A/N: boy am i jumping on this bandwagon late! basically a lovely tooth-rottingly fluffy sam/frodo, post-quest. i hope you like it! :) pleeease, review, it would be so so helpful because this is my first LOTR fic ever and i'd like to know if anything needs improving, if i captured their voices well etc. =)

I don't own any of the characters in this fanfic, and i don't make any money from it either. if i did, i wouldn't be here writing this because it will already have happened :P

No Regrets

I grip the railing of the deck, my hands trembling with a mixture of fatigue, excitement and age... when exactly did I get so old?

The elves sighted the isles about an hour ago; I can barely keep it in, now we're sailing so close to where I can finally rest... and see him again. I certainly hope he remembers me, though why would he, it being such a long time and all. Will he even recognise me? I'm so old, so different... I'll bet he hasn't changed a bit, though.

As we reach port, a kindly elf guides me (what with my failing eyes and such) off the ship. Suddenly, I fancy I can see a bit clearer, perhaps because of the figure standing before me. He smiles and I feel a rush of memory come back to meet me, some good, some bad – but all welcome.

"Sam... my Sam."

"Frodo, sir... it's been such a long time..." I start to get all choked up as I remember that last farewell at the gray havens. He simply takes my hand, as he's done so many times before. As I look down at our intertwined fingers, I realise with a shock that my hands don't look so old no more.

"why, my hands aren't old!" I tell him as he laughs, filling me with joy I haven't felt for a long time.

"Of course not, Sam – it's all different here. You look no different to me than you did when we said our last goodbyes."

I look away for a moment, thinking, then look into his big blue eyes that I never stopped remembering for all of my days. "Mr Frodo, sir?"

"Yes, Sam?"

"I need to tell you this now, sir, before anything else..." I take a deep breath, then blurt it all out in a rush, "I love you, Frodo. Ever since you were stabbed on Weathertop, and I was so sure you was going to die... I could think of nothing else till you were well again – I realised then that I love you more than a friend or a brother rightly should, sir."

"Oh, dear, dear Sam! I love you too... only I realised too late, which I regret. By the time I realised my love for you, the Ring and Gollum too had begun to corrupt me, and my feelings were overshadowed. But now we are together at last, and we shall have no regrets between us!"

I smile shyly at him, feeling a tear of joy running down my face. As we turn our faces towards the setting sun, we turn our backs on Middle Earth forever. Frodo leans over as we begin to walk and gives me a sweet, chaste kiss on the lips.