Ashryn (14)

I did not see Legolas, Boromir, and Gimli at dinner. One again, Estel, Elladan, Elrohir, Jael and I ate together, but this time outside on the balcony, the same one where the dwarves ate during the Hobbit. You would think time had changed it, but it really wasn't that noticeable.

Jael seemed dazed and tired, despite her afternoon long nap. After our delicious and quiet supper, I pulled her aside.

"Jael, are you okay? You seem really tired, even though you slept for the entire afternoon."

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm just really tired and kinda grumpy."

I grabbed her arm, waving goodbye to the others. "Let's go back to our rooms. I feel like we haven't seen each other much."

She yawned, then smiled. "Yeah, that would be nice. Actually, could we walk in the Gardens?"

I nodded happily. Fresh air would certainly wake both of us up. We walked around the gardens before finding a bench, hidden inside a grove of willow-like trees.

"So about tomorrow….?" Jae asked, glancing awkwardly at me.

"Jael, don't worry. They will tell us what to do. Or someone wil" I leaned over to give her a big squeeze.

"Thanks." She smiled in return. We sat in silence for a while, contemplating life and just how much had changed for us. Finally, Jael asked the question that I knew had been bugging her the entire time.

"Have you seen him yet?"

"Who?" I pretended to be confused

"Legolas, you silly!" Jael poked me in the side.

"Ow, and yes, I caught a GLIMPSE of him."

Jael squealed like a fangirl. "What did he look like?"

I deadpanned. "Like a bilgesnipe."

"Really?" She looked stricken and shocked at the same time. It was VERY amusing.

"No, he looked just like Orlando Bloom." I rolled my eyes as she beamed up at me.

"Can we go meet him? Like, Now?"

"Uh, no! Do you know how weird that would be?" I used a deep voice. " Hey Legolas, my name is Jael and I really like you, can I come say hi and braid your hair for you?" We both laughed at that one, but she still looked at me pleadingly. "And anyways, they'll find out about us soon enough. We don't need to speed the process up any faster." I added, knowing how hard it would to convince her otherwise.

"Ugh, I just wish this thing had a remote so we could get to the good parts and skip the bad stuff."

"Yeah, but then if would basically be the Fellowship of Legolas and Rebekah." I jazz hand-ed in her direction.

Jael glared at me. "It doesn't feel right, you know? To use those names. Our old ones, I mean."

I paused. She was right, it didn't seem to settle well. "Agreed. do….Do you miss home?"

Jael nodded slowly. "Yeah. I mean, this is great, and I love this, but I miss my family, my sister, my Liv."

"Ach, your Liv. I miss my Alana. And my family, and my dog." I sighed.

"And my cats…" She added.

"And my room."

"Bathrooms."

"Showers."

"Tea." Jael flicked her hair away from her face.

"Coffee." I amended.

"Hospitals." Jael poked my arm right on top of my bruise.

"Hey, careful! It's very very sensitive." I pouted jokingly.

"Just like you!" She grinned at her pun. "So I've been thinking."

"About?"

"The clothes. It's not the elves, it looks nothing like what they would wear."

"I have a feeling it's Varda and Ulmo. So maybe we have control over what we wear." I added.

"We should make a good first impression tomorrow. We don't want to embarrass Elrond. I was thinking full out fancy dresses and tunics. But with weapons, just so everyone else knows we mean business." Jael ran a hand through her short hair.

"But at the same time, we don't want to replicate 'men' or elvish style." I glanced towards the setting sun.

"But aren't you a "man"? And I'm an elf, right?"

"From what I seem to understand, you're a different kind of elf, like the differences between Elrond and Thranduil. For both of us, we're the same species, but from different areas. That kind of thing."

Jael noded. " Makes sense. So what do you think I should wear?"

I shrugged. "Something your own style. I think I might wear pants. I'm nice like that."

She gasped. "You can't make a Marvel reference while IN the Lord Of The Rings!"

"Um, I'm pretty sure that's the fifth or sixth reference I've made. We mentioned our OC's too."

"Ach, it just doesn't feel right!"

"Think about it this way. What's happening right now, to us, is actually a FanFiction. We are in an AU where our OTP's don't exist. And us? We're the OC's of the story." I smiled, proud of my analogy.

Jael giggled. "Why do I feel like this could easily be an OC slash Aragorn fic?"

I blushed. " I have no idea why you'd think that. Who knows, if it's an AU, then maybe he falls in love with that other girl, Eowyn."

"Phfft. You know that's not true. I've seen the two of you together."

"So you're saying it's okay?" A grin split my face.

"Like you said, it's an AU. But just be careful. I care about him as a character too. Just….baby steps, okay? Because if we end up having to go back home halfway through or at the end, don't break his heart. Or yours for that matter. I need my Ashryn fully functional." She paused, then smiled. "But yeah, the two of you look really cute together. I could ship it."

"Really?"

"Really."