The Clash
So instead, he just submerged his emotions and studied Boromir. He
hadn't been able to actually look closely at the man in a long time
and he would take advantage of the opportunity.
Boromir's face was pale, with a slight grey cast to his skin made
even more noticeable by his vivid green eyes. His hair was a darker
blonde, no longer the light honey gold that it had been when they
met. Months of being in the hospital had leeched the colours out of
it. Even the blue and red streaks weren't as bright and Aragorn found
himself mourning the loss. They seemed like such an integral part of
Boromir's personality and to see them faded like dead roses was
difficult.
Looking at him, at those green eyes and faded hair, his emotions rose
up in huge waves, nearly choking him.
Shit! Why is this happening right now he asked himself as he
fought to not touch Boromir. He knew that if he did, all his
resolutions would just go out the window and he would find himself
caught in an even bigger mess than before.
He shook his head and looked over at Legolas, who was watching them
with a calculating look on his face as he idly played with the
bouquet of flowers.
"I'm sorry, Lee." Aragorn apologized to his brother, although he
didn't really know why he was doing it.
Lee only smiled at him, a calm, smug smile that made Aragorn wonder
whether the elf knew something that he didn't.
"It's alright, Estel. You and Sebastien need to talk. I will be
here, of course, when you come back," Lee told him. Aragorn nodded
before he looked down at Boromir.
"Where should we go then?" Aragorn asked Boromir, addressing him for
the first time in a long time.
"The waiting room. No one will bother us there," Boromir replied, his
voice soft and subdued.
Aragorn nodded and followed Boromir as he wheeled himself out of the
room without saying another word. There was nothing else left to be
said. That is, until they got to the waiting room.
Faramir had just taken off his coat and had put it in the closet when
he felt a tugging at the hem of his hoody.
Looking down, he was surprised to see Merry's small hand bunched up
in the fabric.
"Yeah, Chibi?" he asked as he picked up the hobbit and perched him on
his hip.
"Who are they?" Merry asked, pointing to the congregation of elves
and humans that had gathered in the living room.
"Friends, Merry. They're going to stay here for a while," Faramir
explained.
"They aren't mean, are they?" Merry whispered anxiously. Faramir
shook his head.
"No. They aren't like that. I wouldn't let mean people come here,"
Faramir assured him.
Merry nodded and snuggled even more into Faramir's embrace, content
with all in the world at the moment. If Faramir had said things were
okay, then they probably were, he assured himself. There was nothing
to worry about, even if the people did look scary.
Pippin, too, was hesitant to actually come out and greet the
congregation of people in his safe haven. He would have run up the
stairs if it hadn't been for the comfortable perch that Celly's arms
had become.
For the moment, he sat in her lap and watched the visitors as they
made themselves comfortable on the assorted couches and chairs that
decorated the living room.
"Nice place you have here, Mir," Danny told him as he flopped down on
a wicker chair and pulled Glorfindel onto his lap the second he had
gotten comfortable.
"Thanks," Faramir replied as he stepped into the living room and
looked over at everyone that was there.
Danny and Glor sat snuggled up together as was their habit. Eomer,
surprisingly enough, was hovering over Celly. If Faramir didn't know
any better, he would say that Eomer was...welläfor a lack of a better
word, *crushing* over his older sister. Even though Eomer kept
glancing over to where his sister was being watched over Max, he was
mostly keeping his eyes on the tall blonde elf.
The other couple that made Faramir wonder if he was seeing things
were Max and Eowyn. Never in a million years would he have imagined
that the elf had any affection for the human girl. If he recalled it
correctly, Max was more often than not cool towards her. If he liked
Eowyn, then he had sure done a superb job of hiding it for such a
long time.
As for Eowyn, she looked like the chibis, the way she was clinging to
Max. She was clutching tightly to his sweater and was so close to him
that Faramir swore that if she got any closer to him, she would be
sitting in his lap. It was cute, really. He personally had nothing
against her doing that, since he knew more so than anyone, probably,
that she had been nothing more than a pawn for Arwen. A pawn that
hadn't much choice due to the emotional starvation that she suffered
at home.
From the hints that Danny and Glor occasionally dropped to him, he
knew that Eowyn had a fairly crappy home life. At least Eomer had the
chance to get his frustrations out on the hockey rink, but Eowyn was
never allowed by her uncle to join any sports teams or other stuff.
"They want her to just sit at home and do nothing. I think she was
only allowed to go out with Arwen whenever our father stepped in and
called them up," Danny had told Faramir one time as they had watched
her meticulously paint yet another one of her masterpieces.
When Faramir had asked how many paintings she had done through the
three years she had been in art class he had been floored by her calm
reply of sixty.
"What can you expect? She does nothing but sit at home and come to
school. Even though my little sister is a huge bitch, she did offer
her an escape once in awhile,"
Danny had told him when he had expressed his shock over her output.
"Yeah, at what emotional price?" Max had spoken up, his eyes
narrowing angrily as he cut into the conversation. "Arwen is a self-
centred bitch who only looks out for Number One. She just used Eowyn,
as she used Eomer when she was utterly hell-bent on getting Aragorn
to be her consort," Max spat out bitterly, his mouth twisting
somewhat when he said the last word.
"I never knew you cared, brother," Danny had noted softly after the
minute or so of silence that had settled down after Max's
uncharacteristic outburst.
Max had sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't. But that family is fucked up
enough as it without our darling bitch of a sister to go and fuck
around with them."
"What do you mean fucked up? " Faramir had asked as he had sat back
and tilted his face up to the sun.
Danny, Glor and Max had exchanged a look before Glor took the
opportunity to speak. "Rumour has it that the reason why Eomer and
Eowyn ended up being adopted into the Rohan clan is because their mom
had supposedly something to do with killing their dad. I think,
although I can't be sure, that Eomer saw the whole thing happen in
the living room."
Faramir had swallowed. Hard. Even Lee hadn't had it as hard as that.
Yohji and Ken had though, that was the reason why they had been
placed in the St. Joaquim Orphanage.
"How old was he?" he had asked, feeling sorry for the aloof teenager.
He understood now. Eomer was like Thom in that way. He was trapped in
his surroundings with no way out and the best he could do to cope
with the life that he had been handed. At least he hadn't turned
into a psychopath like Thom had.
"I think he was like, five. And Eowyn was only three or something. I
can't recall cause their birthdays are so close together and they
showed up a little after or before they had their birthdays that
year. Afterwards, we just forgot to ask."
"So you're telling me you have no clue how old they are?"
"Well, how old are you? And don't give me that crap that you are
seventeen, kiddo. We counted the candles on your cake and they
certainly weren't seventeen candles on the cake," Danny snapped at
him as he snuggled up to Glor.
Faramir opened his mouth to reply, but changed his mind at the last
minute. Whatever. He was hardly going to argue about it with them.
"Whatever. So that's the dark dirty secrets of the Rohans then?"
Faramir had asked, trying to lighten up the sudden dark mood that had
struck everyone.
"Most of them. Of course, we still have no idea how Theoden managed
to score a BMW," Glor had spoken up, totally deadpan. "But we all
have our guesses. And they don't include his dad giving him the money
for it."
"Or that he worked really hard in the summer," Max had added
caustically.
The others had fallen quiet and didn't speak again until Orophin had
nailed Danny with a water balloon square in the head. That had broken
up the conversation and everyone had pretty much forgotten it.
Including him.
But seeing the way that the Rohans looked at him after school sparked
the memories.
And sitting in the living room with all of them in attendance made
the memories stand out even more harshly than before.
"Sooo. Are we all going to just sit here and stare at each other
until one of us yell mercy?" Celly drawled as she moved around in her
chair.
"What can we do?" Eomer asked, drawing all eyes on him. "We can't go
home and I know that Theoden will hurt my sister if we go back.
There's nothing I can do!"
Faramir blinked. This was a first. He never imagined that Eomer could
get so passionate about anything. Most of the time he walked around
with an annoying smirk that rivalled Herr Shuldich's on Monday
mornings, never showing anything but superficial feelings. Seeing him
so incensed made Faramir wonder if the world had gone crazy.
The world has gone crazy, the voice in his head agreed. Ever
since that day that Aragorn called you and told you Boromir was hit
by a car. Things never were never the same. Everything was fucked up
and people were hurt and thrown away. Everyone went insane and
things fucked up.
Faramir closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. It was true. The
fact that people were thrown away. As much as he hated to admit it,
he had done as much to Legolas.
He had just blurted out his fears and taken off, not once thinking
about the elf. The one that he had loved for so long. He snorted out
loud. Did he really love him? He sure as hell hadn't acted like he
did in the short span of time they were together.
He knew that love was a hard thing to come by with kids like him and
the rest of the St. Joachim's brats. He had been taught, from an
early age, that once you got love, you took care of it. You protected
it. You didn't make the stupid mistake of carelessly throwing it away.
Flashback
"We're all we've got," Duo said softly, his bruised face looking
even more delicate and pitiful in the light of the single
candle. "We don't fuck each other over and *we care for the ones we
love.* Above all other things. *We care for the ones we love with our
lives.* Got that?"
The whole group was there, surrounding Duo in the large dormitory
they slept in: Yohji, Ken, Lee, Trowa, Thom, Boromir, Faramir,
Zechs, Nagi, Sally, Goyjo, Sanzo, Hakkai, Tsuzuki, Hisoka, Watari,
Tatsumi and Catherine all nodded solemnly as the words echoed and re-
echoed in the dimly lit room.
"We gotta remember that. If and when we leave this place, we gotta
remember it. Cause if we don't and we break those rules, we are
nothing."
"It's true that those shit-heads out there can tell us we're
nothing," a quiet, rough voice spoke up in the silence. Everyone's
heads turned to the small blonde teenager sitting in the corner, next
to red-headed Goyjo with the scarred up face and the affable Hakkai,
who was blind in his left eye. Both injuries had been caused by their
parents, who had been a little over-zealous in disciplining them. It
was Koryuu, the quiet, somewhat crabby kid that was studying to be a
priest under Father Maxwell and Father Sanzo.
Privately, everyone wondered whether he really was suited to be one.
After all, he swore more, smoked more and drank more than anyone in
the orphanage. But he was sharp. Very sharp and when he did speak,
everyone listened.
"They may look down on us cause we have no `real' families. Or homes.
Or nothing that could be seen as `valuable'. But the one thing we got
is the love we can give to others. The bonds that we create and
protect. If we ever break them, then we are proving them right. But
only by that."
"The novice is right," Goyjo agreed as he leaned forward, the
candlelight catching the deep crimson of his eyes and hair, the marks
of his mixed parentage.
Everyone nodded and fell silent as they contemplated what had been
said.
"We can either prove those fuckwads right, or we can flip the finger
in front of them."
"Eloquently put," Boromir had agreed quietly before footsteps were
heard on the stairs, signalling that Fathers Maxwell and Sanzo where
coming upstairs to check on them.
The candle was extinguished and they all jumped into their beds and
pretended to be asleep.
"I broke the promise," he muttered, knowing that he had broken one of
the most important rules of conduct that they held up to each
other. "I broke the promise."
He was a coward, he now saw clearly, once he was willing to strip
away all the emotions of betrayal and shock that he had been using to
shield himself from the truth.
A coward of the highest degree, since he had turned tail and fled
once the shit had hit the fan. If he was truly as deeply in love with
Legolas as he had claimed to be, he would have stayed and faced the
consequences like a man.
Like Zechs had when Sally had ended up pregnant with Nedra. He could
have just run off and joined the army, or ignored Sally and denied
his daughter, but he hadn't. He had stood by them and worked his arse
off to support them while Sally finished school. Hell, there was even
talk of a wedding as soon as Sally turned eighteen.
And what the hell had he done?
You left it all for your brother to take care of. Isn't that the
way it has always been with you? You make a mess, he comes in and
cleans it up? Faramir cringed at that accusation, but didn't close
his eyes to it.
As much as he hated to admit it, he had always known, sub-consciously
at least, that Boromir would always be there to catch him if he
stumbled.
To him, Boromir had always been the strong one that would always be
there right behind him until the day they died. The one that would
always make things alright again.
The one that would be the adult, right, Faramir? the voice
taunted him again.
Faramir bit his lip. The voice was right. It was high time that *he*
began to behave like the adult that he and others perceived him to
be. He had to go and make things right by himself once and for all.
"What promise?" Faramir shook his head to bring himself back to the
present and looked down at Merry, who was looking at him with curious
eyes. Damn. The chibi had heard him.
"A promise I gotta make right, chibi," he replied as he put the
hobbit onto the floor and headed over to the closet to retrieve his
coat.
"Mir? Hey, Mir? Where the hell are you going?" Celly called out.
"To the hospital," Faramir replied as he opened the front door.
"At this time of day?" his sister asked, appearing in the foyer,
Pippin still perched on her hip and Merry now clinging to her baggy
navy sweater.
Faramir paused and looked at her, his face serious as he looked at
her.
"Yeah. I know it's late. But," he paused as he ran his hand through
his hair as he tried to find the words to explain to her what he had
to do. "I forgot about a promise I made to myself and to a lot of
old friends. A promise that I broke." He laughed bitterly before he
looked straight into his sister's eyes. "A promise that I have to
make right if it's not too late."
Celly's eyes narrowed as she looked at Faramir. She really wanted to
wallop him one, since he had sure taken his sweet time to finally
figure out what the hell he was going to do. Not to mention the fact
that he was probably going to cause more problems when he finally did
what he was going to set out to do.
But she couldn't bring herself to punch him and call him a moron for
not moving faster and for not thinking about the consequences of his
actions. Especially not now that the proverbial lightbulb had
illuminated his thick skull.
"Fine," she said at last. "I'll talk to mom and dad about the strays
in the living room while you do that."
Faramir nodded and was half-way out the door when he heard the
clinking of keys before a heavy metal bundle hit him right between
his shoulders blades, making him yelp out in pain.
"Take my car. It'll be faster. Get the hell out of here," he heard
Celly tell him before she moved back to the living room.
"Okay," he called out after picking up the keys and running out into
the cold evening.
"Fucken idiot," Celly muttered as she closed the door behind him and
went back to the living room to try and hammer out a plan of sorts
before her parents got home.
Aragorn shut the door of the waiting room and turned to look at
Boromir, who was sitting at the only table in the room, his chin
resting in his hands as he looked out to the dark and dreary
landscape that surrounded the hospital.
Aragorn swallowed hard as he walked over to the table. Grabbing a
chair, he sat down and leaned on the table, his eyes on Boromir's
ashy face as he did so.
He knew he was looking for some sort of signal. A sign that would let
him know exactly how he was to proceed through this conversation, but
the face remained cool and serene. No information was to be gained
from it.
Fuck, he swore mentally. He was on his own this time and he knew
he was going to have to tread carefully if both sides were going to
remain unbloodied.
"It's fucked, isn't it?" Aragorn's body jerked itself up straight at
the sound of Boromir's voice.
"What is?" Aragorn asked, blinking dark blue eyes at his companion,
who had turned from looking out the window and was now staring
straight at him, his eyes a cool shimmering green that held no
emotion whatsoever.
Aragorn lowered his hands to his lap and curled them into fists,
making sure that his nails dug into the soft flesh of his palms. He
didn't care if he was going to have bloody half-moon gouges in his
hands later on. He wanted the pain. He welcomed it, in fact. He
needed it. Seeing that distant on Boromir's face was just too much
for him, since he recalled very clearly the loving, gentle look that
had been in those eyes whenever they had rested upon him.
"The fact that we're warily circling around each other like we are
expecting the other to attack first, that's what," Boromir told him,
his voice quiet. "Especially considering that once, we loved each
other."
Aragorn saw a flash of red at that remark and had to close his eyes
to keep his temper in check. So. The first attack had taken place.
"We *once* loved each other?!" Aragorn repeated, his voice rough with
the strain to keep his temper in check. "I was never informed of
this decision to stop loving each other. As far as I am concerned, I
*am* still in love with you!" He shook his head, sending his hair
whipping across his shoulders with the motion.
"Fucken hell, Boromir! Did you decide this for me too? That I wasn't
going to be in love with you anymore?" he yelled, his eyes darkly
flaming . "I am not a child, Boromir! You *cannot* make my decisions
for me! I'm not your little brother, nor am I Legolas for you to take
care of me!" Aragorn practically screamed the last words out as he
stood up, knocking his chair over as he did, his eyes still on the
silent man sitting across from him.
"I love you. God help me, but I do." Aragorn looked away so that
Boromir wouldn't see the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.
Fucken hell. Fucken hell. He thought he had gotten over those
emotions. He truly believed that they had died a cold death that day
when he had heard Boromir's words. That they had died when he had
found a measure of comfort in Faramir's arms, in his touchä. But now,
seeing Boromir face to face had shown him exactly how wrong he had
been to think that.
"Have you gotten everything out of your system yet?" Boromir asked,
his voice still quiet, still without a trace of identifiable emotion.
Aragorn's shoulders stiffened as he turned to face Boromir once more.
Seeing the cool look on his face made something in him snap. At that
moment, he wanted to hurt him. Hurt him like he had been hurt. Hurt
him and see pain filling those bright green eyes for the indifference
Boromir was showing him.
For his part, Boromir wasn't sure why he was baiting Aragorn. He sure
as hell wasn't enjoying himself, yet he couldn't stop himself from
doing it. It was as if he was making sure, in a twisted way, that
there was still something between them. That it hadn't been
completely eroded during the time they had begun to pull away from
each other.
"No. Not everything," Aragorn whispered, his eyes now glittering with
fury. "I haven't told you I slept with your brother after the fight
in the bar."
It had worked better than he had expected, he noted with a sick sense
of satisfaction. He watched those green eyes flicker and spark as the
words sank in. They were no longer dead glass. Now they were alive
with the pain of the knowledge that Aragorn had been touched by
someone else other than him.
The silence fell between them like a thick curtain neither was
willing to push away. So it stayed for what felt like a century until
Boromir spoke.
"Why my little brother?" he asked, his voice now ragged with
pain. "Did you do it to spite me?"
Aragorn shook his head slowly, his eyes now devoid of their malicious
glimmer.
"We needed comfort, Boromir. Nothing more. You and Legolas shut us
out. It was the only thing we could do."
Boromir barked a humourless laugh. "Yet you can still tell me that
you love me?"
"You told me the same thing even though you love Legolas," Aragorn
countered softly.
"You are right. I do love him. I think I always have been in love
with him. Ever since the first time I saw him, I think I loved him."
Aragorn's hands clutched themselves into fists at that soft
admission. He had known it, before he came to the hospital. Had
known it, but it still hurt to hear it.
"Fine. So are we over then?"
Legolas had just settled down into his bed, his mind a swirl of half-
baked thoughts when he heard a couple of sharp knocks on the door.
Sighing a bit irritably, he sat up and called out for the person to
come in. If it was a nurse trying to get more blood from him, she was
going to get an earful. They had taken so much blood from him that
even with his elven healing ability, his arms were starting to look
like a junkie's. He wasn't vain by any stretch of the imagination,
but the bruises on his pale skin where starting to really piss him
off. He had just pulled up the sleeve of his pyjama top when he
heard the voice.
"L-Legolas?"
He froze. Like the proverbial deer in the headlights. He couldn't
move, couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
Faramir stood in the doorway. A confused, unsure and flushed Faramir
that seemed to be as stunned as Legolas, since he was just standing
in the doorway without any inclination to come any closer.
They remained there, watching each other, waiting for a sign,
unconsciously imitating their own brothers across the hallway until
Faramir shook his head and walked up to the elf.
"Lee." He couldn't say anything else after that. Not with those big
brown eyes focused on him. Eyes that spoke of the anger, the hurt and
the loneliness that their owner had endured in his life. Hurt that
had been given not just by his family, the people that were supposed
to protect him, but also by him. The person that was supposed to have
loved him above everything else.
He froze. Emotionally and physically, he froze. The memory of that
night burned brightly in him, and in his mind's eye he could see the
orphanage residents chiding him for being such a coward. After all,
he had rushed out of the house, abandoning his other friends, risked
his parent's wrath by grabbing the car and being out after school
without permission, and for what? To stand there and do nothing but
stare at Legolas until his eyeballs stuck to his eyelids? He shook
his head. He had done all of this for a reason. He wasn't going to
fuck it up.
Taking a deep breath, he took off his omni-present green baseball cap
and jammed it down on his head backwards. There. He was now ready.
"This is fucken hard for me," he explained, smiling apologetically at
Lee, who was still watching him mutely, the only sign that he was
equally nervous being the way that he was clutching the bedclothes so
tightly his knuckles were white.
"I came here cause I was reminded of something that I shouldn't have
ever forgotten."
Legolas' eyes narrowed, but he said nothing, silently telling Faramir
to explain himself.
"I won't say that I'm sorry. Or that I was being an idiot, because
that would just be insulting your intelligence. Besides, I'm sure
that isn't what you want to hear."
He sighed and rubbed his eyes harshly as he tried to untangle the
fine skeins that his thoughts had turned into the minute that he had
walked into the hospital room.
"I would like to say something poetic and skilful, but that would
just make me seem like some cheap sentimentalist."
Faramir turned and looked at Lee, his eyes locking onto those brown
eyes and refusing to let that gaze go until he had spoken his part.
"I want to start again. I want things to be the way that they were
before. But I only want that if you are willing to give me a second
chance to make things right."
Legolas sucked in his breath, and his hands clutched at the blanket
so hard that he ripped the coarse fabric. He turned away from
Faramir and looked out the window at the lovely view his room had of
the inner city. But he didn't see it, his vision blurred by the tears
that were spilling onto his cheeks. He had wanted this. Had wanted
for things to work out someway ever since that day things had come
crashing down on his head. Now here was the opportunity being handed
to him and he wasn't sure if he wanted to actually take it.
"What made you change your mind and come here?"
Faramir winced. He knew that he wasn't going to get forgiveness for
being a moron so easily, but he didn't expect to get nailed in
between the eyes so soon.
"Was it pity that made you come here?" Legolas asked, his voice low
and ragged.
"If it was pity, then get the fuck out of here. I don't need anyone's
pity, thank you."
Faramir laughed, a sharp and hollow sound that made Legolas shiver.
"Do you actually think that I would do that to you?" Faramir
snorted. "As if I could ever pity you. Considering that you were
the only one that I ever wanted to be with. Considering that I used
to watch you and my brother and be completely eaten up by jealousy
because he was with you. I highly doubt that I could ever pity you no
matter what the circumstances."
Legolas wiped the tears from his face on the sleeve of his pyjamas
and turned to look at Faramir. Although the other man was pale,
there was a determined glimmer to his green eyes that made Legolas
feel a little better since Ken had left. He had felt like shit
because he knew Ken was telling him to make the right decision. If
Aragorn and Boromir worked everything out, he would just be in the
way, since Boromir would feel obliged to stand by him. Even though
Legolas had told him not to feel as if he had to be everyone's
strength, he knew that the human would brush the words away when it
came to his well-being. If that were to happen, he was positive that
he would lose Aragorn's friendship, since he would be damaging the
best chance that his brother had for happiness.
"Hn. Are you here then, because of the kids?"
Faramir shrugged as he fiddled with the zipper of his jacket. "Not
entirely. Yeah, they are my kids. But I am not here just to do my
duty or some noble shit like that. I'm here cause I miss you. Cause I
realized I was a moron for throwing away what you gave me, and also
because *I* am just stumbling through life without you. I have no
worries about you making it on your own just fine," Faramir
admitted, his voice losing the bantering tone of before and becoming
terribly serious.
Legolas looked down at the ripped blankets and frowned. It was time
to stop fucking around.
Boromir ran a hand through his hair and looked down at the table-top,
his eyes burning with the tears he stubbornly refused to shed.
He didn't think that he even deserved to cry, since he was the one
that had single-handedly made what could have been a friendly talk
into a war that benefited no one.
All he had done was bait the other man and widen the distance between
them. He seriously didn't think that it would come to this. To have
the metaphorical gun handed to him and for him to decide whether or
not he was going to give the killing blow to their relationship.
He could feel Aragorn's eyes on him, but he wouldn't look at the
other man. Ever since the words had been spoken, he hadn't had the
courage to look at him.
He didn't want the other man to see his eyes, because Aragorn would
see the truth in them.
He pressed his fingers against his eyelids to stem the burning
feeling and to buy himself more time to find the right words.
Aragorn, for his part, was getting both annoyed and impatient. It was
true that he hadn't stopped loving Boromir, but after getting sniped
at and frozen out, he was rapidly reaching his limit. He had gone
through hell for the guy, but enough was enough. He knew well enough
to leave when it looked bleak and hopeless.
And it seemed that this time had finally arrived for him and Boromir.
He looked at the clock and frowned when he saw that a full hour had
passed since they had come in here to talk. An hour and nothing had
been solved at all.
He let out a soft sigh of either anger or regret, he couldn't really
tell, before he buttoned up his coat and gave Boromir one last look.
"Screw this. It's perfectly obvious that this is all over. I am
leaving now. I won't bother you anymore, Boromir." He bit his lip
after he had spoken. Shit that had hurt! Even though he knew that it
would come to that, it still hurt to actually hear that spoken aloud.
He looked at Boromir one last time and saw that the only change there
was that Boromir had slumped down even more in the wheelchair,
looking a lot like a puppet whose strings had broken and was now
waiting to be thrown out with tomorrow's trash.
The sight of him like that was so pitiful and heart-wrenching that
Aragorn had to resist the impulse to rush over to the other man and
babble a million apologies and how much he had missed the other man
and how he wanted for them to make it right again.
It's over. he thought as he pulled his gloves on. There was
nothing left to wait for here.
He had just turned towards the door when he heard Boromir singing.
Singing a song that he had heard once and never again.
"We can't agree on a single thing, I don't know why.
Aragorn closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His fists clenched
and he willed himself to remain calm. He wasn't going to cry. He
wasn't going to run to Boromir and he certainly wasn't going to
embrace him and kiss him and agree.
I won't! he thought as he turned and ran over to Boromir and put
his arms around him. Boromir sagged into his arms and buried his
face into Aragorn's shoulder. He began to cry in earnest while
Aragorn stroked his hair and let his own tears fall down his cheeks.
Aw fuck it. I did.
Notes: a very special thanks to Kotori, Omittchi, Alex, Akin, Kris
and others who are still with me and loving the story.
I know I have stuck new characters in here.. I have been watching a
lot of cartoons to help clam my brain before my finals.
Koryuu, Goyjo, Hakkai and Father Sanzo are from Saiyuki. (Great
series, btw.) I know that Sanzo and Koryuu are Buddhists, but it
makes more sense for the story for them to be Catholic priests, due
to the running of the orphanage. Any cracks about that and ye shall
get smacked.
Tsuzuki, Tasumi and Watari are from Yami no Matsuei (Descendants of
the Dark). Yet another awesome show that I totally recommend. I mean
it!
Thom Yorke...he only has the name of the radiohead guy. He is
actually based on a friend who, sadly, has been lost to me.
by Jim Morrison
Chapter XVIII
Heaven Coming Down
"I managed to be a jerk anyway,
it doesn't have to be this way
Forget about the things I said I make no excuse for them.
I want to start again."
—Bouncing Souls
ragorn looked at him for several moments, his mind in a state of
limbo over what Boromir had just said. He had wanted this. Even
though he knew it would be a painful thing to face, he had wanted it.
Now that he had it, he wasn't sure if he had the strength to go
through with it.
We almost killed each other on the inside.
I managed to be a jerk anyway,
it doesn't have to be this way
Forget about the things I said
I make no excuse for them.
I want to start again"
