heal the wounds that were still there below the surface. He wasn't about to let Boromir slip through his fingers because of something that he could have helped him with. Something that would, in time, tear him apart from the inside out if it wasn't dealt with soon.

He sighed as he pulled out his anthology and notebook. Maybe Legolas was right. He did brood too much. Over everything, he decided as he snuck a look at his brother.

Legolas was fidgeting like there was no tomorrow in his seat, something that made him wonder if the elf had snuck some pot brownies when he wasn't paying attention. Usually, Legolas would stay pretty still in class, a thing that made Aragorn wonder if he had actually paid attention to any lectures at all, since he knew that his brother had a tendency to fall asleep in school once in awhile.

But today was totally different, it seemed. Legolas was agitated over something. The way he kept on looking at the clock and at Boromir was very suspicious indeed. What the hell had taken over Legolas to make him like so? It wasn't a thing to get the calvary out about, but it was sure as hell unnerving. Very unnerving. Maybe it had been some kind of elvish puberty thing that he hadn't been told about by Glor, Danny and Max.

Thinking his hypothesis over, Aragorn decided that it was probably just that. Legolas wouldn't appreciate it if he went and stuck his nose into it, so he'd just kick back and hope that he wouldn't die of impatience in the meantime. Besides, he was probably taking on way too much to deal with at this time. If Legolas needed his help, he would come to him for it.

~*~*~*~*~*

"Let's see it!" Legolas shouted over the crowd that surrounded the list. He had been held back by a concerned Elrond at the end of class and had been too late to sneak a look at the list without people pressing down on him all over the place.

"You're Phoebe, Legless." Danny told him, turning away from the list, a small smirk on his lips.

Legolas glared at the taller elf. He hated being called "Legless" and today it was much more irritating than it had ever been, although he couldn't figure out.

"Shut up." Legolas replied as he began shoving people this way and that to get to the list.

"What the hell's wrong with him?" Danny muttered to Glorfindel, who bit his lip at the question and shook his head. Neither of them had seen Legolas be so bitchy or aggressive and it was kind of odd to see the usually level headed elf be like that.

"PMS." Max told his brother in a stage whisper. Which earned him the one finger salute from Lee.

"So what parts did you guys get?" Boromir asked the three elves as they moved away from the list.

"Duke senior and Adam." Glor replied, his eyes bright as he spoke.

"Jaques." Max replied, grinning slightly. Jaques was a plum part and he was very pleased to get it.

"Touchstone" Danny replied. "And joys of joys, I get to marry Rose Cotton at the end. I am thrilled." He added, his voice flat.

"Which part did you get?" He then asked Boromir. "Oh wait. You didn't try out, did you?"

"Actually, it seems that I did. And Mrs. Luthien gave me the part of Rosalind."

Danny nodded. "Makes sense. I saw you and Aragorn throwing lines back and forth. No one else could have done it better. Considering the fact that Aragorn was a shoo-in for Orlando, it makes sense. Trust me man, Mrs. Luthien knows what the hell she's doing. Even though it may not seem like it, she's doing all of us a favour."

Boromir shrugged. "I guess. It's still going to feel weird doing it though. I mean I got the female lead, for christ's sake! How many chicks do you think are going to be pissed about that?"

Max snorted. "Maybe Arwen will be. She always gets the female leads. Besides, the gender-bending doesn't matter. I mean, have you looked at the rest of the list? Arwen's going to play two roles that are traditionally male. Legolas is to play Phoebe. I think the only two girls that actually got girl's roles are Eowyn and Rose, so whatever."

"Yeah. I guess. But it's still sort of weird, you know. I've never really been one for plays, so being in one is just weird." He ended lamely, not sure what to say or think about the odd trick of fate that had landed the opportunity to spend even more time with Aragorn and also be one of the leads in the school's play.

"Did you see the list?" Aragorn asked excitedly as he swooped down on the group and immediately grabbed Boromir and kissed him right on the lips in plain view of everyone in the school.

"I take it you got the part?" Glor asked as Aragorn let go of Boromir and proceeded to squeeze the stuffing out of Danny, who looked like he was going to suffocate from the embrace.

"Yes! And I don't have to worry about Arwen being Rosalind either! I feel great!"

Aragorn nearly yelled as he released Danny and moved back to Boromir, who was trying his best not to laugh at Aragorn's exuberant behaviour.

"That's good to know. But you won't be feeling great if we're late for Haldir's class."

Legolas pointed out right before the bell rang, signalling the end of the five-minute class break.

"Oh shit!" Aragorn yelled as he disentangled himself from Boromir and bolted to his locker to get his history text book.

For some odd reason, Aragorn *always* forgot his history text-book and always ended up slipping into class just a minute shy of the second bell ringing and infuriating Haldir to no end. The teacher hated that little quirk of Aragorn's, but usually let it pass, since Aragorn was fairly quiet and was one of his top students. The other ones were Boromir, Legolas, Max, Glor and Arwen. Danny wasn't in the humanities, since he preferred maths and sciences and was astonishingly good at it.

"What part did you get?" Legolas asked Boromir as they rushed to Haldir's class.

"Rosalind. You?" Legolas made a face at the question, but he answered it anyways.

"Phoebe. It seems that we shall be wearing dresses this next two months then."

He commented crisply as he sat down and opened his books quickly. Even though he was feeling bitchy and cranky, Legolas knew better than to try and get on the bad side of Haldir. Even though he was fairly calm most of the time, Haldir was a force to be reckoned with. Mr. Yuy and Fujiyama had nothing on Haldir when he was really pissed off. So most kids tread lightly around the blonde elf.

Boromir followed suit and nodded at the comment, but didn't reply, since Aragorn had rushed in at that moment and plunked himself down, signalling the beginning of class.

~*~*~*~*~*

Legolas was glad to finally get to his Art class. Although he was kind of stumped as to what he was going to paint, he was only looking forward to it because Faramir was there.

He didn't know why, but he couldn't stop thinking about him ever since they had declared their mutual attraction to each other. Every time he called up his image, or his laughter, or something about him, he felt his face heat up and his heart race madly, as if he had been running non-stop.

He also felt the most keen need to have him claim him. In the physical sense of the word. He was nearly exploding over the lust that was taking over his brain. Even though elves had fairly good control of their emotions, the tidal wave that were his hormones would make even the most sexless elf relent. And he was far from sexless, which led to his current situation.

Groaning softly, Legolas resolved not to think about his rampant libido and instead, focussed on the blank canvas and tubes of paint and his paint-brushes as he waited for inspiration to hit him.

But it seemed that the same fate that was conspiring against Aragorn was also intent on screwing around with him as well. He was positive of this when two things happened that pretty much dictated his eventual doom. For one thing, the art teacher, Mr Kinneas, had to leave right after they got there, which meant that he, Faramir, Max, Glor, Eowyn and Frodo had the class all to themselves. The second thing was that Faramir was working on developing some pictures he had taken and he wanted for Legolas to come and help him, since Legolas had a talent for making pictures turn out perfectly in the school's photo lab.

He was trapped and he knew it, since there was no good way to extricate himself from Faramir's plea. He hadn't started any work, nor had he any other valid excuse to refuse. He was going to have to go in there and hope to god that his mind wouldn't turn to mush from being in a small space with the object of his rampant lust.

So he took a deep breath, agreed to help Faramir and put his materials away. It wasn't like he could get much done in the seventy minutes left of class anyways.

"Okay." Faramir said after they had entered the medium-sized room and flicked on the red light.

He didn't notice that Legolas was looking at him as if he was the answer to all his prayers. He was, unlike the other students in class, actually serious about having some work completed. He loved Photography, so it was a dream come true that he was able to use the lab at school whenever he wanted. It was also a pretty cool thing that Legolas was always willing to help him, even though the elf's tastes ran to painting and sketching most of the time.

So it was quite a surprise to him when Legolas literally knocked him onto the floor of the lab and began to hungrily kiss him.

His first though was: "Oh shit! I won't get the pictures developed!"

His second thought was: "Holy Christ! Does he want to get laid in the school photo lab?"

He was going to get up and push Legolas away from him, but the elf's hands had somehow found their way down his boxers and were being put to a fairly good use that made his brain turn to mush.

Ignoring the screams of the rational part of his brain, Faramir began kissing Legolas back as his hands roamed over the elf's body, feeling the way that the sinewy muscles moved under the soft flesh not covered by the velvet or silks that Legolas usually dressed in. The supple body on top of him also made him moan and press his mouth harder against the soft petal lips as they tried to fight for dominance between them.

Facing this resistance, Legolas growled softly and tightened his grip on Faramir's cock, making his partner gasp and arch his body against Lee's, which made the elf let out a sound like a muted caterwaul. Pausing in his ravaging of Faramir's mouth, Legolas removed his hands from Faramir's cock and placed them above the human's head in order to give himself leverage as he ground his hips into Faramir's.

The friction of their cocks against both fabric and each other made them both gasp out in pain and desire. It was such an intense sensation that Faramir was afraid that he was going to come if he didn't do anything to relieve the ache that had pooled deeply in his groin. God! He hadn't been this horny in ages! What the hell had Legolas done to him in that short span of time?

"I want you!!" Legolas hissed as he quickly tore off his clothes to reveal a pale and perfect body only lightly sprinkled with hair. "I want you inside me and I want it now!"

Faramir's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets as Legolas then moved on to take his pants and boxers off. He didn't mind getting hot and heavy with his boyfriend. At school, that was the only thing that they could do, really. That was cool. But *Fucking* in the school was a different matter altogether. It just wasn't that it felt wrong, but if they got caught, there would be hell to pay.

Besides, there was the matter of being a virgin and despite the detailed descriptions of what to do from both his brother and gay erotica, he wasn't really sure if he was going to live up to expectations, since the elf was a bit more experienced than he was in these matters.

He was going to open his mouth and tell Legolas his concerns. Really, he was. But when Legolas knelt down in front of him and wrapped his mouth around his cock, his mind turned to mush yet again.

All he could think of to say was: " You got any lube?"

Legolas pulled his mouth from his cock and dug around in the pile of his clothing until he came up with a tube of Bonne bell lipgloss and gave it to Faramir, who only took a few minutes to get himself out of his daze and crawl over to where the elf was kneeling, his legs spread as he waited for Faramir to prepare him and ride him.

Taking his cue, Faramir unscrewed the cap and poured a small amount of gloss in his palm. Carefully, he then touched Legolas's entrance, making the elf moan loudly. Feeling encouraged, he then applied the lube and began to massage the tight entrance, wincing slightly when he felt Lee jerk away at a particularly careless move on his part. But so far, things had been going good, so he carefully inserted one finger in.

He guessed he was doing the right thing by the strangled moans that the elf was giving. He moved his finger around in order to stretch it a bit more and brushed against a hard bump that made Legolas nearly scream in pleasure.

"More." The elf panted once he had regained his powers of speech. "More."

Eager to please the elf, he then added another finger and then another and began to move them faster as well as thrust them in and out of Lee's body, making the elf breathe heavily and impale himself on Faramir's fingers.

"Now! I need you!" Lee panted, sweat springing all over his body in a fine sheen that made it glow in the red light.

Faramir didn't need to be told twice. After removing his hand from Lee's body, he put some of the lip-gloss on his aching cock and carefully positioned the tip at the entrance. Grabbing a secure hold of the elf, he then began to move inside, careful not to hurt the elf too much with his penetration.

"Just fuck me!" Lee moaned as he felt Faramir's ever so careful entry inside of him.

Following orders, he thrust in hard, making Lee throw his head back in both ecstasy and pain.

"More!" The elf begged. "More!"

Faramir swallowed hard and began to thrust. First gently, but at the elf's insistence, harder and harder until the elf was moaning and crying out in incoherent elvish, his passion at a fever pitch as he was filled repeatedly. With each thrust, Legolas became more and more wild, as if he was being consumed by the desire inside of him.

Faramir then, was utterly stunned when he swore he saw lights behind his eyes and he came right after Legolas clawed at the floor before his seed was splattered all over the place and he collapsed, his body and brain having been sated of their intense need.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Do you think they're actually fucking in there?" Danny whispered to Glor as the blonde elf painted.

Glor shrugged, not willing to actually voice his suspicions, especially when Frodo was around.

Although they really couldn't hear any sounds coming from the lab, Glor just had a feeling, like everyone else in the class that Faramir and Legolas had scored in the lab. But he really didn't want to say anything since he felt something just wasn't quite right about the whole situation. He didn't know why, but he was sure it was because Lee's behaviour had been so erratic all day that the whole thing just didn't feel like it should.

So he kept quiet and worked on his painting, not bothering to join in the cheering and clapping that the other students greeted a sheepish and dishevelled Faramir and Lee when they emerged from the lab. He only watched as they took their usual seats and began to half-heartedly work on some sketches while they murmured to each other.

As he watched them, he noticed that Legolas was his cool, calm self again and that made him even more worried. So worried that he made a mental note to go to the library at lunch.

In the meantime, he concentrated on his painting.

~*~*~*~*~*

"So when are rehearsal starting?" Faramir asked Aragorn as they dug into the sandwiches and pop that made up the groups' lunch. All around them, the Usual Suspects, as they called themselves sat in a loose circle as they ate their lunches and enjoyed the crisp weather.

Aragorn swallowed a bite of his sandwich before replying.

"Umm. Not until next week, because Elrond and Luthien have to find a place for us to rehearse, since the drama room was given to the band geeks to practice in and the gyms are all tied up due to the volleyball and basketball teams having to prepare for the Hibbert and Troy Tournaments."

Aragorn told him before he took a swig from the communal pop bottle before passing it to Danny, who was anxiously waiting for it.

"Oh." Faramir replied, not sure whether to be disappointed or not. On one hand, he was sorry not to get the chance to jump into the play right away. On the other, he was glad to have the chance to spend a bit more quality time with Legolas, who was still giving him the eye as they ate their lunch.

"So you're coming over tonight?" Legolas asked Faramir, his voice low as he spoke.

Faramir didn't answer. He just looked at Boromir, who had finished eating and was now looking up at the sky, a pensive look on his face as he did so.

"Maybe, if someone can look after the chibis for me." He said a bit loudly as he turned the puppy-eyed look on his older brother.

Boromir rolled over onto his side and looked at Faramir, his eyes narrowed as he contemplated his brother. He had heard about the little incident in the photo lab from Danny and Glor and although he was severely amused by it, he wasn't really willing to let his little brother get off scot-free for it.

He was really going to say no and tell him to find a bush to screw Legolas silly in when Aragorn tapped him on the shoulder and gave him the "look" before leaning close enough to whisper in his ear something that made him grin like an utter mad-man.

"Fine. But you owe me. Big time." He told his brother as he then flopped back down on his back and let Aragorn pet his hair as he half-closed his eyes and relaxed under the soft touch of his boyfriend's hand. He'd deal with his errant brother later.

"Thanks, Bor!" Faramir called out, getting the bird from his brother in return.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Arwen sat in the car seat, a joint dangling from her lips as she watched Boromir and Aragorn get into Aragorn's car and drive off.

She hated them. Never mind the dream that she had nurtured for so long. She really hated Aragorn about now. And that little cock-sucker he called a boyfriend too.

Ever since that bastard and his brother had arrived at St. Ig's, her whole life had been ruined. Not only had the fucken faggot and his brother taken the two most desirable guys in the school, they had also ruined her reputation and her chances for the school play.

She had always gotten the lead in the plays, and now, she had been relegated to insignificant parts that didn't mean a lick.

Oh yes. She hated them. With a passion that seemed to want to burn itself out of her skin and consume her alive.

"You going to pass that joint?" She took a drag from the joint and passed it over to Theoden, who was looking at her with a calculated hunger in his eyes that she would have noticed if she had been sober.

"Do you want to do something, baby?" He asked as he as he took the last hoots off the joint, killed it and slowly began to undo the buttons of her cream cardigan.

Arwen turned her head and looked at Theoden. He wasn't really beautiful, like Aragorn was, but he had a cold handsomeness. With his bright blonde hair, dark blue eyes and chiselled features, he was all right. He looked like a more polished version of Eomer, so it wouldn't be too bad if he wanted to fuck her silly right then and there. Besides, she needed the fuck.

"Sure. Just not here, okay?" She replied as she put her hand on his to stop him from undoing anymore of her buttons.

"Where do you want to go then?" Theoden asked as he pulled away from her and started the car.

"Rundle park. No one's going to bother us there."

Theoden smiled at her request.

"Sure baby."

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Boromir threw the ball at Pippin, who barely managed to catch it. Even though he loved to play catch, the small hobbit was afraid of the ball and most often than not, would end up dropping it and having to chase after it.

Especially in the front yard of their house, which was fairly large and faced a main road that ran between the housing complex that they all lived in. Even though the Lothloriens made enough money to live comfortably elsewhere, because they had four children that had been province wards, they had to live in there until all of the kids turned eighteen, or were adopted by other families.

Since they had adopted Boromir and Faramir and the hobbits, it meant that they would pretty much be living there almost indefinitely. Although it wasn't a bad place to live, it wasn't really a good one either. There were very little places for the hobbits to play in and they had to make do with playing in the yard with either Boromir and Faramir watching them lest they run in the road and into the path of an incoming vehicle.

Although he found it cute, Boromir didn't dare laugh. Pippin was very touchy about his mishaps and would sulk if he believed he was being laughed at by his hero. So Boromir tried his best to not laugh and often worked tirelessly with the little hobbit to improve his catching skills. Which was why Boromir was outside and not in the basement receiving what Aragorn promised him at lunch.

"Room for two more?" Aragorn called out as he came out of the house with a scowling Merry.

"Sure!!" Pippin called out as he threw the ball back at Boromir.

"I don't want to play." Merry said sulkily as he flopped down on the ground. Aragorn rolled his eyes at the hobbit's behaviour.

"Merry, come on. It's only a small game." Aragorn tried to persuade the sulky hobbit to join in.

"Faramir isn't here." Merry informed Aragorn. "So I'm not playing."

Aragorn looked at Boromir, who only shook his head.

"No use in making him play." He mouthed to his boyfriend before he threw the ball at Pippin.

Aragorn frowned and looked at the older hobbit, who sat with his legs crossed and his arms folded against his chest, scowling at the sky, as if it was responsible for keeping his beloved Faramir away.

"Are you sure?" Aragorn mouthed back to Boromir, who nodded.

Pippin looked at his brother and sighed. He wished that he would play with him like he used to, before Faramir became the centre of his universe. Even though Boromir played with him, it wasn't the same as it used to be when Merry would play. All that Merry would do nowadays was to trail around Faramir and be extremely jealous when anyone or anything would take his attention away from him.

Even though he didn't really understand, he knew that Merry was deeply attached to Faramir in a way that he didn't understand. A way that was leaving him behind and shutting him out, a feeling that was as depressing as it was uncomfortable. Merry had always shared everything with him, and now, he was being shut out without rhyme or reason and Pippin hated that.

He never understood why he decided to pitch the ball at his brother. Even when things were at their darkest, he had never had the compulsion to lash out at anyone. Especially not at Merry. So it was quite a surprise to him when he threw the ball at Merry, hitting him right in the face.

"Pippin!" Aragorn cried out when the ball bounced off of Merry's lap and his nose started gushing blood. Boromir turned around and just stared numbly at the scene before him.

Pippin stood as if he was turned to stone. He was as shocked at what he had done. He never meant to hurt Merry! Honestly! He wanted to tell them that. To say sorry for his actions, but he was numb.

He remained numb until Merry began to cry over the blood that was pouring out of his nose and onto his shirt. Listening to that instinct that is present in all horrified beings, he ran away.

It wouldn't have mattered. Normally, the traffic was fairly slow during the early afternoon. He would have probably ended up in the Barton's yard and hid there until after supper.

The factor that none of them had been counting on was the car that came seemingly out of nowhere and that was travelling at too high a speed in a residential area and was now heading directly for the hobbit, who had heard the screeching tires and had predictably frozen in the middle of the road like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.

"PIPPIN!" Boromir shouted, his heart leaping into his mouth when he saw that the hobbit in danger.

He didn't think twice about what he was going to do. He just knew that he had to move fast unless Pippin got hurt. There was no question that he had to save Pippin.

So he ran. As fast as he possibly could. Luckily for Pippin, Boromir's speed saved him from a fate that could have very likely would have involved death. But because Boromir had been so fast, he had been pushed out of the way and all he ended up with was a couple of nasty scrapes and bruises when he unceremoniously met the pavement.

Boromir didn't know what happened in that small space of time that it had taken for him to push Pippin out of the way. All he was aware of was the shocking pain that coursed through all of his body, the way that the world had suddenly turned upside down, the crunch of metal and the high crinkling of glass before he landed on the pavement with a loud thud. Estel screaming what could have been his name. Then the sudden blackness as if a candle had been burnt out.

As before, I don't own these characters. Or songs. I claim utter responsibility for the plot.

Special Shout out to Steph, Celebrithil. Thanks for the help. I appreciate it a whole lot.

Also, I would like to note that I did research the medical stuff. But I also would like to point out the fact that I am in Education and not a doctor, so bear with me.

Part Ten Lovers in a dangerous time.

"Gonna kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight." Bruce Cockburn.

Faramir was utterly numb as he sat in the sombre room. Although they had tried to make it somewhat cheery, with several landscape paintings and nice, comfortable couches and light pastel blue walls. But no matter how hard they tried to make the room look like a comfortable den, the fact that it was far removed from the common waiting room and just five minutes away from the trauma area made it all seem like a waste and served only to remind the people sitting in the room of the seriousness of the situation.

He rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock on the opposite wall of the room. It was around six in the evening. Which meant that they had been sitting in the "quiet room" for at least two hours now.

They had been placed there after they had arrived and had gotten several nurses coming in and saying nothing of substance, really. Even though he knew that it was to keep them from freaking out, Faramir would much rather get the cold, hard truth. At least they would know exactly what they would be dealing with. Certainties, no matter how awful, he could face. Uncertainties just made him jumpy and more prone to think the worst rather than the best.

He rubbed his eyes again, a nervous habit of his and looked at the other occupants of the room.

Celeborn seemed to have retreated inside of him mind. Ever since they had arrived, he had just sat in the corner, his eyes wide open and fixed on the doorway as if he was afraid of missing something if he didn't keep careful watch. Galadriel sat beside him, her head on his shoulder as she slowly stroked his hair, her blue eyes terribly distant as she did this, almost as if her hand was working out of its own accord and not really a part of her own body.

Merry was sitting beside him, his small face was set in a cold mask, his hands were tightly clutching Faramir's sleeve. Even though the little hobbit wasn't as attached to Boromir as Pippin was, he still was deeply disturbed at what had happened. He had lost way too many people that cared about him in his young life and the possibility of Boromir being added to that list was a frightening prospect that made him want to cry. But he couldn't cry here. He didn't want anyone to see him cry.

Legolas was curled up on the other side, his head lying on his shoulder, his hand gripping his tightly. Occasionally, the slim elf would shudder and tears would fall on Faramir's hand. He had then looked up from the floor, but when he did, his eyes were full of tears and his mouth moved soundlessly, but no words appeared. He would then sigh heavily and his gaze would fall onto the floor again.

He was in so much pain, Faramir could see that. But he couldn't comfort him. As much as he wanted to, Legolas was far away from him at that moment. No matter what he did, he wouldn't be able to touch the barrier that the elf had erected between them. He had been that unresponsive ever since Aragorn had called and told them in a flat and emotionless voice about the accident. He had just let Faramir guide him around, not really registering what was happening around him, his mind focused on the fact that Boromir was hurt.

Aragorn sat across from them, his face a mask of heavily etched grief. He hadn't shed a tear, or given any indication of how upset he was. He had been the calmest of them all. Calling the ambulance, calling the Lothloriens, cleaning Merry up. Comforting a hysterical Pippin. Giving the police information about the car, which had sped off quickly after Boromir had landed on the pavement. Not once did his voice falter when he was dealing with all these matters.

He was a sharp contrast with Pippin, who had been inconsolable and hysterical until the doctors decided to sedate him for his own good. He was fully blaming himself for Boromir's accident and had to be physically restrained from following the paramedics into the trauma unit after they had gotten to the hospital. After the doctors had sedated him though, he lay in a miserable and drugged heap in Aragorn's lap, once in awhile crying out or sobbing softly as he wandered around the drugged perimeters of his mind, not really registering anything around him. Not even Aragorn's comforting touch on his hair as he stumbled in his mindless stupor.

Aragorn, though was a godsend. He had kept his head and had pretty much taken care of all that needed to be done after everyone had pretty much retreated to their own minds in order to deal with their pain.

He just watched everything quietly, his blue eyes blazing fiercely with an emotion that no one could readily identify. That had been the only concession to his emotions that Faramir could see. That and the statement on his face that made him look older than his seventeen years. For some reason, the lines of his face had sharpened, making it crueler and tragic than ever. This event, coupled with the bright blue sheen of his eyes made him seem more vulnerable than before. It also made Faramir wonder whether Aragorn would be strong enough to deal with the possibility of losing Boromir.

He bit his lip at that thought. He knew that he wouldn't be able to hold everything together if Boromir died. He would fall apart without him there. Legolas would help somewhat, but the elf could probably die of grief in case that ever happened. They weren't in a romantic love anymore, but they loved each other so much that they wouldn't be the same if either of them happened to leave the other.

Although Legolas was like a doll, only moving whenever Faramir prodded him, his mind was a swirl of emotions. Many possibilities were running through his mind at that moment and he was too tired to even try and sort them out. The only thread that was too prominent to ignore was the idea that Boromir could die.

"Don't think like that." He chided himself as he turned his head and buried his face in Faramir's shoulder.

"Boromir won't die so easily" He felt himself beginning to smile at the memory that the thought had brought up in his mind and was glad that he had thought to hide his face lest everyone thought he had finally lost his mind.

He didn't really recall how old they were when it even happened. He guessed that Faramir was maybe nine or ten and Boromir maybe eleven or twelve. Anyways, it had been one of those child-hood memories that occasionally flash into your mind at the oddest times.

(Flashback)

They had been messing around in the yard behind the house. Boromir had been chasing Legolas up the tree and he was supposedly helping to get the "escaped captive", but was instead sitting in the lower branches of the tree watching as Legolas nimbly jumped from branch to branch while Boromir climbed them clumsily and carelessly, his safety the last thing on his mind as he pursued the elf.

"Give it up, Sebbie! You can't catch me here!" Legolas called out as he perched himself comfortably on the topmost branch of the ash tree.

Boromir scowled up at the foliage that was obscuring his vision. He was hot, sweaty and he was getting pretty fed up of having chased Legolas for so long without any success. The fact that Faramir was too small to actually be of any help also added to his crappy mood. And there was the matter of the name...

"Stop calling me Sebbie, Marijuana Leaf!" Boromir yelled up into the branches as he continued to climb the tree.

"Yeah, whatever, Sebastien! Come and make me stop calling you that!" Legolas shouted back before giving in to his laughter.

He couldn't help but to needle Boromir that way. He knew that the human was always touchy about his middle name, since it was actually "Sebastien" and no one, it seemed, got that through their heads when calling him by it.

Legolas had to chuckle when he heard a low growl that was accompanied by the rustling of leaves and branches that signaled Boromir's stubborn pursuit was still going on strong.

He smirked to himself and looked around the tree for another spot to perch on in case Boromir would actually succeed in climbing onto the thin top-most branches of the tree. Although he was light for a human, being all gangly arms and legs, Legolas knew that the branches wouldn't really support his weight if he dared to climb up that high.

Realizing this for what seemed the first time, he looked down and was about to yell down a warning when the sound of a cracking branch filled the air. This was soon accompanied by Boromir yelling, a loud thud. Then silence.

"Shit!" Legolas wasted no time in jumping from his perch. If Boromir had broken his neck, or split his head open.. Legolas shook his head of the morbid images. Boromir was a hell of a lot tougher than that, he told himself. A fall like that wouldn't hurt him too badly. Or would it?

He got his answer when he had just reached the lower branch in time to hear Faramir give a high-pitched scream causing Celeborn and Galadriel to come running out of the house.

"He's dead!" Faramir screamed hysterically. Legolas felt his heart leap into his mouth at this announcement. Boromir couldn't be dead! He couldn't be! It was just a fall!

He swallowed hard before he fell from the tree and landed on the soft grass with a muffled thud. Not caring about dignity about that moment, he crawled over to his friend, who had landed in a messy heap at the foot of the tree.

Legolas winced when he saw the blood that was slowly trickling down from the top of Boromir's head and mixing in with his blond hair, making it a sickly shade of orange-red that dimly reminded him of runny ketchup. One arm was twisted up against his body in a unnatural angle that made Legolas wince, since he knew that it had been broken in the fall.

"Boromir?" he whispered as he reached out to touch the still boy slowly and carefully as if he were a delicate piece of china.

"What happened?" Celeborn asked as he picked up Faramir and tried to calm the distraught boy down while Galadriel knelt down beside Legolas to get a better look at Boromir.

"We were climbing the tree and I guess a branch broke and he fell."

Legolas explained in a rush as he prodded his friend. Boromir didn't feel like a dead person and even though his breathing was ragged, he seemed to be, for all intents and purposes, pretty alive.

"Is he dead?" Faramir asked Celeborn tearfully.

Celeborn gave him a comforting smile as he wiped the tears away from the boy's pale face. He opened his mouth to soothe him with a little white lie when they heard a groan coming from the ground followed by a sleepy, somewhat cross voice.

"Quit poking me, you damned elf!"

"There's your answer sweetheart!" Celeborn replied, his smile a happy one now that the danger had passed. If Boromir was cross enough to call his best friend a damned elf, there was no danger of him dying anytime soon.

Once Galadriel had heard that, she gently picked up the coltish boy and quickly bundled him into the car. Even though he was far from dead, he was still going to need medical attention for his injuries.

The trip would have been made in a shorter span of time, but Celeborn, Legolas and Faramir all had to go with them to King George VI hospital. Legolas and Faramir had to go since they couldn't bear to be torn away from Boromir at such a time and also because they had an irrational fear that Boromir would maybe succumb to death if they weren't around to make sure that he was okay.

Celeborn only went along to keep the two boys out of mischief in the large hospital. Which proved to be a difficult task when they were not allowed to be with Boromir as he got fixed up.

Luckily, it only took about half an hour for the doctors to set his arm and stitch up the nasty gash in his head. Which was about half an hour too long for Celeborn, who was nearly at her wit's end with ways to keep Faramir and Legolas busy before they snuck into the room Boromir was in.

Needless to say when Boromir was finally released, he was met by three extremely relieved people. Although they were relieved for different reasons, it was still nice to see Faramir, Legolas and Celeborn smiling at him as he slowly made his way towards them.

"Bor!" Faramir shouted as he rushed towards his brother, but was adroitly stopped by Galadriel, who grabbed the back of his hoodie before he could actually collide with a pale faced Boromir, who was cradling his broken arm carefully to his chest.

"What?" Faramir asked as Celeborn and Legolas surrounded Boromir and stared asking questions about his injuries as well as fussing over him.

"Boromir's a little fragile right now, Faramir." Galadriel explained as she looked at her older foster son, who although was relishing the attention he was getting, looked terribly tired and nearly ready to fall asleep on his feet, courtesy of the drugs.

"You have to be careful with him for a bit, okay?"

Faramir looked at his mother, then at his brother and nodded before he slowly walked over to him and embraced him as if he were made of glass.

Galadriel only looked at her husband and smiled at the sight. Although Faramir was taking the delicate bit a little too far, it was still very sweet to see that he cared so much about his brother that he would take his mother's words to heart.

They waited until Legolas had a turn to make sure that Boromir was fine before they packed them up into the car and headed home to Lembas.

Once they had reached home, Boromir was then unceremoniously ordered into bed by Galadriel, where he was fussed over and later joined by Faramir and Legolas.

He had been lightly dozing for awhile when the conversation happened.

"Hey Boromir!" His name had been whispered in a voice so quiet that he wasn't sure whether he had really heard it at all of it was just a product of his drugged mind or not.

"Boromir!" This was accompanied by a hand gently shaking his shoulder which immediately made him wake up, since the shaking made his arm ache.

"What?" He asked the darkness, his words slurred both by his annoyance and the pain-killers.

"You're okay, right?" A small, worried voice asked as a slim body carefully laid itself next to him, avoiding the pillow that his aching arm lay on.

"Yeah. Just tired." He told Legolas as the elf reached over and carefully brushed his hair out of his eyes.

"Hmm?" Faramir mumbled sleepily at the sound of their voices.

"Shh. Its alright." Legolas soothed him, brushing his hand over the other bed-mate's hair.

"Uhm." Was the muffled reply before the occupant rolled over and presumably fell asleep again.

They waited for several minutes before resuming their conversation lest they wake Faramir up again. Once they were assured it was safe, they began to talk again.

"You sure?" Legolas pressed again. Boromir snorted softly.

"Yah. It wasn't like I broke my neck or something. I just got stitches and a broken arm. Nothing to worry about, since it'll heal soon, Greenleaf."

Legolas chuckled softly at the use of his full middle name. If Boromir was up to teasing him, then it meant he was cool and there was nothing to worry about.

"Yeah. Well. We were worried you were dead." Legolas stated bluntly, laying his hand on Boromir's cheek.

Legolas brushed his thumb against Boromir's lips in a nervous gesture as he tried to convey how worried he and Faramir had been. How awful it had been to see him lying so still, with blood pouring down his face and his eyes closed in what possibly could have been forever.

"Thanks for worrying." Boromir whispered, breaking the silence. He hoped that Legolas would understand how deep his gratitude ran. Sure, Galadriel and Celebrian were worried about him, as was Faramir, but having a person outside the immediate family to worry over him was both touching and very cool.

"You're my best mate! Of course I'm going to worry!"

"I know. But you didn't have to." He laughed softly.

"I have no intention of dying so easily, Leaf. Believe me. Death won't have me so easily. I'm going to fight it with all I got when the time comes."

Lee smiled, even though he knew that Boromir couldn't see him. He knew that the words were foolish, since Boromir was mortal. He'd have no choice when his death would come. He would inevitably succumb to it. But it was still nice to hear that he wouldn't do so without fighting every step of the way. That there would be plenty of time for them to spend together.

"I believe you." Legolas had finally conceded before he lay down beside him, his hand still on his friend's face.

"Good." Boromir had replied before shutting his eyes.

(End Flashback)

It was odd how he hadn't thought of that specific conversation in years and now, at the most crucial time ever, he was suddenly recalling it. It was odd what stress could do to someone's mind.

Maybe that was why he wasn't as upset as he had been earlier. The memory of Boromir stoutly declaring that he was going to fight Death had lifted his spirits somewhat. It may have been foolish to take such comfort in words, but Legolas believed that Boromir would honestly do his best not to succumb. And the reason why he believed them so strongly was because in all his life, Boromir had always kept his word. He had never broken his promises and Legolas was sure it wasn't going to happen now of all times.

He was so caught up in his musings about his best friend's honour that he nearly missed the entry of the doctor that was in charge of Boromir's well-being.

Celeborn, oddly enough, had been the first to notice him. Moving quickly, he walked up to the doctor and looked at him with his quiet blue eyes.

"Mr. Lothlorien?" The doctor, a slim, youngish man with dark brown eyes and soft honey hair asked the taller elf, who nodded quietly. Galadriel stood up then and walked up to them, nodding at the doctor in the way of a greeting.

"I'm Doctor Tyler. I'm here to tell you about your son's condition at this time."

"How is he?" Galadriel asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she spoke.

"I won't lie to you. Boromir was lucky to have survived getting hit by that car. Judging from his injuries, the car was traveling quite fast. If it had struck the little boy, it would have killed him."

The doctor paused as he tried to find the most sterile and least painful way to tell them about their son's injuries.

"Boromir suffered blunt trauma to his chest. This caused several fractured ribs. One which pierced and punctured his left lung. Both of his legs were also fractured and his left shoulder was dislocated. He is stable though, and it looks like he will stay that way as well."

He ran a hand through his hair before continuing on with the catalogue of injuries the boy had suffered.

"Also, there is quite a bit of swelling in his spinal cord due to trauma of the accident. We suspect that this happened when he hit the pavement. There's also a chance of a head injury. We don't know how mild or how severe it is at the moment, but we do know that there is no hemorrhaging at the moment. "

Legolas shuddered at the words and tightened his grip on Faramir's hand. Was Boromir going to be paralysed then? Is that what the doctor was telling them in his careful words?

"Is he going to walk again?" Celeborn asked, his voice flat as he spoke.

The doctor sighed. "I can't say yes or no. We have to wait until the swelling goes down to see whether there are any injuries to his spine. When that happens, we will be able to do an MRI and know for sure whether that is the case or not. I'm sorry. That's all I can tell you right now."

Celeborn and Galadriel nodded. The doctor was right. There wasn't much of anything that they could do except worry and hope that he would come out of this okay.

"Can we see him?" Aragorn asked, his voice harsh from his imposed silence, making his request sound like a command rather than a plea.

"Yes. I'll take you there right now. Follow me, please."

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Aragorn didn't know what to expect when he was told that he and Legolas could go see Boromir. He hadn't been in a hospital since the day he had been born and the whole atmosphere was making him feel edgy and on the verge of tears.

As he walked past the antiseptic-smelling hallways that led to Boromir's room, he felt like his heart was going to stop and he was going to black out.

He still was in shock over the afternoon's events. Even though he had seen the car hit Boromir with a sickening crunch, and the way that Boromir's body had bounced first against the hood, then against the glass before finally landing on the pavement with unbelievable force; it still felt like a nightmare.

Nothing had felt real after he had seen Boromir land on the pavement. Even though he saw the blood and the twisted limbs, it didn't feel real. He thought he was going to wake up soon. He had made the phone calls to the ambulance, to the Lothloriens, Faramir, cleaned Merry up and calmed Pippin down, he honestly thought he was going to wake up.

The feeling of surrealism was still present even when he saw Legolas break down and Faramir comfort him despite the tears running freely down his face. The way that the Lothloriens and Merry were stoically grieving still hadn't managed to break this feeling. As he came closer to the room, he wondered if he too was going to lose the calm exterior that had served him well. He also wondered if he too was going to break and whether it was going to be as shattering as it had been when his mother had committed suicide last summer.

His thoughts were interrupted when he and Legolas paused in front of a room that had no actual walls. Instead of walls, it had glass doors like the kind that were used for patios and curtains behind them in order to give the patient the illusion of privacy.

Legolas took a deep breath, an action that made Aragorn look at him curiously. He had never seen the elf so raw. So worn and pained. He put his hand on the elf's shoulder and squeezed hard.

"Thanks." Legolas whispered. "It's just so hard." He choked back a sob.

"I can go alone." Aragorn offered, but the elf shook his head.

"I am fine now. I just needed some time to compose myself." He took a deep breath and nodded.

They entered the pseudo room, ducking past the heavy blue curtains and right beside to the only uncluttered spot beside Boromir's bed, since the other sides were taken up by various other machines that beeped and made other noises as they measured things he didn't know about.

"Oh." Aragorn said, his voice a strangled gasp as he moved closer to the bed.

Boromir lay perfectly still on the bed. He was naked from the waist up and there were bruises and bandages around his chest. There were I.V.'s in both arms and there was a clear tube taped to his mouth that was attached to blue plastic piping that led to a respirator that hissed as it helped Boromir to breathe. There were cuts and scrapes on his face and there was a bandage round his head.

If it hadn't been for these things, Aragorn would have sworn that Boromir was just sleeping and not drugged up to the teeth like he probably was. That he was going to open those green eyes of his and smile at him and banish all the horrible possibilities that were preying on his mind right now.

Aragorn swallowed hard when he noticed the stiff white brace around Boromir's neck that was keeping his head perfectly still. He then scanned the length of him and saw that despite the blanket, he could see the outline of the long casts on Boromir's legs.

He shook his head and closed his eyes. He wasn't seeing this! This wasn't Boromir! It wasn't!

This was all a dream and he was going to wake up soon and be in Boromir's arms and he would tell him about it and it would all be forgotten and he would never think of it again!

He opened his eyes again. No. it was all real. Boromir was still unconscious. Still in the grip of drugs. In the grip of an uncertain future.

He reached out and stroked Boromir's face in a futile effort to rouse his boyfriend. His soul-mate. Even though he caressed the pale and soft flesh as carefully and tenderly as he could, it made no difference. Boromir was, for now, out of his reach.

Realizing this, Aragorn carefully bent over the sleeping figure and placed a soft kiss on his forehead before literally running out of the room, out of the hallway, out of the hospital until he found himself in the field directly in front of King George VI hospital.

Once there, he looked up at the dark autumn sky that was lit only by the light of the half-moon. He was breathing hard and his face was wet. He reached up and stroked his cheek. Looking down, he saw that his fingertips were wet with tears that he didn't remember crying.

It was then, in that cold moonlight that his mind finally gave up its resistance to the truth. Falling onto his knees, he began to sob. Quietly at first, then with loud keening noises until they reached a crescendo that exploded into a single word.

"WHY?"

As always, not making money off of this. Prose is mine. Research has been done, but I stress I am not a doctor. I'm a teacher!! Special thanks to Celebrithil! (Gracias babe!) And the Usual Suspects! You know who You are!

Part 11-Ultra-Violet.

"When you're lover's in a dangerous time

sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime

but nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight

got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight" -Bruce Cockburn.

Legolas stared at himself in the mirror. He didn''t recognize himself at all. His face was thinner, and the skin looked terribly translucent. He could swear that he could see the veins under his skin if he stood a certain way under the light.

His eyes were shadowed and smudged, as if he had applied his make-up with a heavy hand and smeared it up. But he hadn''t worn any makeup since Boromir''s accident.

Nor had he combed his hair, he thought as he picked up a comb and began working it through his usually immaculate hair that had become, without his noticing, a rat''s nest that he would have a hell of a time getting the tangles out of.

Boromir''s health had been the only thing on his mind. Even though he went to school as always, and did everything he had done before, his thoughts were always occupied with his friend''s health.

It had been nearly two weeks since Boromir had been hit by the car and so far, nothing had changed. He still lay in the grips of the drugs and the uncertainty of paralysis. They had decreased the drugs that had rendered him comatose, but he was far from awake.

Even though they all visited him whenever they could, no one could wake him up. No matter how much they talked to him, played music to him, were with him, he lay with his eyes closed.

The doctors said it was normal and to give it time, but Legolas and Aragorn were scared that Boromir wasn''t going to ever regain consciousness. In the private shelter of their bed, in their empty house, Legolas and Aragorn held each other and wept as they wondered whether they would be able to go on if Boromir was snatched away from them. It seemed like the days were just crawling by and that with each day, he was slipping away from them even more.

So they waited. And hoped. And tried to hang onto life before they were swept away. Faramir had become their anchor during these weeks, keeping them afloat even though he too, was facing the same burdens as they were. He was strong enough for them and had had to become even more so when Legolas had begun to slip away himself.

Galadriel, noticing the elf''s remoteness and Aragorn''s hollow eyes and cheeks, had invited them to live in their home, where she could keep an eye on them and make sure that they weren''t going to waste away from grief as they waited for Boromir to get better. And that was why Legolas found himself standing in the Lothlorien''s bathroom, studying himself as he got ready to go to school.

After he was done his inventory, Legolas rubbed his eyes. He was so tired lately. Even though he tried to sleep, he just didn''t seem to get enough of it. It was a tremendous effort for him to even stay upright, never mind do anything else. Mr. Elrond and Mr. Haldir had twice caught him sleeping in class and even though he was trying his best, it just wasn''t enough. He was just beat.

Sighing deeply, he began his self-appointed task only to leave it just moments later as a wave of dizziness hit him. He swayed precariously on his feet, the comb falling from his nerveless fingers and making a clatter that sounded terribly loud in his ears and hurt his head.

A soft groan escaped his lips as another wave hit him, this one stronger than the last had been. Bracing himself against the counter, he managed to keep upright only for a few seconds before he collapsed completely on the cold bathroom floor.

~*~*~*~*~*

Aragorn shuffled miserably to the bathroom to get ready for yet another hopeless day. He didn''t know what he had learned the day before. Or the day before last. All he knew was that he went to school, sat through his classes, rushed home and went to the hospital to watch over Boromir.

He didn''t notice anything else. Not the strained way that Faramir was looking lately, or the way that Legolas had been slowly drifting away from everyone else and just wasting away in general. Nor did he notice that he was being carefully watched by Galadriel and Celeborn. He was so wrapped up in his own grief that everything was passing him by.

He knew that he was becoming terribly lethargic over everything, just like he had been when his mother had died, but he felt powerless to stop it. It was a monumental effort for him to actually open his eyes in the morning and drag his ass out of bed, never mind actually paying attention to his lessons and to the people that he lived with. Boromir had pretty much become the centre of his universe and now that he lay unconscious and in danger, Aragorn was close to losing himself in the process. He should have been worried over that prospect, but he was actually pretty calm about the whole deal. His life was ending and it was just okay. He''d pick it up later.

He was so down on everything that he didn''t notice his bro lying on the bathroom floor right away. In fact, he nearly tripped over him before he realized that Legolas was sprawled out on the floor, his face a greenish shade of white as he lay on the worn linoleum.

"Lee?" Aragorn whispered, his apathy gone as he knelt beside his brother. He placed a hand on his forehead and shuddered slightly at the heat of Legolas'' forehead.

He frowned at this. Elves never got sick. They could be slain and they could die of grief, but he knew that there was no way of them ever getting anything so mundane as a flu or a fever. But if that were true, then why did Lee''s skin feel as if he was burning from the inside out?

"Lee? Come on, Legolas. Open your eyes. Legolas?" His voice was shaking as his hands flew over the unconscious elf''s body in an effort to wake him up.

Biting his lip, he took the elf''s shoulders and shook them hard, making the elf''s head snap back and forth violently. But even that rough treatment failed to rouse the elf. Legolas was as out of it as Boromir was.

The idea of Legolas being as unattainable as Boromir made Aragorn''s already exhausted mind begin to crumble. Boromir''s accident had hit him extremely hard and he would have already given up trying to move through his days if it hadn''t been for the support that Legolas gave him. Even though Faramir was there, Legolas was his only comfort.

The elf had always been his comfort. When he found his mother lying dead in a bathtub full of bloody water, Legolas had been the one to calm him down from the shock. When he had to suffer through the horror that was the mass and funeral, Legolas had been there to guide him through the whole thing. When he had taken that little trip from the world and had ended up unaware of his surroundings for the whole summer, the elf had taken care of him. When his father had departed to be with his aunt in Spain, Legolas had been the one that had listened to his anguished shouts and ravings as well as wiped his tears away as he tried to understand why his father couldn''t bear the sight of him after his mother had died.

Seeing the only person that could ease his troubles on the floor and unresponsive like a corpse made Aragorn''s senses finally leave him. His mind had taken leave of his senses once again and was on its way to the darkest, coldest corner of his conscious. It was all hurting him too much. He had to do it unless he wanted to lose himself permanently.

He tried to fight it. He honestly did. That was why he held on to Legolas and pleaded with him to come back and stop him from going into that blue blankness again.

"Legolas, come on man! You gotta wake up!" Aragorn pleaded as he then gathered the elf up in his arms. "You gotta wake up man! Wake up! I can''t lose you too! Wake up! DAMMIT! WAKE UP!!"

The shouting was what led to Faramir and Galadriel rushing to the bathroom to find out why Aragorn was shouting after so many days of silence.

"What happened?" Galadriel asked as she carefully took Legolas from a weeping Aragorn and began to examine the insensate elf.

"He won''t wake up. He''s sick and he won''t wake up...he told me elves never get sick...but he won''t wake up...he won''t.." Aragorn babbled hysterically, his eyes wide and full of tears as he lay in Faramir''s arms, his body limp as his mind began to shut itself off from the outside world.

Faramir''s eyes widened at Aragorn''s words. He looked up at Galadriel and tried to ask her what was wrong with Legolas, but his throat had become so dry with anxiety that no words came out. He licked his lips and tried to speak, but again he was foiled by his own worry.

"He will be fine, Faramir." Galadriel soothed him once she had noticed his distress. "But I think that I will have to take him to the hospital just to make sure that I am not wrong in my assumptions."

She stood up and easily picked up the unconscious elf, much to Faramir''s surprise. Even though he knew that she wasn''t like a human woman, it still amazed him to see her do such things.

"What about Aragorn?" He finally managed to rasp out above Aragorn''s slightly incoherent babbling.

Galadriel frowned at the human. She didn''t want to admit it to herself, much less to Faramir, but she was afraid that he had cracked from the pressure of the events around him. If she guessed correctly, he had no idea as to where he was or who he was with. His eyes were a dark blue blank in his face and his mutterings had gone from English to the fractured Spanish that his mother had instilled in him long before she had shut herself off from him and committed suicide.

"Stay with him. He''s not...well." She said in a quiet voice tinged with sadness. She had suspected that Aragorn would break, but she hadn''t expected for the break to be so complete.

Faramir bit his lip at her orders. He wanted to follow them, but he also wanted to make sure that his lover was well and truly out of danger. Legolas'' ill health had been a topic of discussion amongst him and The Usual Suspects alongside his brother''s own and this new development made him wonder if Legolas was wasting away with grief over Boromir. Even though he didn''t want to entertain the thought, it often came unbidden to him late at night when he was lying in bed comforting Legolas and Aragorn.

What if Legolas was still in love with Boromir? What if, despite all the assurance that the elf had made to him, he burned for Boromir and only endured his touch only because he imagined it to be another''s? What if, despite the happiness that his brother had found with Aragorn, the elf was still hoping for another chance?

Faramir had tried to shut his eyes to these thoughts, since they seemed to be products of his own uneasiness at his brothers'' future. Although he was the most optimistic about Boromir''s health, he still couldn''t help but to think about the impact that his brother''s accident would have on his own future. If Boromir never woke up, he wondered whether he''d be able to stay strong enough for not just himself, but for Legolas, Aragorn, Merry, Pippin and even his parents. He also wondered whether he''d be brave enough to stand on his own two feet if Boromir wasn''t there for him. He had always run ahead, exploring all of the possibilities and chances that life had to offer, but he had done so knowing that if he looked back, his brother would be there waiting for him to return. Nothing had been done without that knowledge. That was the security his brother had offered.

And if Boromir did wake up, but was confined to a wheelchair, how would the dynamics of their relationship change? He never contemplated this possibility for long, since he firmly believed that Boromir *would* get better. There was no doubt in his mind that he would. The idea of having his tougher older brother weak and helpless was too much for him.

He refused to think about them. He had instead focused his energies on Legolas. But even though he had found comfort in the elf, the nagging doubts still plagued him. And having found him in Aragorn''s arms, made his stomach clench painfully as his subconscious taunted him, slapping him in the face with his own jealousy.

"Will he be that ill for you?" His mind jeered as he tried to comfort Aragorn, his eyes fixed on Galadriel as she pulled a blanket over Legolas and made her slow way to the door.

"Do you think he''ll be that miserable over you?" He shook his head at the voice. He knew that Legolas loved him. Knew it with all his heart.

"Shut up." He ordered the voice. There was no point in entertaining his jealous thoughts. They were all stressed out and there was no point in making himself overstressed and give in to his insecurities.

He looked down at Aragorn and nearly cried when he saw the empty look on the usually warm face of his brother''s boyfriend. Galadriel had been putting it mildly when she said that Aragorn wasn''t well. Aragorn was far from well. In fact, he was far from anywhere.

"Estel?" Aragorn''s eyes twitched, and the babbling stopped. Aragorn looked at him, and Faramir truly felt chills going down his spine. There was nothing there. Absolutely nothing. His eyes were so empty of anything that they looked like they were just glass marbles in his face.

Swallowing hard, he tried again, hoping that maybe he''d get a better reply this time around.

"Aragorn?" The blue eyes flickered briefly with something, but the face remained passive and calm.

"We need to get up, alright?" He asked as he disentangled himself from Aragorn and slowly got to his feet. Once he was on his feet, he then extended a hand to help Aragorn up.

Aragorn looked at the offered hand, then at Faramir for several moments before finally taking it and hauling himself to his feet.

"Come on." Faramir said in a low voice as he then placed his hand on Aragorn''s shoulder and gently led him back to the bed that they all shared ever since the accident.

Once there, Faramir pulled back the covers for Aragorn, who laid down like a sick and tired child and let the younger boy pull the blankets up to his chin and tuck him in.

He later wondered what possessed him to do what he did next. Maybe it was because Aragorn looked so lost and empty and hopeless. Or maybe it was because he ached so badly for him. He didn''t know which it was. But either way, he never figured out why he sat down on the bed beside the older teen and began to carefully stroke Aragorn''s hair in an effort to maybe soothe him enough to forget the pain he was in even if it was just for a little while.

He lost track of how long he sat there. His mind drifted off as he kept on moving his hand through the soft, wavy hair, making him lose track of time completely until Aragorn''s soft voice broke through the silence that had settled between them.

"Va a regressar?" Faramir blinked and jerked his mind from the pleasant fuzziness it had fallen into in order to understand what Aragorn was asking him.

He looked at Aragorn closely as he went back into his mind in order to grab the knowledge of his native dialect to answer the question that had been asked of him.

"Si. Va a regressar." He replied, his words halting and unsure as he spoke.

Aragorn nodded and closed his eyes before drifting off into a quiet sleep that managed to smooth away the careworn look of his features away.

"Va a regressar." Faramir whispered before planting a soft kiss on Aragorn''s forehead and leaving him to heal in the arms of sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Galadriel walked to the phone in the lobby of King George VI hospital, her face drawn into a look of worry as she did so. Even though Legolas seemed to be fine, she was still edgy over all of the boys.

If Faramir either got hurt or broke down emotionally, she knew that she was going to scream as long and as loud as she could. Honestly, she was. She was getting really, really pissed off at all the things that her family was getting hit with as well as her inability to actually do anything to help the situation along.

Rubbing her temples in an impatient gesture, she then spotted the phone, dug into her purse for some change and made several calls.

The first was made to her boss, the second to St. Ignatius to let them know that none of the boys were coming to school today, the third to Saruman, and the last to Celeborn to inform him of the latest occurrence that had struck them.

After doing that, she stopped at the small hospital store and bought some pop and candy for herself and Legolas once he came out of his stupor.

Having done that, she took the elevator to the floor that they had placed Legolas in and walked to his room, expecting to wait another hour for them to finish all the tests that they had to run on the poor kid in order to find out what exactly was wrong with him.

It was quite a surprise then, to find Legolas still asleep and a doctor sitting in the chair next to his bed with a folder on his lap as he shuffled different papers around, a small frown on his delicate Elvish features as he read the information contained there.

"Mrs. Lothlorien?" He inquired politely as he easily got to his feet and walked up to her.

"Yes," she answered as she entered the room and placed her purchases on the bedside table before facing the doctor.

The doctor was a dark wood-elf, which surprised her to no end, since they were even rarer than blond Sindarian elves and tended not to live in cities at all and tended to stick in rural areas most of the time. He had long, dark brown hair, dark green eyes and was as tall as Celeborn, but his features were more animal-like and he moved with a grace that reminded her of a large hunting cat.

"Hi. I''m Doctor Gwydion and I''m happy to say that we have gotten the test results on Mr. Mirkwood. Would you mind stepping outside with me for a bit?"

Galadriel nodded and they both left the room. Shutting the door behind them, she turned to the doctor with a raised brow.

"What is wrong with him?" She asked bluntly. She had dealt with doctors way too much lately and was really in no mood to get a large passel of medical bullshit and placating terms at this time.

Dr. Gwydion nodded and opened the folder that he had been reading when she had come in.

"First of all, do you know what kind of elf Legolas is?" Galadriel shook her head.

"No. And I don''t think that he knows either. He was left by his family when he was very young and lived in groups homes before he was taken in by Arathorn Strider."

"Ah. I see. Well. The reason why I asked has to do with his condition." He thumbed the papers before he looked at Galadriel.

"You see, Sindarian elves are the only race in which the female and the male can both conceive and have children and it looks like Legolas is a Sindarian elf."

Galadriel blinked at the doctor. "Legolas is pregnant then?"

The doctor nodded. "From the tests, we''d have to say that he''s about two weeks along right now. We think his collapsing today was a result of stress and improper nutrition. Has there been some traumatic event in his life recently?"

Galadriel smiled humourlessly at the doctor.

"You could say that. His best friend, my son, was struck by a car in a hit and run accident about two weeks ago and is still in the ICU."

The doctor grimaced. "Boromir Denethorson?" He asked softly. Galadriel nodded.

"Have they caught the persons yet?"

Galadriel shook her head. The doctor made a small noise in his throat and looked away from her briefly before he continued.

"Well...if you can, try and make sure that Legolas takes care of himself for the child''s sake. He seems to be fine now, but if he keeps this up, he may lose the child. He needs rest and to eat healthy as well as to take some vitamins. He also needs to avoid stress as much as possible. These next eleven months are going to be hard enough on his body and he needs to be well-prepared in order to deal with the physical stress this baby is going to put on him."

"I''ll do my best, but I can''t promise anything," Galadriel replied gravely, even though her mind was reeling with the information. So Legolas was pregnant. Celeborn had been right when he noticed that something wasn''t right with the young elf that night before Boromir''s accident. It seemed that her month was just getting better and better.

"I know that it is up to Mr. Mirkwood, but please make sure to tell him how important it is that he take care of himself. Especially if he wants to keep the child."

"I think he will listen, doctor. Legolas loves children. I doubt he would be so stubborn to endanger the life of his own child." Galadriel stated firmly.

Even though humans might see it as a necessary evil to get rid of an unwanted child, to an elf the idea was simply unthinkable. Even though the circumstances may not be right when a child was conceived, it was still treasured and cherished and brought into the world. Children were seen as gifts, even though they may not seem like that at the time, Galadriel thought wryly as she recalled her own daughter''s birth, which was at a time when things had looked darker than the midnight sky for her and Celeborn.

"I know. But it is still a possibility that it could happen," the doctor amended quietly.

They fell silent and stayed that way for several moments before Galadriel spoke up.

"Does he have to stay here any longer?"

Dr. Gwydion shook his head.

"He can leave as soon as he wakes up. We have no real reason to keep him here anymore. His tests show that despite the stress, he''s fairly healthy. There aren''t any complications with the pregnancy and I have already arranged for him to see an obstetrician in two weeks from now. The nurse at the desk will give you the information on your way out."

"Does he know?"

Again, Dr. Gwydion shook his head.

"He''s been drifting in and out of consciousness for a while, but he hasn''t really been aware of anything as far as I can tell. You may want to wait a while before breaking the news to him."

"Thank you doctor. I shall keep that in mind." She replied. Dr. Gwydion nodded and shut the folder before reaching out to shake Galadriel''s hand.

"It''s no problem at all. Just make sure that he takes care of himself. And now I must take my leave of you, Mrs. Lothlorien. Good-day to you and I hope that things get better for your family."

Galadriel shook his hand and smiled briefly at the doctor before he left.

She watched him until he disappeared round a corner before she finally ran her hands through her hair in frustration. That was the only gesture she would allow herself to make in such a public place. No matter how angry she was over the whole incident, no matter how much of lecture she wanted to give Faramir and Legolas, she wasn''t going to give in and make a fool out of herself. Besides, it wasn''t going to change anything even if she did. Sure, she would feel better, but Legolas would still be pregnant and Faramir was still going to be a dad at sixteen. Nothing would change.

"It''s going to be okay." She finally muttered before she went to the doorway and took a peek at the elf.

Legolas was, to her amusement, awake and tugging at his ear, a gesture she had seen her daughter, Celebrian, do whenever she was nervous when she had been very young.

"Lee?" The blonde elf looked up at her and blushed crimson in embarrassment at having been caught doing a very childish thing in order to assure himself that he was fine and not going off the deep-end due to all the shit that had recently happened.

In a way, he was happy that she had walked into the room. She would be able to explain why the hell he was here in the first place. One minute, he had been standing in the bathroom combing his hair, and the next he was lying in an uncomfortable hospital bed staring up at a flat white ceiling that for some reason was making him dizzy even though he was lying on his back at that time.

"Where the hell am I?" He asked as he picked at the light blanket that was covering his legs.

Galadriel sat down on the chair next to the bed and looked at Legolas carefully before speaking.

"You passed out on the bathroom floor. Aragorn found you and I brought you to King''s when you wouldn''t wake up."

Legolas frowned. "I don''t remember that." He stated quietly.

"Well, I wouldn''t expect you to, considering that you weren''t really there for most of the time that it took to bring you here and have you looked over by a doctor."

Legolas smiled briefly at that before he pushed the blanket away.

"So why did the doctors look me over? I am an elf, I don''t get sick." Legolas stated a bit testily as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and began to look for his shoes.

"No. You don''t. But you are a Sindarian elf who had unprotected sex with my son and is now pregnant."

To his credit, Legolas didn''t fall on his face after that cool and crisp matter-of-fact statement. He fell only to his knees and stared at the floor for several moments before he located his shoes and met Galadriel''s eyes.

He maintained eye contact with her even as he pulled on the battered sneakers and got shakily to his feet. He didn''t know what to say to this. He was just in shock, plain and simple. Even though his brain was telling him that it wasn''t possible, he can taste the flavour of truth in Galadriel''s words.

"I..I''m not a Sindarian." Is all that he can say as he looked at the female elf in front of him.

Galadriel shook her head as she moved towards him. She then knelt next to him and hugged him gently.

"Yes you are. The baby you are carrying is proof of that, Legolas. Only Sindarian males are able to have children."

Legolas paled at this information, making Galadriel wonder if he was going to pass out again.

"Didn''t you know? Didn''t your family tell you?" She asked, smoothing an errant strand of hair away from his face as she spoke. Legolas shook his head and curled himself up into a small ball.

"I don''t know. I wasn''t really visible to them. Father hated me. He blamed me for killing my mother. My brothers were never around and when they were, they used me as a pawn for their games against each other and my father. No one ever thought of treating me like a person, much less telling me something that important. And at the group home, I was just the elf. No one ever bothered to find out what the hell I was, since we all look the same to them."

He finished this bitter explanation with a forced laugh that quickly turned into a sob.

The sudden burst of information made Galadriel''s heart ache. Sure, she had known that Legolas had a hard time of it, considering that the first time she ever saw him he was being restrained by three group home workers while Boromir was having the same done to him as he shouted encouragement to his friend from the opposite corner of the room while two other boys lay unconscious on the floor of the common room. But she had never imagined that he had been so badly neglected by his family. To her, the idea of an elf being treated so badly was unthinkable. But it had happened and this poor child was proof of it.

"No one knew and I never bothered to find out. I guess I should have found out and let Faramir know before he became a daddy."

He wiped the tears that had spilled down his face before he looked around the room.

"Where''s Faramir?" He asked, finally noticing that his lover wasn''t anywhere around.

"He stayed at home, Legolas." Galadriel told him as she stood up and then helped him stand.

"Why?" The younger elf asked as he let her help him, even though he felt extremely capable of standing on his own. But he let her, since he needed the time to collect himself and to put his game face on again to deal with the world in general.

He hated to admit it, but he was terribly embarrassed over the break-down he just had. He had always prided himself on being so stoic and level-headed and to show such a weakness was a serious blow to his pride. And his pride was the only thing that he held close to his heart, since it was the only thing that he had left at that time.

Galadriel bit her lip as she debated whether she should tell him about Aragorn''s breakdown when he had been unconscious in the bathroom. She usually wasn''t so indecisive, but after seeing how the elf had reacted to being told he was pregnant made her rethink whether it would be a good thing to tell him or not. But then again, he considered the boy his brother and that alone made him have the right to know what exactly what had happened to the human.

"He stayed at home because Aragorn became hysterical when he found you. I felt it would be better if he remained at home with Faramir."

Legolas sighed and rubbed his eyes furiously before he looked at Galadriel with a weary statement on his face that made her wonder whether it had happened before.

"Is he going to be fine?" Galadriel asked him, her voice low. Legolas bit his lip.

"I don''t know. The last time he went blank like that was when his mother died and that lasted for several months. Luckily it was summer, so no one really found out what exactly happened to him."

"What about his father? Didn''t he notice that something was wrong with his son?"

Legolas snorted before he shook his head.

"No. He''s been in Spain ever since Aragorn''s mom died. He makes sure that we are both provided for and we don''t lack anything at all, but he refuses to be in the same country, never mind the same room as his son."

"Why doesn''t he want to be with his son?" Galadriel asked, as she dimly wondered whether her sons where just magnets for the emotionally battered and wounded.

"Because he reminds him of his dead wife." Legolas told her before he crossed his arms and looked away.

They remained silent, since Legolas was trying his best not to voice his anger towards the man that had saved him from a lifetime of group homes. Galadriel was silent since she was busy digesting the information she had been given for later contemplation and wasn''t really paying attention to the inner turmoil that Legolas was going through.

It wasn''t until she felt a faint touch on her arm that she pulled herself out of her thoughts. Looking down she saw Legolas was clutching the bag of junk food she had bought and was standing there, watching her carefully, as if he was wondering what she was going to do with the information that she had been given.

She hated that look. She had hated it when she had seen it on Boromir''s twelve year old face and she hated seeing it on the young elf''s face. It had cost him a lot to let her know all that information and by the looks of it, he regretted it and would fight back if he believed that it would be used against him. He didn''t trust her with it, that was plain to see. But then, she didn''t blame him.

"Let''s go home, Legolas." She said to him after the long silence. "There is no point in staying here any longer if we''re going to come back later on today to visit Boromir."

Legolas'' head jerked up at the name of his beloved best friend and the cold, calculating statement vanished from his face as the accident and the state of Boromir''s health flooded back to him full-force as if someone had poured a bucket of ice-cold water on him. Shuddering slightly, he looked at Galadriel with an statement of severe longing on his face.

"Can...can I see him? Before we go?" He asked as he tried to compose himself.

Even though he had a rough morning, he felt it wasn''t an excuse for him to be such a prat about everything that had happened. He had to push his feelings aside and deal with them later if he was going to be useful and fix Aragorn and also figure out exactly how he was going to actually break the news to Faramir that he was going to be a father whether he liked it or not.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was soothing, being in this place. It was warm and quiet and he felt secure. It was light here. He liked it very much, since it made him feel so good. He was safe here and the water that surrounded him was like a nice warm bath.

Maybe he should have been afraid of being in this place forever. After all, it was known, as the Sea of Night. But he wasn''t. He liked it there. There was no pain there. No harshness. Reality couldn''t touch him if he remained hidden there.

So he stayed. Even though he could hear voices calling him to come back, he remained there. He didn''t want to open his eyes and the longer he remained in the Sea of Night, the softer the voices and their pull on him became. They were getting so faint now that he was barely hearing them at all and when he did, they were nothing but soft murmurs that didn''t do much to disturb his sleep.

He had been lying in the sea, cradled in its warm waters when a voice interrupted him.

He wanted to go back and sink deeper into the sleep, but this voice was more powerful than the rest. It cut through the layers of unconsciousness and demanded his full attention. It was making the sea recede with every word that it spoke. Words that had been at first just garbled jumbles but were now becoming clearer as the speaker kept on talking.

"-Miss you. He needs for you to come back. I need for you to come back. You''re my best mate. I need you to help me. Please wake up, Boromir. Please."

He sat up in the Sea of Night and shivered violently when he found himself in the middle of a cold, dark-blue sea with no one around him. He wrapped his arms around his body as he then got up from the now icy water.

It sucked at his body, not wanting to give him up so easily, but he resisted its grip. He fought against it with all his strength, not letting it drag him down into the depths again until it finally gave him up like an unwanted piece of driftwood, signaling its defeat.

He had to go to back now. The grip of the sea upon him had been broken by the sound of that voice. He wasn''t welcome here any longer. He had to face reality now.

He heard the voice again and began to walk towards it, confident that he would find his way out of the Sea of Night. All he had to do was follow the voice and use it as a guide to finally arrive at that place and ignore the way the water lapped at his ankles and chilled him almost to his soul. He ignored the cold though, and kept on walking. He was getting closer...closer��

~*~*~*~*~*

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the dull, cheerless white of the ceiling above him that made him wince and wish, for a split second, to go back into that dream world he had just recently vacated.

The second thing he saw was Legolas looking down at him with tears running down his face as he smiled at him.

"Boromir! Oh Boromir!" The elf sounded like he was laughing and crying at the same time as he then bent down and kissed his forehead. "Boromir!"

He could hear noises in the room and tried to find out who or what was making them, but his neck was stiff and he was unable to move it. He then tried to locate the sources only by moving his eyes and found himself looking at a doctor and an utterly relieved Galadriel as they came up to his side and looked down at him.

He was puzzled when he saw the doctor and a nurse come in. What the hell had happened? He didn''t remember the reason why Legolas should be crying and why his mother looked like her prayers had been answered. Why was a doctor looking down at him? Why wasn''t he in his own bed?

He tried to open his mouth and ask all these questions, but he was prevented from even opening his mouth by something that was down his throat. He tried to swallow to removed it, but it just made his throat achy and itchy, so he stopped it immediately. What the hell was that thing?

He wanted it out. It hurt and he wanted to talk to his best mate and his mother. Acting on that impulse, he raised his hand and was about to pull it out when the nurse grabbed his hand and stopped him from doing just that.

"Don''t do that, Mr. Denethorson. I know that it isn''t the most comfortable thing in the world, but you had to have it in since your lung was punctured and you weren''t able to breathe properly."

Boromir rolled his eyes and tried to talk over the respirator again. He didn''t give a shit what the hell that thing was doing in his throat, he wanted it out NOW!

He saw the nurse and the doctor exchange glances over his reaction. He knew that he was being childish, but the respirator tube was really bugging him and he was also anxious to get some answers from his mom and Legolas.

Finally, the doctor nodded and the nurse moved away, leaving only the doctor in his view.

"Boromir? Hi, I''m Doctor Tyler and I have been taking care of you since you got here. The reason why you have that tube in your throat is to help you breathe, since you broke some ribs and one of them punctured your lung when you had the accident."

Boromir''s eyes widened at this. Accident? When did he have an accident? He didn''t remember that.

"I''m going to remove this tube from your throat now, since it seems that your lung and your ribs are healing nicely." The doctor said to him as he began peeling the tape from his mouth.

"So just relax. All I want you to do is blow as hard as you can when I pull it out, okay? Ready? One, two, three."

Boromir did as he was told and felt that he was going to cough himself to death. It hurt like a sonofabitch when the tube was finally pulled out and he managed to get some air into his lungs. His ribs felt like someone was kicking them in with every breath he took, but it felt better than having that tube in his throat.

"You did good, sweetheart." The nurse told him as she suddenly appeared and wiped the tears of pain and effort that had run down his cheeks unnoticed.

The doctor then smiled down at him, turned off the respirator and left the room.

After she was done, she carefully gave him some water to soothe his throat before he began to talk.

"What the fuck happened?" He asked in a slightly raspy voice, much to Legolas'' relief. The nurse just shook her head while Galadriel couldn''t help but to smile. Even though she didn''t approve of him swearing, she was glad to hear him speak again, even if it was to swear.

"You were in an accident, Boromir. A car hit you when you and Aragorn were playing with the hobbits." Legolas explained as he smoothed his friend''s hair back gently.

The nurse had, by that time, also left, taking Galadriel with her, presumably to discuss Boromir, leaving the boy and his friend to talk in relative privacy.

"I don''t remember that." Boromir told Legolas softly. "It''s a big blank. I just remember coming home with Aragorn and then waking up here."

His eyes then widened as he then began to look for Aragorn.

"He''s at home with your brother, we''re going to call them soon, okay? Don''t worry. It''s going to be all right." Legolas soothed him as he then took a hold of his hand and squeezed it firmly.

"He��he wasn''t hurt, was he?" Boromir asked Legolas worriedly. "Or the little ones?"

Legolas bit his lip to keep the tears from spilling over at his friend''s words. God! He couldn''t believe that even though he was lying there in a hospital bed, probably in pain and confused as to what was going on around him that he was more concerned over Aragorn and the hobbits rather than himself.

"No Sebastien. They are fine. Worried about you, but fine." Lee assured him as he squeezed his hand again.

Boromir smiled faintly. "How long have I been here that they would be so worried about me?"

"About two weeks now." Legolas replied.

"Damn! Poor Elrond. I guess he''s going to have Arwen be Rosalind now."

Legolas laughed at this. "He actually changed the play. He said that it would have only worked if you had been able to play the part."

"So what play is he putting on?" Boromir asked, yawning slightly. He was feeling tired despite just having woken up from the coma and even that small conversation was wearing him out.

He was also becoming more and more aware of the various aches and pains in his body as well as the weird numbness that seemed to lie heavily in his hips and legs.

"Macbeth. Aragorn got the part of Macduff. Danny got Macbeth and I''m doing Malcolm. Eowyn, strangely enough, got Lady Macbeth. Glor is doing Donalbain and Max got the gatekeeper."

"''Mmm. Cool. I hope that I get out of here soon so I can see it." Boromir replied sleepily.

Legolas laughed again and was about to reply when the doctor and a couple of nurses showed up.

"Sorry to interrupt you two, but we need to take some tests now that you''re awake. I promise that they won''t take long and we''ll have you back here in no time, okay?"

"Not like I have a choice." Boromir muttered, making Legolas snicker a bit as he was ushered out into the hallway, where a nurse then told him to go to the waiting room at the end of the ward.

He walked over to the lounge and flopped down onto one of the couches, not really sure what to do. There was a payphone directly across from him and that sight was enough to spark him into action.

Pulling out his trusty phone-card, he then proceeded to call Faramir, Aragorn and the Usual Suspects to let them know the good news.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Could I have a word with you?" Galadriel looked up from her rummaging around in her purse. She was standing by the payphone at the end of the corridor and was looking for change when she was interrupted by Dr. Tyler, who had just now returned from wherever they had taken her son for the tests that they had to run on him.

"Sure," she replied. Dr. Tyler smiled at her briefly before he led her into the empty staff lounge on the opposite end of the ward. Closing the door, he then sat down at the table and invited Galadriel to do the same.

"We just ran some of the tests that we had to delay due to the swelling in his spine."

Galadriel frowned at this. "What did you find?"

"No brain damage as we had earlier feared. Although Boromir has some memory loss, it isn''t unusual in this type of trauma. He seems to be aware of everything and is only mildly confused about the time loss, but since he was in a coma for nearly two weeks, that''s to be expected. He has a couple of fractures in the T10 and L1 area that we will operate on shortly. We will insert some pins to stabilize the break and it should be as good as new."

"What about the swelling in his spine?" Galadriel asked, fearing that something else was bound to come. A bad something else.

She knew she was right when the doctor ran a hand through his hair before he dropped the bomb.

"His spinal cord is still pretty swollen. We have been giving him anti-inflammatories to ease the swelling, but so far; we haven''t seen much progress. It may take weeks or even months to know if anything was affected or not."

"Won''t the swelling damage some nerves?" Galadriel asked him, her voice flat as she spoke.

"We hope that with the anti-inflammatories we have given him that it will stop that from happening. Also, we are just able to estimate the time frame that the swelling will go down in. Like I said before, it could only take weeks, or it could take months. We are, of course, hoping that it will be the former rather than the latter, since there will be less chance of damage."

"I see. But if there is damage? What will be the extent of it if that''s the case?"

"If there is severe damage, he will never walk again. If there is mild damage, at the most, he will have to deal with a limp."

"So we are just waiting on chance then?" Galadriel asked softly. The doctor nodded.

She sighed and rubbed her temples to stave off the headache that had been building up.

"I hate chance."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Faramir was a bit angry when the ringing of the phone woke him up from the nice nap he was having and was tempted to tell the other person on the line where in creation to go. The thought was banished when the torrent of words from an excited elf poured into his ear.

"-He woke up! He woke up! He woke up! You have to get over here right now!"

"Whoah! Lee! Slow down! Take a deep breath and tell me what you just said. Slowly and in English please," Faramir instructed his boyfriend as he sat up, careful not to disturb the other occupant of the bed and listened carefully to what the elf had to say.

"Boromir just woke up!" Lee nearly shouted into the phone. Faramir''s eyes popped open at this.

"What? Seriously?" He asked as he then reached over and shook Aragorn awake.

"Hngrhrgl. Whaat?" Aragorn asked, lazily batting Faramir''s hand away from his shoulder, a gesture that both annoyed and relieved Faramir to no end, since it meant that Aragorn''s brain hadn''t taken a permanent vacation from his body just yet as he had feared.

"Boromir just woke up!" Faramir shouted, knowing for sure that would get a reaction from Estel.

Sure enough, the brunette sat up, his eyes clear and lucid once again at hearing the news.

"Is that Lee?" He asked as he jumped out of bed and started pulling his t-shirt and shorts off and began looking for clean clothes to wear.

Faramir nodded and Aragorn paused briefly in his mad dash to dress himself to sigh in relief before asking whether the elf was okay, a message that was relayed by Faramir to the elf.

"Uh yeah. I''m fine. The doctor said it was because I haven''t been getting enough sleep and some shit like that. There''s more, but I can tell you that when you get here. How long is it going to take?"

Faramir looked down at himself. It would take him at least three minutes to dress. Aragorn seemed to be in control of his faculties and could drive as fast a bloody demon and not get caught, so it would probably only take about ten minutes or so to get to King''s.

"Ten minutes. Fifteen. We''ll be there soon." Faramir assured Legolas as he gave Aragorn the thumbs up sign, making the older human sigh in relief.

"Okay then. See you here. Love you both."

Faramir returned the greeting and hung up. He then proceeded to tear around the room pretty much in the same fashion as Aragorn had and got dressed under two minutes, beating his own record.

"You sure you can drive?" Faramir asked Aragorn as they bounded up the stairs and out the front door to Aragorn''s POS.

"Yeah. I''m cool." Aragorn replied before they jumped into the car. "I didn''t go that bad off the deep-end." He defended himself as they sped off to the hospital.

The statement was made in such a defensive manner that it made Faramir wonder whether Aragorn was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince him.

It was true that Aragorn was better than he had been in the morning. Hell, he was better than he had been for the past two weeks. But the fact was that Aragorn had broken down pretty severely and one just didn''t just snap out of it in one day.

Faramir wasn''t a psychologist, but he knew from experience that one just didn''t sink and suddenly be cool again just hours later. There was no freaking way that it could happen. If it did, it only meant one thing: There was more shit to come and when it did, it was not going to be pretty.

*The Spanish words roughly translate to "They are coming back?" in a question and answer form. Also, if anyone is confused about that, I did explain that for this story, Boromir and Faramir are French and Aragorn is half-Spanish. Provencal is a dialect that is fairly close to Spanish, so Faramir would understand it.*


Part 12-Acrobat

"And I must be an Acrobat,

to talk like this, and act like that

You know that tide is coming round.

So don't let the bastards grind you down."-U2

Legolas leaned against the window of Boromir's room as they all waited for Faramir to show up. He had taken off shortly after the different news had been given and he honestly didn't know when he would be composed enough to come back. Boromir himself was taking a nap, the tests and the emotional turmoil having tired him out more than he had cared to admit.

Aragorn was sitting in a chair beside the bed, his expression for the most part terribly blank. Legolas didn't like that blankness since he knew that Aragorn was silently berating himself for not being as strong as he imagined that he had to be. No one blamed him for falling apart, but he felt that he had failed Boromir badly and that no matter what others said, he had thoroughly let his boyfriend down.

And to make matters worse, Legolas strongly suspected that Boromir was feeling the exact same way towards Aragorn. Even though there was absolutely no logical reason for either of them to think that, they were. And it looked like it would be almost impossible to convince them of it otherwise.

Boromir hadn't said a word, but Legolas could see those exact thoughts going through the cool green depths of Boromir's eyes before they had been covered by the opaque shields that he would erect when he had to face the cruel world.

The elf sighed and shook his head. He didn't want to think about that. Nor did he want to think about the events that had led to Boromir thinking that. But they kept whirring in a loop in his mind, mixed up with the false hope that things could still be fixed between all four of them no matter what.

Legolas brushed the back of his hand over his eyes, which were now swollen and blood-shot over all the crying that he had done after the whole incident with Faramir. He had sobbed like a little kid . First in Aragorn's arms, then in Boromir's arms. Sobbed like he had never done before in his entire life and the pain was still as sharp and bitter as ever. It was almost too much for him, since he truly felt that it was the end between him and Faramir.

He sighed before walking over to Boromir's bed. Looking down at the sleeping human, he then smiled sadly as he then carefully sat down. Feeling a bit like a little kid in need of assurance, Legolas then lay beside Boromir and snuggled up close to him and wrapped his arms around him.

Strangely enough, Aragorn didn't react to him being so intimate with his boyfriend. All he did was look up briefly before sinking into his misery once again, making Legolas flinch in pain for his brother.

"Where did it all go wrong?" he whispered before he buried his face into his friend's chest and began to cry yet again as the day's events played through his mind again.

He had been, Legolas recalled, gone for about an hour. In that span of time, Aragorn and Faramir had arrived, interrupting the nice sleep he was having in the lounge and the hushed conversation Galadriel was having with Celeborn.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Where is he?" Aragorn had asked Legolas once Faramir had shaken him awake and engulfed him in a tight hug.

"Tests." Legolas had managed to wheeze out as his boyfriend and then his brother had taken turns squeezing him breathless.

"When will we get to see him?" Aragorn asked anxiously, making Legolas hope and pray that the morning's episode wouldn't spill over the hospital visit. Even though Boromir was tough, he still was very fragile and unable to take on anyone else's burdens in his state.

"Soon. They will call us when the tests are done. But there is something that I have to tell you before you see him."

Three heads swiveled to meet the shaky gaze of Galadriel, who had cut her conversation short and was standing uncertainly in the door-way of the visitor's lounge.

No one spoke for several moments, since they could sense the worry that was lying heavily on the elven woman's shoulders.

"What is it?" Faramir asked, his hand clasping Legolas' tightly as he tried to steel himself for the news he knew were going to be bad. Aragorn's face was blank, but his fingers were gripping the couch so tightly that they were leaving marks in the upholstery.

"The doctor told me that they just ran the tests on Boromir. He doesn't have any brain damage, luckily, but there are other things that are a problem."

Aragorn's right eye twitched at the word "problem." Legolas bit his lip and looked at Faramir, who was looking down at the scarred table in front of them.

"There's a break in his spine that they are going to fix as soon as possible. Probably in the next day or so. The problem is that his spinal cord is still swollen badly. They have been giving him medicine to make the swelling go down, but so far, it hasn't had much effect."

"So what does that mean?" Aragorn asked gruffly. Galadriel sighed heavily.

"He may be paralysed permanently if the swelling doesn't go down."

"Is that a sure thing?" Legolas asked as Faramir covered his hand with his mouth in shock.

"We don't know." Galadriel replied tiredly, rubbing her forehead in a gesture of exasperation.

"What do you mean that you don't know?" Aragorn asked quietly, his voice seemingly calm, yet failing to hide the dark swirl of emotions that he was unable to suppress over the news.

"Just that. We won't know until the swelling goes down. And that could take either weeks or months. Hopefully it will only take weeks. The longer it takes, the higher the chances of him being permanently paralysed. But right now, the doctors simply can't be sure of what will happen. Right now, it's a matter of chance."

Aragorn bit his lip as he then clenched his fists as a hot rage flooded over him. It wasn't fair. It simply wasn't fair. Why the hell did it have to be Boromir that had gotten hit by the car? Why? It just wasn't fair! It wasn't fair that he was now going to be condemned to a wheel-chair for the rest of his life because of some stupid loser who shouldn't have been driving in the first place!

First his mother was taken away from him, then Boromir was crippled then Legolas fell ill. He looked at Faramir and wondered caustically whether the poor boy would also be the victim of some horrible event soon. The way things were turning out, it seemed that he was just nothing but bad-luck all around. And it seemed that his mother and Boromir had suffered the brunt of it.

He really wanted to stand up and shout and scream and tear his hair and maybe go as mad as he had done at his mother's funeral and this morning. But he knew that it wouldn't fix anything. In fact, it probably would make everything worse. All that yelling would do would be to make him go hoarse and make Boromir worry even more, something that he didn't want to subject him to no matter what.

So he remained icily quiet while tearing holes in the cheap upholstery of the waiting room couch until it would be time to see Boromir again.

"Shit." Faramir's said, his voice flat as he took of his ubiquitous baseball cap and ran his fingers through the messy blonde silk that was his hair. He sighed before he replaced the green cap on his head and looked at his mother. "Does he know?"

Galadriel shook her head before closing her eyes and pressing her fingers against her eyelids.

"I haven't spoken to him at all since he awoke. Dr. Tyler told me after they wheeled him off for all the tests that they had to run on him." Galadriel replied.

Faramir nodded and was about to say something else when the doctor himself walked into the room.

Casting a look at them, he suspected that they knew about Boromir's condition due to the distressed and depressed looks on the faces of the three boys. Sighing, he then sat down on an unoccupied chair before he began to talk.

"I don't think I need to give you the back-ground, since your mother, I assume, has just given it to you."

"How is he?" Legolas whispered as he rubbed his forehead. There was a pressure building up behind his eyes that signaled he was going to cry soon, but he didn't give in to the urge just yet. He had to be strong for his friend right now and crying wasn't going to achieve anything except to make Boromir more upset when he finally saw him again.

"Pissed. Your friend really doesn't like needles." The doctor replied as he arranged all of the papers on Boromir's medical file.

The small joke, no matter how stupid it was, helped to ease the tension in the room enough to make them all relax a bit.

"But apart from that he is fine. I don't know how exactly he is going to be afterwards though."

He sighed and flipped a couple more pages in the manila file. This was one of the parts of the job that he really hated from his other wise fulfilling career. The telling of bad news.

"Are you going to tell him?" Legolas suddenly spoke up, his voice a hushed whisper.

"Yes. Boromir is my patient after all." The doctor replied wryly. Legolas nodded slowly.

"I understand that. But Boromir is my best friend. I think that with news like those, he should have someone he knows and trusts telling them to him rather than a total stranger."

"Are you sure, Legolas?" Galadriel asked, her voice strained as she spoke.

Legolas nodded without hesitation. "I am probably the best choice in telling him"

He then cast a look of apology to Aragorn and Faramir, who scarcely noticed it since they were so wrapped up in their thoughts and barely paying attention to anything around them.

He was the only one to do it. Boromir was, in a way, his other half. He loved him deeply and would do anything for him. This love, as well as a mild feeling of possessiveness over him that had stemmed from the fact that Boromir had woken up only after he had called to him made Legolas' decision to be the one to deliver the bad news to him.

"I understand that, but you have to take care of yourself now." Galadriel admonished him quietly.

Legolas bristled slightly as he then put a hand protectively over his belly.

"I'm sure it will be fine, Galadriel. I don't think that the news will have such an impact on my baby!" Legolas told her frostily, so indignant at being treated like what he perceived to be as an invalid that he didn't notice his blunder until he heard Faramir's squeak of shock layered over Aragorn's squawk of surprise.

Realizing what he had just said, Legolas cringed when he then turned to look at a white-faced Faramir and an open-mouthed Aragorn.

"Eh...Surprise?"

Legolas only winced at this. That was probably the dumbest thing that could have ever come out of his mouth at such a critical time. Boromir had been right that time when they got busted for painting graffiti on the walls of St. Kilda. He really didn't do well under pressure. He usually caved in to it fairly quickly.

Faramir only looked at him. "Surprise?"

Legolas nodded, his mouth having gone too dry for him to be able to say anything else for the time being. Faramir just looked at him and shook his head, his eyes glinting brightly in what Legolas knew was the beginning of deep anger.

"When were you planning to let me know?" Faramir asked, his voice cold as he spoke.

Legolas flushed and looked down at his ragged fingernails.

"Soon." The elf replied quietly. "At a better time than this."

Faramir shook his head. "How could there be a better time? You're knocked up for Christ's sake! When would it have been a good time? When the kid was born?"

Legolas bit his lip, but didn't give into the urge to cry that had risen at Faramir's words.

"Maybe after your brother was told about his health." Legolas responded sharply.

"This is a small issue compared to what Boromir is facing right now, Faramir."

"And letting me know I'm going to be a father isn't?" Faramir asked as he angrily stood up from his chair. Aragorn perceived his movements as a threat and put his hand on the younger boy's arm in a warning.

"It is important. But not when we have to let Boromir know what is wrong with him! We have to help him cope and this issue isn't going to help matters any!"

"You should have thought of that before hand!" Faramir countered angrily. "Just like you should have thought of using birth control if you knew this could happen!"

He shook his head before looking at the elf with slitted green eyes.

"Or is it even mine at all?" He asked, his words calculated to be cruel and hurt the elf.

"Faramir!" Galadriel spoke his name sharply, her eyes dark with anger as she rebuked her son.

"This isn't the time or place to have this argument. Nor is it right for you to say that." Galadriel spoke quietly.

But Faramir was too angry and too afraid to take heed of the warning note in her voice. He was scared. Scared for his brother, scared for himself and Legolas. The idea of him being a father at seventeen was just too fucked for him to actually contemplate. He knew that he was hurting his lover, but his fear was the one in charge of things at that moment and the repercussions of his words weren't the foremost thing on his mind at that point.

Legolas turned his head away and let his hair brush over his face. He wasn't going to cry! He wasn't going to cry!

"It is yours and I didn't know it could happen to me!" Legolas replied, his words flat.

"Whatever." Faramir said before he shook of Aragorn's hand.

"Talk to him. Tell him the news like the good friend that you supposedly are. I don't care. I'm leaving."

Legolas was stunned at the harsh words that were pouring out of his sweet lover's mouth. How could he say such things? Or leave like that? Especially when his brother needed him!

"You can't leave your brother!" Legolas exclaimed as he watched Faramir walk out the door.

Faramir paused in his movements though, when he heard those words.

He wanted to say that Boromir would understand, but he couldn't say that since he knew that he would be lying if he did. He knew his brother. No matter whether he was all the family he had, running out on him would constitute the worst kind of betrayal. A betrayal that would never be forgiven for as long as either of them lived.

So even though he wished that he were somewhere else, he forced himself to turn around and head back into the room and sit down in his chair again.

Galadriel frowned at him and looked at Legolas, who was still hiding behind his hair. Aragorn had moved next to the elf and was now rubbing his back to comfort him. But that stopped quickly when Legolas raised his hand and made Aragorn stop before he raised his head and looked at Dr. Tyler who had diplomatically immersed himself in his files as the argument had raged on before him.

"May we seen him now?" Legolas asked, his voice steady as he spoke, as if the whole scene hadn't taken place at all.

The doctor looked up at him with a critical eye. Despite all that had happened, Legolas was still fairly composed. And fairly determined to be the one to support his friend whether anyone wanted him to or not.

There was really no point in delaying it any further. He might as well let him go and see Boromir rather than keep him here and keep the stalemate going that may or may not erupt into yet another fight between the edgy young men and older elf.

Standing up, Dr. Tyler gathered up his files and nodded at Legolas.

"Yes. There is no point in delaying the inevitable. Just let me go check whether he has returned to his room yet."

Legolas nodded and watched him leave. He didn't dare look at Faramir or at a sympathetic Aragorn lest he burst into tears and break the false calmness that he was cultivating for his best friend's sake.

But he let Aragorn put a hand on his shoulder, since he knew that by the way that Aragorn's fingers were twitching that he needed to give the tactile comfort even though he suspected that Legolas didn't want to receive it. Aragorn was still pretty dazed, he reasoned, so it would only be unfair to push him away just because he was feeling insecure and edgy.

Faramir noticed Aragorn's actions but he didn't react. He didn't grudge him the comfort he sought. Nor did he grudge him touching Legolas in such a way. He hated to admit it, but as he had sat stewing in his own rancor, he had realized that he had irrevocably fucked up.

What he had said in heated anger, as he played it back in his head, showed him that he had been one thoughtless prick. He could justify it by telling himself he had been striking blindly. But it was a hollow lie that he could break by calling up the image of brown eyes shattering into a million pieces. He had broken Legolas' heart. That look was all the proof he required to know that he had just thrown away the most precious thing in his life. And he knew that there was no way that they would be able to be in love again. He had broken the bond with his carelessness and cruelty. Cruelty that could maybe even spell the end of the elf's days.

He closed his eyes. It was becoming painful to think about it. He wanted to say he was sorry, to make things like they used to be, but it was useless to even try. It was gone. There was no hope. Legolas wasn't his anymore.

Galadriel's hands clenched into fists as she watched them. The pain that was emanating from all three of them was so strong that it was close to knocking her down on her knees. And the worst thing was that there was precious little that she could do at this stage. She had to wait for them to come to her rather than for her to reach out and help them.

She held back because she knew as if she had seen it so clearly in her bowl of water, if she touched any of that fabric, it would more than likely cause more damage than help. The pain that they were living through was in a way, a necessary evil for them to endure. She couldn't see how far and how beneficial it would be for them, but she knew in a far way that it had to be borne.

And so she watched and waited as they gathered the pieces that had broken out of the glass pattern of their lives. Watched and waited even though the maternal part of her wanted so much to take them and ease the hurt from them. A part of her that she ruthlessly pushed down until it was needed.

Sighing slightly, she then looked into the purse she held. The crumpled piece of paper containing Celebrian's phone number sitting on the top of her wallet reminded her that she still had to call Celebrethil and Celeborn. She sighed when she looked at the paper. Yet another task. A task that she really didn't want to undertake at this particular time. But it had to be done.

Closing her purse, she was about to move towards the payphone when Dr. Tyler came back into the waiting room.

Noticing him, Legolas stood up before any of the other guys, who followed suit immediately after.

"You can go see him now." The doctor looked like he wanted to say more, but the look on Legolas' face stopped him from doing that. He figured that the poor boy had gone through too many things in that particular day to want to be reminded of limits that really didn't matter in the end anyway.

Legolas dipped his head in thanks and went down to Boromir's room with Faramir on his left and Aragorn on his right. Neither of them spoke as they stopped in front of the room.

"Do you want me to go alone?" Legolas asked softly, looking straight ahead inside the room, his gaze fixed on Boromir, who was lying with his eyes closed.

"No." Faramir replied flatly. "It isn't fair for you to shoulder our burdens by yourself."

"He's right." Aragorn agreed, his voice hardly anything more than a slight whisper.

Legolas nodded, too tired to argue any more and entered the room as Faramir and Aragorn followed closely behind him as if they were afraid that they might lose him if they didn't.

They moved as one to the bed, in fluid, calculated movements as they got closer to the person that they felt was keeping them tied together at that particular time.

"I don't want to wake him." Faramir thought as he looked down at his brother.

He hadn't really looked at Boromir in a long time, he realized as he took in the small details of the face. The golden toned skin, now a little pale from being ill. The soft and generous mouth. The delicate lidded eyes and long, long brown lashes resting like half-moons on his cheekbones.

Seeing the small details triggered memories of running beside his brother on a football pitch, with his hair whipping wildly back and forth, fighting to escape the low ponytail that he kept it in like his favourite football player, Emmanuel Petit. The way he would laugh as he ran, lightly and free without any of the cynical undertone that his laughter had ever since he could remember.

Fate had been vicious. Faramir decided. To have taken one of the only things that let him forget all that he had faced, all the burdens that he carried was terribly unjust and truly cruel. There was no other way for him to see it. As far as he was concerned, his brother's life was over.

"I want him to stay asleep. To keep on dreaming rather than have to face this bitter reality."

He thought as he reached out and ran his thumb lightly over Boromir's eyelids.

It was futile gesture though and he knew it. He was as useless as he had been as a child, watching his brother take the blows meant for him, watching as Boromir tried to make their lives better even though things were looking bleaker and bleaker as the days passed.

"I'm sorry." He finally said, just as his brother opened his eyes and looked at them.

"I'm sorry." He repeated before he bounded out of the room, tears streaming down his face as he ran.

"Faramir!" He heard his brother call for him. Then Legolas and Aragorn, but he couldn't go back. Not yet anyways. He just couldn't go back.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Boromir watched his brother leave the room before he turned his gaze on Aragorn and Legolas, who were looking at him, their expressions unhappy as they shifted their weight from foot to foot.

"I take it that you are here to deliver the bad news." He said in a calm voice as he turned his head towards them.

Legolas and Aragorn looked at each other and swallowed thickly before turning back to look at Boromir, who was regarding them calmly.

"How bad is it?" He asked as he massaged his sore neck.

There was silence for a few moments, since neither Legolas nor Aragorn were willing to take the opening that Boromir was handing them. Even though it was a nice gesture, neither was willing to open their hands and grasp it, since in their own way, it seemed that if they did, they would be driving the knife deep into Boromir's soul. And neither wanted to be responsible for killing that light in his soul by uttering the unspoken truth that hung in the air.

The silence stretched out before them, endless, taut like a violin string ready to break under the pressure. Legolas saw this and realized that for every moment that they stayed in this bitter stalemate, the harsher and nastier the aftermath would be once the words were spoken. He looked at Aragorn and saw that the same knowledge was stored in the deep blue eyes. The same knowledge, but a different pain was there in his eyes. The pain of knowing that he wasn't strong enough to do it himself.

The pain of knowing that he was too weak to raise the knife and kill his lover. Legolas saw all of this in a flash before the blue eyes went blank and he understood. He didn't blame him for feeling that way. He knew that Estel still blamed himself for his mother's death and always felt that he had forced her to kill herself.

He saw all of this and understood why he wouldn't speak. Why the burden would be his to carry. He was the one that had to take care of them right now. He was the one that was going to take the knife and sink it deep into Boromir. He had known it all along that he would be the executioner.

It was his role and he didn't really embrace it, it had fallen upon him to carry it out.

"They don't know if you're going to walk again." Legolas told him, his voice its normal cool tone.

Boromir nodded as he buried his hand in his hair and dragged his fingers through the long greasy mess it had become.

"I sort of figured." He replied before he let his hand fall back onto the bed. He turned his head and looked out the window, which was letting the sun stream into the room, a touch that he felt was terribly ironic at this time.

He closed his eyes to shut out the cheery sunlight. He didn't want to face that right now. He wanted to fall apart and cry and cry until there weren't any tears left in his body. He wanted to rage and to scream at the fate that had bound him to a life of helplessness and dependence. He wanted to curse everything and everyone and make them feel as hateful and wasted as he did.

He wanted for everything to weep and bleed alongside him. He wanted them all to feel as shitty as he did right about then. Just like he wanted for the sky to turn the darkest grey imaginable and start to pour a typhoon all over Edmonton.

He grabbed the blankets on his bed and bunched them under his hands to ease the anger and pain that he was feeling. But that was the extent of him giving in to his emotions. He knew, in that rational part of his mind, that his emotions were utterly childish. There would be no point in him bawling and crying out to an uncaring universe. He had learned that lesson earlier when he had found himself and Faramir on the streets when he was nine and his brother seven

No one cared that they had nowhere to go. No one gave a damn that they were homeless and lost. Nor did the world stop for them. They just had to pick themselves up and move on whether they had wanted to or not. Crying, even though it had been a release of sorts, had done fuck all for him before.

So he didn't indulge in it. Not then. Not when that fucker Casey was tearing him apart while laughing in his face, not when Legolas was torn away from him that first time. And certainly not now.

Even if it killed him, he wasn't going to give in and cry. He wasn't. He wouldn't.

So he opened his eyes and looked at them. Steadily. Calmly.

"It'll be okay." He tells them, his eyes boring into theirs, daring them to say otherwise, willing them to believe that it will be. It has to be.

Aragorn is the first to break his gaze. But he doesn't leave like Boromir expected him to. Instead, he just comes closer to the bed and fall down on his knees. He clutches Boromir's hand and begins to cry at the words. He knows that they aren't true. Nor does he believe them.

Legolas nods, but he doesn't believe him either. He knows that. Just like Boromir knows that something has happened between him and his brother.

"It'll be okay." Legolas whispers before he falls beside his brother and holds him as they cry together into each other's shoulders.

This is the first time that they have ever lied to each other. But none of them will admit that they have.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"It'll be allright." Galadriel says as she rocks him back and forth as she tried to comfort his troubled mind.

"I didn't mean it...I didn't mean it.." Faramir tells her as he clutches at her arms, which are holding him securely while she rocks him.

"I know. I know." She tells him as she lays her cheek upon his head. "He knows."

"Will it get better though?" Faramir asks, his voice clogged with tears and despair. "Will it?"

Galadriel sighed. She couldn't tell him that it would be because she didn't know. Her bowl of water had been murky at this point. All she could tell him for sure was that she hoped they would be, but she could be wrong.

"What answer would you like to hear?" She asked him quietly.

"That things won't hurt like this anymore."

As always, I don't own anything but the prose. Huge Apologies for such a late part, things were sticky.

Special shout out to Celebrethil (Te amo, my corazon.) Akin, Alex, Beryl, NadjaLee, Bex, Liz, Beth and the Usual Suspects that I may have missed here. Thanks!

Part 13-Tuonela

"Upon a crust of snow

I'll lay my broken frame

What steel and iron won't take

I'll give in winter's name

No good a sullen soul no use a simple knave

No groom for brides of plaited hair

This man old and lame." Amorphis

"So nothing is changing at all," Aragorn stated as he sat leaning against his locker, a Sharpe novel in his hands as he and Legolas waited through an unintended spare. Mr. Tsukiyono had been called away on urgent family matters and had let them go, since that was the last block before dismissal that day.

So while they waited for Faramir, the twins, Sam and Glor, they sat at their lockers and alternatively brooded and read the cheap paperback to each other.

Legolas frowned as he grabbed the book and smoothed the rumpled cover, his hand resting lingeringly on the photo of the Sharpe actor that he secretly thought looked like Boromir.

He had told Boromir that when he had been really high on cheap weed and feeling sort of romantic back in grade ten. He didn't know if Boromir still recalled that dusky and hot night, nor if he recalled the comment. But he did.

Looking up from the book, he caught Aragorn''s penetrating gaze and sighed irritably. It looked like Aragorn was in the mood to play psychiatrist and confessor today and he really wasn't in the mood for it. The whole thing was so raw and tentative that he knew that if he did, he''d probably start bawling right then and there.

He knew what Aragorn was getting at, but he really didn't feel like talking about it, since it was like a thorn in his heart that pained him horribly when he thought about Faramir.

Two weeks and nothing had happened between the elf and Boromir''s brother. They lived in the same house, but they might as well have lived in different continents, if Faramir''s behaviour was any indication.

Oh sure, he was as loving and polite as could be to Legolas. But it was the kind of politeness that could have been extended to just anyone off the street. Cold and perfectly extended, it made Legolas shudder with suppressed rage and tears.

Had he meant so little to the boy that he was being tossed away like a doll that has worn out its usefulness? Did the prospect of having a child so abhorrent to him?

Even though Faramir was the most important thing in his life, there was no way that he''d destroy or give up the child that he was carrying.

It was a part of him that he knew he wouldn't be able to harm no matter what. His child. He knew that it would be terribly hard to raise a child by himself and especially when he was still finishing high-school, but he was willing to do it. No one was going to tear him from his child.

Not even Faramir. Not even if it meant losing him.

He bit his lip and looked down at the cover of the novel again. Sharpe still looked up at him from the book, clad in his green uniform holding his beloved rifle.

''Boromir wouldn't have asked you to give up the child if it had been his,'' he thought as he noticed the forest green of the uniform jacket, the blonde hair and the stern look on the actor''s face.

The minute that he thought it, he tried to quickly push it away. He felt guilty having even thought it, since he was still in love with Faramir and Boromir was with Aragorn still.

But it was still there. A hidden desire brought to light as he looked at the actor''s picture. He shook his head and looked up at Aragorn to see if his thoughts had somehow been flittering all over his face.

But Aragorn wasn't even looking at him. He was staring off in space, leaving Legolas to breathe a sigh of relief as he began flipping the dog-eared pages of the book.

''What the hell?'' he asked himself, feeling slightly uneasy as he half-read the words on the pages he was flipping.

He bit his lip harder. He wasn't falling for him. He wasn't! Even though Boromir was providing him a shoulder to cry on, a pillar of strength to hold onto when he was feeling overwhelmed; he*wasn't* falling for Sebastien. Nope. Nu-uh. There was no freaking way that he was...

Even though he did have really nice green eyes and he let him wash and braid his hair and cuddle up to him when he was feeling a bit down...

Shit. He had fallen for him again.

He sighed. Why was everything so fucken complicated for them? Why?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mid-December...

Psychiatrists mean well. Really. I think they do.

But in my case, I really don't see the point. I'm fine. I think. I don't really see the need to spill my guts to a total stranger regarding my state of mind.

Nor do I want to. Whatever I'm feeling right now, it's my business, thanks.

No one at this freaking place understands the need to keep things to yourself. If you do, No one is going to hurt you with that information that they have gotten their hands on.

I think that is why I'm actually starting to write in this journal. At least a book can''t blab its owner's secrets, thank god.

I don't think I have ever been one to brood over myself. Nor, do I think, have been one for a lot of heavy-duty self introspection.

So the idea of me writing a journal seems terribly out of character for me. But the psychiatrist they assigned to me has decided that it would be a good way to get everything in perspective. A way to look at all that has happened in the last few weeks and to somewhat make sense out of the events and my feelings about them.

Hmm. How do I start? It's not easy to put down all the things that are swirling around like mad demons in my head at any given time. If I try to grasp one, the other seems to bleed into it until I am so confused I don''t know whether I was thinking about school, Estel, Legolas, Faramir or myself.

The Psychiatrist just tells me to try. Write anything that comes to you, she says. Okay. Fine.

It's not like I''m going to let anyone else read this.

I'm scared. I'm sad. I'm bored. I'm angry and I'm worried. I hate this fucken place.

Fuck. That was so stupid.

Later that day...

I spent most of my day in the stupid lounge, rotting my brain with staring out the window and having smoke after smoke with the other bitter residents of this facility.

I swear. When I finally get out of rehab, I'm never touching another cigarette. Being here had completely taken the amusement out of smoking. It's like a fucken occupation here. You smoke cause it''s the only way to actually get out and have some fresh air without a nurse breathing down your fucken neck about staying out.

Yeah. Like exactly what am I going to do here? Run away? Ha ha. Bad joke.

Yeah. I'm still relying on a wheelchair. My legs aren't broken anymore, but they're useless all the same. Guess I''m a cripple now. I can somewhat feel some stuff, But I can''t even move them an inch.

The doctor says it''s a good sign, but I am just tempted to tell him to shove his clipboard up his ass and stop poking me all the damned time.

Shit. I can''t believe I actually wrote that down.

The cripple part.

Thursday..

They say the first step to facing something is to admit it. Heh. Did that.

So it looks like I''m not going to be walking for a long time now. If ever. So what happens now?

That's the part that freaks me out. I''m defenceless now. No way to escape things anymore. Not to mention the fact that I have to rely on everyone for a lot of things now. So much for being independent.

Goodbye Scholarship. Goodbye English league. Goodbye life.

Goodbye Aragorn.

Saturday

I think the more that I am in this place, the more I sound like a pathetic whiner. It''s starting to disgust me. Even though I may have the right to bitch, it''s getting aggravating to be doing it this much.

I guess I'm slowly losing it. The loneliness and the hospital atmosphere of this place is killing me here. The empty walls and the ennui�� I want to go home at least!

If I can't be like I was before, than that's all I ask. I miss my room. I miss mom. Dad. Lee. My brother, (Even though I feel like kicking his narrow ass) Lembas. The Chibis. And Aragorn.

God. I miss him. More than anything else. I miss him.

Things are all so fucked up now. I don't know what to want or need. I don't know what to think.

We''re growing apart. I didn't want to see it. But the cracks are showing very plainly now. He''s drifting away from me. Or maybe I'm drifting away from him and there is a dreaded thought that keeps coming back assuring me it''s going to be the end soon.

Monday

It seems that I am assured to be the fate's punching bag for the rest of my life.

Not only is my relationship with Aragorn falling apart, I am totally indifferent to it.

In fact, I'm glad that we are slowly heading towards that great conclusion.

He won''t have to put up with a frigid cripple like me any longer and I won''t have to make his life miserable any longer.

He might say that he will stand by me. That he will share all that's going to happen because of the accident.

He might be able to do it right now, but how bout ten years of it? Twenty? How bout a *freaking* lifetime?

I love him. But he isn''t that strong. He is tough. I could gather that from what Legolas told me about his home-life and the whole thing with his parents.

But he isn''t that tough to have to deal with all the shit that being with a cripple entails. He''d break and I don't want to be responsible when and if that happens.

I won't! I won't have him destroy himself over me! I can't have it! I won't!

And I'm not strong enough to carry both his baggage and mine.

And I hate to admit this, but Legolas is also playing a part in the decision.

I'll never betray Aragorn.

Never.

Shit! How the hell did it happen again?

Wednesday

So why am I falling for Legolas again? I don't understand it.

The first time, I think it was an awakening for both of us. A chance to explore in a safe setting if you will. It turned into something afterwards.

Then Casey came along and calmly and systematically destroyed me. I know that if it hadn't been for the stomach turning nightmares and the memory of having Casey's dick shoved down my throat until I threw up cum, and the pain and blood mixed with cum down the backs of my thighs plaguing me every night; we could have maybe had a fighting chance to stay together.

Just maybe. I really can't be optimistic when I am jsut trying to be objective about it.

argrhegdshgr. I don't want to think about that. But I guess the vitriol in my mind demanded that be written.

Yeah. I guess that can kind of put a fucken crimp in your love life. Well, exactly how can you have a love-life if you''re cringing from your lover's touch? Or you keep the room dark cause you think the darkness hides you better in case he wants to attack?

Yeah. To say that I was disturbed was to put it mildly. I guess also that trying to kill yourself the night after you consummate a relationship is also bad manners, right?

Yeah. Well, suffice to say that things went downhill from there. We broke up and I was alone for a long time.

And now that I look back on it, I regretted not ever working stuff out between us.

See, when I see the way we used to be, I feel bad. Namely because it feels like we were just together because we were afraid to be apart.

I know that at the beginning we meant something to each other. I know that we could have been different people if we had clung onto each other tighter.

But afterwards, when things were over, it just seemed like we were together simply because we were too scared not to be alone without each other.

And that makes me wonder. Are we falling for each other in order to comfort each other? Or are we doing it because we are seeing something else that we missed before?

Is it because we can comfort each other better than anyone else could do it?

Are we stronger together than we are apart?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Legolas stared out the window, his pen tapping his notebook as he tried to organize his thoughts and actually get some work done on the mini-essay that Elrond had assigned them.

Even though it was due next week, Legolas had no fucken clue what to write about. Sighing in frustration, he looked over the topic sheet once again.

He had been having trouble concentrating on his assignments ever since he had come to the realization that he was in love with Boromir yet again. He had tried to ignore his emotions and be nothing more than a supportive friend to him, but the more time he spent with his friend, the harder it was for him to tell his heart to shut up. Just like it was getting harder to stop the memories of stolen kisses and hands roaming over his body under the cover of trees in a breezy summer night.

"Think of the topic. Think of the topic," he fervently told himself as he forced his mind to focus on the stark black writing in front of him rather than think about haunting green eyes and kisses tasting like sweet limes on a hot summer''s day.

But try as he may, he was stuck. None of the topics appealed to him and he nearly wept in frustration at the writer''s block that was pressing down on him. He never had experienced this problem before and it was driving him nuts.

It was bad enough that he had to worry about his emotions, but having the extra burden of worrying about school work made it even more intolerable.

He was tempted to let it all go to hell, at least until his emotions were more stable and Boromir was better, but the minute that he thought that, he knew that it was nothing more than a cop-out on his part. He couldn't use that as an excuse for not doing his work. Besides, he knew that if he didn't do the work, he''d regret it later.

Rubbing his eyes, Legolas then looked at the sheet again. Then looked at the clock in the library.

Plenty of time before Estel and Galadriel expected him home. And he was sure that Boromir wouldn't mind the company. Although he might be a bit ticked that he skipped out of most of his classes that day.

Deciding on his course of action, he packed up his stuff, gathered up his jacket (on loan from Boromir) and literally ran out of the library.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

The early afternoon was utterly miserable. It was sleeting and the snow was piling up in the streets in large drifts that made walking around a terrible nuisance.

They were even harder for a small hobbit to manoeuver through. Every snow-pile looked as tall as a mountain to him and a lot of the time he was getting cold and soaked as he climbed through them, but he barely noticed his soggy coat and mittens.

He was going to see his Boromir and that was all that mattered at that moment. Not the cold, or wetness. Or the scolding that he was bound to get from Galadriel and Celeborn when the school called them to let them know he had snuck out in the middle of recess.

No. Nothing mattered except seeing Boromir.

Pippin missed him terribly and blamed himself for the accident. If he hadn't thrown that ball at Merry, Boromir wouldn't have been hurt. He''d still be there with him, teaching him how to throw a ball and take him sledding instead of being locked up in that building and in that wheelchair.

""He wouldn't have missed my birthday," he whispered to himself as he trudged along the cold ground.

Although they had brought a cake over to the rehab centre Boromir was staying in, to Pippin it hadn't been the kind of birthday that he had been secretly hoping to have.

His birthdays had always come and gone with little or no fanfare, consisting of his mother buying him a cheap happy meal at MacDonald''s and a toy from Goodwill wrapped up in a plastic bag. If he was lucky, he would get something from the clearance rack at some discount outlet.

He didn't have much hope for a different kind of birthday when he and Merry had been taken to the Lothlorien's. He expected for the day to be ignored and for life to go on as usual.

He had been pleasantly surprised then when Faramir presented him with a nicely wrapped present before breakfast and strawberry pancakes when they finally made it downstairs.

The day would have been complete, he mused, if Boromir had been these to give him the birthday bumps like he had promised before everything had gone wrong.

But all that had been there from him was a brightly wrapped book and a goofy card with the message:

"Happy birthday chibi. Hope you grow to see over the coffee-table this year. Love Boromir."

Pippin smiled at the memory and paused briefly in his trudging to place his hand over his chest. That had been the first card that he had ever gotten from someone and the fact that it had been his Boromir that had given it to him made it twice as precious to him. So he had gotten a teacher to laminate it and punch a hole in it so he could loop a cord around it and wear it next to his heart.

Sometimes, if he was missing him badly, he would pull it out and stroke it until he fell asleep, getting a small bit of comfort from it when he couldn't get it from the man himself.

He would have relied on that trick to comfort himself today. Especially after what happened in art class with that shit head Mark Masen.

It hadn't been his fault. Honestly. He just wanted to tell him where to shove it after he had made fun of his drawing, calling the dog he drew a piece of shit with four legs.

He had told him to shut up and that had seemed to work. Except that Mark had a big mouth and was calling Boromir a fag.

"Take it back!" Pippin had demanded angrily.

"No. My brother Casey told me it was true. And my brother doesn't lie." Mark had taunted back.

"He''s lying!" Pippin had insisted forcefully, his hand clutching his maths book tightly.

"My brother doesn't lie. Boromir is a fag, just like my brother says! A fag!"

That had been the last straw for Pippin and the maths book had swung out and met Mark''s face with a satisfying smacking sound that made everything come to a screeching halt in the class.

Mark had begun to cry just before the bell for recess had rung. Between the crying, the bell and the sudden pandemonium, Pippin was able to make his getaway to the coat-room, grab his coat, Tuque and backpack and get out of there before he got into more shit than he was already in.

But once he had walked about three blocks away from St. Patrick's, it had suddenly hit him that he really had no place else to go.

He was about to give up and go back to school when he realized that when a building in the distance caught his eye.

Frowning, he stared at the pale blue building as he tried to figure out why it had caught his attention. He walked a few steps to the right until he could finally see a sign and realized why it was familiar to him.

"Our Lady Peace Rehabilitation Centre," he read out loud, then smiled to himself. Of course! That was were Boromir was staying!!

Smiling, he then decided to make the trek there. Boromir would be able to comfort him and give him advice. He may even be able to help him figure out how to best beat that shit-head so that he'd shut his yap once and for all.

That had been about an hour ago. Before the sleet had begun to fall and make it harder to get to OLP, as Boromir had called it.

Sighing, Pippin looked up. Just three more blocks to go, he told his cold-numbed feet and weary legs. Just three more blocks to go.

So intent was he on his goal that he didn't notice the person he barrelled into when he was jumping over yet another snowdrift.

"Oof!" The person exclaimed as he was hit by the small hobbit, the impact sending them both into the snowdrift in a tangle of arms and legs.

"Sorry!" Pippin called out in apology as he straightened himself out. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay!" A familiar voice breathed out as they tried to straighten themselves out. "Really!"

The shuffling stopped though when the taller person reached over and pulled Pippin's Tuque off of his head.

"Pippin?" Pippin looked up and his mouth fell open in shock.

"Legolas?"

"What are you doing out of school?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Boromir was sitting in bed reading a Dragonlance novel and watching the snow as it drifted past his window. A small frown graced his features as he read and occasionally, he would reach down and massage a sore thigh muscle or a sore spot that he knew would most likely turn into a bruise.

"Fucken weather," he muttered sullenly as he watched the big, fat feathery flakes float past his window.

Usually, he loved watching snow fall since it signalled the advent of Christmas, one of his favourite holidays. Even though he was a terrible cynic and held no illusions of what humanity was really like, he secretly felt that Christmas was the only time that humans would come close to being somewhat civil and joyful to one another.

But right now, he was far from feeling that way. Physical therapy often put him in one of the bleakest moods possible.

Not only did he get humiliated by his clumsy attempts to move, no matter how hard he and the therapist tried, they remained just that. Attempts.

"As if," he snorted to himself as he flipped a page in his book. He could barely feel his lower body, never mind walk. They told him to be patient and wait before he became convinced that he wasn't going to walk ever again, but Boromir was getting tired of waiting for something that he was now positive wouldn't happen ever again.

He had written that much in the journal he kept irregularly and was trying to come to grips with that eventuality. He wasn't an optimist by nature and he was steeling himself for the worst, lest the blow break him. That had been the only way that he had managed to survive for so long and still stand up after everything had been thrown and lost.

If he had let himself hope, he would have gone mad a long time ago. That was something that he couldn't afford to do, since he had people to be strong for. He was never truly free from responsibility and he wasn't about to free himself from his obligations. That would be dishonourable and he would place himself in the same role as his despised father, something he vowed he would never do in his life even if it killed him.

"Life would be easier without morals," he muttered to himself before flipping yet another page of the pretty thick novel. He was just reading the story to kill the boredom that dogged him in the afternoon hours right after lunch as he waited for the company of Aragorn, his brother, and most importantly, Legolas.

Legolas. The name made Boromir pause in his angry reading and look out the snow once again.

"Much easier," he thought sourly, putting the book down and frowning deeply.

His thoughts seemed to be full of him lately. His mind preoccupied with the feel of soft silk under his fingertips, the feel of Legolas skin and the way that the elf would draw closer to him when he touched his hand or his shoulder.

He also recalled the way that his own body would immediately heat up whenever Legolas would do so much as brush against him. Or when the elf decided that Boromir needed his hair washed and would take care of the task himself, nearly making Boromir practically come in the process.

He laughed mirthlessly when he thought about that. At least his body still reacted to that kind of stimuli, thank god. If his dick was gone, then he''d really be tempted to hang himself from the nearest telephone pole. It was bad enough not being able to play soccer. But not to have sex? Yeah, that be living death indeed.

His amusement faded though, when his thoughts strayed back to Lee.

It was wrong to feel that way about his friend. Very wrong and he had tried to quash those emotions, especially when Aragorn had been around. But lately, it had been harder and harder to manage it. His body practically sang for the elf and there was simply no power on heaven and earth that would have stopped him from feeling that way.

But the feeling was balanced with an overwhelming sense of guilt, since he was, for all intents and purposes, Aragorn's boyfriend. And he was damned if he was going to hurt the other man.

It didn't seem to matter through, since Aragorn himself was pulling away from him in his own way. And he seldom seemed to come at the same time that Legolas did either. His visits, it seemed, came later on in the afternoon, almost edging into the early evening when the visiting hours were over.

They also appeared to be with company. He seldom appeared alone anymore and Boromir felt both guilt and relief over this, since it cemented the suspicion that him and Aragorn would be splits-ville as soon as they either got the courage to admit it and voice it out-loud.

Did he regret it? Yeah. On one level he did. Estel was all that he had ever hope for in a partner. Loyal, caring, kind. If things hadn't happened as they had right now, they probably would have taken it to the next level and permanently sealed their relationship.

Aragorn was his soul-mate. He was bound to him by some inexplicable thread that he didn't understand. Nor did he care to. He just wanted to cling on to it for as long as he could, but as his attraction to Legolas grew, the hold on the thread was slipping even more and more.

He closed his eyes then as he recalled the words, stark and black in his notebook.

"I''ll never betray Aragorn."

He laughed mirthlessly at his own hypocrisy. He had meant the words when he had written them. He honestly had. But as the days passed, the further away he was moving from those words. He had to take some kind of action lest he end up betraying himself and his ideals for a pair of impossibly brown eyes and long golden hair and hurting Estel.

"You suck," he said as he looked up at the ceiling. "You really suck."

He shook his head and was about to immerse himself yet again into the tale of dragons and evil deities when a small, curly-haired bundle bounded onto his bed and into his lap.

"Boromir!!" The bundle squeaked out his name, making Boromir wonder if he his loneliness had finally gotten the better of him and he was hallucinating Pippin jumping up and down on the bed.

The hobbit sure seemed real enough. He weighed enough, that was for sure. And he sure had the wet dog smell that all little boys had in the winter. But his suspicions weren't dispelled until he saw a tall, blonde elf standing in the doorway with a strange gleam in his coffee-brown eyes.

"Someone is glad to see you," Legolas commented, his voice gentle as he came into the room and sat down behind him on the only empty and dry spot on the bed, which was right behind Boromir.

Boromir stiffened slightly when he felt the bed shift under the elf's slight weight as he settled down right behind him.

"Are you? Are you? Are you glad to see me?" Pippin asked, bouncing up and down and getting Boromir''s blankets and track-pants damp as he did so.

Boromir winced at the hobbit weight on his legs and at the cold clamminess of his trousers, but he knew that he wouldn't have it otherwise. The pain was good, right? It meant something, right? He had been on the verge of going nuts and the sight of Pippin and Lee in his room and the unexpected sensations in his crippled legs had saved him from that fate at that moment.

"Yes!" Boromir exclaimed as he reached over and embraced Pippin tightly. "I was nearly going mad here! Of course I''m glad to see you!!"

He kept the knowledge of his pain to himself. He knew Lee would understand it, but Pippin wouldn't. In all probability, if he was told of that, Pippin''s guilt was bound to resurface and that was the last thing that Boromir wanted.

Pippin needed to be happy, in Boromir''s opinion. He had suffered enough in his small life and the heavy burden of guilt didn't need to be added to his small shoulders. Besides, despite the despair he faced in the middle of the long darks nights when sleep wouldn't come; he knew that if he had to do it over again, he would. Pippin and Merry had somehow wormed their way onto his list and he was going to do everything that he possibly could to keep them safe and happy.

As he realized that, a tight pain made something in his chest clench. The pain was so intense that it nearly made him cry out loud. He did want to. Truly he did. But he kept the emotion in check and instead settled for snuggling the hobbit closer to his chest. His hobbit, his mind corrected automatically.

He had been so caught up in the emotion that he had failed to listen to the alarm bells that were going off in his head at the proximity of a certain pregnant elf behind him.

"Even me?" Lee asked, leaning closer to Boromir as he spoke and wrapping his arms around him.

Boromir''s mouth went dry when he felt his friend''s arms around him. He was pretty stunned, to say the least, since Legolas never just touched him that casually. Ever since he found out that Casey had raped him, he had never touched him unless Boromir gave him a sign of some sort.

To have him just give him such a casual embrace made Boromir''s head reel. Not with discomfort or fear, but with a sense of warmth and need. So much so that the alarms in his head abruptly died out. It felt to him that the feel of Legolas' arms around him was just *right*. No one else's touch felt that way to him before or after the rape. It was very strange that it felt that way right now. Had it always been that way? Did he ignore the signs earlier?

He swallowed and turned his head so that he was able to look into Lee's brown eyes, which were wide and open, letting him glimpse every emotion that was going through the elf at that moment.

Uncertainty. Then hope. Which was then followed by the look. The one that he recalled seeing only once before in those dark brown eyes.

He hadn't been able to say no that night in the bushes in Yohji''s backyard and he knew that he wasn't going to be able to resist him right now.

Leaning back, he then tilted his head and looked into Legolas' eyes before he reached up and cupped the elf''s delicate jaw in his hand before pulling his face closer to him and kissing him.

Legolas made a soft noise when Boromir''s lips met his. A noise of contentment, Boromir was relieved to note when Legolas pressed himself against Boromir''s back and his lips opened up further to deepen the kiss. Which Boromir did despite the crick in his neck and the lapful of babbling wet hobbit.

Although it was a terribly uncomfortable and unromantic situation, Boromir didn't want it to stop. He had missed the softness of Lee''s lips. The rich taste of them, like cinnamon and vanilla all blended into one was like getting a taste of heaven at that point. He was sure that if he died, there wouldn't be any sensation that could either come closer or repeat what he was feeling right now.

"Um..What are you doing, you gowk?" A husky female voice asked, making Boromir tear away from Legolas so fast that he was later surprised he hadn't given himself whiplash when doing it.

Boromir gulped and nearly cried when he saw who it was that had spoken to him.

"Celebrian!!" The elf smiled at Boromir's strangled voice when his brain had finally fuzzed out enough to realize who the tall female elf with the red and blue spiky hair and black trench coat standing at the door was.

The elf smiled at them, a small glint of amusement in her grey eyes as she did so.

"Celebrian?" Legolas asked, quickly scooting away from Boromir while vainly trying to look as composed as possible.

He knew he hadn't fooled Celebrian when she winked at him as she took her hands out of the pockets of her red plaid pants and flipped him the bird just like she used to before she had gone to Montreal to study at McGill.

"Yeah. What? Was I gone for so long?" Celebrian asked as she bounded into the room and leapt at Boromir. Seeing the signs, Legolas had wisely reached out and pulled a confused Pippin out of the way before he got crushed in one of Celebrian's famous glomps.

"Gowk! I've missed you!" she exclaimed as she hugged him tightly, careful not to cause her gowk any more pain than he had already experienced.

"So did I, Celly," Boromir replied once he was released. "I didn't expect you to come before Christmas though. Aren't you still in school?"

Celebrian nodded. "Yeah. I would have come the same day that I got the news, but I had a freaking paper to write and projects and the like. That was why I didn't have time to read any of the emails you guys sent me. Mea Culpa and I apologize. Stupid Profs." She shook her head, making the spikes shake slightly.

She loved her university and counted herself lucky on having received the Simon Fraser Award to study history at one of the most prestigious universities in Canada, but she missed the closeness that she had once shared with Boromir. They could and often would talk about anything under the sun at all hours of the night. It wasn't rare to have them greet the dawn after a night long conversation. She had been one of the reasons why Boromir had adjusted so well at the Lothlorien's and she had always been thankful that he had chosen to open up for her.

She was also the reason why he was so into punk, since his first taste of the music had been from listening to her Clash and NOFX albums whenever they had been busy doing homework, talking or practising putting makeup on. These lessons had later on included Legolas, who ended up taking them to heart once he had become a sworn friend of the Denethorsons, a requirement that left him with a wide scar across his wrist.

"God! I was frantic! But my professors, being the asses that they usually are wouldn't let me take the time to travel out here til now. I've finished their papers and the finals, so they can just go fuck themselves until the next semester as far as I''m concerned!!"

She spat out before reaching out and ruffling Boromir''s head with sisterly affection.

"You've been good?" She then asked, reaching out and stroking his hair lightly.

"Yeah. I have. It's been a good year so far. How bout you? How are things at McGill?"

"Fairly good. Just one more year and I have my degree. Then it's off to Spain for a season. Things have been good. How's Faramir?"

Boromir swallowed as his mind raced to find a suitable enough comment to placate his sister.

"He's um�� been good too." Boromir finally said, hoping that was a satisfactory answer.

Celebrian nodded slowly, telling him that he was eventually going to spill the beans. He knew he would have to, but he would try and delay that event as long as possible. He wasn't going to say anything right then and there. Especially when Pippin was there.

At the thought of the little hobbit, Boromir''s green eyes widened in embarrassment and disbelief at how rude he had been to him and Lee.

"Celly, did mom tell you about the chibis, Pippin and Merry yet?" He asked his sister.

She shook her head.

"Uh. No. Is that Merry?" She asked, turning to look at the silent hobbit that was now clinging to Lee and looking at her with suspicion that made her wince, since it reminded her so much of how her little brothers used to have that look on their faces when they used to look at her.

"It''s Pippin. Merry is his older brother. And the elf behind him you know, right?"

"Hi Chibi- Pippin." She called out, waving to the hobbit who rewarded her with a shy smile.

"And yes, I do know who the elf is. After all, I did catch you necking in your room whenever my freaking Bad Religion and Satanic Surfers went missing."

She replied tartly. "So you guys finally decided to finally to take it out of the closet or what?"

Boromir opened and closed his mouth before casting a desperate look at Legolas, who seemed as if he had just been turned to stone. No great help in that quarter, it seemed.

"Did I just mention something that wasn't supposed to be said?" Celebrian asked softly, realizing her blunder just a little too late. Boromir bit his lip and wouldn't say anything to his sister. He looked at Legolas once again before he cast a small look at Pippin before returning his gaze to Lee.

"If you don''t mind, I want to get some coke and chocolate," Legolas announced before grabbing Pippin''s hand and walking towards the door. But Pippin balked slightly at being dragged out.

"Am I going to get some too?" he asked his blue eyes dark with suspicion at Legolas' motives. He knew that he was being shunted aside, and that was okay, he guessed. Boromir and Celebrian were brother and sister and they hadn't seen each other in a long time. Fine. He didn't care. He did care if he was going to be lied to in order to get him out of the way.

"Yes. I wouldn't offer it otherwise," Legolas replied soothingly, knowing full well how Pippin''s mind was working.

"Okay," Pippin replied and let himself be dragged along.

"We''ll be back in a while," Legolas called over his shoulder before taking the hobbit out of the room.

It was quiet for about two seconds before Celebrian verbally pounced on her brother.

"Out with it then. What the hell is going on between you and Leaf?"

"Something that shouldn't be happening at all," Boromir replied, his voice harsh.

"Oh? It sure looked like you guys were enjoying that thing that shouldn't have been happening."

"Yeah, well, we shouldn't have. Not when I''m going out with Aragorn and Legolas is going to have Faramir''s kid!!" Boromir returned forcefully.

Celebrian's mouth fell open and she nearly fell over backwards at the announcement.

"Jesus Fucken Christ!! You guys have been busy!!" she yelled out when she got over the shock of Boromir's outburst. She then looked at him and thwapped him over the head. Hard.

"What the hell was that for?!?!" Boromir yelled as he rubbed his sore head.

"If you''re going out with someone and Lee is knocked up then what the hell are you guys doing sucking each other''s faces? Christ Boromir!! Didn't I teach you better than that?" Celebrian demanded angrily.

Sure, she loved her little brother. But infidelity was something that she couldn't condone in any way shape or form no matter who did it. Hell, she'd get on the case of Jesus Christ himself if she ever caught him doing shit like that. And if he didn't want to get a freaking charley-horse, he''d better start explaining and explaining well.

"Okay. Well. This is going to be hard�� Um. Well. Faramir broke up with Legolas when he found out about the baby. See, we didn't know that Lee could have them, so it was a surprise. A big surprise, considering that they found out the day I woke up. Faramir acted like a prick and they broke up."

Celebrian shook her head and sighed heavily. "Were you guys like deaf when I told you how to use condoms when you''re having sex or what?"

"Considering that they fucked in the photo-lab at school, I''m sure that they didn't have any condoms handy at the time," Boromir replied dryly, making his sister smirk despite herself.

"Oh, so they were in there to see how things developed, right?"

Boromir groaned at the horrible pun his sister made. Trust her to do something like that when they were having a serious discussion.

"I know. I know. I''m sorry. But still. Didn't you guys remember anything I taught you?"

"I think Faramir didn't and besides, we were all working on the assumption that sex with Lee wasn't going to cause any side effects that would show up after eleven months and called him ''mama." Boromir reminded her.

"Yeah. Considering that Sindarian Elves are rarer than a straight stage actor, yeah," Celebrian agreed, thinking of half of the men she had dated from McGill''s drama department.

"But why? That still doesn't explain why the hell you''re playing tonsil hockey with him and not your boyfriend," she told him as she began to play with the safety pins that were holding her T-shirt closed across her chest. "I mean, aren't you happy with him, you gowk?"

Boromir shut his eyes. Yeah. He had been happy with Aragorn. Blissfully happy. He loved him. Totally and utterly. But the accident had changed all of that.

Whether he wanted to admit it or not, it had. And he cursed himself for not being strong enough to withstand the hopelessness and the distance that he was putting between himself and Aragorn, but he couldn't stop it. He was in limbo and he had no way of knowing whether he''d be able to crawl out or not. And he knew that he was failing everyday. Just a little at a time, but he was failing and he wasn't sure what would happen once he finally collapsed.

"I was. When everything was fine. But it''s not anymore. I can't hold it all together, Celly. Even though life was so bad before hand."

He shook his head, recalling the poor childhood, the era spent on the street, the homes before the refuge that was the Lothloriens arrived.

"With the group home. And at school and then the whole thing with Casey, I made it. I could dream about going away and playing soccer and making a life. But now, it''s all gone and I love him, but I can't live with him."

He took a ragged breath before he continued to spill all the thoughts that had been swirling inside of his mind all those weeks since he had awoken to his bitter fate.

"And Legolas? How does he tie in all of this?" Celebrian asked, her brows furrowed as she waded through the torrent of emotions that her little gowk was unleashing on her.

Boromir closed his eyes at the question. He had asked himself that exact same thing earlier and he had yet to find his answer to it. He had tried. Lord knew he had tried to. But it was elusive.

The only thing that he was sure of was that Legolas was the only one that could lend him some strength right now. Just like he had done when he had been fifteen.

"He needs me. And I need him. A whole lot. I can't go through this without him."

Celebrian nodded. She understood that need to have someone to share that need with.

"But don't you have Aragorn to be with you? I'm sure that he would be able to help you with all of this," Celebrian reminded him, her voice quiet as she spoke.

Boromir shook his head before laughing a small, bitterly cynical laugh.

"I can''t force him to live through this. Sure, he may be able to stand it for this time. But what about later on? What if he gets tired of being my fucken nurse? Or what if he breaks? I can''t have that happen to him, Celly! I love Aragorn, but if he breaks, I won''t be able to live with myself!! I can''t let him break! I won''t see him break!!"

Boromir was shaking by the time he finished talking. He closed his eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. He was so tired now. So very tired.

"It''s okay." He heard Celly say before she wrapped her arms around him and began to rock him back and forth. "It''ll be okay."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Outside the room, Aragorn collapsed against the wall, his legs having given out on him.

The three red roses fell from his nerveless hand and hit the floor, all but forgotten.

He was too stunned to do anything after over-hearing what Boromir had told Celly. Raising his hand, he then slowly dragged it down his face as he tried to stave off the tears that were still pouring down his face all the same.

Boromir was falling away from him now. He was leaving just like his mother. Just like his father.

He had been a fool to think that Boromir would be different. That things would be different once they had worked things out. That they would stay together for the rest of their lives.

Once again, fate was laughing in his face and ruining his life yet again.

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted him," he whispered to himself. "I shouldn't have trusted him"

"I shouldn't have loved him."

*Notes: Tuonela is pretty much a purgatory, hellish like place in Finnish Mythology.

Sharpe was a series based on these awesome books by Bernard Cornwell which aired in the late '90's which starred Sean Bean as this soldier who did a lot of shagging, shooting and swearing during the Penninsular War.

Gwok: I think it's the equivalent of being affectionally called a moron. I got it from the Outlander books and I am sure it's a Scots thing. But feel free to correct me.*

Part 14-Misery.

"Tell me a story

Where we all change

And we'd live our lives together

And not estranged"-Robbie Williams.

"Are you sure you haven't had enough, Aragorn?" Faramir asked the drunken man barely perched on the stool beside him.

Aragorn had been drinking steadily ever since they had arrived at the bar a couple of hours ago. He'd only stopped long enough to go to the can and to sob bitterly into his drink once or twice.

"I still remember m' name, so no, I don' think so." Aragorn replied, his words slightly slurred as he spoke.

Faramir bit his lip at this reply. He had been uneasy about accompanying his brother's boyfriend to the bar. He had gotten really bad vibes the minute that Aragorn had literally whirled into the bedroom after going to visit Boromir.

His fears had been correct the minute Aragorn had thrown his jacket at him and ordered him to be ready as quickly as possible.

"Why?" Faramir had asked, not picking up the jacket and just staring at the coldly angry Aragorn.

"We're going to a bar where we're going to feel sorry for ourselves and get smashed while we're at it. So get dressed."

Faramir had honestly wanted to protest this request. After all, it was a school night and finals were looming on the horizon. Finals that he needed to prepare for to do his best in.

But the look in Aragorn's eyes had kept him quiet about his reservations.

Aragorn's eyes looked like shattered glass. That was the only thing he could compare them to. There was no actual light in them. Just small shards of it whenever they happened to catch the light from the bedside lamp.

No emotions flowed in their fractured depths. All he could see within them was blankness. A terrible blankness that came from either being dealt a mortal blow, or having one's soul shattered into a thousand pieces that cannot be easily put back together again.

Faramir had only seen that look in one other person's eyes, and that had been Thom Yorke. Thom was the only person that Faramir could say was emotionally dead. He felt nothing. Cared for nothing. Lived for nothing.

He'd never thought he'd see that look in anyone's eyes again and seeing it in Aragorn's had just scared the living daylights out of him.

That fear had been the reason why he had grabbed his jacket and shoes, taken twenty dollars and had meekly followed Aragorn out to the car.

Aragorn had driven in silence to Whyte Ave. In fact, Faramir felt the older man had forgotten he was in the car. Not only had he not spoken to him, he hadn''t even glanced his way as the car sped off into the trendy avenue.

The silence had remained in place until they had entered the Elephant and Castle, found a dark table in a corner and ordered drinks: A Long Island ice tea for Faramir and a pitcher of Caffrey's ale for Aragorn.

That had been three hours ago. The table was now littered with empty pitchers and glasses. Even though Aragorn looked worse for the wear, he kept stubbornly drinking to erase Boromir''s words from his mind.

Oh yes. Aragorn had told him every single word Boromir had told Celly. Faramir felt like giving his brother a good shake for being so stupid and committing the same mistake he had been chided for earlier.

Though he felt sorry for Aragorn, he knew deep down, Boromir was only making that huge of a sacrifice because he felt he was justified in doing so. And Faramir really couldn't argue with his brother's logic.

Aragorn was a different sort of person than the ones they had grown up with and dealt with for the majority of their lives. Aragorn, compared to them, was a total innocent. Sure, he had the loss of his mother and the abandonment of his father in his past, but he was certain Aragorn had never gone to bed hungry. Nor had he ever fallen asleep with shrubbery for a cover and his brother's grungy sweater for his blanket. Nor had he ever nearly been picked up by strange men offering money for a "ride" in their cars.

Aragorn had privilege and ease in his life. He had his family. Even though he had been torn apart, he hadn't lived with the heartaches and obligations that had plagued Boromir all his life. He had no idea how much Boromir had to give up, to guard, in his life.

Boromir had not once broken when faced with all the obstacles he'd had to deal with. Sad to say, or think about, but when he really examined the situations that Aragorn had faced and the way that he had reacted to them, Aragorn had failed. Boromir never had.

"Except when Casey raped him," the evil voice in his head muttered.

Faramir shook his head to shut the voice up. Yeah, his brother had broken. But that had been after how long? What, ten years was it? It was a miracle that he hadn''t fallen to pieces much earlier.

The only person that came close to knowing that was Legolas. Faramir frowned at the thought of his ex-boyfriend. Shit. He had been an utter fool to think that he would be able to offer Legolas a sense of security and well being. An utter fool.

When he really thought about it, Legolas and Boromir *did* belong together.

They both had been through hell and back. Both had so many burdens to carry. Burdens that he had unwittingly added to. As much as he hated to admit it, he had done nothing but to make their lives harder.

He sometimes wished that he hadn't been born at all. If he hadn't been, Boromir wouldn't have had so many obligations and duties. He also wouldn't be plagued with the worry he wasn't taking well enough care of his little brother. And of course, Lee wouldn't have gotten pregnant if it hadn't been for him and his cock.

He winced at that thought. If only he'd had more foresight! If only he had stopped!!

He shook his head and looked at Aragorn. He didn't want to think about Lee and the child. Nor did he want to think about how much he had fucked up Lee's life. He shouldn't have said anything when Lee had spilled the news. He should have kept his cool and later decided on what course of action would have been the best for him to take.

But he hadn't. Instead, he had panicked. Panicked because he felt he was too young to be a father. Panicked because he knew he had screwed up. Panicked because he had just gone ahead and done the exact same thing that the asshole who had been his father did.

He hated himself for that. He had told himself a long time ago, when Boromir had first told him about their putative father he'd never, ever father a child and then leave him and the mother. Never. If he ever had a child, he was going to be responsible. Be a father.

Faramir bit his lip. But he had lied and broken his word the minute that he had been faced with the possibility. And he doubted that Legolas would give him time to make things right. Especially not after he suggested the child wasn't his.

He sighed and rubbed his face. Maybe he should do the same as Aragorn and drink himself stupid. At least that would be a release of some sort. If it wasn't, then Aragorn wouldn't be so keen on drinking as much as he was. Maybe there was some truth in beer making you forget stuff. Well, it sure looked like Aragorn was willing to test that theory.

He was certainly giving it his all, Faramir noted a bit sourly as he finished his fourth drink, which was already making him blink owlishly at the dim fixtures in the bar.

He smiled a bit when he had to blink again. Damn. That was a sure sign that he was on his way to getting totally slammed. On a school night. Fuck.

"You wan' an'ther drink?" a slurred voice asked him.

He looked up at the speaker and met with dark blue eyes studying him carefully. Too carefully.

He shrugged to ease his discomfort at being stared at so blatantly.

"I'll get it for ye." Aragorn slurred before unsteadily getting to his feet and stumbling off in search of a server to get more drinks.

Faramir watched him go with a sense of both relief and worry. On one hand, he didn't have Aragorn checking him out like a piece of meat. On the other hand, he was getting him more to drink, which meant that Faramir would be so incoherent and out of it he would probably end up doing something terribly stupid sometime soon.

He wasn't sure which of the alternatives was better. Neither of them sounded terribly appealing to him at that point. Especially the being ogled one, since Aragorn was still with Boromir as far as he was concerned and he would never infringe on his brother's boyfriend. Not even if he had been forced to.

He loved and respected his brother too much to be such a prick and do such a low trick.

Even though Aragorn was looking terribly good, and he was as lonely as heck ever since he had committed one of the biggest blunders of his entire life, he was certain that he would be able to resist the temptation to do so.

Or could he?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He was so not going to go there.

He wouldn't have gone there if it hadn't been for two things. The first thing was hearing Aragorn say "Here ye go." before a drink was plonked down in front of him.

The second thing was having Aragorn nibbling on his earlobe as his hands then slid down the entire length of his torso to stop just above the waistband of his jeans.

"What are you doing?" Faramir croaked, cringing at the question that had just slipped out of his mouth.

As if it wasn't bloody obvious as to what Aragorn was doing to him.

''Yeah, smooth conversational tactic there, Faramir,'' his mind jeered at him as his body remained frozen in his seat.

Luckily, or unluckily, Aragorn was either too drunk, or too intent on his goal to notice the question. His hands moved lower and his mouth moved from his earlobe to the line of his jaw.

Faramir gave a sound that was half a strangled moan, half strangled yelp as he felt Aragorn's attempts to get into his jeans.

He was both enjoying and hating the emotions coursing through him. On one hand, he was thoroughly getting his jollies by having Aragorn's hands nearly down his pants. On the other hand, this was his brother's boyfriend.

"Stop!!" Faramir exclaimed, pulling away from Aragorn's hands. "Stop it right now!!"

Aragorn looked at him for a few seconds, his eyes dark with strong emotion. He paused in his movements and just stood there behind Faramir.

Faramir took the opportunity to take a deep breath to calm his raging hormones before he faced Aragorn. Before he told him what they were doing was wrong and that he wanted to go home.

Once he had finally managed to do that, he faced Aragorn, who was now standing with his arms crossed and a cool, very sober look on his face.

The look surprised Faramir, since he knew that the older man had drunk enough to put him, Max and Boromir under the table easily. How the hell had he done that? It was as if the last few minutes hadn't happened at all. As if Aragorn had just pulled off a mask that had been in place all this time. A mask that Faramir had let slip under his radar.

The thought scared him.

If Aragorn noticed his discomfort, he didn't give a sign of it. He just coolly looked at Faramir before he began to speak in that frigid, dead voice that he had been using since he had come home and ordered him to come along to the bar.

"Why should we stop?" He asked, his eyes sliding into a blue so dark that it swallowed the pupil.

Faramir gulped in some air.

"You're with Sebastien. You aren't free and neither am I. We are very wrong to do this."

Aragorn laughed, his laughter short and bitter before he spoke again.

"We are free!! You let my brother go and your brother has let me go!!" he hissed, eyes narrowing to thin black lines in his angular face.

"We can't be sure of that," Faramir replied, his eyes going to the wooden tabletop.

"I think you made it clear to Legolas that day,"" Aragorn replied sharply. "Just like your brother made it clear to me today."

Faramir closed his eyes then opened them again. His patience was slowly draining and he needed time to regain his composure before things went to hell in a handbasket.

"You can't jump to conclusions, Estel. It's true that we have all made a hell of a lot of mistakes in these past few months, but we CANNOT do this!!" Faramir nearly yelled as he slammed his hand on the table. He couldn't fucken believe that this was actually happening! What the hell was going on? Did one of the barmaids put some funky shit in their drinks while they weren't looking? Was he going mad? What the hell was going on?

People just didn't do this type of shit! Especially not when they were dating other people!

"Why not? You don't find me attractive enough?" Aragorn asked, leaning in predatorily, his eyes boring into Faramir's own.

Faramir's tongue felt as if it had stuck to the roof of his mouth.

What the hell was he supposed to say to that? He moistened his lips and tried. Honestly tried to be tactful. After all, he hadn''t gotten his nickname "the diplomat" for nothing. He had managed to get himself and Boromir out of more scrapes than he could count on account of his skill with words.

"Yeah. Actually, I do. Hell, If I didn't have such strong morals, deep love and respect for my brother, you and Lee, I'd nail your ass on this table right here, right now. But I do. And so that means nothing will happen."

Aragorn's eyes widened at that remark and Faramir inwardly cringed.

Oh that was great! Just fucken great! Lovely! Maybe they should call him out to negotiate the peace treaty between the Protestants and the Catholics in Ireland. Oh yeah. He was *so* brilliant!

"You...you think that of me?" Aragorn asked, his voice losing its frostiness as he spoke.

Faramir nodded. What else could he do? He had already stuck his foot in it. He had no choice but to do his best to fix this situation.

"Yeah," he replied. "I do." He sighed heavily.

"Look man. Things have been really fucked up lately between all of us. Believe me, that I regret the way things are right now. I wish that we weren't so ragged and bloody with each other, but we are. And we gotta fix it if we're going to be happy."

He took off his hat and ran a hand through his multi-coloured hair.

"We also have to make the effort for Boromir, Estel," he said the names softly.

"This is hurting us badly, being that much apart from each other, speculating things about each other. How do you suppose this all is for him? We aren''t making his life any easier. Not only does he have the burden of his health to contend with, he also has to baby-sit all of us as well."

Aragorn's mouth opened and closed, but his brain had gone into neutral as the impact of Faramir's words struck him.

How the hell did the kid come up with this stuff? Aragorn asked himself as he digested the points that Faramir made. Faramir hadn't been like this before. Sure, he was a smart kid, but he hadn't done anything to cement that impression on Aragorn. His treatment of Legolas and his running away from his brother had made Aragorn wonder whether the kid was as smart as he was reputed to be.

So it was surprising that he was the voice of reason right now. The one that was laying out the cards and explaining why the fling that Aragorn had half-heartedly planned on wasn't the best thing they could possibly do. Even though it might take away the burning pain that Aragorn was feeling at being rejected by Boromir, it just wasn''t going to happen with the emerald-eyed philosopher sitting in front of him.

"He never complains about stuff, Aragorn. I can only imagine how he feels when he takes the weight of his responsibilities on his shoulders. He has always been the one to make the sacrifices that are needed. Even when it has cost him so much."

Faramir paused as he tugged on his hair.

"If he said that to Celly, then he must love you that much. He would never want to do something so drastic unless he saw a very good reason for it. He loves you. Even though you may decided to walk away, or he may decide to push you from him, you will still be bound by that love he has for you."

Aragorn blinked at the words. What could he say to that? Nothing. He couldn't counter it with anything, despite the fact that he was still hurt and resentful of Boromir's words. Not to mention the fact that he still wanted to have a taste of those cherry lips that were still damp from the ice tea he had bought him earlier. But it all still rankled.

It rankled badly because he knew that Boromir didn't believe he was strong enough to face things. That he was nothing more than a spoiled rich boy that couldn''t take anything and would fold at the slightest sign of danger. That he had no strength to stand up and face what life threw at him.

They were in love, he knew that. But it had always seemed that there was this wall between them that no matter how much time they spent together, Aragorn would never be able to breach. He had felt the wall when things had been going all right between them, but had never thought of it until the accident had occurred. He hadn't needed to think of it before because he hadn''t needed to be tested.

That was were the problem lay. Boromir had tested him and had decided already that he had failed the test. And now he wanted to get rid of him to be with Lee, the person that he felt would be strong enough not to fail him.

Aragorn bit his lip as the thoughts slammed around in his head in a sickening moment of clarity. Shit! He just had to go and find the fucken secret of the universe the minute he had decided to drink himself into a bloody stupor and have a meaningless fling. Shit! Shit!!

He wanted to scream right then and there. Wanted to tell Faramir to shut up and just go home. He didn''t want to make anything right. Didn''t want to think about anything. Didn't want....

"Uh...Aragorn?" Faramir asked, his voice low as he spoke. He had noticed the emotions that had quickly played over the dark-haired man's face and didn't care for what he was seeing. He hadn't really felt all that safe with Aragorn when he was being all touchy feely, but he really didn't like him when his eyes were going this intense purplish-blue and his lips thinning into a line so tight that it makes his lips disappear.

Faramir swallowed when he noticed the change in his expression.

Aragorn shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"I want to believe you. I really do. But you are his brother after all. How do I know that you aren't just saying that to smooth things over?"

Faramir winced at the tone that Aragorn was using. It was harsh. Meant to wound and cut to the quick.

"I'm not," Faramir defended himself, his voice calm and even.

"Oh no? Why not?" Aragorn asked, his voice still angry. Still a weapon.

"Because I know that it's true. I know my brother, Aragorn. I know that when he cares about someone, he will try do anything in his power not to hurt them. That''s how I know."

Aragorn raised an eyebrow at the statement. Part of him wanted to believe Faramir. Wanted to believe that it was true. That Boromir loved him that much.

But the other part of him, the one that was being overwhelmed with his temper and resentment couldn't believe it. Wouldn't let him believe it.

"Really? Then why would he be pushing me away and killing me if he loves me so much?" he asked the younger man as he then reached out and grabbed Faramir's chin, forcing the blond boy to look at him as he spoke.

"That...that's just the way he is. He'd rather have people he cares about leave than be burdened by all his problems." Faramir stammered. He was getting freaked out by this. Seriously freaked out.

Aragorn''s eyes darkened even more when he heard this, making him look even twice as freaky as he did when they had begun to change the first time around.

"What if the people want to stick around and share the burden? What if they care so much about him that they are willing to go through hell with him even though they know the price that they have to pay? What then?"

"He...he doesn't want that. He doesn't want them to worry about him. Doesn't want them to break when they found out they aren't strong enough to carry all those extra burdens. Because he has been abandoned before when it has happened that way," Faramir replied, his voice low as he spoke the suspicion that he was sure he shared with his brother.

Aragorn's eyes narrowed at the statement before he let go of Faramir.

"Is that what you both think of me? That I am that weak? That I am like a little child that needs to be protected?"

Faramir closed his eyes at the anger and hurt he heard in the other man's voice.

"That is what you think, isn't it?" Aragorn asked, his voice so soft and cracked that it made Faramir's heart clench in his chest.

How the hell could Boromir and himself be so thoughtless? How could they have not figured out that Aragorn was going to feel hurt and betrayed?

"Aragorn..." Faramir tried to explain, but Aragorn''s bark of a laugh cut him short.

"Don't. Just -- don't." He shook his head. "Look, just finish the fucken drink and get your coat. I''m going to the lavatory. When I come out, I expect you to be ready to go."

Faramir opened his mouth to either protest or apologize when Aragorn just fixed those piercing dark eyes on him, effectively silencing him.

"Don't okay? Just don't," he told him as he grabbed his jacket and hurried off to the men's lavatory, leaving Faramir staring at the Long Island and feeling more miserable than he had felt in a while.

He sighed as he looked at his drink. Why the hell did everything he touched turn into shit?

He wanted to leave and go straight to his brother and tell him he was moron for hurting Estel. Right after he found Lee and apologized. But he decided against that hasty course of action after he realized that he would just do more to gain Estel's enmity when he was trying his best to make amends.

So he stayed and finished his drink like he was told to. An action that he was to regret soon enough.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Aragorn slammed the door to the lavatory and pushed his back against

it. He let his head roll back and he tried not to cry as he stared up at the cream tiles in the ceiling.

"FUCK!!" He yelled, punching the wood behind him hard enough to make his fist tingle with pain.

Where the hell had it all gone wrong? Why the hell was all this shit just falling apart on him?

Why was his life such a fucken mess? Why? Was someone out to get him?

First his mother had decided to kill herself. Then his father had calmly blamed him for indirectly killing her before he placed him in a psychiatric hospital before running off to his mistress in Spain. Now Boromir had decided Aragorn wasn't strong enough for him and he had failedmiserably at seducing Faramir. He could hardly wait to see how that would wreck the relationship they had.

"What did I do to deserve this?" he hissed as he punched the door again.

He wasn't a bad person. Honestly. He wasn't. Misguided, maybe. But then who wasn't at times? So why the hell was all this shit happening to him?

But no one was there to give him an answer. So he punched the door again in his frustration.

"Oww." He lifted his hand and sucked at his reddened knuckles. That wasn't too smart.

He studied his knuckles as he moved away from the door. Shit. He could see they were swelling already. Damn.

"Stupid. Stupid," he muttered as he moved to the sink and turned on the tap. Once the water was at a good enough temperature, he scooped some onto his face to take care of the last signs of his drunkenness. Drawing in deep breaths to ease the shock of the cold water on his system, he then ran his wet hands through his hair.

"Better." he told his reflection. He was ready to face the music now.

Sighing, he then grabbed his coat from where it had fallen beside the sink and went to the door.

Now to fix the rift between Faramir and himself. He knew that it was going to not be enough to make everything be better, but he had to try, right?

After all, that was what Faramir said. They had to start fixing shit up whether they wanted to or not.

"Smash it up." Aragorn muttered as he pushed the door open. Only to hear: "Get the FUCK off me!!! HELP!! ARAGORN!!"

"Fuck!!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Legolas arrived at the Elephant and Castle with Duo Maxwell on one side and Yohji Kudoh on the other.

"Just who exactly are we looking for here?" Yohji asked the thin-lipped elf as they swept the interior of the pub.

"Faramir and Aragorn," he replied, his voice low. Yohji raised an eyebrow at the answer.

"I didn't think that they were the irresponsible types, Lee," he commented as he looked at the waitresses. If Catherine, Sally or Noin were around maybe they would be able to locate Aragorn and Faramir sooner than just sweeping the entire frikking pub.

"I thought so too, before. But that was then and this is now and we have to look for them before they do something stupid," Lee replied, pushing the single braid he had put his hair into behind his shoulder as he went deeper into the pub.

"What kind of stupid things?" Duo asked as he too, kept his eyes open for their prey. Part of him thought that Lee was taking it a bit over-board as he searched for his brother and ex. After all, Faramir was Satan's brother and even though he was epileptic, the little bastard could defend himself terribly well. He didn''t know Aragorn as well, but he was sure that the older guy was a good enough fighter to take care of anyone that would be dense enough to piss him off.

But part of him knew that Lee sensed danger. That there was something in the air that only he could decipher. And that was why he had willingly followed him.

In all his experiences with Lee and Satan, he had never know the elf to be wrong. He had been the one to save them with a well-time intervention or a well placed back-up whenever they had been involved in a fight. So he trusted him. Even though they lived in different worlds know, that trust would never be diminished.

"I don't know. I don't want to know and that is why we have to find them," Lee replied tersely as he pushed his way deeper into the bar.

"Hey! Yotan! Duo! Lee! What the hell are you guys doing here at this time? Shouldn't you be in school or something?"

Yohji grinned as the slim brunette made her way towards them, an empty serving tray in her hand and a chiding smile on her lips as she recognized her brother's friends.

Yohji laughed as he took his sunglasses off and put them in the pocket of his blue Board Doktor jacket.

"You aren't skipping again are you?" Catherine Barton chided them as she picked up a couple of empty glasses from a nearby table. Her boss didn''t mind that her friends and Trowa's friend's dropped by on occasion. But she couldn't be seen not doing anything while she spoke with them lest the other customers get mad and think she was slacking on purpose.

"Us? Why Cathy! I'm shocked that you would think that! We'd never skip and you know it! We''re good little boys!"

Catherine paused in her task before giving Yohji a look of disbelief. "Please, Yohji! Don't try that with me. I know you far too well to believe that."

Duo and Lee snickered and Yohji pretended to be wounded by Cathy's remarks.

"Well, okay. You aren't skipping. What brings you here then?"

"We're looking for Faramir and Aragorn. Have you seen them here?"

Lee asked, his words sharp and serious and completely killing the joking mood that Yohji and Catherine had had between them.

Catherine frowned as she searched her memory.

"Um.. I don't know, Lee. I just got here half an hour ago. I might have served them. But I'm not sure."

She bit her lip as she thought before abruptly snapping her fingers and almost running to the back room, leaving the three boys staring at each other with identical looks of confusion on their faces.

"Oookay." Duo muttered as he shoved his hands deeper into his black winter jacket before he cast a look at Yohji, who shrugged in return.

The confusion wasn't cleared up until Cathy reappeared with Sally in tow.

"Hey guys, " she greeted them as she adjusted her coat. "Who is it that you're looking for again?"

"Faramir and Aragorn. You know, kid's about ye high, has blonde hair with red and blue streaks in it, wears a green baseball hat and a black Doktor?"

Sally bit her lip. "Maybe. What did Aragorn look like again? I only saw him once at that party."

"Oh. Right. Well, he's about my height. Dark brown hair, red streak in the front. Skinny. Dark blue eyes. Red Doktor. Ring any bells?"

Sally thought for a few seconds before snapping her fingers, making the boys wonder if it was a thing that all of the waitresses did at the Elephant and Castle.

"Yeah! Now I remember. They're upstairs. I think they came in like two hours ago. Right after Casey Masen and��" Her face suddenly went white when she mentioned Casey.

Lee's eyes narrowed at this bit of news, while Yohji and Duo looked at each other and shook their heads. This was not good news at all.

"Shit," Catherine muttered as she clasped her serving tray to her chest. " Why didn't you kick him out?" She asked Sally, who swallowed hard.

"I couldn't! Mr. Loire wouldn't let me! Especially after he bought three pitchers in one go!"

Sally defended herself. Cathy sighed and looked at the boys with a resigned_expression on her face.

"Look guys. I don't want any trouble. Just get Mir and Aragorn and get out of here. I know we all have a bone to pick with that asshole, but it can't be done here, Okay? Just take them and go.""

Lee nodded. "Done deal, Cathy. That was all I came here to do."

He looked at the angry, closed off faces of his friends before he headed to the stairwell in the corner of the bar.

"Come on. You heard her. Let's go."

Duo and Yohji nodded before they followed the elf. They wouldn't cause any trouble. But if trouble came looking for them, they would gladly give it back. In spades.

Lee knew that he wouldn't be able to stop his friends if anything happened, but he also knew that it wouldn't be very likely that they would tear the bar down while they fetched Faramir and Estel.

Casey just had it in for Boromir. He didn't even know that Faramir was related to him, since he never really took any notice of anything that didn't either catch his eye or concern him directly. Chances were if he did remember Faramir, he would just remember a little, messy, dirty boy and not associate him with the Faramir of the present. So Lee was sure that nothing was going to happen.

His illusions were shattered when he heard the screaming.

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!! HELP! ARAGORN!!"

That was then followed by the sounds of breaking glass and Aragorn yelling out: "FUCK!!"

"SHIT!" Legolas yelled as he and the other two guys ran up the stairs.

"I'll call the cops!""Sally shouted to their retreating forms while Catherine went to fetch Mr. Loire, who was busy doing inventory in the back room.

"Do that!!" Duo yelled from the top floor before the sound of more glass breaking filled the pub again.

"Fuck!! Fuck!!" Sally muttered as she quickly got out phone and dialed 911.

"Why the hell did that shit-head have to come today? Why?"

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Gerroff! Gerroff!" Faramir yelled as he struggled to get free from Jonathan

Seabrook and Ezra Trant, who were holding him while their friend Casey dealt with the dark-haired intruder that was determined to spoil their fun with the scrawny little skater they had caught.

"Shut up!" Ezra, a tall boy with dark brown hair and pale brown eyes snapped. Faramir's response was to struggle even more, which earned him a hard punch in the gut from Jonathan, a blonde, scrawny guy with sharp, wintry blue eyes and a mean left hook.

"Let him go," Aragorn ordered them, his blue eyes black with anger. He had winced in sympathy at Faramir small squeak of pain as he then crumpled in the boys' grasp, his chest heaving with effort as he fought to catch his wind, but the sympathy had evaporated in anger at the three men before him.

How dare they touch his friend that way? The anger made him forget the well of self-pity that he had been gladly sinking into. His petty problems could wait. Saving Faramir from getting his face carved up by these arrogant pricks was his number one priority right now.

The tall, golden brown elf smiled at him as he raised a honey-coloured eyebrow that helped to strengthen the impression of angelic perfection that the arrogant prick gave off without even trying.

"Why? Does he mean anything to you?" he asked, his violet eyes insolent and full of mocking laughter as he spoke.

He nodded his head and Ezra hit Faramir again. This time, the blow landed in the boy's side, making him cry out. But the cry wasn''t loud enough to cover up the sound of ribs cracking from the hit. Faramir''s eyes widened at the pain and he sagged even more. He was done for.

Aragorn's mouth thinned at the question and at what the boy had done to Faramir. The elf's actions had hit a nerve in him. Just what the hell did Faramir mean to him? He wasn't really sure that he wanted to ask himself that just then, with things being all weird and all that. So he settled for the best answer at that time.

"Yes. Now let him go before I force you to let him go," Aragorn warned the elf who grinned bitterly at him.

"And I should be afraid of you because?" he asked as he pulled off his dark blue uniform blazer and threw it on the table.

Aragorn smiled before he too, followed suit and threw his jacket behind him.

"Because if you don't I will kill you. Now let him go."

The elf scoffed at this. "Better men have tried to kill Casey Masen and failed bitterly. What makes you think that you will be the one to succeed?"

Aragorn's anger congealed into ice at these words. So this was Casey? He flexed his hands as he stared at the elf before him.

Casey Masen certainly was NOT what he expected. He expected a pretty boy human with devastating dark eyes and black hair and a permanent sneer on his lips. A tall elf that looked like a fallen angel with violet eyes and a braid of honey brown hair was very far from what he had imagined.

He could see how Boromir would lose his heart to this elf. Not only was he beautiful, Aragorn was sure that he could be a smooth and terribly charming when he put his mind to it. Sweet, but with little or no concern for anyone or anything except himself. He seemed like that type. Hell, he even *smelled* like the type, Aragorn thought as he caught a whiff of expensive Ralph Lauren cologne.

If he had met him under different circumstances, he was positive that he would have fallen head over heels for him. He was just that type of guy.

"Namely cause you owe me. Big time," Aragorn replied before he lunged for the elf.

Casey should have been able to either dodge the blow or counter it, but he hadn't any warning that the lean human was that fast. Nor that he would be able to hit that hard.

Casey grinned a bit as he wiped the blood from his nose. The shot had made him snap his head back and from the wet, snuffling sounds he was making, he rrealized that his nose was broken.

That realization made his eyes narrow and darken to a maroon. The little shit was going to pay.

He didn't make any noise as he attacked Aragorn. He just literally flew in, his fist landing on the other boy in a flurry of hard, fast blows meant to hurt the recipient enough for him to give the killing blow and claim victory.

He didn't count on Aragorn escaping the blows and countering the attack with a hard kick against his ribs before rushing in, grabbing him by the hair and smashing his face into his knee.

"Fuck!" he hissed a he reached up and dug his nails into Aragorn's wrist.

Aragorn yelped, but he wouldn't let go of the hair, nor did he stop hitting Casey.

He punched and kicked the elf even though the stinging pain in his wrist had turned into a full-scale flame that was licking at his hand and arm as well.

He had drawn blood from the fucker and he wasn't going to give up so easily.

Casey growled and wrenched his fingers down-wards, making nasty gouges in the skin that quickly filled up with blood. Aragorn yelled at the pain, but still kept on fighting. Furious, Casey reached out blindly and dug his nails into whatever exposed flesh he could find.

A kick and a scream later, he found himself free, since Aragorn had pushed him beside a table as he nursed bloody scratch above his eye. He was just about to go tear into him for another round when he heard that lazy, familiar drawl right behind him.

"Still up to your old tricks, Casey?"

Frowning, he turned to see the owner of the voice.

"Legolas." Casey made the elf's name sound like he was saying the dirtiest thing in the world, which made Aragorn's, Duo's and Yohji's hackles rise. But it had no effect on Legolas as he stared at Casey.

"Glad you remembered my name." Legolas replied, his voice calm.

"This isn't your business, Legolas. Go away and bother Boromir some more. After all, you were always hot for the worthless little bitch."

Aragorn growled, a soft low sound that was full of both anger and danger. Duo and Yohji only stood behind the elf, their eyes blank, but their bodies spoke of their readiness to do battle.

"You would say that." Legolas replied, his voice still calm as he spoke. "After all, you always did have to see your own faults in everyone else."

Casey laughed. Right before he grabbed Legolas and punched him deep in the belly with all the strength that he could muster.

"And you always thought you were too good for everyone else," Casey whispered when Legolas fell onto him, his eyes wide with pain as he did so.

Casey frowned when he felt the full weight of the Sindarian elf on him and shoved him away from his person as if he was nothing more than a piece of rubbish he was getting rid of. He watched with a sick satisfaction as Legolas fell bonelessly onto the floor before he turned and faced an attack from his supposedly half-vanquished foe.

"NO!" Aragorn howled just seconds before his fist met with Casey's jaw, making the elf's head snap back from the force of the punch.

"Lee? Shit! LEE!!!" Duo yelled as he knelt beside the elf that had curled himself up into a ball, his arms wrapped tightly around his middle as he moaned in pain.

"What's wrong with him?" Yohji shouted as he effectively grabbed Ezra and shoved him away from where Casey and Aragorn were still struggling with each other.

"I don't fucken know! Do I look like a doctor to you? Fuck man!!" Duo shouted, his dark violet eyes darkening with worry. He looked down at his friend again and saw that Legolas' brown eyes were vacant and his face was ashy and not at all healthy looking.

He didn't want to leave him there to suffer, but he also realized that if he didn't get some kind of help soon, the elf was going to be worse off.

"Lee, listen. Hang on man. I'm going to get some help, okay?" Duo told him as he stroked the golden and black hair to give the elf a small bit of comfort.

But Legolas was so far gone into his pain and fear that he didn't respond.

He just kept on holding himself tightly and praying to the Valar that he wouldn't lose the baby.

Duo had just punched Jonathan in the head and shoved him into the wall for good measure and was now heading for the stairs when he saw them.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Duo sighed before he placed his hands behind his head. Game over.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The phone rang. Once. Twice.

"Hello?" Celeborn answered the phone politely, even though his supper had just been interrupted.

"Hey, Um.. Mr. Lothlorien?" a small, hesitant voice asked, making Celeborn frown.

"Yes? Who is this?" he inquired, not really sure if he wanted to know.

"It's Yohji Kudoh, sir." Celeborn sighed. Yep. He had been right in not wanting to know.

"What happened, Yohji?" He asked patiently. Yohji sighed.

"We got into a bar-fight. Faramir and Legolas got hurt. Legolas worse than

Faramir. And me and Aragorn need for you to come and pick us up from the police station downtown."

Celeborn pinched the bridge of his nose before he replied. "I'll be there in ten minutes, okay Yohji?"

"Okay. Thanks a lot Mr. Lothlorien." Yohji replied gratefully before he hung up.

Celeborn sighed heavily before he hung the phone up and went back into the dining room.

"Who was it?" Celebrian asked as she put a plate of food down in front of Merry.

"Yohji Kudoh."

Celebrian bit her lip before she went to her father. "What happened this time?" she asked softly.

Celeborn frowned as he went to the hall to collect his coat. "Nothing good. I gotta bail him and Aragorn out and go to the hospital." he called out as he pulled on his winter coat.

Celebrian's eyes widened at this terse comment.

"Why? What happened? Was one of the boys hurt?" she asked, knowing full well that whenever Yohji Kudoh called the house, Lee, Boromir and Faramir had been involved in something.

"Lee and Faramir were."

Celebrian swore softly at these news. If Lee had been hurt... she smiled bitterly at the wall. It was sure going to be a Merry fucken Christmas indeed.

Part 15- Let it go

"It's not like you didn't know that

I said I love you and I swear I still do

And it must have been so bad

Cause livin' with me must have damn near killed you"

Nickelback

"You swear you aren't ever doing that again?" Celebrian asked Aragorn as he knelt in front of the toilet puking his guts out.

"Uuh," was the only reply she got as Aragorn wiped his mouth.

"Gowk," she muttered as she flushed the toilet and pulled Aragorn's head out.

"I swear I'm never doing that again," Aragorn moaned as Celebrian scrubbed his face and hands with a wet washcloth.

If he hadn't been so miserable, he would have been terribly embarrassed. But he was too sick and too beat up to care, and he let Celebrian clean him up like he was one of the hobbits. Besides, she probably knew that he wasn't able to do it himself.

On another level, it felt good to have someone take care of him like his mother had, before she divorced herself completely from reality.

"Okay. You're somewhat decent. But you need to take a shower before I can clean up the cuts," Celebrian told him, effortlessly setting him on his feet and unbuckling his belt.

"Hey!" Aragorn yelped, batting Celebrian's hands away. "Stop that!"

Celebrian only smirked at him as she pulled off his shirt and his baggy trousers along with his boxers in a fluid, practised set of movements.

"Oh please, Aragorn. Believe me, I have seen naked guys before! I'm in university, remember? The hot bed of premarital sex and all that. Also, I used to bathe Boromir and Faramir when they were younger. I'm no stranger to this. So shut up and get into the tub. And try not to drown."

Aragorn had no time to say anything in return, since he was in too much shock at being both stripped and told that his boyfriend had also been treated in a similar manner when younger. So he got into the tub and closed the curtain before reaching out to turn on the water.

"I'm coming back in fifteen minutes, so you'd better be clean!"

"Yes mummy!" Aragorn called out, feeling like he had just regressed to age twelve again.

"Brat!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After his shower and first-aid, Aragorn walked stiffly to the bedroom that had become his and Legolas', since the hobbits had made it a habit to sleep with Faramir and Boromir.

"Fuck," he muttered as he flicked on the light of the room.

He was in agony! It was true he felt much better after taking a shower, getting his cuts and bruises dressed and puking up all the alcohol he had drunk; but he was now feeling all the blows and scratches he had taken in the fight.

It was worth it though, Aragorn thought as he pulled on the navy blue t-shirt and boxers he slept in. Sure, he was going to be all colours of the freaking rainbow for weeks afterwards, and chances were that he was going to have scars from Casey's claws, but he had managed to pay the bastard back for what he had done to both Boromir and Lee.

"Fucken bastard," Aragorn muttered as he flicked off the light and crawled gratefully into the bed, where he lay still, looking up at the ceiling while trying his best not to cry.

He hadn't seen Lee since they had wheeled him past on a stretcher as the cops held him down.

He had gotten only a few cryptic messages from Galadriel after he, Yohji and Duo had been dropped off at the Lothlorien's. She had done precious little to ease his worries.

He had also been determined to go himself to the hospital and see his brother, but the alcohol he had consumed had decided to make its presence known, which had led to him paying his respects to Martin of Tours via the porcelain telephone.

So now it was two in the morning and there was no fucken way he'd be able to go and see if Lee was okay. Considering he had no car and he was so stiff he could hardly move, it wasn't going to happen.

Just like he wasn't going to be able to sleep, since he was more than likely going to be worrying over his brother the whole damned night. Tomorrow would constitute his third absence from school; six more and he would have to find another school to graduate from. His father would give him hell from across the ocean just like he did when he was thrown out of Mackenzie Academy.

"Hell." He sat up slowly in bed, and kept still, not wanting to aggravate the bruises on his body. He wished that he had something to help him sleep and kill both the thoughts and the bone-deep aches he was being tormented with.

He thought he should go downstairs and get some pain-killers, but he couldn't force himself to get out of the bed and make the journey. He was just so...empty. So dead tired. His body just wanted to leave the world of consciousness and spend some time re-charging. But his mind was still running around playing with the frayed ends of unfinished thoughts and not giving him any rest. It was going to be one hell of a night.

Groaning, he rubbed his face, wincing when his fingers came in contact with his swollen-shut eye and grabbed a book from his night-table. He was about to flick the lamp on when his room was suddenly flooded by light.

"ARGH! Christ!" he yelled, throwing an arm up to protect what little was left of his sight.

"Shit," a voice whispered before the room was plunged back into darkness.

"Who's there?" Aragorn asked as he lowered his arm.

"It's me. Faramir," a soft voice floated through the darkness before a body settled down on the bed.

"Faramir?" Aragorn squeaked out in shock. What the hell was he doing here?

"I...ah...well.� My ribs hurt. And I'm worried about Lee," he paused and took a shallow breath.

"I couldn't sleep and I was just...wondering if you wanted to talk." There was a long pause and during it, Faramir privately wondered whether it was a good idea to come to Aragorn for comfort after everything that had happened in the bar.

He wouldn't have come to Aragorn for comfort, but he was the closest thing he had to safety at that moment. Unless he wanted to hotwire the car and sneak into Boromir's room at the rehab centre. Which was as possible right now as watching Celeborn do a rendition of "CHE - The Musical" on the dining room table.

He was thinking it was a bad idea, that Aragorn was really mad at him even though things had worked out okay for all of them (Yohji, Duo and Aragorn had gotten off with warnings and Casey had gotten nailed with two counts of aggravated assault causing bodily harm) and that maybe he was expecting too much from the other man. He was about to get up and find some comfort in his cold bed when he heard Aragorn turn the blankets back and turn the lamp on to the dimmest setting possible, bathing the room in a faint light that was enough for them to see by.

"Sure man. Just watch your ribs, okay?"

"Uh. Yeah. Thanks," Faramir replied as he crawled into the warm space.

Once he had settled himself down in a comfortable position, he pulled the blankets up.

"How are you feeling?" he asked Aragorn after several minutes of silence.

"Stiff and sore. I'll give Casey this much: he sure knows how to hit."

Faramir laughed at this, but his laughter turned to a gasp of pain due to his cracked ribs.

"Shit! I'm sorry man! I shouldn't have made you laugh. You okay mate?" Aragorn exclaimed as he sat up and without thinking, put his hand on Faramir's shoulder. He didn't know why he did it. Later, when he thought about it, he realized that maybe there were other ways to have given him comfort. After all, they were some what on strange ground, since they hadn't really resolved the issues that had been brought up in the bar, so maybe touching him wasn't the best idea he'd had in a while.

He didn't plan for what happened next. He was just wanting to give a close friend comfort.

"Yeah. Yeah. It just caught me unawares. Yeah. ." Faramir's voice trailed off as he realized Aragorn had his hand on his shoulder. That realization made him forget what he was going to say and he just sat still as he tried to figure out what he was supposed to do in this situation.

He wasn't upset that Aragorn had taken the liberty. He rather wanted it. Despite what had happened earlier, he needed a bit of physical comfort. The past day had been a total nightmare and his head was swimming from both grief and pain. He honestly felt that he was drowning and Aragorn's touch was like an anchor to keep him from drifting away from everything and everyone.

"Uh...Faramir..." Aragorn was slowly moving his hand away from the younger

man's shoulder, but was stopped by Faramir himself putting his hand on top

of his and pressing it down in place.

"Don't," the younger man hissed.

"I...I...I just thought...that..." Aragorn stuttered, unsure of what the hell

was going on.

"I know what happened between us, Estel." Faramir interrupted his stilted words.

"I am not that much of a fool. I still stand by what I said earlier, but�" he sighed heavily. "I am afraid, Estel. Terribly afraid."

Aragorn swallowed hard at this admission. He too, was awash in his own inner

turmoil and having Faramir admit that he was scared wasn't doing anything to calm the storm that raged inside of himself.

"Why are you afraid?" he asked, his voice low.

Faramir laughed bitterly, a sound made more terrible than it already was by the incongruence of it's source. It wouldn't have been so odd coming from Boromir or Lee. But from Faramir, it was just awful.

Awful and terrible and sad. Almost as if the last bit of the carefully guarded innocence had been violently torn away.

"I'm afraid of losing Lee. Afraid of losing the child. Afraid of losing my brother and you." He laughed again, but the harsh sound ended in a choked sob.

"It's all my fault, that Lee got hurt. All of it. None of this shit would have happened if it hadn't been for me being an asshole and wishing the baby would be gone."

"No!" Aragorn cried, shaking his head at the despair in Faramir's words. "No! That's not true! Lee was hurt by Casey! You had nothing to do with that! Believe me! You can't blame yourself over something that you couldn't have prevented!"

"But I could have done something! I could have prevented everything!" Faramir

cried out passionately.

"How? How could you have done it? Can you tell me that?"

Faramir sighed. "If I hadn't been a prick in the first place, he wouldn't have been in the bar looking for us!"

"Faramir, maybe it's cause I'm really tired, but for some reason, your logic is escaping me here. So I'm going to tell you this. Nothing you could have done would have prevented what happened okay? Nothing," Aragorn told Faramir harshly, his grip tightening on his shoulder as he spoke.

"I'm not trying to be an asshole or make you feel better by giving you some

kind of absolution. I am only telling you the truth as I see it, and what I see is this: you're tired and you're worried about Lee. And that worry is twisting itself like a fine-bladed knife and tearing your guts."

Aragorn's voice got lower as he spoke, recalling his own misery when Boromir had first been injured and when he had heard him say all those things to Celebrian earlier that day.

"The point is that you can't just keep on letting the guilt get the better of you. Especially not when there was nothing that could have been done to prevent it. Believe me, I know that all too well"

Faramir sighed. He knew that he wasn't being fair in dumping that on Aragorn. Considering that the other man was still struggling to reconcile his own emotions at having had helplessly stood by and watched his beloved dealt a horrible blow by fate, and then have that loved one push him away as callously as fate had punished him. But he needed to tell someone of his fears and his darkest worries. One of which was that he had been the catalyst in Legolas' being injured.

"I know that, Estel. I know. And I wish that you didn't have to suffer like that. But I was the one that hurt Legolas because of my bad behaviour. If I hadn't been so vocal about my own fears. If I only had put away my selfish emotions before I had spoken, Lee would have remained safe. I am the only to blame. Even though Casey was the one that did the damage, I was the one that set the whole incident in motion with my selfishness."

Aragorn turned away and rolled his eyes in frustration. God! Could the Denethorsons be anymore stubborn? It seemed that once they got something

stuck in their head, nothing short of a brick would remove it.

Especially when it had to do with them blaming themselves over things that

everyone could see weren't their fault by a long shot. He did like Faramir. He loved Boromir. But dealing with Boromir, Casey and Faramir all in one day had quite simply worn him down and he was more than tempted to search out the brick and put it to good use. First on Faramir's head, then on his brother's.

Maybe then he would be able to get them to see some sense. He didn't want to hurt Faramir, but he wanted the poor little twit to see that he was wrongly blaming himself. So he would do the next best thing.

"You know what, Faramir? Okay. You win. You're bloody well right. You and your brother started all of this. You both are to blame for everything that has happened in our lives for the past four months. And if Lee loses the baby, it's going to be your fault namely because you have this power to cause things to happen only by wishing it. There now. Happy?"

Aragorn fell silent after his outburst. It wasn't a brick, but he figured that it would probably do the trick. Now to wait and see what the results would be. Silence fell and settled over them like a thick blanket that lay undisturbed for several minutes until it was broken by Faramir's quiet voice.

"You know, that really wasn't very comforting, Estel."

Aragorn looked at him, his dark blue eye blinking furiously as he tried to figure out exactly how to reply. Where in the living hell had he gone wrong? Just exactly where?

Faramir returned the stare. He was just terribly sad and confused and Aragorn's sarcastic comments hadn't done anything but to give him a mental "huh?" So they kept on staring at each other until Faramir couldn't take it anymore and did the only thing that a sane person would have done in that situation. He began to laugh.

He laughed until his ribs felt like they were on fire. The whole thing was so ludicrous that he just had to either give into his laughter or just slice his own throat. So he decided to give in to the former and laugh until he couldn't see straight from the pain.

"Well," Aragorn said after the worst of the maniacal laughter had passed.

"It did take your mind off of things though, didn't it?"

Faramir burst into tears before flinging himself into Aragorn's arms.

"Oh shit." Maybe his plan had worked too well.

"Faramir...ehm...look�ah...shit." Aragorn finally gave up the ghost. Maybe

he should practice keeping his big mouth shut. Starting now, he promised himself as he held the crying Faramir, who clung to him as if Aragorn was the last pillar of strength he was positive wouldn't break underneath him.

Biting his lip to stem the useless apologies that came to mind, Aragorn just held Faramir and rubbed his back in small circles until the tempest, as violent as the laughter, passed over him.

Aragorn was nearly dozing when the quiet voice woke him.

The tempest had passed ages ago, leaving Faramir spent, but still sobbing quietly to himself. The sobs had become so low and soft, almost non-existent, that Aragorn was tempted to dislodge Faramir and tuck him into bed to sleep. But every time he had tried to move an inch, Faramir's grip had become stronger. Rather than fight it, Aragorn came to the conclusion that he had two options: One, he could risk pulling Faramir away and damaging what little they had remaining of their friendship or Two, he could just fall asleep holding Faramir and be as stiff as hell tomorrow.

Having opted on the latter, he was just drifting off when Faramir's voice woke him.

"Did Boromir tell you about our father?" Faramir asked, startling him slightly.

"Ehm...no. He just said you guys didn't know about him," Aragorn replied.

"Yeah. We don't," he laughed bitterly. "And no one ever let us forget it. Whenever we would go out with mere, grandmere, people would remind us of it."

He laughed again, but this time, the laugh ended up in a choking sob. "Petit bastardes, they would call us when we would go through the city. Little bastards. Other kids wouldn't play with us. The older ones would make fun of us and call mother a whore. A slut."

He took as much of a deep breath as the bandages around his torso would allow before continuing his sad tale. "Boromir...he tried to fight them. To protect me and mother. But there's only so much that a little kid can do. No matter where we were, people would find out and we would have to deal with it over and over again."

He sniffed and rubbed his aching and swollen eyes to ease the sting that he

felt creeping on them. "I promised myself that I would never subject any child of mine to what my brother and I went through. That if I ever had a child, I would be a father not just in name, but in actions as well."

He sighed and finally pulled away from Aragorn. He turned away from his comfort. He didn't want to see the pity or the pain in his eyes when he spoke the truth that he had just recently seen with such startling clarity.

"When Legolas told me about the child, I said all those things because... well...because I knew that we just weren't really meant to stay together."

Aragorn's breath hitched in his throat when he heard those stark words. He

wasn't hearing them. It was some kind of joke. He wasn't hearing those words. Faramir couldn't mean that. Faramir just couldn't mean them. No. Faramir and Legolas were in love. Faramir couldn't mean them.

"Don't say anything, Aragorn. Don't tell me that I am wrong. I know, dammit!

I know that we just couldn't have stayed together. Not when he belongs with

Boromir."

Aragorn made a noise like a wounded animal.

"Don't say it, Aragorn. Please. Just...don't voice it yet. I know that I am the one that is saying this, but it is also killing me inside to admit it."

He turned around and looked at Aragorn, who had just turned a sickly shade

of white that was visible even in the dim glow of the lamp. "We�we love them. We would die for them. But when it comes down to it, we aren't the ones for them. We were never in the same current as they were. And I guess that even though I always adored Lee, I just seemed to know deep down that I wouldn't be the one to stay with him. To reach him. Just like you knew that Boromir would always be unreachable no matter what you tried to do."

Aragorn raised his hand to his mouth and bit his already bruised knuckles.

Even though it hurt like a bitch, the pain was better than the tearing he was feeling in his chest. A dull, hard pain that made him wonder whether his heart was being torn out. It was just so painful! He could feel tears start in his good eye and he was sure that he was just going to let them spill over. He couldn't stop them. Wouldn't stop them.

"If they love each other, then what do we have left then?" Aragorn asked,

his voice raw.

Faramir lowered his head and looked at Aragorn through his eyelashes.

He hadn't meant to hurt him. He hadn't meant to make him feel like there was

no hope for either of them. He just wanted to let him know why he had acted

the way that he had.

He also just wanted to let him know that...well...things had now completely

changed between them. "Each other, Estel. That's what we have. Each other."

Aragorn looked away. "Will that be enough?"

Faramir reached over and took a hold of Aragorn's face and forced him to look at him. "We can make it be."

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Celebrian walked into the kitchen and was surprised to find her mother and

father, along with the hobbits, eating what looked like breakfast. At two in

the morning.

"Did I just step into the twilight zone or something here?" Celebrian asked as she sat down and poured herself some Orange Pekoe and grabbed some toast.

"They were hungry." Galadriel replied calmly as she spread Nutella on a slice of rye bread and gave it to Pippin, who devoured it without wasting a moment.

Celebrian raised an eyebrow at her mother's calm statement, but said nothing

after she caught her father's warning gaze.

"I guess. I wouldn't know. I haven't met many hobbits at McGill," she replied as she, too, ate.

"Faramir's sleeping?" Celeborn asked as he poured honey in his tea.

"Yeah. He's pretty worn out after everything. Estel is taking a shower right now. I don't think he'll want to eat anything after that," Celebrian replied as she polished off the piece of toast she had in her hand and reached out for another one.

"Any news on Lee yet?" she asked, her mouth full, not noticing the way that the boys pricked their ears up at her question.

"Nothing has changed." Galadriel replied cryptically, making Pippin and Merry's ears droop in disappointment.

They only knew that Legolas was in the hospital after being involved in the

same fight as Faramir and Aragorn. All the adults around them had done their

best to keep any information hidden from them and they had resigned themselves to being kept in the dark until they could glean more information

from a careless remark or overheard conversation.

But so far, they hadn't gotten anything that would tell them the news that

they wanted to hear. All the secrecy was really getting to them though.

It was true that Celeborn and Galadriel were being super nice, letting them

stay up late and eat their favourite food and all that, but it didn't make up for the fact that they were deliberately hiding the truth about Lee's condition from them.

"Hmmph," Celebrian replied as she ate her toast and looked at the hobbits,

who looked back with worried expressions on their sticky faces. "Are they going to bed soon then?"

Galadriel turned and gave the hobbits a cool stare. "Yes. After they finish their food."

Merry and Pippin nodded as they then drank their milk and ate the remnants

of their early breakfast. It was true that they were enjoying the novelty of

being allowed to stay up and eat, but they were getting weary and needed to

crawl into bed, be tucked in and assured that tomorrow was going to be better.

"You want me to tuck you in?" Celebrian asked them. Pippin's eyes were already drooping shut and Merry was about to reply when he was cut off.

"I'll do it." Celeborn put in before he stood up and put his cup in the sink.

"I haven't done it in a while. And I want to talk to the boys."

Galadriel nodded. Celebrian shrugged.

"Okay. Are you taking them to bed now then?" she asked her father.

"Yes. Pippin's going to fall asleep in his plate if he doesn't go to bed now."

Sure enough, Pippin was swaying precariously in his chair while Merry only

watched him with heavy-lidded eyes, suddenly too tired to do anything else.

"Come on, Chibis," Celeborn said as he picked up the two hobbits, who

immediately wrapped their arms around his neck and clung on to him like

limpets.

"They stopped the bleeding," Galadriel suddenly spoke up in the silence that

had fallen between herself and her daughter after the males had left.

"So he's not going to lose the baby?" Celebrian asked as she poured herself

more tea.

"No. He won't. He's going to be alright." Galadriel replied, but her voice was weary.

"So that's good right? He's going to be fine?" Celebrian asked.

Galadriel didn't answer that time though, making Celebrian wonder what else

was going to be thrown at them now that this particular crisis was over.

Notes:

Mackenzie Academy is modeled after Vimy Ridge Academy and it is a military school. Can you picture Aragorn being in one of those schools? He he.

Nutella is a chocolate spread. Not sure if the Americans have it down there.

Martin De tours is the patron saint of drunk people.

Ehm...A very Special Shout out to Kotori, Omittchi, Alex, Robin, Akin, Beth, Nadja, Beryll, Steph, Little Vagabond, Kris and the Usual Suspects that are still with me and still leaving me notes and telling me to write faster.

Ehmm..Thanks a whole lot. I feel special. Just like the kids on the short bus.

NEXT

BACK