Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own any of the character, places, names, or anything associated with the works of J.R.R Tolkien or the Lord of the Rings (books or movie, whatever). My characters are Anita, Leila, and Arlandria and that is all.

Author's Note: Sorry my updates are taking so long, but I recently got engaged and I am going nuts trying to plan a wedding. I swear I I'll try to be more timely in my updates!

Chapter 26: If It Means A Lot to You

The two Elves stared at each other, tension growing in the room around them. A connection invisible to the eye but tangible enough for all in the room to feel, crackled in the space between their bodies like a lightning bolt. Anita's one word greeting hung in the air, taunting them both now that the barrier of silence had been pushed and yet somehow not fully crossed. Their eyes stayed locked, each trying desperately to hide what they wanted to say. Legolas recovered himself first, breaking the eye contact and falling behind the mask of Elvish stoicism that served their people well in such times of awkward encounters.

"Lady Anita," Legolas gave a small bow, a proper greeting matched with her proper title. Without much success, Ani tried to hide the way she flinched when he called her by her full epithet. He never did that…it was too formal for two people that knew each other as well as they did, with such a carnal knowledge of the other. Even though she accepted that it was part of the whole charade they were both partaking in to protect themselves and the other's reputation...it still stung. Formal, detached politeness was the order the day, and Anita had observed the civility of Elves long enough to emulate the script with the best.

"Prince Legolas," She gave a small dip of her head in response to his bow, not low enough to be subjugated but enough to be appropriate, "Rivendell is blessed by your presence. I trust your trip was pleasant?"

The prince was only thrown for half a second by her newly found prose but recovered easily enough to respond without missing a beat, "Indeed the passes were still open to us, so we traveled without delays or complications."

"I am glad to hear it. How is your father?" Ani could feel something burning on the back of her neck that could only be someone's eye gaze. She didn't even have to turn around to know that the scalding glare was coming from her own father.

"He is getting along fine…he asks after you." Both Elves knew that was the nice way of saying that he talked about Ani behind her back incessantly.

"I'm sure he does. Please send him my regards and best wishes." The thin veil of civility that Anita was trying to upkeep was crumbling fast. She hated this. She wanted to feel his strong arms around her again, desperate to embrace him and tell him how miserable she had been while he was away. But she couldn't. Ani knew she never really should. Right now what she needed was an escape away from this awkward and forced conversation, even if only for a second to recompose herself. "Excuse me please, I do believe my sister is waiting for me. Hopefully we will have a chance to talk before you depart our lands again."

Anita didn't even wait for Legolas to respond, she spun on her heels and had to fight every impulse to run through the crowd of people to get away. Spotting Leila across the room engaging the Hobbits in conversation, she beelined it for her twin. Ani didn't have to ask to know that Lei had been listening into their conversation, their newly developed Elvish sense of hearing made eavesdropping a little too easy even in crowded rooms. Slipping between the groups of Elves and Men, she reached her twin just as dinner was announced and everyone began moving forward to find a seat at the banquet table.

"What was that?!" Leila hissed quietly as Ani came up beside her, determined to be seated next to her twin.

Anita responded to her sister's question, but did not look at her as she did so. Instead she glanced at her father, sending him a glowering look that would have melted steel. "That was me behaving."The last word was said through clenched teeth and was laced with a snarl. If Elladan realized the waves of loathing rolling off his daughter were meant for him, he paid no mind to it.

Tables had been set up in a long row to allow everyone to eat at essentially one table, though certain groups chose to remove themselves to the farthest end of the table away from mixed conversation. Seeing that the Dwarves had again segregated themselves from everyone else, Ani turned to her sister seeking an answer.

"Why do they hate us again?" Leila followed her sister's gaze down to the far end of the table to where the mountain miners sat together and just shrugged. Anita had ended up seated between her twin and Glorfindel and across from Aragorn, a set up that suited her just fine. Across from Glorfindel however sat the Prince of Mirkwood himself, which meant more awkward conversation. Next to Aragorn was a man whose name escaped Anita when she saw him, though she knew him to be the ambassador sent by Gondor. The four Hobbits sat on Lei's other side together with Gandalf at the head of the table along with the patriarchs of the family and Arwen.

Seeing the spread of varied foods before her, Ani soon realized how not hungry she was. Obviously the household was putting on its best face since every dish the kitchen was capable of creating was laid out in front of them. Taking only a bean pasty and a serving of raw snap peas to at least keep up the appearance of an appetite, her lack of food didn't go unnoticed by anyone seated around her.

"Not hungry?" Aragorn asked, eyeing her small portion from across the table.

Anita snickered without mirth, "Haven't quite recovered my appetite after being knocked around the ridges by Glorfindel today."

"I took more than my fair share of knocks under his tutelage myself. You will be thankful for such a painfully learned lesson if you ever need to raise your sword to defend yourself." Legolas watched the exchange between Aragorn and Anita with thinly hidden curiosity. Leila noticed his slightly cocked eyebrow while he listened to the conversation.

"Anita joined the guard under Glorfindel's teaching." Legolas nodded his thanks to Leila as she filled in the sorely missed details for him.

"I had to…" Anita didn't look at the prince, focusing her eyes on the snap peas that remained unharmed on her plate, "While Leila was learning to be a healer from Elrond I had to find some way to occupy my time." After you left. She didn't have to speak the words for them to find a way to follow her sentence. Ani looked up in time to catch a pained look that crossed Legolas' face for the briefest second. The ambassador from Gondor, completely and utterly oblivious to what transpired between Ani and Legolas spoke up just then.

"I do think it is perfectly acceptable for the guard to offer a lady of the household a ceremonial position in the guard." His emphasis on the word 'ceremonial' escaped no one; and with little attempt at subtly, everyone within ear shot of his comment turned their eyes to Ani awaiting her response. She knew how most people expected her to react, to completely lose it and blow a gasket at his words. But Ani had been warned ahead of time, mostly by Gandalf, that the Men of the great western cities had a very different view on how ladies should conduct themselves. Seen not heard, meek and mild, meant for a life of domestication and child rearing. Anita knew better, and chose not to rise to the occasion. Biting down on the inside of her lip hard until a familiar coppery taster filled her mouth, she remained silent hoping the comment would pass by.

"Lady Anita's position on the Guard is far from ceremonial. She has proved herself capable and worthy of wielding a sword next to any soldier." Ani wasn't overly shocked that Glorfindel rose to her defense, she was his charge after all. Glo was never one for mass amounts of praise during her teaching, so it was encouraging to hear him compliment her in such a way in front of a hall full of people…though how much was for his own pride she didn't know.

"Lady Anita?" The ambassador from Gondor raised both his eyebrows in surprised and gestured at the twins. "So these are the fabled lost children of Elladan?"

"And you are?" Anita hadn't meant it to come out sounding hostile, but the word 'fabled' implied that her and Lei had been the subject of circulating rumors, and the thought that her personal life was yet again being industriously spread about for entertainment purposes irked her the wrong way.

"Boromir, Son of Denethor the Steward of Gondor." Ani checked out for a moment as she tried to recall the large map of Middle Earth that she had seen hanging in her grandfather's study. She vaguely remembered seeing a place called Gondor but couldn't remember a single detail about the place except it was a predominately human country.

"If I may ask…since word spread to us that Elladan had two grown daughters who had been lost to him until their adult years and only recently been returned to Rivendell, we were wondering where it is you have been hiding for so many years?"

"In caves," Anita's snappy remark flew from her mouth without missing a beat, thickly laced with sarcasm, " We hung from the ceiling like bats and caught bugs with our teeth for food. We were just waiting for the day when…OW!" She was stopped mid-sentence as she felt an ironclad set of fingers pinch the tender flesh of her upper thigh.

"What my sister means to say is…we weren't 'lost' per se we were just unaware of our paternal heritage." Leila sent a pointed glare at her twin who was rubbing the spot that was sure to be bruised the next day. "When we discovered who our father was we immediately came here to join our family."

"A decision I'm still rethinking," Anita mumbled her snarky comment to the rim of her cup for no one's particular benefit as she took a sip of her Miruvor, earning her another glare from her blonde sister.

Mercifully, Leila turned the conversation away from the twins' origin and onto the subject of Gondor, a topic that Boromir was more than happy to chatter on about with little encouragement. Anita couldn't have cared less about where the white stones that built his city were from, or the history of kings, or recent agricultural production. Mentally she checked out of the conversations going on around her, turning the many voices and tones into a constant drone that was pushed to the back of her focus. Every effort of control she had was placed on staring down her snap peas, and only at her snap peas.

It didn't do her any good. Even making the conscious effort not to look anywhere but her plate, her eyes kept getting away from her and looking the one place she was trying so hard not to look. The first time her eyes slid past the edge of her plate and beyond the flatware, she caught herself. The next time she hadn't been so controlled; and before she was able to stop herself, Ani had stolen a glance at his handsome face. And then did it again….six or seven more times. Legolas being fully engaged with Glorfindel in a conversation about how best to defend their borders against the more consistent bands of orcs trying to invade, didn't notice her sneaking peeks through her waves of black hair until he chose to sneak a peek of his own. Glancing in Ani's direction, they both visibly flinched when they caught each other's eye across the table.

Anita turned her attention back to her plate with a heavy sigh, determined more than ever to keep her gaze locked on her veggies. Glorfindel had seen the strange encounter between the two, it had been hard to miss. They were both obviously exerting themselves trying so hard to put up a front of detached propriety, masking their real feelings behind pomp and circumstance. And anyone could see they were both failing miserably at it.

Placing a hand on the back of Anita's chair, Glo leaned over so his mouth hovered only millimeters from her ears, allowing his quietly murmured words to be heard above the rumble of conversation around them, without him being heard by anyone else nearby.

"It is not in your nature to hide yourself very well. I can see that you are struggling, and this meeting causes you pain. Excuse yourself, if you so desire, and I will defend you in front of your father. I can say that I pushed you too hard during training and that is why you are unwell." Anita nodded in response to her mentor's words and whispered a thank you before excusing herself from the table. For both Anita and Glorfindel, the intimacy of such close contact wasn't new or unusual to them, or anyone that had seen the close bond they had formed as teacher and student. But for a certain Elven Prince who was altogether very unfamiliar with the paradigm of their relationship, an overwhelming sense of jealousy and suspicion flooded him. Legolas knew that Anita was in no way his, he had no claim to her after all this time, but seeing another man be so close to her…jealous was an understatement.

Bidding his time until the meal wore down and one by one people began to excuse themselves for the evening, Legolas waited until he could snag a moment alone with other sister. He nearly scared the poor girl to death as she exited the dining hall when he suddenly grabbed her slim arm and offered to walk her to back to her room. Leila recovered herself quickly when she understood this was the prince's signal that he wanted to talk away from prying ears. The halls in the family's side of the house were as good a privacy as they would get.

"If my question is not too bold…when last I was here Glorfindel and Anita's regard for each other was very different. What has changed?"

"Oh that?" Leila's tone was half exasperated and half amused by the question. "No one knows what happened there. They just…"

Leila mad a flippant gesture in the air with her hand and shrugged, leaving Legolas with the uncontrollable urge to yell THEY WHAT?! But he doubted that would get him the answer he was seeking. Leaving Leila at the door to her bedroom, Legolas made a hasty escape before he turned and knocked on the door on the opposite wall of the hallway. If he saw Anita tonight he might do something they would both regret by dawn. Leila's response to his questions, as it was, had already left him feeling even more uneasy than before he had asked the question.

Last time he had left Rivendell, Anita and Glorfindel were far from being friends, but that had been seven years ago. Was it possible something else had happened in that time? Legolas shook his head violently as he walked back to his own room. There was no way, Glorfindel was so reserved and respectable, and Anita…well Anita was like her mother in so many ways wasn't she? And Legolas knew too well the story of Glorfindel and Arlandria.

Dread filled the pit of his stomach as slowly the prince came to accept that maybe too much had changed in seven years. Maybe for how much Ani had complained about the people here and how he was the only one who understood her, maybe he really had been replaced. His heart began to feel the slow poison of the dread as it became clear to him; the woman he had loved and longed after for seven years, could be in love with someone else.

If It Means A Lot to You- A Day to Remember