AN: Hello, everyone!

This is the first fic I publish here, so I would be more than happy to receive your reviews. (Especially on grammar and spelling, because I'm not a native speaker, and even though I sort of did my best, I'm sure it's not perfect at all. Well, trying is the only way you can improve, right?)

As for the story, I don't own anything it's all J.R.R. Tolkien's.

It would be so great if you told me your thoughts on the story and the upcoming characters, because each and every character I'll be presenting was inspired by a very special friend or acquaintance or family member of mine, or a fictional character who also has a special place in my heart. And here I have to mention that whatever tiny fracture that is not Tolkien's in this story is definitely George R.R. Martin's (usually words or objects, it's not a crossover story), because I love ASOIAF and it was a wonderful inspiration.

Thank you for reading in advance, I hope you like it!

Haha, you will never believe this. So it was almost 10 o'clock when we got into the car to get me back to my place and my dad to the airport. But there was an accident somewhere and we ran into a horrible traffic jam (got 1,5 hours to get out, 'lucky' thing my dad's flight was canceled because of the snowstorm). And I thought, hey, I have my laptop in my bag, I can very well use this time to put the new chapter into a separate document, ready it for Doc Manager, do spell and grammar checking, etc.

So here is the new chapter, and I'm so happy I didn't need to put off updating in the end. And yeah... I can already feel the hate I'm going to get for this, but here goes nothing... :D

SOMETHING TO GET USED TO

Blond locks and emerald silks were flying in mid-air as the little girl disappeared around the corner of a cold white, snow covered stone hallway. No, wait! Come back! Don't go! She couldn't move, she couldn't speak. She wanted to run, to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth and her legs wouldn't obey. All she could do was stand petrified and watch, like the freezing statues along the corridor half covered in snow and ice blown all over them by the blizzard raging in the palace. Or was it just this corridor and not the entire palace? She wanted to go and find out, but how to move? Once she had been able to do this. Take a step, then another and another. It wasn't difficult, children could do it too. Not her though. How could she forget how to walk? Maybe if she changed direction? She turned around. There was no snow there. She turned back her head to see if she was just imagining the blizzard, but no. The storm was raging on behind her. It seemed as though it was winter on half of the corridor while it was summer on the other half… She shook her head in desperation; she needed to get out of here. She needed to learn to move her legs again, she needed to find her little girl. With a deep breath she turned her head back to the summer side of the hallway hoping it would give her strength and lifted her foot. It was working so far. Then, she took a step. And another. She could walk again. She was so relieved. She hurried along the hallway and turned around the first corner— There was a terrible cracking sound behind her. The fatal collision of stone and porcelain rang in her ears as she felt an awful chill creeping up her spine. She had to go back and see… Maybe just one of the statues… With slow, fearful steps she made her way back to the summer corridor. First she couldn't find the source of the sound, but then… a doll lay on the white marble floor, lifeless, motionless, its porcelain head smashed into smithereens under the neat blond wig, the blizzard raging in the background. She fell to the ground, tears blurring her vision, fangs ripping her heart…

And she woke up with a yelp, panting heavily as she called for her handmaid.

"Your Majesty, is something wrong?" Nanyn came running to her bedside.

"No… I'm fine. Just a bad dream…" Arwen shook her head. "Please bring me a goblet of water."

The girl nodded and Arwen sank back onto her pillows. This can't go on, she will go mad. This was the tenth night she dreamed this dream. Dream… nightmare, one would rather say. Nanyn returned with the water. Arwen glanced out of the window while she drank.

"Is the King up yet?" she asked the maid.

"Yes, Your Majesty. But His Majesty already left to meet the Lord Steward."

"Brilliant…" Arwen muttered wryly.

After getting dressed, Arwen asked for breakfast to be served in her parlor. Proper breakfast. Not something greasy or heavy or disgusting. When she had moved to Minas Tirith for an entire year she had been served bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast. There was nothing as disgusting in the world as bacon and scrambled eggs mixing on a plate, blubbery and jelly like, stinking with grease.

She asked Nanyn if any of her daughters were likely to join, but according to a governess the Princess Sybille already left, the Princess Aryana was, for the sake of surprise, nowhere to be found and the Princess Brianneth was still in bed. Arwen sighed. Where in Valar's name was Aryana again? And Sybille… Sybille was acting the most strangely with her lately. Was she still upset about Christmas, or was this something else? Arwen felt sorry for Sybille, she didn't want to hurt her, but… even the thought of having that man as family sickened her. She hated him, hated, hated, hated him, with hatred she never knew to dwell in her soul. Had her father hated Aragorn too? No way. Aragorn was different. A single finger of Aragorn had always been worth ten times as much as that whole bastard.

In the end, Arwen sent for Brianneth to be woken. Her daughter arrived yawning and pouting. She inherited oversleeping, as much as everything else from her, there was no denying. And Aryana probably inherited the love of roaming from Aragorn. If only Aryana had also inherited from her father the habit of letting her know about those roams before disappearing, too.

"Mother, it's eight o'clock" Brianneth pouted. "Who is having breakfast at eight o'clock?"

"My dear. Millions of commoners need to suffer the terrible burden of having to get up before eight o'clock every day. What's more, they get up at first light which is usually five o'clock." Arwen smiled at her taunting.

"It's a week past Mid-Winter. Even the sun doesn't feel like rising before eight o'clock" Brianneth sighed and pulled a jar of yoghurt in front of her.

"Tell me of your plans for today instead" Arwen smiled at her.

"I was going to have Sybille help me with my practice for the flute lesson, but she said she is going to see Lady Ëlyel with Florian…"

"I can help you with your practice if you would like me to" Arwen offered her.

"Really?" Brianneth's eyes kindled. "I would so! It'd be so great!"

"All right, then" Arwen laughed. "So Sybille is with Florian… and what about your Ceoron?"

"He is not my Ceoron!" Brianneth made a typical teen aged Stop embarrassing me, Mother face.

"Of course not, forgive me" Arwen nodded trying - and failing - to hold back her giggles.

"Mother!" Brianneth exclaimed half laughing too.

"All right, then what about Ceoron, who is not yours?"

"Nothing" Brianneth shrugged. "For a few weeks I thought I was falling in love with him, but I'm not. Or I don't know… It's just so boring sometimes. Can love be boring?"

"No, it can't" Arwen shook her head.

"I thought not… How do you know when you love somebody?"

"I don't know. It's different for everybody" she replied eying Brianneth curiously.

"Well how did you know you loved Father, then?" her daughter pressed on.

"Oh, how…" Arwen sighed at the memory. "I mostly just felt it. My heart was melting away every time I laid eyes upon him. When did I know…? I think you know that you are in love with someone when you are ready to do anything crazy for him. Like forsaking your immortality, or going crazy worried when Southrons abduct your beloved…" She mused as Florian's face swam into her memory, his face when he was telling her they couldn't find Sybille.

"Or giving up your family and running off from home…" Brianneth added musing.

Arwen shuddered. "That is another story, Brianneth. Let's not mix it in here" she said stiffly.

"I fear I will never love anybody" Brianneth sighed.

Arwen broke into a smile and drew an arm around Brianneth. Teen problems were the sweetest, most innocent things in the world. "My dear, you will love somebody. Such a darling girl like you will not be left without love. The Valar are more just than that."

Soon Brianneth left for her dancing lesson. Arwen thought it was a ridiculous notion to have poor young girls spending their days with lessons even when it was so dark, cold and grim outside. She talked with Nanyn, read a book and counted the hours till lunchtime, when she could see Aragorn.

"Oh, I thought you were never going to make it" Arwen sighed as she embraced her husband.

"I didn't mean to take this long, Arwen, forgive me" Aragorn smiled at her and they sat down to the table. "I'm starving."

"Because you never eat" Arwen raised a disapproving eyebrow at him, but he just gave a small smile at her 'needless' worry. "Honestly, whatever matter could be so important that you need to starve yourself…"

"I will eat, my love. How was your day?"

"Fine" Arwen sighed. No, it wasn't. She hated winter, it was grim and cold, but there was no reason to strain Aragorn with all the things she still couldn't put up with in mortal life. In spring and summer she loved Gondor, it was just as amazing and lovely as Rivendell or Lothlorien had been. But falls and winters were something she couldn't get used to; they just froze the soul out of everybody, people got moody and touchy, the world was gray and cold. And there was also the food. Arwen picked at the roast beef in front of her and twitched her lips. There was only one Gondorian dish she liked, Christmas turkey. This year, however, even the Christmas turkey tasted foul. It was not the same with one person less around the table. Christmas without Gilraen… Another thing she would never be able to put up with.

"Do you remember the twin dolls?" she suddenly asked Aragorn.

"The what?" he blinked at her getting a second helping from the beef.

"When Gilraen and Sybille turned eight years old we had two dolls made special for them. The dolls were twins too, with porcelain head and blonde hair."

"Ah, yes. I remember" Aragorn nodded. "What of the twin dolls, my love?"

"I dreamed about them yesterday night. I was playing hide and seek with Gilraen and Sybille and there was a snowstorm in the palace. I heard a crack and found one of the dolls broken on the ground." Arwen explained.

"Do I need to tell you what this means?" Aragorn asked leering at her silently.

"No, Your Majesty, I may not understand humans, but I have lived long enough to understand myself at least" Arwen replied her lips curling into a sweet, flirty smile.

Aragorn grinned at her and squeezed her hand before he asked: "This was the first time you dreamed this?"

"No… I've been dreaming this since we met her on the Christmas market" Arwen muttered.

She tried so hard to get the memory out of her head. The sight of her daughter covered in fine furs, her cheeks flushed rosy pink from the chill, snowflakes melting in her blonde hair, unshed tears shining in her eyes as she caught sight of them. And that horrible man on her side…

She and Aragorn had been standing there, unable to move, just like in her dream. Arwen remembered the urge deep inside her heart to run to Gilraen, to slap her for running off, to yell at her, to hug her tight and never let her go, to shower her blonde head with kisses like she'd do when Gilraen was still a child, to tell her how she missed her. And she remembered the wave of pride, hurt and hatred as she had stared at them, happy together. Gilraen's man had bowed to them, Aragorn had nodded back, Gilraen had just stood immobile while Arwen had just felt as though she had no idea whether she was going to fly at that sleazebag bastard and rip off his smug face for stealing her daughter or faint right where she stood. She remembered Aragorn pulling her on and the last snapshot of Gilraen's face clouded by pain, hurt, guilt and love as tears started rolling down her cheeks…

"Arwen!"

"I'm sorry" she looked up at Aragorn blinking. "Did you say something?"

"I asked if you were all right" he gave her a concerned-sympathetic glare.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just—"

The door of the parlor opened and a guard appeared with a groom at his heels.

"Pardons Your Majesties" the groom started bowing his head to them. Aragorn nodded at him in consent, so he went on. "My King, the Lord Torundir is asking if he may have a private word with you sometime today."

Arwen felt a jolt of outrage in her stomach. As if it was not enough that the man soiled and stole her daughter and now he even had to interrupt her lunch with Aragorn. He should just go back to that cursed fortress by Harad and never come back.

"He may not. I am holding council meeting today. Some other time" Aragorn said and waved at the groom in dismissal.

"Why don't you just send him away somewhere again?" Arwen broke out in desperation. "It'd be all for the better if he was just gone from here. Maybe Gilraen would come back too if her precious bastard was finally gone!"

Aragorn's face darkened.

"Have you any idea what pain I have already caused Gilraen sending her husband away? She thought he died. And if he had died? Who would have caused that? Me! How do you think I would go to sleep at night if Gilraen's husband died on my orders? How do you think I went to sleep at night when we thought he was dead?"

"I thought you sent him away to be rid of him in the first place…" Arwen twitched her lips.

"Do you think Elrond sent me away to be rid of me?"

"It is not the same!" Arwen hissed flushing scarlet red. "I… You… We never… It's not the same!"

"But they are married, Arwen. It IS the same now. They are married, they are family. How did you even think I would take away the only person from my daughter she has left on purpose?" Aragorn glared at her.

"What was your purpose sending him away then? That he'll come back to Gilraen, so she'll never come back to us?"

"My purpose was to teach him a lesson. That he'll to come back in defeat and he'll learn his place, that he'll learn some submission and Gilraen will realize that her place is not by the side of this man, but with us. And? I failed. He came back in glory and left me in ridicule for giving so few men to him. Whenever I tried to teach either of them a lesson, I failed. I told Gilraen to go away because I thought she would be frightened and it would open her eyes and everything would be back to normal in two month. But she didn't come back, she married Torundir and she is still happy with him. What else is there for us to do?" Aragorn spread his arms.

"You could have just imprisoned or executed him for high treason at the beginning…" Arwen noted dryly.

"Oh yes and watch my daughter die after him in grief?!" Aragorn frowned.

"You know I didn't mean that…" Arwen sighed in a whisper.

"I know" Aragorn exhaled shaking his head and pulled her into his arms. For a moment they just stood there hugging, trying to channel some strength into each other.

"I hate that man" Arwen muttered into Aragorn's neck.

"I know" he soothed her and kissing her brow, rocking her in his arms.

Am I signing my death warrant asking for reviews? I guess so, haha :) No, seriously, please let me know what you think, I would really love to know your view :)

I'm really uncertain about the update, shouldn't take longer than Friday, but I'll do my best to get it done sooner. It'll be Chapter 34 - A Memorable Birthday.