So, chapter twenty six. Please enjoy, I don't own LOTR and never will, sadly. Sigh.

Cat Jackson

"Tonight, we remember those who gave their blood to defend this country," declared Théoden, holding aloft his mug of…whatever exactly it was. I wasn't completely certain-it looked like a combo of Red Bull and vinegar and smelled about the same. I assumed it was beer, or ale, or whatever they called it. "Hail the victorious dead!"

"HAIL!" came the resounding reply throughout the Hall of Meduseld, and while everyone else drank deeply, I surreptitiously set my mug down and moved around to the back. I'd been sitting on a stool more or less peacefully, my eyes closed, for twenty minutes, when I felt a light pressure on my lips.

"I hope whoever just kissed me is Legolas," I muttered, eyes still closed. "In fact, if you aren't, I'll punch you hard enough that you'll choke on your eyeballs."

Amused laughter came to my ears. "Open your eyes, meleth, and you shall see." I obliged, and saw him standing there with a mile-wide grin on his pretty face. He stepped closer and cupped my face, bringing our foreheads together, his cool, slender hand moving to the back of my neck. Our breath mingled, and I couldn't help but smile at him. "There. Beautiful," he whispered. "Is there something wrong? You seem troubled."

I shook my head slightly. "No, I'm okay. A little tired, but that's nothing new." I brushed my lips gently over his. "Are you all right?"

"Very well, thank you. I heard that Kim has accepted Merry's proposal of marriage…joyous tidings indeed." His blue eyes searched mine. "Is it not?" I opened my mouth, uncertain of what to say. I was very happy for the both of them, but now I'd had a chance to think, and Kim had said yes, I started to wonder whether or not they were rushing into things a bit. She was only seventeen…I groaned internally. Still the grown-up of our twosome and even more so now. I couldn't help but cringe slightly. "If I were to ask for your hand, your father being…well, if I were to ask…what would you say?" I stiffened in shock.

"No!" I blurted out, causing several women to turn around and look at us. Legolas dropped his hands to his sides and looked slightly hurt. My face became hot and I looked at my feet. "I don't mean it like that. Not no forever. Just…not right now." My hands dangled between my knees, elbows resting on my thighs as I looked up at him. "I'm not ready to be married. Not even to you. Maybe one day, Legolas," I sighed. "Maybe one day, after a few years we'll marry, and be deliriously happy, and we'll have a cottage on a hill someplace nice." He leaned in closer as I spoke, listening, enchanted by the picture. "Maybe near some woods. We can have a dog, and a pony, and a little back yard to grow flowers-"

"And children?" Legolas asked me, smiling as he sat and wrapped an arm around my waist to pull me in closer, his mood much better than it had been. His voice was wistful, full of longing. I leaned my head into the crook of his neck and shoulder. "Little boys and girls, with golden fire in their hair and their mother's eyes." I pressed my lips to the smooth skin of his neck.

"And children."

TFE TFE TFE TFE TFE TFE

"No pauses, no spills," Éomer stated firmly as he passed beer to both Gimli and Legolas. I raised an eyebrow, but remembered my previous thoughts about rather drinking rat poison and kept quiet, hands wrapped around my second cup of warm mulled wine. Not bad, considering it tasted more like Christmas than alcohol. I could definitely taste cinnamon and ginger and a hint of cardamom, and I wondered where they got the spices all the way up in Edoras. I had no interest in getting wasted, but the wine tasted even better the more I drank, and forgetting the past week wouldn't be so bad. I was almost sure that Legolas was keeping an eye on the amount I was drinking, though. I tried to take baby sips so that he wouldn't get too worried about it.

"And no regurgitation!" Gimli exclaimed happily, taking his mug and eyeing it with anticipation.

"So, it is a drinking game?" asked Legolas, looking less than impressed as the men around us roared their assent. The Dwarf shrugged and raised his mug.

"Last one standing wins!"

I rolled my eyes and got up, setting down my own drink and going over to Kim, who seemed hell bent on raising her blood alcohol level to an astonishing mark by downing an entire mug of beer in one. "Kitty!" she giggled, pulling me to sit beside her. "I'm getting married!" Her voice was sing-song, and Merry grinned at her from across the table where he was playing gin rummy with Pippin-who had yet to figure out what exactly could go in a set.

"Yeah, you are," I smiled. "You're also getting trashed. Want some water?"

"Nah, I'm good! I do want another drink though. I'm all empty." She pulled a hang dog face, all big eyes and pouty lips, and I shook my head.

"I'm not contributing to alcoholism. At least eat something."

"Oh, right! Because you didn't drink at all tonight? I saw you with Leggy and Gimli."

I blushed slightly. "I know my limit. Come on, let's get you some air."

She pushed me off, irritated. "Now you're really killing my buzz, Cat. Don't be such a little bitch." My blood boiled. I loved Kim, but sometimes she really pushed it with me. I kept my face reasonable and calm. Merry and Pippin looked up from their game, concerned.

"Kim, don't be like that," Merry said gently. "Go and take a walk, it's very warm in here anyway." Shooting him a grateful look, I stood up, and held out my hand encouragingly.

"See? Just come outside and-"

"Why don't you just go? Go back over to your little girlfriend, I don't want you here." She stood up too, hands on her hips. Kim was a sweet, happy drunk, or a mean one, depending on whether or not you went along with her or not. My face burned. "Go on!"

"Hey, hey, cool it!" I hissed. "People are looking."

"So? What, are you so afraid of what people see? No, I guess you're just embarrassed because now you're pretty, you know what it's like to be around someone fatter and shorter and UGLIERthan you who never goes away when she's not wanted." Her voice had risen, and the cheery fiddle music was dying down. She glared at me and I took a step back.

"You're-you…" My tongue felt thick and awkward, and my chest started to ache. I forced myself not to start crying, and my temper flared in place of the tears as Merry got up and went around, meaning to pull Kim away. She pushed him off and put her hands on her hips. My voice was low and anguished as I stared her right in the eyes. "I've done everything for you, Kimberley Andrews! When your grandma got sick, I was there! Whenever a boyfriend dumped you into the dirt, I was there! And when we got shoved out of our lives and into Middle-earth, I was there for you all those nights you cried because you wanted to go home and knew you never could! You're such a selfish bitch…" My words wobbled, and I turned away, walking as fast as I could out of the door without attracting too much attention from the people who had begun to look away and carry on.

Legolas Greenleaf

I had just finished my last swallow from my fifth mug of ale and was reaching for my sixth ere my ears caught a familiar voice. My gaze flickered over to Cat, who was attempting to persuade a rather intoxicated Kim to go outside and take the air. 'Most sensible, meleth,' I thought approvingly, moving to turn back to Éomer.

"…be around someone fatter and shorter and UGLIER than you who never goes away when she's not wanted!"

I whipped around, my mood darkening ere Kim spat at the woman she proclaimed to be her friend and whom I named my love. Gimli watched me quizzically as I made to storm over. "Where're you going, laddie?" he called. Ere I was only several feet away from the pair, Cat turned, leaving the Hall of Meduseld, and I saw a tear fall down her pinkened cheek. Anger stirred in my chest, and I marched over to Kim, who had just begun to sit down again. She looked up at me disdainfully.

"What is it, Barbie? As you can see, I'm kinda bus-"

"You are one of the most hateful, selfish vipers I have ever had the misfortune to know," I seethed, tripping over my words. My Westron always became rather mangled when I was roused to fury and could not use my own tongue to express it. In that moment, I hated her, for hurting Cat and for forcing me to speak so discourteously to a woman. Meriadoc did not look pleased, but he kept his silence, and my eyes narrowed. "Make this right on the morrow, or rest assured I will gladly shoot you if you dare to come within half a league of Catherine. She has done nothing but love you and attempt to aid you and you repay her by throwing it in her face!" Kim hesitated, conflicting emotions dancing across her face, and I shook my head disgustedly. "I hope that you are pleased with yourself."

I slipped through the crowds, going after Cat.

TFE TFE TFE TFE TFE TFE

She was sitting on the edge of the steps to the Hall, her long legs dangling. She was not crying, but she gazed at the stars with sadness. I approached and sat down beside Cat, slipping an arm around her slender waist. She turned slightly to look at me, her deep blue eyes seeming to hold the ocean, so much older than her seventeen years. It was something I had noticed recently…

"Hi, there," she murmured, hands reaching up to twine around my neck and stroke my hair. "You saw that, I'm guessing."

"Heard would be closer to the truth, meleth," I sighed, kissing her forehead. "Are you all right?" She nodded, smiling wanly at me. I caressed her face with my thumb.

"I'm okay. Kim didn't mean that. I said a few words I regret now, too. We'll probably make it up tomorrow morning-we've had worse fights." Anger stirred once again in my chest, but I forced it down, knowing that it would not help. I gazed directly into her eyes.

"Cat…what she said is not true. You are so, so beautiful…and you do not even realise it, which makes you even more so." I ran my fingers lightly through the locks that covered most of one side of her face, her way of wearing her hair when she was not in battle. Brushing the red silk of it behind the delicate point of her ear, I kissed her closed eye, and then her cheek, and then her mouth. "I think that it is past time you begin to show it." Gesturing for her to turn, I set to braiding her hair in the Elvish style so that it was kept out of her face, allowing her fine high cheekbones and feline-shaped eyes to come to light, as well as the shallow dent in her chin that I had always found endearing. She nestled into my side ere I finished.

"Thank you," she yawned, her bright eyes misty with fatigue and sadness. Sliding my left arm beneath her legs and keeping my right firmly against her back, I lifted her up against my chest and began to carry her to the chamber that had been provided for all of us. For once she did not struggle or complain, only allowed her head to rest on my collarbone, which made it far less difficult for me to lay her on the bed that Kim had pushed her out of (I grit my teeth at the memory) and remove her boots, tucking the blanket over her. She reached out for my hand, taking hold of it with a pleading look in her eyes. "Please stay…"

I shifted my head to the side, smiling gently at her. "Meleth."

"Please? I like being near you, and-"

I kissed her softly, stroking a hand through her hair. "All right. Ssh, ssh, ssh. I am not leaving." Pulling off my own boots, I planted another kiss on her forehead, before making for the sleeping roll that Cat no longer needed. "Goodnight, Catherine Jackson."

"Um…I don't suppose…?" I turned back, and she was sitting up, holding the sheets open for me. She saw my face and hastily explained- "It's no different from the times I slept on you before…this would just be underneath a quilt." Hesitating, I frowned slightly, unsure of what to do. Cat most likely had very different rules for what was and was not acceptable in a courtship, and I was not completely certain that this would be allowed according to my own. Just once could not hurt, I supposed. I thought of what my father would say if he were ever to find out. Well, if he were ever to find out that I was courting her, the reaction would most likely be something similar. I decided that I did not care much. After all, he had no say in whom I chose to be the right woman, and I would tell him so when I returned home…with the right woman. I remembered how he had refused to allow anything between Tauriel and I, and I grit my teeth again, although our betrothal would have most likely been terminated eventually. I did not truly love her, and she refused to think of our relationship as anything but platonic. Now that I knew what it felt like to love…

I crossed to the bed and slipped in beside her, my arms naturally moving to circle her waist and my face pressing into her hair of its own accord, breathing in the scent of soap, horses and night air. Her body was warm, and I felt myself relax much more quickly than usual, my mind settling as I drifted into dreams.