AN: Hello, again!
It appears that I have developed a serious addiction to this site and posting and updating. So here you'll find a set of one-shots to fill in some gaps my story Family Complications left behind, or just provide some additional scenes that I have in my head, but couldn't fit into the story. (That means that I'll keep on this shameless advertising all along, because I need to define when these scenes take place in the confines of the main story)
Everything is owned by J.R.R. Tolkien.
I hope you'll like this, if you read Family Complications and if you didn't, you can still check it out, if these one-shots hook your attention. No-one is forcing you though, if you don't like it, feel free to stop anytime :) I'd be most happy to receive your comments and reviews and thank you for reading in advance.
I never thought there was anything to this whole average look of one nationality or region thing, but yeah when we were in France a lot of people made guesses that we were this and this nationality and even if someone got it wrong, those guesses were on neighbor counties too. Is it the accent? Well, it was hilarious. I should really stop these personal comments things in my ANs, because... yeah who cares about our weather or stuff like that. But to me it comes down as a little rude and stupid if I just wrote 'Duh, new chapter' and that's all. So that's why all the talking all the time. This one shot has been done for a while, but I just kept editing it for ages. Cutting out some things, changing some lines... Okay, well here's the result and let me know what you think of it :)
SCENE No. 6
- set right before Sybille's wedding (Family Complications - Epilogue) -
"Come on!"
"Right, all right, just… I so hate to leave him all alone for a whole day…"
"He won't be alone and it's not a whole day. He won't even notice, we were gone."
"But what if something is up and I'm not here to comfort him or feed him? I have never left him alone ever before!"
"For the last time, he won't be alone. Let's go now."
"I so hate leaving him alone—"
"Gilraen!" Torundir snapped at her completely out of patience. "He will be fine! Shut up and let's go, it's your sister's wedding. Move! Now!"
The next thing she knew was being dragged out of the nursery by her upper arm.
"Fine, fine" she chuckled. "I'll stop… I'll just… hope everything will be fine and stop worrying. All right?" Gilraen raised her hands defensively and Torundir finally let go of her with an annoyed glare.
"All right. Let us go then" he nodded with an apologetic smile and offered her an arm.
They descended the stair and said goodbye to Pilares which basically consisted of her making the woman swear for the third time that day that they would take good care of Turgalon while Torundir kept rolling his eyes half in amusement, half in annoyance. Gilraen rolled her eyes too. She was right. She was leaving her little baby alone for the first time and thus she was in possession of every right to overreact and worry.
Once out of the house, they headed for the sixth level to the Great Ceremony Hall where Sybille's wedding was held. Gilraen wondered what her sister was doing. Probably dancing around some room in happiness that she would finally be married to her sweetest beloved darling Florian. She really wanted to talk with Sybille before the ceremony, to hug her, to tell her how happy she was for them and to give her congratulations to her.
She felt Torundir's arms coil around her waist as her husband leaned in to kiss her cheekbone.
"He'll be fine, sweetheart. Just enjoy your sister's wedding now" he said to her and Gilraen couldn't help but break into an incredulous smile as she nuzzled against her husband for a moment before they resumed their walk.
"I wonder what Sybille's doing now" she mused as Torundir armed her.
"Trying out the seventh hairstyle for the ceremony?" he suggested with an innocent smile and Gilraen burst out laughing.
"Oh, you so don't know her. Sybille never leaves anything to the last minute. She had tried twelve different hairstyles in the past weeks, had each of them made twice so she would remember them well and then make a precise decision on what hairstyle with what jewels she would wear."
"And that entertained her?" Torundir asked raising his eyebrows.
"Immensely" Gilraen nodded with a grin.
There was a huge gathering in front of the ceremony hall already, everybody was waiting to be admitted to see the High Princess wedded, guests, friends, all the nobility of Minas Tirith. They joined Lord Beregond and Barahin for a short conversation before Gilraen decided to go and seek out her sister. Sybille was getting ready in the palace and for a moment, Gilraen wasn't sure if the guards would let her up to see her, but maybe having reconciled with her father those regulations would be out of order by this time.
She got through all gates without any trouble and even found a householder who told her where Sybille was getting ready. Reaching the right door, she knocked in and a handmaid admitted her at once. Sybille was standing with her back to the door, already wearing her magnificent white-gold wedding dress.
"Good afternoon, happy bride!" Gilraen spoke up to draw her attention.
"Gilraen!" Sybille spun around and threw herself into her arms locking her into a suffocating hug.
"Oh, I'm happy to see you too" Gilraen laughed, but her sister did not even smile, an utterly desperate expression occupied her entire face.
"Oh I'm so glad you are here, thank goodness you are here! Oh I don't know what I'm doing, you need to help me!" Sybille spluttered gesticulating in mid-air with both hands.
"I… how can I help you? I mean what's wrong? You are getting married, this is so wonderful!" Gilraen raised a pair of confused eyebrows at her sister.
"Yes, yes, very wonderful!" Sybille snapped impatiently. "Didn't you understand what I said? I have no idea what I'm doing!"
"No, Sybille, I'm sorry, but I actually don't understand. You are marrying Florian, that's what you are doing. What's wrong? What's the matter with that?" Gilraen asked her utterly puzzled at her sister's reaction.
"Everything!" Sybille cried desperately. "Don't you see? I-I-I… I have no idea how to be married! I have no idea how to be a wife! I just don't know what I'm supposed to do!"
"Oh, darling…" Gilraen drew an arm around her and led her to a chair. "Come, sit down. You are just really excited that's why all your worries seem so serious—"
"No. No, no, no. I'm not just excited. Gilraen… I… I don't want to mess it up! I want to be happy! And I have no idea how! What will I even do? What… what is a wife supposed to do? I have no idea, I have never been a wife, I have never been married, I don't have the slightest clue of what I am supposed to do as a wife!"
"First off, you are supposed to calm down" Gilraen shook her head. "Nobody has been married before their wedding, nobody knows how to be a wife before their wedding. And that's just not something there are books written about so we could learn it, because it's different for everybody. It's up to you and Florian, you will decide what marriage will be like for you once you are there. There are no rules of what a wife should do and should not do… Well, obviously there are ground rules, like… you have to be faithful to your husband. But everyday things are up to you. By tomorrow, you will already be settling an order and you'll feel a lot more confident."
Sybille just snorted. "Yes, if we even make it to that…"
"What do you mean?"
"Well… you know…" Sybille murmured turning away. "You have to make through the night to see the next day…"
Gilraen's jaw dropped. She was starting to get the feeling that she really didn't like the where this conversation was going.
"I… have no idea… about… wedding nights…" Sybille pressed out still avoiding her eyes as she blushed scarlet red.
"Well, if I remember correctly, eight years ago it was you who enlightened me about what happens on a wedding night and not the other way around" Gilraen said carefully.
"Oh, stop that!" Sybille snapped turning back to her. "It's not like I don't understand what will happen! I just have no idea what to do… Like you just go into the bedroom and what…? I have no idea!"
Gilraen closed her eyes. No, there was no way she was going into this discussion… She could already feel her cheeks flaming, this was so awkward, she just couldn't talk about this with Sybille.
"You know how this goes, you know what to do…" her sister went on, her voice shrinking. "Please, Gilraen" she looked into her eyes, her face burning with embarrassment. "You need to help me… you need to tell me…" Words caught in her throat, Sybille tried to think of what exactly she expected her to tell her. "… something!" she finished.
Oh goodness… "Is there really nobody else—?"
"Like who?! Mother? Yes, I am so going to ask her about this…" Sybille made a face.
"Fine! All right…" Gilraen sighed and with one last glance at her sister's puppy eyes, she knew she was not getting out of this. "What do you… want to know?" she looked at Sybille. "You don't actually have to know what to do. You don't have to do anything, I'm sure that… that Florian will… know what to do" Gilraen finished.
Goodness, she couldn't believe she was talking about what Florian would and would not know to do in bed.
"Will he?" Sybille looked surprised.
"Holy heavens, Sybille, you didn't think that he's… that he had never…?"
"No!" Sybille cried out horrified. "Of course I did not. Just… I never really thought thoroughly about what my future husband had or had not done with other women, you know."
"You're right. Sorry" Gilraen muttered and took a deep breath before she looked up at her sister.
"So. He'll know what to do… But is that enough? Shouldn't I know what he will do too? Didn't you know? I mean not on your wedding night of course, but when you first… with your husband..." Sybille made a face that suggested Gilraen her sister found it just as gross and uncomfortable to think of what Torundir did in bed as she found discussing the same concerning Florian.
Oh no, no, no. Gilraen took a deep breath. There was no way she was asking her about what they did in bed…
"You will know what he will do when he is doing it…"
"Being married for a year and having a son, that's all you can contribute to the topic, right?" Sybille glared at her.
Gilraen was about to yell at her sister for respecting no personal space or discretion to ask her such things. But even in her mind, the words sounded beyond ridiculous. Gilraen burst into a helpless fit of laughter.
"Oh my goodness, we are really going to talk about this?" she choked.
"Well, do you think I feel any more comfortable?" Sybille raised an eyebrow suggesting that Gilraen must have lost her mind before she joined her laughter. "Yes…" she chuckled with scarlet cheeks. "I guess we are really going to talk about this…" Sybille broke their eye contact to recover from laughing. "Please…" she added then looking back at her, all serious again.
This was really important to her, Gilraen realized and with a sigh turned her chair to face her sister.
"All right. For me, it was nothing like it'll be for you. When I… we didn't plan our first time. It just sort of happened, because we started kissing and we were alone and there was just no stopping after a while. We did not even talk about it much. And I was fine with that, because I don't know… somehow I didn't need that. But we are different, if you feel you need to talk about it before it happens, then here we are and let's talk about it, no matter how awkward it is."
"Then how did you know what to do?" Sybille asked her all nerves on edge.
"You are really obsessed with this knowing what to do thing. I had no idea what I was doing, somehow everything just came… instinctively. And I wasn't doing much at all. When he pulled me with him, I went, when he laid me down, I lay down, when he… oh my goodness, pulled up my skirt…" Gilraen thought her cheeks were positively aflame. "… I opened my legs… that just goes by instinct. He knew what he was doing and that was enough. I trusted him."
"And Florian will know what to do and I won't have to do much either, right?"
"I don't know. Florian is a different man and we are different too. Maybe you'll like it otherwise…"
"You liked it? Your first time" Sybille bit her lower lip.
"Yes" Gilraen nodded with a musing smile. "It was really wonderful actually. Despite all the circumstances."
"Where did you do it?" the question broke out of her sister. "I've been wanting to ask this for months."
"Oh no… I'm not going to tell you. I just can't…"
"Come on!" Sybille chuckled with curious grin.
"Sybille…"
"Come on! I'm the bride, this is my wedding day. You have to tell me, everybody has to do everything for me today" Sybille grinned taunting.
"Please don't…" Gilraen pleaded, but her sister just looked at her with those merciless answer or die eyes. "In the practice hall" Gilraen finally pressed out burying her face into her hands.
"NO!" Sybille burst into a fit of giggles. "In the practice hall? Oh my goodness, how? And why? Why there? Oh my goodness, this is so…" she was positively shaking with laughter, so it never turned out what making out in the practice hall was so like.
"All right, all right. Just let's concentrate on you now" Gilraen shook her head and mentioning her own situation at hand seemed to have done the trick, Sybille did recover a little.
"Right… Erm… how much does it hurt? Is it very weird?"
"That depends on you again. To me, it didn't hurt much. But it's important that he is gentle with you. And it's not weird at all. Maybe the first few minutes, but then it's not weird at all."
"And will he be gentle? Your husband was gentle?" Sybille raised an uncertain eyebrow.
"I am sure, Florian will be very gentle and caring with you. And yes, Torundir was so. He really made sure that it hurts me as little as possible and that I enjoy it as much as possible. All the whore story and everything, but I'm glad that it happened like that, with him, then and there…"
"In the practice hall…" Sybille interjected innocently and pressed her lips together not to burst out laughing.
"Shut up, the practice hall was fine" Gilraen shook her head with a chuckle.
"All right" her sister raised her hands defensively and hid one last grin before she went on. "Okay… One more thing…"
That meant they would be talking about this for another half an hour.
"What if it's bad for me? What if I don't like it?"
"The second time will be a lot better."
"You just said you enjoyed the first! What am I to make of that now?" Sybille glared at her.
"I did. But for the second time, to use your phrase, I knew what was going on and I was a lot more confident and relaxed. And it's even better like that" Gilraen replied.
"And what if Florian doesn't like it with me? If he doesn't want a second time?"
"That's not going to happen" Gilraen shook her head. "Florian loves you and there's just no way that a man doesn't want a second time or a third or fourth one. He'll always want another time."
"And afterwards? What happens after we are done? He just walks away? Or I walk away? What happened after you were done in the practice hall?"
"Well, you'll be in bed, not in the practice hall, so you'll just go to sleep, I guess. Not right after you finish, of course. You'll talk and cuddle and fall asleep in each other's arms… I don't know. That's what we do, but maybe you'll like to do something else, who knows?"
"You sleep together?" Sybille stared at her. "After you… you know, after you are together?"
"We always sleep together" Gilraen nodded. "Even when we don't do anything else. I only slept separately for a fortnight after I had the baby."
"Yes, I thought that was your room, where we went to visit you and the baby…" Sybille hummed. "How weird… I mean… isn't that weird to sleep together? Everybody sleeps together? Mother and Father don't."
"Ëlyel and Lord Barahin don't sleep together either, and I guess it's not really a custom in general, but I'm not familiar with many people's sleeping and… other habits."
"Just Ëlyel and Barahin's…" Sybille hummed gulping down another chuckle.
"Well I was talking with Ëlyel about something once and it somehow came up and she was as surprised as you are, that's how I know that…" Gilraen rolled her eyes at her.
"And where's the baby? Isn't it like cradles are beside the mothers' beds?"
"You remember that room we were in when you came to see Turgalon. It has a door opening onto the corridor and another opening into Torundir's bedchamber. And it's like we sleep together in our bed and the small door is open and the cradle is right there, so I'll hear if he wakes. I close the small door when I go over to feed or comfort him, so Torundir can sleep" Gilraen explained.
"I see" Sybille nodded. "Oh I so hope I'll have a nice wedding night…" Sybille sighed.
"I'm sure you will" Gilraen smiled at her sister. "Just don't worry. Everything's going to be fine."
"Thank you, Gilraen. For all this" Sybille said, her eyes overflowing with gratitude.
"You're welcome" Gilraen nodded.
"You know this was good. I mean it was so embarrassing and so awkward and weird, but good too… How many years has it been since we talked about so personal things to each other? Four years? So much time. I missed talking with you. About serious things…"
Gilraen felt an unexpected tide of emotion flooding her heart. She had missed talking with Sybille too. Lately, she had been talking about all her personal things with Ëlyel, but no matter what an amazing friend Ëlyel was, she was not her twin, like Sybille. And Sybille was so different somehow… she was growing up. Gilraen stood up and brought her sister into her arms.
"Congratulations Sybille. I wish you all the happiness there is in life. I want you to know that I'm so happy for you and please forgive me if I made you feel that I envied happiness from you in the past years. I didn't. I was so happy for you. Always. I was only unhappy and sour for myself."
"There's really nothing to forgive… I did envy you when you married your husband. It bothered me that you were the first and not me… It was so ridiculous, I'm really ashamed of that time. Turning my back on you" Sybille grimaced returning her hug.
"It's history now and you have helped me so much since then" Gilraen shrugged. "So… shall we just promise that we'll try to rebuild our good old twin bond?"
"Yes! Yes, we shall! I would love to!" Sybille laughed. "But you know… that comes with responsibilities" she went on with a way too familiar evil smirk. "You never answered my question about what happened after the practice hall."
"Oh, darling sister, I would love to, but alas, a whole ceremony hall is waiting for you it's really time you set off for your wedding, so maybe some other time, in another life…"
Sybille was shaking with giggles when the door opened.
"Am I interrupting something?" Their father appeared wearing the warmest of all smiles.
"No, no, no! I was about to get ready to go" Sybille shook her head quickly, recovering from her last laugh at once.
"You are so beautiful, my dear. You cannot imagine the joy it gives me to see you so happy" he walked up to Sybille and took her hand. "Congratulations my darling, I wish you the happiest marriage in the world" their father said in a strangely emotional voice and kissed Sybille on the forehead.
"Thank you, Father" she replied fighting her tears.
Gilraen just watched, trying to hold back a tear herself. It was strange that she would never have a moment like this with her father. She had thrown away the chance of that herself… Surely her father was disappointed too, that he never had the chance to give her to the man she loved, like he was giving Sybille's hand to Florian now… What a mistake that was. But it turned out well, in the end. The memory of reconciling with her father, over her new born baby wiped away all regrets. That was a moment Sybille would never have. And it was just the same magical as this one in a way.
"How are you, Gilraen?" their father walked over to her and brought her into a light embrace.
"Very well, thank you, Father. And you? I heard you had a tiring day yesterday?" Gilraen replied, ever so happy that they were on talking terms again.
"Ah, don't even mention it… We agreed with Eldarion afterwards that we would never hold a council longer than four hours again. Everything longer than that is beyond bearable" he shook his head with a smile.
"I can understand" Gilraen nodded. "Well, I'll take my leave so our dear bride can get ready. I'll see you when you are walking up to the altar" She smiled at Sybille who was just putting on her lacy silk veil.
"I'll see you at the reception. And don't think the wedding will make me forget about a certain question" her sister called warningly.
"You spend way too much time with Eldarion" Gilraen chuckled and slipped out of the door.
She hurried out of the palace, down to the sixth level to find her husband before Sybille arrived. Lord Turgon was supposed to be around as well, he had got back from Osgiliath in the morning and was determined to attend Sybille's wedding. Nevertheless, she couldn't see either of them anywhere. There was a horrible crowd in front of the ceremony hall; many of the nobility were still out there talking, some uninvited guests lurking about to catch a glimpse of the princess bride soon arriving, groups of lords talking… and that man was there too. He was staring at her again. With his disgusting watery pig eyes, barely seeing out of his greasy, fat face. She didn't know how long he had been staring at her, the first time she had noticed it was on Aryana's birthday, then in the city when she went to buy baby things with Sybille and Ëlyel and now again… She turned for the ceremony hall so she would get out of his sight as quick as possible and resume looking for her husband peacefully. Somehow his stare gave her goose bumps.
There ceremony hall was airy and empty compared to the street in front of it, it didn't take longer than a few minutes to notice her husband.
"That took bloody damn long" Torundir greeted her once she joined him in the back of the ceremony hall, as far from her mother as possible, she didn't fail to notice, but that was probably for the better. There was no point risking a scene on Sybille's wedding day. Her mother might just take it as an insult that she was here with Torundir and not alone.
"You know, I went there to congratulate her" Gilraen started the story. "To tell her I was happy for her and wish her all the best, things like that. And somehow, goodness knows how, this is Sybille, that's how, we ended up talking about what is happening on a wedding night!"
Torundir burst out laughing. "Are you kidding me? Your sister started talking about that?" he asked choking on his chuckles.
"It's not funny…" Gilraen shook her head. "All right, it's funny, but it was so awkward. I mean she actually asked me where we lay together for the first time!"
"And you told her?" Torundir tried not to shake with laughter.
"Yes…" Gilraen gave in uncomfortably.
Torundir shook his head chuckling. "I hope she'll tell you some bed stories too, I haven't heard a funny bed story since Barahin's wedding."
"Stop that! You are horrible!" Gilraen scolded him before she burst into a fit of giggles too. "I really do not want to know what my sister is doing in bed with my brother's best friend, you know. That's just too much information."
"I'm just joking" Torundir soothed her.
"I know…" She gave him an eye-roll.
"I'm not interested in your sister's bed in the least, our bed satisfies me completely" he added with a smile dropping his voice.
The last of the guests started flooding into the ceremony hall, filling up the remaining places, waiting Sybille's arrival. Gilraen saw Lord Turgon entering too, but he only nodded to them and remained in the company of some grey haired friend of his. The greasy man arrived as well, his eyes not failing to find her in the crowd this time either. She instinctively pulled closer to Torundir as she turned away her look, not to make eye contact even for a brief second.
Instead she kept her gaze on the door hoping every moment that her sister would finally arrive. In the end it took some ten minutes before the music sounded up and Sybille entered the hall glowing with glamour on their father's arm. Gilraen thought she was going to cry. Her sister looked so sweet, so gorgeous and happy, it warmed her heart beyond words to see her being wedded.
"You never had a wedding like this" Torundir noted in an unreadable tone.
For a moment, Gilraen mused what it would be like to be standing in Sybille's place, wearing a magnificent wedding gown, walking up to the altar on her father's arm, smiling up at her husband-to-be… She could have never had a wedding like this. If they had done things properly with Torundir or at least managed to keep her premarital love life from her parents' knowledge, the king and queen would still have denied such a grand wedding to them. Even without taking her maidenhood out of marriage, Torundir would have meant a consort not befit the High Princess of Gondor, sixteen years her senior, having seduced her while being her tutor. She could have given him up and have a wedding like her sister's to Elboron or Elfwine or someone like Florian though... And she could have regretted it for the rest of her life.
"I prefer my wedding" she answered her husband as she watched Florian speaking the oath that would bind him to Sybille for the rest of their lives. "Don't offend me by even considering that a gown, a hundred guests and some flowers would mean as much as, or heavens forbid more than you to me."
Torundir only kissed her cheek in response. He never said these things, but his eyes and his kisses always gave away how happy such confessions made him. Gilraen just smiled and watched her sister vowing to be Florian's in life and death. No, in fact she didn't miss a wedding like this in the least.
That was it. It was actually quite funny to write this, though if you think about it, it's kind of a serious topic on the whole. Well, I just wanted to prove that Sybille can feel vulnerable at times too. Even those people who seem to be bursting with confidence all the time have their moments of insecurity. Please let me know if you liked it or not, I'd really like to read your comments and opinions :)
Update should be coming next weekend, I think that'll work. Maybe it'll be Sunday, because I have urgent shopping to do on Friday :D
Have a nice weekend!