Disclaimer: If you think the complete amazingness of Lord of the Rings could be made up by me, I'm afraid you're nuts...
A/N: Just a little story I felt like posting here. An entry for the United Countries Challenge
Tears in the Moonlight
"Why did it have to be him?" Lothiriel ran the question round her head several times. She hated being told what to do, so when her father's advisors had mentioned Eomer, King of Rohan as a suitable suitor, she immediately objected. How was she to know they would choose someone who was so… She supposed 'nice' would be a good enough word to describe it, although she could think of many others which would suit Eomer very well. Handsome, talented… She smiled, lost in her thoughts.
"Why did it have to be her?" Eomer began to pace about the room. His advisors weren't supposed to be right. He had deliberately given her a hard time, just because he couldn't swallow his pride. He almost blamed Eowyn; she should have stuffed his pride down his throat, as she had done it for so many other things. If only it was not her! Not the one who made him smile when she walked past. Not the one who looked so stunning in the dress she had worn last night. Not the one who looked at him with such a joy of life in her sea-blue eyes.
---
"Can't he see she is perfect for him? Why does he protest so much?" Eowyn decided she would never understand her brother.
"My cousin, I believe, does not wish to be involved with him simply because her father's advisors advised it." A small smile passed over Eowyn's face.
"Somehow, I believe that is also what ails my brother." She laughed. "I guess something needs to be done to break down that particular boundary. Lothiriel's last day in Rohan should be memorable." She walked over to Faramir, who was sitting in front of the fire, and whispered something into his ear. He smirked, then suddenly rose and gave Eowyn a kiss on the cheek.
"That, my dear, is a wonderful suggestion." A glint of mirth entered his eyes. "I wonder how Eomer and Lothiriel like it."
---
Eomer swore and sat down on the cold stone floor. He should have known his sister would do something, she was so stubborn! He tried to ignore Lothiriel who was still hammering on the door and cursing as loud as she could.
"Eowyn! You had better let us out! Faramir! If you're behind this I swear you won't see the sun rise tomorrow!"
She finally gave up and flopped down on the floor on the opposite side of the room. She continued to curse under her breath. Eomer gave her a level gaze.
"That language should not be used in front of a king." He said, trying to add authority to his voice.
"King? King of horses' behinds!" muttered Lothiriel. Eomer lifted one eyebrow.
"King of horses' behinds? What shall I call you then, my Princess of a seabird's nest?" Lothiriel scowled at him.
"If you audacious enough to even think my house can begin to compare to a bird's nest, you are terribly mistaken!" she seethed. Eomer stood up, ignoring her.
"If my sister does not let us out soon, I guess we will have to find a way out ourselves."
"You have an amazing grasp of the obvious, my Lord." Lothiriel said, her tone dripping with sarcasm. She stood up and began to follow Eomer in searching for something suitable to escape with. It didn't help that this was a linen storage room that held little else but sheets and pillows. Eomer looked down from the window. Too high up, he thought to himself.
Lothiriel was examining the pillows. She suddenly had a brilliant idea, although it had nothing to do with escaping, it was a brilliant idea nonetheless. A smile formed on her lips. She grasped the neck of the pillow and swung it round, throwing it through the air. It landed squarely on Eomer's back with a soft 'thump'. They both stood in silence for a few seconds while some fluffy white feathers floated about Eomer's head.
"That, my Princess of a seabird's nest, was a very un-regal thing to do." Lothiriel burst out laughing. Eomer grinned, grabbed a pillow and through it across the room, where it hit Lothiriel's shoulder. Lothiriel soon retaliated by picking up a pillow and smacking Eomer over the head with it. Before long, the whole room was covered with flying feathers and both of them were lost in hysterical laughter.
---
"You have what?!?" Prince Imrahil half-shouted. He paced through the room, and then suddenly began to laugh.
"They were being stubborn, just because their advisors know them so well." Eowyn was smiling, knowing this plan would work.
"When will you let them out?" he asked, feeling slightly annoyed that his nephew's wife had locked his daughter up in a room with Eomer. He hardly knew the man.
"I promise you, if this doesn't work by tomorrow morning, I will stop playing the matchmaker." She told Imrahil. "But it will…" she added to herself. "It will."
---
The night was getting older and soon enough all the pillows had been exhausted, leaving large piles of fluffy white feathers scattered around the small storage room. Eomer and Lothiriel lay collapsed in heaps on opposite sides of the room. Eventually Lothiriel stirred.
"It seems your dear sister will not let us out until tomorrow. Perhaps we should prepare some bedding if we are to sleep here." Eomer opened his eyes from where he had been resting against the wall.
"Yes" he agreed finally, dragging himself up and walking over to the sheets. After a short while, two makeshift beds were made up from the piles of feathers and the sheets. Lothiriel's heart had given a slightly painful thump when Eomer began making her bed on the other side of the room, but she knew she was being stupid. There was no way this man could love her.
Eomer hesitated for a moment before regretfully moving across the room to lay down Lothiriel's bed. There was nothing between them, his passion was one sided. If only he hadn't been so damn proud! He could have maybe won her over if she knew his feelings but he hated to admit he was wrong. He sighed and walked back over to his bed.
He removed his shirt before lying down and pulling a sheet over his body. By the faint light outside, he could see Lothiriel also lying down to sleep.
"Goodnight Eomer." Lothiriel said as she lowered onto her bed.
"Goodnight…Lothiriel." Eomer replied, his voice extremely soft. Lothiriel lay completely still. The way he had said her name! Why had she argued so much about choosing her own way? Tears began to run down her cheeks as she sobbed silently. She was returning to Dol Amroth almost as soon as the sun rose the next morning. She might never see Eomer again! The idea that he might marry another woman was like an ice-cold fist about her heart. His beautifully muscled arms around another woman's hips, him fathering another woman's children... This time a sob escaped her.
"Lothiriel?" A concerned voice came from across the room. Lothiriel stood up slowly and walked over to the window, trying to stifle her sobs and stay calm. Just at that moment, the moon burst out from behind a cloud with an explosion of silver light. Eomer could see the tears on Lothiriel's face, each one reflecting the moonlight. A bead of crystal grief. It occurred to him that he had never before seen her as beautiful, the soft light refining her features in a way Eomer had never seen before. He stood up and crossed to where she was standing and, when he found no objection, slipped his arm around her slender shoulders. They both stood, looking out onto the moonlit plains, the grass rippling a long way beneath them.
"I've always thought the Plains of Rohan look like the sea in the moonlight." Eomer said finally. "The endless reaches of silvery-grey, rippling in the wind." Lothiriel nodded slightly, the tears still streaming down her face. Was he acting gracious to torment her? She knew he was comforting her out of the goodness of his heart, not from any personal preference. She sighed.
"Lothiriel," Eomer whispered but was silenced by one of her fingers being placed across his lips.
"I have lied to you, my Lord." Lothiriel said quietly. "And all because of my pride." She laughed bitterly. "How well people can know you, and how much you can despise them for their efforts to help." Eomer's heart missed a beat. It seemed his words were coming from her mouth.
"Pride can stop you from realizing and accepting your heart's desire even when it is standing right in front of you." She spun round to face Eomer. He glimpsed her distraught face and his heart twisted with pity.
"I have lied, I am sorry but…" Lothiriel hesitated for a moment. What was the use? He would offer her comforting words but it was not his words, nor his pity she needed. "I am sorry but I am in love with you." There, she had told him. She could return to Dol Amroth with her conscious clear, instead of always wondering what could have been, but was not.
Eomer couldn't speak. She loved him! In that instant, all pride left him. He gently lifted her head with his hand. She stared at him defiantly, waiting for his words that would break her heart. But they never came. Eomer laughed softly.
"My very words you have spoken with your lips." He replied.
They both stood in silence, delighting in their new discovery.
"Eomer…" Lothiriel tried to say but was silenced, this time not with a hand, but the lips of the man she loved.
---
When Lothiriel awoke the next day to the newly risen sun shining through the window. Eomer lay beside her, sound asleep. Still in a daze, she snuggled closer to his chest before suddenly remembering she was to return home today. With a short yelp she quickly rose and straightened her dress from where she had been lying on it. She awoke Eomer and passed him his shirt.
"Lothiriel?" Eomer asked blearily. A wave of remembrance swept over him and he smiled. "Come back to bed, it is early still." Lothiriel giggled at the sight of this half-awake man, this golden hair lying all over the sheet. Uh oh, she remembered Eowyn's plan. It had worked.
"My Lord? I believe you had better rise now, Eowyn might be here soon."
"Oh Valar, I can hear the gloating already." He pushed himself up and pulled on his shirt. Lothiriel walked across to her bed and began to mess it up a bit, just in case anyone felt curious.
"Of course, we do not have to tell them of our…discovery." Eomer smiled and Lothiriel couldn't understand how she had managed to resist that smile before without running over and kissing him, which she did now.
"No, of course we don't" Lothiriel said, kissing him again. Just then, they heard a key scraping in the lock. They leapt apart just as Faramir walked in. Lothiriel immediately jumped on him and began accusing him of 'leaving her here with this pig!' Just before she left the room she turned round to look at Eomer, who looked about to laugh, and winked.