*HAPPY BELATED 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY*
I should be doing homework. If any of you guys ended up playing with that LOTR doll maker I told you about (which you should, I am a grown woman and I played with it for days), make your own versions of Kristy, James, Collin and Sophie! DO IT. Then tell me about it because I want to see!
Oh and I think I lost my Fellowship book, perhaps on a boat in Alaska. So if any of you Alaskans or humpback whales find one just go ahead and keep it, it's probably mine.
I was asleep when she found me, and I must have looked ridiculous. My blankets and pillows were scattered about on the bed and the floor, my hair resembled a rat's nest, my sleeping gown was bunched all the way up to my stomach, and my limbs were at incredibly ridiculous yet oddly comfortable angles. Even so, it didn't matter. She'd seen me looking worse.
I bet that for a moment she did nothing but stare at me, wondering exactly what to do. Whether or not to wake me up wasn't the question, it was how to wake me up. In the end, she decided upon jumping on the bed with such exuberance that when I saw her smiling face my anger at her audacity in waking me up was immediately replaced with uncontrollable friendship giddiness. My girlish scream definitely woke up the whole of Gandalf's household, if not all of Minas Tirith.
"How are you here?!" I cried, tears of pure joy streaming down my face.
Kristy, through plenty of tears of her own, could only manage a shrug as we held each other as though we hadn't seen each other in a thousand years. We couldn't even make a bit of sense for nearly ten minutes, instead opting to cry out all of the sorrows we'd been holding in without each other. Honestly, I had lived without Kristy for far longer time periods, and we hadn't exactly been together for too long before being split up again. Still, after all that I'd been through the past few days having Kristy back with me was heavenly.
"How did you get here so fast?" I asked, far more collected after unleashing the Niagara Falls of tears upon Kristy's shoulder. We'd finally sat down for a bit of tea that Gandalf had brought us, probably in hopes that it would calm us down so he could get back to sleep.
"Boromir sent someone to fetch me as soon as the battle was over." She laughed, still recovering from the initial excitement. "Actually, quite a lot of people came along. Everyone was very eager to hear of their loved ones, and to see what had happened." Her smile quickly faded. "Honestly, Sophie, how could you have survived through such a thing? I thought that Helms Deep had been bad, and waiting alone to hear of what happened to all of you was maddening, but after seeing all of this? I couldn't have dreamed of such destruction. It is going to take ages for these people to recover. As selfish as it may sound, I'm just glad to hear that all of my loved ones are alive and well."
"Oh, I've just been dying for you to be here, Kris." I sighed. "But before we go any further I have to ask... What happened to your head?"
"Oh, this?" Kristy gently stroked a healing bruise on her forehead. "Eowyn did this. It was so she could ride away with the army, and I almost regret it after hearing of what happened. When I woke up after she knocked me out and heard that Merry was missing I nearly lost it. Really, Sophie, I wanted to go after her! Then I came here and heard that they were both injured, but before I could kick myself for letting her leave they told me that the two had killed the leader of the Nazgul! Can you believe it? How did we come across such friends?"
"I think that we're just drawn to ambitious crazies."
She rolled her eyes. "God help us, it's true."
We shared a laugh at our marvelous yet pitiful lives before the talking resumed.
"So, have you seen Legolas yet?" I asked, and she blushed.
"Actually, he's downstairs." She giggled, and I wondered if that's how I acted when talking about Boromir.
"Well, that's great." I sighed, even though I was truly happy for her to have seen him already. He was to be leaving in the morning with the rest of the army, and it would have been a crime for her to see me before him. "Now I can't talk about the things I wanted to talk about."
Kristy raised an eyebrow at me, her expression a mixture of humored and offended. "What? Why?"
"Because he'll hear me."
Her eyes nearly turned completely white, she rolled them so much. "Goodness, Sophie. I'm sure he can't hear us, and even if he could it's not like he'd be intentionally eavesdropping."
"And how do you know?" I asked. "That's right, Legolas. I know you can hear me." I added with my normal voice, sure that he could hear every word I said.
"Really, Sophie." Kristy laughed. "Just stop. Tell me what you want to say."
"No."
"Sophie!"
"I can't do it!"
"If it makes a difference to you, I will go elsewhere." Legolas added spontaneously, standing in the doorway.
"You see!" I cried, throwing my hands in the air so hard I nearly broke my wrist.
Kristy erupted into a fit of giggles, and it wasn't long before James appeared beside the elf asking, "Are we leaving or not?"
"Okay..." I said, shaking my head tiredly. "Everybody out. Kristy, we'll talk later. Legolas and James, I'll see you in the morning. Now get out."
The three left without further prodding on my part, but James did manage to throw in a few sassy comments that earned him an icy glare from me. That night I fell into bed with a happy heart and a surprisingly peaceful conscience. Instead of worrying about my friends leaving in the morning and hating my life because Kristy was absent, I felt a fantastic sense of completion. Kristy was back, I was sending James icy glares again, and for the first time in a long time I had laughed until I cried. Everything felt alright as I curled up in my mountain of pillows, but no matter how well I slept the morning would be there to greet me with far less joy.
I walked to the seventh level with Collin at my side, and Nesta trailing quietly behind. She'd wanted to be there to see our men off, and had been up and ready before Collin and I had breakfast. Night was just turning into morning, and it wouldn't be long until the soldiers were on their way. I just wanted to fit in some final goodbyes, should some of my friends never return. Everyone was there. We all had wanted to say goodbye. It felt silly, almost. Surreal. If not for the sinking feeling in my heart, I would have stayed in bed.
"I don't know why you're fussing over me, woman." James huffed playfully as Kristy messed with his hair. "It's a long march to the gates. I'm sure that my hair will fall out of place by the time I get there. Besides, I highly doubt that an orc will spare me for having nice hair."
"It's not for the orcs!" Kristy sighed. "It's for me! For memory."
"Why, is my normal hair not good enough for you?" He complained.
"No." She answered blankly, though a smile was clear upon her lips.
"I like your normal hair, James." Collin added cheerily as we approached our friends, and James gave him a grateful grin.
"See? This is why Collin's my best friend." He teased, sticking his tongue out at Legolas in a very childish manner.
Legolas didn't look one bit disappointed. "Good for Collin." He said, and James rolled his eyes. Those two were absolutely precious.
It was such a fight to not hug every single man in front of me. Eomer, Aragorn, James, Legolas, Gimli, and even little Pippin. I tried to think of the Spartan women, who would tell their men to come back with their shields or upon them. In the end, of course, the stubborn American fought through and ended up squeezing Eomer half to death.
"This could be our last hug, Eomer. Let's enjoy it." I sighed, and he laughed. Asides from James, he knew me the longest, and he felt just as much a brother to me as both Collin and James. Whether or not he survived the upcoming battle, it could very well have been our final hug. He would be king, and I would be married to the Captain of Gondor. Casual hugging wouldn't be appropriate. He wrapped me gently in his arms and gave me a light squeeze before I forced myself away from him. He'd lost half of his family in so short of time, and then had to leave Eowyn to go to an even more hopeless battle just as she was recovering. It felt like an incredibly cruel and unfair work of fiction, but in fact it was very real.
"Take care, Sophie." He said with a gentle smile, and tears began to sting my eyes.
"You too." I replied, wanting to hug him again. In the end I hugged everyone- even Legolas. Really, our group of friends was having a hug fest, hosted by a bunch of hug-lusting Americans who were practically raised on affection. They just let us have the moment, knowing very well that we were far more used to expressing our emotions in a less restricted fashion. Besides, if they were truly seeing us for the last time, why not get a hug in?
As they were leaving Legolas hung back for a moment to say his last goodbyes to Kristy, since James had taken up most of her time that morning. Collin, Nesta, Boromir, Faramir and I awkwardly shuffled away, not wanting to destroy the moment. We moved a safe distance away, but that didn't stop me from turning around and creeping on them.
They stood close together, their hands entwined. Legolas looked down on her with a beautiful smile and complete joy in his eyes. He showed more emotion around her than he did through the entire journey with the fellowship! But goodness, did they look happy. Kristy, no matter the differences between elves and man, looked absolutely perfect standing in front of him. She was gorgeous and absolutely glowing with love. I hadn't seen her so happy in all of my life.
"Boy, they are going to make some adorable children..." I sighed, and Collin responded with a hearty 'amen!'
"They're going to be so blonde." He added, and I nodded.
"Do you think their ears will be pointy?" Nesta wondered, and I realized that we never asked James about his daughter's ears.
Just don't think about it, Sophie. I thought to myself. You do crap like this all the time. Sending your friends and family off to war should be a piece of cake. You've made it this far, just move forward. Don't think about it. It's only going to make things worse.
"I need cake." I sighed, inwardly groaning when I realized how ridiculous of me it'd be to just up and bake a cake when there was so much to do around Minas Tirith. "Today's going to last forever, I can just feel it."
.
Falling into bed that night was probably the most heavenly experience I'd had in my entire life. I felt as though my internal clock would be forever thrown off. I actually thanked God for having traveled with the fellowship, because without that experience my legs would have been on fire after the day I'd had. Still, I'd had worse days, and I was one of the lucky workers that day. I prayed for a day when I could finally do nothing for a change. Nothing to worry about, nothing to help with. Just sitting and being pleasantly bored, meanwhile pretending that I still had a tumblr and forever waiting for the third season of Sherlock.
Kristy came in right behind me, carrying herself in a much more graceful manner. One could hardly tell that she'd been bustling about all day, helping the cause. She only relaxed once the door was shut firmly behind her. That's when her posture took a turn for the worse and she gave me a miserable pout.
"I don't like this." She said blankly, pulling off her shoes and flopping down beside me.
"I can't remember the last time I bathed, Kris..." I replied, self-consciously sniffing my skin. "Ohh noo."
"Oh no..." She sighed, and we both enjoyed a pathetic laugh at ourselves. "Well I haven't noticed. The whole city reeks right now."
"War problems."
She nodded. "War problems."
We sat silently for a moment, enjoying the moment of peace. In a few hours we'd have to be up again, starting another long and stressful day helping to feed the wounded and the orphans. It was mostly light work, but the emotional aspect was exhausting. No matter how hard we tried to ignore the thought of the amy marching off to battle, the topic somehow hung in the silence.
"Are you doing okay?" I asked. I hadn't seen her in days. Who knew what happened to her in that time?
"As okay as one would suspect." She shrugged. "I'm trying to not think about it. At least Collin and Boromir are still here. Never thought I'd be happy that they got shot. It's good that some of our friends were spared. What about you? How have you been these past few days?"
Tired. Exhausted. Physically and emotionally jiggled around. "Collin told me he loved me."
Kristy shot straight up, her eyebrows an inch higher than usual. "Huh? Like, love love?"
"Love love." I confirmed.
Surprisingly enough, her brow shrank back to normal size and she shrugged. "Huh. It's about time he told you."
"You knew?!" For a moment I was insulted, but she quickly shook her head.
"We all knew, but not like that. It's always been kind of understood, but no one's ever really mentioned it to either of you. Especially since you and Boromir got together. It didn't seem right. And, it was weird. Our OTP was dead and we had to adjust to a new one."
I sighed and rolled into myself, thinking on her words. Everyone knew. Collin and I were an OTP. I suspected as much, since it was apparently obvious to everyone but me. I only wished that everyone would have told me! Imagine, getting everything sorted out before anything ever began. My life would have turned out quite differently.
Kristy watched me for a bit, twisting a strand of her hair between her fingers. "So... What happened, exactly?" She asked finally.
"Nothing, really." I answered, and it was true. All it did was give me emotional and mental stress. "I mean, he sacrificed himself to save Boromir. Twice. He wants me to marry Boromir, which makes me even more confused. I just don't understand why it had to be brought up in the first place. I guess there had always been something there, it just wasn't obvious because that's how we always felt. Now it's driving me crazy thinking of what could have been, what maybe should have been. Maybe we would have been together had we not come here, but we did. We came here and I met Boromir and I fell in love."
"But you also love Collin..." She sighed, more of a statement than a question.
"Yeah..." I groaned, burrying my head in my pillow, feeling too young to be having these problems when in reality I was quite old enough. "But I can't do anything about it. It's too late, even if I wanted to. I made a promise to myself and to Boromir that he and I would be together, and I intend to keep it. Besides, I don't even know if it's real or just the heat of the moment. It seems like it'd be easy to confuse a close friendship for love, especially after all we've been through. I just can't help but feel guilty and sad about it, though. There's Collin, sacrificing himself on my behalf time and time again and I can't even give him my love properly. It's not such a big deal now, of course. We have more important things to worry about, and that keeps the awkward away, but what about when this is all over? I mean, how can we just go on as we did before? Could I even walk down the aisle without thinking about Collin? Imagine how he feels!"
Kristy, ever the wise and caring friend, pulled me into her arms and gave me a gentle squeeze. She quietly pondered my words, searching for something to say. "I mean... Is Collin even an option for you? In your mind, would you leave Boromir for him?"
"No. Absolutely not." I answered without hesitation. Just the thought of it made me sick. Not because I didn't care about Collin, and not because I thought that marrying him instead would be a bad thing. He'd be a kick-ass husband. That was gospel truth. It made me sick because a literal fear crawled up in my throat at the mere thought of not being with Boromir, and hurting him to top it all off. It would hurt me beyond measure to do that to him, and I wasn't about to make it an option. Even so, that didn't mean that I didn't feel something for Collin. It was just bad timing, and lack of communication.
"Well, what are your other options, then?" Asked Kristy. "Does Boromir know?"
"He's with the rest of you. Apparently he's always known." I sighed. "I don't have any options. It just sucks. Whenever there's nothing to do and I'm just sitting around on my own, that's what I think about. What could have happened, had things turned out differently. I just can't stand the fact that I'm hurting Collin through this. I mean, he's acting like he's fine but I know better than to think it's true. It's not just me that's making him sad, either. I think he feels left out."
"Left out?" She raised a brow, only to slap herself in the forehead in frustration. "Oh my gosh... I hardly even thought about that. He's always been the heart of our group, but now we're all getting married off."
"And he's wanting to adopt Nesta..." I couldn't help but scrunch my brow every time I thought about it. Collin, a father. Time had passed faster than I expected. We didn't seem old enough to be parents. "Is it weird that I want to talk to Gandalf about this? Or Eomer? Would that be weird? Eowyn! Oh my goodness, Eowyn! Where is she? I heard she was up. Do you think she'd be up to talking about it?"
Suddenly Kristy got a very geeky smirk on her face. "Maybe. But you're not allowed to talk to her right now." She leaned in closely and whispered, "I saw her talking to Faramir earlier."
"Faramir?" I had to raise a brow at that. "Why would she be talking to- ... You don't think?" The idea hit me like a brick wall, and for a moment all of my troubles were forgotten.
Kristy nodded excitedly and clapped her hands together. "I do! Oh, they looked so precious together. I don't know, maybe they were just casually talking, but she was looking unusually happy..."
"I ship it so hard!" I laughed, just as there was a knock on my bedroom door.
"What are you shipping?" Boromir asked, smiling at what must have looked like two blubbering fangirls. Apparently he'd just let himself in, bringing along with him a basket of food. Even so, I was too excited to focus on my grumbling stomach.
Kristy and I looked at each other, and she mouthed should we?
"Ah, heck!" I exclaimed, and turned back to Boromir with a cheesy grin. "Your brother and Eowyn."
He looked beyond confused. "What? What does that mean?"
"It means we want them to like each other and possibly fall in love and get married." I replied, and he was surprisingly accepting of the idea.
"It's not a bad idea." He laughed. "She is a lovely woman. Their union would be good for our countries."
Boromir's political analysis of the situation only made Kristy and I ship the relationship more, and we giggled the sort of fangirl giggles usually emitted when scrolling through tumblr. He smiled again and left the basket on my nightstand before quietly heading back out the door saying, "I'm glad you two are together again."
Just so you all know, I channeled Collin, Sophie, Kristy and James for the Pottermore Sorting Hat quiz and guess what? Collin and Sophie got Gryffindor, Kristy got Ravenclaw (like me), and James got Slytherin. That last one made me incredibly happy.
I also did their wands. Collin got a 12 1/2 inch dogwood, flexible with a unicorn hair. Sophie got a 12 inch ebony, supple with a phoenix feather. Kristy got a 12 3/4 inch beech, bendy with a unicorn hair. James got an 11 1/2 inch alder wand, unyielding with a unicorn hair.
This is college life, for those of you who have yet to experience it. You create characters and throw them into Pottermore when you should be doing your homework.