A/N: Just a quick thought for the beginning: The song I sing in this first bit of the chapter is "Goodbye" by Nine Lashes. It's not any kind of super-ultra-screamo-heavy, so if you wanna look it up and listen to it as you read, be my guest. C: Though I will say that the singer's voice might take a little getting used to. It's hard to explain. XD

Other than that, happy reading!

Chaos Unleashed: Chapter Eleven

Erin's POV

I turned up the volume slightly louder on my laptop's speaker system and let out a relaxing sigh as I sang along. "And you came...for the thrill...hand outstretched, with lovely regret...in the back of my mind...in the back of my mind..." I leaned back in my desk chair and slowly focused in on the canvas before me, blocking out everything but the sound of one of my favorite Nine Lashes songs and the project I was working on. I hummed along quietly as I began the cycle of dipping my brush into the paint and carefully placing strokes of color where they needed to be. As the chorus hit, I turned it up another hair and sang louder. "You never leave...you will this time...Don't want to cry, but the time has come for you to die...to die..."

I continued my work to the slower rock song, singing along with passion in every note and meaning behind every movement of the brush. This room...this art studio was like a sanctuary for me. It allowed me to get away from everything for a few hours and just do what I loved to do best: sing and create. It allowed me to be expressive in every sense of the word; to get all my feelings out. I'd invested a lot of my time and personal savings into perfecting this room, and I thought I'd done a great job for a girl who only sold video games and painted for a living.

By the time I got to the bridge of the song, I was completely belting out the melody as I worked, getting deep into the project. "And now you're finally cold...Right here is where I belong...And now you're finally cold! Right here is where I belong! Oh!" The soft 'goodbyes' in the background of the chorus gave the whole song a slightly eerie feel as I sang the chorus one final time. "You never leave...you will this time...Don't want to cry! But the time has come for you to die! For you to die!" I let my voice die off of the last note as the instrumental ending to the song faded out as well, finally letting out a breath once I was finished. The next song to come on was "Take the Bullets Away" by We As Human, but I wanted to take a stretch break. I carefully placed the large canvas down on my desk where it could rest, then stood up and rolled my shoulders while looking around the room. I mentally took inventory of what I had in stock still, picking out certain paints and other things that I'd need to buy sometime.

I frowned as I noticed an empty gap on a shelf where a certain paint should've been. "Coral Blue..." I muttered, looking around for any signs of the bright shade. "Why is it that I'm always running out of Coral Blue?" I turned around to see if I'd accidentally moved it somewhere else and stopped when I saw someone peeking through the ajar door. "Legolas? What are you doing there?"

The elf didn't answer my question. Instead he chose to enter the room and stare at me in awe. "What is it that you were doing all this time?"

I suddenly felt awkward under his gaze. "Uh...m-my singing? Oh, I'm sorry...was it bad? I didn't know you were standing there..."

"No, it was fine," he reassured. "I was asking about that." He pointed around me to the artwork set on my desk.

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, that? It's just a painting."

"May I see it?"

I looked back at him for a second, wondering what interest he could find in my mediocre art. "Sure." I reached behind me and grabbed the three foot by three foot canvas, trying not to smudge any of the wet paint on the large canvas as I showed it to Legolas. "It's not finished yet," I said, breaking the silence as his eyes ran over it. "I've still got a long way to go."

"If I may ask, who is this that you are painting?"

"It's one of my favorite bands," I answered. "Skillet. There's four of them; John, Korey, Jen, and Seth. I was hoping to hang it in my room somewhere when I'm done."

"And you...you painted this all yourself?"

"Yeah," I nodded with a nervous laugh.

Legolas finally stopped looking at the painting and up at me. "Teach me how to do this."

I blinked. "What?"

The elf suddenly looked ashamed. "Forgive me. I was too forward. I just...I would like to learn how you do this."

"What, painting? They don't have that back in Middle-Earth?"

"We do have painters," he said, "but not those who do things like this." Now he gestured to the entire room. "All I have ever seen of painters are portraits of royalty...of high kings and queens of different realms. But you do not paint and draw such things."

I shrugged. "No, I don't. I draw whatever comes to mind. I mean, sometimes people pay me to make specific things for them, but...other than that, it's whatever I want."

"Like this one." Legolas walked over to where I had an incredibly old project still up on the wall. It was another drawing of someone from a band, but the trick was that I was made entirely out of handwritten lyrics from their different songs. "How do you do this? It seems so interesting."

"You'd really like to become an artist?" I asked. "Have you drawn at all before?"

He shook his head. "Sadly not. But I am absolutely willing to learn if you would be my teacher."

I smiled at the compliment (and probably blushed, too). "I'm flattered, Legolas. Thank you. I'd be happy to teach you about art."

He grinned. "Wonderful. Can we begin now, while we have time?"

"Uh...sure!" I looked around, then had him sit in my desk chair. "Why don't we start with the basics?"

oOo

Kaia's POV

I grit my teeth as I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket for what must've been the twentieth time that day. I was almost done cleaning up after my shift at Spencer's, and was more than eager to go home.

It hadn't been a fun day at work, by any means, and this was mainly because of the fact that my bandmates wouldn't leave me the fuck alone. In the past few weeks, Trent had continued to be a complete asshole, even to the point where he'd canceled one of our gigs at the last second because he'd 'forgotten' that he'd made other plans with his buddies. We'd been constantly arguing lately, which had obviously taken its toll on me. I was supposed to be writing music with him for what could potentially be our first EP, and I was perfectly capable of doing so without Trent, but all the songs were coming out the same. Aggressive lyrics that were inspired by me wanting to rip his head off.

I took a second to open the new text from Jen and skimmed through it. Apparently she wasn't too happy with how I'd been dodging all our meetings and get-togethers lately, which I could understand, but still didn't want to deal with at the moment. Not like it's my fault that I've suddenly got a ton of medieval dudes prancing around my house and shit. I stuck my phone back in my pocket without replying (another thing that she'd yell at me for later, I'm sure) and did the last of my packing up before signing out and leaving the store, headed for my car.

As soon as I was inside, I cranked up the music and shot right out of that parking lot, blasting Three Days Grace in an attempt to get some of my frustration out. In all reality, I knew that I should be focusing on being the good guy and just backing off from arguing constantly, but it wasn't my nature. I was an aggressive, stubborn person, and I absolutely hated not having the last word in any kind of fight. I refused to give in just as much as Trent did, which put us at a stalemate until we could get something figured out.

I pulled up at a red light as a guitar solo kicked in, nodding my head in time to the beat. I really couldn't afford to get kicked out of this band, either. Money was tight enough as it was with eight extra bodies to take care of since the Fellowship had moved in, and though we'd been managing well enough so far, if I lost my position as a singer, we were screwed.

I should probably go to one of these meetings they're trying to plan to get all this sorted out, I thought begrudgingly as I pressed down on the gas once more. But I'd really rather not sit down in a room with the biggest dick in the history of bass players. I groaned. Why doesn't he just give up already and admit to his mistakes? But I knew he wasn't going to do that. I wouldn't.

As I pulled up to the house and shut off my car, I shot a response to Jen's complaint. Okay. We can have a meeting tomorrow, if that's cool with you and the others. But not at my house.

It was mere seconds before her response came, and I walked into the house with a frown as I read it. Why can't we have anything at your house anymore?

Oh, how I wish I could explain. Instead, I settled for a more vague answer. We've just got a lot of stuff going on here right now, and I'm pretty sure Erin and Kat would be pissed at me if you guys just popped up on our front doorstep.

As I took a deep breath and caught the strong scent of taco meat, her short, clipped response came back. Fine. I'll see if we can do it at my place.

I stuck my phone into my pocket as I entered the kitchen, all my worries melting away momentarily as I saw what lay on the table. "Hell yeah! It's taco night!"

Kathryn glanced over her shoulder and smiled back at me. "Hey! How was work?"

I shrugged. "Same as usual. Hey, I might have to go over to Jen's sometime tomorrow for a band meeting. Everyone's pissed at Trent and I and they're insisting we have a talk."

She cringed a bit. "Good luck with that."

"Thanks," I mumbled. "I'll need it. Am I gonna be missing out on anything tomorrow?"

My dark-haired friend shook her head. "Not that I'm aware of. I'm pretty sure tomorrow's just gonna be a lazy day. Oh! But make sure you're still home when Erin and I are at work, ok? Just so they're not running around the house by themselves."

I nodded. "Got it. When's the food ready?"

"In like, thirty seconds. Do me a favor and go tell everyone there's food."

"'Kay."

oOo

Kathryn's POV

I stood at the kitchen sink after dinner, scrubbing off the remains of taco night before loading the dishwasher. Boromir had volunteered to be my helper so we could get things done faster, and he was a pretty enjoyable guy to chat with. He'd become more interested in all the different sports our world had more than anyone else, but not enough to be considered a jock. He also got into video games, particularly Black Ops and Resident Evil. I hadn't been able to get him into anime, though. Heartbreaking.

"So what do you have planned for us after these dishes are done?" he asked.

I glanced out the window. "Well, it won't be for a couple hours yet, cause it has to be dark first. Which reminds me! Wear dark clothes."

His brow creased in confusion. "Why?"

"You'll see. I can't really tell you anything; I swore I'd keep it a secret."

He sighed and shook his head. "I'm not sure how many more surprises I can handle from you."

"What, would you rather just sit around and watch TV all day?" I asked. "You enjoyed today. I can tell."

"That I did," he smiled. "Though next time I think we should all go to one of these baseball games I keep seeing on TV."

"You'd be going by yourself," I said. "There's no way Erin and Kaia would enjoy it, and I doubt we could get enough money to afford tickets for everyone anyway."

As he stuck a couple more plates in the dishwasher, he looked at me with a slight frown. "...Is money always a concern of yours?"

I continued rinsing the dishes off, but blinked at the random question. "Huh?"

"Is money always a concern?" he repeated. "I don't mean to offend, I just...You girls are always mentioning how you don't have enough money for this or that, and I just wondered why."

I sighed, thinking about how I wanted to answer that. "...Money's an issue for everyone in America right now," I said quietly. "Our economy's been spiraling downward for quite awhile now. Things are a lot more expensive than they used to be, and jobs that pay good money are really hard to find, so...lots of people don't have as much money for nice things anymore."

"Well, this house seems nice enough," he reasoned. "And for three girls that have small jobs without graduating from that college thing that you explained to me before...you seem to be managing well enough."

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess. It's just...it's hard. We always have to be super-careful about how much money we spend and being able to keep the jobs we have and all. I mean, if one of us were to ever get fired, I don't know what we'd do."

"Are all households like that in America?"

"No," I said. "Some people have millions and millions of dollars, and live in big fancy mansions without a care in the world. Some people are dirt poor and can't even get enough money to give themselves a proper meal."

"Well, it's good that you aren't in the latter situation, then."

"Yeah, I know." I handed him another dish and went to clean a bowl. "It's just one of those things that sometimes keeps me up at night, you know? Thinking about the worst-case scenarios and all that." I looked over at him with a small smile. "I guess it wasn't like that in Middle-Earth, huh?"

Boromir shook his head. "Not in the way that you put it. Of course we had the rich and the poor in different realms, but we were not in an economic crisis of any sort. Though I can't say I know too much about Gondor's economy, honestly. Faramir always paid attention to that, not me." He chuckled to himself a bit, but it quickly died away.

I paused in my washing as a distant look came over him. "...You miss him, don't you?"

He sighed. "Yes. I worry about him and my father. They must be worried sick if they know that I'm gone. And Gondor...I hope they're all doing well." He looked back at me. "I feel awful knowing that I can't be there to protect them if Sauron were to make an attack against us. Minas Tirith could completely fall into ruin, and I would never even know."

I felt so bad for Boromir as he talked. He loved his country and people so much, and you could see his longing to return home in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Boromir," I said. "I know Erin was trying to do research to see if we can get you guys home the other day, but she couldn't find anything." Immediately, I regretted saying it, because he looked even more upset. I set my dishcloth down and stepped over to hug him, which he allowed. "We won't keep you trapped here forever. I promise," I said quietly.

"Thank you." We let go, and he offered a small smile. "Though I have to admit, you've made my stay here much more enjoyable."

"Well, I'm glad," I replied, then turned back to the sink. "Now let's get this job finished up."

oOo

Erin's POV

I was crouched down low to the ground, my back pressed against the rough bark of a tree that stood towards the edge of our house's property. It was nearly pitch-black outside, and my mind raced as I tried to formulate a plan of action, all while staying as still and silent as possible.

To end our day, we'd set up a little game that I'd learned at a summer camp several years ago. There were two teams, Runners and Crouchers. The objective for a Runner was simple; you were to begin at the starting point by picking up a square of neon green paper from Frodo, then maneuver your way through the darkness of the night and back to my side of the house, where there was a cardboard box sitting on the dining room table. Once you reached it, you dropped the paper in, and it counted as a point for your team. Then you just ran back to the start, got another paper...rinse and repeat. The Crouchers, however, were the obstacle. They were charged with spreading out across the yard, each one armed with a sock full of baby powder to attack you with if they saw you heading towards the house in an effort to protect the box and prevent Runners from gaining points. Everyone wore dark clothes, and our yard had a few big trees and several bushes also occupying the space, so it was hard to spot your opponents for either team.

And this was my current dilemma. I had been hiding behind this tree for several minutes, occasionally peeking out to see if I could detect an enemy. I gripped the piece of paper tightly between my fingers and looked out again, hoping I wouldn't be spotted. The only safe area was inside the house. Once I got there, I would be okay, but getting there would be the trouble. I was up against Kathryn, Legolas, Pippin, Sam, and Aragorn, and I was never one known for being speedy. Granted, it might be easier for me to outrun the hobbits since they were smaller, but Lord knows what was in store for me if I was caught by Kat, the ranger, or the elf.

I squinted into the blackness, completely on edge. I could see the back door from here. The only light came from where the kitchen light was on inside, and even then the blinds had been pulled down to minimize the glow. You could only see a few feet away from the door before you'd be swallowed by darkness again. From what I could tell, I had a straight shot at that door from here, but running right for it was incredibly risky, because that made it easy to be seen and heard. I had been trying to slink my way around the edges of the yard and get closer to the door that way, and so far it had been working well.

Suddenly, I saw a dark shape shift off on the edge of my vision. I immediately tensed and trained my eyes on the shape, trying to determine who it was. A second later, a bigger, much faster shape sprinted right past it, running right up to the door and slipping inside without being caught. I smiled to myself. Boromir. He'd caught on pretty quickly, and was a fast guy. It was difficult to catch him.

I looked to the rest of the yard again, deciding on a strategy. I waited in hiding until I saw another member of our team run for it – this time it was Merry. He soon got caught up in trying to dodge both Pippin and Sam, and I took this opportunity to use him as a distraction. I jumped to my feet and zipped past all three of the hobbits with a burst of speed, making it to the door just in time.

Once I was safely inside, I went to the window and peeked between the blinds to see what was going on. Merry had been hit by his redheaded counterpart and was walking back in shame, and I saw Sam slip off to cover a different area. I waited for another second before going to the dining room to drop my paper into the box, smiling when I saw at least six papers also laying there.

Just as I was about to turn and walk away, I heard the door open and them slam shut as someone else came flying in. There was also a dull thud against the side of the house, and I turned to see Kaia panting a bit, then cracking a smile as she spotted me. "Nice job, man."

I nodded, then gave her a quizzical look. "What was that about?"

"Aragorn," she replied. "Son of a bitch almost had me. I guess he tried to swing for me but hit the wall instead."

I laughed as she dropped her paper in after me. "Well hey, you made it. Any idea where the rest of them are? I haven't seen Kathryn or Legolas for awhile."

"Yeah," she said. "Kathryn's crouched by the two trees near our side of the house. She hit Gimli there earlier, and maybe Boromir. I have no idea where Legolas is. Damn elf being all sneaky and shit," she muttered at the end.

I grinned. "Gotcha. I think Sam went around to the left side of the house, and Pippin's still parked in front of the door here, so be careful. How much longer do we have to play?"

Kaia pulled out her phone. "Like, twenty minutes."

"Okay. Good luck."

She nodded back at me as we walked to the door. "Same to you." With that, we'd slipped out and were back at the starting point in a matter of seconds. There was no talking once you hit the outside.

I grabbed another paper from Frodo with a smile, then immediately set off to find another place to plan. Eventually I decided to work my way over to a line of bushes that was sort of meant to separate the two yards from each other. Kaia had said Kathryn was over here somewhere, but she and I were pretty evenly matched when I came to running. I figured I could just stealth my way past her.

Sure enough, I was able to make out her dark form once I crouched behind the first bush. She was on the left side of them, prepared for anyone who tried to run through her and Kaia's half of the yard. Simple, then. I'll just head down the other side of the bushes. I got as close as I could on the ground, essentially moving on all fours to sort of crawl past her, peeking through the bushes now and then to make sure she was still there.

I got about three quarters of the way down the line when I stopped to check and make sure that no one out in the open field was nearby. I didn't see anyone, so I then looked back to where Kathryn was. Only...she wasn't there. I froze and squinted, peering harder through the leaves. Where did she go? I looked to see if she was chasing anyone nearby...but I didn't hear anyone running. It was silent, just as it should've been.

My paranoia spiked, but I tried to still focus on the mission ahead of me. Relax, Erin, relax. She probably just went off to guard another area. I turned forward again, and had just started to crawl when...

"...Honk."

I froze again and whipped my head around. What was that?Did...did I just hear...I slowly shook it off as nothing and continued on.

"...Honk."

I stopped again. Frick...she knows I'm here. My eyes slowly scanned in front of, beside, and behind me, but I didn't see anyone. Weird. It sounds like she's right next to me.

"Honk honk honk!"

Now I narrowed my eyes in a glare. Okay, what's up? I hear her. I know it's her. Where is she? I turned and peered through the bushes one last time. Maybe she's honking at Kaia instead of me. I moved a leaf out of the way so I could see straight through...

...and nearly screamed when I saw a pair of deep brown eyes staring back at me. "Honk."

I flinched away, but it was no use. Within moments Kathryn had scrambled over the bush and was on top of me, smacking me in the leg before I could get my feet under me and run. A puff of white powder when up into the air, and I sighed as I leaned back on my elbows, admitting defeat. "All right, you got me."

She laughed as she stood up with me. "I guess you could say I...trolled you."

"Die," I laughed as I jogged back to Frodo.

When I got there, I was surprised to see Merry and Gimli coming up also, both quite dotted with baby powder. "Who got you?" the dwarf asked as I looked at them.

"Kathryn," I said. "You?"

"Aragorn and Sam," he growled lowly. "I was ambushed."

"Pippin keeps singling me out!" Merry complained. "I'm pretty sure he hasn't hit anyone else this entire time!"

I laughed. "We're almost done, guys. Just a couple more minutes to go." I looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then pulled them aside under the branches of the biggest tree in our yard. "I've got a plan," I whispered. "I'm gonna try and sneak around to the front of the house, then head in the front door." I smirked. "They'll never see it coming."

Merry frowned. "You can do that?"

"Hey, all we said in the rules was that you couldn't leave the property," I said. "It was never said that the front yard is off-limits."

Gimli grinned, his eyes twinkling. "I like the way ya think, lass!"

I returned his smile. "Wish me luck." With that, we broke apart, and I started working my way over to Kaia and Kathryn's yard, aiming to go around that way.

It was pretty difficult getting over there to begin with. I almost ran right into Kathryn again, and I actually did collide with Boromir as he came running around a tree I was hiding behind. Thankfully, no one caught us, but it was enough to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up for several minutes straight.

After several close calls, though, I was out of the backyard and on the right side of the house that I needed to be. There was a streetlight further ahead that cast an extremely faint fluorescent blue-white glow over the yard, but it was just enough for me to see that no one was back here. Finally feeling relieved, I stood up and started walking normally, satisfied with my genius plan.

I didn't get to far, though, before things went all wrong. I thought I heard noise behind me, so I immediately stopped and spun around, but saw nothing. Fearing the worst, I stayed there for a couple seconds, watching. And then I heard a rustling noise above me, which genuinely freaked me out.

When I turned back around and looked up, I was just able to watch none other than Legolas drop down from where he'd been hiding in the tree above, landing right in front of me, powder sock in hand. He smirked triumphantly when he saw the fear that was probably written all over my face. "Sorry, am I interrupting?"

I tried to play it cool, though not once did I take my eyes off of him. "So is this where you've been the whole game? Stalking me? I should've known."

He laughed. "Stalking? I did not have to stalk you to find out you were going this way." I quickly put two and two together and cursed myself in my mind. He was in that tree. He heard everything. "It was never said that the front yard is off limits, after all."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're a sneaky one, Greenleaf. I'll give you that." At this point, I'd begun to subtly back up. My mind was spinning. I needed another plan, fast.

"I am also the faster, and you know it." I didn't reply, continuing to retreat. "You can try and run back, but I can still-"

In the blink of an eye, I was off. But not running backward like he expected. Instead I ran straight to his right, doubling back at the last possible second to leave Legolas swinging at nothing as I switched over to his left, moving as fast as I could. I praised the Lord Jesus Almighty that my last-second plan had actually worked; I didn't think I would've been able to fake him out like that.

As I tore around the corner and into the front yard, I heard Legolas gaining on me. I ran to Kaia's car and ducked behind it, momentarily taking a breath as he stood looking over at me from the other side. "Smart," he complimented. "I should have realized you wouldn't give up so easily." He smiled a bit.

"I always was a fighter!" I joked before bursting into action again. I tried faking him out a second time, shifting left, then right, then way left again. Legolas copied my movements exactly for a few seconds before he got fed up with my stalling and decided to vault himself over the hood of Kaia's car, swinging his sock around as he jumped. I yelped and jumped out of the way, bumping into Kathryn's car behind me and moving away just as his sock hit the window where my head would've been. I ran around the car with Legolas hot on my tail – or so I thought until he jumped out in front of me, his eyes wild with excitement.

I screamed a bit again and just barely managed to move aside as he tried to hit me, running around him and bounding up the stairs to the porch. I felt my hand close around the door handle, but then gasped as I felt his strong hand on my shoulder as he ripped me away and pushed me back against the wall.

We stood there for a second, with me breathing heavily from both running and being a bit flustered. "Well?" he asked, a teasing smile on his lips. "Are you going to give up now?"

I feigned a defeated look, waiting until his stance over me relaxed before I dropped it and shot him a devilish grin. "Never!" I ducked under his arm and slung the door open, ducking inside before he could catch me. Yes! Finally!

...Or not. Just as I turned to taunt him, Legolas came running inside, still wielding his sock. "I will have you, one way or another!" he yelled. I screamed again, though this time I was much more of a laughing one as he chased me around the living room, trying desperately to hit me with his sock.

Now that we were in the confines of a much smaller area, I had less room to run, and he hit me several times with the thing before I decided to give up, turning around to face him. "Okay Legolas, I-"

I was rewarded with a sock to the stomach and a massive amount of powder puffing up in my face.

After a bit of a coughing fit and Legolas apologizing through his giggles, I frowned. "Thanks."

He still laughed. "I did not expect you to turn around!"

My eyes looked to the box of powder socks that I'd left sitting on the coffee table near the area where Gimli, Merry, and Pippin's things were being kept. I smirked and ran over to grab one before he could stop me, immediately turning on him and backing him into a wall where I rained powdery justice down upon him repeatedly.

"Yeah! How do you like it?" I laughed.

He responded by slipping out of my grasp and running into the dining room. "Not at all, actually!" I laughed, and we continued to run around, trying to beat each other senseless with the socks.

Eventually we wound up outside again, sending everyone else into a fit of laughter as they watched us run around the yard smacking each other. Our fun was only put to a stop once Legolas turned and swung his sock incredibly hard, causing it to tear open and fling all the powder that had once been in the sock right at me. I found myself choking on dust again as I spit and tried to wipe it out of my mouth.

Legolas was laughing so hard, I swear he must've had tears in his eyes. When I looked down at myself, I understood why; I was completely white across my chest and some of my face. "Look what you did!" I exclaimed.

He still struggled to control himself. "You...you look so ridiculous!"

I squinted at him as the elf still snickered at me. "You want something to laugh at? I'll give you something to laugh at!" With that, I promptly walked right up to him and dumped the contents of my sock right on his head.

Now it was me laughing as the elf coughed and wiped baby powder out of his eyes. "What in the name of the Valar was that for?"

"That'll teach you not to laugh at me," I winked. We both smiled at that.

The game quickly ended after that, and us Runners ended up with a total of eleven points. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Though Kathryn and Kaia were kinda upset when they saw white splotches all over my house's dining room, and upset was a nicer word to describe Merry, Pippin, and Gimli's reactions to seeing their living area also terrorized. Needless to say, the elf and I spent the remainder of our night cleaning.

It was after midnight when we finally finished cleaning the baby powder out of the house and headed upstairs to properly shower. I still couldn't take him seriously with his ghost white face, and I'm sure I looked no better in his eyes. "That was great," I laughed as we came to the top of the stairs. "Easily the most fun I've had since you guys have started living here."

"I believe I can say the same," he smiled. "Though I'm not sure it was worth all the cleaning."

I laughed again. "Oh, it was totally worth it for me." He just rolled his eyes and, ever the gentle-elf, offered the shower to me first.

oOo

Some time later, I was sitting at my desk in my room, wearing a fresh pair of pajamas and my recently-dried hair all fluffy and poofy as it fell about my shoulders. I never did like how frizzy it is... I tugged at a lock of it. That'll be fun to straighten in the morning.

The sound of an opening door caused me to turn and see Legolas come into the room in a slightly oversized t-shirt and gym shorts. "Hey," I said casually before getting up to turn the room's air conditioner on.

He nodded to me in response before making his way over to his bed and settling down. "What are you doing?"

"Just taking care of a couple things before I go to bed. Watching YouTube videos...you know."

"Are we doing anything tomorrow?"

"Not that I know of," I said. "I have work in the morning, though, as usual."

I looked over at him as I closed out of the internet and shut down my laptop. He exhaled and leaned back in his bed, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before his piercing blue gaze flicked to me. "That is nice, I suppose. Will we continue my lessons tomorrow as well?"

I smiled. "Of course." It absolutely thrilled me that Legolas was so interested in becoming an artist, especially considering I was the one to inspire it. I couldn't wait until he got really good at it...and he had potential to be really, really good at it, I was certain. "But I might be home a little late tomorrow. I gotta pick up some stuff from A. C. Moore that I've run out of."

He nodded. "Very well. Goodnight, then."

"Night," I replied as I flicked out my light and crawled into bed.

oOo

Legolas' POV

Though I was thoroughly exhausted by the events of the day, I found myself unable to fall asleep for quite awhile after Erin turned out the lights. She had no trouble succumbing to her dreams, as I heard her breathing slowly and deeply within ten minutes. I did not mind it much, though. It gave me time to myself. To think.

As I shifted position to stare out her window at the stars, my mind recalled all the events of our celebration day, and even more before that. I will admit, I was surprised with myself for being able to adjust and find comfort in living here with the girls so quickly. I had not expected things to be as easy as they were. Kaia, Erin, and Kathryn were incredible hostesses, and I was glad that we had landed in their home instead of someone else's.

For all the enjoyment I had here, however, I could not shake the feeling of homesickness that I had felt slowly creeping over my shoulders the past few days. I often found myself thinking of my home, my father, my other friends back in Mirkwood. Would they know that our Fellowship was gone? Would they presume us to be dead? I hoped not. I knew my father would not handle it well if news reached his ears that I had fallen, or even gone missing.

I glanced back to Erin again. I wondered how much closer they had gotten to finding a way to return us home. Secretly, I suspected that they had done little research, but I understood why. They had to adjust to a new life just as much as we did, and they needed time before things would go back to normal again. Even so, it bothered me that we seemed to have gotten nowhere in our efforts to return home, and a nagging feeling was beginning to stir in the back of my mind about it. It was not until recently that I had began to wonder what would be happening without the Fellowship continuing their quest. I prayed that nothing was going terribly wrong, but it was still something to consider.

Although, I thought as I turned back to the window, we have not really been gone that long. And I doubt the Valar would have placed us in the hands of these women without reason behind it. I sighed quietly as my mind began to drift, the pull of sleep quickly overtaking me. Perhaps it is nothing to worry about.

A/N: Wooooo, this one's a reeeeeeeeeeeally long chapter! XD I honestly didn't expect it to go this far...I guess I got a bit too into this one. ^^; And yes, there is a Homestuck reference thrown in there for any fellow fans that may be reading. C: Haha, hopefully you enjoyed this one!

Also...Legolas POV? WHAAAA?!- Just kidding. You knew it was coming, didn't you? XD

Don't forget to review!~