Disclaimer: Obviously, the universe and the characters belong to Tolkien and I am only borrowing them for fun.

Warning: This story contains slash between Aragorn and Legolas, so please hit the back button now in case you disapprove. Also, obviously, this makes this story AU. It is assumed that Aragorn never fell in love with Arwen. Apart from that, we basically follow the timeline of the book and find ourselves roughly in the year 3006.

A/N: I am not a native English speaker and therefore will probably make grammar mistakes or use words in a weird way. Please be patient with me, I am very happy if you point any mistakes out to me :)

A group of riders returned from the forest, headed by the young Prince Legolas of Mirkwood. The party had been out hunting orcs and spiders, and returned in the evening exhausted, but pleased, as the hunt had gone well.

Legolas dismounted and walked his horse to the stables. He always rode without saddle or reigns, but the horse was wet from the fast ride and needed to be rubbed down with straw, a task, which also calmed himself, his body still rushed with adrenalin from the hunt.

Once his horse was dry and contentedly feeding on its hay, he went to his room to change his clothes quickly and rebraid his tangled hair, before he joined his father and brothers for their evening meal.

Entering his room, he quickly scanned the desk for letters. Even though he was rarely conversing by letters and from Aragorn, the only person he regularly exchanged letters with, he had not had word for more than half a year, he could not rid himself of this habit.

Today, however, he was not disappointed. For the first time in months there was a letter lying on his desk. It had his name written on it in Aragorn's quick, sometimes a little untidy handwriting and he quickly approached his desk, tearing the long desired letter open.

My dearest Legolas,

I hope this letter finds you well. I was finally able to return to Rivendell for some days where I found your letter. I am so sorry that I was not able to write to you for such a long time, I have been in the wilderness these past months without any access to any dwelling of elves or men. However, about two weeks ago Mithrandir found me and asked me to perform an errand for him in Esgaroth, which I accepted most happily, knowing I would be able to visit Mirkwood on my way.

This leads me to a favor I would like to ask of you. I know that you are most engaged in the protection of Mirkwood these days, as the dark is drawing closer and orcs, spiders and other foul creatures are attacking your fair dwelling. However, as you mentioned that you would like to visit a dwelling of men for once, I wondered whether you might be able to get your father's leave to accompany me to Esgaroth? It has been so long since we were able to spend more than a few days together and you would make me the happiest man by accompanying me.

I love you and cannot wait to see you in about one and a half month's time from now.

Yours,

Aragorn

Legolas laughed when he finished the letter. It was just as short and straightforward as Aragorn's letters always were, his own usually surpassed them in length more than three times.

He looked up the letter's date and found that Aragorn would probably arrive already three weeks from now. A feeling of utmost happiness bubbled up inside him, leaving him almost dizzy with excitement. It never failed to astonish him, how much a simple letter from Aragorn was able to affect his usually quite well composed feelings.

He sat down in the chair at his desk, rereading the letter and calming himself a little.

To travel together to Esgaroth was quite a fine suggestion. His father was not too fond of men – or any other race for that matter, expect for hobbits recently, but this was a different story. Aragorn was well aware of that, even though his father was usually most polite to him, not interested into alienating the possible future King of Gondor and Lord Elrond's foster son.

His father also disliked the relationship that had formed between himself and Aragorn, giving him a further reason to disapprove of Aragorn's presence. Love between elves and men was in general discouraged and even frowned upon, the elven children cautioned with stories about the few well-known couples formed of elves and men, who had rarely found a happy ending.

However, exactly for this reason Legolas doubted that his father would let him go. The elves of Mirkwood lived quite withdrawn and kept especially their young within its confines – Legolas had not even been given leave to visit the elven dwelling of Lothlórien yet, nor Esgaroth, the closest human dwelling to Mirkwood, even though the elves were engaged closely in trade with the town and sometimes even some men had come to Mirkwood for trading. Matters of trading, however, were not Legolas' métier; he was first and foremost a warrior and had therefore never been engaged in any contact with those men.

Suddenly, he realized that he had completely lost track of time. He quickly changed into a light brown robe, combed and braided his hair and then left to join his family at the table.

It was spring and King Thranduil was wearing a crown of white flowers and a light green robe, as always matching the season. The flowers contrasted heavily with the frown he gave his son, when he finally arrived. He did not, however, comment his late arrival any further, but inquired how the hunt had gone. Legolas relayed all details to him while they were eating, glad to find his father satisfied with the results.

When they had finished their meal, Legolas held his father back to have a few words with him after his brothers had left. He explained about Aragorn's letter and asked for his father's leave to go to Esgaroth with him. To his surprise, his father pondered the suggestion instead of turning it down immediately.

Finally King Thranduil said: "I suppose it is time for you to see more of Middle Earth if you desire so, my son. Seeing how you so carelessly have gotten involved with Elrond's human foster son shows me that you know too little of the world. Seeing the world of men which is also the Dúnadan's world – or at least will be his world if he becomes King of Gondor – with your own eyes might be the right cure for you, if my words cannot make you realize what you are getting yourself into. You must know what your choices are, before you make them." Thranduil looked at his son levelly.

"Thank you father", he replied tentatively. Thranduil nodded and left him alone to ponder his dark words.

In the following weeks Legolas awaited Aragorn's arrival eagerly, but his happiness was tainted by an unwelcome feeling of unease.

His father's words had left a deeper impression on him than he had thought at first and he found himself pondering them frequently. He was painfully aware that he knew almost nothing of the world of men and concepts like mortality were hard for him to grasp. However, the fact that Aragorn behaved very much like an elf – at least in his presence – made it much too easy to forget about this matters.

Until now, he had pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind quite successfully, enjoying the time he was able to share with Aragorn and evading the choices he knew he would have to make. Still, he knew that Aragorn as chieftain of the Dúnedain was also part of the world of men and that, was he to take the throne of Gondor, Aragorn would have to leave behind the world of elves completely, leaving Legolas to join him or to leave for Valinor with his people.

Of course, after Aragorn's death he would still be free to go to Valinor, although he could hardly imagine that he would then have the strength to build a ship and sail, thinking it much more likely that he would fade away and enter the Halls of Mandos. Both would allow him to rejoin his people, but at the same time he would be damned to spend eternity alone, for after death men went to places unknown to the elves.

He could not deny that a tiny part of him hoped that Aragorn might be granted to board a ship at the end of his life and leave for Valinor together with him, like Idril and Tuor were of old. However, in his heart he felt that Aragorn was bound to the world of men and would not be granted access to Valinor and that he himself would have to see his decision through to the end to find his happiness, otherwise he would be torn forever. So, should he choose to bind with Aragorn he would be left to beg the Valar to grant him the grace they had granted Lúthien Tinúviel of letting him die like a mortal man.

These thoughts kept nagging at him at the back of his head recently more persistently than before and were cause for expressing his wish to see the world of men in his letter to Aragorn the previous year. He knew that for Aragorn the 20 years they had been in love now were not a short period of time and that they would have to make a commitment at one point or part their ways.

Both of them had evaded discussing their future, not wanting to tint their often short and infrequent meetings with anxiety and the looming possibility of the other deciding against their often impossible seeming relationship. He knew that he was not the ideal partner to choose for Aragorn either, as the potential future king of Gondor would probably best marry a women of his own kind, who would be accepted much more easily by his people and have much less trouble to provide him with the heir the king was going to need.

Aragorn was finally drawing close to the Mirkwood. He was tired from the long travel, but anxious to see Legolas he had ridden hard. Fortunately, the journey had been rather quiet; he was used to travelling through Mirkwood by now and had been spared from any encounters with the giant spiders.

He looked out for elves keeping watch, as it was almost impossible to find the entrance to the dwelling by oneself, even by him, who had been visiting the realm already a number of times. And it was unwise to leave the main paths in order to look for the entrance oneself.

He knew of the habit of the Mirkwood elves not to show themselves – expect to other elves – but he hoped that Legolas had given orders to receive him, as he had done in the past years, praying that the king had not forbidden his visit – it would not surprise him after the rather cold welcome he had been given the last time.

After a short while an elf dropped down next to him suddenly, his bow drawn. "State your name and business" he demanded in rather broken Westron. "I am known as the Dúnadan", Aragorn answered in Sindarin. "Then you are expected by the young prince." The elf replied likewise in Sindarin and turned without introducing himself, leaving Aragorn to follow him. The rustling of the leaves told him that high in the trees more elves were following them.

After leading his horse to the stables, the elf bid him to follow him directly to the training grounds on which he could discern Legolas already from a distance. He was sparring with a training partner, using his knife, his slender body moving swiftly and gracefully. His pulse quickened as he watched Legolas, hardly able to believe that the moment of their reunion had finally come after more than two years of separation.

Just as they reached the training grounds, Legolas won the fight, setting his knife to the throat of his sparring partner. He then turned to see who had arrived, his fair face flushed with excitement from the fight. He eyes widened when he realized that Aragorn was standing there and his face lit up in a smile. He sheathed his knife and walked slowly towards him, though it seemed to Aragorn as if he needed all his composure not to run towards him. They clasped each other's arms and Legolas said politely: "Let me show you to your room". He led the way towards the room Aragorn usually occupied during his stays, leaving the guard who had accompanied Aragorn behind.

When the door had closed and Aragorn had put his backpack down, they stood in front of each other, suddenly uncertain, feeling slightly estranged after the long separation. Aragorn took in Legolas' fair face, unchanged as always in its ethereal beauty. He knew that he himself had aged during the past two years, the life in the wilderness taking its toll. Suddenly he felt afraid that Legolas' love for him, which often felt to Aragorn like a wonderful, but irrational dream, might have waned during the past years, that it was gone. Then Legolas quickly crossed the distance between them, taking Aragorn's hand with his slender fingers, bringing it to his lips, and the awkward moment was gone, they were holding and kissing each other.