Jack of Clubs (BxB)

14: Who Has Not Seen The Nightfall

"This is my room." He said as he opened the door and we stepped inside.

Sam was clearly nervous to show me what was occupying it, and I understood why. His room was very decorated. It was like looking at Sam from all angles. However, it wasn't necessarily the Sam I thought I always knew.

There were fantasy posters of all kinds placed along the walls, a big cork board full of photos and various papers from who knew what, and large words painted above his bed in black.

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

As many questions as I had about that, I was still too busy studying everything to ask.

His desk was mostly clean with only a few homework assignments out of place in the middle of it. That, accompanied with his made-but-still-slightly-messy bed, confirmed it for me. Sam cleaned his room but then went back through it to make it look more casual. Just like how he did his hair.

Finally, he had three doors branching off. One was a double sliding door that must have been a massive walk-in closet, while the other I guessed to be a bathroom. Both were shut tightly, and I tried to ignore the irony of the former.

"So..." Sam mumbled from beside me, watching me closely as he nervously bit his lip. A habit like that was going to get him in trouble one day, because sometimes it looked a little too suggestive.

"What does that mean?" I walked to the wall with the phrase painted on it, tilting my head as I reread it a few more times.

"It's a quote from J.R.R Tolkien." Sam answered, standing beside me.

"Who's that?" I felt a bit stupid.

"The one who wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings." He explained, and I nodded in realization. "I told you I was an absolute nerd."

"I've always known that you were a nerd, I just didn't know that it applied to your movie and literature taste."

"You knew I was a nerd?" He was dumbfounded.

Not wanting to look at him for fear of Sam noticing my embarrassment, I laughed and kept my gaze fixated on the wall. "We've shared a lot of classes over the years."

I could tell that Sam was smiling like a child. "I'm so happy to know that you paid attention to me too."

"Yeah, yeah." I cleared my throat. "Anyway, why that quote?"

As though remembering where the conversation started, Sam lit up. "I've just always loved that conversation between Gimli and Elrond. I think that it's indicative of how I need to keep myself in check sometimes."

"It must not be working with the shit you're in."

"Ridicule me for that all you want, but I'm in the shit now and there's nothing I can do about that." He said. "If I'm faithless now then it could cost you or one of my friends their life. I will not say farewell to this road until I know everyone is safe."

Finally I looked at him and saw the certainty in his eyes. He meant every word he said, and it scared me. Sam did everything in his power to save those he loved, but what about himself? He always struck me as the self-centered type, but I was learning that I couldn't have been more wrong. All Sam cared about was doing whatever he needed to get us through to the other side. That was selfless, and it left me with a deep sinking feeling in my gut.

"But I'm not entirely stupid, either." Sam suddenly added, walking to his bedside table and lifting a picture frame. Once I was close enough to read the words trapped inside, I sighed.

Maybe, but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.

"And yet you've already vowed." I frowned.