"I cannot believe how far I have fallen, Galion. I was once a ruler of an entire kingdom!"
The brunette resisted the urge to sigh. They had only finished moving in their belongings earlier that morning after their encounter with Wennie, and the last of the delivery men had recently left with after depositing stacks of boxes in the living room. He honestly expecting his friend to begin complaining sooner.
"Look at this!" Thranduil continued, gesturing wildly to their environment. "This room alone isn't even the size of my bathroom back home! The kitchen could fit in the pantry - with room left over for the bathroom! The price of this apartment is far too high for what it's worth!"
"Sire," Galion fell into formalities just to irritate him, "A month's salary could buy the entire building-"
The noise of disgust the king made was rather unkingly. "If that is your attempt at a joke, it failed miserably!"
Galion only grinned, but then his look turned serious as he addressed him again. "You'd do it for Ithilwen, wouldn't you?"
Thranduil was silent at first. "She deserves better than this," he said. "Much better. She has better! She just..."
"Just doesn't know it yet," his friend finished for him. Galion was pleased to hear in his friend's tone that the soft spot the princess had once burrowed into him for her eccentricities hadn't worn away. For a while he had grown concerned that with the lack of clues in their search, his disposition towards her would have reverted, making it that much harder for the girl when she began to remember.
Producing a box cutter, the brunette waved it towards the stack of boxes occupying their living room space. "Might I suggest we begin to put together the rest of the furniture? It could do you some good to feel like you've accomplished something."
Thranduil took the offered tool and slid it through the wide tape on one box end. "The only thing I have managed to accomplish is keeping my son away from here," he said as he pulled the narrow end of the box open. "I don't know how long that will last, however."
Not having the patience to individually remove each piece from the box, Thranduil hefted the box into the air and upended it, spilling the contents out into the floor in a loud clash of panels, bags of fastenings, plastic sheets, and instructions. Shrugging his shoulders, he tossed the box across the room to land behind their couch. Galion had been watching silently as the pile of construction pooled between their feet. "Can you do that again with the next box?" he asked seriously. "I imagine your wife would find it most amusing if I could get it on video."
"Only if you can refrain yourself from making those 'that's what she said' comments while we work," he muttered distractedly, squatting down to search for the instruction booklet.
"I can't make that promise, my lord."
"I didn't figure you would." When Thranduil could locate the guide, it took him several attempts just to locate the proper language. "Elebreth help me," he groaned, "They really are 'Tab A' and 'Slot B' instructions!"
"That's what-"
"I will throw you back to Valinor, Galion!"
"And then how would you function without me?" his friend grinned. "Do you even know how to put together these kinds of cabinets?"
The silence that followed proved he did not.
"And I suppose you do?" Thranduil looked to him almost hopefully.
Galion took the booklet and skimmed the diagrams, brow furrowing. "Actually I do not," he stated, only for the booklet to be yanked from his hands as the king swatted him with it. "We are elves, however! We should be able to figure out mortal construction!"
It took them two hours to put together one bookshelf.
How was it logical for the faculty, knowing that the term's students were in the middle of preparations for their final exams, to blatantly tell them "You need to drop everything you're doing and meet with your adviser - now" in reference to registration for fall classes? Wennie never thought much of it in her first years, but then she hadn't had as difficult a time balancing her schedule then either. Now she was beginning to think that the faculty just didn't give a shit.
Naturally, her adviser was a finicky person to catch on a good day, and any of the available times she had checked in to book were filled once she had gotten ahold of someone. This left her with two options; she could miss a day's pay and go talk with her adviser the next morning, or she'd have to wait until after her exams were over, when the adviser would have time slots available for "last minute" appointments. The answer was a no-brainer. She'd rather get the exasperated look from her adviser for "waiting so long" instead of getting dressed in the dark, because the electric company wouldn't have been as sympathetic.
Had Wennie's schedule been normal, she could have easily explained herself, but when every waitress starts dropping shifts out of the blue that becomes harder to justify. "I'm sorry but I really need the money" wasn't something she could outright say. Given it was summer, wedding fever had taken off in spades, and the girls at Cogs and Coins were all going on honeymoon simultaneously it seemed.
Well, everyone but Wennie.
The restaurant being cut down to a few waitresses for the entire day meant she was working longer so the already married could leave to take care of their children. It was like her high school reunion all over again, except this time she was required to stay.
Wennie couldn't help it. She began to feel resentful of all the happy couples that came into the restaurant, even the embarrassed parents that couldn't get their children to behave. It's not that she wanted to jump on the wedding bandwagon, just that she felt like she had a gaping hole in her chest that nothing she was doing was filling. But then, how would she juggle a relationship right now? She could barely keep her eyes open in lecture some days, and when she wasn't studying she was working to pay the bills that seemed to tack on more "required" fees each month. She lacked any cute clothes for a date, and at this point she was pretty sure she'd accidentally server her date their meal out of habit.
As she ended the call with her adviser, who had sighed dramatically at another late-case, she groaned. Perhaps the Fates were conspiring with her school to keep her stressed.
"I want to speak with her."
"What did I tell you?" Thranduil sighed over the phone. "I said no."
"But she is my mate!" came the response.
"She doesn't know that!" the older elf's face was pinched in frustration. Ever since Legolas had been told that she had been found, he wanted to get to her. At the very least speak to her over the phone, which was understandable, but Thranduil could only imagine the terrified expression on the girl's face as some stranger began to pour declarations of love unto her all the way from Scotland. He had yet to even tell her about his son. There just didn't seem to be an appropriate time to bring the conversation up, and she was stressed enough.
"Listen to me, ion-nin. Galion and I have only been around her for a few weeks, and in these few weeks I can see why Bernard was so apt to withhold this information from us-"
"He knows?" Legolas asked confused. "And what do you mean by 'withheld'?"
From the small kitchen Thranduil could see Galion shake his head as if to say 'You're on your own, sire' when he looked to his friend for assistance. "He has been watching over Ithilwen since she began her course of study in this city. They started in the same year, and he has gone out of his way to become her closest friend."
There was silence from his son, and Thranduil couldn't be sure if he was plotting revenge against her kin for this discrepance or something else. When he did choose to speak, he had turned the subject away from the other ellon. "How is she doing, if you won't let me speak with her."
"She is doing rather well, Legolas. Her studies are proving fruitful, even if she does not believe so. It appears that discussing her lessons with us helps to review the material. There will be examinations at the end of the week, and naturally she is quite stressed about them."
"Ithilwen will do fine," Legolas said with pride. She was very bright in her studies as an elleth; he had no doubts that she would far exceed her own expectations.
"I know she will," Thranduil agreed. "However, she is also anxious about her place of work. The young women in the establishment have chosen to take their vacation time at the worst possible moment, putting her one of the few with extra hours to fill. Rest assured, I have seen her at the busiest of times, and she can handle the stress."
Legolas still didn't like the thought of his mate working as a waitress, but Thranduil told him she enjoyed interacting with the customers, who for the most part were quite friendly. As their conversation carried on into the afternoon, he told his son that she was beginning to speak to him and Galion about the strange dreams she was having. All involved in the discussion knew of what the woman spoke, but they couldn't tell her that she was regaining fragments of her former life.
From her descriptions, it wasn't much more than bits of landscape and the occasional artifact or cloth revealing itself to her before she woke. Still, it was more than any of them expected, and it was a blessing for a desperate mate to hear.
The only thing concerning Wennie that Thranduil never mentioned to Legolas was the current living arrangements of his mate. He never told him how she dressed in hand-me-downs, nor how she spent her waitressing tips to buy highly-processed groceries for cheap. He didn't tell her that she was wearing her mortal body down physically as she struggled to keep her apartment and sink further into debt as she attended school.
From his standpoint, it looked as if her entire world could fall apart around her, but she never brought attention to her problems. It was a trait that he respected, but it also drove him mad.
"Come get a cup of coffee with me." Bernard had said. "We can go over our work." Bernard had persuaded.
So why was Wennie sitting in the small business coffee shop being given a list of online video channels to watch in her free time?
"I thought we were supposed to be discussing our work?" she ground out before taking a sip of her coffee. "The biology final is Friday, Bernard. I'm still struggling to keep the specific phases between mitosis and meiosis straight."
Bernard held up two spoons. "Mitosis is like the production of these spoons, right? The machine that forms the spoons is like the parent cell that produces the identical "daughter" cells." He set them down and gestured between himself and Wennie. "Meiosis is different in that only select cells can go through this process. Me and you - we're different-"
"Obviously," Wennie snorted into her cup.
"That's what I'm getting at!" Bernard huffed. "Pretty much all cells can go through mitosis, but meiosis is used for reproduction, since it scrambles the genetic composition of the parent cells to create something entirely new. There's similarities between the parent cells and the "daughter" cells, and they both have distinct characteristics as well." He leaned back in his seat smugly. "There, we discussed. Happy?"
"I still need to study." She frowned.
"Just remember what I said and you'll be fine. It's multiple choice anyway, so you will be able to narrow down all the wrong answers."
Another person approached their table, setting down a small dish of freshly baked cookies. "Thought I'd bring these myself," the new voice said. "So how's the finals-prep going?"
"Unorthodox, Thia," Wennie grinned, looking up at the young woman.
Thia was another college classmate, a nursing major that had been debating on going back for dental study after graduation. She was quite peculiar in appearance, but Wennie found her sense of style refreshing. Her hair was a dark brown with bright streaks of aqua and pink; it had been her that talked Wennie into her current dye job. It suited her tanned skin and only made her violet eyes pop out brighter than they normally were. She was one of the employees under the elusive Nicholas Nordic, an older man that held the reigns of a small toy store as well.
Wennie had never seen him, but she had been told by Thia that he knew all about his regular customers to the coffee shop. That was how there were always freshly baked chocolate chip-walnut cookies waiting whenever she visited. Creepy or not, they were good cookies!
"Is Bernard here messing you up?" Thia teased.
"I am not!"
"Oh you know I'm joking!"
Bernard mumbled something into his mug as Wennie focused her attention on the bohemian-dressed woman. "I think it's just my nerves," she said. "Come the day of the exam I probably won't have anything to worry about once I see the questions."
Thia smiled. "You shouldn't have any problems, Wennie! You're way smarter than you give yourself credit for; you just need to take study breaks or you'll burnout!"
"That reminds me," Bernard spoke up again, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a folded slip of notebook paper. "This is for you."
Wennie took the paper and unfolded it, brows furrowing in confusion as she read the contents aloud. "What is this, B? 'Danisnotonfire'...'Grav3yardgirl'...'Good Mythical Morning'...'We Four Girls'...'Leighannsays'... Tell me this isn't a list of code words for the types of bacteria or something..."
Thia snorted and tried her best to hide it, but Bernard had no issue with laughing out loud at her inquiry. "They're video bloggers, Wennie," he told her. "These are the names of the channels they run."
"And why are you giving it to me?"
"To watch! You do have periods of time when you're not in class and you're not working-"
"It's called being asleep-"
Bernard groaned. "You know what I mean. Just check out some of their recent videos when you feel you need a break. I'm telling you that you'll enjoy them, and it'll help clear your head."
The bell at the shop's entrance rang as a couple entered, dressed for their shift with the required hats and aprons. Thia noticed them first and flagged them over. "About time you two got here! My shift's almost over and I wanted to go see the new flower shipments Mister Aster got this morning!"
The light blond woman smiled apologetically. "Sorry Thia, but I've been having problems with getting Jack to wear the hat-"
"I think it's ridiculous-"
"It's a baseball cap, Jack!"
"Exactly! I am not tossing hotdogs at Rigley Field!"
"It's blue! Be satisfied with that!" The woman turned and took notice of who sat at the table Thia was standing beside. "Hey you two! How's biology going? I'm taking that next month so I want to brace myself."
"You'll find it easier spread out over sixteen weeks instead of eight," Wennie told her honestly. She had been about to elaborate when Bernard asked the new pair if they had any recommendations for video blog channels that she could look into.
"Pewdiepie definitely," Jack said. "I got a kick out of the Slenderman ones. Esther here nearly hit the ceiling..."
Esther shuddered. "But which one? There's so many." Wennie noticed that she also sported a sparkling engagement ring. Of course she had been told weeks ago by the younger freshmen that Jack had proposed, but any plans to marry would be arranged only after both graduated from college.
"I guess I'm going to be kept busy, huh?" Wennie asked the group, trying to ignore the slight sting she felt at seeing another happy couple before her.
Bernard knew it was coming. It was expected, after all. Once the father knew the secret that he had kept from the family for the past few years, it was only a matter of time before the son would come to call upon his doorstep as well. Luckily, Bernard had the fortune of it being a phonecall instead, thanks in part to Thranduil's orders for him to stay away.
He had been asleep when the prince called, the horrid ringtone jarring him awake. His roommate Chris was already awake and moving around their dorm room. "Hello?" he said, not paying attention to where the call was coming from.
"You knew." The words were laced with fury that the dark haired elf couldn't blame him for.
"He told you," Bernard said instead, now more awake. "Look, like I told your dad, I had my reasons-"
"You still knew-"
"And I wanted to tell you, believe me!" He watched as Chris searched all around his bed for a clean pair of jeans, clad in of all things Spongebob Squarepants boxers. The blond man found one pair, and to Bernard's horror, sniffed the jeans before deeming them acceptable and pulled them on. Apparently as long as they didn't make their way to the communal washing machines on their own they were 'clean'. "I wanted to tell everyone for years about this, but I couldn't! Do you know how hard that was!"
"I know how hard it was to spend agonizing centuries waiting for my mate to be reborn, only to find out from my father that you have known for years about her whereabouts," Legolas seethed on the other end of the line. "Do you know how hard that was?" he mocked.
It was only after Chris left the dorm room with his pile of laundry that Bernard let loose. "No, I don't know, Legolas!" he said truthfully. "My mate is alive and well! I'm a great sod that has held the information about his cousin's existence from her mate and her parents for so long that I think I've developed and ulcer from the stress of not being able to say anything! But do you want to know why I haven't said anything, Legolas? Do you?! It's because I couldn't even tell her of her past life! She doesn't know anything! She doesn't recognize any of us for who we really are to her! How do you think I'd feel if I said 'Oh and by the way Ithilwen's alive but she doesn't remember you'?! I can't imagine what it would do to you if she were to meet you and treat you like a complete stranger!"
Bernard was up and moving around the room now as he shot off his excuses in rapid-fire. "I'm sorry, Legolas! From the deepest part of my heart and fëa I am sorry! Believe me, if you were in my place I would probably be riding your ass for not telling me you found Melda!" He paused to take a deep breath. "You have to understand, I was afraid to hurt you more by telling you sooner than later. I fully intended to come clean when she began to remember things, but that idea's been shot."
On the other side of the line, Legolas had been listening intently to the shorter elf unleash everything he had been holding in. He was still pissed to be honest, but from what Bernard was telling him, it seemed Thranduil had already covered every point. "I haven't told anyone else yet," he finally spoke. "I've made sure Adar will not as well, but at our next check-in I expect you to tell Haldir and Morwen. They need to know."
"I know," Bernard sighed. "And I will." He slumped down onto the edge of the bed. "Would you like to hear about how we met?"
Legolas' voice perked at that. "That would be nice."
"Now keep in mind we've only been...friends...for about four years, and I'm still learning about her second childhood, so she'll be the one to ask about that stuff. I think it was the freshmen move-in week that we met. At the college campus there were events being held through the week for newcoming students to help get them acquainted with everything. I had just finished moving the last of my stuff into my dorm room, so I was taking a walk around. When I saw Ithilwen, I knew it was her. She was looking around the courtyard for the library I think, and that was how I introduced myself. I told her I was a freshmen as well that was still learning the locations, and we toured the campus together. We were even lucky enough to share a couple classes together that semester, and from then on I tried to sign up for at least one class with her so she wouldn't be alone."
"Does Ithilwen live in the dorms?"
"Nah, she's got this small apartment near her work and the college," Bernard chose not to go into specifics on said apartment, since he had laundry to do as well. "Has your dad told you she goes by 'Wennie'?"
"I...did not...know that."
"It's short for Winifred," he elaborated. "It's the name her foster mother gave her, I learned, but she always called her Wennie. And before you ask, she passed on before I met Ithilwen, though she tells me that the woman took good care of her."
"Morwen will be pleased to know that then." A thought struck Legolas then, and he had to know. "Where does my adar and Galion reside, Bernard?"
"He didn't tell you? They're living in the apartment right across the hall from Ithilwen!"
Bernard was surprised that he didn't hear the laughter from Europe even after he hung up the phone, but it seemed that his discrepancy was forgiven with this piece of information.
It was nearly midnight when Wennie returned to her apartment, and to her fortune, it seemed that everyone had turned in for the night. She had no qualms with her new, curious neighbors, but she didn't want to have to explain that she was required to stay late and help clean after closing. She felt bad enough that Bernard waited up to take her home, especially since he had a history final that called for a decent amount of sleep.
Shucking her bicycle to an empty corner of her living room, she unzipped her boots and toed them off, beginning to shed layer after layer of clothes as she walked to the bedroom. Stripped down to her underwear, Wennie debated on whether to keep the bra on a little longer, deciding immediately that it had to go. She pulled on a soft pair of sleep clothes and walked back to the kitchen. Bernard had reminded her to watch at least one video before she went to sleep, and knowing him he'd probably have a quiz prepared just to make sure she listened. And since she was going to be up, she might as well find something to eat.
"I really have to go to the store soon," she mumbled, searching her cabinets. "I'm even out of ramen noodles! How the hell does anyone run out of those things!?"
Rooting around in the fridge proved to be a little more successful. Inside Wennie found a small amount of taco-seasoned ground chuck that wasn't much good for one taco. She also spotted the last pinch of lettuce, a smidge of cheddar cheese in the back and a jar of salsa, but she was out of tortilla shells. She pulled these items out anyway and set them on the counter, tapping her chin. Her stomach had decided that it wanted this arrangement, but she needed something to hold it all together. Upon doing another sweep of the cabinets in hopes of finding a bag of soft shells that had magically appeared, Wennie squealed in delight when she found a third of a bag of fritos. She pulled the chip clip off and tried one of them. Near-stale, but with stuff on them they were more edible.
Minutes later Wennie had dumped the taco meat, salsa, and cheese into a small bowl and heated it in the microwave. She shredded the good bits of lettuce and dumped it in the bag, adding the lumpy, red-orange concoction from the microwave next. It looked a mess but it smelt wonderful, and that was how she justified eating what she called the 'garbage frito taco'. Wennie rolled the bag down like a shirt sleeve and grabbed a fork. The way she saw it, the less dishes to wash tonight, the better.
With her late-night meal propped on her thigh, she booted up her laptop and opened her internet browser, clicking the video site bookmark. Perhaps it was the lack of socialization on her part, or that she was always studying or working lately, but she had never heard of video blogging before. With this video sharing website, she always assumed that it was filled with home movies that had been transferred from older media or video of bulldogs riding skateboards.
She told herself that she would watch two videos from each channel on her list before she went to bed. That would give her time to eat, relax, and hopefully get sleepy. Starting with 'Danisnotonfire', she found that these vloggers were nothing like what she expected.
This young man's videos were scary-accurate in some points, but the culture shock was evident when she went to the next channel. This young woman was located in Texas and made more facial expressions than Wennie had ever witnessed one person make in the span of ten minutes. She found she enjoyed the videos where infomercial products were tested, and even if it was disappointing that many didn't work, the tests alone were worth watching. Next came a duo whose logo looked like a fire-breathing chicken in their latest season. These two seemed to have done a number of internet challenges, including eating the elusive ghost pepper. After watching the tall man try to punch the wall after biting into the pepper, she moved to the next channel.
The channel 'We 4 Girls' was straightforward in its name; it was one channel hosted by four young women who all worked at a company and did the videos for fun. There were the occasional inspirational videos, one or two directed at something that called for a rant, and some that were the types of things that most vloggers filmed. Given that she couldn't find two recent ones that featured all of the women, Wennie watched a third as well. The brunette and the redhead of the group participated in the Chubby Bunny challenge, and the redhead kept pulling faces with each addition, making the brunette laugh more. The strawberry blonde uploaded a video days ago about the things she considered her favorites for the previous month and what she liked about them. Finally, the other blond did a makeup tutorial on a light-and-frosty themed look for the Christmas season.
Having long-finished her mishmash of leftover food, Wennie got up to toss the empty bag in the trash when she saw that it was almost 2:30 in the morning. Wincing, she allowed herself to watch only two more videos before going to sleep. She'd have a late class thankfully, but she still had to cover a shift before and afterwards. With that she selected one from the 'Leighannsays' channel about everything she currently carried in her purse. For the other, she watched the first of the multipart series of 'Pewdiepie' playing Outlast.
The next time she saw Jack she was going to get him for making her spit her soda across the room because of his suggestion. It was bad enough that she feared she had laughed hard enough to wake the rest of the building. It was worse that most of the soda came up her nose.
-x-x-x-x-x-
A/N: It's been a lot longer than I expected with an update, and all I can say is that I haven't been good. I hit a major funk in July that made me just not want to do anything, and when the inspiration came back I had my first exam (which I passed!). So I'm on my second course now, juggling it, work, class webinars, and this story of course. The next two chapter outlines are written, and I'll get on those quickly.
By the way, any guesses about the 'faceless' girls in the web channel? You've seen them before if you read the other story. Also, how do you think the pacing is going with this story? Is it moving too fast? Too slow? I don't see it being *as long* as Call Me Maybe; maybe half the length. Since I'm not following the same path I took with the other story I guess it just seems faster. As always, you guys are the best, and if you've got anything you want to say about the story comment and tell me!