Two boys ran across the parking lot, through the light flurry of snowfall that thawed on their reddened cheeks, and stuck to their long eyelashes.
"Come on, Bry! We'll miss it!" Quil was practically yanking Embry's arm, fingers around his thin wrist as they dashed up the short steps and pushed open the theater doors, which let out a chime with their entrance.
"We won't miss it!" Embry exclaimed, giggling all the while as he allowed himself to be pulled in the building. As the door shut behind them, he could faintly hear his mother calling after them, telling them to be careful running due to ice which covered the pavement.
It was mid January, and Tiffany had finally agreed to take them to see a film. She'd driven outside of Forks just to make it to the theater, a small white building with showing names displayed on letter boards over the entrance. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers stood above her head like a crown, as she too made her way inside, stuffing her car keys in her front pocket with one hand and holding the strap of her small leather purse in the other.
Embry and Quil hopped from one brown tile to the next, as if over stones stood across a running river, making a game out of it on their journey to the counter. Their matching green cloaks, fabric Tiffany had sewn together and tied around their shoulders, flowed behind them as they moved like leaves on the wind's back. And an old, never worn ring Tiffany fastened to a spare necklace chain, bounced around Embry's chest from where it hung from his thin neck.
At the counter, they waited, staring up at the small calling bell that had a tiny yellow sign stating to ring for service. And Quil, releasing Embry's wrist, rang it eagerly multiple times. It was some moments before an older woman made her way to the counter's edge, looking down at the pair, her elderly face turning up in delight and eyes pinching with crow's feet as she smiled at the children.
"Well, aren't you cute!" she cooed, taking interest in their handmade costumes. Embry wondered if Frodo felt this way, being so short.
"We're not cute!" Quil replied, "we have a journey to go on."
Tiffany came to the counter behind them, one hand on each boy's shoulder, catching her breath from the brisk walk she'd just taken. "I'm sorry, they are just really excited." Her hair was pulled into a bun at the back of her head, locks falling loose around her face as she pulled her purse from her shoulder and laid it on the countertop. She took two single twenty bills from the pouch, handing them to the clerk. "We'd like three tickets for the next showing of that ring movie."
"The lord of the rings," Embry told his mother, staring up at her from his short height. He too had his hair pulled away from his face, in a bun of its own that Tiffany had done before leaving the house.
"Yes, that one," Tiffany corrected herself, handing off the money and watching the employee punch keys on the register before them.
"That's been quite popular," the woman replied, making conversation. Yet she was thankful today, for a rather dull shift, due to the snow and dying buzz of its December release. There was only a week left of this showing. "Any concessions?"
"Boys?" Tiffany asked, "would you like popcorn?"
Quil and Embry nodded in unison, and then asked if they could get candy as well, which Tiffany agreed to. She watched them inspect the candy bar off to the left, the two of them returning with a bag of Reese's pieces and chocolate covered raisins. They reached up, sliding them over the counter's edge, muttering several 'thank you's' as the items were rung up. The air smelt rich like butter, and somewhat stale with recycled air.
"It's number 2, to the left," the clerk informed Tiffany as she ripped the stubs on each ticket, before handing off the rest to her awaiting fingers. "Enjoy the movie! Especially you little elves."
"We're Hobbits," Quil proudly stated, arms full of a bag of popcorn and a box of his chocolate raisins, earning another laugh from the woman behind the counter as he followed Tiffany toward the theater room. Behind him, Embry trudged along, ring around his neck flashing as it reflected the overhead lights along its edge, and hands clutching his pack of candy. "Come on, Mr. Frodo," he called, motioning with his hand and flicking the edge of his cloak in beckoning.
In the dark-lit theater room, there was hardly any chatter, only a couple of others already seated toward the back. The previews were ending just as they had chosen their seats, Embry and Quil in the middle of an empty row and Tiffany agreeing to sit a couple of rows behind them. Truth be told, she hadn't necessarily cared to spend her day off watching a fantasy film she knew nothing about, but her son and Quil had become obsessed with the tale a few years prior, and had watched the first film on DVD when Joy had purchased it. They had begged, naturally, to see the second film on the big screen, as they'd so nicely put it. But it was nice, to see the two so happy, so she had made them their little cloaks to play in and used a cheap ring she never wore for Embry's costume.
In the red clothed seats, Quil tore open his pack of raisins, pouring them into the bag of warm popcorn just as Gollum made his entrance in the film. Embry glanced to the side at him, his wide eyes looking almost black in the dim light, and they grinned at one another, beyond elated to see the creature come to life from the books they loved so dearly. Sam and Frodo were sleeping just below where Gollum crawled down the rocky slope, searching for The One Ring, his precious.
"They're thieves! They're filthy little thieves! Where is it? Where is it? They stole it from us, our Precious! Curse them! We HATES them! It's ours, it is, and we WANTS it!"
As the film carried on, Embry reached over into the bag of popcorn, his eyes blown wide and glued to the screen. He took a handful and munched eagerly, face wrinkling when he tasted the melted chocolate mixed with salt and butter.
"Ew, Quil," he shied away from the snack, scraping his tongue against his teeth as if it would get rid of the weird combination of flavor.
"What? It's good!" Quil argued, happily snacking away. Embry shook his head, but couldn't fight the smile tugging at one corner of his mouth, and he reached out, tugging gently on Quil's ear as he jokingly called him, "my dear Sam".
Quil swatted his hand away, muttering to himself in the quiet of the theater and the sweeping score of the film's soundtrack. The two boys were at once engrossed, and grew silent as they watched Gollum act as Sam and Frodo's guide to Mordor. They were anxious as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli battled bravely at Helm's Deep, and cheered when Gandalf came to their aid, bringing hope in his wake, white and glowing like a beacon against the Orc army. Through the long runtime, Quil had stretched his arm out on the rest, bag of popcorn nearly eaten and set off to the side. Behind them, Tiffany Call had begun to nod off, though she would pretend otherwise.
Chewing his lip in nervous anticipation, Embry watched as the two Hobbits were led through the besieged city of Osgiliath, having been taken captive by Faramir. A Nazgûl approached as Frodo nearly fell to The Ring's power, but Samwise, brave and loving Samwise, had saved him at the last moment, and the two had gone tumbling to the ground. Without thinking, Embry had reached out, grabbing hold of Quil's empty hand, the sound of the Nazgûl shrieking loud in the nearly empty theater, which woke Tiffany from her half-sleep. Frodo had pressed his sword to Sam's throat, and the music had cut off to give weight to the actor's performances.
"It's me! It's your Sam! Don't you know your Sam?"
Tears stung at Embry's eyes, his lips forming a pout, even as Frodo dropped his sword in fright at what he'd almost done. Quil had felt his heart lurch in his chest at the unexpected contact, and dared to glance at his friend beside him, whose eyes were still trained on the movie. Tiffany, through the lighting of the film, saw their clasped hands, and she smiled softly to herself before looking away.
"I can't do this, Sam."
"I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here! But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why."
Embry blinked fresh tears away that had begun to pool at his lower lashes, let them run tracks down his cheeks still full with he began to pull his hand away, embarrassed all of a sudden that he had felt the urge to grab Quil's at all. But Quil had stopped him, retaken his palm and threaded their fingers shyly, and not without a hint of blush.
"Folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. Because they were holding onto something!" Samwise told his friend, determination clear in his voice on the wide screen before them.
"What are we holding onto, Sam?" came Frodo's broken reply, as Sam helped him to his feet. Quil squeezed Embry's hand in his own in comfort, meeting his eyes for just a fleeting moment. And Embry smiled, wiping his tears with his free hand.
"That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."
They stayed like that, hands clasped together and heat from their palms warming the other until the credits rolled, and the lights in the theater room brightened once more. They had pulled away then, glancing around as if checking that no one had caught them, embarrassed and nervous yet lacking the vocabulary to reason why this was. They were just children, after all, too young to understand yet any budding feelings growing between them like flowers from the rich earth. But in time, they would, and in time too, they might come to understand the themes of their shared beloved fantasy.
The two rose from their seats, sluggish and tired from so long at rest, but they chattered away over the film they'd watched together even as they discarded their wrappers and popcorn bag in the bin outside, and even as they'd climbed into Tiffany's backseat for the drive home. She asked them, looking in the rearview, if they'd enjoyed the movie and had received praise in response, already theorizing about the third installment and when it would be released. And they made a deal in the backseat, leaning against each other and eyes drooping with wanted sleep, to watch the last film together just as they'd watched the first two.
And at the Call's home, the boys already in bed and eyes shut against the dark of Embry's bedroom, he rolled to face Quil, asking, "Do you think Sam is right?"
"About what?" Quil furrowed his brows, but kept his eyes shut, lashes kissing the roundness of his cheeks.
"That there's things worth fighting for," came Embry's reply in the quiet of nighttime, the crickets playing music outside his one window.
"Of course he is," Quil answered without hesitation, and then silence. He opened his eyes after a long pause and no response, the moonlight streaming in from the blinds and over Embry's striped comforter, highlighting lines across his young face and making his eyes glimmer, eyes which were staring at Quil in a tired, half-lidded manner. Embry simply smiled, and after a beat shut his eyes, turning his small face to nuzzle the pillow.
"I think Frodo was lucky to have Sam with him," Embry spoke aloud to the small blue room, his voice quiet and drowsy, sleep calling to him.
"Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam," Quil replied, reciting a line, "but Sam needed Frodo, too."
Embry murmured in agreement, hands by his head, and Quil watched him drift off to sleep, thoughts of reaching out to hold his hand popping up in his mind, but he willed them away. Instead, he mumbled 'goodnight', and thought maybe there would come another opportunity to hold his hand later, to feel that same lurch of his heart or warmth of skin that felt right, as if that was exactly as things should be. Years later, he would come to understand what he couldn't then at this moment. And years later, there would come an opportunity to hold hands, and not just in the darkness of a theater.