A/N: This chapter doesn't really have a specific time frame, but it does come after Legolas and Ithilwen become and "official" couple.
Miraear watched from across the den as Legolas and Ithilwen sat cross legged on the floor before the television playing a game that the younger elleth had called Mario Kart. They were nearly hip to hip and absorbed in the game, oblivious to the outside world, even as the number of viewers grew from one to a handful. The queen felt strong hands enclose her shoulders in a loving squeeze, and she tilted her head back to see the sharp features of Thranduil. "How is it that we did not suspect something sooner between the two younglings?" she asked softly.
"Do you mean yourself or my husband?" Morwen appeared from behind Thranduil, following the collective gaze. "I'm pretty sure you had a feeling, sending that necklace with him out of Lothlorien."
"You knew about that?"
"Ithilwen told me that's what Legolas told her when he gave it to her." Morwen shrugged. "Can't say I know more than that, though I thought I recognized it as a piece worthy of Mirkwood's family." She added that last statement with a glance at the king, knowing that while things were comfortable now, there was still some tense air between him and her parents.
Miraear grinned then, as a loud noise echoed through the windowless room. It appeared that Ithilwen's driving character had taken the lead in the race on the iridescent rainbow colored road. The screen flashed blue then white, and another noise - a squawk of disbelief - came from the elleth as Legolas' character sped off around her to win the race. They began to argue about the next racing track after the results had passed, making the screen shift from preview to preview of their next battle. "It looks like your daughter takes as good as she gives," she commented, reflecting on watching her son's green plumber hero fly unceremoniously off a treetop ramp as Ithilwen's auburn haired princess passed in the form of a giant dark arrowhead like object.
"People here seem to think that girls don't play these games," Morwen stated. "They think that if girls do play, they live up to their feminine stereotypes."
"What's the fun in that? I've gone toe to toe with our realm's best archers in the guard!"
"She still does," Thranduil told Morwen. "My people seem to have created this idea that I have instilled the skill of archery within our children. While I cannot say that I have not taught them as small younglings, it was this elleth that took the reigns and drilled them."
"Oh hush and watch your son get driven over by a princess."
Silence followed for a time, giving the two oblivious elves before the television time to choose another race without catching onto the fact that they had an audience. As soon as the race started, however, Ithilwen was left in the dust of the desert track. She sat there, almost frozen in place, before reaching out and slamming Legolas in the shoulder with her own, nearly toppling them both over.
"I can't believe you did that," she remarked, blushing slightly.
"You did it first," he grinned, not caring that she had driven him into one of the moving cactus-like creatures that slid across the sand.
"And I told you that was an accident!"
One month ago...
Ithilwen wasn't sure what had made her think of them, but she knew she had to see if she still had them. After all, they were hard to find online, and the stock supplier quickly ran out. She dug through her smaller containers of cosplay items and found the already built kit in a sealed container. The elleth removed the prop and slipped the pieces on, checking in her mirror out of habit. Then, an idea struck her, and the grin couldn't stop itself from forming. She almost had to stomp on her own foot to get the grin to go away. Her naneth knew that particular smile all too well, and it would easily blow her plan if she was anywhere nearby.
Downstairs in the living room, Ithilwen was right in her assumptions. Morwen was sitting with Arwen and Glorfindel on side of the sectional, and Legolas sat in one of the two recliners nearby. Outside on the front porch, she could hear the sounds of Estel and the other mortal men with the hobbits and Gimli, more than likely smoking their pipes. Fiona came in as Ithilwen reached the bottom of the stairs, smiling and moving to sit with the elves on the couch. The elleth had a hard time keeping her smile casual and not obvious that she was up to no good.
"I heard you banging around upstairs," Morwen noted. "Did you lose another bra again?"
Ithilwen flicked her tongue before she opened her mouth to speak. "No, that was just the once. An idea came to me about something I bought a while back, but I wasn't sure if I had gotten rid of it or not."
"And did you find it?" Morwen already knew the answer.
"I did," Ithilwen replied, grinning wide to show off two very pointed teeth on the top row of her mouth.
The reaction was brilliant. Arwen made a whooshing gasp-like noise that was very unbecoming for the new Queen of Gondor. Glorfindel said something in a language Ithilwen suspected was his lost-homeland's tongue. Legolas wasn't making any noise at all; instead he was staring hard at her mouth with an expression of shock mixed with curiosity and uneasiness. Fiona groaned out loud, "Oh, now we're gonna have to hear her make the noise again!"
"What noise?" Morwen asked.
"What noise?" Glorfindel scoffed. "What noise?! What does a noise have to do with-with that?! She has pointed teeth for Eru's sake!"
"You...you need to see Lord Elrond," Legolas managed to get out at last.
"Yes, Legolas is right," Arwen insisted. "Adar might be able to...do...something..."
Another voice came into the room. "What is the matter? We heard the strangest noises moments ago."
"It's Ithilwen, my lord," Glorfindel gestured. "Something is wrong with the girl's teeth!"
Celeborn and Galadriel walked around to peer down at their granddaughter, who presently stood still with her mouth closed. "Open," her grandmother asked, tilting the elleth's head back so that they may see what the issue was. Ithilwen's teeth were indeed pointed, which was disturbing enough. Galadriel extended one finger to poke at one of the pointed, canine-like shaped teeth. "That is most peculiar." satisfied with their inspection, they moved to sit on the couch together.
"Can anything be done?" Arwen asked.
"It's cool guys, really," Ithilwen insisted. "See, look." She bared her teeth for all of them to see, and a second later the pointed teeth retracted into her mouth. Or so it appeared. "They're false vampire teeth, and Arwen, I had no idea you were that easy to scare."
"I normally don't witness people baring pointed teeth at me such as that either!"
"What are they for?" Legolas asked her.
"A prop mostly, but they're good for a practical joke. I got you guys pretty good." Ithilwen turned to her naneth next, "And Fiona means that tschk noise when the teeth go in or come out."
Fiona pulled her feet up under her. "You should have seen her when she first got them. They come in this kit so you can mold it to your mouth for a snug fit. Once Ithilwen got her teeth set she didn't want to take them off, which was hilarious in the beginning cause she couldn't speak right and when she didn't slur her words she drooled."
"I've got both under control now, thank you very much."
"Doesn't matter. It still happened, therefore it is part of history," her sister grinned.
Legolas was still looking at her confused. "But what do you do with these...teeth? Do they function as your normal teeth?"
"Do you mean like, if I were to bite something, or eat or drink?" He nodded, not seeing the hand go over Fiona's mouth that belonged to Morwen. Ithilwen did though, and it was hard not to roll her eyes. "If I'm careful I can eat, but drinking isn't a problem. Just that...there's some things that want to get skewered on one of the fangs, which is more annoying than anything."
"You should have seen her eat a hot dog with ketchup on it," Morwen told them all. "Nearly gave Gene a heart attack when he came back from the bathroom because someone thought it'd be cute to slip them in while he was away."
"I bought them more for cosplay than for practical jokes," Ithilwen sniffed. "That was just a bonus." The elleth then spun on the spot and dashed for the recliner that Legolas sat in, coming to a stop behind it. "See, look," she said, opening her mouth. With her tongue, she pressed the tongue bar hidden from view, which operated the pair of fangs, causing them to appear again. "Then I just flick the bar again with my tongue to make them disappear."
Fiona made a wheezing sound against Morwen's hand. She wasn't going to remove it, but she wasn't sure if her daughter was red from suppressed laughter or lack of air. "I bet she's built up some strength with her tongue doing that for so long," she chimed in.
From behind the recliner Ithilwen sent her sister a deadly glare, which looked more menacing with the pointed teeth. This time she did roll her eyes before turning back to Legolas. "When I use them in cosplay, it's usually for a vampire." She dropped her voice down to a somewhat sultry tone. "And it's important that our kind feast on the blood of the living," she spoke as she leaned over his left shoulder. "Now don't be scared, your highness. I'll only take a little..."
Legolas sat stiff as a board in the chair, knowing full well that Ithilwen was joking around, but something about her voice and actions piqued his interest, not that he would let it be shown in a crowded room. He felt her push the collar aside on his shoulder with what hair had fallen forward, felt her own hair drape down his chest, her breath on his neck, as well as the slightest pressure of the faux teeth that touched his skin.
"Ithilwen, what are you doing?"
Ithilwen didn't look up, but she knew her adar was looking at her strangely. He did that a lot, but she was going to have a hard time explaining this.
Fiona didn't think so. "She's about to feed on Legolas," she said matter of factly.
"We do have a kitchen. There is no need to resort to such dire measures."
Legolas felt Ithilwen sigh open mouthed against his neck in resignation, though he wasn't sure if she was aware she did it or not. Before he heard the noise of the teeth resetting to their default state, Legolas felt a peculiar sensation...something warm and slightly moist dancing over his neck in the briefest of touches. Moments later, it was replaced by the cooler air of the room and Ithilwen stood by his chair instead of leaning over and across it.
The elleth at his side began a ramble of how she came to possess custom fitted vampire teeth and why she had them while he wondered just what she had done. 'She couldn't have possibly…' his mind tried to find reason, but there was none for what happened. Not aware that she was still talking a mile a minute, Legolas blurted out loud, "Did you just lick my neck?"
The room fell silent and there were varying degrees of shock and amusement on all of the faces present, except for Ithilwen. If Legolas hadn't been so confused, he would have thought the blush that was creeping across Ithilwen's cheeks cute. She stared wide eyed at him, the blush still growing. "Wha… wha… what on earth are you talking about?" she stammered.
"Just a moment ago," he swallowed. "When you were bent over my shoulder… you licked my neck before you stood up."
Not only was Fiona trying to contain a muffled wheeze, so was the infamous balrog slayer. Morwen and Arwen hid smiles behind their mouths while Galadriel was content to let her amusement for the situation show. About the only two people in the room that hadn't shown anything had been Ithilwen's own father and grandfather.
The pink in her cheeks seemed to get brighter. "Oh that," she mumbled, "that was an accident-"
"Are you sure?" Fiona asked suddenly. "I wouldn't think you'd blush if you didn't have some motive going on."
"There was no motive!" Ithilwen looked to the ceiling for some sort of guidance to help save her from this embarrassment. It was then that she remembered she had a task to complete. "I've gotta go get lunch ready."
As she reached the hallway to the kitchen, Arwen had to do it. She had to ask. "Ithilwen?"
"Yeah?"
"Was Prince Legolas suitable to your vampire tastes?" How she got the question out steadily with Fiona slapping her shoulder in appreciation was amazing.
Not nearly as amazing as the answer that she received, however. Ithilwen turned and looked back into the room, making eye contact with the prince who stared a little too hard at her, almost not wanting to know the answer. She gave a shy smile, and in her "sultry" voice that she had used earlier, she said, "His Highness was delicious. Absolutely to die for." Then she turned and hurried from the room, not wanting to see the look on her adar's face and missing the blush that Legolas wore as Fiona had buried her head in the nearest throw pillow.
"You know I can't believe the vampire roleplay wasn't a dead giveaway," Miraear chuckled, thinking back on the detailed account her and Thranduil were subjected to.
"Pun intended?" Morwen asked with a smirk.
"What?"
"Nevermin-"
Shouts of victory cut off Morwen as her daughter had won the most recent race, though even she would admit that Ithilwen had been fighting dirty. The elleth had moved from her sitting position beside the elf to somehow kneeling behind and over his head, using her biologically gifted assets against the back of Legolas' head to distract him into driving off the road.
"You cheated," Legolas stated.
"I did not!"
"Yes you did! You had to go and press…those…against the back of my head!"
"I thought you were a great elven warrior! How can a pair of boobs distract you from your objective?!"
"I didn't have a pair of orc…boobs…pressing on my shoulders to distract me during the war!"
"Tough," she grinned, enjoying seeing him blush as he stumbled over the word 'boobs'. "Your shoulders made a good boob rest, and you had it coming for licking my neck at the start of Moonview Highway!"
"That was my retaliation for you licking my neck, Queen of the Night!"
"I told you that was an accident!"
"Sure."
"It was!"
"I believe you."
"No you don't."
"You're right, I don't."
"You're incorrigible, Legolas!"
"And you taste delicious, Ithilwen." He threw his words back at her, watching her face flush. "Absolutely to die for."
x.x.x.x.x
A/N: Long time since I've update around here, nigh on a month, isn't it? Well there's some explanation: while I've been working on Nanowrimo I've also worked on the next chapter for Call Me Maybe, but there has been some…complications of the real life kind, namely family issues, depression, and a lack of drive to do anything including work/schoolwork right in the middle of the month. I've jumped some hurdles, gotten past some of it, and while I'm approaching the last couple weeks of the semester, I intend on working more extensively on these fics.
If you guys can hang in there, I'll have the next chapter of Call Me Maybe up really soon! I know y'all are vibrating waiting all this time, but I want to make it worth your while! Always, I appreciate the support, welcome suggestions, and offer virtual hugs to all of you (since I can't physically reach you lol). Stateside readers, have a Happy Thanksgiving weekend! Happy Chanukah as well! Stay safe when you're travelling this weekend if you have to go out, the nut house has let the crazies loose again for Black Friday! ;)
