Title: School of Life
Fandom: Lord of the Rings RPF
Rating: G (gen)
Length: 200 words
Content notes: Sean Astin and Elijah Wood non-slash RPF.
Author notes: Inspired by Sean mentioning he'd brought a ton of books with him to NZ at the start of filming LOTR. I may have misremembered the exact number but it was thirty-some odd.
Summary: Sean discovers not everything can be learned from books.




Sean brought precisely thirty-seven books with him to New Zealand, intending to make the most of what spare time he had. Education was vitally important to him; it hadn't ended with his college diploma.

But his self-improvement plan didn't work out the way he imagined. Early on, during breaks on set, he opened those numerous histories and biographies, with every intention of reading them, only to find his gaze straying from the page to his youthful costar.

At the tender age of eighteen, Elijah had traveled alone halfway around the world to undertake a task nearly as arduous as that of the character he'd been hired to play. The weight of fan and industry expectation rested squarely on his slender shoulders, a weight that might have crushed a lesser person. Yet Elijah handled the pressure with grace, professionalism and maturity beyond his years. Even more, he embraced the experience with exuberance and none of the self-doubt and worry that plagued Sean. He could learn a lot from watching Elijah, Sean realized, and set aside his books.

He might have ten years and a college degree on his costar, but in the school of life, Elijah was teaching the master class.