Fic Rec Fridays 2020 - part 49

Ghosts That We Knew (10186 words) by objectlesson
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Frodo Baggins/Sam Gamgee
Additional Tags: Angst, Trauma, War, Healing, Fix-It, Tenderness, Pining, Slow Burn, Romance, Cottagecore, Farmcore, Hopeful Ending, Vignettes

Summary:

It’s a stupid, selfish thing to do, to wonder if your own cowardice brought about the end of the world when you are nothing but a small hobbit too frail to contain a vast love, but still. Sam wonders if things could have turned out differently, if only he’d said all he wanted to say that night.

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Now, I came to this story with the promise of “soft rural gays”. But don’t be fooled. You’ll get there in the end, but not before having to contend with an entire sackful of Feels with a capital F, all bundled up in the most beautiful prose I’ve had the pleasure to read in a long time, but sneaky, like six goblins in a flowery trenchcoat.

And like any decent goblins, the Feels want to punch you into your metaphorical emotional gut. Repeatedly. With gusto.

Because all the deep, unassuming yearning translates into such achingly careful intimacy and infinite tenderness that it almost entirely offsets the thread of darkness that runs throughout the story, the nightmare moments of soul-breaking doubt and pain and grief. Almost, I say, but it is more than enough.

For, to quote Sam’s wisdom: it’s always, always worth it to stick out the brambles in favor of the blossoms at the end. And here, blossoms mean no magic fix-all, but a rightfully earned measure of happiness, no less and no more, as it should be.

TL:DNR: written like a love-poem, will give you all the feels and run over your heart with a bulldozer, but in a good way.