Yesterday, I went on a field trip to an amusement park and pretty much passed out when I got home. I woke up today at around one thirty and at two I was put with the task of babysitting my nephew and niece (as I write this, my niece is playing her heart out on a recorder and my nephew is watching truck videos on my phone), so I would have made this longer if I wasn't so tired.

WARNING: I may have a chem class, but I'm not a chemist. Thank you, Google.

I do not own Lord of the Rings.

I do own my OCs.


X


With everyone asleep, the house was much quieter, ignoring the fact that he can make out faint snores. Jupiter wasn't sure what time it was, maybe two or three in the morning, he didn't care. It hasn't been long since he had woken up from another nightmare that luckily didn't wake Manny up this time.

He knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep after that, so he grabbed his laptop and sat himself down on the couch. He kept a cool pillow to lean on in order to not further irritate his tattoo, keeping himself shirtless so that the rough material of his shirt won't irritate it. The first week was always the worse to deal with.

Ignoring the pain on his shoulder blade and the back of his neck, he furiously typed on his keyboard, every now and then writing in his notebook. If he was going to stay up late, he might as well try to forget the cause of waking him up and start researching about electricity while sipping on some beer. He needed every source he can get about it, his own brain, his notebooks, his textbooks, even the internet - being careful with the information he found of course.

It's been a few days since he got arrested and one day throughout it, Isabelle tried to jump Manny after school in order to get back at him somehow. Let's just say that she was unsuccessful considering how it earned her a slap that most likely stung the rest of the day.

After that, they all settled on glares. Jupiter's so called friends ditched him for Ray - he wasn't surprised, never considered them friends anyway - but it didn't lower his popularity one bit. In fact, now that he was single, all of the girls who were into him have been walking up to him randomly to flirt and try to give their number to him. They were all unsuccessful in their goals.

The Fellowship seemed to be impressed when he had told them why he was arrested, other than Legolas who was the only one worried and nursing his bruised cheek despite his protests. When everyone had finished eating some ice cream that Manny had suggested on all of them trying - he will make sure that Pippin and Merry never lays a hand on soda after that - Manny had dragged the both of them back into his room to begin his punishment for causing trouble, even though it technically wasn't his fault, and to talk to him about his latest discovery.

She first made the both of them use face masks, he will never admit that it was relaxing, and made him give her a foot massage. Luckily, after babbling about how she still loves him no matter what and how she would be his wing woman whenever need be, she had fallen asleep half an hour into it all. He hates to say it, but he was happy that she told him that, easing any other worries of what she would think of him when he suddenly blurted it out away.

The scientist let out a deep sigh as he picks up his notebook and uses the light of his laptop to read what was on it. What he gathered from his own knowledge was that electricity travels and is the flow of electrons.

The television is both an entrance and exit, but who knew? It could be a laptop or a game boy even. They all use electricity, but the question is how is it an entrance and exit? It frustrated him, the scientific babble he scribbled out didn't make much of a difference of answering his questions. He needs to start relying on other information he had gathered to piece everything together.

"Jupiter?" He snapped his head up and found a certain blonde walking towards him with silent feet, "What are you doing here?"

He sighed, gesturing to the screen and notebook that was in his lap and hand, "Writing down notes and such, it's boring."

Legolas sat beside him, looking down at the foreign object with a puzzled look, "With this... thing?"

Jupiter nods and quickly explained the basics of the laptop, smirking at how amazed he was by the fact that there was almost endless information you can find just by asking it. "Anyway, just searching on here won't help me. I need to dig deeper..."

"I do not think I can be much help. I only remember darkness and a bright light before we were all standing in Manny's home, like I had said before." The archer stated, "May I see what you have so far?"

"Go for it." He handed him the notebook before continuing to type, his eyes concentrated on the website he was presented after clicking a link.

Legolas read through the teen's notes with perplexity. There was writing that he did not understand, but recognized as some sort of writing that Jupiter always wrote on his board along with diagrams. He also found short sentences with words he have never seen or heard before, but there was a small paragraph that he was able to read perfectly well.

Manny - watched Lord of the Rings 3/11; Friday; 5:37(?) PM. Violent storms; duration of 1 hour. Gandalf's death - Fellowship escape - power outage. Television on - strong white light - power turns back on after light is gone. Fellowship arrives at 7:58(?) PM.

After reading it one more time, he knew it was what happened in Manny's perspective of when they had arrived. It was short, yet specific of what had happened. He made to ask what the strange words scattered on the paper meant, but noticed how stiff the teen was sitting.

Jupiter seemed oblivious by his silent observation and his sharp eyes travel down to his neck to see part of his markings that lead down to his shoulder blade - which he remembered was called a tattoo like the one on his foot - are slightly red. His lips pressed into a thin line seeing how tense his shoulder was due to what he can only assume was pain and discomfort.

Legolas placed a hand on his bare shoulder, being careful as to not touch the actual tattoo, "Perhaps you should stop for tonight. You must be tired."

"...Okay." He said after contemplating for a few moments. Jupiter closed his laptop, leaving the moonlight from the windows to be the only thing lighting up the living room. He chugged the rest of his beer and sighed, "Fighting after a few hours of being tattooed does not mix."

"You are still in pain." The elf stated rather than question, "Perhaps there is something to ease it?"

"Yeah, but not much. The tattoo on my back needs some salve, so when Manny wakes up I'll ask her to do it again."

"I can do it, I don't mind."

Jupiter blinked owlishly up at him at the sudden suggestion, "You sure?" He only received a nod. The red head dug into his pocket and took out the small jar of salve, smirking at his raised eyebrow, "Sometimes it rubs off the parts that I can reach and I have to put some more on."

Legolas plucked the jar out of his hand and motioned for him to turn. He did so and the archer was met with a beautiful intricate picture with a bird. He took a moment to simply admire the work permanently imprinted into his skin before he applied some of the clear cream onto it with practiced hands.

The scientist tensed at the contact, almost wishing that he had said no. The moment his fingers made contact with his skin a small spark of warmth tingled. Blood rushed to his cheeks as they moved, the warmth spreading and expanding as his fingers delicately spread the ointment over without causing any pain.

Legolas discreetly continued to rub in the ointment even when he had already finished doing so. He couldn't help himself, discovering the need to touch him in some way to experience more of the tingles that went from the tips of his fingers, straight up his arm, and through his entire body. He took notice that his own heart beat was pumping faster than usual as he moved onto the back of his neck where the last bit of the tattoo laid, wondering what could have caused it.

Jupiter held back a shiver when they traveled up to his neck, his breath hitching. Instantly, the contact was broken, "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

"Tickles." He lied. It didn't hurt or tickled, it felt like he was being zapped with heat over and over again. It annoyed him beyond belief, hating the very fact that when Legolas touched him he didn't want him to stop.

Soon enough, the archer forced himself to finish, reluctantly moving his hand away and returning the jar. Jupiter checked the time for the first time since he woke up and shook his head, "Four in the morning. Too late to go back to sleep now." His eyes clouded in thought for a moment before he looks up at Legolas, "Wanna see something cool?"

He rolled his eyes when he was met with a confused stare, "Y'know, awesome. Amazing. Stupendous. Astounding. Fantastic. I'm not going to list synonyms all night long."

A small chuckle slipped past the elf's lips, "I suppose so. I do not think I will get use to this world's strange sayings."

"Then, I'll make you get use to them." Jupiter pulled his shirt back on before grabbing his things, "C'mon, guinea pig, we're going to my lab."

"As I have said many times before, Jupiter, I am not a 'guinea pig'."

"Don't care. Hurry up."

Legolas sighed at his careless command, but his faint smile contradicted how annoyed the sigh sounded. He didn't care much about being bossed around considering it's just how Jupiter is, also because it meant that he was returning to his normal self.

As soon as they were in his lab, Jupiter went into the spare closet close to the entrance and rifled through it's contents before pulling out an extra lab coat and a hair tie. He handed both objects to Legolas, "Put this on and tie your hair up. When working in the lab, always wear an apron or lab coat-"

"Roll up or remove any loose clothing and jewelry, tie back long hair, and no eating or drinking."

Jupiter turned his head from where he was slipping on his own lab coat and he smirked pleasantly, "So you did learn something."

"Of course I have, you constantly reminded me of those things. Though, you do not follow the eating and drinking rule..." Legolas said thoughtfully.

"Only when I'm not working on anything that has to do with doing it directly in the lab. I always wipe down everything once I'm done for the day." He completely turns around, "And by the way, you forgot another rule. Always wear safety glasses or goggles when working with chemicals."

The elf's eyebrows furrow in confusion, following him to the lab tables, "That's because you have never told me that."

"Well, now you know." He opened the cabinet and retrieved two safety glasses, giving one of them to Legolas. "Now, a couple of the things we'll be using are chemicals you haven't seen before."

"What is it exactly that we will be doing?"

"Simple, we're going to make elephant toothpaste. One of the most classic and greatest chemistry experiments ever to be discovered. I have a feeling that you'll like it, I'll be right back."

Legolas watched him quickly disappear out the back of the room through a door, blinking owlishly, "Elephant toothpaste?"


"This is what you're going to do, Legolas, to complete the reaction. Pour the sodium iodide solution quickly into the flask with the hydrogen peroxide mix and quickly stand back. Got it?"

Mirkwood's prince nodded at his words as he was handed the graduated cylinder. All throughout the small amount of time where he and Jupiter prepared everything, Jupiter had allowed him to partake in the procedure. It came as a surprise to him considering he was well aware of his hate of anyone other than him working in the lab area. Legolas was still unsure of what all of these things will do, especially since there were two chemicals that he wouldn't allow him to handle.

He took in a deep breath before carefully pouring the liquid into the substance in the flask that was set on a tray before standing back the second he noticed how upon contact it began to foam. His eyes widen and jaw dropped at the sight of the foam shooting up from it's confinements, high up into the air, and falling back down as more and more poured out of the glass as it steamed. "Oh my..." His words trailed off.

Whatever had just happened was certainly a surprise for him. He looked between Jupiter - who was grinning a little - and their successful experiment. "That was incredible!" He finally bursts after a few more moments of silence and laughed breathlessly as he took a closer look, "I have never seen anything like that before! It had happened so fast that I wasn't sure whether or not it was merely my imagination!"

"And you know what's even better?" Jupiter stepped up next to him and grabbed his hand, hovering it over the foam, "It causes an exothermic reaction, which basically means the reaction releases heat, so if you touch it you can burn yourself if you don't let it cool."

Legolas dragged his eyes away from the hand holding his to focus on the warmth rising up towards it from the foam. "You're right, but how? You cannot tell me that only with a few ingredients it can make something hot without fire or magic."

"Sorry, bud, but I am." He let go of him, "I would explain how, but that would be a little too much on your brain." His eyes drifted away from their gaze before they rolled, "And a little too much food coloring."

The elf watched as Jupiter stepped closer to him in order to lick his own thumb before rubbing it against the other's cheek without much thought put into the action, wiping away the faint line of green, "I should keep you away from food coloring or else you'll start looking like the Green Giant."

Legolas stared at him silently, standing stiff as he allowed him to get rid of the dye staining his cheek. Noticing his frozen form, Jupiter curiously looked at him and their eyes met. It was a powerful reminder of how captivating Legolas's eyes are and unlike before, the connection was not brief. They both quietly took this short moment to look at each other like this, both of their goals of doing this being unknown.

Jupiter's golden eyes were a complete mystery to Legolas, including his hair. He can tell that they weren't fake due to his sharp sight, so how can it be? Not even Elves have such unique colors for their hair and eyes. But these physical aspects weren't the only things he can see from Jupiter. No, even though Jupiter seems to be back to normal and has mostly recovered from his and Isabelle's separation, he can tell that there is something much deeper that is troubling him.

Jupiter suddenly averted his eyes and stepped away from him, clearing his throat, "So... Can you tell me what Mirkwood is like?"

Legolas immediately brightened, what had happened only seconds ago forgotten for now, "Ah, yes, my home. Where do I start..."


Everyone sat around the table, enjoying their simple breakfast that Jupiter had made with the help of Sam. Of course, he first had to warn him of the main dangers in the kitchen and luckily no blood was shed during the process of cooking everything.

The scientist yawned, rubbing his eye when he was done with his plate and went back into the kitchen to put the dish away. Manny came in a few seconds later as well with her plate that had a few stray pieces of scrambled eggs on it. He blinked in surprise, knowing that it had only been a few minutes since she started eating, "Done already?"

She looked at him and nods, "Yeah, not that hungry."

"Excuse me?" Jupiter crossed his arms, "You're telling me, your best friend, that you, Amanda Vallette, isn't hungry? You're always hungry."

"Well, believe it or not, sometimes I'm not." The brunette rolled her eyes, "Hurry and get dressed slow poke." She said before leaving.

He watched after her and shrugged it off. Maybe even people like Manny lose their appetite sometimes.

Later on that day, Jupiter found himself at a place that no one in the whole entire school would ever think he would be. In the library. He had several books surrounding him on the table he sat in and looked as if he were about to blow his top.

He can't find anything. He can't find anything that's any different from what he found on his laptop and his own books. It was frustrating, but the only thing that calmed him down was that the answer isn't going to be in some book or some Google search. It will take extensive contemplation and analyzing to figure out. He still has the data he had gathered in the basement. Damn, he feels like the answer is staring straight at his face! He hates when somewhere in him knows the answer, but something is keeping him from fully realizing it!

The bell rang, signalling that his free half-period was over and it was time for lunch. On his way there, he ignored how people, especially the girls, looked at him. He honestly didn't find himself that attractive, but maybe that's just how many people think of themselves, attractive or not. He despised people that stare at him the way they do.

Once he arrived in the cafeteria, he found Manny slumped at their usual table in her seat, gloomily taking a bite out of her sandwich. For a minute he just watched her from where he sat, raising an eyebrow at how she was staring longingly into space. "Okay, I'll bite. What's wrong?" He finally asked.

She groaned dramatically and dropped her head onto the table, "You know that super nice lunch lady that gives me free cookies? She got sick! Which means no cookies!" She took another bite from her sandwich.

Jupiter, not feeling bad at all, leaned his head against his hand, "That's why you're all mopey?"

"Yeah, and I got this bruise on my stomach when someone in ballet accidentally pushed me and slammed me into the barre, and it's still sore." The brunette pouted, "Why is life so cruel to me?"

"Why don't you complain to your hobbit boyfriend?" He smirked widely at the sight of her face glowing a bright red.

"Well... Well, uh, what about that elf prince, huh? I know you two were alone together in the lab this morning!"

Jupiter's smirk dropped upon hearing her accusation. He stared at her for an uncomfortably long time before taking what was left of the sandwich out of her hands and shoving it in her mouth, ignoring how her hands flailed in indignation along with muffled cries.


I apologize for how short this chapter is, but I promise that the next one will be MUCH longer.

If there are any spelling/grammar errors, please tell me so I can fix it ASAP.