"Gold or silver side out?"

This surprised me, because for some reason I'd remembered it as pearls--I must have been thinking of the movie, I guess? "Well, let's see what looks the best."


And then Faramir One was so nervous that he insisted we give the mantle to Eowyn without him being there, and that we do it in the middle of the day, rather than wait for the more romantic

"Oh, honey--"

Awwww. Well, once burned, I guess. Anyway, I spent most of the nasty grey morning sick(ish) in bed, but after eleven or twelve the sun came out, so I let the Aragorns and the Faramirs go outside to help Helm's Deep Aragorn collect camellia petals (I need to take some more pictures for you--we have several blooms out now, and a number of them have already conveniently fallen away) because, you know, he just got here around Christmas, so he hasn't been with Purple Arwen very long and he wanted the day to be special. Now, given that these petals are generally bigger than his head, I don't know what he's going to do with them, and, quite frankly, I suspect I don't want to know, either. So, anyway. I have a pretty pink and blue Prestat chocolates box that was just the right size, so I folded up the scarf and put it in and tied it up with a pink tulle ribbon (my aunt is fond of using them on gifts, and I always save them) and set it out on my file cabinet. Eowyn eventually looked up from reading Eclipse (I swear to God, I rue the day I ever let her read those books) and came over to see what was going on. I could tell that Purple Arwen was curious as well, but White Arwen held her back by the sleeve (Purple Arwen does have some impressive sleevage) and just smiled at her.

"Actually, you did."

"Well, go ahead and open it. He wanted you to."

"Well, I think he was afraid you wouldn't like it."

She stood there for a moment looking at the open box, unable to speak.

"Yep."

"Well, you told me not to tell him how you felt, so I feel like I'm under the same obligation to him. But I'm not going to let things get stupid here. It's not that he doesn't care enough, it's that he cares too much."

"Of course."

And then she wiped her eyes again and went to sit up on the Lemony Snicket shelf--Their Shelf, if you will--by herself for a while (for a good long think, I imagine). I'm actually starting to think that I need to colonize those two big bookshelves on that side of the room rather than cram everyone onto the smaller bookshelf by my bed--everyone would have more space, Lyra and Iorek would have more room to climb, we could keep Certain Among Us separated--
Hey! The boys are back! They brought flowers for everyone, even me--an open camellia to float in a dish of water, which was sweet, and sprigs of tiny ornamental cherry blossom for the girls (I leaned over to see how Anna would take this, as she is not a flower kind of girl, but Anna and Elizabeth were missing from the festivities entirely. Hm), and a crown of yellow jasmine for Galadriel ("Like elanor!" she said, laughing). Fugagorn also had a long vine of it for White Arwen, who twirled it around herself while he held the end for her. And, of course, there were all the camellia petals in the world for Purple Arwen. I don't even want to know what May Day is going to be like around here.

"So. Talk to me."

"I don't know, about what you did today?"

"Yeah, I BET you did. Don't go up there again, seriously. How tall is that fence--like, seven feet high? Maybe eight? How did you even get UP there?"

Wait, who? And then I realized he meant Fugagorn--who is, of course, Fellowship of the Rings Aragorn, as opposed to Helm's Deep Aragorn, who is... well, obviously. And of course he wouldn't call him Fugagorn, because he doesn't think he's (f)ugly, because... you always see the people you care about as beautiful.
Well. That wasn't the Aragorn I'd thought he'd prefer.

We sat there for a moment. I didn't quite know what to say, if only because Fug--Strider, rather, is clearly with Arwen, and I wasn't sure if he wanted sympathy, or if he'd rather keep a stiff upper lip about it.

Y'all, I had no idea Valentine's Day was going to be so wrenching. God.

"Well, I'm not sure yet--I mean, she got hugely emotional about it and I'm pretty sure she loves it, but I don't think she's seen him again since she--"

"Come on," I said to Faramir Two. "Let's go get some ice cream."

"Oh yeah."
And off we went.
(More from the Secret Life of Dolls.)


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