Author's note: This chapter is short, but sweet. We figured this would be a pretty clean ending to this chapter, and felt that there was no need to flesh it out further. There are more things to come, though, in the next chapter! I promise!

As always, do not continue to read if sibcest squicks you. Please keep flames to yourself, and bring on the constructive criticism! We LOVE comments! Thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to leave them so far; we really appreciate it :-)

Please drop my co-author a line at jholsh1@towson.edu

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Faramir sat huddled in a small corner of his bed, his eyes red with unspilled tears. In his hands he worried a dainty ivory hairpiece that his mother used to wear to adorn her hair. When Finduilas had died and been buried, Denethor ordered for the chambers that he and his wife had shared to be shut off; no one was allowed access.

Before it had been sealed off for good, Faramir snuck into the room and collected his mother's favorite things; he felt that she was coming back and would hate for her favorite belongings to be shut away from the world. Finduilas had always allowed Faramir to play with and admire the ornate comb with its glass butterfly, knowing that he was more careful than his rash older brother.

The comb had always been a source of comfort to him, even after he had grown older. To him, he could still feel his mother's presence lingering in the small adornment though her scent had almost completely faded away as the years wore on. In the year that Boromir was gone, Faramir found the comb in his hands more often than not. It was one of the few things left he had of his mother since...

"Faramir? Are you in there?"

Looking up with a start, Faramir's hands loosened and the comb fell to the bed, forgotten. //No, Boromir, please go away,// he pleaded silently, wishing that his brother would cease his needling.

Boromir's hands were balled-up into fists and he suddenly felt like he was about to cry. //I hate how I always manage to drive him away when my intentions are good,// he thought bitterly. //I can never do anything right, I never know what to say to him...// "Faramir, I will leave you be, if you wish it," he said to the door. "But I hope that you find it in your heart to let me in." Without another word, he turned on his heel and began to walk away, and he didn't look back because he did not expect any answer.

He stopped abruptly, immediately feeling a pang of guilt pierce his heart. //I can't just leave him, he'll never come to me...// Boromir turned halfway, his eyes fixed on the double doors leading to Faramir's room. Risking earning his brother's disdain, he traversed the distance to the entrance and slowly moved the door further ajar.

Faramir's sad eyes looked up to see who was at the door, but immediately flicked back down to the bed once he saw Boromir's head hesitantly poking through the crack in them. "Surely there is some pressing matter of Minas Tirith that you should attend to, brother. You cannot trouble yourself with me."

"The only pressing matter at hand is between you and I, Faramir," Boromir said with effort, as his emotions threatened to govern his actions and make him snap at Faramir's reticence and callous brush-offs. "May I enter?"

Faramir shrugged his shoulders, trying to force himself to seem unbothered by anything. "If you wish."

Boromir shoved past the doors and remained just before the entrance, up on the stone step that stood up a few inches from the cold floor. He folded his arms across his broad chest and looked Faramir straight in the eye with a smouldering gaze. "Why do you push me away, Faramir?"

"I do not push you away, Boromir," he replied automatically. Faramir's slender hands found the small comb on the bed again and began fiddling with it nervously.

"Then why do I feel so detached from you?" Boromir asked softly, stepping down from the entrance and moving nearer to where Faramir was huddled up on his bed, turning something over in his hands.

"You were gone for a year, Boromir," Faramir started quietly, feeling his resolve slipping, "and I have changed much in that time. I'm sorry if I am not the same little brother that you once knew."

The frustration clouding Boromir's thinking was quickly replaced with disquiet. He was now standing next to Faramir's mattress and tentatively he sat down, leaving plenty of space between his body and Faramir's. He realized that Faramir's face, though still young and angelic, was marked with lines of pain and suffering that hadn't been there before. "Faramir, what happened... while I was away?" Boromir questioned, voice scarcely above a murmur.

Faramir swallowed hard, his budding Adam's apple bobbing up and down visibly. "I missed you terribly." He dared to look up at his brother, and almost blanched at the amount of concern that was written on his face. "I don't mean to be so distant." He was still loath to admit what had happened to him, although almost a full year had passed since.

Boromir's gentle green eyes softened a little and he relaxed his shoulders. "I know you don't mean to be... it's just difficult to know how to be close to you again, without... well, asking you.."

Faramir gazed back into Boromir's sympathetic eyes beseechingly. "Please, I can change. I can learn to be close to you again."

"Faramir, do not feel that you have to cater to my... wants," Boromir managed to say. "All I want is to have no secrets driving a wedge between us," he finished. He longed to touch Faramir but restrained himself, not wanting to suggest that he only desired physical attachment with his brother.

His hands returning to their fidgeting, Faramir looked down at the small ornament in his hands. "Do you remember those bullies...From the first day you were back?"

Boromir nodded attentively but said nothing. His eyes moved down to Faramir's hands and he tried to descry what it was that Faramir was holding.

"That day was not the first day I had problems with them. They used to harrass me constantly. Especially after you left. And then one day..." Faramir took a shuddering breath. "One day it went beyond just teasing. They...They shoved me around and pushed me in the mud," he admitted, though he grossly simplified the events. "Father found out, and he said that I was nothing more than a weakling."

"Go on," Boromir urged. He scooted ever so slightly nearer to Faramir, but still kept his distance so as to not jeopardize Faramir's comfort.

"So he sent me out into the wild so that I could know exactly what a hard life is..." He shuddered at the memory of what happened after he had been forced to leave the city, but chose to keep it from Boromir. Nothing will help the situation now anyway, he thought to himself. "I had to kill, and I hated it. I hate violence," he finished.

Boromir's eyes flashed violently at the confession. "He sent you into the wild? On your own?" His teeth were clenched and his hands shook with rage.

Faramir dared to reach his hands out and still Boromir's with his own, lacing his fingers through his brothers. "I was fine, but it...I suppose it forced me to grow up."

Boromir shook his head in disbelief. "No, no, that was not right." He moved to stand, but Faramir's strong grasp on his wrist stopped him.

"Boromir, what's done is done. There's nothing you can do about it now," Faramir said firmly. "Nothing happened to me, and I came back all right. Maybe father was right, maybe I needed to become accustomed to a hard life so that I could understand all that I have here." //You say you love him, Faramir, but why do you lie to him so?// his heart taunted.

He turned halfway and peered down at Faramir, eyes threatening to mist and well with tears. "I never would have let him do such a thing to do, Faramir," he said shakily before pulling Faramir up close to him and nestling his nose in Faramir's waves of sandy hair.

"But you weren't, and I had to deal with it on my own. And maybe I am better for it, but I have changed. I can't help that." Faramir's eyes were now dry, despite the odd tear that fell into his hair as Boromir held him close. When he spoke, his voice was even and almost emotionless.

"Faramir, I..." But there were no words that Boromir could think of that would allay Faramir's pain, and it hurt Boromir deeply to know he was helpless to do anything. All he *could* do was hold him tight and try his hardest to control his emotions, since the last thing Faramir needed was for his brother to be weak.

"You don't have to say anything, Boromir. It's over and done with, and I am still here in one piece." Faramir allowed Boromir to hold him for a few more minutes before pulling away. "So that is what you wanted to know."

Boromir worked his jaw open and closed, totally bereft of his voice. All he wanted to do was hide Faramir away inside of himself so that he could never let anyone harm his brother again, most of all their father. Tentatively he planted an airy kiss on Faramir's forehead.

Faramir looked up at Boromir, rewarding him with a smile, though Boromir wasn't sure if it was genuine or forced. "I will try to do better from now on."