The Mirkwood kingdom was silent in the inky night. The halls were empty, save for a guard every so often, and the Elvenking walking to his chambers. There was a hallway on the way that he often passed by. It was a small one with two doors on each side; they were bedrooms for the guard captains' rooms away from the barracks. Usually Thranduil heard talking, or laughing, or just plain silence - like tonight...but tonight he heard something new. Something like crying.
Thranduil started down the tiny hall until he found the door where it was the loudest. The second on the left. Tauriel's room. He did find it odd that she was crying so late at night, but he wasn't entirely heartless, and not quite sure what to do, Thranduil knocked lightly. There was a shuffling of both fabric and feet, and a brief silence before the door opened.
Tauriel answered looking slightly disheveled (well, it was the middle of the night). Her fiery hair was unbraided, tousled carelessly, and strewn over her face like a shredded veil; a green robe was hanging haphazardly off her shoulders with one hand balled in the fabric holding it closed over her short, white, nightgown - which in its own barely came down to the middle of her thighs. One of the thin straps drooped off her shoulder and she hurried to pull it up. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.
She ran a hand through her hair to move it from her face before straightening her posture and speaking, "M-My lord! I apologize for looking so inappropriate...but, i was not expecting company tonight. Please come in," she stood aside and let Thranduil enter her room, guiltily looking down at her bare feet.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her slip something small and black into her pocket, but said nothing. Tauriel shut the door quietly, trailed behind him, and invited him to sit down on the wooden bench at the foot of her bed. Tonight, there was a firemoon out and the arching window was open streaked red moonlight across the room. The room was impeccably clean and the was a small table in one corner that held two elegantly decorated pitchers on it along with a couple of matching glasses.
Tauriel stood near the window, twiddling aimlessly at the fabric of the robe that was now open and draping languidly of her frame.
"Can I offer you some wine, my lord?"
"Actually I came because heard you crying. Why, pray tell, would that be?" Thranduil asked calmly.
Tauriel's face flashed with surprise, then relaxed, "thank you for your concern, but it is nothing that would concern the king. It's nothing, really."
He arched an eyebrow, "judging by what I see before me...I would not mark this as 'nothing'. We have just returened from the Battle of Five Armies not one week past. I have never known you to mourn over fighting. This wouldn't have to do with a certain dwarf, would it?"
Tauriel's head snapped up and she pulled the black runestone from her robe's pocket. Thranduil side-eyed the captain as she turned the stone over and over in her palm.
Tauriel turned the stone to the rune-etched side and ran her fingers through the carvings. She knew what the word meant. Kili had taught her the Khuzdul when they were together at Laketown. He had given it to her before she had left, as a reminder for her to find him after the fighting so they could be together. The memories burned her mind and fresh tears stung behind her eyes. Her hand closed around the stone until her knuckles turned white. More tears dropped onto her hand and Tauriel sobbed hopelessly.
She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm and the rob dropped off her shoulders, pooling lifelessly around her elbows. Thranduil was confused, at best. He had never seen Tauriel like this. He had never seen her cry at all for that fact. He remembered one time, when his wife was still alive, that she cried like this. It was a very long time ago though. Legolas had gone out on patrol and was carried back in by some guards who had found him half dead in the forest. Some Orcs had over powered him and left him for dead. His wife was beside herself and blamed herself for letting him go out. All THranduil did was out her arms around her and hold her until she calmed down. Granted such an action would be considered inappropriate now, all he could do was talk.
"I know you loved him, Tauriel. It was not hard to figure out. It was painfully obvious when we questioned that Orc. Normally you wouldn't have been phased, but when he mentioned shooting the dwarfling with a Morgul arrow, you changed. Legolas also told me about how you stayed back at Laketown to heal him. As I said...it was painfully obvious."
Tauriel rose off the bench and strode over to the window and sat down on the sill. Her toes brushing by a flowering tree under the window.
"Tonight there is a firemoon. Nothing on this Earth could remind me more of Kili. The runes say 'return'. It was given to him from his mother before he left for the mountain so he would remember his promise to her. His promise to come home. He told me that she thinks he is reckless. She was right," Tauriel smiled at the thought, but it faded almost immediately.
"I can do nothing but offer my condolences. While I do not care for one dead dwarf, it seems you do." the king stood and went for the door.
His words hit Tauriel like brick in a puddle, and she broke down sobbing again. Regardless she offered him her thanks, "thank you, my lord, for your sympathies. I did not mean to disturb you with my personal matters, but even having the presence of someone else is comforting."
She turned around to face the king, but found the room empty. He must've left when she was talking and she hadn't even heard him. Tauriel looked down at the runestone in her hand, then stared off at the firemoon before her. She couldn't help remember Kili's words in her head.
You cannot be her. She is far away. She...she is far, far away from me. And she walks in starlight in another world. It was just a dream. Do you think she could have loved me?