A/N: Hey everyone! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, favorite-ed, or followed! *hands out cookies and lembas* You are all awesome!
I am so, so sorry that it took so long for this. I had a lot of trouble with this chapter, but I think it came out all right, so...enjoy!
Legolas was embarrassed. No, he was beyond embarrassed. He was beyond mortified and humiliated. He wanted to dig himself into a very, very deep hole and make someone bury him, whether he was alive or not.
He had kissed Aragorn. He had kissed his friend. And more than just kissing had taken place. He knew this. After all, he *had* been partially sober. No hobbit ale, no matter how strong, could get an elf drunk with as few as six pints.
He was so upset, he didn't know what to do with himself. He knew that he should go apologize to Aragorn, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Aragorn would surely see the guilt in Legolas' eyes. Because as much as Legolas hated to admit it, he had enjoyed himself last night. Granted, he was drunk, so he probably would have enjoyed it no matter who it was, but he couldn't deny that he was a little more than pleased that he ended up kissing Aragorn.
What? Wait... back up. Where had that thought even come from? He liked Aragorn...like that? Then it all fell into place. Legolas had always been so much happier when he was around Aragorn. He loved hearing Aragorn' laugh, seeing his smile, over anything else. He couldn't help but notice Aragorn's strong build, beautiful eyes, and dark hair whenever they were in the same room. Aragorn meant more than anything to him. Legolas groaned inwardly. This was not happening. It can't be happening. Why did he have to fall for his best friend? It was wrong. For one thing, Aragorn was married. To Arwen. Who would even *look* at Legolas over her? Second, Aragorn had never thought of Legolas as anything but a friend. Legolas knew this. He also knew that he would be very, very lucky to still have Aragorn as a friend after this incident. But, if he was honest with himself, he wanted Aragorn to be more than a friend.
He instantly hated himself for thinking that, sighed, and got up to apologize.
Pippin didn't know what to do with himself. Last night's events were inexcusable, no matter how drunk he was. Why had he wanted them to play that stupid game? All it had done was ruin everyone's lives. Aragorn and Legolas wouldn't even go near each other. The hobbits blushed bright red and stuttered whenever one of them so much as glanced at each other, and they had actually moved into separate rooms due to overall embarrassment. Gandalf...well, Gandalf had been disappointed to learn that he could not play Spin the Bottle with them as they were finished with the game now.
Pippin didn't even know what to think about the older man now.
As everyone had been drunk on varying degrees, he had only managed to get varied and muddled reports on what had or hadn't happened the last night, but from what he could tell he himself had behaved exceedingly inappropriately. He had kissed his *cousins*, for Eru's sake! But as wrong as it was, Pippin didn't feel all that sorry for kissing Frodo or Merry. Now that he thought about it, he realize he had quite enjoyed it. They were both excellent kissers. He internally scolded himself for thinking like that. But then, he realized he had actually felt like that for a long time. Not about the kissing, but just the overall attraction to his cousins, in a more-than-cousinly way. But they would never, ever feel the same for him. He was just Pippin. Just their annoying, food-obsessed little cousin. They would probably never see him as anything more.
Merry was very upset. Very. And there was a very good explanation to sort it out: 1) Pippin and 2) Frodo. Merry had been a little more sober than the others, and he recalled quite clearly what had taken place. He remembered, distinctly, kissing Pippin. For a long, long time. On the lips. As much as Merry was mortified, he couldn't say that he would have changed it. He instantly banished that thought from his head.
Merry hadn't realized it before, but he was unusually protective of Pippin. Any girl (or guy) that so much as glanced at Pippin wouldn't be doing so for any longer than three seconds before they had Merry to deal with.
Plain and simple, Merry wanted Pippin to himself. That was it. Pippin and Merry, Merry and Pippin. It had always been that way, for as long as he could remember, and he never wanted it to change. If anything, he wanted more of Pippin. He wanted Pippin to think of him as more than a cousin, or friend. He really, really liked Pippin.
Then there was Frodo. Pippin seemed to enjoy kissing Frodo much, much more than Merry could comprehend. Merry was not okay with this. Just watching them last night had invoked infuriating jealousy inside him. He had to see what was up with that. Was Frodo a better kisser than Merry? What was there about Frodo that Pippin liked better? But then again, why was Merry so surprised? Frodo was always better at everything. Better looking, smarter, more talented, more loved by everyone. Everyone knew who Frodo Baggins was, and everyone cared. As for Meriadoc Brandybuck? They didn't care. And neither did Pippin. With that thought, Merry sank onto his cold bed, tears falling freely from his eyes.
Aragorn laid flat on his bed, Arwen at his side. As mad as she was, she was able to accept that he had been drunk and made a mistake. That was it. She still felt slightly resentful, but was willing to forgive him when he apologized.
She sat up, bent over, and kissed him, then ran her hand down the side of his face. He sat up and kissed her back. They stayed that way for a long time.
Then there was knock on the door. Aragorn unwrapped Arwen's arms from him, sighed, and went over to the door. Opening it, he saw Legolas, and reflexively flinched and slammed the door in his face. Aragorn quickly locked it, then went back over to Arwen.
"Who was it?" she asked.
"No one," he said, and laid back down next to her.
Legolas could have cried. Aragorn had slammed the door in his face. Slammed it. He supposed Aragorn had every right to do so, after last night's events, but he thought his friend would at least give him a chance to apologize.
Clearly, he had thought wrong.
Did Aragorn somehow know? No, he couldn't! Legolas hadn't told anyone how he truly felt for his friend. Then Legolas got mad. Whose fault was it that he was in this situation in the first place? The hobbits'. Whose fault as it that he had done all those awful things to Aragorn last night? The hobbits'. And whose fault was it that Aragorn had just slammed the door in his face? Guess who... The hobbits'. And Legolas had a pretty good idea of who the main person at fault was. And they were going to pay for this.
He stormed away from Aragorn's door, tears of anger, despair, and frustration falling from his eyes. He headed for Merry's room, and Merry was going to be sorry.
A/N: First and foremost, I promise that Legolas is not going to hurt Merry. At all. They're going to have a nice little chat that you get to read in the next chapter. I know it sounded bad for Merry there, but I promise he's fine.
So that's it for this chapter! I hope it was worth the wait. I will be updating again very, very soon, probably sometime later today (It's 1:53am as I am writing this).
Just as a warning, this story got way, way darker than I intended it to. I was writing and all of a sudden it went from a (hopefully) cute, happy story into a dramatic mess. But I'm working on it!
So, review! Let me know what you think, even if you hate it!