Title: Once More into the Breach
Author: Susana
Series: Desperate Hours
Warning: AU; Not what it sounds like. A Thanksgiving story rather than a Remembrance story. Thanksgiving in the U.S. is tomorrow (or today), and it's one of those holidays that can inspire a mix of sentiments.
Disclaimer: All recognizable elements are Tolkien's
Summary: Sometimes having family come to visit can be an exercise in patience, even if you are the Steward of Gondor.
A/N: Takes place in about Fourth Age Year 12.
Aragorn found his oldest son, the Steward of Gondor, leaning up against the edge of a balcony just outside the noisy long gallery. Faramir was looking up at the stars, while behind them their family and friends celebrated the harvest festival with joyful abandon. The scents of food and the warmth of fires seeped out the balcony doors into the cold, crisp night, seeming to beckon them both inside. A siren call which Faramir seemed intent to ignore, for the moment.
Before the King could ponder what would be best to say, or even consider offering Faramir a pipe for the mere amusement he took from the ritual of Faramir's refusing it with a polite expression that hid a grimace of distaste, Faramir spoke, "I love my Mother Finduilas' kin. I do. But to some of them," most specifically his aunt Ivriniel and her household, " I am always...ten years old. It is frustrating."
Aragorn huffed a laugh. "That never changes, ion-nin. One just has to do one's best to bear it with dignity. A mental balancing act at which you excel, I might add."
Faramir turned to smile at his father, his eyes quicksilver in the starlight. "I have had a good teacher, I think. These last few years."
"I would think that having dealt with a household of folk older than me by several millenia each would have given me a fair amount of perspective." Aragorn agreed dryly, clapping Faramir gently on the shoulder in thanks for the compliment.
"I only wish that I'd been there when you told Lord Elrond that he had to either deal with your decisions as Chieftain of the Dunedain, or you'd stop keeping him informed of them." Faramir remarked in a whimsical tone.
Aragorn threw his head back and laughed, long and loud. "At the time, I thought that my foster-Adar would kill me with his gaze alone," the King of Men confessed to his son, "But Elrohir and Elladan stood beside me, and in the end it was Adar who backed down." Sobering, Aragorn added, "Your aunt and her folk have little control over you or your actions, and no right to even be informed of many of them. Perhaps that is what make their frustration greater. Their world is changing, and you are one of the authors of that change, but to her you are still the same young boy whom she helped learn to sail."
"Ivriniel's daughter is barely on speaking terms with her." Faramir related quietly, "I can not but think that even as we give great thanks for the pains our elders took to raise us, and the love and care they gave us, we can still hope to amend those habits of our parents' which we found detrimental in our relations with them, in the relationships we have with our own children."
"That is my hope, as well." Aragorn agreed, a quiet supportive presence in the darkness. For several minutes, the two men stood in companionable silence, glad for their accord, the understanding between them that made the burdens upon each seem somewhat lighter. At length, Faramir sighed again, before squaring his shoulders.
"Once more into the fray, my dear one." Aragorn encouraged Faramir, a hint of teasing in his tone as he added, "We are only just past the dinner. Dessert is yet to come."
Faramir rolled his eyes at his father, "It's not as bad as all that, Adar. But I do think it is true what Lady Ynithe says about family."
"I'd have a lot of bad things to say about family, too, if my maternal grandmother was old Ioreth, the harpy of Lossarnach." Aragorn commented, with an irreverent grin.
"Ioreth was quite something, from your stories and Uncle Imrahil's, not to mention Ynithe's." Faramir agreed, "But having the whole lot here without a council or a new birth or a wedding to distract them, much as I love them, still makes me feel it is true that, 'Family is a happiness coming and going; You're happy to seem them come; and you're happy to see them go."*
Aragorn chuckled softly at that, and the two turned from the quiet, star-strewn cold, and walked back into the welcoming and stifling atmosphere of the party going on at the King's House.
"Faramir, darling, when your father ran the Citadel, there was a proper display of fealty and deference to Numenorean traditions throughout the entire Harvest Festival, and not on just the first and last day!" Princess Ivriniel complained sharply as she found Aragorn and Faramir.
"Aunt Rinie!" Crowed the delighted voice of Haleth, Faramir's youngest daughter, "Look! I caught the biggest bug over there by the windows! Isn't he fine? He has eight eyes and huge wings and a sharp beak, and I think he likes you!"
Princess Ivriniel shrieked, as Haleth's latest find attempted to show its apparent fondness for the Princess by taking up lodging in her hair. Faramir, observing this, remarked very, very quietly to his father, "Children truly are a blessing."
Through a truly impressive act of will, Aragorn did not laugh at the situation. Instead, he attempted to help Ivriniel and her husband to corral the truly unsightly (and unseasonable) bug, while Faramir consoled Haleth on the probably loss of her new friend, and counselled her on the sad fact that not everybody appreciates all creatures as much as Haleth, Theodwyn, and Uncle Elladan.
"Oh!" Exclaimed Lord Elladan with cheerful relief, "There he is! Who found my best cockroach! Without him, I'd definitely fall behind schedule on testing bug repellents for crops. I have promised a reward for him." Elladan gently scooped the huge, agitated cockroach out of Ivriniel's blond curls. "And not even a wing damaged! What a dapper fellow you are." Elladan praised his test subject, cupping it gently in his hand.
Aragorn and Faramir exchanged a look, and did their best not to laugh. "Moments like this..." Aragorn related softly, "I was glad to have been present for so many holidays with my foster-family, because moments like this...you can look back on them forever and smile."
"And they give you common ground with other kin." Faramir agreed, looking first at Alphros, Eldarion, Arwen, Imrahil, Erchirion, and Ynithe, sitting together near the fire, and trying not to laugh, and then at Haleth, Theodwyn, and little Gilwen, cooing over the disgusting bug in Elladan's hand, to Elladan's evident pride. With a soft, barely-there smile, Faramir continued, "Common ground and memories that can you tie you together later, when fate rends the fabric of your life apart."
Aragorn picked up a glass of wine from a tray, and lifted it in toast, "To family."
Nodding, Faramir drank to that. Family could drive you crazy, but they could also help you stay sane.
End Note:
* I believe that I am paraphrasing this saying from somewhere, but I can't find where, so please consider it paraphrased from anonymous.
In any case, Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it, and I hope that everyone has a happy and safe week!