Note; I received a review telling me that my decision to make Gandalf gay was one that I should rethink. I do respect your opinion, but heed mine. I chose to make my character gay, but people who are gay do not get to choose whether they are gay. I thank you for your concern about other people reading about homosexuality, but I do believe that anybody on this site can choose what they deem appropriate and inappropriate. Gandalf's sexuality plays little part in this story, but if you are not comfortable with it in the slightest, you don't have to read my story.

Thank you for reading this message, and now, to the story.

Sam sighed to himself from the back of his lecture hall. Professor Treebeard's (his real last name was Ent but nobody called him that) lectures weren't boring, per se, in fact, Sam enjoyed his lectures the most. No, Sam was sighing because he had the most perfect view of the back of Rosie Cotton's head, and she had no idea that he even existed. Her watched as she moved to stifle the laughter from the joke that her friend must have told her. Sam felt his heart sink when he realized that he would probably never be able to make her laugh like that.

He tried not to get into a vicious cycle of moping, as he often did in Professor Treebeard's class. Perhaps that was the reason why this class was the worst one out of all of his classes. He tried to blame it on the fact that he worked in the café, but he really knew it was because he was acting like a love-sick puppy and watching Rosie Cotton the entire lectures instead of taking notes. He could always copy off of the notes that Legolas had kept from when he went through the same classes as Sam. The course material really hadn't changed that much in three years.

He began to doodle on the paper, not really caring as Prof. Treebeard rambled on about forestry and how it had been done so inappropriately for so many years. The aged man spoke incredibly slowly, and though what he said was interesting, it was just a pain to have to wait to listen to it. So, Sam justified his not paying attention to the fact that Legolas's notes were just as accurate, and a lot easier to understand (Prof Treebeard often made some syllables too long, and marred his words).

The lecture concluded when they were dismissed, though Sam didn't realize he could go until he heard the shuffling of textbooks against desks and the chatter of his fellow environmental science peers rise up from the usually silent lecture hall. Sam gathered his books slowly, taking advantage of the clatter to watch as Rosie gave another giggle as she eased her way out of the aisle and to the door.

Sam had slung his bag over his shoulder when he heard a loud, somewhat obnoxious voice, "Rose babe, you wanna go to the club with me tonight? We could have a little fun."

The suggestive tone to the voice made Sam want to go punch whoever had said it in the face. Sam looked up to see a dark haired boy smiling at Rosie, his hand slung over his shoulder. It pleased Sam immensely to see that Rosie looked incredibly uncomfortable with the contact.

"Sorry, Daniel... it's kind of... well, a Tuesday," Rosie said lamely, looking over at her friend for help. The girl, who Sam recognized as the girl that Pippin groaned about all of the time, looked down at her feet, either too shy to speak in the presence of somebody other than her friend or too uncomfortable with Daniel's antics.

"Live like every day's a Friday," Daniel replied. Sam wondered how he got into university, but then again, after rooming with Pippin for a while, he didn't really think it was that improbable.

Daniel was still refusing to let go of Rosie's shoulder, and before Sam realized what he was doing, he had made his way down to where Rosie and Daniel were standing. Sam stared at Daniel, trying to make sure he couldn't see Rosie in his peripheral vision when he said, "Sorry Daniel, but Rosie is coming over to my room to study tonight."

He grabbed Rosie's free hand and pulled her away from the boy. Rosie's friend quickly followed suit, giving Sam a grateful smile as she brushed by them, muttering a goodbye to Rosie.

It wasn't until Sam was outside of the building when the situation sunk in. He felt a large blush appear on his cheeks as he looked down at his hand to see that Rosie's was still clamped in it. He didn't know whether he should let go or if he should keep on holding onto it. They both stood, somewhat awkwardly until Rosie gave Sam's hand a squeeze before he let her go.

"Thanks, Sam," she said, and Sam looked up at her briefly to see that her cheeks had a lovely red hue to them, much like his own. It made him feel better about himself that she actually knew his name. "So... do you... do you actually want to study?" she asked him.

Sam's eyes widened, completely flabbergasted with what she had just said. Rosie Cotton wanted to study with him. Rosie Cotton wanted to spend time with him. His heart was beating so loudly that he was sure that she could have heard it. It was when Sam realized that he couldn't spend time with her when it felt like his heart had been drop-kicked by the Hulk.

"Um... Sorry... but I have to work tonight, down at the café," he murmured, almost too quietly. He hoped that she had heard him, because he never wanted to say no to spending time with Rosie Cotton ever again. He also tried not to feel incredibly horrible as Rosie's face looked rather crest-fallen for a brief second.

She then smiled at him, revealing her two front teeth that had a little (adorable) gap between them, "Ah well... there's always a next time, right?"

Sam's stomach did backflips when he nodded, unable to speak.

"See you soon, okay?" she said, looking ready to turn away before she paused, and said, "Thank you again, for what you did. I really appreciate it. The world needs more gentlemen like you."

With that, she was off with a flash of her curly blonde hair.

Sam almost skipped to work but the knowledge that the reason why he could not be studying with Rosie at this moment was because of work stopped him. He was still in a rather light mood when he entered the bustling café. If Sam knew how to whistle, he might have been doing so as he changed into his work uniform. He had an incredibly chipper smile on his face as he got out to wait on people.

His smile was not unnoticed. Frodo looked at him with raised eyebrows as he cleaned the counter absentmindedly. "What's got you in such a good mood?"

Sam smiled before he simply said, "Rosie talked to me... and she said that we should hang out."

"I told you she liked you," Frodo told him, and Sam looked down into the tea he was steeping, a blush creeping across his cheeks yet again.

"I don't know if she likes me, Frodo, but she called me a gentleman today," Sam concluded before he swept away, carrying the tea to the person he was serving. Before he got back, there was a ringing of the bell, and Rosie's friend, AKA, the Caffeine Girl (as Pippin had dubbed her) walked in. Sam could hear Pippin's groan from where he was standing, and glared at him for being so rude.

"Why does she come here so often? How does she have enough money?" Pippin muttered more to himself than to anybody else, "If I had that much money, I'd buy all the pastries and just sit in the back and eat them after my shift."

"It's nice to know what would happen if you had money," Gimli chortled as he dumped the cookies into their proper places. Pippin, like the child he was, stuck out his tongue at the auburn haired upperclassmen, before he went to go serve the Caffeine Girl, muttering under his breath all the while. Sam was considering giving both Boromir and Pippin a talk about how muttering under their breaths was rude.

He was distracted, however, when he thought about how Rosie wanted to spend time with him. His grin reappeared on his face, and the rest of his work shift was filled with thoughts about Rosie.

Thanks to Gracie, Jasperslittlesister, tommyginger, Guest, wonderpanda10, Xx-Jigoku-no-Hana-xX, Rorythedragon, mngirl, ichipup, and Wanderingidealism for reviewing! Thanks to Quiet Hiker, Concha G, and Wanderingidealism for favouriting/subscribing. Thanks for reading, and please review, they are quite lovely to get.

I solemnly swear that next chapter the identity of the Caffeine Girl will be revealed, so stay tuned!

Sorry (yet again) for a late update. I got a terrible cold right after my concussion (my immune system is practically only there to keep me from dying of a cold, not preventing one) Also sorry for such a short chapter! Next one shall be longer (I hope.)