A/N: Happy belated forth of July! As always, I own nothing you recognize. How many times have we been through this?
"Noel? Noel? Noel? Noel?"
"What do you want!" I practically turned around and yelled at Zeke, who was the idiot who felt obligated to say my name four times in a row.
Zeke backed up a step. "Woah. Calm down. Deep cleansing breaths you know?" He said, holding his hands up in surrender.
"Shut up asshole. Now what the hell do you want so bad?" I snapped back at him. I had been in a really bad mood for the past two days. I was suspecting that it was half from the fact that we were currently on a mountain. Literally. Right now we were walking along a nice little snowy slope…the original plan, so I'm told, wasn't to climb this big fucking mountain, but was to go through this little pass or something like that. Strider told me about this, but I was zoning when he was talking. Evidently some sort of spies of this evil wizard (who was in the league with this dark lord dude) saw them headed that way (this whole thing happened before the group of us were unexpectedly dropped here).
So now we're on our way up a damn mountain.
Thanks evil dude.
God I hate snow.
And now Zeke's looking at me, obviously expecting an answer or reaction or something.
"Er, what?" I asked Zeke.
"I was wondering if you were cold…and if you were if you wanted this drink with alcohol that's being passed around courtesy of Strider. Apparently it warms you up. It's gooooood."
Zeke grinned happily, and for a passing second I wondered if it was an aftereffect of the alcohol…
As I voiced this thought aloud Jack was quick to assure me that Zeke had only had a sip. He had been watching to make sure. We can always count on Jack to make sure we don't get totally drunk on a mountain top.
"I'm not drunk baby. You wish. You want me to be drunk so you can seduce me, right? I know all about shifty guitarists like you." Zeke said jokingly, causing myself and Erick (our other "shifty" guitarist) to send a glare in Zeke's direction.
I just love Zeke.
Really.
"Now are you going to take some of this drink or not?" I heard from Zeke.
I glared at him and snatched the flask from his hands. "God, you have no patience. How do I live with this?" I half shouted at him.
"Aren't we pissy today?" Zeke (stupidly) said quietly to Erick, who quickly hushed him.
Only not quite quickly enough.
I turned to Zeke, my eyes narrowing. "What did you just say to me dickhead?" I whispered, my voice getting colder with each word.
I heard Adrian telling the rest of the fellowship to let us argue and to not step in unless we began to beat each other up.
Unless you couldn't tell, this was a usual occurrence among Zeke and I. Every month or so we have a huge blow up, ignore each other for two days, and then go back to normal. You could count on it.
"So this is normal for them?" I heard Merry ask Adrian, not that I was listening…I was listening to them with one ear as I waited for Zeke to answer me.
"Yeah. No big deal. Just as long as they don't start punching each other it's all good. We just let them have it out." He answered.
"I didn't know that friends were really supposed to end up in fights like that." Sam commented.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Adrian shrug. "That's how they work. They really do care about each other, just in a-"Here Adrian paused, trying to think of the best word to describe the relationship between Zeke and I. "Unique, yeah, that's the word, unique way."
Going back to the brewing fight between Zeke and I, the two hotheads in the group, and away from Adrian trying to assure the fellowship that we really did like each other…
"I was wondering, my darling-"
"Sarcasm is not appreciated here Ezekiel." I interrupted.
"Shut up. As I was saying…I was wondering if perhaps we were experiencing PMS these days, are we?"
I crossed my arms. "Like I would tell you, blondie." I said angrily, putting in a reference to his now blonde roots. As it turns out, Zeke's original hair color actually is this golden color not unlike Legolas's.
I saw the internal battle within Zeke…probably wondering whether or not he should beat the crap out of me. "Come on, why? Trust me, I know about these issues…I mean, every month you get all bitchy…" Zeke retaliated, choosing to not strike out with violence.
Violence is not the answer kids. Well…threats were okay…and so were considering killing your opponent…but actually doing it isn't cool.
"Murderous." I said, sending a pointed glare at Zeke. This was actually one of our milder arguments. Normally our insults were a WHOLE lot worse than this. It just takes a little bit. Give us about ten minutes and we'll be tearing each other apart.
"And EVERY damned month you two go through this!"
Both Zeke and I turned to see Erick standing there, looking between the two of us, who apparently decided to cut off the argument before the insults got severe.
Erick lit a cigarette (I'm amazed that he had any left) before continuing, evidently taking his dear sweet time continuing.
"Every month, right around this time, Noel is in a bad mood for about two weeks. It's like clockwork. What's also like clockwork is how every single month Zeke tries to pick a fight with Noel.
This happens every time and it's insane. It messes up rehearsals, shows; just sitting in the same room is awkward for days. You two say you care for each other, yet you sit here and verbally kill each other, insulting the very faults that a week earlier you were saying were okay to have and that you love those dorky faults in each other.
I don't know about 'Dri and Jack, but this drives me insane. Little spats I don't give a shit about, but ignoring each other for days is crazy and childish. We're now stuck in this fucked up fantasy land together. So either shut the fuck up and stop having these moronic little arguments or, God help me, I'll beat you both up to the point where you are little puddles on the damned ground."
For a second Zeke and I just sat there, staring at Erick with wide eyes.
Finally Adrian broke the silence that had overcome myself, the guys, and the fellowship, none of us having heard anything quite like that from Erick.
"Thank whatever Gods that are up there!" Adrian shouted as he threw his arms outwards and tilted his head back to the sky as if he was trying to soak up the sun. "Finally!" He said. "Thanks dude." He said, nodding his head at Erick.
Erick let out a steady stream of smoke from the cigarette and just nodded.
There was another moment of awkward silence in which everyone looked at Zeke and I.
The two of us exchanged glances and then looked over at Erick, who was drilling holes into our skulls with his eyes, looking at me expectedly.
More silence ensued.
"Er…" I looked at Zeke, who was the first one out of the two of us who had said anything since Erick had talked. "Sorry." He continued awkwardly.
"Yeah. Same…I'm sorry too." I whispered, looking at the ground.
Without quite knowing what came over me I all of a sudden lunged at Zeke, hugging him, suddenly realizing that even as often as we wanted to kill each other that I really did care for him…and vice versa.
Zeke paused for a second before responding and hugging me back. I rested my head on his shoulder and saw a small (almost knowing, but knowing what?) smirk on Erick's face as he nodded at me. Smiling back I pulled Zeke closer to me.
"Out of curiosity though, are you PMSing, my lovely dear?" Zeke whispered in my ear playfully and maybe a bit flirtatiously.
"Maybe, my blue and blonde haired freak." I said softly, flirting a bit back.
"Shut it Rapunzel."
I giggled into Zeke's shirt.
"Zeke?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you know where that alcohol is that you offered me earlier?"
"It's in your hand genius. You had it earlier. And you already had some, so you'll just be giving it back to Strider now…" Zeke said with a grin.
"Oh." I said sheepishly. "I knew that. I really did. I'm leaving now. To return this, you know?" I said, holding up the flask and breaking out of our embrace.
As I walked away I thought I heard Zeke say something along the lines of "Jared is a fool for giving up a girl like that. Lord she's wonderful," but I'm unsure. It must have just been my imagination…but it may not have been…Not that I would have minded if it wasn't my imagination.
Mentally my mind halted.
I can't be getting a crush on Zeke.
Can I?
"Welcome to Paradise…" I sang softly as we continued to walk up the mountain higher and higher.
In all truth, this was actually about as far from paradise one could get.
Well, actually, throwing snowballs at Legolas, who with all his Elven-ness is able to walk on top of the snow (the bastard), is really funny. But I'm a dork.
Snow really sucks when you're forced to walk up a slope on it. Normally snow rocks, we never have any in San Diego, so I normally would find this awesome. Only when you're walking up a mountain you discover that snow is actually really slippery.
And since we all know how graceful I am…
AND it's really cold. The fact that myself and the guys only are wearing hoodies isn't helping either. Right now we're all kind of walking together while hugging to stay warm.
We look really dorky, but it's working.
I giggled softly as Frodo, bless his heart, slipped just as I have a hundred times before and proceeded to roll (literally roll) down the hill until Strider managed to help him up. I'm so mean. Honestly, it isn't all that funny, but I'm just way too bored.
I stopped laughing when I noticed the ring that Frodo always had around his neck was lying on the white snow. It must have fallen off on his way down. From what I had heard form Merry and Pippin, the ring had corrupted men. A whole lot of men. The fact that the fellowship was made of nine guys and there were the five of us with them didn't ease my worries.
The whole group of us watched as Boromir, who I'm on neutral ground with these days, he's been telling me stories of his home to keep me out of trouble lately, slowly bent down to pick up the ring, staring at it with wide, almost maniacal eyes.
"Dude, give it to Frodo." I said, trying to snap Boromir out of his hypnosis.
"Boromir." Strider said sharply, not taking his eyes off Boromir.
Boromir's breathing quickened slightly as he continued to stare at the ring with an almost sad look on his face. "It is a strange fate that we should all suffer so much fear and so much doubt…over such a small thing-"
"Yeah, it's a small thing. Dude, I'll do you a favor, when we get home I'll get you a special ring, okay. Just give it back." I interrupted, starting to get nervous.
Boromir seemed not to hear.
"Boromir." Strider said again, his voice even sharper than before.
Finally Boromir looked over at Strider, still looking a bit dazed.
"Give the ring to Frodo." Strider continued slowly.
Boromir gave a slight laugh that was obviously fake, as he handed the ring to Frodo. "As you wish…I care not." He said with a cheesy little grin on his face.
"Yeah right. Come on, with the way you were just staring at it like it was hypnotizing you…oh yeah, you don't care at all." I spat at Boromir, a little angry at him for freaking me out like that.
My fear of this great ring elevated when I saw Strider remove his hand from his sword before continuing climbing. My eyes connected with Strider's and when they did I saw the truth: He would have used his sword on Boromir if he hadn't given the ring back. The ring held that much power.
An involuntary shiver ran through my body as I realized exactly how important this quest was.
A/N: Hi all! You all got a longer chapter today as an "I'm sorry" for not updating sooner! Sorry…I know I said I would…Next time will be sooner…dodges rocks I promise!
I have a brief note on the Zeke/Noel possible romance thing that's starting. I actually don't know what's going to happen with it! I didn't plan on having romance originally, but all of a sudden my characters are hugging and flirting. They have minds of their own now. This "romance" may only be a crush between them, it may turn into more, I guess it depends on what they want to do. As I said, originally there was nothing in the way of romance, but Noel and the guys are thinking for themselves now…It's alarming really…
Ok, now for reviews! As always, I love you all, and you get brownies this week! For all those who read but don't review, I love you too!
Mystical Full Moon Maiden- Yeah, if I was Legolas I would probably hate them too…and I'm thinking Noel is kind of like a lot of teenage girls, we can be sweet as sugar one minute and sadists the next! I'm glad you like the story!
Crow 13- Thanks for the nice words! And you were dancing…you were doing the random dance party and the Scott Weiland strut!
Fae Black- Thanks! I LOVE working with Noel. Out of any short story I've ever written she's my favorite character. I'm glad you like how I'm portraying people; I'm working to keep them IC as hard as I can!
Babii-Gurl07- Thanks so much! That scene was a weird one…I was in an odd mood when I wrote that…I'm guessing everyone was pretty shocked when it happened! Here's the new chapter!
Stephanie- I love your reviews! They make me happy. All reviews do…thanks for telling me which parts you liked a lot…with the discussion I really wanted to develop Legolas and Noel's relationship, and I'm glad it worked! I'll see you when you get back!
EverAfter-01- Go you! I'm happy for you, nice job! is impressed Noel is so cool that she doesn't care what Legolas thinks…she knows she rocks! Thanks so much!
Ambivalent Soul- Hey! What's up? I'm glad to see you back, and I'm glad to get your review! The way I figure, if I were in the fellowship I would be like "Okay, this is funny and disturbing at the same time" only not in those words. Thanks for the review!
Ok, last comments…I'm going to post one more chapter before I do a major re-editing with all the chapters. I'll post one more for my birthday, so one more will definitely be up before August 8th (the b-day of yours truly)!
Much Love Always!
Celebel
