Disclaimer: It's flattering that you people seem to think I own this, it really is. But I don't.
A/N: Hello! Well, this chapter is entirely about Jaden, so Jay fans shall rejoice! Yay! The next chapter will probably be about Leigh and Boromir on the other side of the looking glass, so... yeah. Oh, yes. The reviews for the last chapter were great! Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart! It would be better if everyone who reviewed the time before that could keep it comin', though... boy, I AM getting spoiled, aren't I? Well, thanks for reading! See you at the end!
"Is love a fancy or a feeling?" -William Shakespeare
Star-Struck
Jaden woke as grey-faced dawn kissed the earth below. It seemed that nearly everyone and everything else was still working themselves free of sleep's silky webs; even the noisome birds that nested right outside Jaden's window were still silent. She let herself drift between the reality of dreams and the stone room surrounding her for a few more moments before she rose from beneath her warm blankets and dressed herself for the day ahead. Aragorn might be unhappy with her, but she had no intention of heading straight for the tumultuous throne room and the debate that would rage there throughout the day. The sky offered promises of a lovely day outside, and Jaden wanted to bask in the fresh air again after her dark episode with Ramdur.
Above her, the gold streaks in the heavens began to melt into a flawless blue field as the dawn yawned and stretched. As she had thought, very few people were up and about, and most of these were tradesmen and craftspeople whose arts demanded the cost of early relinquishment of sleep. The first place she went was the royal kitchens. Here, too, the people were already busy at their assigned tasks, and one of the cooks handed Jaden her requested roll without a second glance. She munched as she walked towards the lower levels, thinking of how handy the cooks' early distraction might be for Leigh and her regular kitchen raids.
When her feet led her past an open garden where a flower vendor was hard at work clipping that day's best blooms she allowed herself a rest and watched with interest as he scrutinized each flowers for perfection before clipping them. As the man laid a tight handful of yellow roses into one of his long baskets, he just happened to look up and see Jaden standing a short distance away, watching him. He bowed with a friendlier manner than the strict peacocks of the court, and he thrust out one of his yellow blossoms towards the young lady. Jaden shook her head and held out her hands, showing that she had no money, but the man beckoned her over incessantly. When at last she finally did come over to him, he happily presented her with the yellow rose and said cheerfully, "A pretty flower for a pretty lady, my lady."
Jaden giggled, thanked him, and continued on her way, tucking the flower into her hair as she walked. It was amazing to her what a sunny morning and a sweet compliment could do to lighten her mood. Maybe she shouldn't be this happy with her friend, no, friends, missing and Ramdur on the loose, but she frankly didn't care. After all, Leigh would have preferred for her to have a smile on her face rather than sulking in desperate anxiety in the marble throne room. What she had told Aragorn was perfectly true, too: she wasn't worried in the least about Leigh and Boromir. There was something about the whole set-up that smacked of destiny, and she had every confidence in the Valar's abilities.
Then, as she strolled aimlessly down the steep lane, a familiar figure appeared coming from the opposite direction. For a moment, Jaden blinked, then she gave a small wave and an even smaller smile. Elladan seemed just as surprised as she was, as paused mid-stride before continuing towards her.
"Lady Jaden," he greeted. "I am surprised to see you; I thought you would be resting or speaking to the court."
"I was asleep before the sunset yesterday, and everyone knows my story as well or better than I do now," Jaden shrugged. "I just needed to get out."
"I can sympathize," Elladan nodded. "Elessar's court is magnificent, but..."
"It can't compare with the great outdoors."
The Elf nodded with a broad smile. "Precisely. So, tell me then, if you are not doing as your king or nursemaid would like, what do you plan on doing on this fine day?"
"I have no idea, actually," Jaden confessed with a blank look. "It just felt like the right thing to do."
For a moment the son of Elrond seemed to ponder this, and he looked up towards the stars for guidance, although they were veiled by the brilliance of the sun. When he looked back down at Jaden, there was something in his face, like he had come to a decision. "I was planning on going down to the Anduin this day to see more of my bro- King Elessar's kingdom. It isn't much, I know, but there is much rebuilding going on there, and the land is beautiful. Would you care to come with me, my lady?"
"I'd love to!" Jaden exclaimed. "By the way, I thought we came to the agreement that I was to be called 'Jaden'."
The stable hand on duty was a little surprised to find that he needed to saddle another horse, but he nodded his head rapidly and rushed off without question when Elladan made the request for a second steed. Jaden, of course, had no problem waiting for the boy to finish, and spent her time by Fengel's stall, where he was stamping and unhappy about not being greeted by his master that morning. When Elladan approached, the horse gladly let him stroke the soft main and strong forehead, but at the same time he sort of swung his around so that it hung between the girl and the Elf. He eyed the elven noble with one of his massive, bright eyes and gave an uncertain snort.
"Oh, please," Jaden rebutted, shoving the great head away from herself, "you're worse than an old hen." If the horse was bothered by being compared to a squat, aged bird, he showed no sign, but continued to watch his young master's friend and the strange, wonderful Elf man by her side.
With her horse saddled and a sort of picnic packed away in the saddlebags, Jaden trotted out of the luxurious stables with her new Elf friend by her side and the sun on her face.
The ride across the Pelennor was wonderful. In the time after the Ring War, the grass had grown green again, and with spring floating nearby the rustling stalks waved impatiently around the horses' flanks in anticipation of their coming growth spurt. A few winter birds were bickering over nesting materials, hoping to beat the spring rush, and a vigorous wind rushed down over the plain with all of Conor's vivacity.
The white elven stallion that Elladan rode put the modest brown mare Jaden had been given to shame. As they raced across the emerald field, Jaden was uncomfortably aware of the fact that Elladan was having to hold back his magnificent horse in order for her own horse to keep up. She ducked her head in embarrassment and tried to urge the quiet horse onto greater speeds, but the beast decided to be uncooperative and gave her nothing more than an extra snort in response.
The next thing to come to Jaden's mind was that she had not spent much time that morning making herself 'look pretty'. Not that her hair looked awful in the mornings or anything, it was too short for that, but it looked much better in her opinion when she'd paid a bit more attention to it. Her clothes were a bit sloppy as well, but she decided to just be grateful that she had elected to wear trousers instead of a skirt. Only Maylin had fully adapted no nearly always wearing a long skirt or dress; both Jaden and Leigh were still rebelling. At least she had a flower in her hair... but of course that might just look immature to an Elf like Elladan.
'Wait, stop, hold on a minute, why do you even care how he thinks you look?' she asked herself. 'Get a grip, Jay! You're the ward of King Elessar, now. You must not flirt, or even think of flirting!'
'Who's flirting?' the other side of her asked. 'All I was doing was wanting to look presentable...'
'You weren't worrying about 'being presentable' when you ran into that flower vendor,' Side A rebutted.
'He's not an Elf,' Side B spit back.
'My point exactly.'
'STOP!' Jaden screamed at herself. 'Going schizophrenic isn't going to help this situation. Elladan is a friend, just a friend, and I always care about how I look around my friends.'
'Sure you do, honey."
'Naturally."
'I told you to shut it!'
For the rest of the ride, the voices remained silent in the back of her mind, except perhaps to compliment idly about the passing scenery. This was good, because shortly after Elladan lost interest in silence and began to speak with her over the noise of the passing wind. He wanted to know how his adoptive brother behaved in his absence, and why she always kept her hair so short. She wanted to know how the Elves were always so graceful and why he always kept his hair so long. Never once did either one of them try to broach the subjects of the new threat, or the absence of Leigh, or how the other was feeling at that moment.
After what felt like only a short ride, they had reached the river, and they both swung down from their horses to greet the families living nearby who had turned out to welcome the two nobles. Women were hurriedly wiping their dirty hands off on their work aprons, and a few men had trickled in for a brief reprieve from the fields to visit with their king's foster brother and ward. All around the horses were running wild little children with minds bent on catching their fellows or, perhaps, evading them.
The ladies and young women flocked around Jaden, scrutinizing her hair and making far more of a fuss than was due over her simple daily outfit. Elladan was likewise surrounded by proud fathers and strapping lads wishing to shake the hand of or speak with the fabulous Elf. Of course, the opposites of all of these were involved, too. The young girls around Jaden glanced and giggled at the beautiful, immortal Elf in their midst, and a few of the more daring boys cast looks sideways at Jaden in her cloud of new friends.
One especially large woman, who seemed to have taken charge of her community after the ravages of the War, bustled in moments later, scattering the admirers like chickens left and right. When she wheedled out of Jaden the exact purpose of their trip and the exact contents of the small meal Elladan had brought with them, she bellowed out a series of orders to some of the smarter-looking girls, who scampered away and reappeared with a sizeable loaf of fresh bread, creamy butter, a sort of meat pie and a few small tarts to supplement their picnic. When both Jaden and Elladan exclaimed against this generosity the woman simply replied that it was the least their little community could do for the two great war heroes, and they had enjoyed bountiful provisions since the end of the war, anyway. Besides, some of the husband-folk were getting fat. At this the husband-folk burst out in disagreement, but their clamoring fell on deaf ears, and the she-general calmly informed the two travelers of the progress her cousin was having in Osgiliath, and recommended that they go and take a look at the goings-on there.
By that time it was practically noon, and they paused together by the green banks of the Anduin to enjoy some of their plentiful rations before continuing on. When they remounted, Elladan tried to sing a traveling song in Elvish. Jaden enjoyed this very well, that is until the Elf tried to coax her into singing along with him. At that point he fell silent, declaring it her punishment for being stubborn. In another hour they had reached their intended destination, and Jaden let herself sort of fall into the background while Elladan inquired from the workers concerning how much progress was being made, what materials were needed, which things they could honestly do without, and all manner of things that left Jaden feeling like a fifth wheel.
There was one upside to Elladan's being completely involved with his work, however, and that was that Jaden had free rein to watch him. Each race of Elves fell into a class of their own, she decided as she watched. Legolas was practically a race unto himself after so much influence from Gimli, but there were still many connections between him and his people. They were very simple in comparison with the Lorien Elves, and they had a much more earthy tilt. Rivendell had always reminded Jaden of books, probably due to the wonderful library kept there, but there was an extra edge to a lot of its people, Elladan included, which had been left from years of fighting off orcs and trolls in the wilds.
Elladan reminded her of the stars more than any Elf she had previously met, except perhaps his twin. More than trees, or light, or books, he conjured images of the stars in her mind.
When at last Elladan turned around and met her gaze, Jaden pretended that absolutely nothing was amiss, like she had only recently started looking at him. Offering a cockeyed smile, she jerked her head towards the bridge which spanned the river and united the two halves of the city. Elladan returned the smile and they went to rest on the broad stones to eat their evening meal.
The smells that had tempted them all day were not misleading. The food was fantastic. It tasted even better to Jaden, who had been surviving on travel rations for the past couple weeks. When they had glutted themselves on the soft bread, savory pie and sharp tarts, they sighed and relaxed back on the wall of the bridge.
"You seem to be doing better," Elladan commented as the sun first began to dip down over the hills.
"What?" Jaden asked.
"Better, you know... you aren't as grey as you were before," he explained. "I was simply wondering..."
"I think I'd like to go back to the City now," Jaden interrupted, rising bruskly from the bridge.
"Of course," Elladan reeled. "Yes, of course; it's getting dark."
The ride back was decidedly less cheerful. Unsure of why she had snapped back so fiercely, Jaden resorted to silence in an effort to sort herself out. It confused her, it really did. It was true that she had been happier lately, but there was just enough of the shadow left to make her cautious of opening up to a new person. While Elladan wasn't exactly 'new' to her world, a relationship with him beyond anything except casual friendship made her very, very nervous. Was she being unfair? She was quite sure she was, but she was also unsure how to keep control over herself.
Above them, the stars peeped out of the velvet sky, and the sun slipped away with a few last agonized crimson beams. The grass turned grey beneath their horses' hooves, and both riders called for greater speed.
When at last they arrived at the closing city gates they were still buried under a thick silence. Whatever Elladan's intentions by bringing up Jaden's invisible battle wounds, whether it be from friendship, simple concern from another warrior, or something else, Jaden did not know, and this strained the invisible muffler.
The horse stables were not empty besides the young boy on duty; Elrohir was waiting there with a deceptively calm face and folded arms.
"I worried for you, brother," he said. "You were gone longer than I had expected."
"I am sorry," Elladan apologized. "The progress being made by the river in Osgiliath is great, and there was much to learn before we left."
"'We', yes," Elrohir frowned, turning to look at Jaden as she dismounted and handed off the reins. "The council missed the presence of Lady Jaden."
"They can make due without me," Jaden shrugged. "They have before. Anyways, I needed some fresh air after... well, you know that story."
"Yes, I do," Elrohir nodded. "Lady Maylin informed the council, but it would have been better had it been a first-hand account."
"Jaden is weary from the long day, brother," Elladan interjected. "I am sure King Elessar shall have his say with her tomorrow, but for now let her be. It was a long ride back, and we rode in haste when we saw the sun sinking low."
Elrohir raised an eyebrow over this, but said nothing more to Jaden as she slipped away than a courteous good evening. Once she was gone, however, he gave his brother a severe look.
"We must speak."
.O.O.O.
The moon was shining brightly on its earthly equivalent below, the city of Minas Tirith, as Jaden walked herself home. As she walked, she struggled. Was she simply imagining the little laughs and smiles that Elladan tossed her way, or did they carry the secret meaning she believed they did? Once upon a time she would have happily flirted back with someone who looked as good as Elladan, but now her thoughts invariably turned to the traces of her tortures still lingering in her mind. She had possessed the strength to toss away the Ring without a second thought, but it had taken its greedy toll in return. She could not in good conscience give part of her damaged heart to a man in exchange for his own. It didn't strike her as a fair trade. Perhaps what frightened her more than her reluctance to become personally involved with another on that level was the frightful sense of foreboding and declared doom that hung in the air whenever the graceful Elf crossed her thoughts.
Unhappily, she slunk up the stairs and opened the door to the house she still shared with the others. When she reached her bedroom, she found the light lit and Maylin waiting patiently with a book by the open window.
"I was wondering when you'd get back," she commented idly. "Glad I didn't nod off before you came in."
"You're an Elf, I'm sure you could have managed," Jaden chuckled.
"True," Maylin nodded. "Where were you today? I thought I heard something about you and Elladan going down to the river."
"You heard right," Jaden said as she put away her cloak.
"Oh."
"What 'oh'?" Jaden demanded.
"Nothing 'oh'," Maylin shrugged. "Anything you'd like to talk about?"
"Not really."
"Good."
"Good."
"By the way, we're pulling a sleep over tonight, just so you know."
"Won't Leggie miss you?" Jaden taunted.
"Eh, he can live without me for a night," Maylin replied.
"Oh."
"Uh-huh."
They both prepared for bed quietly and Jaden found that Maylin had ordered a trundle bed to be brought up specially for the occasion. Soon they were both buried beneath their abundant covers, and the little light was blown out. As the darkness wrapped the girls up in itself, Jaden felt all of her hidden misgivings and questions bubble up to the surface.
"Maylin?" she asked.
"Hmm?"
"What do you think of Elladan?"
"Elladan? Why do you ask?" Jaden could have sworn she heard a smirk in her friend's tone.
"Just sort of wanted to know what you thought of him," Jaden replied carelessly.
"Alright. Well... he's very becoming, but then most Elves are, aren't they?" Maylin said.
"Rub it in, just rub it in," Jaden growled.
"I think he is a very good man," Maylin answered. "He's strong and kind, and you'd have the most devoted brother-in-law in history. Anything else?"
"No. Thanks, though," Jaden replied.
"No problem. Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Though she didn't realize it, that night Jaden went to sleep with a smile on her face.
A/N: My beta reader liked this chapter, she thought it was sweet and fuzzy, but then, she did admit that she was on caffiene at the moment, so... yeah. Well, say 'river' in your reviews, please! Pretty, pretty please?
Replies:
Angel500: Your wish is granted! Here be Jaden/Elladan, hope you liked! Thankies very much, you have made me happy! And yes, their names DO sound a lot alike... Thanks again!