A cookie for everyone who can guess the inspiration for this short one-shot. It's been in my mind for a while, and I have only just got it down on paper. No concrete pairing, though I wrote it with one in mind. Pick the couple you like best. (I own nuh-thing)

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I was holding you even as you fell, not quick enough to keep you on your feet, but not wanting you to fall so... so alone. I had faith that the others would keep us safe. The orc that had got through your armour already dead on the ground behind me. I could not even bring myself to look a the wound, I already knew that the blow had been too great for... for you to...

The coming of night seems appropriate as your head lolls back and your eyes shutter closed.

"Tired." You whisper to me.

"Rest." Is all that I can bring myself to reply. The wind rises, whipping around us and catching at a lone standard still flying. There are so many bodies on the ground around us - such disrespect for the dead on the fields of war. I will not allow your... allow you to be discarded so. You have seen them too, but I fear the tears in your eyes are for an entirely different cause. I hush you softly, bringing you close so that I might whisper reassurances in your ears. Not long now and your cares will be naught, let us not spend these moments in mourning for what will soon be lost. You are safe here, safe in my arms.

"Look to the horizon, love. Do you see it? It would put my heart at rest to know you await me there."

"I... see it. So bright." A gasp of pain and I can only hold you closer. "So... bright on the... horizon." Your breaths are heaves now. "The gulls call me on." I look to my own horizon as a full moon banks over the valley, and Eärendil glints softly down upon me. The river reflects the moon's silver light, chasing away a little of the darkness and pulling a gleam of elven light in echo from your face. Your breathing skips a little, pain grasping with cold fingers across your chest. Any hope I might have had faded with that small sound.

'Take him with you, sky-sailor.' I offer the prayer. 'It is his time, and I will join him soon enough.' Pain draws a cry from you and I wish I had something more to do but wait. The moon's glory is shadowed in cloud and time seems to slow around us, for though I know the fighting continues I cannot see nor hear it.

"So this is... the end." You barely breathe the words, but I hear. You are my entire world in this moment. A cry is drawn from my lips as I realise that this is the truth.

"You and I will meet again." I say as forcefully as I am able as my heart is breaking. "Hush now. We will be together again."

"And I shall... lay in your...arms." A sigh. "Much... like this." The smile is wrenching. Your eyes slide shut again.

"And we shall sleep in the beauty of places we have never seen and can only dream of."

"Peace." I choke a little at your whisper."

"Yes, and we shall find peace." I sob, looking for the moon. There is no further sound. Silence engulfs me and I cannot look down on you, so very still in my arms. I try to convince myself that it is true - that you are only sleeping in my arms until we meet again. A hand on my shoulder and I cannot respond. My heart is frozen with my body. My eyes are fixed on the cloud that covers the moon. As it dissipates I think I see a ship's form, grey in the night, sailing the straight course away from Middle Earth.

'We will meet again.' My whisper fades in the blackness of the night that takes my mind. We will meet again.