Considering the awkwardness of his arrival Legolas seemed to take everything calmly and with dignity. The twins had burst out laughing, and some of the other's had barely suppressed their own laughter, mainly Celebrian and Faneth's parents. His father, sister, Gwaur and Faneth had only seemed to suck in the sound of Kirion's laughter while wearing smiles of their own. It was obvious that they hadn't heard Kirion's laughter in a long time.
Once the twins' laughter had died down somewhat they had directed their attention to Legolas' little brother and had him retell what had happened to make them race through the halls like a devil had been on their heels. Kirion had laughingly replied that a devil had been in the heels, Ecphen.
While the twins and Kirion were talking Faneth leaned close to Legolas. "Thank you." She whispered into his ear, "It has been a long time since I have seen him so happy. He has barely spoken a word since you had been captured."
"I had noticed." Legolas answered, "It worries me, but hopefully he will recover with time and attention. Perhaps being near the twins will help him as well… It looks like they have made up their minds to look after him."
Faneth nodded and snaked her hand into his. "I think the one who will help him the most is you." She smiled to him; "You managed to get a smile onto his lips tonight, that more than the rest of us were able to do. You even made him laugh."
"Yes, if this is the effect it is going to have then I should allow you to not only be late for dinner but run through my halls as well." Thranduil said trying to sound stern and to keep the smile from his lips, which he was failing miserably.
Legolas smiled sheepishly to him. "Look on the bright side Ada, there were no serious injuries."
At this Thranduil seemed to remember something and his eyes whipped down to the place the wound under his collarbone was. There was no blood on Legolas' tunic, so he looked questionably into Legolas' eyes. Legolas shook his head with a slightly exasperated expression.
Legolas looked over to where Faneth's parents were sitting on the opposite side of the table after the Peredhils and Glorfindel. They were already watching him so he smiled to them and inclined his head. Faneth's mother Gilrin looked absolutely awed and Fanor offered him a smile in return, before rolling his eyes at his wife.
Legolas chuckled and looked at Faneth once more, unable to hold his eyes away from her for too long periods of time. His eyes looked at her tenderly, and she was aware of his gaze for she squeezed his hand without stopping her conversation with Celebrian.
"Legolas I trust that you drank all of the tea I sent up to you?" Elrond asked gently and also looked at Thranduil, "You as well."
"Of course." Legolas and Thranduil answered at the same time.
"If you need more you need only ask." Elrond said, "Or go to Ecphen. I would hate to affront him by taking his job from him."
"Do not worry about Ecphen, Elrond." Thranduil said, after he had given Elrond a pointed look that clearly stated that Legolas needed more of the tea. Legolas glared shortly at his father, but didn't contradict him.
Soon Legolas felt Elrond's eyes pierce his, assessing him like the healer he was. He arched his eyebrow.
Do you need some now, or can you make do?
Legolas managed to suppress his surprise as Elrond's voice sounded inside his head.
I will need help now since you nearly drove my spirit from my body! ...I'm fine Elrond. I don't need any now. It's just a headache.
…I will send some up tonight.
Elrond's presence disappeared and Legolas breathed deeply. To tell the truth his daring sprint through the halls had done nothing to lessen the throbbing inside his head, it had positively made it worse, but still it was worth the pain to hear Kirion laugh. Even now Kirion's mood seemed better and he was merrily speaking with Elladan and Elrohir.
"Legolas."
Legolas turned his attention away from Kirion and over to his father, "Yes?"
"There will be a counsel meeting tomorrow morning." Thranduil said, "We need to get the patrols up and running as soon as possible and we need to discuss Dol Guldur."
Legolas nodded, "We should have had the patrols up and running yesterday or the day before that." He massaged his temple absentmindedly, "Where is my paperwork and the additional papers I had on my desk?"
"They're in my office." Thranduil answered, "Sorry. While you were resting I was using your notes on the patrols."
"It's fine. I'll pick them up when I head back tonight."
"Are there no patrols in the forest now?" Glorfindel asked from across the table.
Legolas turned to him, "There are a few but the routine has not been established after the fight. Too many have been wounded to form the usual patrols and I haven't looked into it yet."
"Do you usually handle them yourself?" Glorfindel asked with furrowed eyebrows.
Legolas shook his head. Faneth's hand squeezed his. "Aewon managed them with me. I'll have to set Sarnor into it, when he gets emitted from the healing ward."
Glorfindel looked apologetic for bringing it up, but Legolas waved away his concern.
The doors to the hall opened and some servants walked inside carrying in plates of food. When they had been placed before them and wine had been poured into their glasses they bowed and Thranduil dismissed them.
Thranduil took his glass and raised it into the air. "I would like to propose a toast and say thank you all for joining us here tonight for this celebration. You see earlier this evening my son proposed to the lovely Faneth sitting by his side now. Therefore I would like to say welcome to my new daughter-in-law and welcome her into my family."
The table erupted in exclamations of shock and congratulations from those who hadn't known about it beforehand, meaning everyone except Thranduil and Faneth's parents. Hithel was protesting rather loudly about how they should have told her and the twins were just shocked. Elrond and Celebrian didn't seem as surprised, but they were both showing joy and congratulated them profusely.
When the noise grew bearable Kirion asked confused, "You aren't married yet?"
Faneth, who was sitting beside him, smiled to him and brushed her hand over his hair, "No we aren't."
Kirion looked slightly baffled, "But then why did you-" He was caught off in that instant when Faneth hurriedly laid a hand over Kirion's mouth.
Only a second went by before the twins were roaring with laughter. Hithel and Gwaur laughed as well. Legolas suppressed the urge to bang his head against a wall when he saw a glare directed at him from Faneth's father. Faneth was glancing about looking on the edge of losing her temper. She soon started exclaiming something indignantly, but Legolas didn't listen to her words because at this moment he noticed something else. Kirion was shaking and tense. There were tears starting to make their ways down his cheeks and he looked absolutely mortified.
Shocked Legolas sprang up from his chair intent on reaching Kirion's side and comforting him. The noises around the table were placed in the back of his head as he focused solely on Kirion. As soon as he moved though Kirion seemed to notice him and his distressed face to a definite expression of fear. He might as well have drove a knife through Legolas.
Kirion scrambled off the chair and backed away slightly, cowering away from Legolas. He soon stumbled and fell to his knees. Legolas hurried forwards, but stopped abruptly when Kirion started talking.
"It's all my fault." Kirion rambled mortified. His voice was barely heard over the chaos. "I'm so sorry it's all my fault. It's all my fault."
Legolas' eyes widened feeling horrified. Something inside him told him that this was about more than what had just happened. He knew this was something deeper, something that brought a lot of pain to Kirion. He quickly kneeled down on the floor and said as soothingly as possible, "Everything's all right Kirion… Nothing's your fault."
Elrond seemed to have realized what was going on because at the next moment a sharp word rang from his mouth and the room was suddenly filled with horrified silence.
"NO!" Kirion muttered, "No! No! No! No! Everything's my fault! Everything's my fault!"
"No Kirion…" Legolas said softly, "I need you to listen to me, all right? Nothing is your fault. Nothing."
"You're wrong!" Kirion cried. "You don't understand! If I hadn't been there you never would have been caught! Aewon never would have died! It was my fault!"
"Where did you get this idea Kirion?" Legolas asked.
"Hithel said that it was her fault because she hadn't stopped me." Kirion sobbed, "That if she had stopped me I wouldn't have been there and then you wouldn't have been slowed down enough the get captured… That it was my fault."
"No Kirion, please, you can't think like that. We don't-" Kirion cut him off.
"I KILLED MOTHER AS WELL!" Kirion howled, "It was my fault! It was my fault! He said it as well!"
"Kirion please." Legolas begged and moved closer to Kirion.
Kirion scrambled backwards, panic and fear visible in his expression. He squeezed his eyes shut. "Please don't hit me." He mewled, tears streaming down his cheeks, "Please… I didn't mean to… I don't want to be alone… Please… Help me… Help me… Help me…"
Legolas forced himself to burry his own frustration and pain and said gently, "You aren't alone Kirion. I'm not going to hurt you. It wasn't your fault, you haven't killed anyone…"
"YOU LIE!" Kirion screamed, shot to his feet and bolted towards the door.
Reflexes made it possible for Legolas to immediately run after Kirion and he thereby reached him before he made it to the door. He locked his arms around Kirion and kneeled down on the floor with him in his grasp. Kirion immediately started struggling violently to get out of his arms. Legolas kept his arms locked around Kirion while pouring his calm presence into his younger brother. He closed his eyes and started singing softly into Kirion's ear hoping to calm him down further.
After what seemed like years to Legolas, Kirion finally stilled in his arms and slumped against him. His eyes were open and he was looking into thin air with a stunned and exhausted expression on his face.
Legolas switched his song to quiet words. "It wasn't your fault Kirion. It wasn't your fault." He kept repeating those words in Kirion's ear until seemed to come up of his stupor and tears started rolling down his cheeks.
"You didn't know what was going to happen that day when Aewon died… We don't even now if it would have been different if you hadn't shown up where you had. You're right that it wasn't very thoughtful of you to run out when you already knew that I had forbade it, but it wasn't your fault that Aewon died and Ada and I were captured… You're just a child Kirion, you cannot hold yourself at fault for what happened." Legolas whispered into Kirion's ear in a soothing voice.
"My thoughts have not changed on whether or not you're at fault for mother's death Kirion." Legolas then continued. They had taken this argument many times, he knew that the main reason Kirion kept wanting to hear that it wasn't his fault was to counterweight all the times Thranduil had said that it was. "It was not your fault. You could have done nothing to stop it from happening. You were only a baby and therefore that choice was out of your hands. The choice was our mother's, and she chose to have a wonderful baby boy."
"But he said…" Kirion protested weakly.
"He was a deranged lunatic that didn't even have the sense to treat me properly, how do you expect him to now anything about mother's death?" Legolas exclaimed, "Luckily for us he has gained some wits again and gives me right."
A small smile appeared on Kirion's lips.
Legolas hugged him tighter. "It was not your fault. Any of it." He whispered fiercely. "I am not going to hurt you in any way. I love you Kirion."
All the tenseness left Kirion and he would have fallen in a boneless heap of Legolas hadn't been supporting him. Legolas knew that his exhaustion was both due to the emotions he had experienced and the amount of calmness he was pouring into him. Legolas shifted him in his arms and lifted him. Kirion's arms wrapped around him neck and he laid his head against Legolas' shoulder.
Legolas looked at the gathering and saw that there were four categories he could split them into, tears, sadness, desperation, shame or guilt. All the females were crying, and it was obvious that Elladan and Elrohir were feeling guilty for laughing like they had. Hithel was also looking guilty, probably because she had been the cause of Kirion's thoughts about their capture.
Thranduil was though the one with the strongest emotions in his eyes. He was looking guilty and sad because he knew that Kirion's thoughts had rooted because of him. There was also desperation in his whole posture, desperation to help his son. Elrond had a restraining hand on Thranduil's arm; obviously understanding that Thranduil's presence wasn't what would be best for Kirion at the moment.
Faneth was the only one standing; she knew Kirion just as well as him after halfway raising him and her eyes held the same desperation to help.
"You were feeling guilty for what Faneth stopped you from saying earlier this evening as well, weren't you?" Legolas asked gently. Kirion nodded. "You didn't say anything wrong, the reaction was just because all of those around the table believed that you meant something else than you did."
Legolas ran his hand gently over Kirion's back and glance at his father briefly before looking over the entire group. "You misunderstood. What Kirion was going to ask before Faneth stopped him was why we had on multiple occasions acted like we were his father and mother. You see Faneth and I had gotten so much into our rolls that we already seemed like an old married couple and therefore he was confused earlier this evening. Faneth stopped him from saying this to spare my father's feelings, not to hide anything of that sort from you."
Legolas only watched them for enough time to see them get embarrassed and, in Faneth's parent's case, relieved then he looked once more to Kirion. Obviously this had helped calm Kirion down even more and he was once more staring into thin air.
Legolas walked over to Faneth and she immediately placed her hand on Kirion's back and moved it in circles. She kissed Kirion's forehead and whispered something soothing into his ear before looking up at Legolas. Legolas looked tired, as if this fight had drained his strength. He smiled when he saw her worried gaze and circled his free arm around her waist.
He leaned in until his mouth was beside her ear and whispered, "Ecphen will have my hide. Kirion tore my stitches again…"
"Go to him now and get them fixed." Faneth whispered back, "If blood starts to appear on your tunic then Kirion will know what was happened. …Bring some calming tea back as well, for Kirion."
Legolas nodded and turned his head down to Kirion. "I need to go fix something really quickly Kirion, while I do this how about you stay with Faneth instead?" He asked gently.
Kirion shook his head and clung to him tighter, "Don't leave me…" He begged.
"I won't leave you for any more than fifteen minutes Kirion." Legolas promised, "Fifteen minutes and then you'll have me all to yourself, but I need to do this really quickly."
Kirion thought about it for some time nodding reluctantly and transferring his arms from Legolas' to Faneth's neck. Faneth gently scooped him into her arms and kissed his forehead. She smiled to Legolas and kissed him briefly before saying, "Go."
Legolas nodded and quickly walked from the room. As soon as he was outside the door and took hold of his outer tunic and pulled it away from his body to make sure that the blood didn't touch it if it managed to run through the bandages and his undershirt. He walked at a fast pace fully intending make it back not even a second after the fifteen minutes had passed. Valar knew how betrayed Kirion would feel if he didn't keep his promise.
Legolas sighed, he knew that Ecphen would be just about livid when he saw the split stitches, but there was nothing he could have dome to prevent it. There was simply no chance of him letting Kirion face the pain and emotions he had alone for the sake of protecting one single wound. During Kirion's thrashing about he had managed to elbow his wound several times. It had hurt quite a bit… and it hadn't stopped hurting since.
Legolas rounded the corner to the healing ward silently hoping that Ecphen wouldn't be on duty. No such luck. As soon as Legolas walked into the room he found himself captive to Ecphen's scathing glare.
Legolas didn't even have the energy at that moment to make any excuses. He walked over to the nearest bed and sat down. "I'm sorry."
Ecphen seemed momentarily taken aback and then he sighed in resignation and walked over. He took a hold of Legolas' tunic and gently pulled it off of him. Legolas grimaced as he moved his bad arm and Ecphen muttered an apology before moving on to pulling of his slightly bloody undershirt.
When he had unbound the bandages his eyebrows went skywards and he asked, "What happened? Your wound looks like its been ripped open."
"Kirion." Legolas said softly, "He had what you would call a panic attack and got violent at one point. I promised to be back to him in ten minutes… Faneth asked me to bring him some calming tea."
Ecphen nodded. He knew how important it was to Legolas to hold his promises so he worked quickly as he removed the tattered stitches and replaced them. Longer time would pass before the wound healed it he kept ripping them… While he took care of the wound he boiled some water to make a tea for both Legolas and Kirion, something calming for Kirion and something to reduce Legolas' pain.
When seven more minutes had passed Legolas was bandaged and dressed, he had borrowed a new undershirt from the ward, and was standing with two mugs of tea in his hands. He thanked Ecphen sincerely before walking out of the ward and through the halls once more. He moved at as quick a pace he was able to without spilling the tea.
Just in time he was standing for the doors to the family hall. He opened the door with his elbow and walked into the room. There were soft conversations in the hall, but they stopped when he came in. Kirion was sitting on Faneth's lap looking quite desolate, his head perked up from Faneth's shoulder when he came into the room and a smile lit up on his face.
Kirion hopped from Faneth's lap and ran over to him.
"Here you go." Legolas said with a smile and handed Kirion the mug of tea. Kirion took hold of it with both hands. "This is for you. Made specially from our good friend Ecphen." He squatted down and held out his own mug. "Cheers."
Kirion gave a cautious smile and bumped his glass into Legolas' before taking a sip of it. It must have tasted better than his because there was no expression on disgust on Kirion's face. It was just typical that Ecphen saved his foul tasting brew for him. If he didn't know better then he would believe that it was punishment for ruining the stitches.
"Come on." Legolas said and stood up. He placed his hand on Kirion's back. "Let's go eat before the food turns completely cold."
"I'm not hungry…" Kirion said softly.
Legolas was surprised, but pleased, that Kirion had said something. "Don't you remember the promise we made before we came here?" Legolas asked, "That we would eat together? Since I kept my promise to return in fifteen minutes, you're going to have to keep yours as well."
Legolas placed his mug and Kirion's beside his plate and lifted Kirion before sitting down with him on his lap. Faneth took Kirion's plate from his seat and placed it beside Legolas' and Legolas picked up the fork and held it so Kirion could take it. Kirion sighed before taking the forth and dispassionately sticking it into some food.
Legolas snatched up his own fork and eagerly stabbed one of his potatoes with it before rushing it into his mouth and swallowed almost immediately. Kirion turned bewildered eyes to him and Legolas was hard pressed not to burst out laughing. Before Kirion could even turn back Legolas had brought his fork into something from Kirion's plate and eaten it. A robbed expression came over Kirion's face.
"That was mine…" He muttered and pouted. Only some seconds went by before Kirion copied Legolas and stole something from Legolas' plate. He had barely put it into his mouth before Legolas had taken something new from his plate.
Kirion's eyes narrowed and everyone who saw him quickly translated his expression to 'this means war'. Thranduil's eyebrows skyrocketed at his sons' table manners, but whatever displeasure he had instantly melted away when the first smile appeared on Kirion's face. It then turned to complete and utter relief when Kirion's giggles were heard throughout the hall.
Talking started again as the atmosphere grew lighter and all the others began eating from their own plates, though often glancing at Legolas and Kirion delighted that the elfling was not sad anymore.
Later that evening they were still talking quietly to each other while Kirion was sleeping in Legolas' lap. Legolas was still awake and had one of his hands in Faneth's as he talked with Glorfindel. Even after the bumpy start it had turned out to be a pleasant evening and Faneth's parents seemed to have enjoyed themselves as well. They had gotten to talk with Legolas and Faneth earlier in the evening and Gilrin had immediately started talking about the wedding.
Now he was talking with Glorfindel, and partially Elladan and Elrohir, about novice training.
Thranduil was talking to Elrond about trades when it happened. Suddenly he just had the feeling that something was wrong. He managed to keep his alarm hidden and kept up his conversation with Elrond. Once the moment showed itself he glanced over at Legolas.
Legolas was staring into space all his movement stilled. His eyes had darkened and there was a definite tremble of the hand that had stopped mid-motion in stroking Kirion's hair. He could see his tenseness from the tightening of his jaw.
Even when he returned his gaze to Elrond, Thranduil could feel the power pulsing inside Legolas and knew that his son was battling inside himself. Why was Dol Guldur trying to reach them so often after years of silence? Was it because it wanted to test their strength?
He glanced around the table and saw to his relief that no one was paying attention to Legolas. They were all caught in their own conversations.
Finally Legolas seemed to repel something and awareness returned to his eyes. For a second he wavered on the chair before he regained his bearings enough to sit straight. He closed his eyes and lowered his hand so it was resting on Kirion's head instead of hanging trembling in the air. His complexion had paled dangerously.
He hadn't realized he had stopped his conversation with Elrond mid-sentence, until Elrond lightly touched his arm. Thranduil turned his eyes from Legolas to Elrond. Elrond gave Legolas a pointed look before arching his eyebrow at Thranduil, demanding an explanation.
Thranduil indicated for Elrond to move closer and then whispered to him, "Another attack was made on the barrier only minutes ago. Legolas warded off the attack."
"You transferred the control to him?" Elrond asked.
"He is stronger than I am." Thranduil sighed, "We agreed that it was the wisest decision."
Elrond scowled at him after glancing at Legolas once more, "Why aren't you helping him?"
"The fewer who know about the attacks the better." Thranduil answered with true regret in his tone. He looked over to Legolas and saw that he hadn't opened his eyes yet, but he was once again running his hand through Kirion's hair.
Thranduil reached over and placed his hand on Legolas' forearm. Legolas opened a pair of tired deep blue eyes. At Thranduil's worried and questioning gaze he nodded his head before once again letting his eyes fall closed.
He sat for a few minutes gathering strength before taking a better hold of Kirion and hoisting him into his arms while standing up from the chair. The conversations around the table stopped as everyone directed their attention to him.
"I'm going to put Kirion to bed and turn in." Legolas said with a smile, "Thank you for your wonderful company this evening."
They all smiled in return.
"I'll come with you." Faneth said standing up. She smiled to Legolas before turning to the others as well. "Good night."
They tucked Kirion in before going to Legolas' room. Legolas immediately rolled onto his bed with a weary sigh and gazed at Faneth with a smile playing on his lips as he watched Faneth walk to his closet and fish out some nightclothes.
Faneth had begun keeping a spare nightdress in his closet and she now changed into it. Her waving auburn hair falling like rivers against her bare back before she pulled the nightdress on. She turned to him with a smile, her eyes and hair looking even more golden in the candlelight.
As she stepped closer to him, he sat up on the bed and placed his hand gently against her cheek. "How lucky could I be?" Legolas asked softly, "To have such a beautiful bride-to-be as you?"
Faneth chuckled and kissed him. When she drew away she whispered, "About as lucky as I am to have such a handsome groom-to-be …although this handsome groom-to-be needs to get his nightclothes on before he falls asleep sitting. You look dreadful."
"You just said I looked handsome and now I look dreadful?" Legolas chuckled.
"You look handsome even when you look dreadful." Faneth said with a smile and kissed him once more. "I don't think you could do anything to make yourself look anything less than handsome. Now why do you look as though you've just drained yourself of energy? You weren't in this condition earlier."
"You remember the barrier I told you about?" Legolas asked with a definite tone of exhaustion. He reached up to undo the button in his collar. "I've been controlling it since this afternoon. During dinner Dol Guldur attacked it again, I had to use some energy to force it away."
"And you did all this …during dinner? Surrounded by people? Without saying anything? Without anyone noticing?" Faneth arched an eyebrow.
"Ada and Elrond noticed." Legolas said and pulled his tunic over his head. He grimaced as it pulled at his wounds, but quickly did the same with his undershirt, leaving his chest bare except for the bandages wrapped around his wounds.
Faneth looked down and gently trailed her fingers over his visible scars, the ones from the fight by the ford, from the three battles and from his father's hand. White lines trailing over his body and showing the pain he had endured.
Legolas gently took her hand in his and brought it up to his mouth to kiss it before letting it go and pulling his nightshirt over his head. He bent down to untie his boots before kicking them off and lying down. Why bother changing the lower half of his body when he was confortable enough as he was?
Faneth shook her head at him, but a smile was on her lips nonetheless as she lay down beside him and pulled the covers up over their bodies. He circled her with his arm as she snuggled close to him and rested her head on his shoulder.
Legolas sighed in content, his body was slowly relaxing as Faneth's body heat and the covers started to warm him up.
"So… counsel meeting tomorrow?" Faneth asked playfully.
Legolas groaned, "Don't remind me of it."
Faneth laughed at his obvious displeasure. She knew that Legolas had never quite had an affinity with counsel meetings no matter how effective he was at them. He had always thought them to be unnecessary, since the counsel, to quote him, never saw real battle and therefore were only trying to make statements that would make them seem intelligent and sympathetic without putting themselves at risk.
"Good night..." Legolas breathed.
Faneth chuckled, "Good night."
Faneth closed her eyes and took a hold of Legolas' hand. She listened as his breathing slowly deepened while she caressed the back of his hand with her thumb. The sound of Legolas' peaceful intakes soon lulled her to sleep as well.
