By: Dana
Summary: Four vignettes: the meeting, the courtship, the engagement, and the wedding of Ben Tunnelly and Orchid Goodbody.
Characters: OC-fest: Ben Tunnelly and Orchid Goodbody (and others)
Pairings: Ben/Orchid
Rating: G
Warnings: Het, Tunnelly Love
Author's Notes: A companion piece to slightlytookish's A Fine Match, borrowing her Tib and Opal, of course. Ben and Orchid, though, are mine. The Original Character Exchange Program is love. So are Tunnellys (even when they weren't Tunnellys).
♥
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.

          I. SR 1378

His name was Ben Tunnelly, and Orchid met him quite unexpectedly at Great Smials (and her having come all the way from Michel Delving). At their meeting, Ben smiled, and she rather liked his smile – but found herself somewhat puzzled at it, as well. There was just something about it, something she couldn't quite explain...

Orchid knew her cousin, Opal Burrows, had connected herself with another Tunnelly, and one that just so happened to be Ben's brother, Tib. And so Orchid found herself wondering if Opal knew anything of Ben. It was quite possible, and she'd not been able to meet him properly at all. Of course, once she had time to speak with her (as Opal was often very busy, or away), Opal couldn't tell her what she wanted. She didn't know Ben well at all, and if Orchid thought there was something about his smile, something to better acquaint herself with, then she'd need to see to that herself.

It was a bold thing, going to Applegrove, hoping that Ben wouldn't turn her away. But she went, and he didn't, and felt quite strange, but settled, as he led her inside: welcomed home, by Ben and his smile.

          II. SR 1379

She considered him her friend first, and her cousin after that (there was a connexion, on both their mother's sides, through Isembold and Margot Took): that he had the most perfect smile she'd ever seen, well, she never did think much on that. And he was her friend, and her cousin, but she didn't him anything more than that. Still, she was very glad to have him in her life, and his friendship too, of course. In the spring of 1379, she spent a week at Applegrove, with her brothers. Ben, they said, was a strange hobbit with connexions far away, off in Bree. They wouldn't want him running back to Bree, and taking Orchid as well.

Well, she'd not be running off to Bree. She'd rather run off to Applegrove, and it wasn't as though her brothers wouldn't know where to find her.

Ben spent time at their family smial in Michel Delving, as well, but Orchid never felt right, so far from Applegrove. She went there in the autumn of the year, and he smiled at her as he always did, and they danced together, just like a pair of foolish tweens, beneath the out in the orchard.

          III. SR 1380

It was unexpected, catching Opal's wedding flowers, but Orchid's arms had simply acted of their own. Then she looked at Ben, and he at her, and it was in that moment that she knew she loved him, that she had somehow loved him all along.

They were walking together, after Opal and Tib had gone off, when it was dark out and the party was nearing its end. They went hand in hand, through the orchard, though to Orchid that seemed like an afterthought of sorts.

And she looked at him, and she knew she loved him, and it seemed so simple and so right that she did not doubt her heart for a moment. And she had known him for ever now, it seemed, and she didn't think he would think it off at all. She told him that she loved him, and Ben answered her the same, and he didn't quite ask her to marry her, but told her he would be quite happy to do.

And she told him that nothing would make her happier, and it was true. They said a Midsummer wedding was considered lucky, but a Midsummer engagement was luckier than even that.

          IV. SR 1381

Another wedding at Applegrove, on Midsummer's day. Orchid's family came from Michel Delving, and family of Ben's had come, once more, all the way from Bree. Pearl Goodbody, Orchid's mother, complained about the state of the wind, and how it would ruin her hair. It would do no such thing, Orchid told her mother, and kissed her on the cheek. Then she thanked her, for everything. Orchid had worried, overmuch, throughout the year. There'd been times when she thought her parents – her mother more than her father – wouldn't think Ben good enough for their only daughter. And it was understandable, Orchid knew. She was three years off her coming of age.

Orchid's brothers had worried, had thought she might run away to Bree. And she would have, if it was needed, though they would have to make their way back to Applegrove, somehow.

Opal and Tib were there, though there had been some uncertainty – they were often, so very busy, after all. Opal was radiant, all but glowed in her pregnancy.

And Orchid and Ben were both quite in love, and quite happily married. She hardly felt changed. From their first meeting, Ben had always felt to her like home.