By: Dana
Summary: Amethyst and Aster meet again, after many long years.
Characters: Aster Took, Amethyst Took (both OFCs)
Pairings: Amethyst/Aster (also, Aster/Hilderic, Amethyst/OMC)
Rating: PG
Warnings: Femslash, some light angst
Author's Notes: Written for a not-meme ficlet, then edited and reposted.
Aster and Amethyst were both first featured in 'Where Hearts Shall Rest' (Aster the pov character, and Amethyst in chapter two).
Also, there is a cameo (that likely would not be noticed, if I did not mention it here): Aster Bolger (formerly Tunnelly) and her only son, Halivacar (now thirteen years old).
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.

Aster Took does not often come to Great Smials, for once she had settled her heart, and put her Hilderic to rest, she found herself a wanderer, and travelled the Shire full over, from one side to the other, and then over again.

She thinks of her Hilderic, still, and she will love him until she dies (except for the days where she hates him, for having left her) (most especially those days where she begs his forgiveness, for having ever thought that she had gone astray): but it is Lithe, and she has not spent the Lithe-day celebrations at Great Smials in far too long.

A lad of perhaps thirteen-summers walks by with his mother on his arm; she seems to be in her prime, her dark hair done up, her eyes bright as leaves. And she smiles, and looks upon her son as any doting mother might. Aster, for a moment, resents her that happiness, for she had not ever known it, herself. But those are old bones in her wardrobe, and for all she has had ill thoughts, they are not all so easily cast away.

What she needs is to look for some merriness, and so, once she has done her Tookish duty, has greeted the Thain and his Lady, she goes out to the dancing field, and casts her sights afar.

She dances through four sets, and then rests for two: a hand reaches for hers, as the music starts up, and Aster reaches for that hand without knowing who it is. The face that greets hers is a familiar one, if an aching heart can be a familiar face, and Ammy, who took more than kisses, but never gave Aster her kiss: Amethyst Took (they might share a name, but Aster assumes that is the length of their connection – one day, sometime later, Aster will learn her Hilderic and Amethyst were rather distant cousins, themselves), who Aster has not seen in far more than a dozen years, dances her in circles, all but sweeps her off her feet.

'Did you ever find your lad?' Aster asks her, afterwards, sitting in cool shade, sipping cool drinks, sweat on her brow, her heart still a flutter: Ammy looks at her, half-startled, but then nods, hesitates, and shakes her head instead. She looks well, though with old sadness in her eyes.

'I did, but he came back changed. I told him I would love him, no matter what, but he would not let me love him. I spent a half-dozen years chasing after him, thinking I might somehow change him, and let him see that my love might fix him. My heart saw it, one day, that he had gone beyond its reaching: but it took me years more to realise that, myself.' She hesitates, sips, then reaches for Aster's hand. 'And what of you, Miss Took? Did your Hilderic come home?'

'No,' Aster says, and tears don't prickle in her eyes, and her heart only gives a small squeeze. 'No, he never did. I love him still, of course, as I don't think there will ever be another lad for me. Not ever.'

'Oh, Aster,' Ammy says, frees her hands, then offers Aster her embrace. Nothing half-hearted, but Ammy's open embrace, and Aster lets herself fall into it, and feels younger for having done as such. She breathes in the lavender scent of in Ammy's hair, turns her face into it, breathes in fully: and she breaks off, falls back, looks into Ammy's dark-green eyes.

'I'd rather like my kiss now,' she says, thinking the moment right. 'I've been waiting all these years.'

And Ammy kisses her, as right as anything, and if anymore were to come of it, when the summer sun is shining bright, then Aster will embrace all of that, as well.