The moment that they were back within the palace walls and got cleaned up and changed into clean clothing so that they could go and seek out food and drink, Aragorn, and Sara were making their way into the dinning hall where dinner was about to be served when they both spied the hobbits.

All four of them. Sitting in a little cluster together, three of whom were all staring over Perigrins shoulder at something when Sara stopped walking beside him and stiffened slightly where she stood. Aragorn looked back at her for a moment, wondering what was wrong with her when all of a sudden he, she, the hobbits, Gimli and Legolas and the few other elves in the dinning hall were all startled to hear some softly playing music accompanied by someone singing sweetly.

When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail,

And the dust of another world drops behind.

When my ship is free of the open sky, it's a damn good day to my way of mind.

There's a barren planet that you never can leave, there's a rocky valley where we lost a war!

There's a cross once hung around a soldier's neck-

There's a man's faith died on Serenity's floor.

The song was lovely to Aragorn's ears, the music accompanying it soft and slow. To be perfectly frank, both were enchanting to the man. However Sara just seemed to gape at the hobbits in horror for a moment and then looked at Aragorn through wide eyes. Almost as if she were upset by the song for some reason.

He frowned because he didn't understand why she was acting so strangely all of a sudden and then grunted as she quickly brushed by him, damned near knocking him over as she went and ran over to the small group of huddled halflings and began tapping them on their shoulders, startling them until they seemed to realize that she was there to put a stop to whatever was going on.

"Oh! Miss Sara, hello there. I hope that you don't mind overly much since we were a little bit curious about you- so I stole these from Gandalf and- Hey!" Peregrin greeted and then began to explain before what was in his hand was yanked out of it causing him to yelp in surprise as she held whatever it was that was still singing, up and looked it over with a frown before looking back at him in a silent command to make the singing stop.

Never quite the sharp one, even by hobbit standards, Sam was the one who silenced the music and song for her. Looking very apologetic as he did so.

"Sorry for the trouble miss. We was just curious is all."

Sara simply huffed quietly and then nodded her head and then grasped his hand in hers and used a fingertip to spell out, 'Ask first.' Causing the hobbit to blush slightly and mutter, 'yes miss' under his breath before turning to the Merry and Peregrin and saying, "You should both apologize." And then moving to sit back down next to Frodo who was quietly laughing at them.

His blue eyes looked darker than they had been in the past months in color, and the sparkled like sapphires as he bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing at both Merry and Peregrin aloud as Sara turned the full weight of her stare to them.

"Sorry, but i-it was too good an opportunity to pass up Miss." Merry said looking more than a little bit abashed. Whereas Peregrin wasn't the least bit repentant, even after Merry reached out and elbowed him in the stomach and gave him a glare.

"Ouch! What did you do that for?"

"You know why, you fool of a Took! Those are Miss Sara's personal property, at least have the decency to be ashamed of the fact that you took them. After all, she may have been looking high and low for those for all we know."

"Oh. Well when you put it like that, I'm very sorry for causing such possible distress Miss Sara. It'll not happen again." Peregrin said, still not the least bit apologetic. Which was why Sara decided to teach him a small lesson and reached out and grabbed something off of his plate and held it up where he could see it and then quickly stuffed it in her mouth. Causing Frodo to finally bust out laughing, while Sam hid his laughter behind a hand, while Peregrin's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he started raising all kinds of hell.

"Hey! That was mine!"

"I think that was the point Peregrin." Merry said while trying to contain his own laughter.

"Point or not, you don't steal food from a hobbit! That's just cruel!"

Sara swallowed what was in her mouth and then reached out again, much faster this time since the hobbit was watching her like a hawk now, and snatched a piece of bread and a small slice of cheese. Causing him to bare his teeth at her and growl as she popped them both into her mouth and smiled at him as the other hobbits all laughed at him as he snatched up his plate of uneaten food and quickly climbed over the table to the opposite side and glared at her.

Aragorn watched his little one deal with the mischievous halflings with a bemused expression on his face as he seated himself not too far away and appeared to be waiting for his little one to join him when she finally finished teasing Peregrin, much to the amusement of Frodo, Merry and Sam- and finally decided to make her way over to his side again and carefully seated herself next to him.

"That was quite the show Sara. No doubt Peregrin will think much harder on his actions in the future if it means having his food stolen from him." He sounded amused by her actions against the hobbit, and yet at the same time he looked down at her small hand, clutching whatever it was that the hobbits had been huddled over. His expression was curious though he had yet to actually ask her anything.

Rolling her eyes at him, she held the item out to him and let him see it.

It was one of the pictures that she's had in her wallet when she had left home the same day that she'd been hit by the car. In the picture she was twelve years old, her once straight crimson hair hung down to her shoulders and she was dressed in one of her favorite outfits and had a little bit of blush and lip gloss on. And she was singing.

Mal's song.

Her tastes in music haven't changed much even since then. But that was neither here nor there.

The only reason that she hadn't burned the photo as of yet was because before things got bad- it was the few reminders that she had of how life with her family had once been. The picture itself had belonged to her father. Because he was the one who had always liked to hear her voice.

Aragorn looked up at her and slowly reached out to take the...colored portrait of her as a child? And studied it carefully. She looked far younger than she was now, her eyes were more innocent, her smile was brighter and not dimmed by time or cruelty or sadness.

He would have liked to know the child that once she had been, he would have bet that she spread joy wherever she went at that age. However since that was an impossibility, he contented himself with knowing the young woman that she had become and was still changing into.

Asking politely if he could listen to the rest of the music and song that the halflings had been engrossed in before she had stopped them, he was gifted with an embarrassed blush from her that made him wish to tease her endlessly as he waited patiently for her permission.

And once it was given, he certainly wasted no time.

The rest of the song was as lovely as it was sad and defiant. The last lyric of it, made him smile even as he handed it back to her. There was so much truth in the words of those lyrics. So, so much. And if he had anything to say about it- that would never change.