Will stepped away from the right-now-very-confining camp and into one of the wild havens inside Sherwood. He basked in the warm sunlight that found its way somehow from the canopy of trees to rest on the forest floor. As he stood there, the sound of footsteps made him turn around, and a delightful and mischievous smile appeared when he saw who it was. He had been waiting for this.

"Behold!" Will stepped back and froze in shock, his eyes widening in mock awe. "Azeem Edin ala babba yadda yadda!" He fluttered his arm about and ended with a theatrical bow.

"Ha, ha." Azeem walked up. "Your wit is most amusing, Will Scarlett."

"I think so," he agreed cheerfully. "Nice speech by the way," he added, referring to Azeem's actually rather helpful speech at Nottingham castle.

"Oh, be quiet."

"What are you doing out here?"

"Same thing you're doing—hiding out from the women."

"You think they'll find us?"

"I hope not."

Will scanned around, "Have you seen Robin anywhere?"

Azeem caught the scent of payback in that question, and, holding back a smile, he answered, all innocence, "No, I-I s-saw a-a grave."

Scarlett's face turned just a shade lighter than his name.

---

The two had been hiding out for a while when they both heard the crunching of leaves as someone walked towards them. As they turned to see who it was, Robin paused in the shadows provided by the trees.

After a moment, Will asked, "You going to hide there all day?"

Robin took a deep breath and then he walked into the light. Will remained stoic as he examined his elder brother—hair neatly combed out, a brand-new shirt, a clean-shaven face, there was no dirt or grime anywhere to be found on him. He looked good.

"Well?" Robin asked when Will hadn't said anything, "How do I look?"

He shrugged. "Clean."

"Thanks, I was hoping for a little better than that," Robin muttered; Will grinned devilishly.

"There was a rich man from Nottingham," he crooned, laughing as he ducked out of the way of Robin's blow.

"Who tried to cross a river," Azeem joined in the fun. Robin shot him a death glare even as he chased after Will, who had circled around Azeem.

"But what a dope, right?" John grinned as he walked up to the group.

"Did he say that rhyme every time he tripped a guy in the river?" Locksley cried in exasperation, as that day's beginning humiliation flashed through his mind, no matter that he won in the end.

"Nah, that was the first time we ever heard him sing that," John defended. Robin snorted in disbelief.

"What? It's true!" Will protested at the look on Robin's face.

"You can not stand there and tell me you made that up on the spot," Robin crossed his arms, waiting for a denial he knew couldn't possibly come.

"No, I didn't make it up on the spot, but I never said I did," Will snapped back. "It took me two days to make it up, and then I practiced it for three, but that time was the first time I ever let anyone hear it, so there." At a younger stage in life, that remark would have been accompanied by the proverbial sibling sticking-out-of-the-tongue. But these brothers were older and therefore so above such childish antics.

"It took you…two days?" Azeem asked.

John grinned. "All right, if you three can stop your bickering for one moment, I have some messages from Fanny and Marian." The three groaned in unison (Fanny and Marian were in charge of all wedding preparations, which did not bode well for them). "Will, Fanny put you in charge of our children—Wulf on down. Make sure they do not touch anything remotely resembling dirt while they are in their good clothes."

"So I'll need to get Azeem to find a way for them to walk on air?"

John ignored the sarcasm. "And Marian instructed you, Azeem, to make certain that the Friar does not get drunk until after the wedding."

"What?!"

"Have fun," Robin grinned.

"And Robin," here Locksley groaned and the others grinned in triumph, "Marian wants to make sure that you stay clean and well-groomed, and that you do not bring your bow and arrows to the wedding. I repeat do not, under any and all circumstances, wear them. 'It is a wedding ceremony, not an archery tournament. Leave them at home,'" John inflected to just the right level of a lecturing wife—he having plenty of experience dealing with that department.

"Well, that's it," John finished up and turned to leave.

"What? That's it? That's all Robin has to do?" Scarlett asked, incredulous.

"He just has to stay clean and not bring weapons to the wedding?" Azeem continued Will's complaints.

"Aww, grow up will you two? When it's your wedding day, you can just stand around and stay clean. But it's not, and you can't," John admonished, "and besides, you've been hiding out here all day, it's about time you did some work."

"Hiding? We haven't been hiding, have we, Azeem?"

"Only if the definition of hiding is to stand and talk with a good friend we haven't," the painted man replied very innocently.

"Out of sight of the women?" John accused.

"Were we out of sight of the women? I didn't notice, Azeem, did you?"

---

"Wulf, Wulf, you put that down! Put that down you hear me? Sarah, you stop it too! Get your little brother out of the dirt, I said somebody get that boy out of the dirt!"

Robin watched in amusement as Scarlett attempted to control seven of Fanny's children, and several of other people's children. Attempted was the key word. All the children seemed to intuitively know that Will's job was to keep them clean and away from dirt, so instantly, a dirt war had begun.

"You having a good time?" Robin politely asked as he walked by. Despite the children present, Will told him in no uncertain terms to be quiet.

As Robin turned to go away, though, Will called out quickly, "I could use some help."

"I'm sorry, I'm under orders, you know," Robin shrugged the request off, "but look at the bright side."

"What bright side?" Will asked irritably as he grabbed Sarah's hand and smacked it until the clod of dirt she had been about to heave to her older brother fell to the ground.

"Well, the best thing is, you don't have to deal with Fanny's baby." (None of the women trusted Will with such a little, fragile thing.) "And then after that, you don't have to worry about any Nottingham soldier chasing after you, there are no guards ready to tear you to pieces, and no evil Sheriff about to string you up. So what do you have to complain about? Some little kids not listening to you?"

"More like beating me up," Will corrected as one of Wulf's dirt clods, intended for Sarah, smacked him on the cheek.

"Oh, come on, Will, you know what real children beating you up is like, and this is nothing like that," Noah teased as he picked up some dirt of his own and hurled it at Wulf.

"'Children beating you up?' I haven't heard this story," Robin exclaimed.

"And he never is going to, is he Noah?" Will waved a finger threateningly in the air.

---

A while later, Will and Robin were alone, waiting for the ceremony to begin. Everyone else was already there, but Robin was supposed to make an entrance, but he didn't want to make it alone. The man who could face down six soldiers at once without batting an eye was scared stiff when it came to walking in front of a crowd to just say a couple of words and kiss a girl. Locksley was strange that way.

"So, you're getting married," Will stated as Robin paced agitatedly to and fro with repeated mutterings of "can't they get on with it," and "it's not like I need to make an entrance, they've all seen me before" and even "and they've all heard my voice so I don't really need to say anything."

"So, you're getting married," he repeated. When Robin didn't seem to hear him, he cheerfully tried again.

"So you're getting married." Still no response.

"So, you're getting—"

"Will."

"Just making sure you were listening."

"I am, so could you please stop?"

"Oh, yes, sir." Scarlett saluted.

"Listen, Will, I didn't mean—,"

"Robin. Relax," Will enunciated each syllable, trying to get the words into the man's fool head. "You're just getting married with a couple of friends watching. No one important is going to be there. Now-calm-down."

Locksley breathed in and out, and gradually began to calm down. "Thanks."

"What are brothers for?" he philosophized. "What?" Will asked as an expression flitted acros Robin's face.

"Oh, well, I guess it's just still strange to me," he replied, "I've got a brother." He stated the last as if he were talking to himself, and hearing the sentence for the first time.

"Yeah," Will agreed softly. The two were silent.

"And now you're about to have a wife," Scarlett added brightly, lightening the mood, as he saw John waving them on. "Looks like it's time to go."

"Yeah," Robin muttered, not moving. He heaved a sigh, "Let's go." He looked to the heavens, "Lord, don't let me make a fool out of myself."

"Robin, you can't make a fool out of yourself. All you had to do was memorize a couple of little vows. How hard can that be?"

Locksley's eyes opened very wide, and he sputtered, "Memorize? I had to memorize something!?!"

"Whoah, Robin, kidding, kidding." Will braced one hand on each of Robin's shoulders and proceeded to bring Robin back down to the calm state he had managed to get him to before his little joke. "You don't have to memorize. The friar is going to tell you what to say. You are going to be fine."

Robin breathed again. "That wasn't funny."

"It was a little funny."

The other was about to respond when Will ordered, "Go get married."

The two brothers then walked off to the clearing set aside for this special event, the beautiful autumn leaves falling around them as they journeyed through the Sherwood. Months ago, they wouldn't be as close as ten yards to each other. But today they walked side by side, each one teasing or reassuring the other by turn. No more were they the bitter rivals, the barely allies, no more was it brother against brother. Today they walked side by side, as they always should have done.

The End.

Well, guys, that's the end. Thank y'all for staying with this story, and a million thanks to all those who have reviewed, y'all are wonderful. I hope you found this story worth the time it took to read, and especially worth all the long weeks that came between each update. Thanks to those who put this story on favorites, thanks to those who put it on their alerts, and thank you to those who just came across it when they came across it. And now I will leave you with my final plea: can anyone guess it? That's right, please review! To all my faithful reviewers—please review once more! To all those who have never reviewed, please review now. Even if you just skimmed through this story, please still leave me a note (a one word note even) saying that you skimmed through the story. And if you happen to come across this story, months, years later, do not let that stop you from reviewing. I will love reviews whenever I get them!

Thank y'all again for taking the time to read this. Have a great day!

--YLJedi