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….

Both Elrond and Celebrian were awoken before the dwarf even had the opportunity to knock on their door, while his tread had much improved Gimli was still far from light footed. Elrond swung the door open expectantly, just as the dwarf raised a fist to knock on the door.

The dwarf had aged considerably since Elrond had first met him, something he knew troubled Legolas' heart more than he let on. His hair and beard had long since gone grey, but his back had yet to hunch and his steps still held their power. He looked up at the ancient elf with a certain degree of apprehensiveness, "I apologize for the late hour."

Elrond glanced briefly to his right as his wife joined him at the door, a robe wrapped securely around her to fight off the evening chill. Her long silver hair was mussed with sleep still, and her eyes blinked warily at the torchlight the dwarf carried. Coming to stand beside Elrond, she nearly melted into her husband's side, "What troubles you, Gimli?"

"It's Legolas, my Lady. He has said barely a word to me since the last ship came three days ago. He only sits at his window and looks out to the sea." Even mortal ears could have heard the deep concern in the dwarf's voice, and Elrond did not miss the nervous fidget of his feet. "I was going to bring this matter up to you in the morning, but is had recently come to my attention any food brought to him has been dumped out of his window."

The dwarf continued his uncharacteristic fidgeting, "I insisted on our sailing to keep his heart from this suffering. I thought this land was supposed to help him?"

Elrond and Celebrian exchanged glances at the thickness of the dwarfs voice, as if he himself were fighting back heavy emotions. The couple had all but insisted that Legolas come and reside with them until his father arrived on the shores, thankfully the Prince had resisted very little. Had he not arrived in such a broken state, the likelihood of him surrendering easily to their request was slim. But he had arrived broken, weak, and weary of the world he had just left behind. His heart still deeply grieving for the mortal friends who had departed permanently from the world.

Celebrain pursed her lips briefly in thought, and then reached up to kiss her husband lovingly on the cheek. "I believe I know what this is, I will go and speak to him. Go back to bed, my love."

In response Elrond gave her a disbelieving look, "I will remain here, as you wish, but I will not be returning to bed until I am assured of his wellbeing."

She gave him a deeply loving smile, endlessly pleased that his warm heart and not cooled any since she had sailed away from him so long ago. Of course her Elrond would not be going back to bed while someone he cared for was in trouble, emotional or otherwise. "Very well, I send for you if the need arises."

Elrond nodded softly, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Go on and help the child, I will prepare a tea for him. A good night's sleep after so long will do him good."

Celebrain tied her robe more securely, and was about to set off towards Legolas when the dwarf broke the silence one last time, "Do not tell him I sent for you, please? He will be in a fit with me if he hears of this."

She spared him another soft smile, her hand resting briefly on his sturdy shoulder, "If he does hear of this, it will not be from me."

With that, she swept away towards the young elf. Unlike the dwarf, her feet made no noise on the ground as she went. She and Elrond had always been so fond of the Woodland Prince, a feeling he seemed to reciprocate with them. Though, there were very few elves Celebrian had ever seen him interact with that he openly every showed displeasure for. But she was certain his fondness for them extended past a mere likeness for them, which was part of the reason they insisted he live here.

She came upon his door, noting that no light shawn from under his doorway. Elves with their gifted sight did not always need light, though it is always troubling to find one sitting alone in the dark.

She knocked softly on his door, and heard no call to enter. But she was a mother, and he would have to do much better than this to sway her off her course. She entered anyway, doing so slowly enough that he world have a chance to protest if he so wished, but still he made no call to her.

As Gimli had said, Legolas had settled himself in his windowsill and stared out to the sea mournfully. He still wore the clothes she had seen him in several days before, and his hair was braided in the same fashion. Not so much as a muscle moved when she entered, he did not so much as even blink. Just continued to stare out the window to the sea.

She could feel the heaviness of his soul in the air, and her heart weeped for him. This beautiful elfling, always so happy and carefree had turned cold. The bright fires of his heart had dimmed to almost blackness.

"Legolas?" Celebrain nearly whispered, not wanting to startle the child if he had retreated so far into himself that he had not heard her enter. Still, he did not move or make any sign that he was aware of her presence.

She began to make her way to him, dragging her feet along the carpet so he would be warned of her approach. Still, he gave no sign of acknowledging her presence. She came to stand beside him, leaning on the window ledge in order to see his face.

"Oh, Legolas."

Silent tears were leaking from his eyes, reflecting the moonlight easily. Judging by the number of tear tracks, it appeared he had been in this state for some time. His bottom lip began to quiver at the sound of her voice, but he remained determinedly looking away from her.

Legolas had inherited his father's height, and when standing was taller than Celebrian, but while he was sitting on the ledge he was just slightly shorter than her. Not that his height would have deterred her efforts to comfort him, as both of her sons were taller than her as well, and she was as dermend to comfort him as she would be with her own sons.

Reaching out she gently drew him to her, pleased somewhat when he buried his face into her shoulder and began to weep. Not pleased with his sadness, but that he would not deny it in her company.

Celebrain held him tightly, and gently ran her finger through his hair. This was not the first time she had comforted him this manner, even years before her own departure Legolas' life had grown darker. There had been many tears shed for him to go to the Legolas she had known, to the one her husband's foster child had called friend. She did not mind, but was only happy she could offer him some of the support his father was unable to give him, and not from lack of trying.

"Legolas, dear one, what troubles you?" At her words he only began to cry harder, and she pressed a kiss to the top of his head. He would answer her eventually, of this she was certain, and so she simply held him until he began to calm down again.

After some time he mumbled miserably into her shoulder, "I miss my Ada so much, I want him to be here. I keep waiting for him to be on one of those ships, but he never is."

It was just as she suspected, it was difficult to enjoy these beautiful lands when you were waiting anxiously for a dear one to come enjoy them with you.

"He will come, just give him some time. I know he will come." She tried to reassure him, but he pushed away from her, and wiped at his eyes.

He went back to staring miserably out the window, "But what if he cannot do it. Can't make it to the shore after everything that's happened. I do not know if I could have done it without Gimli. What happens if he doesn't come, and Gimli passes."

His voice was swimming in his tears once again. "What if he isn't here. I want him to be here. I need him to be here."

"And he will be." Celebrain insisted

She was still waiting for her two sons, waiting to see if they chose mortality. And he was waiting for his father, wondering if he would fade or sail when finally he left his forest. Celebrain had never been able to decide who needed the other more, Legolas or his father.

But she knew that either way, Thranduil would never leave his son unless his life was stolen from him. He would never leave Legolas to his grief. When the time came for him to say goodbye to his Greenwoods, it would be to seek out his son, and wait for his wife to come back to him. He had missed her dearly for many ages already, and would never inflict that pain on Legolas. She knew that Thranduil world not fade from his grief, just as he had yet to faded all those ages he grieved.

Mind made up on how she was going to try and get Legolas to understand, Celebrian joined him in the windowsill. He crossed his legs to accommodate her, and she mirrored him on the other side. "Elrond worried for you when he heard word of your mother's passing."

He did not look at her, but she could tell she had captured Legolas' interest. Very few ever talked about the days following his mother's death, and he still had many questions he would never ask.

Celebrain rested her back more comfortably against the brick wall behind her, "I do not believe I have ever traveled to Greenwood that quickly, and I doubt many have since then. We all knew how much Thranduil loved your mother, you could see it anytime they were in the room together. It seemed we had only just left their wedding when we heard news of the attack."

Legolas looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but otherwise did not move. It was enough for Celebrian to know he was still listening, "I will never forget exactly what that messenger said, when he rode through the gates, still bleeding and exhausted."

She paused to make sure she got it correct, "Please help, my King needs help. I do not know where so much evil has come from, but our home is in ruins. When I left, our King was trying to hold them off with the other warriors, while the others fled. I do not know if any survived, but please they went north."

Again Celebrain paused, but this time it was to shake the dread the message always filled her with, whenever it was that she thought of it. The same dread she knew Elrond had felt when he heard about the battle of the five armies. "Elrond, Glorfindel, and the other warriors left first. Nearly that very instant. I followed later, loaded with all the healing supplies, food, and other necessities we could fit onto the wagons."

"We did not know that your mother had passed until we entered the mountain you called home. Elrond set out at once to help attend to the wounded, but I went in search of your father." She had expected to find him nearly catatonic somewhere, as she thought she might have been if Elrond had been ripped from her like this.

"I expected to find him in some dark room, but it was after much searching Galion finally took me to him. He was outside pacing in a nearby field under the stars, a tiny bundle held so gently in his hands." Celebrain gently tapped his leg, "That tiny bundle was you."

"I came up to him, not unlike I have done with you tonight. You were sitting so peacefully in his arms, and he never took his eyes off of your face." Legolas sniffled noticeably, and wiped as his eyes again, "I did not know what to say, and so I waited for him to say something first."

Legolas let out a slightly weepy laugh, a smile touching his lips for a moment "I am sure that took quite some time."

Celebrain smiled back, pleased to see a spark of life back, if even for a moment. "It alway does. When he finally did speak though all he said was: "This is my son, Legolas. I wanted him to see the stars."

This had been the first time she had ever met little Legolas, "And you gave him the biggest toothless smile I have ever seen, and to my amazement Thranduil smiled back. I never worried about you after that moment."

Legolas sniffed again, and she continued. "We stayed for a few weeks, and you never left your father's side. If you saw the King, you saw the little Prince. And that's how it remained for most of your childhood."

He gave her a watery smile, Legolas had apparently been a notoriously attached child. "The next time I saw you, you were still so young. Not yet walking, with only a few words. We were all having some sort of discussion, when all of a sudden a little tiny prince crawled into the room and climbed onto Thranduil's lap. You settled in and sat quietly, and Thranduil never said anything about it."

Legolas graced him with another watery smile, "He said I used to do that often, I would sneak away from whoever was watching me at the time."

Celebrain smiled at that thought, she had assumed it was a habit the first time she witnessed it happen."It wasn't until your first visit to Imladris that Elrond finally began to see what I had seen from the beginning."

She sighed rather dramatically, " By the Valar you were an energetic little thing, and it tested the patience of many. You asked three questions a minute, and insisted on investigating or touching everything you saw, and ran so enthusiastically I was beginning to fear you would never grow tired. Your father is not known for his patience."

"That's because he isn't patient." Legolas snorted, and then drew a line through the fog on the window it had created.

"Yet he has had nothing but patience for you." Legolas breathed onto the window, and drew a few more lines. They formed the simple ruins for 'safe', the same ruin Legolas and the warriors had painted on tree's in his homeland to mark the Elven Road. "I know very well the kind of elfling you were, always worrying your father. You have always been so curious, so curious you often overlook any semblance of caution."

Celebrain gave him a pointed look, as the woodland prince had often been accused of being a bad influence on her twins throughout the years. An accusation it seemed extended to Aragorn as well. "No matter what happened though. No matter what dangerous thing you had done, or injury you received from it, he could never stay mad at you. An Elf who has the ability to hold grudges like no other I know, could never stay mad at you."

The pair lapsed into silence for several moments. There were no longer tears coming from Legolas' eyes, and he seemed more responsive than he had been before. It seemed to be working, and so Celebrain continued.

"You could always make him smile, always. Thranduil has always looked upon you the same way he did the first night I met you, when he took you to see the stars."

Legolas slowly collapsed onto himself, his torso covering his crossed legs and his head coming to rest on Celebrain's knee. Her hands began to gently tug the braids from his hair, wondering when the last time he had slept was.

Heartache was a powerful thing.

"I do not think I have seen any son love their father as much as you love yours, nor any father love his son as much as your loves you. Legolas father loves you more than anything on Arda."

He swallowed harshly, and she felt it from where he rested on her leg, "I know."

Celebrain smiled at the certainty in his voice, "Many had expected Thranduil to grow cold in his grief, and shut himself away."

"He didn't." Legolas insisted automatically, always ready and willing to defend his father.

"I know he did not. All one needed was to see him interact with you. See him kiss every scratch when you were so tiny, see him teach you to use a bow, see the two of you dancing at a celebration."

She felt but did not see him smile, just a little bit. "All one needed was talk with you about your father. To hear you tell you the story of your first pet, or the night you and Thranduil stayed up all night to play in the garden. To hear the stories passed to friends, about the song you wrote for your fathers begetting hear Galion tell us about that horrible night when the burning tree fell upon you. You can hear, and see, the love between the two of you in everything you do"

"He is the first person I ran to after Estel's passing."

Celebrains hands began to comb through his hair, now that the braids had been removed. "The two of you somehow got one another through the darkest times any of us are likely to encounter. He was there for you every time you needed him until now, have faith in his love. He will be here."

He asked so softly, so vulnerably."Do you promise?" Legolas was well aware that logically, Celebrian world never be able to guarantee this to him. The world was an unpredictable place, but it would be nice to pretend she could guarantee it to him. At least for now.

She leaned forward, and kissed his head, "Yes little one, I promise."

He nodded, satisfied, and Celebrain began to rub a soothing hand across his back. The pair continued to sit there for some time, Legolas drawing comfort from her presence. When the prince broke the silence, his voice much closer to normal. "You are here because of Gimli, are you not?"

Celebrain smirked into the darkness, trying to suppress a bubble of laughter, leaning forward she whispered to him, "Yes, but you did not hear that from me."

…..

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

(I will probably be writing a chapter 2, of Thranduil arriving in Valinor.

Mark completed until then anyways)

Don't be shy, go I'd love to hear from you!