After Elijah had done the proper stretching, he sat in the sun and plucked some grass while Dom and Billy conversed a few feet away. He didn’t bother wondering what they were up to, as they always gave him a hard time no matter what; the only thing that scared him was the fact that Dom had that mischievous grin on his lips that was usually only reserved for the trickiest of tricks. Bloody bastards, Elijah thought, they’ll probably try and screw up my rhythm today and I’ll loose again.

Wait, this wasn’t even a real game. Why was he getting so into it?

A little nagging voice in his head told him it was because it’s his most favorite game in the world, and even if it’s fake and made up only to confuse him, it’s still the most fun.

“Where’s bloody Orlando?” Elijah asked, jumping up from his comfortable spot on the grass. He was ready to get the game going; if there was anything Elijah hated in the world, it was waiting for Orlando to fix his hair, and making the start of the game later than it was supposed to be.

Billy and Dom both shrugged and turned back to one another, continuing to speak in low voices.

“What are you guys talking about?” He took a few steps closer to the pair, and they stopped talking abruptly. “What are you planning to do to me?”

“Throw you in the lake?” Billy suggested, grinning cheekily.

“There isn’t a lake,” Elijah replied blandly. “And that’s a little below your standards, isn’t it?”

“No,” Dom smiled. “Here comes Orli. Oh, look, he’s brought a hobbit with him.” They all turned to look, and had to squint against the sun to see.

“That’s not a midget,” Billy laughed. “In comparison to Orlando’s tallness, cough, he’s just shorter.”

“What was that cough for?” Elijah questioned, looking confused.

“Because Orli thinks he’s rather tall, but he’s not. John is so much taller.”

“Like, a whole two inches or something,” Dom threw in for good measure. “ORLI!”

Orlando waved and he and the ‘hobbit’ began running towards them. “Hullooooo,” Orlando greeted, smiling happily and hugging them all in turn.

“You look oddly familiar,” Elijah said to the stranger, “Have you ever dated my sister?”

The hobbit stranger laughed; interestingly enough, he was taller than Elijah and Billy, and about the same height as Dom, so he wasn’t really a so-called hobbit. “No, I don’t think so.”

Elijah, unsatisfied with this answer, turned to Orlando and became all business-like, “What have you got here, Bloom?”

“This is Zac,” Orlando said, “I met him at a premiere a couple nights ago and invited him to play Tig. I know how Billy and Dom love fresh meat, and he happily volunteered.”

“You’re a Hanson,” Elijah stated evenly, giving Zac the once over. “You sing ‘MMM Bop’.”

“Among other things, yes,” Zac replied conversationally. “Now, how do we play Tig?”

“You don’t want to be introduced?” Orlando asked him quizzically.

Zac shrugged, “I don‘t need to know whose asses I‘m about to kick.”

Billy let out a loud, “OH HO! A real gamer!”

Zac laughed and then bowed, “At your service.” This caused Elijah to raise an eyebrow, and Billy and Dom to laugh loudly.

Orlando cleared his throat. “Yes. Well. That’s Elijah. Wood. Billy Boyd and Dom Monaghan. Hobbits.”

“Nice to meet you,” he replied, nodding to each of them. “So, what are the rules of this game?”

Dom made a face, “There aren’t rules, per se; they’re more like guidelines.”

Billy took over then, sounding excited, “And there’s so many, that it’s easiest not to say them at the beginning of a game. We’d rather say them as we go along.”

“But then there’s no chance of me winning,” Zac stated, putting his hands on his hips and staring at them all.

“Exactly,” Elijah whispered, grinning mischievously. Dom elbowed him in the stomach and he doubled over, wheezing, “Yes, there is! I won many times and I didn’t know the rules!”

“That’s a lie; he’s never won,” Dom laughed. Elijah hit Dom in the back of the shins, because that was the only body part he could reach from his position; Dom shrieked and fell backwards onto the grass. Billy, Orlando and Zac were coughing with suppressed laughter.

Billy took a deep breath, “Okay. To make it fair, you tig someone. Or you tog, or tag someone. That’s pretty much the most important bit. The other bits fall into place after you do something illegal.”

“Illegal?” Zac questioned, sounding as if this were a completely bogus suggestion.

“Yeah, like tigging someone younger than you. Or togging someone older than you when you’ve just been tagged. Or, even tagging Dom directly after I‘ve just togged you. OR! If you tig Elijah, and he goes and tags Orlando, you have to do a ballet twirl.”

Zac was seemingly trying to commit all this new information to memory, but couldn’t seem to keep up with it all. “Um. Okay.”

“Fantastic!” Orlando yelled, clapping his hands. “Let’s start!” Orlando bounced around Elijah’s recumbent position and poked Dom in the stomach. “TOG!”