Authors Notes: One-shot on Aragorn and Arwen's first kiss as well as my take on how they first met. Simple and fluffly and sweet. Even heroes need special moments.
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Aragorn stepped out of the trees and into the moonlight flooded clearing. The black night was beautiful and calm—the silence was all-enveloping. The stars shone as glittering diamonds and the moon was a silver goddess in space. Yet all that beauty was dimmed in comparison to her, as she stepped out of the trees into the shadows.
With her she brought all the beauty of the old elf-queens that had long ago sailed away. She was an echo of the past and a promise from the fading elves. She was Arwen—the Evenstar of her people and the only daughter of Elrond, the wise elf-lord of Rivendell that held the ring of power named Vilya.
Elrond had been as a father to Aragorn when he was young, but several years ago he had set off to see the world for himself—not to find his fortune, for it waited for him, nor to find his path, for not only did he know what it was meant to be, he was evading it.
In the five or so years after Aragorn had departed Rivendell, Elrond's daughter had come home from Lothlorien, where she had spent many-a-year with her grandmother Galadriel. Perhaps it had been so arranged, perhaps not, either way it seemed as if the very fates were conspiring to keep them from meeting.
However, if it was the fates that were bound on keeping them apart it was chance that brought them together—whilst searching the woods to find a strange creature for Gandalf—a Gollum by name—he heard the sounds of a battle being fought, and after following the sounds to the source he saw an elf-lady and her two companions fighting a band or orcs. Without a conscious decision he leaped into the fray and helped the three defeat the orcs. Both then and now Arwen's beauty and her gentle yet fierce spirit mesmerized him.
"We've got to stop meeting like this," Aragorn whispered with a smile, trying to make light of something that both knew was not.
"What is it that draws me to you?" Arwen murmured, wondering why it was that he had such a hold of her.
After their first encounter, which was brief as Aragorn had a mission and Arwen had to journey back to Rivendell, they had met several times…either hungrily gazing at each other or sitting for hours talking.
"I leave tomorrow," Aragorn whispered to her.
"So soon?" Arwen asked, startled. She had thought he would stay in the area for at least another week.
"Rivendell is well-renowned, and both that and your father keep evilness from its door. Duty calls me away to where I will be needed."
"Duty? Duty calls you to visit my father, but you do not. Duty calls for you to come into Rivendell and stay and tell him news, but you do not. Instead you stay in the shadows and beg me not say your name or even mention you to my father. Why? If it were not you I'd believe you had committed some devilry and were not allowed to seek entrance to any elvish haven, but you are you and I cannot believe that. And need? I need you, Aragorn. I crave your presence and your quiet words. Without you I will be lost like a boat without a sail. Come to Rivendell! I cannot believe you have committed any crime!"
"Why? How can you be so sure?"
"You are of elvish—you were brought up by them. It is in your manner, your speech, your actions. You speak elvish like one of us."
"I cannot love you!" Aragorn whispered in agony, his hear breaking. "Arwen, I truly cannot. Your father—,"
"My father does not—,"
"Your father raised me! I know him and I know he will not allow it!" Aragorn interrupted.
"Lord Elrond raised you?" Arwen asked in shock.
"Yes," Aragorn breathed.
" That is why you would not enter Rivendell! You do not believe that he would let—,"
"Arwen. If I were to steal away your peoples light, their Evenstar, it would be betraying them after all they did for me. And it would be betraying you. You are an elf! An immortal, one of the Eldar! It is not for me to love you." Arwen was silent for a moment.
"Nor for I you," she admitted thoughtfully and slightly regretfully. "But it does not mean that I do not."
"Arwen, even were we to love, we would be parted, for I will not live and you will not die. Death shall come for me—you know I cannot stay with you forever, even though I would do anything for you, I cannot change the tides of fate of man's destiny and doom. I would transcend all for you, but even I cannot withstand the pull of Mandos' hall."
"But perhaps I can die with you," Arwen whispered, coming at last out of the shadows in which she had hid. With her pale hands she reached under her raven hair and unclasped the chain that held her pendant. Coming towards him until they were mere inches apart, she raised her head until her eyes met his intense stare.
"Arwen…" he sighed longingly but determinedly, both protective of her and angry at himself at the same time.
"Hush," she whispered, putting a finger on his lips to silence him. He took her hand in his own, and slowly raised it to his mouth and kissed the back of it. She brought it down again and placed the Evenstar pendant in his hands and looked into his eyes. "I pledge my troth to thee, Aragorn," she whispered, and, placing her arms around his neck, brought her lips to his for the first time and kissed him.
One doomed to die, the other to live, they had made their choice. Neither the call of the sea nor her father's pleas would change her hear; and even though he wished her to live he could not refuse her love. Like Beren and Lúthien they were destined to be, human and elf, man and woman, husband and wife. And whether they lived or died, their love would never end, stretching to the end of the world and onward into eternity.
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Authors Notes: Well, how did you like my version? Please read and review!!!!! And yes, Aragorn did not want to go into Rivendell because he did not want to betray his "father" by stealing his daughter. Oh, and the dates might be off. I'm not sure exactly when Arwen came back or when Aragorn was after Gollum, but heck, this isn't exactly going to be perfect anyways. Sorry it's short. So yeah, please read and review!!!!