Author: Inquisitive
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: Tolkien owns the house; I just like to play in his backyard.
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A/N: For Katt, who wrote me a truly wonderful story. Now I can return the favor. Warning, contains spanking, if this bothers you please do not read further. Thank you!

Just because you know something's coming, it doesn't make it any easier to bear. I can't blame him really, and at least I'm free of the wretched houses of healing. Honestly though, you'd think that defeating the one being that no man could slay would count for something. I guess I should count my lucky stars that he actually waited until I was back on my feet. But, like I said, I knew it was coming. My big brother has always watched out for me and, truth be told, I deserved it.

It started this morning; I was finally given leave to stay in a room by myself without a healer checking on me every five seconds.
As soon as I left the houses of healing, I headed for the gardens. My blissful freedom lasted all of nine minutes. It was then that Eomer found me and I was 'escorted' to the rooms I would be using until we journeyed back to Rohan.

Silent and brooding is my brother's natural state of being, so when he began making pleasant small talk, I knew I was in trouble.
As soon as the door to my chamber closed, it was like an arrow that had been straining against a bowstring had been loosed. My brother, usually stern but kind, looked fit to kill. I in fact, took an involuntary step back just to distance myself from the ire pouring off of him.

This was going to be bad.

"You disobeyed a direct order." he said quietly, just like him to get right to the point with no preamble.

"I know." I answered, knowing that it sounded willful even as the words left my mouth.

"Why did you do it?" He asked, his voice quavering with suppressed emotion. Much of which was anger, but there was something else as well.

"I could not stand by and watch the people I love fight a battle that was mine as well, without me." I answered. I knew my reasons for going... and my reasons for staying even when I was most afraid. I knew that if I had it to do again, I would have made the same choices.

"That is not the entire reason." He growled, I opened my mouth to protest, but he continued before I ever had the chance. "You would have rather had me watch my little sister die than be left behind!" He was shouting now, and his hand came down sharply on a table near the bed making me flinch.

I could feel warm tears straying down my face, but I ignored them. How could my own brother think me so selfish, so petty?

"What would you have done, had it been you being left behind?" My voice was rough with tears, and I wiped my eyes impatiently. He looked at me for long moments, his dark eyes locked with mine. If it was a staring contest he wanted, he would get one. I refused to look away first.

Apparently he had taken the few minutes we simply stared, to calm himself, for his next words were near whispers.

"What would I have done if I had lost you Eowyn? How could I stand to lose the only member of my family I have left? How could I have lived with myself knowing that if I had been paying a little more attention I could have protected you?" And then my brother did something I had not seen him do for many years. My brother, the new king of our realm, began to cry. Something he had not done since the passing of our mother.

I went to him at once, tears coursing down my own cheeks, and he put his arms around me and held me to him. I was as though a dam had broken, and all the anguish he felt came flooding out. First our parents, now our cousin, our uncle and king, countless men, and myself, lying unconscious on the battlefield. All the misery of the past few months was purged in that moment.

I knew then that I would receive any punishment he chose to bestow upon me and thank him for it.

He gathered control of himself slowly, and by the time he had straitened up again, he was back to his stoic self once more.

"I love you little sister." His voice cracked slightly, "I will never allow you to endanger yourself in such a reckless way ever again." I nodded once and he sat on his bed and pulled me to his side.

I have not been over someone's knee in some number of years, though not as many as I would have hoped, and the position itself was startling. Much worse were the feelings sliding their way through my stomach. Too many emotions to count, all tangled up and writhing around. He folded my skirts up onto my back and slid my undergarments down to my knees, leaving me utterly exposed and mortified.

He wasted no time starting in on me, and I gasped as the first blow fell heavily. It's amazing how easy it is to forget the feeling of a spanking. You know deep down that you ought to know what it feels like, but you can never really remember until you are experiencing it again. I was suddenly glad for my time in the houses of healing, for surly he would have been inclined to use more than just his hand had I been in any condition to endure it.

The blows rained down, one on top of another. My brother is the most methodical man in all of Middle Earth. He spanks the same spot several times before moving on to the next, leaving no skin untouched. A fiery heat built quickly, and for all my efforts, I could not keep in the gasps that began to fall from my lips. Nor could I stop my legs from jerking as his hand sought out the tender crease, which he knew from experience was the most painful area.

I had already been crying when he started, now I had escalated to sobs, they tore the air from my lungs and I pulled in ragged breaths, trying to slow my breathing, but remaining unable. My nose was running, but I did not have a thought to spare for it. I was preoccupied with what my brother was doing to my lower half.

"What is this punishment for little sister?" He asked calmly but seriously. I knew him; he really wanted to be sure I understood why he was doing this. But now was not a good time to ask, I could barely get enough air for breathing, much less talking. Not to mention the fact that all coherent thought had fled some time ago.
But Eomer was insistent, focusing his energies toward harder swats, the sting of which took far too long to fade.

"Disobeyed..." I gasped, the best I could, "disobeyed direct o-o-orders." He used less force now, for which I was eternally grateful.

"Good," He said, "what else?"

"I risked m-my life." I stammered, crying out my shame into the bedclothes beneath my face.

"Never again Eowyn." He said sternly.

"N-no ne-nev-er." I choked out, collapsing and letting him do as he pleased with no resistance. I was exhausted both physically and emotionally, and I didn't know how much more I could take.
Fortunately Eomer seemed to read my mind, for, with a few last solid swats, he stopped and started rubbing my back slowly.

"I love you Eowyn," He repeated. "You are my sister, the only family I have left. If I had lost you..." He trailed off. I shifted so I was facing him, and threw my arms around him again.

"But you did not lose me Eomer. I am here, and I am safe, and we are together." He held me so tight that breathing had once again become a difficulty, and it was a long while before either of us cared to let go of the other. When we did, he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

"No matter where you are, or who you are with in the future, you will always hold the biggest place in my heart little sister." He said, bringing fresh tears to my eyes. He lifted me easily and placed me on my side in the bed. As I began to drift off, I could hear him as he sat propped against the headboard watching over me. He was singing softly. A song I had not heard in ages, it was one our father used to sing to us when we were very young. I smiled into the growing dampness on my pillow, and I slept.

The End.