I know, it's late. Life gets in the way. But here it is, Chapter 37. I will post 38 this weekend to make up for my lapse. Enjoy!

Saelhir woke to a bright light shining on his face. He blinked away the sleep, the sun shining over the hedge into his eyes. It was just after dawn, and he had somehow managed to sleep right through the night in the middle of the garden.

He stayed still, conscious of the fact that Breigel was still sleeping against his chest. Even in the unusual position he found himself, he felt more refreshed and ready to face the day than he had in a very long time. He had little doubt why. And unfortunately, he had to move the source of that contentment so he could go to training.

"Bree," he whispered softly, gently running his fingers through her hair. "Bree, I have to get up to go to training soon."

She just mumbled something incoherent, shifting slightly to press her cheek against his chest. Sighing, Saelhir slipped out from behind her, picking up the sleepy elleth carefully. He carried her into the house, taking her to his room where he set her gently on the bed, letting her curl up in his sheets as he changed.

"I have to go to training now Bree," he said quietly, sitting beside her on the bed. "You can stay here as long as you want."

She murmured that she understood, her eyes shut against the sun coming in through the window. Smiling, Saelhir kissed her forehead before standing, leaving her to sleep.

"Is Breigel still here?" Icaria asked as he walked into the kitchen, intent on having at least a little bit of breakfast considering he had missed dinner the night before.

"She's sleeping in my room," Saelhir said, grabbing an apple and taking a bite. "Will you make her breakfast when she wakes up? She's a little depressed about leaving."

"Of course," Icaria said warmly, kissing her son's cheek. She held his arms for a moment, making him uncomfortable as she stared up at him.

"Did you want something, Naneth?"

"I just like seeing you like this," she said fondly. "I like seeing you in love." Saelhir was startled by this declaration, and he felt his ears darken. But his mother just kissed his cheek again before pushing him towards the door. "Now get to training. You do not want to be late."

Breigel dozed for most of the morning. She drifted in between sleep and consciousness, both filled with memories of Saelhir. Lying in his bed, curled up in the sheets that smelled like him, she could think of little else. Not that she wanted to. It was comforting, almost like having a piece of him with her even in his absence. But even that was not enough to keep her from the melancholy of knowing that soon she would be parted from him again, with only her memories to remind her.

Eventually she smelled breakfast cooking, the sweet scent of fresh bread filling the air around her. She buried her face further into the sheets around her, the smell distracting her from her thoughts. But she was not able to hide for long.

"Breigel, dear, would you like some breakfast?"

She looked up from under the sheets to see Icaria standing in the doorway, sympathetic smile on her face. Sighing, Breigel sat up, deciding she best face the day since no amount of denial was going to change the fact that soon she would be leaving for home.

"Yes, please," she said, following Icaria back into the kitchen. She sat at the tiny table, gratefully accepting warm bread and jam from her hostess, sipping a soothing cup of tea as she ate slowly.

"How are you feeling?"

"I am alright, I guess," Breigel said sadly. "I just hadn't really thought about leaving yet, so it surprised me."

"Don't worry, Thorontur and I have already been discussing visiting Taurost soon. You and Saelhir will not be apart for long."

"Will you be staying in Taurost this time?" Breigel asked, looking up intently.

"No, not with the new baby here," Icaria said. "But Saelhir is an adult now, and I will not force him to live here when his heart is in Taurost." She paused, looking solemnly into her teacup. "I regret taking him away when you were younger. I had no idea what it would do to you both. It was selfish of me and I will not make that mistake again. I will miss him," she said, looking up at Breigel with a motherly smile, "but I know he will be happy with you."

"It may have hurt at the time," Breigel said softly. "But I think our separation was not all bad. I think it showed me how important Saelhir is to me, and what I am missing when he is gone. I can appreciate all he does for me better now."

"Promise me you will take good care of him?" Icaria said warmly. "He needs someone watching out for him sometimes."

"I promise," Breigel said, feeling some measure of peace with Icaria's reassurance and support. "He will be in good hands."

"I have no doubts."

Saelhir was distracted. Going through sword forms as usual, his mind wandered far away from the practice field, thinking about the elleth currently curled up in his bed. He was so focused on this train of thought that he did not immediately notice the Captain stop beside him, a frown on his face.

"Saelhir!"

"Yes Captain?"

"What are you doing?"

"Practice forms, sir," he said, confused as to why the Captain was asking. It was then that he noticed all his peers had stopped, and they were staring at him as if he had said he was dancing with an Orc.

"Whose practice forms?" It took Saelhir a moment to realize that he had in fact been doing the forms Tinwe had taught him, not the ones he was suppose to be practicing at that moment.

"I am sorry, Captain," he said, immediately dropping his sword and bowing his head respectfully to his superior. "I have been having supplemental training sessions with Princess Tinwe and I must have unintentionally started those instead."

"Show me," the Captain said firmly. "The rest of you, to the stables. Saddle up." The movement to put away swords was slow, the rest of the recruits wishing to watch to see if Saelhir was reprimanded. "Quickly!" the Captain said firmly, forcing them to pick up their pace. "Now, show me this form."

Obediently, Saelhir began following the steps that Tinwe had taught him, going through it as fast as he dared, knowing that it was best not to hold up the Captain. When he finished, the Captain stared at him with a slight frown, arms folded across his chest. He was silent for some time, and Saelhir fought against the urge to fidget under his heavy gaze.

"How long have you been practicing this form?"

"About a month," Saelhir said. The frown on the Captain's face increased, so he quickly added, "But I studied similar forms growing up."

"I see," the Captain said thoughtfully. "Saelhir, when it comes to most of your training, you have generally been average at best." Saelhir winced. He knew it was true, but it still stung. "Yet somehow within one month you have managed to learn this new form with more proficiency than the one that you have been practicing for close to three years." Saelhir had no idea what to say, so he remained silent. "Between this and your remarkable improvement at tracking after studying with Princess Breigel, I think it is clear that you need to be taught as a wood elf. It seems you have great potential, and it would be a shame to waste that by continuing in this manner. If you wish to forgo further training here in favor of your ancestral methods, I will not hold you here." Saelhir was startled at the suggestion. It was an opening. If he left now, he could return to Taurost with Breigel. He could be with her and simply join the guard there. But somehow, he couldn't do it. With extreme effort, he managed to find his voice to respond.

"Thank you sir. But I started my formal training here, and I would like to finish it."

The Captain looked at him closely for a while before nodding his understanding.

"Very well then. However, should you change your mind, I will not hold it against you. For now, join your peers in the stables. You have ten minutes."

Breigel decided to wait for Saelhir at his house, entertaining herself by snooping through his things. It was his fault, she reasoned, for leaving her alone in his room. He had to know this was coming.

Upon inspection of his desk, she found he had a number of items she remembered him bringing from Middle Earth scattered over the cluttered surface. She smiled at the ones that inspired memories of their childhood. But what really interested her was a folder full of loose parchment papers. Each one had a charcoal sketch on it, and she took it over to his bed, sitting at the head as she flipped through the pages, marveling at his drawings.

She could tell that they had been organized by date, as they got steadily more detailed and clearer as she went through them. She had a particular fondness for the ones depicting trees. She could tell Saelhir had spent a long time sitting outside, capturing each detail. The ones of people were less detailed. She guessed those were largely done from memory. But towards the bottom of the pile, she paused, finding her own eyes staring off the page at her. Unlike most of the other faces, this one was incredibly detailed, capturing her mischievous smirk perfectly. The image had slightly narrowed eyes, a tiny crooked smile, and a cocked eyebrow that told her she must have been planning something awful. Probably a memory from when we attacked Elladan, she thought, guessing that was something Saelhir was not likely to forget.

Several pages later, she found another image of herself, this one of her sitting atop Thala, looking back over her shoulder with a grin on her face. This could have been a number of times, but like the first, it was far more detailed than any other images she had seen of people. Even the images of Icaria seemed plain in comparison, and Saelhir's mother was far from ordinary in appearance.

The closer she got to the end of the pile, the more pictures she found of herself. Most were just of her face, others were of her engaging in some activity or another. She grinned at the one of her glaring angrily out from the page, arms folded defiantly. She supposed it would be hard to forget suffering from her anger and jealousy.

As she reached the last few pages, she glanced down to an image that made her heart stop. It was unmistakable. Even after all the years that had passed, Saelhir had still managed to capture every ounce of heartbreak that had accompanied their first parting. The image was once again of her, standing in the middle of a muddy path as the rain fell down, mingling with her tears as her eyes stared in sorrow out from the page. She remembered all too well what it had felt like from her end, but she had never realized how much Saelhir had suffered as well until she felt the pain emanating off of this page. Each raindrop, each hazy tree, each sorrowful line on her younger self's face told the tale of how much he had anguished over this sight. It must have been a recent drawing, based on where it was in Saelhir's collection, but the scene echoed with just as much pain as the day it happened.

Breigel stared at the image for a long time. Even when she felt his familiar presence enter the room, she didn't take her eyes off the image. She was too lost in her memories to do more than subconsciously lean back against Saelhir's chest as he sat beside her, his own eyes focusing on the page in front of her.

"I see you have been going through my desk."

"When did you draw this?" Breigel asked, ignoring his comment.

"Just before we left for the mountains," he said gently, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Talking about our childhood so much inevitably made me think about our parting. It's something I will never forget."

"I don't know why, but I never really comprehended how much it hurt you to leave until now. I was too focused on my own misery, I suppose. But this…this makes my soul ache, knowing that I wasn't there for you when it mattered. I was jealous and selfish, and foolishly let that come between us."

"Perhaps, but it doesn't matter as long as we are together now."

"Not for long, though. Soon, we will go through this again."

"It won't be the same," Saelhir said, moving closer. "We know we will not be parted for long this time. A year or two does not seem quite so terrible anymore."

"It will still hurt," Breigel said with a sigh. "May I keep this?"

"If you would like. But why this one?"

"To remind me that when I am suffering, so are you," she said, green eyes flitting up to meet his. "To keep me from becoming bitter again."

"If you take that one, then take something a little less depressing as well," he said, taking the parchment from her. "How about this one?"

"When did you draw that one?" Breigel said, laughing despite herself.

"After you chased away Triwen the second time," Saelhir said, holding up a picture that oozed smugness as the image of Breigel smirked at the right of the page. "I wasn't sure how to feel about it, but I had never seen you look so pleased with yourself."

"I wish you had images of yourself in here. I would prefer that over another image of me. Wait, what's that one?" She pulled out the last image in the pile, gazing in wonder at it. "Is this—"

"You holding Edlothiel, yes." In the image, her hair fell down to hide her face, but the bubbling laughter of Edlothiel was clear on the child's face. "I have a lot of favorite memories of you Bree, and that is simply one of the most recent."

"This is just before I ran away, isn't it?"

"Right before you handed her to me, yes. I thought about trying to capture the smile you gave me then, but I think your attention to Edlothiel means so much more."

"It can't be any more meaningful than seeing you holding her with such devotion," Breigel murmured softly. "It undid me."

"What do you mean?"

"I had a vision," Breigel said, bowing her head to hide her face from his curious eyes. "Not like Elrond's though. I don't think it was real, just something my brain did on its own. I saw you holding our child, a tiny little girl with my eyes and your hair. It was unexpected and rattled me more than I would like to admit."

Saelhir was silent, his own mind conjuring the image Breigel described. Their child. It was no wonder Breigel fled. Simply imagining the possibility was making Saelhir think many thoughts that he shouldn't, not when their relationship was still so new and uncertain.

"Do you mind if I stay here again tonight?" Breigel asked unexpectedly, interrupting his wildly drifting thoughts. "I don't really want to be alone right now."

"You are welcome as long as you want to stay," Saelhir said, kissing her temple and wrapping an arm around her waist. "You may just have to argue with my mother about sleeping arrangements."

Icaria's one rule for Breigel spending the night was that she and Saelhir were not to sleep in the same bed. She said that propriety was called for, even if it was a bit superfluous considering they'd been allowed off into the mountains alone. Neither Saelhir nor Breigel cared, as they ended up sharing the couch in the living room anyway. Technically, they weren't breaking Icaria's rule, though she sternly told them to behave themselves before she went to bed muttering to herself.

This arrangement became the norm for the next few days, until Tinwe stopped by, wondering where her daughter had disappeared to, correctly guessing she was clinging as closely as possible to Saelhir. She managed to get her to leave, hoping a few days in her own bed would quell the rising rumors, but in the end, it really did not matter.

The second night back in her own bed, Breigel woke in a cold sweat, her heart beating rapidly as she was ripped out of her nightmare. In it, she had been forced to watch as Saelhir was dragged away from her by Orcs, tortured brutally while she watched helplessly. Without a second thought, she swung out of bed, pulling on her robe and fleeing the palace, finding herself at Saelhir's in record time, only stopping when she stood in his bedroom doorway, her heartbeat returning to normal at the sight of him sleeping peacefully in his own bed.

But her arrival had not been silent, and he rolled over, catching sight of her standing in his door frame, her silver robe hanging loosely from her shoulders over her blue nightgown. Sensing her distress, he did not even bother asking what was wrong. He rolled to face her, pulling the sheets up to make room for her beside him. Neither said anything as she settled against him in the bed, feeling the comfort of hearing his heartbeat as she rested her head on his chest. Icaria's rule did not occur to either of them as they drifted back to sleep, both resting much more fitfully because the other was within reach.

Thorontur had an early morning shift, and was up before dawn. As he passed through the halls, he paused, unable to miss the prominent blonde head of hair within his son's room. Breigel was curled up tightly next to Saelhir, pressed up against his back with her arm around him, their fingers entwined tightly. Thorontur retreated back into his bedroom and promptly woke his wife.

"What is it?" she asked quietly, blinking away sleep as she sat up. Thorontur put a finger to his lips and gestured for her to follow him. Icaria obeyed curiously, frowning when her husband paused outside her son's room and nodded his towards the door. Looking in quietly, she was only a little surprised. But despite breaking her rule, she did not want to wake the young elves, so she just shook her head, sharing a meaningful glance with her husband before returning to her own bed. She would chastise Saelhir in the morning. For the moment, she was unwilling to interrupt the scene that made her heart soar.

Saelhir had a hard time leaving for practice that morning. He stood for several minutes in his own doorway, watching Breigel sleep. He had done so many times in the last week, but this morning had been different. Waking up in his own bed with her body pressed close to his, it had the echo of familial bliss about it. It was easy to imagine waking up to her warmth, her flowery scent cascading over him, every day. Many times he had imagined what it would be like with her as his bride, but it had never felt quiet so real, so possible.

With tremendous effort, he moved from his doorway. But instead of leaving, he moved back into his room. Leaning over her sleeping frame, he pressed his lips against the tip of her ear, letting them linger for a moment before pulling away, turning quickly before he was sucked into staying longer. He might already be late as it was.

Breigel had only been dozing throughout Saelhir's struggle, and she let out a sigh as he left. As soon as she felt his kiss, she was wide awake, conscious of the fire coursing through her veins at the feel of his lips on her skin. Like Saelhir, she was unable to ignore the obvious connotations of their morning. It was frightening how easy the whole situation seemed.

Knowing her mother would not be happy to learn of her disobedience, Breigel quickly rose, wondering if it was still early enough she could slip back to the palace unnoticed. Glancing out the window, she realized how high the sun was. Probably not then. Perhaps she could borrow one of Saelhir's tunics and slip out before she was noticed.

"Breigel, dear, do you want some breakfast?" Icaria asked, making the younger elleth jump, turning to see Saelhir's mother standing in the doorway, looking unsurprised that she was there.

"I should probably be getting back to the palace before I am missed…" Breigel said, trailing off, embarrassed at being caught.

"Would you like to borrow one of my old tunics? It will fit you better than Saelhir's, and I rarely wear them unless your mother takes me out riding."

"Um, sure, that would be great. Thanks." Icaria just smiled, gesturing for her to follow down the hallway. Tinwe was most certainly going to learn about Breigel's indiscretion. Breigel only hoped she was as calm about it as Icaria.

Thanks to Aquafin, courtnie. cambelle, Zip001, and brooklyn. meyer. 9 for the reviews. Glad you are still enjoying the sappiness! Look for Chapter 28 in a couple days. Cheers!