Amrothos cantered alongside his brother Erchirion, behind the rest of the party heading to Osgiliath at dusk. The mounted party was scheduled to arrive at the riverport in time to greet his sister Lothiriel as she disembarked the ferry from Dol Amroth. Although it would be dark when they arrived, they planned to return by torchlight. Osgiliath housed nothing but the port and barracks for a guard squadron. Between the Nazgul and continuous waves of orc attacks, the vast majority of the once proud stone city was leveled. But until the Swan Knights and Rangers could exterminate the still frequent bands of starving orcs, skilled labor was unwilling to move into the city to rebuild.

The greeting party also included their father Prince Imrahil, their eldest brother Elphir, four guards, and Eomer King and his second-in-command Eothain. Amrothos could not quite tally how many would be in the return party. In addition to Lothiriel and her maid Kelen, there was his Aunt Ivriniel and Uncle Belecthor, but they had only brought three horses. He was pretty sure Kelen could ride, but maybe she was no longer Lothiriel's maid – the recent corsair raids on Dol Amroth could have shifted around any number of household positions. Or maybe there were horses at Osgiliath, although he had not heard any rumors to that effect.

The young prince also was not entirely sure why Eomer was coming with them out to the ferry. He and Lothiriel had flirted with each other before, but that had been a long time ago. Perhaps Eomer had ordered some of their fine Dol Amrothian silks for the upcoming coronation, Gondor's first in longer than living history. When he had speculated as much to Erchirion, his brother had simply rolled his eyes and continued to silently ignore him.

The greeting party arrived at the torch-lit dock in full night while the ferry was still being rowed into docking position. He could see Lothiriel's tall, slender form leaning eagerly over the rail. Her cloak's hood was thrown back; her long straight black hair was a secondary cape framing her face and flowing across her shoulders. Stout Aunt Ivriniel and tall, stooped Uncle Belecthor stood beside her, hoods up in protection against the cool, misty breeze off the river.

Once the ship was locked in place, the youngest Dol Amroth prince was a little surprised when it was Eomer who strode up the wide gang plank to escort Lothiriel down to the dock. He took her right hand in his left without ceremony and led her down to greet Prince Imrahil. They stepped onto the dock without incident, although there was a moment at the top of the slope when Amrothos was sure they would come to grief, since neither would take their eyes from each other.

Lothiriel embraced their father sedately and then Elphir and Erchirion in turn, before fondly opening her arms to her favorite brother. Amrothos laughed exuberantly, picked her up in a bear hug, and proceeded to twirl her around. Halfway through the twirl, he was shocked to hear a panicked cry from Eomer when her hand tore from his. Amrothos had not noticed that they were still holding hands.

A second later he received an elbow to the throat as his sister fought out of his arms to get to the terrified and hyperventilating blond warrior. Elphir and Erchirion helped her, one dragging Amrothos back by the arms, the other steadying Lothiriel as she fell towards Eomer with arms outstretched. Grasping his face, she pulled him down to her chanting, "I'm here, min heorte. I'm here. Sh-sh-sh."

Once Erchirion was sure that Lothiriel would come to no harm in Eomer's arms, he stalked back to where Elphir had slung an arm about Amrothos' shoulders to keep him anchored. On the other side of Elphir, Amrothos could see his father's concerned face, although the arms crossed over his chest and his stance indicated smug satisfaction.

"You're an idiot, Ro! Didn't you hear Elph tell you not to get between Eomer and Thiri?"

"I didn't think he meant it literally, Chiri."

"Are you kidding me? Seriously literal. He's been cracking for weeks. Ever since we got back from the Black Gates and he had to start doing administrative stuff."

"Then why the hell are we letting her anywhere near him?"

"By the Valar, you really don't notice anything do you, Ro? Every time he has a minute, he pulls out a stack of her letters and looks at them. If it wasn't sweet of him to love Thiri that much, it would be pathetic. In fact, some of those letters are pathetic, they are so tattered and faded. But to him they're gold - you should have seen how protective he was when the maid almost spilled tea on them at breakfast the other day."

Elphir chimed in with his deep slow voice that was so effective in swaying obstreperous merchants and vassals. "And it isn't that he's going to hurt her. He just hates paperwork, so when he had to do it, everything – the battles, the deaths, the money worries, Eowyn – just got to be too much. I've been trying to help, but there's only so much he can let me do. But Thiri is brilliant at it – she'll sort him out and he can go back to the active leadership he is more comfortable with."

"Uh, why would he let Thiri do something he wouldn't let you do?"

They both shot him disbelieving looks. Erchirion finally took pity. "Ro, you can't be serious! They've been engaged ever since our last visit to Rohan. Heck, by Rohirric standards, they're already married."

"But that was five years ago!"

"Right! Now do you see why Eomer came? And why we didn't bring a horse for Thiri? There was no way he was going to let her get so far from him."

Amrothos looked at his sister and friend. They were now locked in each other's arms, black and blond tresses mingled, and showing no signs of moving. Despite his aunt's half-hearted fond clucking, he doubted they were going to start the long ride back to Minas Tirith anytime soon.

A/N: Somehow this fic just came tumbling out at the end of the day. A little over the top, but I love me some strong powerful male who is emotionally dependent on the "weaker sex." It is Amrothos-as-hero in a later scene of my not-yet-published "Eomer+Lothiriel from childhood" saga. In this world, it's not that I think Amrothos is stupid, he is just young and heedless in comparison to his siblings. And to be fair, Imrahil didn't know about the engagement/marriage either until Eomer told him.

Thanks to Glory Bee for the helpful comments!