By: Dana
Summary: One needn't always be alone.
Characters: Hally Bolger, Talenard North-took, and Peridot Bolger North-took
Pairings: Hally/Talen, Talen/Peridot
Rating: R/NC-17
Warnings: Slash and het and more slash (and suggested piles, from a distance), and sexual content, and remembered darkness
Author's Notes: Posted for my month long Birthdaypalooza, August 2007.
I started writing this story before I wrote about Isenbard, or before I wrote about Olivine, or even before I wrote about Peridot's perspective on some things. I needed to write all that so I could get to this point, and, well, here I am.
Refers to things that happened In a Sunless Year.
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.

SR 1428

'Hally Bolger?' Hally, who'd sat to the side of the room, looks up, then nods. A lad, dark-haired like a North-took, stands there, and now that Hally's nodded, he grins, and offers out his hand. 'Come dance with me, Master Bolger,' he says, and Hally regards the offered hand, and then the guileless face.

'I don't dance,' Hally says.

'We all dance,' the lads answers brightly. 'Come now, Master Bolger, dance with me – please?'

It's true, Hally doesn't dance – he never has. Still, there is something familiar in this unfamiliar face, and so he nods, then reaches for the offered hand, and is pulled to his feet. 'When I step all over you,' he warns, 'you'll see it's true I don't dance.'

The lad, who has a slight limp, and one that Hally hadn't before noticed, laughs, his eyes bright. 'I don't think your feet will do me much harm, Master Bolger.'

Three sets later, laughing, red-cheeked, Hally and the lad collapse, on one of the long benches set out to the north of the room. 'My name,' the lad says, sometime after that (though not very long), his cheeks ruddy, his eyes dark and bright, 'is Talenard North-took. Well met.' Hally, puffing, reaches for his hand once more. 'Well met, Master North-took,' he says, and Talenard's hands presses his, and Talenard's smile seems brighter, even as he shakes his head.

'Call me Talen,' he says, 'for you are a dear cousin of my Peridot's, and any dear cousin of my Peridot's is my own dear friend.'

'Peridot?' Hally recalls Peridot Bolger, after a long moment of thought: his third cousin twice over, on his father's side and on his mother's side as well, with black hair and bright eyes, and always with a smile. And Hally smiles, with that thought, and he presses Talen's hand once more. He finds this all rather ridiculous, but wonderful, somehow.

'Talen, then – well met, and at your service.'

'Oh, is that so?' Talen's eyes glimmer brightly, still, but darkly, and his cheeks are darker, in yet a different fashion. 'I saw you sitting all alone, and I thought to give you some company.' His smile fades, at the edges, and his eyes shadow. 'You looked so very sad, and I hardly know you, but for your name, and your relation to my Peridot – but I couldn't bear it, to see you alone.' His smile is softer now, his eyes as bright. 'Would you take it, then, my company and more, if it were offered? And offered free?'

Hally thinks, and nods, but then he shakes his head. 'But what of your Peridot?' Hally asks, for that is the first thing that comes to mind: not blind panic, or a faded, but suffocating, fear, for he sits now in the light of Talen's bright cheer. 'What would she say?'

'If I gave you some happiness,' Talen says, 'then she would be happy, too: but you could ask her yourself, if that is what you wish.'

Hally does not know what he wishes, and his cheeks heat: Talen strokes the back of his hand, and smiles merrily, a Took through and through. 'Give me your answer, please? And I will fetch Peridot, is that is your desire.'

Hally, though his tongue feels tangled, still somehow manages to speak. 'It only seems proper,' he says. 'If you think so highly of my desire, and of my wishes, then you will grant me this: and let Peridot give us bother her blessing.'

Talen grins, his fingers brushing back further, hesitating over Hally's wrist. 'Very well,' he says, his voice low and dark, and his grin bright and wide. 'Come with me, Hally Bolger, and we shall look for Peridot. I know my Peridot – once she finds us, she will give us her blessing.'

There is a part of Hally, of course, that falters, for he had thought Talen might back away: but there is another part of him, with a certain warm fluttering, that would like to know the feel of Talen's hand, not only the warm hesitation of his fingers, and that Talen's smile is broad and wide, and seems without end, and if he would want to take some cheer from his company, then he is only a hobbit, and hobbits can only so long go alone.

He thinks a while, and then he nods. 'Let's do that, then,' and Talen grins.

They rise, and cross the circle, and find Peridot in talk with the, Jacinda, newly married to Seragrand North-took. And Peridot is more lovely than the bride, thinks Hally, and Hally's cheeks heat, his hands feel clumsy, and Talen makes excuses, before he leads them both away. Peridot smiles, then wider, and kisses Talen's cheek, then Hally's. 'Of course you've my blessings,' she says, and Hally, looking in her eyes, wonders if she might have planned on giving more.

She had taken hold of Talen's hand, but holds Hally's, too. 'I told you so,' Talen says, and Peridot shines her smile brightly on him, her fingers warm at Hally's wrist.

'Do play nicely, you two!'

Talen kisses her cheek, softly, and then her mouth, and a rush of heat goes through Hally, to watch something so simple, so lovely. Then Talen smiles, as he draws away, and he brushes his fingers over Peridot's cheek.

'That's your promise, then,' Peridot says, eyes laughing. 'Go on, then!' Then, after a moment, her eyes glittering warm and wickedly, though still laughing, she says, 'Hally, dear, your mouth is hanging open!' And then she laughs with her mouth, too.

Hally shuts his mouth, grins wide, and then Talen's hand wraps warm about his wrist, and he hasn't felt so pleasant in a very long while. 'We'll be dancing,' Talen says, and he moves, and pulls Hally with him. Hally protests, again, saying he doesn't dance, but Talen only grins at him, with his laughing mouth, and he says, 'There's other ways to dance!'

There is, of course (it shouldn't be) a moment of hesitation, at the kiss. The music is playing, hobbits are dancing, and Talen and Hally will likely get run over, senseless as they are, standing in the center of the dancing circle. Hally's mouth aches to take it, and Talen's breath warms his lips, Talen's hands warm his wrists.

'I'll do no more,' he says, eyes cheery, bright, but deep and sincere. 'No more, if it's not what you want.'

But it is, Hally knows that know, and he has taken halting faunt-steps towards it, but now he wants to run. He kisses Talen, hard as he can, gripping at him, crushing mouth to mouth, for heat and sensation. And he laughs, and almost weeps, for it has simply been too long, since he felt he actually and truly wished to feel.

'Is there a place,' Hally breathes low, 'some place, that we might go?'

Talen's eyes are bright, shadowed for a moment, but then he smiles, and he brushes his lips over Hally's, softly, and Hally pushes his mouth against Talen's, hoping for a proper kiss. But Talen backs off, grinning, and he nods.

They won't be the only to go, so, from the reception, for many think it good luck to pair after a wedding. Talen leads Hally off, and Hally wants to run, but Talen takes his time. They kiss again, outside one room, where the corridor is long and dark, and Hally doesn't think they'll ever reach its end.

'How shall we do this?' Hally asks. 'I must say, I'm rather out of practice...' He looks a bit sad, for a moment, but Talen hopes to kiss that sorrow away. He takes Hally's hand, and kisses it, grinning up over his knuckles.

'Well, we'll take our time, and get to know each other. There's a good deal more of you worth kissing, other than your mouth.' Hally laughs, at that, but Talen suits words to action, kissing across Hally's knuckles, one by one. The kiss he presses to Hally's palm is firmer, and perhaps wetter: and the one he presses to the soft skin of Hally's inner wrist leaves a faint pink mark.

Hally's standing, and Talen moves closer. The bedroom is warm and half-lit, and the distant revelries are, well, distant. He pushes Hally's shirt up, kissing as he does, and Hally threads one arm about Talen's neck, holding himself up. I don't know you, Talen thinks, not well, anyhow, and not more than I have said. But I see the sorrow in your eyes, and know my Peridot has, too. My heart aches, to see such pain. And, if I might give some comfort, some love, and take that sorrow away...

He kisses his way back to Hally's mouth, and Hally moans softly, eyes falling shut. Talen grins against him, hands dealing with buttons. Hally shakes, and Talen hesitates, to make certain its impatience, and nothing more. And it is only impatience, for Hally wants his shirt off, wants Talen's hands on him, and Talen is happy to comply. Hally's mouth is sweet, but his neck is sweeter, and he moans again, as softly and as uncertainly, as he had that first.

'If I need stop,' Talen says, kissing his way down Hally's stomach. 'Tell me, alright?'

He feels Hally tense, but only to nod. He grins against Hally's bellybutton, tickles it with his tongue, and Hally laughs uproariously, grabbing for Talen's hair. There's a scar, some inches wide, down low on his belly, but faded with years. He kisses it, softly, and Hally tenses once more, tightening and then loosening his hold in Talen's hair.

'I think I need to sit,' he says, weakly, but wanting.

'Ah, a good idea,' Talen says. He licks, and kisses, and Hally shudders and laughs. 'Ah, I'm doing well, then? Do tell me if I need to stop.'

'Don't,' Hally says, collapsing on the bed, legs splaying wide. Talen looks up at him, then down, kisses through his trousers, and Hally gives a start. 'Just. Ah. Slow, please,' he says, and he worries his teeth together, so fiercely, that Talen can hear the grinding.

Slow. Slow, he can do. Handle with care, he can do. He touches Hally's thigh, with care that seems endless, and doesn't move on until he's felt Hally relax. 'Now,' he says, grinning up at him, Hally's cheeks dark, his hair tousled, 'I'm going to do something else... ah, else, with my mouth.'

He works the fastenings opening, using his mouth. Hally gives a slow wiggle, after that, shifting up so he isn't pressed to the bed – Talen pulls on Hally's trousers, slowly, bends his head and gives him a slow lick. 'Mercy!' Hally gasps, and the bed shakes when he throws his head back. 'Oh, stars.'

Then he doesn't say much else, not when Talen sucks on him full, and he's tense but breathing, and Talen pushes one hand up, for he guesses that Hally needs something to hold to. He's right, and Hally's hand presses his firmly, and he shuts his eyes and breathes Hally in.

Hally relaxes, all over – Talen has dealt with his own fastenings, has taken himself in hand. He finds a rhythm, between mouth and hand, and Hally cries out rather hoarsely, spills, and Talen quickens the pace of his hand, spilling not long after, pleasure rushing through him, makes him sees stars, leaves him winded. He drinks Hally full, reduces him to happy sounding whimpers, and little moans.

He climbs up, though not until he's finished, and he kisses Hally's thighs, down, down, down to his knees. He gives him a lick, and then licks his hand clean, and he stands, shrugging off his trousers. Hally blinks up at him, half-drowsy. 'You,' he says, as if he expects that one thing need expect another, but Talen shakes his head, nuzzles his head in the warmth of the crook of Hally's neck. 'Ah.' Hally rests, his heart beating and then slowing, his arms gone up, slow moving, about Talen, holding him close.

Then, some time later, when the room is warmer, darker, Talen kisses Hally's eyelids, one by one, his cheek, his nose, his brow, his mouth. No wonder his Peridot had been so agreeable – Hally is a hobbit worth loving, and one that needs it, too.

Hally's eyes have opened, and he's looking at him. Talen reaches up, touches tousled curls, and Hally's hands slide to the small of the back, give a small squeeze. 'I want you to tup me,' Talen says, smiling sweetly. 'Do you think you can?'

Hally's eyes go wide, but then he nods, after blinking, a long wandering moment caught in the shadow of his eyes. 'I think I can, yes.'

Talen makes a pleasant noise in reply, kisses Hally beyond need for breath, and them both breathless, afterwards. 'Ah, good. You're lovely, and solid, and I want to know how you feel.' He gives a teasing grin, and cradles one cheek. 'I already know how you taste.'

Hally takes a moment to respond, but his laugh is warm and his kiss is flame-hot. He rolls Talen over, sits up over him, runs his hands down his chest. Then, he sets to dealing with Talen's buttons, intently, one by one.

Talen folds his arms above his head, wants Hally to take his time – for Hally's sake, but for his own, for there are some things better drawn out long. He shivers and he moans a little, and Hally grins down at him. He hesitates, shirt undone, and Talen wiggles out of it, then sets his hands above his head once more. 'We can–' Talen starts, but Hally shakes his head.

'I was just looking at you,' Hally says, softly. 'Is there oil, or butter, or–' Talen pulls him down for a kiss, and Hally kisses him, with such thorough precision, that Talen himself is left feeling a bit melted. He nods to the bedside table, and Hally gives him another slow kiss, before springing off. 'I hope you don't mind... I mean.' Talen sits up, wraps arms about Hally, takes hold of the little crock with its lotion within. Then Hally laughs, and Talen grins, saying, 'Ah, this almost seems planned.'

'It wasn't, on my word... ah, here, use my hands.'

Talen holds it up, and Hally winds one arm about him. Hally nods, and Talen sits kneeling, his legs pressed against Hally's. Hally shuts his eyes, rests his head against his shoulder, and Talen reaches for him – he felt him, already, growing hard. Hally makes a needful noise, small but urgent, and Talen kisses his brow, fingers slick on his skin.

Then he sets the little crock aside, lies back, and pulls Hally with him. 'Kiss me,' he says, half-asking, and Hally does, shaking a little as he slides himself between sweat -warm legs. 'Ah, that's good. Now, take your time, you needn't rush...' And Hally doesn't, treats this as a first, and Talen can't help but arch and moan into it, fingers gripping slick at Hally's shoulders, and Hally sinking full in. He tries breathing, and finds he can, and he runs one hand down to the small of Hally's back, gives him a squeeze, cords the other through Hally's damp hair.

'Ah, beautiful, yes, ah,' he says, because it's all he can manage, and Hally grips him and pulls him up, and Talen lets loose a small cry, warmed and sweet. Hally presses his mouth to Talen's pulse, and doesn't thrust hard, moving slow and steady, instead. It's good that Talen likes it better drawn out long, for he peaks once but is then wrung again to release, before Hally has his second.

No wonder, afterwards, he's melted full and Hally's solid over him, and Talen knows a tumble is just a tumble but thinks this more than just that. 'Don't leave me,' he says, clinging to Hally, who gives a shuddering laugh. 'Oh, please.'

Hally doesn't, though he pulls away, and he pulls Talen up to him, close. Talen winds his arms about him, the strength almost gone from them, and he hasn't had such a... oh, stars, he's still seeing stars. All the exhaustion in him, and a pang in his leg, a remembered pain of a long ago break. He falls fast to sleep, and can't spare thought to even say thank you, Hally, or even good-night.

He hears a soft click, the sound of the door opening and then another soft click as its shut – he startles awake, fully, and wonders if he should feel such panic. He pushes up on one arm, for he can, now that Talen's slid away – oh, Talen, he thinks, rather hotly, but in a fully pleasant way. He almost finds himself guilty, to have found pleasure, but then he pushes those thoughts away, and looks at the hobbit standing at the door.

'Peridot,' he says. 'Cousin Peridot.' Realisation comes, suddenly. 'Ah. You're his Peridot. How long have you been wed?'

'Since the summer of 1423,' she says, with a smiling, coming closer. Her hair is dark, undone, her dress pretty and green. 'As soon as we had come of age, as soon as we were able. He asked me, though, in the winter of 1419, when...' She shakes her head, and she needn't go on. Hally understands. 'Well, by the time we married, we'd waited a long while.'

He nods again, then looks from Talen, to Peridot. 'I hadn't–'

'I don't think you've come to steal away my husband, Hally Bolger,' Peridot says, guessing at all the things he might have said. 'Or that he'd gone to you if he hadn't had my blessing on it, already – and he had. If he made you happy, then I am happy. If you made him happy, then I'd not mind hearing more!'

Her laugh is clear and high, and Talen stirs, mumbling her name. Then Hally finds himself laughing, too, and his tension falls away, replaced with a soft sort of warmth, mellow and flowing.

'I'm sorry. I...'

'Well, you needn't be,' Peridot says, sharply, but kindly.

'Though?' He feels there's something she wishes to ask.

'Well, I was wondering...'

'Wondering what?'

'I'd like to get in bed.'

'Oh – well, give me a moment, won't you...' He looks for his clothing, and doesn't think he'll reach it without showing off more of himself than he'd rather. Then Peridot laughs again, and when he looks at her, her smile is warm, almost glowing.

'I didn't mean for you to leave.'

Hally blushes. 'But I'm–'

'Naked? Yes, I rather thought you were.' Another pleasantly hot laugh. 'And warm, I'm guessing, wonderfully warm.' Now, her smile seems sweeter. 'My husband isn't the only one who's found themselves interested in your company, Hally Bolger, though I think he's found himself somewhat surprised. Some things, though, are rather meant to be – now, would you mind it, would you, if I joined you in bed?'

For a moment, Hally doesn't know what to think, nor what to say. But then he nods, for he does not mind it, not at all. Peridot smiles, comes to the bedside, puts her hands on the laces up the front of her bodice. She looks at him, and he nods, mouth fallen open, starting to dry.

She unlaces herself carefully, slowly (ah, all with such slow care), and then she drapes her bodice and dress over one tall chair, deals with her underthings, and looks at him, dark hair tumbling, wearing nothing more than skin. 'Your mouth,' she says, grinning, and she turns, presenting her backside to him – and he laughs, as Talen mumbles something else, and Peridot then pulls on her nightdress, mussing her hair as she does.

Then, dressed, she crawls into bed, and settles on Hally's left, the full length of the bed away from Talen – and Hally has pulled the covers back, at least far enough to let her in. She settles herself down, and Hally does as well, and then they find themselves face to face, Peridot's black curls half-obscuring the half of her face that he can see.

'Good-night, Hally Bolger,' she says, smiling.

And he smiles back, already thinking after sleep. He says, 'Good-night, cousin Peridot.'

She smiles, then shuts her eyes, and drifts off to sleep. Against his back, Talen curls against him, breath warm against the nape of his neck. Hally tenses, then lets out his breath, hears the soft sounding of Talen's breath, of Peridot's, too. Ah, but this is a turn of events, and one he hadn't expected. Talen won't be the only one surprised, then.

Hally wills himself to silence, and falls into sleep.

Peridot wakes, startled, to a cry in the night. She thinks, and thinks harder, and winds her arms about Hally, immediately, without sparing another thought. 'Shh, shh,' she soothes, as he sobs, hands clutching at her, holding on tight. He'll leave bruises, she thinks, and his tears fall hot, wet, against her shoulder, his head bent, his body shaking.

Talen looks at her, blinking through the last of sleep, and he stands, moving to the fire, kneeling to deal with it, setting the iron poker to red-gold embers, setting sparks to dance. He swings the little iron pole put, and the tea pot is whistling, soon enough. Hally is holding to her, still, but he isn't sobbing, instead saying, 'please, please, stop it, please,' and Peridot's heart breaks, and her doing nothing more than holding him in her arms.

The tea has everything in it that her North-took gammer (a Headstrong before she wed) always said would help you sleep. Talen sits, his dressing robe pulled on, steadying the cup. Peridot soothes one hand through Hally's hair, whispering soft nonsense against his ear. He looks up, eyes blank and wet, mouth trembling. She smiles, and kisses his brow, and says, 'that darkness has passed, Hally Bolger,' and his mouth tightens to a hard, thin line.

'Come now,' Talen says, at his back. 'We've tea. We've our own difficulties with getting back to sleep. Please, won't you have a drink?'

Hally shakes, stares blankly, then nods, as if he has come partway back to himself. He reaches for the cup, but doesn't hold it with much care, so Talen leans against him and steadies his hand and Hally slowly sips from the cup. All of it down, Peridot humming as he drinks, and Hally leans back against Talen, his hold finally loosening... his eyes shut, his brow smoothes over, and Peridot looks at Talen, over the slump of Hally's shoulder.

She doesn't want to let him go. Talen takes the cup, kisses Peridot's cheek when he does, and he comes back to bed, but doesn't say a thing. Peridot is holding Hally, and Talen is holding him, too. She thinks of happiness, of chances lost and found, and she thinks they have found something worth holding, worth loving, in Hally Bolger, for he does so need love.

He remembers blank terror, but golden warmth. He tells Talen and Peridot, both, that he will visit them in Long Cleeve, next time his feet have carried him back to the Northfarthing. 'Good,' Peridot says. 'We will have you.'

'What my Peridot means to say,' Talen laughs. 'Is that we'll keep you, if you'll allow.'

Peridot clucks her tongue, and Talen grins, then kisses her cheek. Hally feels rather swept up off his feet, and he shakes his head, then nods, then laughs. 'I'll visit you,' he says, and thinks of Tol, at last, of the happiness that they might have had, together. 'That will be our start.'

'Good,' Peridot says, and her eyes spark, and Hally knows she means in. She kisses his cheek, and then, again, his mouth, though softly. Hally thinks again, of Tol, and happiness, and for a moment is too guilty to even breathe. He has been finding his way along, on to happiness – again, he wonders, would Tol want it, his happiness? And what had cousin Freddy said, that day in Budgeford? Hally needn't walk alone.

He kisses Peridot, and Talen, both, and says he has a better idea, if they'll allow it: that he needn't go. 'I can stay,' he says, and he means it.

Talen and Peridot both smile, and they will have him, of course they will, and they make it a promise, and they both seal it with a kiss.