A/N: I'm so sorry guys. ;_; I really need to update faster. I'm so so so so so sorry.

Thanks to Kathryn for relentlessly pushing me to update. I love you guuuurl~

*Also: Chapter 3 had replaced my letter of apology, in case some of you didn't realize it. :3 So make sure you read that, too.

Chaos Unleashed: Chapter Two

Kathryn's POV

As I pulled up into our driveway, I glanced in the rear view mirror and sighed as the three shopping bags full of clothes stared back at me. "This had better work, 'cause I'm not going back to return all this crap anytime soon," I grumbled as I climbed out of my light blue car and opened the back door to pull everything out. Once all the bags were hooked around my arms, I kicked the door of the old thing shut and went up to the house, heading into the half that Kaia and I shared and dropping the bags on the small couch in our game room. The walls and carpet were both a fairly dark color, giving the room a closed-in, den-like feel to it. We had a pretty decent-sized collection of consoles and games that we'd each just taken with us when we'd moved out. Erin brought her Wii and 3DS, I had my Playstation 3,and Kaia donated her Playstation 2, GameCube, Xbox, GameBoy Advance, DS Lite, and DSi.A collection of game-related posters, figurines, and other merchandise served as the decorations scattered around the room.

I plopped down on a purple beanbag chair in the appropriately dubbed "Nintendo corner" and shot Erin a text to let her know I was home. Glancing back at the bags, I tried to remember what all I'd bought. Wait, did I get enough shoes for them? Crap, I don't think I did. I hope I did. My dark brown eyes roamed aimlessly around the room.

A few seconds later the front door banged open, and in through the foyer door came Erin, with the Fellowship and Kaia in tow. They all filed into the dark room, with the eyes of the newbies going wide with interest and confusion as they saw all the technology around them. "Hey," I said with a small wave.

"Hey gurl," Erin said in a silly voice, though I noticed that it didn't seem wholehearted. "Did you get everything?"

"You'd better hope so," I replied, and she laughed a bit as I stood up.

Kaia ungracefully flopped down onto another beanbag, this one dark red. "Take it away, then."

"Mmkay." I then looked to the Fellowship, who were all just sort of standing together behind the couch. A couple of them were already eying the shopping bags curiously. "Well," I began, " if you're gonna be living here with us for God knows how long, you're gonna have to be able to blend in a dress like everybody else. So..." I leaned over and reached into the first bag and pulled out two polo shirts, one a dark greyish-blue, and the other an apple red. I tossed the former to Boromir and the latter to Aragorn. "One for you, one for you..." They both caught them and examined the foreign material. Then I pulled out a dark grey v-neck t-shirt and gave it to Legolas. "That one's yours..." A black t-shirt with the AC/DC logo on the front went to Gimli. "And this is for you...and then..." Lastly, four more lightweight t-shirts came out, three of them solid light blue, brown, and navy colors, and the last one being black with deep purple stripes. "There," I said. "Those will be your shirts for now."

Legolas frowned and looked up at me. "You wear nothing underneath this?"

"Nope." I shook my head. "Just that."

"No...no armor?"

I saw Kaia snicker a bit out of the corner of my eye, as did the elf, and he glared at her a bit. "No, we don't wear armor here."

Several eyes bugged out at that, and now Boromir was staring at me like I was crazy. "You mean...everyone just walks around with no protection on at all?"

"Exactly." I had to admit, the looks on their faces were kind of funny. They looked so hopelessly lost.

Then Gimli piped up from where he stood squinting at his shirt. "Whose army bears this symbol?" He lifted it up so the others could see, and they all started murmuring amongst themselves as they read it and tried to figure it out.

I rolled my eyes. "It's not an army's symbol, it's the name of an old band. They-"

"What's a band?" Pippin interrupted.

I facepalmed. "Oh my God."

"Should we be prepared for an attack?" Aragorn asked immediately

Legolas tested out the new word. "Are you a part of this...this 'band?'"

Then Boromir scowled at the shirt like it was cursed. "Are they allied with Sauron?"

At that, Kaia burst out laughing, and I glared at her over my shoulder. Shut up, I mouthed. Then I turned around to the others and held up a hand. "No more questions about the shirts! We're not done yet." I went to the second bag and began pulling out the various pairs of pants I'd gotten for them, smirking a bit when I remembered one of my favorite things that I'd purchased. He's gonna kill me. "Okay, we've got...shorts for Aragorn, light blue jeans for Boromir..." I handed the pants to each individual and went on. "Cargo pants for Gimli...jeans that will hopefully fit all the hobbits..." When I spotted the final item that remained in the back, my mischievous grin widened, and I looked up at the only one who remained with only a shirt in his hands. "And then..." I carefully watched Erin and Kaia as I pulled out the purchase of the night. "...Some lovely light grey skinny jeans for you, Legolas."

"OH MY GOD!" Erin screamed, clapping a hand over her mouth and putting a hand out to lean up against the wall as she practically doubled over with laughter.

"You didn't!" Kaia said, shaking. "Holy fuck, you did. I love you. Kathryn, you're perfect!" I couldn't even answer them with any more than a nod. We'd all absolutely lost it.

The blonde elf was holding the pants and staring at them, brow furrowed in confusion. "...I do not understand. What...What is so humorous about these?" That got Erin and Kaia laughing all over again, while the others just looked at them like they'd grown another head. Legolas looked back at me. "...What do you call them again?"

I held back more laughter. "Skinny jeans."

"Skinny jeans," he repeated, and I nodded. "All right..." He glanced over at the girls. "Why are they-"

"Hang on..." I said. "Just...Just give me a sec." I laughed a bit more and then put on a straight face as best as I could, preparing for the reaction I'd get. "They're laughing because..." I could hardly bring myself to say it. "...Because they're supposed to be pants for women."

If I could accurately describe the look on Legolas' face, I would. But there's no way I could even come close to getting it right. His eyes went wide for a second in confusion, then shock, and then his expression completely changed to anger as he realized what I'd said. "...I beg your pardon?"

Erin was on the floor. Kaia couldn't even look at the elf without tearing up. And as I looked around at the other members of the Fellowship, even they were finding it funny now. Gimli was laughing openly at the prince, and Boromir couldn't hide his grin. The hobbits were stifling giggles, and even Aragorn was struggling to keep a serious face. "You heard me," I said with a grin. "Women's. Pants."

When I said it out loud again, the laughter increased a bit, and Legolas shot death glares around the room, particularly at Gimli. He then dropped the pants on the couch and stepped back. "I am sorry, Kathryn, but I refuse to wear those."

"Oh, c'mon," I said. "They're not so bad."

Kaia calmed down a tiny bit. "I promise, we won't make fun of you."

"I bet you'd look great," I said, giving him a genuine smile this time.

But then the dwarf spoke up again and ruined everything. "Take 'em, laddie! Ask the girls, I'm sure they're fantastic!" The room erupted into laughter again.

I swear, I saw his ears go red. He looked so pissed. "I am not putting those on."

"You'll have to eventually," Kaia teased. "You won't be able to wear anything else tomorrow."

Legolas stared at her for a minute, then looked at me, then at the jeans for a long time. Finally, he sighed, stepped forward, and grabbed the pants off of the back of the couch, drawing laughter from several of us once more. He refused to look anyone in the eye and leaned up against the back wall, arms crossed, glaring at his feet.

After another moment, we all settled down enough for me to dish out the last thing: shoes. "And here's the last basic thing you'll all need." I went to the third bag and pulled out a cheap but durable pair of Vans that I'd managed to snag from a clearance rack. "Legolas, these are yours." He still looked at me bitterly as he took them. "Aragorn, Gimli, I grabbed some sneakers for you guys...Boromir, you too..." Then I pulled out the only shoes that I though I'd be able to convince the hobbits to wear. "And then there's these flip-flops for you guys." I tossed each of them an identical brown pair.

Merry frowned as he caught them. "...Why do we have these?"

"You have to wear them," I said. "You're not allowed to walk around everywhere with bare feet in our world."

Instantly, their faces dropped. "What?" Frodo asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. You guys are gonna have to start wearing shoes...and while you're at it, we should probably teach you how to shave." I glanced pointedly down at their furry feet.

Sam had an indignant look. "Now wait just a minute! Will all due respect, Miss Kathryn-"

"It's just Kathryn," I corrected him.

"Yes. Kathryn. We...we have to wear these things all the time?" He shook one in the air.

"Anytime you go out somewhere, yeah," I said. "Sorry guys." Pippin pouted and immediately started grumbling to Merry about how he didn't like this new world's clothes, and Sam just continued to stare at his shoes like they were the spawn of Satan. Frodo was really the only one who seemed to be able to deal with the fact that they'd be wearing shoes now.

"So, is that everything?" Kaia asked from her place across the room.

I nodded. "That's all I got for now. I was thinking tomorrow we could just get them all showered, dressed, and then take everybody out shopping again for a couple more things. That way they can pick out stuff they actually like."

"How are we gonna pay for all this?"

"Well, everything here I found on clearance, so it actually wasn't that expensive. We'll just have to do a little digging."

Erin walked a bit closer and nodded. "Sounds good. What time were you planning on doing that tomorrow? You know I have to work."

"Yeah, I know," I said, "but I was planning on doing it first thing in the morning. Like, right after breakfast."

Erin frowned, but shrugged. "Oh well. I guess I'll have to miss out on that." She then turned and looked at the Fellowship. "You guys wanna go do more clothes shopping at the mall tomorrow?"

"What's a mall?" Pippin asked.

"I'll take that as a yes," she said, turning back around. "Wait, so when were you planning on teaching them how to use showers and stuff?"

"And we're gonna have to cut their hair and all that before we take them out anywhere, too," Kaia pointed out.

"Ugh," I groaned. "Fine. I guess we'll have to do that tonight, too."

Suddenly, Erin frowned. "Wait a sec...Kathryn, you said that's all you got them? Just like, the pants, shoes, and shirts?"

"Yeah," I said. "Why?"

"Frick!" She started laughing a bit. "Then you didn't get any of them boxers?"

Realization hit me like a semi-truck. "Ooooh...yeah. I forgot about that."

Now Kaia was laughing, too. "Way to go."

"Genius Kathryn strikes again!" Erin teased, tilting her chin up and making a weird face.

"Shut up," I said, lightly smacking her. "We can...just do that tomorrow, I guess."

"That's gonna be so awkward in the morning," Kaia said.

"Dude, I know!" Erin looked at her. "What do they even wear if they don't wear boxers?"

"I dunno. Like...medieval-style briefs or something?"

"Or maybe they just wear nothing at all."

"Oh God, that's gotta be so uncomfortable!"

"I know! Or what if they-"

In the middle of her sentence, Erin was cut off by someone loudly clearing their throat. We all slowly turned and looked at Aragorn, who had a 'wtf' expression. "Are you ladies aware that we can hear your conversation?"

The three of us just awkwardly stared back at him for a moment. "...Well...we do now," I said quietly. I assumed none of them knew what boxers were, but by the looks on a few of their faces, they'd figured it out. I coughed uneasily and spoke to everyone. "Then you must've heard our plans for tomorrow and the rest of the evening, right?"

"Yes, you said something about us showering and buying more things to wear tomorrow morning."

I nodded. "Yeah. But, uhh...here's the thing." I looked to Erin and Kaia, hoping that they'd be cool enough to explain this part to them, but of course, they both just looked away and left me on my own. You little shits, I thought. "...Besides having to dress like the people here, there's...well, you can't exactly get away with the hairstyles that you guys have. At least, some of you can't."

oOo

Kaia's POV

"This is ridiculous!" Boromir had his arms crossed over his chest and was fuming. "I refuse to go through with this!"

"I'm sorry, Boromir, I really am," Kathryn said from the other side of our tiny bathroom.

I laughed. "I'm not!" I snipped the scissors intimidatingly and locked eyes with him in the mirror. "Ready?"

"No."

"Excellent." With that, I began carefully cutting away at his ginger hair in an effort to make him look more normal. His hair wasn't really all that bad to begin with, but if I just trimmed it so that it was a little shorter, he still looked too much like Boromir, and we couldn't have that. So I'd gone with a different plan in mind.

There were already a few victims of mine that were taking turns cringing at themselves in the hallway mirror. "I still don't see why this is absolutely necessary," Aragorn called back to me as he fingered his much shorter wavy locks.

"Trust me, it is," I replied.

"None of ya should be complainin'!" Gimli snapped. "Ya barely got anything done to ya!" He'd been the worst so far, as he'd almost punched me in the face when I'd told him he couldn't have the braids in his beard anymore and that I'd have to trim it. Even that hadn't been enough, though. He now had almost a buzz cut, with piles and piles of his thick, tangled dwarf hair all over our floor. Oddly enough, though, it worked well on him.

"I actually kind of like mine," I heard Merry mutter from outside. He and Pippin had both already been done, and they both had the same style: just a shorter, cleaner version of the messy curls they'd had before.

I could see Sam still eying Merry's blonde head apprehensively out of the corner of my eye. He didn't trust a single thing I did yet. "And we all have to do this?"

"Yeah," Erin said. "Everyone."

"Seriously guys, calm down!" Kathryn said as she watched me work. "It's really not that bad. You all look great!"

"I'm sure," Boromir scoffed.

"Oh, shut up," I said. "I'm almost done with you."

Legolas and Frodo, who had also been untouched, stood watching in the doorway. "So then what are we to do about our feet?" Frodo asked quietly. "Kathryn mentioned something about them earlier."

"Don't worry about it," the girl in question replied. "We'll take care of that later." She smiled, and the hobbit smiled back (though a bit nervously).

"Mmhmm." I cut off one last chunk of hair from Boromir's head, then stepped back and looked him over, satisfied with my work. "Okay, you're good. You can open your eyes now."

The Gondorian man slowly cracked open his eyelids and stared at his new reflection. I'd given him a slightly shaggier haircut, with a semi-sort of side bang that was there, but not all that huge and noticeable. He didn't say anything for a long time, just stared.

"Well?" I asked.

"It..." For a second, it looked like he actually was going to say something nice about it, but at the last second, he got a scrutinizing look on his face again. "It will do. Thank you." Without another word, he got up from the chair and slipped out, allowing Legolas to step forward and take a seat.

"He secretly loves it," I whispered with a wink at the others that were peering in through the doorway. They laughed a bit, and I turned to the blonde elf sitting in front of me. "Now let's see...what are we going to do with you?" I picked up a handful of his hair and let it fall again, thinking.

"We'll have to do something that'll cover his ears," Erin spoke up. "And the braids will probably have to come out." Legolas frowned at this and looked at one of them.

I nodded, still trying to come up with an idea. "Hmm...Shit. I got nothing." I sighed and shifted my weight a little. "I don't want to cut all of it off...I don't think that would look right."

"Yeah, neither do I," Kathryn said. "Maybe you could just...I don't know."

"Wait, hang on," I said. "What if I just take the braids out, trim a couple inches off of it so that it's at least a reasonable length, and then we just have him pull it back in a ponytail? He can do it so that it covers the tips of his ears, like this." I demonstrated to them what I was talking about, and both the girls instantly smiled.

"That looks good," Kathryn said. "It kinda fits you, Legolas." Erin nodded in agreement.

I smiled and looked at the elf. "What do you think? Should we do it?"

He seemed to think about it for a second before finally nodding. "I suppose so."

"Awesome." I quickly went to work undoing the elvish braids that hung behind his ears, absentmindedly wondering how long he'd worn them like that. "And don't worry, I won't take too much off."

"All right." I liked how chill Legolas was about the whole thing, honestly. He just sat there patiently and watched me through the mirror, waiting for me to get him finished up.

"So what times are you working tomorrow?" I heard Kathryn ask Erin.

"I'm supposed to be in the store from eight thirty to noon, then I have my lunch break, and then I'm back to work until two thirty. So...I'll be home in the afternoon."

"Oh, okay. We should be done shopping by then."

"Don't go like, totally overboard, okay? They'll probably only need about three or four other outfits to start them off," my brunette friend said.

"I know woman, I know," Kathryn said. "I'm not gonna go buy them all five hundred dollar shirts or something."

"Damn right you won't," I said, "or you'd be working your tail off to pay for it all."

"I just hope we can find everything in the clearance racks like I did yesterday," she said. "Kaia, you're coming with me, right?"

"Of course!" I said. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Cause usually you spend your entire Saturday playing video games and eating candy."

"Shut up!" I said, laughing. "But yeah, I'll come with you."

"Mmkay. Should we split into groups, do you think?"

I shrugged. "Probably. It'd be easier."

"I really wish I didn't have to miss this," Erin said.

"I know, man. Same here." I was almost done trimming Legolas' hair at this point. "Hey Kathryn, find me a rubber band or something."

After a moment of brief silence, Erin spoke up again. "So...when were you guys thinking about teaching them how to shower and all that?"

"Dunno..." I said. "What time is it?"

"It's past ten thirty," Kathryn replied instantly.

I glanced at them both. "Then we should probably just get it done and over with tonight. Like, explain how it works, let a couple of them do it tonight, and a couple of them do it in the morning before we leave."

Erin nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Hey, I'll be back in a couple minutes, okay? I'm gonna dig through my room and see if I can find a butt ton of sticky notes."

At that random statement, Kathryn and I both stopped and looked up at her. "The fuck?" I said. "Why the hell do you need sticky notes?"

But she was already on her way out the door and down the hallway. "You'll see!"

oOo

Erin's POV

I went straight down the stairs after leaving the upstairs bathroom and hurried over to my side of the house as fast as I could. What Kaia and Kathryn didn't know was that there was another reason besides sticky notes that I was going to my room. The actual reason was because I'd just remembered that I hadn't actually cleaned up my room for sharing with Legolas earlier...I'd just gotten rid of all my fangirly crap that would freak him out. But I was looking for sticky notes, too.

I sighed mentally when the thought of the elf prince sharing a room with me popped up in my brain again. I was honestly really nervous about how things would play out. Would he be okay with my room, or would he think it was weird for me to have it decorated the way I did? And I'd never really been the most organized person to begin with, so would that bother him, too? And then there was the general idea that I'd be sharing my girl chambers where I kept my girl things with a man. Eugh. That was just weird to think about.

But alas, I was stuck with him. Sigh. Hopefully we'd be able to get along well enough. He seemed pretty cool so far, so that was a good sign. I finally reached my destination and walked through the open door again, immediately scanning the area for anything that looked horribly out of place...which was a lot. I started by going around and making sure there weren't bras or anything just haphazardly thrown on the floor, then went to straighten out my bed a bit, then rearranged a couple small pieces of furniture so that I could kind of create an area for him to sleep. That's when I realized that he'd need blankets and stuff. ...Oh well. I can take care of that later. (Did I also mention that I'm a procrastinator?)

After another fifteen minutes or so, while I was in the middle of emptying my overflowing trash can, I heard everyone coming through the front door and into the living room downstairs. "Frick." I still wasn't completely satisfied with how things looked, but whatever. It would have to do. I grabbed the plastic Wal-Mart bag I'd dumped my garbage into and headed downstairs again, making sure to close my bedroom door behind me.

When I came into the the living room, I stopped and gave everyone a once-over, smiling and nodding in approval. "Nice! You guys all look good!" Several of them said thank-yous. Frodo's hair was left a little longer than Merry and Pippin's, but Kaia must've brushed it out or something, because it looked slightly less curly now. Sam's was cut a lot shorter than the other hobbits', but he still retained some short, messy bangs like before. Legolas really didn't look that different to me. His hair was a little shorter, as Kaia'd promised, but still a nice length for him, and his hair was pulled hack behind him so that just a little bit of it hid the pointed tips of his ears. He still looked like he was getting used to it, though.

Kaia bowed. "Thank you, thank you." I smiled and clapped for her.

"Now onto the next thing," Kathryn said. "Showering."

Here we go. "Uh, do you guys mind getting things started? I just gotta put this in the big trash can real quick."

"No problem, bro," Kaia said. "Come on, you guys. Upstairs." I slipped away as she ushered them all up to the second floor.

It didn't take me more than a minute to get out to our small backyard where we kept a big old trash can that was periodically kept up with and emptied out. I gagged at the smell, but shook it off as I replaced the lid and ran back inside.

Once I got up to my half's master bathroom, I walked in on Kaia explaining how faucets worked. "...so the water just comes up through here-" she ran her finger along where the pipes would be "-and out of here." She pointed to the shower head.

"But there's no water coming out of there right now," Pippin pointed out.

Merry smacked him upside the head. "Because that wasn't already obvious," he hissed.

Kaia smiled. "No, it's okay. Yes, Pippin, you're right. There's not anything coming out now, but watch. When I twist this knob here..." She did so, and a few gasps were heard as fresh, clean water came shooting out from above a second later.

"And it is already clean for use? It does not need to be tested?" Aragorn asked.

"Right. Now, Frodo, come here for a second." When the dark-haired hobbit hesitated, she smiled warmly at him. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything. I just want you to stick your hand under the water there."

He stepped forward and did so, quickly yanking his hand out and jerking back a second later. "It's ice cold!" he cried.

Kaia nodded. "Uh huh. And you can change that. Now, look closely." She pointed to the two different knobs. "You see how this one has blue on it, and this one has red?" Heads bobbed up and down. "I have just the blue one turned on now. But if I turn on the red one a little bit as well..." She did so, then turned to Frodo again. "Put your hand back in there."

Frodo repeated the action, only to have a look of shock on his face this time as his hand lingered there. "It's warm!" He looked up at Kaia in disbelief. "How did you do that?"

Again, she pointed to the red knob. "I just turned on that one. The red knob gives you hot water, and the blue one gives you cold. So by that logic, if one of you were to step in here and turn on only the blue knob..."

"Then extremely cold water would come out," Legolas said, catching on.
She nodded. "And if you turned on just the red?"

"You'd get scalded!" Gimli said.

Kathryn laughed a bit. "Yup. That's how it works. When you guys use these to clean yourselves up, you can turn on both of them and adjust it to whatever temperature you want. Just don't stay in there too long, or you'll use up all the hot water and then no one else will have any." Kaia reached over and turned the water completely off.

"And I like my hot showers," I warned, "so be especially careful if you're using this one."

Kaia nodded again. "Now. Onto the process of how one actually showers. I'm gonna make this as simple as possible." She pointed to the guys. "Your clothes come off. All of them. Everything. Throw them on the floor, fold them up and put them on the counter, the toilet, whatever. Once your clothes are off, you make sure you have one of these babies-" she tugged on my towel and washcloth "within reach of the shower. Then you just step inside here..." she stepped into the tub, "...slide this curtain closed...and then, and ONLY then, can you turn the water on." She pushed the curtain aside again and looked at everyone. "Got it?" They nodded.

"What do you use to clean yourself with?" Sam asked. "Just the water?"

"Oh, no no no," I said, jumping in. "We've got special soaps for that. You know, stuff that'll make you all smell really good." Several of them shared looks of astonishment and excitement, and it took me a second to remember that soap was something of a luxury for the middle and lower class people of Middle-Earth. Legolas, Boromir, and Aragorn were probably the only ones that were incredibly familiar with them. "Here, I'll show you. I took Kaia's place at the head of the group and stepped up to the shower stall, reaching up to the hanging shower basket on the wall that I used to hold all my stuff. I pulled out my shampoo and showed it to them. "This is shampoo. It's soap that you only use for your hair." I popped open the cap and squirted a tiny bit into my palm, then held it out to show them. "See? It smells like apples."

"And that's for your hair only, you said?" Legolas asked.

I nodded. "Yes. You just make sure your hair's completely wet, squirt some of this into your hand, and then massage it into your hair, just like normal soap."

"What would one use for the rest of their body, then?"

"You use this." I put the shampoo back, quickly rinsed the small drop off of my palm, and grabbed another bottle. "Shower gel. To use it, you just get your washcloth wet, squirt this on there, and rub it all over yourself to clean up. At least, that's what I do. I guess you can just put the gel right on your skin if you want."

"But don't get it in your eyes, of course," Kathryn said. "That'll sting."

"Yeah," I nodded. "Not in your eyes. But you just use it to clean all the dirt and sweat off of yourself, and then when you're done, you rinse the soap out of your washcloth, hair, and off of your skin, and when you're completely soap-free, you turn the water off, reach out to grab your towel, and then dry yourself off. It's not that different from what you guys do back home, really."

"Where do we put our towels and washcloths when we're done?" Frodo asked.

I opened my mouth to automatically answer, but stopped when I realized there might not be enough room for them all to hang. "Hmm...that's a good question. Uh...At least hang your washcloths up on the bars that are on the back of the door," I said, pointing to them. "Towels...Hang them if you can, but if there's no room left there, just throw them over this shower rod." I reached up and touched the metal. "And if anyone comes in here to shower and there's something hanging here, just take it off and put it on the counter until you're done." I paused, trying to think about whether or not I'd missed anything else. "Any questions?"

Frodo raised a hand. "Just one more. Are we to use your soaps, Erin? Or will we have our own?"

I laughed a little at that, and instantly regretted it, because Frodo looked ashamed to have asked the question. "Sorry, I'm not laughing at you," I reassured him quickly. "I just...I just though of you guys waltzing around the house smelling like flowers and fruit and stuff." That got a chuckle out of some of them. "Uhh...we'll buy you some more manly smelling-stuff tomorrow when we go shopping. Or at least, Kaia and Kathryn will."

"You're not coming with us?" Merry asked.

"No," I said sadly. "I've gotta go to work."

"Where do yo work?"

"I...actually, I'll explain that another time," I said. "Tomorrow, maybe. Right now we should start having a couple of you actually use the showers." I looked to Kaia and Kathryn. "You're okay with letting a couple of them use yours, right?"

"Of course," Kathryn said.

"Cool." I turned back to the Fellowship. "Okay then, why don't we do it this way. Frodo and Sam, since you guys will be sleeping on the other side of the house, you can go over and take turns using Kaia and Kathryn's shower. Gimli, Merry, and Pippin, since you're all sleeping downstairs, you can shower in the morning. Boromir, Aragorn, and Legolas...I think there'll be enough time for two of you to shower in here tonight. Normally we wouldn't care how late you guys are up at night, but it's past eleven, and I don't know how early Kaia and Kathryn want you up tomorrow. The three of you can decide who's showering in the morning." As the guys talked amongst themselves, I turned back to Kaia. "I know you've got a lot of big t-shirts and gym shorts and stuff in your room. Do you think you'd have enough to at least give the four people who are showering something clean to sleep in?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "And I think I actually still have a bottle of Jeremy's Axe shampoo from when the bad slept over after a late practice that one time, so if someone wants to use that, they can."

"Sweet," I said. "Go get that stuff, would you?" She nodded and took off, and I turned back to the others. "So...have you three decided?"

Aragorn nodded. "I will shower tomorrow morning. Boromir and Legolas will shower tonight, and Boromir will go first."

"Sounds good! Kathryn, do you wanna get Gimli, Merry, and Pippin settled in downstairs and then take Frodo and Sam over to shower? I'll take care of the other three."

"Okay. C'mon, guys!" She led the little people out of the bathroom and back downstairs.

I exhaled and smiled at the two men and the elf. "And then there were four. Boromir, Aragorn, I can show you your room real quick if you want." They nodded, and all three followed me out and through the upstairs hallway until we reached the guest room. I opened the door and showed them into the white-walled, plain room. "It's not anything fancy," I said, "but hopefully it'll be okay for you two." I pointed to the dresser and closet. "You guys can divide your clothes and all up in there once we get you more stuff...obviously there's only one bed, so one of you will have to kinda make your own mattress on the floor, but I think there's a spare one in that closet there anyway. If you need anything at all, I'm right next door. Oh, and the light switch is here by the door." I flicked it twice to let them know. "So yeah. Just come over and tell me if you need anything. Have fun," I said with a wink as I slipped out.

As soon as I shut the door and turned around, I almost jumped out of my skin to see Legolas standing there. "Oh frick! ...Sorry, I didn't realize you were right there."

He smiled a bit. "It is fine. Your room is this one here, you said?" He nodded to my right.

"Yeah," I said. "...Uh..let's go." I slowly started moving towards the closed door, my heart pounding out of nervousness as the thought about what his reaction would be. Why the frick am I so embarrassed to show him my room? I thought as I grabbed the doorknob. Oh, yeah. Because it's Legolas.

A/N: Again, I apologize for how late this is. ;A; I don't know what's wrong with me. Feel free to throw rotten tomatoes/dead cats/concrete bricks if you wish. *cries forever*