Chapter 14: Spoonful

Tauriel eyed the long dried out compress and the container with the herbs infusion she was meant to soak it in, lying untouched on the table for many nights in a row. "Thranduil," she ventured, arms around his Adonis body. They were lying in a similar position as they have been during the times she needed to tend to his cramping belly, only without clothes and without the need to lessen his pain, "we shouldn't be doing this indefinitely. Your subjects are worried you are still ill given that I am still with you every night."

"They are aware I hold court and oversee the recruiting and training of new troops," he offered conversationally, relaxed. It was a big change in itself that he could talk about the losses so factually, without clamping up. "They can't be that worried."

"Perhaps. But you can't hide from Alfirindaer. He doesn't say a word, but he knows there's nothing wrong with you anymore."

Thranduil rolled his eyes, "so which one are you more nervous about, people's concerns for my welfare or Alfirindaer finding out you bed me."

"It is you who beds me and not the other way round," Tauriel argued.

"You want to say you don't approve of my methods?" He tightened his arms around her and buried his head in her neck to cover it with kisses teasingly.

"No, not at all, it's just that we will have to reach some sort of form of normalcy," she tried to keep at the subject as his lips stirred sure desire in her, "sooner or later. What is the plan? Is there one?"

"A plan." Thranduil sobered, looking annoyed. "There is a plan. I was going to wait with it for a bit though till emotions among the people settle. Many elves have lost their other halves if you remember, I didn't want to remind them of their losses." The king grunted. He pulled back, mood wasted and extricated himself from under her. "This is not the first time you aggravate me with this matter, you won't stop and I'm getting tired of it."

Tauriel tugged at the covers, suddenly cold without his body attached to hers. She was also a little peeved at why he had gotten cold so abruptly and what their relationship had to do with people losing their spouses. Deep in thought and trying to figure him out, she watched as he got up, long hair covering up the scars on his back she had become accustomed to, lean muscles playing a rhythm as he walked to the small chest on top of the dresser, his cross features giving him his customary ethereal look. "I assure you, I know what romance is, but you drive me to do it differently. Of course, you always do, that is how you are," he sighed, walking back. "The plan is to wed you," he opened his palm to show her the item he took out the chest, a thin, elegant, silver ring resembling entangled leaves and branches.

The ring was beautiful, yet Tauriel still frowned at it, "you can't wed me. Even if you wanted to, you are bonded with another." It was the first predicament that occurred to her, the first argument she could raise in a sea of wrongs.

Thranduil sat with her, pensive. It looked like it might take him a while till he gathered the words and spoke. "I am no longer bonded with Alatariel."

Tauriel frowned, shaking her head, "I don't understand. How can you not be bonded with her." It was the first time she'd heard his wife's name, him being able to utter it too.

The king glanced towards the empty wine carafe, really needing a drink right now. He couldn't call for Galion at the moment though, he had more important matters to attend to. "She let me go," he lowered his head as if ashamed and again, took a long time to continue, "a long time ago. It was when we were trying to clean up the Old Forest Road."

The redhead leaned forward, putting a comforting arm round his shoulders. What she told her made him sad, that was clear. "You were injured in a clash with the Nazgul," Tauriel remembered. As a young warrior, she had just joined the guard and was more of a witness of the events, rather than an active participant, "the road was deemed unusable and it was subsequently decided we would entrench ourselves beyond Emyn Fuin and not venture out unless absolutely necessary." She recalled, prompting him for further insight.

He nodded. "I might have kept pretending to look strong for the sake of our people, but both the revelation and the injury had been hard to manage. I had definite thoughts of fading and then all of a sudden, I couldn't feel her anymore. She had made me promise to stay for Legolas before she died, and although he was in principle full-grown by this time, it could've been her way to tell me my place was still with my son and my people. I don't know," he stared ahead, looking devastated. "Nobody knows Tauriel…"

"I am so sorry," his lover tightened her hold on him. It all made sense now, his coldness that crept into every moment of his life around that time, his indifference and detachment. Alatariel left him once when she died, forced him to stay behind and then left him again. Certainly, he was the king, and had a duty to attend to, still..

"Do you think you could bond with me?" Thranduil turned to look at her, the uncertainty in his voice making him sound like a mere youth in love.

Tauriel's gaze was just as innocent, incredulous despite him repeating himself. In his eyes, a sea of pain, the adversity of millennia, looking for hope, release, salvation. If he really meant it, there was no way she was going to say no. "I don't want to rush you. I can wait till you're sure of who your heart beats for." He assured, kissing her forehead gently. "If the people gossip, let them talk."

The redhead shook her head. There was no denying where this was heading, they were always meant to be. "I would never want to cause you more pain by making you wait. Not when I am sure I love you," she ventured, trying out the word with all the implications of its meaning resonating in his voice. Given the hardship of the last few weeks, it wasn't the first time Tauriel had seen Thranduil's eyes water, but these were the first happy tears.

The End.