"Warg face!"

"Goldilocks!"

Legolas raised an eyebrow. "Is that really the best you've got? You fish breathed, squash nosed, lump of troll blubber!"

Aragorn sighed heavily and buried his face in his hands. The elf and dwarf had been going on like this for almost an hour now, with no sign of stopping. He rubbed his temples, trying to ease the headache that had plagued him all day.

"Mister Strider?"

Aragorn looked up. Sam stood before him, a steaming mug in his hands.

"I made you some tea, you look like you need it."

Aragorn smiled wearily at the young hobbit and took the cup. Taking a sip he caught a whiff of willow bark and mint. He hummed happily as warmth spread though him.

"Thank you Sam."

Sam smiled and sat down beside the man, watching the rest of companions.

"Twig legs!"

"At least I don't have a face like a cat's hair ball, or worse. You've probably only survived this long because your enemies drop dead with one look at you!"

Aragorn sighed again and started to get to his feet, setting his nearly full cup down.

"I should stop them before it gets worse."

Sam jumped up and placed his hands on Aragorn's shoulders and pushed him back down into a sitting position.

"Oh no you don't mister Strider, you sit right down and finish that tea, every drop mind."

Aragorn started to protest, but stopped as Sam placed the mug in his hands. Once the hobbit was satisfied that the man was drinking his tea, he marched over to where Legolas and Gimli were almost nose to nose.

"That is enough!" Sam said, firmly planting himself between the two. "You should be ashamed of yourselves! Both of you, acting like a couple of five year olds! Mister Strider has a headache and I dare say, the rest of us are not far from one either! Now be quiet and no more of this nonsense! And if I hear one more peep of this kind of behavior today, you'll both feel the bite of my frying pan!"

Aragorn watched with a mixture of surprise and amusement as Legolas and Gimli backed away from each other, Legolas walked into the trees, casting Aragorn an apologetic look. Gimli just grumbled and sat down under a tree and pulled out his pipe. Sam went back to the fire and started making soup, a look of satisfaction on his face. A look around showed the mixed reactions of the others. Gandalf was silently laughing, Merry and Pippin were both grinning from ear to ear, Boromire looked as if he didn't know what to feel, and Frodo was smiling, a look of contentment on his face. Aragorn sat back with a grin and finished his tea, feeling his headache disappear finally.

Later, Frodo told Aragorn that Gimli had called Legolas a pointy eared stick insect, and, for his trouble, the dwarf had received a hard thwack on the head with a certain hobbit's particular cooking tool.