They had long finished their food and even the wine, and Freddie had left them to return to the table to continue his interrogation of the good natured Gilderoy, when Fiona finally decided to ask Peregrine what did he mean when he had asked Freddie about his thoughts of becoming a vegetarian. She simply found it a too strange thing to say to a child to let it go, especially coming from someone like Peregrine, who looked nothing like a vegetarian himself. He puzzled her.

"Why don't you eat meat?" she muttered, not wanting anyone else to overhear their conversation, sensing something personal behind such a decision, wishing to keep it to herself should he decide to confide in her.

But, to her dismay, even as he opened his mouth to reply, her mother's voice obliterated his words.

"Goodness, it's late! And Freddie has school tomorrow, the last three days before the summer holiday starts, correct, young man?" The woman stood up and started to collect the plates as she continued, "Off you go Freddie, take a shower first, then anyone else can go. Fiona and I will get the dishes."

Freddie sighed, leaving his next question to Gilderoy hang in the air between them only pronounced halfway but ran off obediently. Fiona sighed too before she pulled herself to her feet, accepting the help of the dragon shifter who sprung up from the floor much faster than her.

"Shouldn't you shower and go to bed too?" he asked, half-frowning at her mum's back. "You must be tired. We can help her..."

"No way, you are our guests." She smiled when he turned to her. "I'm simply... used to being tired. It's nothing. And I'm off tomorrow anyway, my first day off in... three weeks," she said.

"That doesn't sound healthy," he announced, his eyebrows raised in a genuine surprise. "A holiday in Silmarea would do you good."

She laughed, then pushed him towards the door, out of the kitchen after his two friends, playfully. "Get ready for bed yourself, I've got this."

"The young elf is so charming, don't you think? Your father has a good eye, picking him as your suitor was an excellent idea..." her mother's words scattered the smile that lingered on her lips as she watched Peregrine's retreating figure from the sink filled with warm, soapy water.

Botheration... Did Gilderoy really have to tell her that? He did, Fiona could almost picture him laughing to himself as he had said that, surprising Leodhais, who, in love with Peregrine's sister as he was, would never tell her mother about it himself... Men! There was a fragment of Peter Pan in each of them; they never grew up entirely...

She inhaled deeply, collecting her thoughts before she replied to her mother as she passed her the washed dishes to dry and put away. "My... father had no right to oblige him to court me. I freed him from that silly duty. I don't even like him at all," Fiona said, not realising that her words reached the three men in the sitting room easily, sending Gilderoy into a fit of giggles moments before Leodhais, his ego bruised even though he didn't like Fiona more than she liked him, hurled a pillow at him, while Peregrine strained his ears to hear the mother and daughter conversation above the noise they were making.

Freddie, gathering the situation with surprising speed on his way towards the bathroom, made it impossible, at least he thought so, by shutting the kitchen door as he passed by. Peregrine smiled at the boy, praising him for the protectivenes of his mother before he vanished in the bathroom. 

Peregrine focused on the womens' conversation again, the closed door or the wall it was set in, creating no obstacle to his dragon hearing.

"I never understood your tastes," the older woman scoffed. "He's a stunning young man..."

"... whose ego is waaay bigger than his long ears," Fiona replied. 

Peregrine laughed, making the other two look at him. Feigning innocence as he rummaged through his bag-- he was running out of clean clothes-- his ears tuned to Fiona's voice again. 

"No, thank you, mum," she continued. "I'm no beauty; he would get bored of me too soon. And he's in love with someone else anyway."

"That's too bad, then. In any case, we'll go see Alaric with them, you never know what may happen on the way, he might just fall for you..."

Fiona had never found her mother so exasperating. She had never liked Lagon, and she didn't spare her daughter her opinion about her mistake for years after he left, but she had never tried to set Fiona up with anyone like with this elf.

"Why don't you just go with them yourself?" Fiona asked through gritted teeth as she passed the last washed glass to her mother, regretting her words the moment they left her mouth.

Her eyes were filled with sadness as she replied, "Because he didn't come looking for me, did he? He wants you. I just thought... I would come along as I can't see myself staying in this world alone, I thought you would want me to come with you and Freddie..."

Fiona pulled her in an embrace. "Of course I would want you to come along if I wanted to go. But I don't. I'm not going anywhere. My and Freddie's place is here, not in some fantastical land which I'm still not convinced really exists. Good night, mum." 

She let go of the woman who was now wiping her tears with her sleeve even as she opened her mouth to argue with renewed force, exited the kitchen and marched across the sitting room, avoiding to look at anyone there, then entered her bedroom. Freddie was already in bed, reading, while Gollum snored softly, curled around his slippers. 

So it was one of her visitors who had the water running in the bathroom. She couldn't wait for her turn to shower. Even though she didn't want to admit it to Peregrine, she felt exhausted. She laid down next to the boy to wait until the bathroom was free. 

"It's late, Freddie. You should be sleeping, not reading now. You have school tomorrow."

"I'll just finish the chapter, Mum."

"But you've already read all the Harry Potter books at least once, you know how the chapter ends..." she protested half-heartedly, closing her eyes.

"And so have you, and you still keep them all on your bedside table," he said, making her smile. "Have you ever realised how many parallels there are between these books, and The Lord of the Rings?"

She nodded, his voice fading away before she could reply.

The next thing she heard was Freddie's voice saying something entirely unrelated to what they had been discussing before. 

"She always falls asleep with her glasses on and a book in her hand," the boy said, chuckling, and her eyes fluttered open to find Peregrine standing in the doorway. 

His damp hair was ruffled after he dried it with a towel and he had a clean black shirt on, the laces on his broad chest undone, revealing the expanse of muscles beneath, setting her cheeks ablaze... Botheration! Why did he have to look so good?!

"I just came to tell you that everyone is in bed and the bathroom is free," he spoke to her when he noticed that she was awake. "Good night, Master Frodo," he added with a wink at Freddie before he vanished again behind the door.

That was... embarrassing.  Did he have to see her sleeping? There was something... so private about sleep, at least for her... It required trust to sleep next to someone, as it rendered people exposed and vulnerable, defenseless... Fiona shook her head and forced herself off the bed. Even though she craved to simply crawl under the blankets, she really needed a shower after the day spent in the hospital.

"I expect to find you asleep when I return. Really, Freddie, it's too late," she told the boy before she exited the bedroom, her night dress and dressing gown wrapped around her arm.

"Good night, Mum," he said in acknowledgement of her words. 

She walked around the bed to kiss him on the cheek before she patted Gollum on his large head as he demanded her attention by stretching one long paw towards her when she passed by him again on her way to the door.

Like before, she avoided looking at any of the men camped in the sitting room on her way to the bathroom, but she couldn't not see Peregrine on her way back-- while his companions were sleeping soundly around him, the dragon shifter was reading by the light of a small torch Freddie must have lent him.

Her lips quivered into a smile before she whispered to him as she passed by, "Just like Freddie, you should sleep instead of reading now. It's late."

"Okay, Mum," he replied, making her giggle, the torch vanishing under his pillow until she closed the door to her room.