After a Kiss (and before another)

rated g, 200 words
sammie/del/peony
lord of the rings/pretty good year

Well. Isn't that something, he thinks, as he finds it oddly compelling, watching them as they argue no, now they're wrestling, Del with a hand fisted in Peony's copper-bright hair, Peony shrieking again as she angles her leg and kicks, and Del grunts, startled, and Peony is able to use that moment to roll her over and, quite effectively, keeps her pinned.

rated g, 400 words
frodo, maglor
lord of the rings/silmarillion

It seems that you have seen him, before, walking at the water, though only in dream. He walks alone he is always alone dark and drifting, like something made of shadow, or song. And he does song music follows him, and some, something ageless, something beyond all time, something so haunting, and so hurting, that you feel it bleeding into bone.

rated g, 832 words
del, sammie
lord of the rings/pretty good year

"Crow, get up."

Sammie grunted softly, more asleep than not, and wanting nothing more than to be left alone; but his slumber had been disturbed, by a whisper, nothing more, and the bed wasn't so comfortable, suddenly, and the covers were suddenly too cool. He rolled over, pulling the pillow over his head; that soft, insistent voice was still at his ear, and would not be deterred.

"Crow, I know you're awake. Get up."

Sammie groaned and opened one eye, slowly, and shifted so that his face wasn't pressed against his pillow; he found his sight filled with Del and her looming face, as she was leaning in very, very close. "See, I told you so," she said, smugly, with a whisper and a wicked grin. "Come on, now. I couldn't sleep."

rated g, 641 words
daisy, sammie
lord of the rings/pretty good year

"Crow, get up."

Sammie grunted softly, more asleep than not, and wanting nothing more than to be left alone; but his slumber had been disturbed, by a whisper, nothing more, and the bed wasn't so comfortable, suddenly, and the covers were suddenly too cool. He rolled over, pulling the pillow over his head; that soft, insistent voice was still at his ear, and would not be deterred.

"Crow, I know you're awake. Get up."

Sammie groaned and opened one eye, slowly, and shifted so that his face wasn't pressed against his pillow; he found his sight filled with his sister Daisy, who was leaning in very, very close. "See, I told you so," she said, smugly, with nothing more than a whisper. "Now get up. We haven't much time."

rated g, 1,221 words
del, sammie, peony
lord of the rings/pretty good year

If you were watching the pair it would look as though Sammie Gardner was following Delphinium Grubb into town, but it was truly the other way around. It had taken some skill and a considerable amount of time for her to cut, unseen, cross country to appear, innocently, on the road ahead of him but she had managed it. She made a show of noticing him before sticking her nose in the air and turning back to the dirt track.

rated g, 200 words
frodo, sammie
lord of the rings/pretty good year

Silence drifts in open air. Sunlight falls, cold, at Frodo's feet.

rated pg, 900 words
rosie/sam/frodo
lord of the rings/pretty good year

They're dancing now, out under the imagined emptiness of the star-splattered sky; Rosie, with flowers and ribbons in her done up hair, wearing a fine party dress of dark gold and green with a wide skirt that flares about her legs; Sam, dressed up in his very best dress-coat and trousers, faded-gold curls shining with a dull yellow-green in the darkness and the light. Frodo sits on the long garden bench, cradling Elanor close; he holds her gently, in a light bundle of warm blanket, as careful as he would as though he were holding the very finest of elven treasures.

rated g, 100 words
bilbo-lad, robin
lord of the rings/pretty good year

Being the second-most-youngest of fourteen children has advantages, and disadvantages, as well: he almost always gets his way, and he almost always has to do as his elder siblings say.

rated g, 100 words
sam
lord of the rings/pretty good year (east of the sun)

Sam is certain that Frodo had meant to leave it behind if only because it had been far too easy to find. Tucked away carefully, on a bed of blue velvet in a dusty old box that had been hidden in the recesses beneath Frodo's bed.

rated g, 467 words
del, others
lord of the rings/pretty good year

They've been out in the sun and the water all day and now they're resting near the shore, breathing heavily. Sammie laughs, poking Aster in the side. She laughs and pokes him back and the two descend into a tickling fit. Del simply sighs and shakes her head and thinks they're children, even as Merry-lad pushes Frodo-lad into the water. There's a tremendous surge of sound and the Mayor and the Mistress laugh as their children splash about and Elanor shakes her head and Rose-lass shrieks as Frodo-lad slings a clump of mud her way.

rated g, 235 words
sammie, daisy, meli, molly, del, aster
lord of the rings/pretty good year

Sammie lies on his back, arms folded neatly under his head, eyes closed. The clouds pass by overhead but he's too far gone to see.

rated g, 564 words
bilbo-lad
lord of the rings/pretty good year

"Why is the grass green?" he'll ask his da first, and if there's a hobbit that knows, then it will be his Da. Next he'll wonder why this flower is blue when this flower is a softer shade of plum. And his Da will laugh and answer him, smiling, and will ask his son if he'd like to help him work in the gardens. And the boy will want to, setting his rag doll dragon down in the dirt. "What can I do to help?" he'll wonder and his Da will show him how to weed and they'll laugh and his Da will tell him stories, too, the best sort, with dragons and elves and fair maidens, too. The day will pass by and the sun will warm their backs until its dinnertime and the sun is sinking into the West.

rated g, 100 words
elanor
lord of the rings/pretty good year

Her mother has a story for everything it seems; she has more stories than there are stars in the sky. There are happy ones, and there are sad ones, and then there are the ones that make Elanor think. Would it have been fair, she wonders, if Winter had been able to cut himself free. Autumn, Spring, and Summer might have missed him, but it would have been awfully brave of him to go off all alone.

rated g, 560 words
sammie, del, aster
lord of the rings/pretty good year

There's ink on Sammie's fingers and when he rubs his cheek in thought, the ink spreads across pale skin like shadowy smudges. Theres a funny look on Dels face as she watches Sammie, perched on the end of his bed, staring at him and the way his back is hunched over.

rated pg, 810 words
rosie/sam/frodo, merry/pippin
lord of the rings/pretty good year

The summer night was warm, a million and one stars shining like bright jewels in the sky. There were probably more, so that statement held a certain sense of inadequacy, a falsehood that could not be proven right or wrong. There were probably more stars than just that in the heavens above. One could never be sure, or so they were wont to say, when it came to the stars.

rated g, 241 words
primrose, ruby, bilbo-lad
lord of the rings/pretty good year

"Once upon a time, there was an Elf named Gil-Galad and he was a King. And there was another Elf and his name was Cirdan and he liked to make ships. And they were both boys but that didn't stop them from pledging their love and they kissed a lot and they did lots of schmoopy stuff and they decided that would exchange rings and..."

rated g, 700 words
berethor/boromir implied, berethor/idrial implied
lord of the rings: the third age (video game)

He dreams, but they are not dark dreams, nor are they unpleasant. They leave him with a sense of peace. Still, for Berethor a Man of Gondor, a Captain of the Citadel Guard, a soldier serving under the banner of the Steward, and his son these dreams are almost worrisome, filling him with both a longing whose name he can't quite place, and the uncertainty of an almost tangible dread.

rated g, 100 words
pippin, death
lord of the rings/sandman

He might be old, and his eyes might be tired, but he sees the girl clearly, hair black like clotted night, skin pale like new spring. He does not know her, should he? When she smiles, he knows her better than if he had been given her name.

rated g, 200 words
tweener!elanor
lord of the rings/pretty good year

She isn't going to cry. She's twenty-three, now, and she's old enough to know that you don't cry for no good reason, and she definitely has no good reason to cry. Merry-lad, or Pip-lad, they might laugh at her, if she did; but they're allowed to, she thinks, if only because they're still young. If they did, mum would chide them, but Elanor knows that would only do it again.

rated g, 200 words
frodo, delirium
lord of the rings/sandman

Having lived so long with Bilbo, Frodo has heard all the jokes - old Mad Baggins, living up on the hill. Only, now, he's not with Bilbo, and he's not at Bag End - this place, with scraping bare rock and dead grey ash and dreams and fading hope and the voices -

rated pg, 524 words
merry/pippin
lord of the rings/pretty good year

The sun was warm, the sky wide and blue. So wide and blue it wasn't hard at all to believe it went on forever, even for a sleepy hobbits whose ponies were tied not so far away, a sleepy hobbit who was set to meet with his family in Hobbiton. Yawning, Merry rubbed at his eyes, for the most part still asleep, for the most part having lost track of the time. "Pip?" He called, but there was no answer. "Pip, where are you?"

rated g, 638 words
sammie, daisy
lord of the rings/pretty good year

Sometimes he has dreams, dreams where he doesn't seem to belong. Dreams where he knows he doesn't exist; he feels bad for Daisy for having left her alone. He doesn't know how she can get along with out him. Somehow she manages, and when he wakes he wonders: does she ever think about him?

rated g, 840 words
sammie, peony, del
lord of the rings/pretty good year

Sammie rubs at his cheek and yawns. Peony tilts her head and pushes a braid back over her shoulder. "Hullo there, Sammie," she says, long having noted the dark shadows under Sammie's eyes. He gives a nervous twitch and turns so he can see her. He grins, then shaking his head.

rated pg, 810 words
rosie/sam/frodo
lord of the rings/pretty good year

He scrambled through the front door of Bag End, slamming the door behind him even as he slid hard to his knees. Getting up, Sam gasped and pressed all of weight to the door, his heartbeat thundering in his ears. That's it, it's all right... they're gone, they're gone. Why! Rose and Frodo would never believe --