Authors' Note: Here it is, the newest chapter. Also, there are Brothers In Arms centric short stories posted on our web-site, for those who are interested.
The Nightrunners
Worlds Colliding
Soundtrack: Beautiful Goodbye ( Amanda Marshall )
Fed up with my destiny
And this place of no return
Think I'll take another day
And slowly watch it burn
It doesn't really matter how the time goes by
Cause I still remember you and I
And that beautiful goodbye We staggered through these empty streets
Laughing arm in arm
The night had made a mess of me
Your confession kept me warm
And I don't really miss you
I just need to know
Do you ever think of you and I
And that beautiful goodbye When I see you now
I wonder how
I could've watched you walk away
If I let you down
Please forgive me now
For that beautiful goodbye In these days of no regrets
I'll keep mine to myself
And all the things we never said
I can say for someone else
Cause nothing lasts forever
But we always try
And I just can't help but wonder why
We let it pass us by When I see you now
I wonder how
I could have watched you walk away
If I let you down
Please forgive me now
For that beautiful goodbye
As comments went, it was innocent enough. But wars have been started for less.
"You're still having nightmares. You didn't tell me." Sam's tone was accusing. He sat in a chair beside the bed, arms folded across his chest, a picture of obstinacy.
Felix sat up in bed, residual panic fleeing as he realized that he was in their Goldenwood apartment and no longer in his own personal hell. The sheets had bunched and twisted around him, and he felt as if he'd gone three rounds with a cave-troll.
He scrubbed his hand across tired eyes, and sighed in Sam's direction. "What are you doing awake, anyway?"
"It's morning, Felix," Sam said. "I tried to wake you when you were thrashing around earlier, but you stopped after a bit so I left you alone, and I kind of hoped you actually got some proper sleep. I guess that was too much to hope for."
Something about his tone grated on Felix's already shredding nerves. "Oh, why do you care?" he snapped. "You could have gone somewhere else to sleep."
Sam's eyes flashed, and he snapped right back, "That's not what I meant, and you know it!"
"But why did you sit in the god-damned chair for half the night, Sam? Why didn't you just go away?" Felix was too tired, and frankly, too pissed off to care about his words.
Sam was out of the chair in a second, so fast that it overbalanced and crashed to the floor. "Because I belong here, you idiot!" he yelled.
"Why? What did I ever do to deserve this from you, Sam? What did I do?"
Sam's features softened, and he took a step towards the bed. "Everything," he said quietly. "You did everything."
Something in Felix snapped, very suddenly. "I rescued a scared kid, Sam, someone just like me." He jumped from the bed, and began to pace. "How much of us, how much of this," he gestured to Sam, "is based on what came before?"
Sam's voice stopped him there, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. "What do you mean?" he asked, his tone icy.
Felix shook his head. "What is it between you and I, anyway, Sam? Why did you sit in a damn chair all night to watch over me? Is it some kind of twisted loyalty thing, left over from thousands of years ago?"
Sam's glacial attitude hadn't shifted. "So now you're questioning me too. You've been jumping at shadows lately, but I don't know what could have ever made you doubt me."
"I'm just wondering, Sam, who is it you love, anyway? A street kid who's scared of the dark or a dead Ringbearer who lost his soul to a dark lord's trinket-"
Felix was almost rambling at that point, his eyes darting around the room, but he saw the punch coming at the last second. It was just as well, if he hadn't twisted out of the way, it probably would have broken his nose. As it was, the blow sent him tumbling backwards over the bed.
As he shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears, Sam towered over him, almost shaking with rage. Roughly, he hauled Felix to his feet, and pulled him close. "How dare you!" he hissed. "How dare you question me, now, after all of this? After everything we've done together, everything that's happened, you decide that I'm not in love with you, but some reflection of a dead...!"
Furious now to the point of incoherence, he threw himself into another punch, but this time Felix was ready for him, and sidestepping the blow, caught Sam in the back of the neck with the heel of his hand.
Sam went down with a grunt, and Felix was on him in a second. He caught Sam with a sharp jab to the stomach, then one to the face, and he was almost screaming, "You've got no idea what it's like! Every night I see you die, everyone dies and I can't stop it! You don't understand!"
With a tremendous heave, Sam pushed Felix off of him, and staggered to his feet. "No!" he yelled. "You're right, I don't understand! I can never understand because you won't fucking me tell!"
With that, he turned and stormed from the apartment. The door rattled on its hinges as it slammed shut.
"You stupid bastard," Felix muttered, surveying the wrecked room. He closed his eyes, and sank back to the floor, pulling his knees up to his chest.
He was still sitting there, moments later, when the door was cautiously opened. "Fuck off, Mark," Felix said flatly.
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I heard the yelling, but that was no surprise. Every Elf within ten stories would have heard them. Felix and Sam, fighting. Loudly.
Part of me wanted to just stay out of their business, but I'd been out of the loop for too long now. I went downstairs just in time to see Sam clip by, eyes dark and angry, the heel of his hand pressed to a bruising cheekbone.
Peter was coming down the stairs at the other end of the hall. "Fuck, not this again," I heard him say, then he was sprinting after his friend. "Sam, come back!"
Mark had been a few steps behind Peter. I watched as he went into the room that Felix and Sam shared, but he emerged again a minute later, looking frustrated. I stepped out into the open, into his line of sight. "You want to tell me what's going on?"
"Hey Legolas." Mark was scuffing his toes against the floor, an obvious diversionary tactic. It wasn't going to work on me.
"Mark, what's wrong? You might as well talk about it, because I just saw Sam go by. What's going on between those two?"
Mark groaned. "They were fighting again. I hate it when they fight. They just let stuff go for so long, and all these little things build up, and then someone says something stupid, and suddenly there's screaming and punching and one or both of them end up in the hospital. The last time, Peter and I ended up sitting with Felix in a fucking Flight clinic for thirteen hours, because we didn't have enough cash to take him to the hospital."
Mark must have seen the look on my face, because he continued, fiercely, defensively. "They're my best friends, and they love each other so goddamn much. They just...can't deal, all right?"
"No, Mark, it's not all right. Felix just hit Sam."
Mark looked unfazed. "Sam hit him back. Or hit him first, whatever. This is old news, Legolas. They were like this when I met them, and I figure they'll still be like it long after I'm dead in the streets. They're just... it's just the way they are, okay? It's not like they fight every week. The last time- when we took Felix to the Flight clinic- that was a couple of years ago."
Something ugly was beginning to dawn on me. "How long have they been together?"
"Felix said he met Sam when he was ten. Sam was seven."
"And how long have they been lovers?"
"I don't know."
This was worse than I thought. "Have they ever been with anybody else?"
"No."
"Mark, has it ever occurred to you, or to them, for that matter, that this relationship might be less than healthy?"
Mark's eyes flared. "Oh, fuck you. We grew up in the streets. Peter's mom was a junkie, she ran off when he was eleven, and god only knows who his father was. Felix's parents are dead, Sam doesn't even know who his parents were, and my mom is dead. There's nobody, nobody who cares whether you live or die, and that fucks with your head, y'know? You have to grow up when you're eight years old, and you never know if you're going to die tomorrow, or if your best friend won't come home tonight. All you know how to do is love or hate. Everything is in extremes, and everything hurts."
I watched as he ground the heel of his hand into his forehead. "Christ." he said. " I'll kill them both."
There really wasn't anything I could say. Mark kept talking, like something had broken inside him. "Do you know what it's like when they fight? They won't talk to anyone for ages, and when they do, Sam will call Felix every filthy thing he knows, and Felix will publicly wish Sam had never been born. Then three days later, they'll both go crazy, because they honestly can't live without each other, but they'll be stupid about it and drag it out another two weeks because they're both complete idiots."
Mark lost some of his fire, then. He leaned against the wall, slid down to sit on the floor, and ran a hand over his face. I sat down next to him, and he dropped his head against my shoulder. "They're in love, Legolas. They're the only people I know who have ever really been in love."
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"Slow down, you bastard!"
Sam didn't spare a glance behind him as he plowed towards the nearest exit of Goldenwood- in this case, a disused fire escape. He shoved the door open, jumping down onto the thin metal staircase, which protested with a screech. Peter followed him down more cautiously, and hit the ground running to catch up.
He finally grabbed Sam's shoulder as they made their way onto a crowded pedway. "Shit, man, what's your problem now?"
Sam glared at him. "Fuck off, Peter."
Peter shook his head and tightened his grip. "You know, you can be frighteningly immature sometimes, the both of you."
"It's not your problem." He reached up, attempting to pry Peter's fingers from his shoulder.
"Screw that, Sam. You and Felix are my best friends. And when you both go off the deep end, beat each other up, and then you storm off without a word, what the hell do you expect me to do?"
Sam stopped then, and Peter felt some of the tension dissolve under his fingers. "You'll think it's stupid," he said, reaching up to probe the bruise forming on his cheekbone.
"Try me."
Sam, uncharacteristically, hesitated. "Felix said I didn't love him," he said finally, then laughed helplessly at Peter's raised eyebrows. "Well, okay, he didn't say it, but it's what he meant." He laughed again, and Peter didn't like the way Sam seemed to be edging towards hysteria.
"What the hell brought that one on?" Peter asked. "Twelve hours ago you were in 'protective' mode."
Sam shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. "He said some stuff about me confusing him with Frodo and our entire relationship being something about my warped sense of loyalty-"
"That's pretty twisted, even from Felix."
"Oh, it gets better." Sam had apparently passed through post-fight hysteria and on into self-deprecation. "I said something about him doubting me, and then he went back into the 'who is it you love anyway' bullshit, at which point I stopped listening because I hit him."
Peter sighed. "Are you done venting?"
Sam shook his head. "Christ, I'm such a girl. I have a fight with my boyfriend and I run crying to you."
"Nah, don't worry about it. I had to run after you before you could cry." He frowned however, and he said, "Seriously, though, it sounds like Felix has something major on his mind. You've got to sit down and talk about it. Preferably without either one of you throwing a punch."
Sam managed a weak grin. "Remember the last time we had a fight like this?"
Peter groaned. "Oh god, how could I forget? You broke his jaw, and Felix can't sing with his jaw wired shut. We lost six gigs because Mark was singing. Mark can't sing."
"It made my ears bleed, as I recall," Sam said.
"Not to mention that you felt guilty about it for weeks afterward, until Felix threatened to break your jaw unless you let it go."
"Yeah, that too."
Peter caught his wrist and gave it a tug. "Come on, let's go back. It's probably not safe out here. You don't have to talk to him right now, but it will just get worse if you don't."
"You're right, I suppose."
"Hey," Peter said anxiously, stopping him in his tracks. "He loves you, you know. Whatever he says. He's just having a really bad month."
Sam sighed. "Aren't we all." And then- "Peter?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks. For everything."
"Yup, that's me. Peter Taylor, relationship counsellor extraordinaire. That's what I'm here for, man. Come on, we shouldn't be out here alone. The Elves are gonna freak."
Sam nodded. They hadn't gone twenty paces when Peter stopped dead.
"What's wrong?" Sam looked around. While they had been talking, the pedway had become deserted and was now eerily silent.
Peter's eyes widened as he took in the gang of mages advancing on them. He turned his head sharply, but there was no relief to be found. More mages were coming up behind them, and there was nothing on either side but a ten metre drop into traffic.
Ducking the first of the barrage of spells, Sam reached for his knife, remarking, almost casually, "I'd say our month is about to get even worse."
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Felix was making an attempt to tidy the apartment. He had to do something to keep himself from going mad, after all. He was reaching down to right an overturned chair when the vision hit him and sent him staggering.
Sam and Peter were running, but there was no escape, they were ringed on all sides. Peter's lips were pulled back in a snarl as he threw one of his knives, and a mage went down with shriek.
They split, running through the increasingly smaller circle, presenting two moving targets for the spells the mages were throwing. Sam dropped into a crouch, and a fireball flew over his head and caught a mage on the other side of the circle. He was engulfed immediately in magical flames, and thrashed about, catching his two neighbours ablaze.
But there were too many mages, too many spells to avoid. While turning to avoid a noxious black cloud, a lightning bolt caught Sam in the back. His eyes widened, and he was immobilized by thousands of tiny bolts flickering across his body. He began to scream, but the sound abruptly cut out as he slumped to the ground, body twitching uncontrollably.
Peter was at his side in a moment, teeth bared and screaming wordless defiance.
The crowd converged and Peter disappeared under a crush of mages with glowing eyes.
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Mark heard the crash, and leapt to his feet. "What the hell?" He ran into the apartment. "Felix?"
Mark's scream brought every elf in the building running.