A/N: Hi, there! This time 64 chanllenges inspired completaly by the fic Nothing's set in stone by DC-BA, go and read it, it's probably the best piece of writing about Legolas and Eowyn. About the pairing itself, I realise it's quite controversial topic, and I wasn't exactly shipping them until I found some fics about them. Mostly I wrote this because I'm in love with Legolas, he's my favourite character and I wanted to explore the possibilities here.
Three very important things: A) English is not my first language and I am sorry for all mistakes, B) I have never read the books (not yet at least) so my knowledge and imagination base only on Jackson's fantastic movies and C) although I haven't read the trilogy itself I did read about the world Tolkien created, so some things which don't go according to his world and may seem to be mistakes are used here on purpose.
The prompts are in the exact same order as DC-BA's, but I changed a little the challenge, and not every one of them is one sentenced, there are drabbles as well.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Tolkien does.
2 a.m.
It was two o'clock in the night, when she breathed out his name one last time and her life slipped out of her body; his soul shattering at that very hour every night since then, even though she passed hundreds of years ago.
Metaphor
"If thou hearest the cry of gull on the shore, thy heart shall then rest in the forest no more."
Galadriel's words echoed in his head, but as he looked at the white-skinned delicate form laying soundly in his arms, he knew that he will never hear the white gulls' call for his destiny was to fade and follow her when she is taken from him.
Sky
"Soon the golden beaming sun shall rise, in great despair in front of thy eyes. And grey skies will fall upon thy face, you shall then find your final solace."
Lady Galadriel has spoken in his head during their time in Lothlorien and the words sank into his mind. Though he doesn't understand them, they echo in his ears all the time.
They arrive to Rohan and he doesn't expect anything except rescuing the king and seeking help, and is wrong. When she bursts into the hall, great distress on her face and the golden sun-like hair thrown all over her, he can feel his heart skipping a beat. But later when she introduces herself and her shinning grey eyes fall upon his face, he's not sure he will be able to breathe ever again, without them sweeping over his features.
Degrees
He can't name the degrees of joy that pass through him, when after he returns from the meeting with Aragorn in Gondor and takes her in his arms, he can feel not only one, but two hearts beating strongly inside of her body.
Opposite
Eomer does not approve, that much is clear from the beginning.
He does not approve when he sees for the first time as she throws herself into his elven arms and holds him tightly after the battle (but her eyes are only for him, so she doesn't notice the storm in her brother's eyes).
He does not approve when she announces her desire to marry him (but she fights him off with the strength of an army anyway).
He does not approve when he leads her down the aisle to him and gives her away (but she would have run to the altar with or without him by her side.)
But when years later little boy, being the spitting image of his father, runs to him with his mother's beautiful shinning eyes, he thinks it's good that she never ever listens to him.
Passion runs
When they're finally alone, it's all about hands and legs and ripping clothes; his breath on her neck, while he whispers his love to her and her moans in the air, when she gasps his name over and over again, until she can't seem to remember any other words.
Seize the day
She is bitterly and painfully aware that her life is nothing more but a blink, a flutter of his eyelids in the terrifying face of immortality, but after their first night together she swears she will not waste a single second with him.
Connection
The moment his eyes lay upon her figure and the moment she meets his gaze, he can feel it from the bottom of his soul – the very core of his being clenching around her, his world narrowing only to her, connection so strong it forces all air out of his lungs.
But it shouldn't have been possible, it should've never been able to happen, not with mortals.
And she is mortal. Or is she?
Lull and storm
When the army is leaving to face the fury of Mordor, she catches him in the crowd, leads him aside and presses her lips to his, making him deaf to the heavy sounds of soldiers boots, but then he hears Aragorn calling him; the moment of peace gone, the storm still approaching.
Children
All humans, no matter their age and the fact that he respected them, were only children in his eyes; young and inexperienced, knowing so little about the world they lived in.
When Eowyn gave birth to their son and he was holding him for the first time, the meaning of the word changed drastically.
Animal
When he first met her she was like a wild bird in the cage, beautiful but sad beyond every measure and he knew instantly that he would do anything to set her free.
We all float on
He whispers the words, takes her hand and leads her onto the silver ship. The sun is setting before them as they leave Grey Havens for their journey into the west, slowly blending with the horizon.
She leans against his chest, overwhelmed by the view and he kisses her temple tenderly.
The passage has been granted.
Chess
She loves playing chess with him, although she knows he can beat her easily in every single game. But she takes the challenge every time and when just a moment separates her from losing ignominiously, she slowly tucks the golden strands of her hair behind an ear and lets her fingers slide down along her neck to the material of her gown between her breasts. Then she looks at him through thick eyelashes and lightly bites her lower lip, pretending to be considering the next move.
And she knows the game was won long ago for his lips and arms are already all over her.
Duty
It was the duty of the Shieldmaiden of Rohan to unite two kingdoms by marriage and love mattered little here. Her broken, shattered to pieces heart was not the case to consider.
When she first saw Faramir, she shut her eyes and desperately tried to imagine silver blond hair, pointy ears and deep blue orbs, but when she raised her eyelids, there was still only a man before her. She cried for weeks after that.
Now when she is walking down the aisle to the Stewart of Gondor, swallowing her tears and fighting to keep a straight face, she catches his stare, the never ending depths of his eyes, and she knows that her heart was not the only one crushed and slain. The difference is, she realises, that she shall be broken only for the rest of her life, he – for eternity.
And suddenly all tears she's ever shed are not enough to weep over his fate.
Rip
She hates the dress, truly and passionately hates it, but what she hates even more is the awfully slow pace at which his hands are moving through the layers of it.
She groans and kisses him with such fever it almost leaves him breathless.
"Just get me out of this," she pleas desperately and he only smirks, and then suddenly she's free; the ripped dress laying forgotten on the floor.
Missing time
What they had was nothing more but the flutter of butterfly's wings, the fall of a single raindrop during the storm, just one star from all constellations in the universe.
Still they were ready to grasp it and hold onto it for dear life, until her hands become too weak to last and his heart too broken to go on without her.
Chest
When the army returns from Mordor she wishes she could have his elf-eyes. She is frantically looking for the sight of his green tunic and a bow in his hand, but he is nowhere to be seen. But it can't be. He had to return. He promised her.
And when she sees Aragorn and Gimli without the tall lean figure next to them her heart almost stops and she can feel tears coming to her eyes, but then Aragorn moves and there it is; the flash of pale skin, silver hair and green tunic.
She runs to him, not caring who can see her darting through the crowd, and when she collides with his chest and his arms crash her with the strength that says he was well prepared for her, it is the most comforting feeling she's ever felt.
Itches
She is watching him as he's practising with his swords; his movements swift and his muscular, yet lean form as firm as his weapons.
The blades slide against each other and she's just standing there unable to move; the sound like a melody for her ears. She can't help but imagine his toned muscles working under his skin, tensing and relaxing with each move.
But all of sudden there is another image in her head, of the same muscles tensing, when he pins her up against the wall and presses that firm body of his to hold her there; her fingers traveling through wide expanse of his arms and chest.
Her breath is already rapid, her face hot, but when he looks at her from above one of his swords, she has to brace herself for she is afraid her knees will give away any second.
Needle
When the sword as thin as a needle, yet as treacherous as a snake pierces his heart, her soul shatters into pieces, and she never finds a single one of them again.
Explode
It's overwhelming, when her arms clench around his neck and her legs cross on the small of his back, but when she gasps and moans his name he's actually surprised that he doesn't explode at the sound.
Rise
There are times when the world without her is too much, when the endless sea of longing brings him to his knees; head against the wall, eyes painfully shut and only sobs escaping his chest.
In those times a young girl with pointy ears and hair the exact same shade as his comes to him and helps him rise; bright Eowyn's eyes warming him up once again from their daughter's face.
Crumble
He makes love to her with long strokes and firm movements; his gentle hands everywhere, and when she crumbles underneath him, his arms are always there to gather her back again and she can't imagine loving someone more than she loves him.
Range
Elven magic had almost unlimited range, but he realized bitterly that there was one thing with thousand times the range of every witchcraft in this world and it was death.
Fight/Flight
He fights for her to the last second, until it's too late and her soul is already flying away from him.
Acid
One night he's wandering around the city and hears familiar female voice followed by low awful laugh, and his heart frizzes for a moment and his legs sprint to her.
When he gets there, he see her pressed against the wall, desperately trying to fight off her aggressor, while he's reaching under her dress. His elven blades are at his throat in a second.
"Touch her again and I will cut off your worthless head," he growls, his words dripping with acid.
When the disgusting trash runs away and he learns that she was there only because she was looking for him, he takes her in his arms and holds her for dear life.
Colour
Valinor was all gold, pearl, amaranth, silver, purple and the whole bunch of colours she knew she would never find the names to call. The sight was overwhelming, but when she felt strong arms around her waist as their journey was about to end, she knew she was going to love it here.
Give
She is capable of taking care of herself, but she knows that he would gladly give up his life to keep her safe, and that's why she practices with her sword even more – to never let it happen.
Locks
Long into the night, he can hear someone coming to his chambers and the soft figure, clad in white gown, slipping inside. She locks the door and it's really not important who made the first move for now the only sounds in the room are their hot breaths and echo of the key hitting the floor.
Slopes
After she finally leaves him for her ancestors, he visits Eryn Lasgalen and his broken heart can't help feeling that she would have loved every tree and every slope here.
Correspondence
He's in the middle of the meeting, when he receives the small piece of paper with her careless writing and reads it under the table; his blood coming to all unwanted right now places of his body and he excuses himself rapidly and almost runs to their chambers.
Linger
She loves waking up next to his firm, lean form and with his arms tightly locked around her frame; his soft breath lingering over her face, the heat of his body inviting her to snuggle closer.
Charm
One night, after the funeral of king Theoden, he finds her in the garden and the sorrow emanating from her is almost too much for his heart to bear. He approaches her without a sound, not really knowing why.
She gasps, when she turns around and almost bumps into him, and it breaks him to see faint traces of tears on her skin. He doesn't know what possesses him to do so, but he cups her face and she does not get away, but instead leans into his touch and it's all it takes to make him press his lips to her cheek and kiss her tears away.
"Such a beautiful creature should have never felt tears on her face," he whispers against her skin; his voice almost too quiet for her ears. "Melmenya."
He breaths the word out in such a way that her heart melts, although she does not understand it.
"What does it mean?" She asks and the charm is broken; the feeling of his hands and lips gone with him.
Roads
She watched the road every morning since his departure, until one day she saw the white stallion and her heart fluttered in delight as she slowly could pick up his silver blond hair, green cape and finally his wide smile, when he jumped off his horse, ran to her and kissed her senseless until neither of them could breath.
Hunger
When he looks at her from across the table his insides clench and he just knows it has nothing to do with the lack of fulfilment of his stomach.
Reciprocity
He stares at her more and more frequently; his eyes eager and burning in their sky blue depths. She senses it, but never turns her head to him, and that's it – the only thing stopping him from pinning her against the wall and whispering his love for her.
She does not reciprocate his feelings.
He accepts it with some strange painful kind of relief. They are not meant to be anyway.
But then one day their eyes meet and she doesn't escape his gaze. He starts catching her stares, and finally one night after one too many glances they share, there is a knock on his door.
And the moment her lips press against his and he pulls her into his chamber, he knows they are doomed, because unfortunately for them, she loves him too.
Kind
"I could have loved you like no other ever would," he tells her after the announcement of her betrothal to Faramir and her heart sinks in the endless depth of his despair.
"I know," she says, swallowing her tears. "That's why it can never be. Our kinds don't blend."
Fruits
Eowyn knows exactly what she is doing to him when during some meeting of the council in Ithilien, she slips inside and playfully nibs one of the wild strawberries he had brought her, slowly rolling her tongue around the fruit and making sure he can see it; his face so flustered and distracted it's almost too good to watch as someone asks him a question and he stumbles helplessly across his words.
Half-life
If she moved an inch closer, she thinks, their lips would meet and melt together.
But then she remembers, she's mortal and no matter how long they could have, she will die and there will be nothing for him here but pitiful half-life. And she will never dare to put this upon his shoulders; so instead of leaning in, she just runs away, telling herself she does not see the hurtful expression on his face.
Comedy of errors
She shows up in the gardens in the most inconvenient moment she could ever choose, exactly when some unknown to him servant girl jumps out of nowhere and forces herself at him, and he's just too shocked to react with his usual reflexes. But when he sees from the corner of his eye flash of betrayal on her face as she runs off, he pushes the girl off and sprints after her in a second.
Tragedy
"She shall be your tragedy," Thranduil says, when his son announces his plans towards the mortal, but he does not protest, because there is nothing in this world that can change it now. When he looks with sadness in the prince's eyes, he sees it there; clear and sharp.
The bond has been formed and there is nothing he can do but state the obvious.
It is many decades later, when Legolas watches the last flutter of her eyelids, that he fully comprehends what his father meant then.
Hope is the thing with feathers
Hope was like a timid little bird for her – always close, but not close enough for her heart to grasp it. And then it was him and suddenly she felt the fluttering of the bird's wings in her whole body.
Empire
The more strength empire of humans was gaining, the less and less place was there for elves and other races, and still the fact that Eowyn loved him was more than enough for him to stay.
Turpentine kisses and mistaken blows
Releasing his arrows one by one, always hitting his target, he had no idea that one of them pierced her heart, until the day her body pressed against his and rain of her kisses fell upon his lips; and he could swear she smelled just like his forest.
Rings
All their worries and sorrows began because of the ring, he remembered it very clearly and did not intend to ever forget; but he also remembered that if not for that ring, he would have never met her.
Dust
When her life finally slips out of his fingers and her body turns into nothing more but dust, he changes and as Aragorn watches his face during the funeral, he knows that he never will be, can be or to start with, wants to be the same.
Every you, every me
She dreams what it would be like if he was a human, mortal; what it would be like to grow old with him and be buried next to him in the ground; their wrinkled hands intertwined in their tomb.
He dreams about sailing with her into the west, their hands entwined, but forever young.
Project
Their wedding was probably the biggest project Eowyn had ever encountered before and she sighed letting her maids fix the details of her wedding gown a hundredth time that week, but then she imagined the expression of Legolas' face, when she will be walking down the aisle and smiled – it was worth it.
Adore
She could be strong and independent, when she was among her brother and other highly standing men, but she could be also as delicate and shy as the flower, when she was waking up in his arms every morning.
He adored both sides of her equally.
Murmur
The centuries have passed and then millennia as well. The world has changed during those hundreds and thousands of years. The ships have come for him to carry him into the west and yet he refuses to go, even though after this endlessly long moment of eternity, her voice is nothing more but a murmur carried by the wind.
But he takes it, as it is, and remains just to listen to it.
Above
One night, when she fell asleep on his shoulder during the council, he offered to carry her to her chambers, and when he heard her murmuring his name few times in her sleep, he was on the cloud nine for days.
Below
She doesn't miss the hitch in his breath when her hands sneak below his tunic for the first time and she knows he can feel her smirk against his lips.
Incalculable
It is almost like he was born with the bow in his hands – he never misses the target, never. And one day, when he's practising he feels the soft breath on his nape and then delicate lips reaching above his ready arm and pressing a kiss to his cheek.
He doesn't even know when he releases the arrow and probably it's not important, because it's nowhere to be seen anyway.
Wire
She is just so busy fighting off the wires that men are trying to attach to her arms and legs and brains to make her do as they say that she is completely unaware of the one that is attached to his heart, even though she herself pulls it.
Landslide
When she first kissed him, he could swear the land moved from underneath his feet and only her lips kept him from falling into the abyss.
The beginning is the end is the beginning
When their ship leaves Grey Havens, there is a little pang of sorrow in her heart for she will never see her brother and uncle again, but when she looks into his smiling beautiful face, she just knows she belongs with him; her heart ready for the new adventure.
Door
When they're outside their chambers, they are the Lord and Lady of Ithilien, majestic and all duty and business, but when the door closes behind them, saving them from eyes of the others, his lips are on hers and her fingers tangle themselves in his silver blond hair; and not a second is wasted.
Enemy gate
He has not been afraid of death, ever. He's been living too long and was too experienced by this world to fear something like that for himself.
Then he met her and now he is standing before the Black Gate, desperately wishing he could somehow overcome oncoming death, because he realises that the only thing about it, terrifying him to the core of his being, is the perspective of not seeing her face again.
Stone
His mother lies in Mirkwood, surrounded by trees and grass, his wife in Rohan, enfolded by stones and rocks; the women of his life leaving him all too soon.
Bright (sequel to Charm)
After the incident in the garden he avoids her with all his strength. It should never have happened. The words should have never left his mouth. She doesn't want him, she's not meant for him and he accepts it, ignoring the strange longing at the bottom of his heart.
Until one night; after all is done, after the battle is won, after the world is safe again, when he wakes up to the soft feeling on his eyelids and brows, and cheeks, and in the corner of his lips at last. The second he's awake, he knows it's her, because he's an elf and it isn't possible not to feel the emotions emanating from her, and suddenly his heart is at peace and longing is gone.
"Melmenya," he whispers, his hands finding their way to pull her closer.
"My love," the words roll off her tongue with adoration; her face inches away. "It means, my love."
He should have known better that with this bright mind of hers, she will find out the meaning, but when her lips meet his, he can't bring himself to regret it.
Stories
She likes when Legolas tells her stories about elves, his life and Mirkwood; the only thing bothering her slightly is the use of words "I remember," when he's talking about times, when her direct ancestors weren't even born.
Chime
She was gone for so long that even the music box she gave him broke, when he played the melody one too many times.
Laugh (sequel to Comedy of errors)
He catches her in the short time and she struggles, but of course he won't let go, does he ever? She's ready to yell at him, to hit that perfect face of his, but when she sees the desperate look in his eyes, her body stills.
"I would never-" He gasps, trying to find the words. "I'd rather die than betray you."
There is so much distress and honesty in his face that she wants to laugh at her impetuosity and foolishness.
Hold
"Once an elf gives his heart, he loves for eternity," he promised her and although her body was long time ago buried next to her brother and uncle, he holds onto that promise forever.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed, leaving a review would be awesome, thanks!