By: Dana
Summary: Diamond comforts Estella.
Characters: Estella and Diamond
Pairings: Pairings: Estella/Diamond, by the series, but the story itself is gen
Rating: PG
Warnings: Femslash, slash, het, but rather gennish all the same
Author's Notes: After Estella has words with Ruby in Walking Through Shadow, this is what happens.
For rubynye, with love.
Series Index: Roads Go On and Years Go By.
Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with J.R.R. Tolkien or New Line Cinema. Any and all characters and situations that have been borrowed are for the author's personal use only, and for the entertainment of others.

Estella picks up her skirts, runs full-force - and Diamond is forced to do the same, running down the hall, gasping apologises as she does, running into one hobbit and then another. Estella doesn't go far, taking herself to her own room, opening the door and slamming it with such force that Diamond feels it, the ripples of it, from halfway down the hall.

She goes to the door, knocks lightly, then stands, waiting for Estella to call her in - but Estella does not, and through the thick wood, Diamond hears Estella's sobbing. Steeling herself, she opens the door, and heads into the room.

Estella is a mess on the floor, knees pulled close, head bent forward, shaking as she sobs. Diamond frowns, a wave of such pain washing over her that she feels she might drown. She shuts the door, steeling herself once more, and then walks to Estella, kneeling, and wrapping her arms about her, and held her like that, loosely, but secure.

'Cry it out, Ella,' she says. 'Cry it out, and you'll feel better for having allowed yourself that.'

Estella pulls her hands up, presses them against her face, and her sobs sound dull now, and Diamond did nothing but hold her. And soon, Estella's sobs dulled further, to small whimpers, and the heat or her anger, her raw grief, had flew her, and left her empty, cold.

'Oh, I'm a terror,' she says, her voice raw from weeping, from sobbing hard. 'I should not have spoken like that, not to Ruby - she's a friend, a friend to both Freddy and myself, and I...' She snuffles, then pulls one of Diamond's arms lose, and rests her damp face against it. 'I feel like a monster, a brute. I shouldn't have shouted like that. I shouldn't have-' But she says nothing more, her face cool against Diamond's arm. Then Diamond reorders them both, before her arm is given a chance to cramp - still, after that, still sitting on the floor, she wraps Estella once more in her arms.

'It wasn't you,' she says, running fingertips down Estella's cheek, to the curve of her chin. Estella's tilts her head back, eyes glinting, lashes damp, and she opens her mouth, just slightly - so, Diamond has no choice, really, but to shut her eyes, and press Estella's mouth with a kiss.

Estella makes a small sound, which then fades to a whimpering moan. They kiss a while longer, deep and sweet and warm, and for all that Estella's kiss tastes of her tears, Diamond cherishes it, for that.

'Tell me who Rosemary was,' she says, softly, afterwards, and Estella startles, her eyes gone round.

'I hadn't ever - I had hoped - it isn't fair, and I never told you about her, for I never thought... I always thought I might bring you to Buckland, after things stopped being so troubled, that you might meet her, and then we might all be the best of friends. Rosemary was my kissing-friend, at one time, and one of my two favourite Brandybucks... she was mine first, and then Freddy's, and I always thought that I would marry Merry, and she would marry Freddy, and we would...' She stops, bites her lip to keep herself from saying too much - or, perhaps, she bites her lip to keep her from crying anew.

'Stop that,' Diamond says gently - Estella does, relenting, and Diamond kisses her mouth, sucks slowly on her lower lip. 'What was she like? And how did she die?'

It seems blunt, almost, a hard blow, but Estella nods, slowly, and tells her - how Rosemary was sweet, and wicked, and stubborn, even for a Brandybuck - and then, her voice shaking as she did, she told Diamond how Rosemary had been murdered. 'I didn't know 'til after I came back, after - I didn't know. But Freddy hadn't known, either, and...' She shakes, presses her lips together, and Diamond cradles her face, kisses the tense line of her lips, her cheeks, her nose, and then her brow. Estella's breath puffs out, and she collapses in Diamond's arms.

'I miss her. I'll never forget her. But I hope it doesn't always hurt like this, so fresh, so new.' She clings to Diamond, then, arms about her, cheek against cheek. 'I'm sorry you lost your brother.'

'And I'm sorry you lost your friend,' Diamond says. 'But we'll do as we must, and remember them - and love them, perhaps more now, for them being gone. I think it's best we...'

'Yes?' Estella's breath stirs, warm, against her cheek.

'We need to live for them,' Diamond says, looking Estella eye to eye. 'It might seem foolish, saying it like that - but it's what we must need do, for the sake of their memory, and for the sake of the years we've left to live.'

Estella nods, slowly, and leans once again into Diamond's embrace.