Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings.
Sequel to In Darkness and The Worst of Evils. Really this is it. No more of this. I'm betting no one is even reading this. For some reason I just seen to like writing more of this thing.
There's still slash, it's kind of the theme of this whole thing.
Takes place after Lord of the Rings, or at the end of it. There's Aragorns wedding. So during and after that.
It was at Aragorn's wedding that Gimli saw that haunted look in Legolas' eyes again. The one he had seen now and then after that first time in Moria. It was something that seemed so unlike the usually carefree wood-elf.
"I have yet to meet that husband of yours, friend elf," Gimli said, wondering if it was longing for his husband that made the elf look thusly.
"And if I knew where he was I would be glad to introduce you."
"Is he not in your home wood?" Gimli asked in surprise, he had never thought that there might be such worries on his friend's mind.
"I doubt he could stand the company of my kin for very long," the elf grinned slightly. "He finds their cheerfulness offending."
Gimli looked at his friend in astonishment. Either that had been some sort of joke or his kin must truly be overly cheerful, considering that his husband seemed to have chosen to wed Legolas, who as much as Gimli considered him a friend could be annoying indeed with his ever carefree attitude.
Legolas looked at him and laughed.
"Oh, he tolerates me," the elf grinned. "That is quite a different thing."
As they watched the ceremony unfold, the elf's eyes grew haunted again.
When he congratulated the happy couple he seemed genuinely happy for them, but as soon as they were away from the Royal couple, his good mood vanished as if it had never been.
"Is everything alright my friend?" Gimli found himself asking.
"Do not worry about me," the elf dismissed. "It is not an easy thing to watch one of my own kind doom herself to mortality, though it happen for love."
"Oh, I did not think…" he started to say, but grew quiet as the elf continued suddenly.
"She does not know yet what she does. At this moment she is still untouched by time, still oblivious in her happiness and love. By tomorrow she will have felt the shock of sudden mortality as time binds her and she begins to fade. And she will die, slowly, with every heartbeat, with every breath." His eyes seemed to look somewhere far away as if he was not quite aware of what he was saying.
There was something quite horrifying in the elf's quiet, painful words. Gimli had not forgotten what would happen to the elf-maiden once she wed Aragorn, but he had not realised quite how deeply the elves would grieve for her. But there was something else in the elf's words, it was not grief, but fear such as he had never heard from his friend before.
He did not know what to say. So he simply lay a hand on his friend's arm and said nothing.