Another chapter, you said?
You won't be too mad if I continue to Gimli's death, you said?
(Maybe its just you, MegSuperfan, that wont be too mad for this)
Well.
Here you go.
…..
Gimli had always been told that death crept up on you the same way a hunting cat would, leaving you unaware of what was happening until the sudden end. That he would not know it was his time to die until after he was already dead.
But dwarves had never spent time with an elf, and had never seen several hunting cats attempt and fail to stalk its Leith pray. There was no sneaking past Legolas, not even for death.
The elf was already there with him already when he awoke in the middle of the night, sleeping fitfully on the bed next to him. The elf had taken to sleeping in his room, and his bed, three months ago.
Legolas always tried to defend that it was in case he should need anything, at any time. That this way he would not have to put unneeded effort into simple tasks. Gimli knew it was because Legolas had heard the first snapping twigs in the forest as death stalked closer.
But now it seemed to pace at his door. Impatient. Determined. Waiting.
For him.
Gimli looked to Legolas' peaceful face and actually contemplated not waking him. To let him keep this moment of peace before he woke in the morning to find Gimli empty, void of the soul and heart the elf loved so much. Before the shards of his heart that they had spent the last century painstakingly pasting back together again shattered to the floor.
He could already hear the wail of despair his best friend would make when he died, for it would be the same or very similar to the one that rocked Gondor after Aragorn passed. It seemed he could always hear that broken cry for help, any sort of help, at all times of the day.
Aragorn's death had not brought him as much sorrow as that cry had.
But he could never leave without saying goodbye. He would never,
Legolas would never forgive him.
He had tried to plan what he would say to him on this night. His final night. He had written it and rewritten it countless times but now it didn't seem good enough. Nothing could possibly be good enough.
As if death turned the handle on his door, Legolas' eyes snapped into focus.
He didn't know how much time he had left. "You know you are the greatest person or thing to ever happen to my life, right?"
Those impossibly deep blue eyes were already swimming with tears and Legolas scrambled upright to closer to the head of the bed, tucking his knee's under them. As youthful and swift as the day Gimli had met him. "Yes."
The word was in Elvish, but Gimli knew what it meant. Both the word itself and that the reason it was in elvish was that whenever he was severely overwhelmed Legolas often forgot he knew Westeron or that he should be using it.
"I'm sorry how much knowing me is going to hurt you." He was the one dying and yet Legolas seemed to be the one unable to draw breath, "And I know that means I should probably regret this friendship, and all our travels, and coming here with you." He reached an old, aching, and wrinkled hand to Legolas' chest and patted as you would on a baby, "Breath lad."
Brokenly, somehow, Legolas managed a breath, his hands clutching at the dwarves hand over his heart. Gimli could feel the impossibly fast heart rate and the slight tremble, it felt as though he could feel Legolas' heartbreaking all over again.
How many times could something so precious be put back together again?
"Please do not say that you do." To his credit, most of the words were in westeron this time.
Turning he hand in Legolas' grip he laced his finger with the much smaller ones, ignoring how they trembled. "No. I could never. I can hardly remember a time in my life that I did not know your smile now, and I do not care because I'm certain you are the best elf Eru could ever have had a hand in creating."
"Thank you," Legolas whispered, unable to get his voice to be any louder, "For letting me be your friend. For being my best friend, and for coming here and-"
But his voice was stolen from him and so Gimli filled the silence, "It was my greatest honor."
Legolas managed to get closer and scrunched lower, "Mine too."
Foolish of him to think he needed to practice a speech for Legolas to know what he wanted to say. Foolish of him not to remember that even when he could not speak Legolas understood.
Death swirled in from the sitting room, creeping its talons and its cold into his bedroom and Legolas began trembling even more.
"I love you, you flightly insufferable elf."
"I love you, you impossibly stubborn dwarf."
Death stood beside the bed. Not cold anymore.
"You be good."
And just like that, Death was gone with its new friend.
"I miss you."
Nobody was there to tell if he spoke in elvish or westeron.
Suddenly, violently, Legolas ripped himself from the bed. Tripping over himself or the carpet he crashed to the floor, too stunned and overwhelmed to keep his hands and cheek scraping badly across the cold ground.
He tried to stand, to run, to get away from the empty shell where his best friends used to be. From this room that reminded him so much of everything, he had just lost.
But his legs could not hold him, and his arms were shaking too badly to allow him to crawl.
He didn't know his mouth even managed this last desperate screech for help until long after this day, "Ada!"
…000000000000000…...
"Ada!"
Elrond was up and out of bed in not even a second and racing for the door before his brain bothered to acknowledge that it was Legolas' and not one of his own children. Thankfully, his children never had a cause to call for him in such a heart-wrenching manner.
He was closer to Gimli's room than Thranduil, but if he was calling for his father and not for him it was not a healer that was needed.
That did not motivate him, or Celebrian, any less.
They raced from their room and into the hallway, Celebrian needed to brace herself against the far way to keep herself from crashing into it their momentum was so great.
Elrond reached the door to Gimli's room a second before her and thrust it open, spotting Legolas wretching on the ground halfway through the doorway to the bedroom. Elrond did not need to check to know there was only three, and not four, souls in the room.
Legolas didn't need to say anything for them to know what he needed.
Without hesitation Elrond scooped the heartbroken thing into his arms, ignoring and unbothered that some of Legolas' sick had gotten onto his arm. Celebrian held the door open as Elrond half sprinted back into the hallway, as Legolas shook and sobbed violently in his arms.
One step ahead of him, Celebrian raced down the hall towards the nearest exit and held that door open as well, Elrond spilled into the night air and set Legolas on the grass. Celebrian abandoned her post and threw herself in the grass as well, cradling Legolas' head in her arms.
The door had not even latched closed yet when it burst open again and Thranduil joined Celebrian in the grass. Legolas dislodged himself from Celebrians arms and into his fathers just as quickly as Thranduil had arrived.
Thranduil crushed Legolas to him as his sobs seemed to turn into wails of despair,"I'm so sorry, my poor little leaf. I'm so sorry."
…
Now there also going to be a chapter 3
Hopefully I can post it tomorrow.