Hi. Happy New Year to you all. I hope you have all had a great Christmas. Sorry this chapter took me a while but it's one of the best ones ( I think) and I've been so busy over the holiday. Anyway, enjoy...

Sharks, Speedos and Sunburn

Merry and Pippin were sitting on a step outside the hotel. They had a rubber ring each around their wastes along with inflatables in the shapes of dolphins, whales and beds. They were tired and light headed after spending all morning blowing them up. Each looked comical sat waiting for their friends to arrive.

At last Sam and Frodo came down the steps. Merry and Pippin had to covers their mouths with their hands to stop themselves from laughing. Frodo was white. Every part of his body was covered with sun cream, inches thick. He wore swimming shorts but every inch of skin showing was lathered with what looked like about 10n bottles of cream. Sam was walking next to him.

"Are you sure you have enough sun cream on Mr Frodo?" He asked.

"Yes, Sam." He looked annoyed. "If you put any more on me I'll just skim across the water without getting wet."

"I don't want you to burn."

"There's no chance of that happening." They both came and sat down on the steps beside Merry and Pippin, who were trying to hide their giggles.

It wasn't long before Gimli and Gandalf walked down the steps. This time Merry and Pippin couldn't contain their laughter. They rolled around on the steps clutching their stomachs.

Gimli walked down the steps in his armour and still carrying an axe. He was protesting to Gandalf that he was too hot but when Gandalf suggested getting into the holiday mood he looked shocked at the thought of taking of his armour. Merry and Pippin weren't sure who was worse. Gimli or Gandalf. Gandalf walked down the steps wearing a pair of short trousers, his socks pulled up to his knees, a shirt with his sleeves rolled up and a white hanky tied on his head. He carried his staff in his hand.

"What are you two finding so amusing?" Gandalf asked as he reached the hysterical hobbits.

"Erm, nothing." They managed to squeak.

Within minutes of recovering from their laughing fit they were in a state of shock. Aragorn was walking down the steps. He carried nothing in his hands and only through good eyes could you tell that he was wearing something. The something he was wearing being a very small pair of trunks. The only other thing present was his crown, which stood high on his head. No one could say anything when he reached them and Merry was left wondering what other surprises this morning could have in store. Only Legolas left to come down the steps.

He arrived soon after Aragorn looking relatively normally compared to the others. He had on a pair of swimming shorts and sandals and his hair was tied up in a bun like shape on top of his head.

"Why is your hair on top of your head like that?" Pippin couldn't contain himself.

"Because if we plan to go swimming I can't get salt in my hair. I will never get it out."

"Oh!"

Having been reunited once more they set off down a set of steps to the beach. It was quite busy so they found a spot by a set of rocks to lay down their towels. Aragorn had to borrow Merry and Pippin's together. As soon as the towels were laid down Merry and Pippin ran off, carrying various floating objects, and waded down into the sea. Frodo told Sam he was going too but Sam insisted he followed, still asking Frodo if he had enough sun cream and warning him not to stay in the water too long.

Gimli sat on a nearby rock, his axe in his hand. Gandalf sat on his towel with yet another newspaper and Legolas lay in the sun claiming he wanted a tan. When Aragorn asked if he could borrow his cream Legolas told him that he didn't have any. He wasn't going to need it if he wanted a tan.

It had been several hours since they had arrived and Gandalf told everyone he was going for a paddle. Aragorn watched him as he walked down to the sea, dipped his toes in and then came back to read again. Sam was trying to drag Frodo out of the water but Frodo insisted he wanted to stay. Merry and Pippin were far out and now appeared as two small dots surrounded by floating whales and shapes.

When Aragorn stood up beside Legolas he was pushed out of the way. "You are standing in my sun Aragorn."

"Legolas, you are getting quite red. Don't you think you best give the sun a rest? Or put some cream on." Aragorn told him.

"I don't need cream."

"You have fair skin."

"I don't need cream."

"Ok, ok."

Aragorn sat back down again. He found an ant crawling on the sand. Picking up a hand full of the grains he dropped it on the ant and watched as it dug it's way out, giggling to himself. Once it had appeared he repeated the process again watching as it crawled tot he surface. Several times he repeated it until he covered the ant with sand and it didn't appear. He dug down to find it but couldn't. After a sniffle at the death of his friend he went in search for more ants.

Finally deciding that it was time for supper the hobbits came out of the water, Aragorn gave up looking for more ants and Gandalf put down his newspaper.

"I think we should be heading back for something to eat." Gimli announced.

"Yeah food." Chorused the hobbits. Everyone began gathering their things together. When they had everything they looked back to find that Legolas still lying down.

"Come on Legolas."

"I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I mean I can't. I can't move. I think I lay in the sun too long."

They sighed as they looked at how red Legolas' skin was. Aragorn placed a hand under Legolas' arm and Gimli did the same at the other side. They lifted Legolas and placed him on his feet. He winced as he began to shuffle along the sand.

They made their way back to the hotel rooms to get changed. Gandalf and Gimli filled the bath in their room with icy cold water. They helped Legolas in it and, despite his protests, left him there. It hurt too much to move so he resigned to his fate of death by ice.

When everyone was ready to go out they remembered that Legolas still in the bath. Helping him out, his teeth chattering and his fingers and lips blue; they wrapped a towel around him. He shuffled to the bedroom to get dressed.

It was a while until he returned, moving slightly better but still very red.

"You look like a tomato." Pippin burst out laughing.

"Thank you Pippin." Legolas told him. "But you will all be jealous when I have a gorgeous tan."

"Ok, Legolas. If you say so." Gimli smiled. "Now where are we going for some food?"

It wasn't far to a restaurant where the Fellowship ate almost anything they could order. After their meal, and several drinks, they decided that they didn't want to go home just yet. They wanted to go out. Go to a party. They wanted to go clubbing.

Ainu Laire: Sorry. I must read through my chapter more carefully before I post in the future as you keep pointing out my mistakes hehe. Glad you are still reading though and please don't stop yet.

Anastasia Who: ROTK was brilliant. I can't wait to see it again, even though I've seen it twice. I cried too. It has to be the best film ever. Anyway, glad you are still enjoying this. Happy New year!

~Amariel~ : Ok, that was such a funny picture of Aragorn playing with a mini doll of himself. I hope you enjoyed ROTK. I loved it. It has to be the best film ever. Happy New year to and your sister too.

The Converted: hehe. Silly hobbits and their drugs indeed. Glad you are liking this story. Also, glad you liked ROTK. I loved it. can't wait to see it again. I liked the ending with Arwen and Aragorn. It was a bit freak though but still good.

mousegal: Yes ROTK was great but you've hear me saying that so many times already. And yes, Legolas and cold water was funny. Would have loved to see that in ROTK hehe.

Arwen: ROTK was great, as I think I have said too many times now. Glad you are still enjoying this story. And I'm sure many of the chapters were inspired by mad moment at High School.

Michelle Frodo: Hehehe. I can picture all the hobbits stuck in the doorframe too. And Leggy being carried by Gimli. It's a bit like when Sam picks Frodo up in ROTK and you get a lovely view of Frodo's bum as he turns towards the camera hehe. Anyway, ROTK rocks indeed my friend.

Batcat: Aww *sulks*. Legolas being girly is so much fun. I love him really but he is so easy to make fun of in stories like this. Hope you don't mind too much. As you can probably see, all of my stories are either made up me being horrid to Legolas while making fun of him, or me being horribly to Legolas while torturing him. Hehe. I do love him though. Honestly.

Melana : Glad you like my stories. Thank you for keeping the reviews coming. I hope you carry on and I hope I don't loose the knack of making people laugh. Thank you and Happy New Year.

Thank you to everyone as always and the next chapter will be up shortly. Happy New Year to everyone I haven't already said it to. Bye.