"She lied to me!" Jack yelled, his voice echoed in the open space of the Warra. Bunnymund hadn't been paying much attention to the winter sprite, letting the boy get out his anger and be done with it. However the words "she lied" and the scattering of eggs that he was herding jerked him from his work.

"You wanna run that by me again, mate?"

Jack wheeled around to face him, a mix of shock and frustration. "Didn't you hear me?! Esther, Bunnymund! Esther lied to me about my memories!"

"Why would the lady go and do something like that?" Bunnymund was really confused now. He couldn't imagine why Esther would lie about anything. The fact that Jack had called him by his name just showed how distracted he was.

"I don't know." Jack leaned his staff against the nearest tree and tucked his hands into his pockets. He had come to the Warra to talk, not to freeze anything, even if by accident. "I overheard her talking to Morwen and her sister at the cookout. She said that we had grown up together… How could she do this?! She knew the trouble I've had trying to get my memories back, and she's been hiding this!"

The pooka crossed his arms in thought. "There had to be a reason that Esther didn't say anything to you about this. She's not the kind of girl that would do such a thing, Frost. If you leave well enough alone, I'm sure she'll come round and talk it out-"

"That's the best you've got? If I wanted that kind of advice I would have gone to see North-!"

Three hops and Bunnymund was towering over Jack. "Then I suggest you go visit the Workshop because even the Yetis have a longer line of patience than I do for an eternal teenager who's in a snit about a misunderstanding!" He stood there, glaring down at the boy, ready for anything he might try. Jack, surprisingly, backed up to collect his staff before disappearing. There was no showdown, no argument, not even a frozen egg. Bunnymund stood in that spot for some more time before shaking himself and returning to work. Whatever was going on between the two guardians was between them and them alone. Trying to make their friends take sides was not one of Jacks' better ideas.


After leaving the mall, Ithilwen and Legolas had stopped for lunch at an outdoor fast food chain. The buildup of stress, coupled with her mixed emotions about the ellon with her, had hidden just how hungry she was. And as many times as she ate fast food during her road trip, Ithilwen tried to resist, but the smell of the spices and fried chicken was too strong.

As the pair ate lunch across from each other, they talked about everything but what happened in the dressing room. Occasionally their gazes would meet, and both would quickly look at something else. It was almost like they knew what had crossed the others' mind that second, which was preposterous. They might be able to share an emotional link, and perhaps a degree of pain tolerance, but not thoughts.

Legolas had been telling Ithilwen about some of his plans for the future, when they returned back to middle-earth. She had learned that he had made a promise to Aragorn to be around until his death. She wasn't surprised; with what they went through, that friendship was strong. He had asked her what she intended to do when she returned home, and she was still drawing a blank. "I…I haven't really thought much about it. I guess spend some time in Lothlorien? I don't know, honestly. Grandma's said something about sailing, and from what I've heard, a lot of elves have already been going west."

"It's true," Legolas nodded. "Our numbers are shrinking, but we still linger. There's a chance that some might never choose to sail. That is why I'm building a colony in Northern Ithilien-"

"Ithilien? Isn't that close to Minas Tirith?"

"A few days travel. The war had done considerable damage to Osgiliath and Ithilien. Faramir has be declared Prince of Ithilien, and he hopes that any elves that come to live in Ithilien can help it regain its former beauty. Gimli has considered hosting a company of dwarves not far away as well. It would benefit the area if the races could find common ground."

"So you won't be in Greenwood, then?" Ithilwen had counted on Legolas being nearby, even if the ride between the two realms was half a week at best. At least she would know that there would be someone she could talk to that wasn't a relative. But if he was in Ithilien… "How far away is that?"

He didn't answer at first, likely calculating the distance. "On horseback, I would wager a fortnight, traveling with someone who knows the quickest path. Otherwise, it might take a month's time."

Ithilwen tried not to let her disappointment show. She knew next to nothing about the geography of middle-earth outside of a crudely drawn map. No one would want to escort a hopeless elleth across the world just to talk to a friend. As that thought settled in, her stomach dropped. "That's…so far away," she muttered.

Legolas could tell that she was upset. He had seen that look back before their connection had broken. "You could always come to Ithilien with me," he blurted out.

"Live in the colony?"

"Of course! It will take some time to arrange everything, but I was thinking about building talans similar to those in Lothlorien. You wouldn't be alone; elves from our realms would be there as well, until they choose to sail. You could even live with me…if you wanted."

"Are you sure?" Ithilwen could swear she felt her cheeks warm, and not from the sun. "Would that work? I mean, after what we did - not that I'm upset about it or anything-"

"Ithilwen, if you ever find yourself uncomfortable around me, you can tell me," he reminded her. "You will not make me mad, and I will not assume that you owe me anything if we lived together. It wouldn't be any different than at your house now."

"But you sleep naked!" she whispered quickly, making him laugh. She had been about to add more to that when she heard her phone ring in her purse. Ithilwen shot Legolas a look as his laughter subsided, not paying attention to her caller ID. "Hello?"

"Hey there Wen-wen!" the caller spoke through the speakerphone. "Long time no talk!"

"Gene, is that you? How have you been?"

"Better, now that I'm back home. I've heard you've had quite the adventure lately. Yamamma'n'em's out here at Uncle Jerry's. So where y'at?"

"I'm at Sonic with Legolas. We just got done dress shopping for my reunion; I'm sure Fiona's told you about that."

"Of course," Gene said before pausing. "You mean the Legolas, as in your warrior-soldier-dream-guy Legolas?"

Ithilwen blushed again, and Legolas had to cover his mouth with his hand trying not to laugh. Just from the sounds of this person, they were a good match for her friend William.

"Yes and you're on speakerphone, numbnuts!"

"They're not anymore, actually. And Will and I have been careful not to let that happen again, so-"

The elleth made some strangled noises. "Don't wanna know! Too much, Gene! Too much!"

Gene laughed. "Alright, just get your butts over here soon. I haven't seen you since you went on that roadtrip, and I'm looking forward to the man - sorry elf - that's been in your dreams! Love you babe, toodles!"

Closing the phone, Ithilwen looked over at Legolas. "You do realize Gene's going to be obnoxious when he meets you?"With their food wrappers collected and disposed of, they returned to the jeep.

"He sounds like a good person."

"Gene likes to share information," Ithilwen set the key in the engine. "A lot of information. Kinky information. Kinky information you don't want to know. He might also flirt with you, but he's harmless. And his accent isn't usually that thick; he just spent a few weeks with his kin in Natchitoches."

Legolas nodded. "By the way," he added, "You lingered."

"I did not!"

"You did so!"

"How would you know if you didn't as well?"

He raised his hands, palms up. "I wasn't denying anything."

"So you don't deny the hand that was on my ass."

"I don't regret it either," Legolas said, grinning as Ithilwen flushed again. "At least I didn't run my hand under your dress."

Ithilwen was certain her face would burn off soon. "I didn't - oh my god I did!" The hands that were white-knuckling the steering wheel now felt the heat on her cheeks as she tried to hide her shame. "I'm sorry, Legolas."

"You don't have to apologize-"

"W-"

"-I only wished to know if you liked what you felt."

Her side of the car was so silent that Legolas began to wonder if it were possible to die of embarrassment when she finally spoke. "I was very impressed." Ithilwen's face was still red as she turned her head to look at him shyly.

Legolas' ego had been stroked more than his stomach had in the dressing room, so much so that he was willing to say anything to get a rise out of Ithilwen. She had just started the jeep when he asked, "Do you want to see?"

"Do you want to see a jeep turn over?" She looked at him incredulously as he started laughing again. "Cause that's what'll happen!"


"So that's your dad?" Gene asked Tauriel. She nodded, her expression resigned to embarrassment. He looked to her right to see Fiona grinning. "And that guy with the blond hair is your grandpa, Fi?"

"Yeah," she snickered. "Isn't it great?"

"These are the leaders of two great elven realms," Eomer frowned, scratching his head. "While I enjoy a good race on horseback, it seems…inappropriate…in this sense."

"It is fine to call it what it is," Tauriel told him. "They are acting like elflings, and neither one will turn down a challenge."

Merry was climbing up onto the fence everyone was leaning against so he could better watch the show. William offered him a steady hand as he made himself comfortable. "It could be worse, my lady," he told Tauriel. "They could choose to challenge each other with their armed guards."

"Mom said that they made peace, so that would screw things up, wouldn't it? I know I haven't seen a race as good as this since Nascar lost the Intimidator and went from being called the Winston Cup to the Sprint Cup."

William snorted. "If Celeborn gets in under the left of Thranduil and puts his horse in the wall on turn three we'll have something worse on our hands than a runaway tire."

As disturbing as that thought could be, Fiona still laughed. Somehow she knew both elves were far better riders than to let that happen. She would have been content to watch the race, but movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was Elladan, coming out of the stables with a chesnut filly.

"You're not going to watch the race?" she asked, jogging to meet him.

Elladan shook his head. "I think I'd rather ride. Would you like to join me?"

"I don't know," she began. "I haven't ridden all that much in a while, and I wouldn't put it past one of Jerry's horses to smell anxiety on someone out of practice."

"You could ride with me," he offered. "We could talk."

There was something about the way that he said "talk" that made Fiona nervous. Not in a bad way, of course, but it told her he wasn't about to take no for an answer. "Alright," she said, wondering if she made the right choice. Elladan hopped onto the horse and held his arm down to hoist her up. No sooner had Fiona set her food in the stirrup to pull herself up, Elladan had her seated behind him.

He set the filly into a steady pace once Fiona had looped her arms around his middle. His siblings and parents would call him shameless, but he enjoyed this little embrace. She didn't cling to him with a dragon's grip, but she was close, and that was fine to him. Since the cookout he had known for certain that she was his fëa mate, but he couldn't come out and tell anyone, most of all Fiona. It'd likely scare her; Ithilwen didn't exactly handle the news well. In fact, if he were to hazard a guess, she'd move further away from him. Elladan suspected that his grandmother knew about his discovery; he was old enough to know "that look" she got when she was on to something but she wasn't ready to indulge others yet. She'd keep his secret, of that there was no doubt.

Meanwhile Fiona was still coming to terms with the strength of the ellon in front of her. She had barely put any weight on the foot in the stirrup when Elladan had lifted her up onto the saddle - one handed! "I don't know how you pulled that off just now," she commented. "At my best I could benchpress just over 100 pounds, and I'm at least 140. I'm not light by any means."

"You underestimate the strength of elves," Elladan chuckled. "To me, you were light as a feather."

"Dude! You pulled me up one-handed! Fat girls like me don't do that everyday!"

He had laughed at her exclamation, but frowned the more he thought about the statement. "You do not appear overweight to me."

"Yeah well," she snorted, "This world has a different opinion. If you're not naturally thin, you're fat. Don't get me wrong, I work out. Bernard's helped both Ithilwen and me with that in the past, and I've got muscle. This world used to see thinness as a sign of poverty; now it's the ultimate goal. Even the clothes are made to flatter those of us without so much. That's why Ithilwen's at the mall right now, and I'm just thankful she's looking for a dress and not jeans." Moments later, the horse bobbed its head and blew loudly through its nose, as if it understood her. "See, she gets it!"

Elladan reached forward to pat the filly's neck. "I do not believe for a second that you are overweight, Fiona. There are many ellith back home that are similar in size to yourself. You will see. When you return with us, it will be arranged for a seamstress to take your measurements, and you will have no need to fret over clothes that do not fit properly."

"That would be nice…waitaminute. What do you mean, 'when I return with you'?"

"I assumed that because Aunt Morwen has taken you as her child, you would return with your family. Do you honestly believe that she or Uncle Haldir would leave you behind?"

He had felt her tense up behind him seconds before, and now her grasp had returned to normal. "No. But I'm still mortal…ish. Wouldn't I die eventually? I really don't want to bring that on Mom and Dad."

"Have you ever entertained the possibility that you could be akin to the Firstborn?"

"Like y'all? I don't see how. I lack natural grace, ethereal beauty, and pointed ears."

"Your forget about the story of Legolas being run out of a tree in Lothlorien? I think you are very lovely, even if your ears aren't rounded."

"But my records said I'm 36."

"Hear me out, Fiona. Aunt Morwen thinks you are older than that. At your house, the pictures of yourself and Ithilwen show you to look similar physically. They also look far older than your claimed age. Can you recall the date they were taken?"

Fiona thought about it a moment and shook her head. "No. Mom would be able to tell you that. If you're talking about those older, grainier photos, I barely remember being that age."

"I think Aunt Morwen may need to consider recalculating her dates," Elladan mumbled to himself. Either she knew exactly how old Fiona was, or she simply hadn't checked the facts, and he doubted it was the latter. One thing he was certain of was that Fiona was far older than 36. It was just a matter of figuring out how old.


The jeep pulled into the gravel driveway, finding a place next to the vehicles that arrived earlier. Ithilwen got out, keeping a careful eye on Legolas. Things had been peaceful between the two since they left the mall. Then, about two red lights before they reached Jerry's ranch, he had blindsided her and stolen a kiss that left her breathless. He had said he had done it because there wouldn't be another opportunity when they arrived. While there had been some truth to it, Ithilwen still couldn't believe his nerve. Worse, she found herself hoping more chances would come along.

"Wen-wen!" A singsong voice called out from the house. "Where y'at?"

"Here!" She shouted. When Legolas mouthed the nickname Gene had given her, she warned him. "Don't start."

She'd never know if the elf were planning on teasing her, for a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind. "Ah-bout damned time!"

Ithilwen turned her head slightly to see Gene grinning at her. "You've got some whiskers going on!"

"You like?" He had turned her loose and struck a mock-model pose.

"It's not me that has to like it," she told him. "Personally I don't think it'll work with your evening gown, but if you want to dress as the bearded lady then that's your decision."

"Speaking of," Gene began, looking past the elleth. "Fi tells me you went dress shopping, so this tall stack of muscle has to be Legolas."

"Mae govannen, Gene."

Legolas held his hand out, which Gene shook. "Sweet Jesus. I think that sounded better than Italian. Ithilwen, I speak only on first impressions, but you picked a good one this time!"

Cheeks burning, Ithilwen ground out, "We're just friends. I don't know what Fiona's been telling you, but we're just friends."

"That's what you say now." Gene passed between the two elves and poked his head inside the jeep's open frame. "So show me this dress- hold the hell up! Do I spy a pink striped bag? Ithilwen, you naughty minx! You said you went looking for a dress, not the hidden surprise!"

From Legolas' viewpoint, this Gene appeared to compliment his partner William. The young man was clearly a cherished friend of Ithilwen's, and the teasing reflected it. Hearing movement from ahead of him, he turned to send greetings to William, who had come looking for them. As soon as he opened his mouth, a combination of a shrieking war cry and a strangling gargle came from the jeep. Gene had done or said something that pushed Ithilwen into jumping on his back and attempting a poorly executed choke hold.

"Should we help him?"

"Yeah," William said as they approached the pair. "Gene knows just which buttons to push with Ithilwen. Problem is that he doesn't know when to quit."


Jerry Moreau had seen a lot of things in his lifetime. He had been drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam when he was eighteen. He experienced the hellish nightmare of being there and returning home to people who refused to believe he was against the war. In the months that followed, he worked on his family's farm, nursing his broken mind as he tended the fields. He had thought that the movements he lived through were walking history, but none of it compared to the beings that were scattered around his ranch now. They were truly walking history, even if it were of another world. He found himself walking with Morwen's husband, sharing tales of battles of the past.

"No one wanted to be there," he told Haldir. "But we were given orders by our leader, and we had to follow them. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been better to have tried to avoid the draft."

"While I have not known you for long, I can tell that you are honorable. You would not have been able to handle disobeying a command in good faith."

Jerry laughed. "Yeah, but the nightmares are a bitch. Though I bet you know that. Morwen said y'all have seen more than a few skirmishes this year alone."

"That would be an understatement." Haldir sighed, coming to lean against the nearby fence. "When we return to middle-earth, we'll return to peace. I'll have my family again. This is still something I have trouble comprehending."

"Enjoy it," Jerry said, mimicking his pose. "Those are the things you fight for in wars. Not glory, not territory..those just follow the winners. When I came home, there was no honor. We were treated poorly; they blamed us for the killings. Said it was wrong, the whole war was wrong. They were right, of course, but it didn't keep soldiers from taking their lives when they got home. Some of them boys couldn't handle the grief, and they had no support. That's when I disappeared here," he motioned to the area around them. "Mom and Dad stood up for me. My brothers and sisters were too young to understand why their oldest brother would wake up in the middle of the night screaming. But my parents got me through the worst of it. They let me take on the busy work of the farm. It gave me something to focus on."

Haldir looked around, frowning. "Nothing about these lands appears to resemble farmland."

"That's because in '76, my grandparents were bought out by the bigger farmers. My parents divorced and moved away well before, or they might have been able to stop it. But my grandparents couldn't afford to churn out crops quick enough with what equipment they had to compete, so they agreed to the deal. The guy that bought their farming fields paid them handsomely, and with that money they renovated the remainder of the property into a horse ranch. When they died back in '92, they gave this place to me, and I've been managing it since." Jerry paused in his story to scratch his chin. "Occasionally we'll get some of the public out this way, usually yuppies that want to take their youngin's riding on a horse for the first time. They pay well enough, and it adds funds to the upkeep of the horses. It's very rarely I get a bunch of youngin's that know how to ride so well." He grinned, knowing that these "youngin's" were more than triple his age.

"We thank you for your hospitality," the marchwarden told him. "This world has far more than we are accustomed to. Your home has been the closest place to resembling middle-earth since we arrived here." Haldir happened to catch sight of Ithilwen and Legolas with the man's nephew. He had heard his daughter's shriek from the front of the house, and could only imagine what had set her off. "As I've told Morwen, I worry for how our children will adjust."

Jerry followed his gaze, understanding what he meant. "Kids surprise you, Haldir. When they're little you don't think they'll be able to do for themselves, and before you know it, they are."


That pink-striped bag now sat safely in the house, at Gene's insistence. Ithilwen was still reeling in the embarrassment he caused with his comments; she was almost certain that Legolas had heard over the noise she made. 'I have to be careful,' she thought, following the wooden fence that blocked off the horses. Things in the dressing room had taken a leap further than she wanted anyone else to know, and if she didn't act normal enough, their secret could be blown.

'What secret, exactly?' Ithilwen stopped and leaned against the fence post. 'We're not together-together, and as far as anyone knows we've only kissed that one time. This fëa-mate mess is making me paranoid.' She turned, looking across the field at the riders. She could see her twin-cousins easily, Fiona sitting behind Elladan, as they raced the length of the field. Joining them was Legolas, and to her horror, found that she was watching him more intently than she should have. 'It's just cause I've never seen him ride a horse before,' she reasoned.

Another voice in her mind, the part that liked to cause trouble, piped up. 'More like you wish you were the horse!'

'Shut it! I do not wish I was the horse!'

'You sure about that?'

Ithilwen couldn't form a response. Her thoughts wanted to say "of course" but the instigating thoughts had stopped her. Would she have been lying to herself if she said no? Logically, it was definitely a no, but her emotions were winning this fight. Something deep inside her was clawing its way up with the truth, and it scared the hell out of her. It made the spicy chicken sandwich she had eaten for lunch turn over in her stomach.

"You look like you swallowed a rock."

The voice startled Ithilwen, and she discovered upon turning that she was surrounded. Arwen had made the comment, and she was flanked by Tauriel and Eowyn. "What're y'all doing here?" she asked dumbly.

"We wished to know if your search had been fruitful," Eowyn said. "Did you find a dress?"

The elleth blushed without realizing it. "Y-yeah."

"You look flushed," Arwen noted. "Do you feel well?"

"I think it might be something else." Tauriel leaned forward to look at Ithilwen closer. "Something has happened. Did you have a fight with my brother?"

Ithilwen could swear she felt steam rising off the tips of her ears, as much as she tried to tamp it down. "Not…exactly."

"Did he make you uncomfortable?"

"No, of course not!"

"Good, because I didn't wish to emasculate him in front of his friends." Tauriel winked at her. "I have and will do it again if the need arises. Now what could be the cause for this?" she motioned to the mess that Ithilwen was.

She had started to open her mouth, but she paused, debating. If she said anything to anyone about what was going on in her head, would that be admitting something she wasn't sure existed? "If I tell you, you have to swear to me that what I say will not get back to Fiona? I know she'll find out quickly enough, but I need to sort my thoughts before she catches wind of it."

The three women looked to each other and then back to her, nodding. "You worry that Fiona will tease you?" Eowyn asked her. Never having been gifted a sister before her parent's deaths, there was only so much she felt comfortable confiding in Eomer about.

"Something like that." Ithilwen was more worried it would be an I-told-you-so moment. She sighed, looking at the ground. "Let's just say that some…things…have happened, and I'm not entirely ready to look at the situation for what it is."

"Are these good things?" Arwen asked.

The blush crept back up. "I want to say yes, but it's hard for me to admit."

"Why do you say that?"

She looked over at Tauriel. "When everyone tells you that your friend is your soul mate, a sudden make-out session in a dressing room without warning sorta makes you question things, doesn't it?" The words were out before she could stop herself this time. Her stomach turned again and she could only imagine the cartwheels that chicken sandwich was doing.

If she expected shock or outrage over this, Ithilwen would have been disappointed. All three women watched her curiously to see if she would say anything else. When it was apparent she wasn't, Arwen spoke up again. "Is it such a bad thing to consider?"

"No, and that's what scares the hell out of me," she mumbled. "I didn't exactly have the last "relationship" end on a good note, so the first friend I make from middle-earth shouldn't be my rebound…thing. I just wanted a friend; I wasn't expecting it to be more than that. But then he kisses me, and I'm realizing that it's not bad. I'm starting to like it, and that's freaking me out because I keep going back to the worst-case scenario. What if it goes sour? I don't want to lose my friend because a thought in my head screams at me to go for it." Ithilwen groaned and turned around to look back across the field, groaning again when she found herself actively looking for Legolas. "What am I going to do?"

A new voice, some distance away, answered. "That's no surprise, seeing as it's you."

"Who are you?" Tauriel asked. Ithilwen turned, knowing the voice but not believing she was hearing it again.

"That's my last mistake," the elleth said. "What are you doing here, Payne?"

The scrawny young man looked more disheveled since Ithilwen saw him last, or maybe it was because he had primped to the extremes that night. Payne smirked. "I'm here to see the horses. It is a public place, Keebler."

Ithilwen took a few steps toward Payne. "I think you're off by a few miles. I'm sure if you get back on the highway and keep going left, you'll come up on Bobby Maverick's farm. You now, given that you'd be more comfortable with the other asses he's raising."

Payne feigned hurt. "That's cold. And here I thought you'd have a hug for your old flame."

"I've got something else in mind, but you won't like it."

"Funny, because you never did give me what I wanted when we were together." He glanced her over. "Shame too."

"Not really," Ithilwen fought to keep a bored expression. "Somehow I get the feeling if I had given in to your begging, I wouldn't have even known if anything happened. You know, cause you have to have something to get something out of it."

This time Payne's expression went livid. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Someone that has had enough of this-" Ithilwen had wanted to say more, but she felt the air move behind her. The sudden scent of woods told her who it was. When he spoke, she could feel the vibrations in his chest, he was so close.

Legolas had been approaching the fence on his horse when he saw Ithilwen walking away from his sister and the others. She was talking to someone, and when it dawned on him just who, it was all he could do to not leap the fence and trample the boy. The mortal's tone had risen, and Ithilwen was doing a good job of holding her own. That didn't mean he was going to leave her alone with him.

Payne blinked, not registering that Legolas had appeared out of nowhere. "Who're you?" he asked rudely. He looked at how the blond seemed to tower over Ithilwen, like he was protecting her. "You're him," he realized. "You're that soldier that Ithilwen was talking to while we were going out. So was that your class ring or something that she's got around her neck?"

"I am him, and yes, it's something like that," Legolas stared down at the boy. Now that he could see him in person, he looked even more puny in comparison to that dream. It was his hateful words that he used that made his presence seem larger.

The boy spit at the ground, and Legolas' frown deepened when he continued to speak. "Can't say I've ever had much use for soldiers," he sneered. "They all come back from overseas spouting bullshit about how horrible they had it. I say get over your pansy asses and suck it up."

Ithilwen reached behind her to grasp Legolas' arm, which had grown incredibly tense.

"You know nothing of what it means to be at the forefront of a battle," Legolas spat back. "You haven't seen the life leave a fellow being's eyes as they are struck down, knowing that there is nothing that can be done to save them. You don't see the destruction that war leaves behind, or the broken families that have to be told that their loved ones will never be seen again. When you wake up at night, hearing the screams and smelling the bloody bitterness of battle, then you can say that you know what horror is."

When Legolas made a move to step forward, Ithilwen held onto his arm. "Don't," she whispered to him. "It isn't worth the effort."

"Where do you think you're going, Keebler?" Payne said. "I wasn't through with you."

"I'd say you are," Ithilwen frowned. "I can't stand to hear the begging. I had far too much of it when I was with you."

"The only begging that should have been going on was you begging me for what I've got." Payne grew madder when she turned and began to try and nudge Legolas the other way. "Are you that stupid? I said I wasn't done with you-"

Payne's first mistake had been grabbing Ithilwen's arm. The grip had spun her around, and without a second thought she swung her right fist into his jawline. Had she gotten a better opportunity, she could have put him on the ground with the punch. It had happened so quick, that she had turned her back to him again as he recovered, not knowing that he was reaching for her again.

The second mistake was trying to grab her again, because Legolas jumped him, sending both of them to the ground. He didn't stop there, as the boy had the stupid sense to try and reach up to choke the elf. Legolas had him pinned into the dirt, punching his face while he cursed the brat in Dwarvish.


"Legolas! That's enough!"

Morwen had long since joined Haldir and Jerry in their conversation about the complexities of the modern world. Hearing Ithilwen yell across the yard amid the sounds of struggling made for an abrupt end to their talk. "Somebody had best be bleeding," she hollered as she followed the noise. She had raised both of her girls to act better. When small children would hit that stage of the spontaneous scream, she took pride in the fact that neither of them so much as raised their voice in public.

She wasn't sure of what she would find when she appeared on the scene, but seeing Legolas beat some young man's face into the ground wouldn't have been her first guess. Haldir and Jerry had appeared next to her seconds later. Her husband didn't seem surprised as he asked, "What is he doing?"

"Beatin' the holy hell outta someun'," Jerry snorted.

More of their group appeared in the area, some not nearly as close as Morwen. From further back, she could see a couple of people that Fiona was friends with. No one seemed keen to pull Legolas off the boy. She looked left to see Miraear with her hand covering her mouth; beside her Thranduil looked particularly bored. "Aren't you going to stop your son?" she asked the king.

Thranduil shrugged. "Legolas has his reasons."

Ithilwen, it appeared, was more determined to break the fight up. She had made a daring move to place her hand on his shoulder mid-swing, breaking his concentration. Legolas looked behind at her, and when she was sure he wouldn't punch the boy again she tried to pull him up by the arm. When he was on his feet, she stepped between the ellon and the bleeding mess on the ground. Morwen wasn't sure whether this was to keep Legolas from attacking again or if she intended to finish the fight.

"He ain't getting up," she said, frowning. The frown deepened as she studied the face, or what she could see that wasn't bloody and swollen. "I know that boy." It was better that he didn't get up. If Haldir knew…Legolas would be the least of Payne's worries.

"Who?" Haldir asked. Jerry had begun walking towards the lump on the ground, that had now begun to moan.

The man was laughing the closer he got, placing his hands on his knees as he bent over the boy. "That hurts like a sonofabitch doesn't it?"

"You better…have…good…law..yer…" Payne coughed, spitting out blood onto the dirt. "Gonna…sue…your ass…old man."

Jerry continued to laugh, more so as Morwen spoke loudly. "I'd like to see the lawyer you could afford. I guarantee you that mine would eat you alive before the first appearance in court." He stood back a few paces as the boy's friends came to lift him off the ground and back to his feet.

"I told you that one day you were gonna bite off more than you could chew," Daryn reprimanded. "And look at what went and happened. You got your ass handed to you." It was true. He looked terrible. What bits of his face that wasn't covered in blood was already beginning to swell and turn a blackish purple, and he swayed on his feet even as he was being held up.

"By a seasoned veteran, no doubt!" Rick wasn't being a consoling friend, as he started to laugh. "You had this one coming, so I don't feel any sympathy for you right now." He looked over to the blond elleth acting as a miniature shield. "You alright there, Ithilwen?"

"Yes," she said finally, feeling Legolas slip his arms around her waist. Ithilwen leaned back into him instinctively. "I'm fine."

Rick nodded, satisfied with the answer. With that large mass behind her, he wasn't worried about her safety so much as the next person that tried to mess with her. Daryn gave his apologies to Jerry for their friend showing his ass before they dragged him off the property and to the nearby hospital. They'd have a time of it trying to explain how Payne's face was nearly turned inside out.


Ithilwen wasn't scared of Legolas, but she found the twist in her gut over his protectiveness of her hard to ignore. The speed at which he got around her and had Payne on the ground was unbelievable. Payne had never seen it coming. Hell, Ithilwen knew that Legolas was a warrior, but there was a big difference between being told that your friend is lethal and actually witnessing it. She would have been lying to herself if she had said that she was calm when she touched his shoulder. It would have been all too easy for him to forget himself and think it was someone else coming to Payne's defense.

"You should have let me kill him."

"Killing someone around here barehanded isn't very common. And like I said months ago, I don't want to waste time bailing you out of jail while you're here." Ithilwen turned in Legolas' arms to face him. She reached up to touch his cheek delicately, noticing a small red mark from where Payne's fist had hit. Legolas leaned into her touch, watching her. "I can't believe you let him hit you."

"That was a lucky hit," he grinned. "He only did it once."

Ithilwen wanted to frown, to get mad - anything but laugh - but Legolas' cheeky smile was making it hard not to. "You're a dork, you know that? A big, strong, elven warrior...but a dork." She sighed lightly when she felt his forehead come down to rest against hers. "Thank you, Legolas."

"For what?"

"For standing up for me just now. No guy's ever done that for me before. Bernard has, but no one was ever stupid enough to fight him."

"Melamin, I'd face Sauron if he said a word against you. No one deserves to be treated like that, and being able to finally put him in his place was immensely gratifying." Legolas tensed up slightly, realizing what he had called her. It was a name he hadn't used since he was a youngling, and he had just spoken it aloud without thinking.

Ithilwen was too busy focused on trying to translate the new word that she didn't see the anxious look on Legolas' face. "Melamin?" she asked, "What does that mean?"

Legolas swallowed. "It's…it's an old name I created as a small youngling. It's a special name." He couldn't bring himself to say anymore just yet. "Does it bother you?"

"Is it something insulting?"

"Of course not. It's a name I would only use with someone that is very important to me."

Her cheeks did not just get warm. They just didn't. And her ears weren't burning either. "Then I don't mind," she smiled up at him. "It sounds pretty. Will you tell me what it means?"

"I was thinking about letting you try to solve the mystery," Legolas mused, laughing as she mock-pouted. "You told me once that you enjoy a good puzzle."

"Not translating nicknames!"

He had felt a weight lift off of his chest when she admitted to liking the name. It hadn't been his intention to say the word, but it was out there between them now, and she was tasked with solving it. "Believe me, you will know when the time comes. It isn't that hard to figure out." 'The hard part will come when you discover what it really means.'


Jerry was still laughing as he kicked dirt with his boot over the splatters of blood when Haldir and Morwen joined him. Thranduil and Miraear approached them soon after. "That was better than any UFC fight I've watched on the TV. Hell, it beat all the times the pit crews had to break up fights at the races!"

"Our son is better behaved than that," Miraear told Jerry. "He is not so easily provoked."

"No, he just needed a good reason to turn that boy's face around," Haldir said dryly.

Morwen sighed. "You still don't know who that was, melleth? That was the boy that had hurt Ithilwen."

"Why didn't you say something sooner?"

Thranduil couldn't hide the smile as he said, "I am sure that the two of you would have killed the little mortal before Ithilwen could have stopped you both."

Haldir turned away from the king and looked towards his daughter. From what he saw, Legolas had nearly done that single-handedly. He watched Ithilwen smile and laugh in the prince's arms, noticing how happy she was. He thought he heard her playfully say "Oh my poor baby" and begin to dote over him, to which Legolas would laugh and play along, but Haldir could see that the look in Legolas' eyes was anything but playing. The marchwarden knew then that Legolas was beginning to care for his daughter. As much as he wished otherwise, he was beginning to suspect that his mother-in-law's words about fëa-mates held more truth to it than previously thought.

"You look concerned," Morwen noticed, following his gaze. "Tell me, do you fear for our daughter's safety now?"

"Of course not!" Haldir gave his wife an incredulous look. "It had simply occurred to me that Lady Galadriel's theory may be true.

Morwen snorted. "Naneth's usually right about these things. Is that what bothers you?"

"Not exactly... I am not sure if Ithilwen is even aware of the prince's affections towards her."

"Is this fear for his well-being or hers?" When Haldir didn't answer, she slipped her arms around his waist. The conversation between the Woodland realm's leaders and Jerry drifted into background noise as she focused solely on her husband. "Ithilwen will need time to accept anything Legolas tries to offer her. That boy he pummeled saw to it that she was left to be suspicious. Whatever he said to her that night has hurt her, and Legolas knows this. I don't believe that he would make the same mistakes."

Haldir kissed Morwen chastely. "I do not think so either. But I am still her adar, and when I know that there is an ellon looking at my daughter like he is, my guard is up."

"Then should I warn your nephew to duck? He's been spending a lot of time with Fiona." Morwen teased. The scowl she got from Haldir made her laugh. No way was she about to tell him that she wasn't kidding.

-x-x-x-x-x-

A/N: I forgot to put a few translations at the end of the last chapter, so I'm adding them here with a few additions.

Where y'at = Where you at

Awrite = The appropriate response to the greeting "Where y'at?"

Yamamma'n'em = Sort of like y'all, but used to describe the entire immediate family. You say it as one word; draw out your a's and speed the whole thing up.

F'true = In this instance it's used as a question, such as "Is that so?"

Pash'n marks = Hickey, love bite, etc.

Natchitoches = A city in Louisiana. It looks like it's hard to say, but you pronounce it as "Nak-ah-tish". Steel Magnolias was filmed there, if you want a visual.