Arwen stared at her reflection in the shattered glass mirror, her thoughts drifting tirelessly back to Rivendell, back to the place where she had learned how to love. She put a slender hand through her dark hair and sighed, before bending down and picking up the various shards of objects that littered her beautiful bedroom. She had learnt to love in Rivendell, and now, inside the high walls of Minas Tirith... she was learning how to fall out of love, and learning, slowly but surely, that her father had been right; Gondor was no place for an elven princess.
"Arwen..."
She turned her pale face up to him, the tears which she wasn't even aware she was shedding fell down her cheeks. She sighed. "My Lord."
Formality was all she shared with Aragorn now, there was no tenderness, there was no love. She was a servant in her own household, and in her own bed, and she had lost the stubbornness which had made him love her. She had lost her fire, her hope, she had misplaced all her emotions the night that her father sailed to the Grey Havens.
Aragorn gazed at his wife, his lover, his queen and a bitter taste came to his mouth. He glanced over her head and out of the window, to a place where he was free of his title, free of his duties, free of everything, even his name if he bid it. She tried to make eye contact, grasping, groping, hanging on to the last bit of tenderness that she felt for him, for she knew that he was hurting, hurting so much, missing the outdoors so much and his friends, the little hobbits, especially Frodo.
At first she had hated that she couldn't even comfort him. He'd snap, shout at her, her words had seemed to irritate him. He'd tell her that she knew nothing of what had happened, and she had bowed her head, knowing he was right, but she had still hated that she couldn't make him smile. Now she didn't even try, it was useless, King Elessar wasn't the man she had fallen in love with, he was so cold, so empty, Aragorn's soul had died on the quest, and she resented everyone for that; because of the weakness of man, she had lost the love for hers.
A servant shouted outside, and both the King and the Queen of Gondor heaved a sigh of relief as the awkward, troubled silence passed and Aragorn, after casting a long, fleeting glance at Arwen, left the room, left her to her clearing up, left her to her tears.
And they came to her without fail, the realisation sinking in, the final tiny, unbroken shards of her heart breaking into thousands of pieces. They were never going to get it back.
-----
"Oh Eowyn."
The king glanced at his friend, noticing the tears falling down her pale cheeks as she looked at him square in the eyes for the first time in years. "I was scared to do that until now." She whispered, barely audibly. "I was scared to look into your eyes because I knew that if I did - no matter how I feel about Faramir - I would fall in love with you again." Aragorn looked at the floor, biting his lip, not knowing what to say and Eowyn smiled. "You've changed so much." She touched his cheek with her finger and he shivered involuntarily. "Since you came back..."-
"Thats what Arwen says."
Eowyn looked at her long slender fingers. "She's a good, strong woman Elessar."
"I've broken her heart. I know that now. I've pushed her and pushed her and now she's finally broken, she's a shadow of what she used to be." A single tear dropped down his cheek. "We've lost the butterflies Eowyn... will we ever get them back?"
"Faramir never gave me butterflies. He never needed to... He was just honest and open in a way that you will never be. If the only way you can love someone is by butterflies; then there's not much hope that they'll return, or that she'll stay...unless you do still love her," She put her arms around him. "and you don't."