A/N: Head's up! We're back on track with the journey of the One Ring in this chapter!
Three days later and Ithilwen knew that she had made the right decision to call it quits with Payne. The problem was, she couldn't find the right opportunity to break it to him. When things would get quiet, she would steel herself and begin to start the dreaded words, then Payne would come out of nowhere with a compliment or gesture that made her feel guilty. How could she say "I think we need to break up" to the boy that had just brought her flowers with a stuffed bear as an apology?
He had apologized, she reasoned. That deserved a second chance, at the very least. Whether he meant it was a whole other matter, but she appreciated the sentiment that he had the grace to bestow her. He hadn't spoken to her since the argument outside the café, thinking it better for her to rest. Actually, Ithilwen was glad that he hadn't come to call on her for the brief period; she used that time to calm herself and collect her thoughts.
Fiona's opinion of the boy was beginning to change, and it was becoming increasingly hard to remain civil around him. She kept in contact with the friends of his they had met at the convention, and it seemed the more she learned, the more she grew to dislike Payne. Payne must have picked up on this, as he treated the girl with indifference most of the time that he was at their house.
Morwen was beginning to tire of the boy's timid nature in avoiding her. There had been many a night of discussions between the three women, either in person or electronically, over the boy's behavior. Morwen and Fiona felt that Ithilwen should cut to the chase and end it before she was hurt further, and by association the elleth learned that Payne's own friends had suggested the same thing. Ithilwen assured them the best she could that she would bring the matter to the forefront when it was most appropriate.
Legolas would ask her in their meetings how things were progressing, just like her naneth and best friend would, and each time she would reply with 'slow'. She knew he didn't approve of the mortal's behavior and treatment of her, and each time that she couldn't say that she broke up with Payne she felt more guilt. She couldn't figure out why she felt more guilt with Legolas over Fiona or her naneth, and that was added to her frustrations. There was also the necklace that hung about her neck he had given her. He never said why his mother gave him such instruction, and she was beginning to think she had not elaborated on the matter with her own son either. Still, wearing it gave her comfort, even though it remained beneath her shirt on most days.
The morning she had received it, Fiona had fallen into a fit of squeals upon seeing it, marveling over how pretty the ring was. Her naneth was over in the next city for the day, and did not return home until later that evening. Ithilwen had an unsettling feeling as she watched a knowing smile cross her naneth's face when she observed the necklace, and Fiona's impish grin wasn't helping matters. Neither one said anything more about it, which made her more curious and unsettled.
Ithilwen had tried to give the necklace back, but Legolas had refused, telling her that if she had, he would just insist on gifting it to her again. She noticed that when she met with him in the dreams afterwards, that he would appear happier to see her wear the necklace, and so she decided to keep it.
At least she could make one person happy.
On the third day when Payne had come around to apologize, Ithilwen had decided to go to the craft store for supplies. Payne, wanting to get back in her good graces, had readily agreed to accompany her without complaint.
It didn't last long.
Ithilwen liked to create, and the massive art supply store held everything that was a creative person could possibly dream of. She found that creating costumes and props were as fun as wearing them to the conventions her and Fiona would attend. She also liked to draw when the inspiration would hit, sometimes nicking photographs of Fiona's to reference.
Payne liked to watch television and gawk stupidly at the scantily clad "women" at the conventions his friends took part in. Ithilwen didn't have the heart to tell him that the Sailor Mars he spoke of at Katsucon last year was actually a guy she and Fiona met at Comicon. Real nice guy, twisted sense of humor, and had flawless legs in those red pumps.
"I don't understand why you like doing this stuff," he complained, swatting at some stray flap of fabric on a standing spool.
"Because it's fun. Cosplay is like Halloween, but more frequent and you get to see everyone's costumes in better light." She had told him this before, not that he must have paid attention. She needed a few yards of green to line the inner leather jacket for her Sweet Pea costume. It wouldn't be accurate but she wanted to add some color. "I thought you liked Halloween, Payne."
"Up until I was 10," he snorted. "I'd rather go to parties."
"Well a convention is like a big party."
"Yeah, for nerds who can't get laid."
Ithilwen rolled her eyes and moved to the assistance counter to have the length cut. "You couldn't be more wrong," she replied, finding amusement in turning his own words days prior back against him. "Conventions are gatherings for people of a similar interest to meet up and appreciate that interest together. It isn't focused on 'virgin nerds', and I can assure you that more people get laid there than you think. You'd be surprised at the hookup stories I've heard in the girl's bathroom."
"Like what? Catwoman and Batman?" he joked.
"More like Batman and Robin. Or Link and Dark Link." She amended. "You have to remember that what looks like a guy might be a girl and vice versa." Ithilwen dug in her jeans pocket to extract her shopping list. "I need to go over to get some grommets for the corset next."
"Corset, huh?" Payne's interest was peaked. "What is this, a sexy warrior costume?"
Thanking the employee and collecting her bundle of fabric, Ithilwen turned and snorted at Payne's question. "Hardly. Have you watched Suckerpunch, Payne? It's more than just women in leather with guns."
Another hour had passed in the craft store, and Payne was becoming restless and agitated. Ithilwen promised him that she had only a few more items to collect before they could leave, mentally reminding herself to never take him with her again. This seemed to abate his irritation for a while, but it didn't stop his complaining. His choice of topic remained on conventions and cosplay, but he had begun to turn to more specific things.
"So is cosplay the reason you don't have your ears fixed?" he blurted out on the art pencil aisle.
Shocked at the question, Ithilwen dropped the micron pen she was examining. "I beg your pardon?" she asked in disbelief.
"Your ears," he said. "Is this why you never had a surgeon fix them?"
She swallowed, bracing herself. "If you must know, it is a convenience to have them pointed when I portray elven characters, but the reason that I never had them 'fixed'," she emphasized with finger quotes, "is because I like them the way they are. They're a family trait, and both of my parents have pointed ears."
"So you're all a family of pointy-eared oddities?"
Frustrated at his ignorance, Ithilwen quickly shot up from her crouched position on the floor. "We are not 'oddities' Payne!" Pointed ears run in my family, and this genetic trait is no different than being a carrier for green eyes or freckles! Do you have a problem with my appearance, Payne? Do you?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I do," he shot back. "When my buddies told me about you, they said that you were hot. The picture I saw was of you in costume, so I assumed that the ears were fake. I find it hard to believe that a girl like yourself would not be ashamed of them and not fix them!"
"I'm not ashamed of my ears!" Ithilwen said exasperatedly. "I happen to like my ears, as I told you the first time we went out! I'm not like most girls, as I thought by now that you would have realized, and if you have a problem with that, then you need to tell me now. Do we have a problem?"
The hard stare that she was giving him made passerby shrink back involuntarily. Ithilwen hated that they were arguing in the middle of the store, but once again he had crossed a line. Payne didn't say anything, merely kept eye contact with her, waiting to see if she was going to continue. Eventually, his gaze shifted away, deciding that now was not the time to set her off again. He had just gotten her back in a good mood, and his slip had sent her teetering backwards once more. Payne had to admit that he liked the passion that welled up within her when she was angry, but he knew that he wouldn't get far if he continued to piss her off.
"No," he finally spoke. "Nothing's wrong. Forget I said anything, okay? It's just been a while since I've eaten breakfast, and I guess my empty stomach is making me a little irritable." He looked back at her with a weak smile of apology. "Are we okay?"
Ithilwen was taken aback by the apology once again. "Yeah, we're fine," she answered. "Let me just grab some more HBs and we can go get lunch. I'm sorry I kept you for so long in here. I didn't realize that time had passed so quickly. We really should go get something to eat if you're turning into a grouch already." She laughed.
On the way to the checkout, Payne made a suggestion. "How about pizza? We passed a Pizza Hut just down the road from here."
"Can you wait that long to eat?"
"Yeah, I'll get a small salad or something."
The long sword cut through the air and the Uruk-hai's neck, the severed head sailing off some feet away from the body, which slumped to the ground. Aragorn paused, trying to catch his breath from the fight with the giant Lurtz when he saw the son of the Steward of Gondor laying near the trunk of a tree.
"No," he breathed, taking note of the pale and bloodied form gasping for air. He took off into a hobbled sprint and hit his knees beside Boromir.
"They took the little ones," he gasped.
Aragorn placed his hand upon the other man's shoulder. "Hold still," he instructed.
"Frodo. Where is Frodo?"
"I let Frodo go."
Boromir coughed some blood. "Then you did what I could not. I tried to take the Ring from him."
"The Ring is beyond our reach now."
"Forgive me," he coughed again. "I did not see it. I have failed you all."
Aragorn shook his head, replying, "No, Boromir. You fought bravely. You have kept your honor." He moved his hand to extract the lodged arrows from Boromir's chest, but his arm was grabbed to halt his movements.
"Leave it!" he rasped. "It is over. The world of Men will fall. And all will come to darkness, and my city to ruin." Boromir knew that his time was running out. To have Aragorn pull the arrows would do nothing more than to speed up the inevitable, and while he was not afraid of death, he didn't exactly want to rush to it either.
Aragorn seemed reluctant to heed his wishes, however. "I do not know what strength is in my blood, but I swear to you I will not let the White City fall, nor our people fail."
"Our people?" the other man rasped. "Our people." He tried to reach for his blade, but found that his arms could not reach it. Aragorn complied wordlessly, placing the hilt of the sword in his hand, and Boromir clutched the weapon to his chest.
In the distance, though neither man noticed at the time, Legolas and Gimli had arrived at the scene. Both had stopped short and watched sadly at what was to come.
Boromir's breaths were becoming more ragged, his vision blurring. He knew it was time, but he had to tell him; Aragorn needed to know. "I would have followed you…my brother…my captain…my king…" He had barely finished his sentence when his soul parted from his body evermore. Aragorn touched his forehead, then his lips in respect to the fallen soldier.
"Be at peace, son of Gondor," he murmured, bending to kiss Boromir on the brow. He rose shortly after, looking into the forest to find the two remaining members of the fellowship bowing in respect. Legolas, from his distance away, could see the tear crossing the ranger's cheek, but was unaware if he even noticed. "They will look for his coming from the White Tower," Aragorn said. "But he will not return."
"Oh," Ithilwen breathed, clutching her chest suddenly. They were still at Pizza Hut, waiting for the desert that they had ordered.
"What's the matter? Got indigestion?" Payne joked.
She shook her head. "No… I just… felt sad all of a sudden."
Payne looked confused. "That doesn't make any sense."
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Ithilwen shrugged off, reaching under the collar of her shirt to grasp the necklace Legolas had given her. She had a feeling that it had something to do with Legolas, but she couldn't do anything about it now. He had said that he felt her distress days before, perhaps this went both ways?
In her thoughts, she hadn't realized that she had pulled the chain completely out from under her shirt. It was second nature to her already, to clutch the ring for comfort when she was uncomfortable. She knew it was strange, but the movement seemed to soothe her. Unfortunately for her, all the rubbing of the ring would not ease her mind today no matter how much she tried. Because turning back from viewing the front of the restaurant, Payne had taken notice.
"What's that?" he asked casually.
"Huh?" Ithilwen asked, surprised. "Oh, it's just a necklace. No big deal," she tried to play it off.
"Really? Looks kinda fancy to be 'just a necklace'. Did you get it recently? I haven't seen you wear it before."
The elleth chewed her lip, debating on how to answer. "Actually… it was a gift. From a… penpal overseas." There, it wasn't an outright lie, but it wasn't the exact truth. Legolas could be thought of as a penpal, right?
"Seems a little strange for a girl to send another girl jewelry. What country is she from?"
Annoyed by the interrogation, she blurted out, "If you must know, Payne, it is a he, not a she."
"Another guy?!" Payne barked. "What in the hell is going on?! First you tell me that you've dreamt about other guys, and now you've got a dude as a penpal!"
"For your information, Legolas is stationed overseas!" She retorted. "We started writing to each other back at the beginning of January! This necklace was a gift from him."
"Well I don't like the idea of my girlfriend receiving gifts from guys that she's not seeing!" Payne seethed.
Ithilwen was getting angry for the second time that day. "In Legolas' family it's normal to give jewelry as gifts to friends. He considers me a friend, and one day when he finishes his tour of duty, he's going to come to Burgess so that we can meet! Now I'd like to be able to introduce him to my reasonable boyfriend, but if he's too busy making assumptions out of nothing, then I will have to find an excuse to give him!" Truth be told, Ithilwen didn't want to introduce the two. She knew it would end in Legolas finding a place to hide the body if it came to it, because Payne would be too stupid to not back down. She also wasn't sure if it was a custom of his family, but she was fishing for ideas to make the story seem more plausible to the mortal.
Payne leaned back in his chair and stared evenly at her, weighing her words. He knew she was right, but he didn't want to admit it. Regardless, the idea that she was writing to another guy got under his skin, even though she had never shown signs of straying. With her looks, it wouldn't be hard for her to be wisked away into another's arms, and with his spurts of jealousy, it was canon fodder for her to leave. He was determined to get what he wanted, and he wanted Ithilwen.
All of Ithilwen.
"Sorry," he mumbled, as the waiter delivered their deserts. "Water under the bridge."
Boromir was laid to rest in one of the remaining boats. His sword lay along the length of his body, clasped in his hands, the shield above his head, and his cloven horn at his side. Gimli watched mournfully as the boat sailed down the river and over the falls of Rauros, disappearing from sight. Aragorn wrapped the vambraces of Boromir's about his forearms as a tribute. Legolas began to shove the last boat into the water.
"Hurry! Frodo and Sam have reached the eastern shore." Hearing no response but a sigh, he turns to the ranger and stares, suddenly understanding. "You mean not to follow them."
"Frodo's fate is no longer in our hands." Was the flat reply.
"Then it has all been in vain," Gimli frowned. "The Fellowship has failed." He and the elf had approached Aragorn, who clasped their shoulders in turn.
"Not if we hold true to each other. We will not abandon Merry and Pippin to torment and death. Not while we have strength left." He turned and retrieved a dagger from the ground. "Leave all that can be spared behind. We travel light." Turning back, he stated, "Let's hunt some Orc."
Aragorn took off into the forest, leaving the two behind, smiling at each other. "Yes! Haha!" Gimli grunted as they followed in pursuit of their leader.
A/N: And we have reached the end of the Fellowship of the Ring!
You wouldn't believe it, but a lot of the Ithilwen/Payne stuff is drastically different from my original nanowrimo draft. In the original, the relationship had come and gone, and I had based it around the Eden's Edge song 'Too Good To Be True'. The song is still appropriate I think, but having their fling progress along with the Fellowship's journey gives more depth to Ithilwen's character. In the original, the mention only lasted one chapter-length, and looking back on it I realized that wasn't good enough; it wouldn't make sense and there would be questions. I'm sure there still are questions, so feel free to ask! I may not be able to answer them exactly if it will spoil the story, but I can feed your curiosity.
Oh yes, one more thing! There's a poll up on my profile for Call Me Maybe! It regards the chapter rating; would anyone take offense if it went up to M? The change wouldn't come till much later in the story, and any scenes wouldn't hurt the plot if they had to be cut. You can vote yes, no, or leave it up to me with author's choice. I wrote it to be rated M originally, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if the majority wanted it to stay at T. I could always link the curious to the 'deleted scenes' if it went that way.