By: Dana
Summary: What happens because of a broken heart.
Characters: Pippin and Diamond
Pairings: Merry/Pippin and Estella/Diamond because of the series, but the story is gen
Rating: G
Warnings: Gennish, with pairings: slash and femslash
Author's Notes: This follows directly after Those Who Wander, but I consider it another inset instead of a sequel or follow-up.
I would like to thank sophinisba for the beta on this. ♥
Prompt: Diamond (#48). Words: 870
26/100.
Series Index: Roads Go On and Years Go By.
Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with J.R.R. Tolkien or New Line Cinema. Any and all characters and situations that have been borrowed are for the author's personal use only, and for the entertainment of others.

Pippin finds Diamond easily enough: standing there in the corridor, hands at her sides, shaking as she – laughs? He finds himself somewhat perplexed, though not as he might have been elsewise, since he is familiar in his own way with grief. It is too terrible, and too terribly complicated. So, with all that in mind, Pippin cautiously strides forward.

She'd not shouted at him, at him and Merry, but she'd said what she had with a broken heart – and it would have surprised her, he knows, to know just how much they blamed themselves for all that had happened, for all that had been done in the time they had been gone. But they could not be both places, and they should have come back to a Shire safe and whole... but Pippin would not have abandoned Frodo, for all he feels at times as though he abandoned the Shire instead.

'Miss Diamond?'

She doesn't move at first. But then she does turn, looking rather mussed, her eyes red and leaking tears, her cheeks pink, and very wet. In a way, Pippin finds it all very distressing – he doesn't know Diamond, and he can't say he knows why he said he would go after her. Only, she had looked at him and there had been such pain in her eyes, broken stars and... He forces out his breath, and says her name once more. 'Diamond.'

'Forgive me,' she says, and that on a sob. But then she laughs once more, and Pippin can do nothing else: he finds himself taking Diamond into his arms, gathers up her shaking form, and somewhere, someplace deep inside, he is surprised at how he holds her to his chest. 'Forgive me,' she says again, and then goes on. 'I can't say I know what...'

She bends her forehead against his shoulder, clutches at his tunic, and weeps. And Pippin, standing there with his arms about Diamond, does not know what to do – nor does he know what to say. Still, that hardly stops his mouth from opening. 'How old was he?' he asks, though he hardly feels that's what he'd meant to say.

Diamond, startled, draws back – she sniffles wetly, but then she answers him. She is still clutching at his tunic. Her fingers have not even loosened their hold. 'Thirty- nine,' she says. She seems to wander in thought but then, once more, she lifts her tear-stained gaze.

He hesitates, thinking – looking at her. Her hair and her eyes and her face. Did they have the same smile? Or the same laugh? But Pippin does not feel he knows Diamond's laughter, the truth in her heart: why, her laughter has been stained with tears as well.

But then Pippin says: 'He was very brave.'

Diamond startles once more. She hesitates as well. 'Yes, he was. But how do you know?'

How does he know? 'Because he was your brother,' he says. 'And I can see it in your eyes.'

She stands there, quietly, but then she draws away – and Pippin lets her go, his arms falling away as well. Diamond takes two steps, and then three others. And she stands there, quietly, and Pippin's hardly said anything at all.

But then she looks at him once more, and smiles. 'Forgive me.'

'Now, Miss Diamond, there's no need for that.'

'But there is!' She laughs once more. 'But there's no need in calling me Miss Diamond, Master Peregrin.'

He laughs as well. 'Now, there's certainly no need to call me that! It makes me feel at least twice my age. And I've been feeling old enough of late!'

'Estella was right,' and Diamond smiles. 'You are very dear.'

He grins. 'Well, I do like to think I have my own charm.'

'Oh, you do, Master – Pippin, that is. You do.'

And he smiles, but then he opens his mouth once more: 'You'll tell me all about him, some day – and the times will seem happier, I think, for all that the pain will still linger, the sharp edge of it, I believe... that will fade.'

She does not look startled now. Diamond only smiles. She reaches out, and takes his hand – her hand seems smaller, finer, at least how he compares it to his own – but she folds her hand over his, and finds himself surprised at that strength.

Well, he thinks: it does seem fitting, that strength. At least, given her name.

'I suppose I ought to take you back to your Estella. She must be worried, you having run off the way you did.'

And Diamond smiles once more. 'Yes, silly dear that she is – she'll have worried, and I think, she'll have thought it her own fault. And I shall take you back to your Merry, knowing that he seems the sort that might worry, as well.'

'You've pinned him very neatly,' Pippin says.

'Well, it's fitting. He is a Brandybuck – I know how they are all too fond of thinking, and worrying, too much! And for being so terribly stubborn, yet dear.'

'Let's go back to them, then, me to my Merry, and you to your Estella.'

But she doesn't let loose her hold on his hand. 'Yes,' Diamond says. 'Lets.'