Baxley -- You know, that's a very good question, and I'm actually surprised no one asked me already! You're right, it does seem like North-took females would be named after gems, doesn't it? I really don't know why I named Prisca what I did, other than my own reasoning. When I started this story, I was positive I would give Diamond a sister and have her be sort of like Diamond's strength and support. The name Prisca just came to me one day, and I ran it through my head a few times before I realized that it seemed to fit best. I don't know how to explain it, really, it just seemed different, and I wanted Diamond's sister to be different. She's such a huge part of Diamond's life that I wanted her to stand out in more ways than one. I think that's part of why I named her what I did. The rest of her name really doesn't have reasoning. Oh, I'm horrible at explaining this! To me, it just seemed to fit best.

To Everyone -- Urgh! I hope you guys can forgive me! I haven't abandoned this story, or my other one. A few weeks ago I was attempting to upload a new chapter on "Distance to the Stars" (a long, incredibly hard one for me to write and I was pretty proud of it) when somehow, due to my stupidity, it got deleted. I was REALLY mad and attempted to rewrite it, though it wasn't the same. I'm still working on it, though, so no worries. It was then I realized that even though I was furious at my other story and how I lost the chapter, I could still update this one. So here we go!

On a lighter note... Thank you all for your encouraging reviews =) This chapter was especially hard to write, as I tried to capture a glimpse of the grief that Diamond still has, and yet at the same time attempted to progress the story. Hope you enjoy!

-Chapter Five-

Dinner, Pony, and Heartache

Diamond propped her chin on her hand, elbows resting on the grass, cool from the shade of the large oak, and narrowed her eyes mulishly at Prisca, who rested several yards away. The faint drone of passing insects and the sounds of laughter and a faint splashing, sounds of a lazy hot day, rang out around them. The tangy smell of freshly cut grass met Diamond's nose and she inhaled deeply, eyes still glued upon her sister's face. Prisca arched her eyebrows in return and stifled a giggle. Diamond looked quite amusing, her unkempt curls springing back from where Diamond had attempted to pin them back, a look of exasperation painted across her striking face.

"All I'm saying," Prisca said to Diamond. "Is that you and Mister Peregrin seemed to hit it off wonderfully." She knew her words would either hurt Diamond due to that blasted Nob, or they would encourage her. She hoped it was the latter.

Diamond rolled upon her back and didn't answer immediately. Her thoughts traveled back to the previous afternoon; with the help of Merry and Pippin (who had assisted in hauling their luggage along) and Prisca's sense of direction and keen memory from the last time they had visited, they had reached their cousin's house by late afternoon, hot, sweaty, exhausted, but all-around in one piece. "Hmm," was all Diamond said after a few moments.

"He seemed to like to talk about himself," Prisca noted. "when you asked him those questions about his quest outside the Shire in vast amounts. I hardly know how he managed to answer them all."

A faint frown flickered across Diamond's face. "I didn't ask him that many," she protested. Prisca rolled her eyes but made no response.

Diamond's thoughts drifted. In the hours it had taken them to get to their destination, she had found both Pippin and Merry's company enjoyable. She had learned an awfully lot about the two; she had heard all about Estella from both Merry and Pippin (though Pippin's information about the lass was mostly complaints) and a lot of their journey with Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee. For the first time, she had been given a touch of their side, and the pain and memories that went along with it. When they had arrived at their relatives', they had been greeted warmly and then retreated to their rooms to unpack, leaving Merry and Pippin chatting with their Uncle Wilibald and Aunt Lily. When they came back out, they discovered Merry and Pippin were still there, and excused themselves, retreating alone to talk.

"Cousins!" came a sudden yelp nearby, and was followed by a young lass with bouncy dark curls. She leapt upon the nearest hobbit, who happened to be Prisca. "We are having supper, now!" she exclaimed with a giggle, her arms flung around Prisca's neck tightly.

"Thank you, little Pearl," Prisca said, tickling the lass's sides playfully. She squealed with delight, squirming out of her older cousin's arms.

"We shall come along soon," Diamond added. A wide grin spread across Pearl's face as she turned it towards Diamond.

"Cousin Diamond!" She shrieked, and Diamond braced herself as it was now her turn to be leapt upon by Pearl.

"Since when have they started letting you out of the house?" Diamond asked teasingly. Pearl pulled back from her forceful hug and stuck her tongue out.

"Very funny," she commented. Diamond smiled and bent, placing a kiss on the lass's button nose.

"Nasty Diamond germs!" Pearl yelped. "Get them off!" she giggled more, jerking back from Diamond and rubbing her nose furiously. "Icky yucky Diamond germs!"

Diamond puckered her lips and made kissing noises. Her young cousin leapt to her feet and raced away to Prisca.

"Save me Pris!" she cried, burying her face in Prisca's curls.

"Oh, I shall save you from Diamond's germs, but how do you feel about Prisca germs?" She questioned, planting little kisses up and down the lass's head.

"Ick!" Pearl shouted, and fell backwards into the grass, laughing until she could no longer breathe.

"Perhaps we should get along to supper?" Diamond suggested, once Pearl's laughter had faded away into occasional spurts of giggles.

"Yes!" Pearl exclaimed at once, bounding to her feet. "Father invited Misters Merry and Pippin to stay!"

"He did?" Diamond asked at once. Prisca grinned at Diamond's enthused reaction.

"Yes," Pearl said, bobbing her head up and down in accord. "He said it's the least we can do, after they helped you both to get here without harm."

"Well, let's go then! We can't keep them waiting, can we?" Prisca asked. She, too, stood, pulled Diamond to her feet, and then lifted Pearl from the ground, swinging her back and forth in her arms and earning encouraging laughter from her cousin, as the three hurried away towards supper.

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Diamond found the seating arrangements to be quite to her liking at supper. To her left sat Prisca, to her right, Merry, and at either ends of the table were her aunt and uncle. On the opposite side of the table from her modest Pearl pestered Pippin with things such as, "Are you so tall 'cause you ate your vegetables? Because Mother says..." or "Do you like to play Pony? I used to play all the time with my older brother, but then he got married and moved away..."

Indeed, Diamond had noted the absence her cousin, Milo. She had of course known he had moved out, though she hadn't really given it much thought until now. A faint frown crossed her face, as she wondered if she would get to see him at all during their visit.

Merry noticed it and nudged her gently. "Perhaps you can get Pippin to answer some more of your questions later," he murmured. "That is, after he is done playing Pony..."

A grin flitted across Diamond's face as she realized that poor Pippin had been roped into being taught how to play Pony by Pearl. Pippin glanced at them hopelessly as Pearl prattled on and on.

"I'm sure you'll have fun," Diamond commented with a wry smile. She had had her own share of Pony in her time, and knew exactly the amount of pain Pippin may be experiencing by the end of the game.

"I'm quite glad you two lads decided to stay," Her Uncle Wil was saying now. "Your absence can't be missed too terribly much, can it?"

"We should hope not," Merry responded with a smile.

"Good, good," Aunt Lily chipped in. "We had to repay you for assisting our nieces somehow."

"It was really nothing," Pippin insisted modestly. "I think we have more to thank for this supper!"

A faint blush crossed Lily's cheeks. "I hope it's to your liking. Just something I threw together..."

"It's lovely," Prisca put in. "Thank you, Aunt." She was awarded with a convivial smile from her aunt, who seemed quite pleased with the praise.

It was after this that the talk turned from one subject to another, passing over nothing particularly important. Diamond was content to listen most of the time; Pippin and Merry had one amusing tale after another, and had the table in hysterics more than once with their stories of their foolish antics. Diamond more than once found her gaze wandering and landing up Pippin's face; his pleasant features and moderately amiable smile, before catching herself with a faint blush. She reasoned it was simply because he was directly across from her and therefore, easily within her range of view. She hardly knew the lad, after all, and she certainly wasn't looking for anything. So what if he had a nice smile? She supposed she was free to admire it. She wasn't the only one admiring either of them, she soon found out. Pearl seemed to be specifically taken by the both Pippin and Merry, and it was her that insisted they stay for tea after supper.

"That way, I can show you how to play Pony!" she informed Pippin. Diamond smiled sympathetically at him as Pearl dragged him off. She and Prisca then went with their Aunt Lily to prepare the tea, but she waved them off.

"You're guests here, it is your first night visiting," she told them. "Plus, we have guests. I shall manage, I always do." And with that she hugged and kissed them both, exclaiming once more that she was overjoyed to have them, and sent them away.

As Diamond and Prisca approached the sitting room, they heard Pearl's familiar laughter, and several noises of protest, followed by more laughter. They exchanged amused glances.

"Pearl's teaching them Pony," Prisca said, shaking her head with a small smile.

"Better them then us," Diamond responded, and the two laughed, before Diamond linked her arm through Prisca's and led her in.

They were greeted by a situation that Diamond would later find hard to forget. Both Merry and their uncle sat in chairs near the fireplace, watching Pearl and Pippin with amused expressions. Pippin was sprawled out on his back and stretched to his full extent, groaning with an exasperated expression, and Pearl sat on his stomach, bouncing up and down while squealing incessantly.

"I don't want to play Pony," Pippin informed the lass. "You didn't tell me I would have to carry you!"

"No, not carry me," Pearl objected. "I ride on your back. See? You're my pony," she stuck her tongue out playfully. "Now get on your hands and knees, pony, and give me a ride!"

"I was sore for a week the first time I played Pony," Diamond told them with a giggle, as she and Prisca moved to sit.

"A week?" Prisca asked. "That's nothing. I was sore for two!"

"Yes, in Pearl's eyes, a pony should never tire."

Pippin groaned, and then proceeded to complain and protest more than Diamond would have thought possible of a hobbit his age, but Pearl won out in the end.

"I shall play," he said with a sigh. "But only if Merry is the Pony next." He grinned wickedly at his cousin.

"We shall see," was all Merry would say, accompanied by a chuckle. "I am still trying to get past the fact that a young lass like Pearl has been able to make you do this for her."

"It's her eyes," Prisca told Merry as Pippin reluctantly pulled himself onto his hands and knees. Pearl scrambled upon his back with an excited giggle. "You can't look into them. They draw you in and you have to do her every wish."

"No, it's her pout," Diamond argued. "The way she sticks her lower lip out when she doesn't get her way. That's what really draws you in."

"It's both her eyes and her pout. The two together could do more damage than anything in Middle Earth combined," their uncle decided, and they all laughed, even Pippin, who, everyone had to admit, looked beyond amusing crawling around on all fours with a young lass on his back, clutching his shirt and kicking his sides frantically. Diamond couldn't help herself and let out a slight laugh, causing Pippin to whip his head up and shoot her a glare, followed by a look of complete disgust. His eyes shone with mirth, however, to show that even if he didn't voice it, he was enjoying himself. The laughter died on Diamond' lips as her breath caught in her throat. In a second his gaze was gone, though the feeling was not.

Prisca caught it. She placed a hand over her sister's. "Are you alright?" she asked with a knowing smile. Diamond glowered.

"Fine," she responded, coming to her senses at once. It was nothing. Nothing more than a normal reaction of a lass who was glanced at by one of the most desirable hobbits this side of the Shire.

At least, that's what she heard from the ceaseless conversations between the lasses around her home. She suddenly grinned. What would they say when she told them she had dinner with not only Peregrin Took, but Meriadoc Brandybuck? Their reactions would be beyond price.

Prisca was not satisfied with this answer. "I caught you looking at him all through dinner," she teased softly, her voice only loud enough for Diamond's ears.

"I was not!" Diamond burst out at once. Luckily enough for Diamond, Merry and her uncle were too deep in conversation about how they would handle the river if it flooded again this year to hear, and Pippin had his hands rather full at the moment, so it went unheard by everyone except Prisca.

"Don't worry, sister," Prisca said with a smile. "It's okay if you like Mister Peregrin. You'll only be like every other lass in the Shire."

Diamond glared daggers at her sister. "I feel no such way."

"Your actions suggest otherwise." Prisca let her gaze drift over to Pippin, who laid upon the floor pretending to be sleeping or otherwise dead to little Pearl, who pounded upon his back with her little fists, demanding her 'pony' to get up and give her more rides. She grinned. "He is pleasant enough. It would be a smart match, I would say." Her grin widened. She was merely teasing, of course, for she was sure that if Diamond had any feelings at all, they were merely a small infatuation, soon to pass, like any other lass who laid eyes upon Pippin. Prisca chuckled slightly, and spoke again. "And I'm sure he would eagerly return your affections..."

Diamond shook her head. "No," she said softly and without delay. The tone in her voice was so final, though, and the look upon her face so full of ache that Prisca instantly understood.

"It is too soon even to joke," she murmured, and took Diamond's hand. "Diamond, dear, I am sorry... I was teasing, that's all it was. I meant no harm."

"It is not your fault," Diamond said miserably. "I need to get over this one way or another, although in my own time." She raised her gaze to Prisca's eyes and lowered her voice so much that Prisca barely caught her words over the hubbub of the rest of the room. "And I do not like Pippin, and even if I did, it would not work."

Prisca was confused. "What makes you say that?"

"Because, Pris, I've told you before. I've given up."

Prisca's thoughts went back to the weeks before when Diamond had uttered those words. Her forehead creased with a faint frown. "But, Di, Nob was one hobbit... and just because he wasn't intelligent enough to hold onto you while he had the chance is no reason to condemn all other males you meet. Someone out there is right..."

"Or perhaps it all ends in pain," Diamond disagreed. "I've been hurt once, Prisca. I'm smart enough to realize that if I let my feelings run so deep once more than I shall be hurt again!"

Prisca laced her fingers tightly through Diamond's. "No Diamond, it doesn't work like that. Nob was not right for you, you should realize that. Perhaps you didn't care for him as much as you thought you did, and he with you. The ending to your relationship, however painful it may be, was a blessing in disguise. I truly believe that."

"I'm thankful that Uncle and Aunt have not brought up the cancelled wedding yet," Diamond murmured, staring at her knees.

Prisca sighed. "Diamond, listen to me. Don't give up. Your one serious relationship--"

"--was painful enough to make me realize I never want anything like it again! Prisca, please," Diamond looked at her with pleading eyes. "Please let it go."

"Time heals all wounds, and you will realize that your life will go on, and there will be other hobbits in your life!"

"No, Prisca!" Diamond hissed, snatching her hand away. "Can't you just respect my decision? I don't ever want to be hurt again, and I am never going to chance being hurt. That is exaclty what I have decided, and I am not going to change my mind. I am happy with just my family and my friends, for that is all I shall ever have."

Prisca opened her mouth to argue more, but their aunt chose that time to come in with the tea. Pippin was rescued from Pearl, almost in the same way, Prisca thought dryly, that Diamond had just been saved from this conversation. The tea was handed out, and talk much like the talk at dinner resumed once more. Diamond was silent for almost the entire conversation, her gaze focused on the floor or on her hands, folded neatly in her lap. She wouldn't look at Prisca.

Prisca sighed. Diamond was being impossible. In time she would realize, like Prisca tried to tell her, that time would heal all wounds. Diamond would move on. She simply had to.

Taking small sips of her tea, Prisca turned all her thoughts away from this and jumped into the conversation taking place. She found that Merry was informing the group of the time a drunken Pippin had spread chaos at the Green Dragon, and found that she could merely laugh all her troubling thoughts away.

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Sorry it has taken so long. Review and let me know what you thought, please!