Sorry for the delay, I was away for the weekend. As always, thank you for reading!

Chapter 25

Anor had long since risen when we finally made it out of bed. In the shafts of sunlight that fell in through my window, Legolas appeared as one of them. Gingerly he pulled his creased linen shirt over his head, and his tunic, but his hair was beyond redemption.

I came over to him and his hands left his tousled locks immediately to land on my waist and pull me close. He pressed his face into my neck and left kisses there, and a shiver raced through me. I held him tight to me and wished indeed that I were any other elf, and free to return to bed with him, or simply stay here, in the middle of the floor, where no demands were made of me.

"Come to my study," I told him, "when you have washed and eaten. I shall drive Mithrandir and his pipe-weed out of there."

He pulled back a little. "Pipe-weed?"

"Aye…" I toyed with one of his half-loosened braids. "He has been very considerate these past weeks, I suppose, for he knows I do not like it. But soon enough the smoke shall invade every corner of the house."

Legolas shook his head. "You speak in riddles, my lord."

"Be grateful that you do not understand them," I said. "It is a habit he picked up from those of the Periannath who live west of here, in Bree."

"And, pray, what are those?" His eyes glittered. "Orcs, I gather? From the dark look on your face."

"Not orcs," I told him, "but a peaceful folk. They are private and keep to themselves. I should hold nothing against them if they had not begun growing the leaves Mithrandir so stubbornly persists in smoking."

Legolas laughed at this. "You are full of surprises, my lord. This is a new layer I had not perceived in you before."

I caught his hand in mine and kissed it. "Do you disapprove?"

He shook his head and the sunlight danced around him. "Nay. For it makes you less… lordly, I think."

Thoughtfully, I brushed his knuckles with the pad of my thumb. "I am not your lord, Legolas."

Before me, Legolas' smile softened and so also did the light in his eyes. And he moved closer to rest his head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around him and closed my eyes.

o.O.o

As it turned out, my study was empty when I finally entered it. Mithrandir, I was told, had left with the two Rangers just after breakfast and no one knew when he would be back. Erestor – the only soul beside Mithrandir who ever dared to disturb anything in there – had left some letters on my desk and a couple of scrolls for my scrutiny. There was dried fruit and water in a carafe, and two glasses. All of it appeared untouched.

More than two hours must have passed when there came a knock on the door and at my call, Legolas was revealed on the threshold. Though it was not long at all since I had last laid eyes on him, it was as though my heart lifted and my breathing was eased.

"Do I disturb you?" he asked.

"Never," I told him, rising as I spoke. "Come here."

He had washed and dressed in a pale green tunic. I caught him by the waist and brought him against me, his back to my chest. When I buried my face in his hair he smelled only of the leaves that lifted in the gentle wind that floated through the Valley. With a content sigh, I joined our mouths together for already it seemed to me too long since I had last tasted him.

I let my lips linger on his, even as he smiled, and then I bent to press a kiss to that soft spot just beneath his earlobe. He drew me even closer, secured my arms around his waist and gave a low hum. So wrapped up in his light was I that I did not hear the approaching footsteps and neither did Legolas, and so it was only when a polite cough broke through the stillness that we both started.

Legolas might have flown from me had I not already held him so tightly but both our heads whipped around and then he stiffened into rock

There stood, in the arched doorway, with a fine golden eyebrow raised, Glorfindel.

None of us said anything. Legolas, I was sure, did not breathe. His scent lay still wrapped around me and my lips were tingling with the memory of our latest kiss.

Then Glorfindel, at last, spoke, and his voice was dry:

"Well..." said he, "I see there was no cause for alarm."

I swallowed as I watched him firmly close the door and then march into the room and make for the carafe that stood on the side-table. Leisurely, he picked it up and poured himself a glass of water. As for myself, I found I could not move and up through my breast was creeping an uncomfortable hotness that squeezed my throat tight.

"My lord…" began Legolas, but his voice came faint.

"Glorfindel," I managed, but he only shook his head impatiently.

"Be silent," said he.

His sharp gaze settled on Legolas. "For you, my prince, as I know you, the song of your heart is ever in your eyes. And, you, Elrond," he motioned at me with his glass, "are none the better. In truth, I have never seen you thus. As commander, I have seen you. Fierce in battle. And as a healer and father and a student of lore, patient and kind. But never like this."

There came into his eyes a familiar gleam. "Never in love like this," he said. "And so if you thought you were doing well concealing your love, I will tell you now: it is not so. Indeed, you have done poorly. The both of you."

Then there was silence. But I found that I could finally move and so, in a tentative caress, I carefully slid my palm over Legolas' hand where it lay on my arm. He did not stir and his skin was cool to the touch. This, more than anything – more than Glorfindel's sharp gaze on us – caused me to regain my wits.

"May I speak now?" I asked Glorfindel.

"It depends," he said, "on what you were planning to say." He strode over to one of my chairs – the one Erestor favoured – and sat down.

"I intended to tell you," I said. "Truly," I added, when he snorted. "Today, in fact. But found you not when I searched for you."

"An extensive search, I presume?"

"You were not at breakfast," I tried.

"Elrond," he said tartly, "it was you who were not at breakfast. And Legolas, too, was missing. Do you think us all entirely witless? Or blind perhaps?"

When I found nothing to say to that he shook his head.

"It was Erestor who thought to bring at least something to your study," he nodded at the fruit and water, "for he worries for you, Elrond. Faithfully he serves you and fears often that some new grief shall befall you, and that it shall be that blow which finally smites you and tears your fëa from your hröa. The Valar know we have all dreaded it."

My lips had gone dry and surely my hands were as cold as Legolas'. But now Legolas was turning in my arms and there was in his face distress of a kind I had never seen in him before.

"Does he speak true?"

I looked into his face and it was pale as the first blossoms in spring. Under my feet, the floor was wavering.

"Do I speak true?" said Glorfindel, from his seat. "Have I myself wondered how much more pain Elrond might endure? Aye, I have, and many times at that."

Into Legolas had crept a new form of light and I knew it all too well, for it had been kindled in the eyes of my family almost forty years ago, and it was fear.

"When you spoke of the darkness in your soul, my lord," he said quietly, "you did not lie…"

I shook my head, unable to speak. Just when I thought he would slip away from me, he once again secured my hold on him. His voice sank almost to a murmur:

"And when you said that it had been chased away by sunlight...?"

I swallowed. "Aye," I said, but it was a cracked whisper, "I spoke true, then."

The coldness was gone from his skin when he touched me – when he stroked his fingertips down my cheek and caught the tears that spilled from my eyes. When he cupped my cheek and placed a kiss on my lips, and when I rested my forehead against his. He was warm and comforting and his light gentle as he held me, and I felt the world settle a little more steadily around me.

It was long before any of us moved. When Legolas and I finally parted it felt to me as if years unnumbered had passed. Glorfindel was still seated and the air unmoving.

"I will say I am glad that we journeyed to your father's halls," my Captain said at last. "You have my gratitude, son of Thranduil."

Legolas inclined his head at him. "And you have mine, my lord. For not cursing this."

Then Glorfindel rose and he smiled as he came up to us. "It has pleased me greatly to see the shadow over Imladris lifted. And also to discover that our worry this morning was entirely unfounded."

I caught his eye and in that moment I had no words for him. "Thank you," I said finally, though it surely was inadequate.

At this he only nodded and then he left us, carefully closing the door behind him.

o.O.o

If I had expected any more uncomfortable confrontations that day, I was disappointed. Erestor, when he finally showed up, did not ask a single question. Indeed, he did not in any way indicate that he knew more of my own private business that he had a moon or two ago. Instead, he spread a map over my desk and tapped it with a finger.

"Trade, my lord," he said, "is the topic of the day."

But when we joined the others for supper, I found Arwen and Legolas by a window and their heads were together. I saw at once the deep shade of red in his cheeks and how his gaze swiftly darted from her to me. She smiled then and left him there to join me, and she dropped a quick kiss to my cheek.

"I had hoped it was so," she said, without waiting for me to speak. "I thought I had spied as much, but never dared to ask. I am well pleased, father."

I shook my head. "You all conspire against us. Or you are all too sharp-eyed."

"Nay," said she, and laughed. "For no keen eyesight is needed in this case, I promise you. You give yourselves away."

And so it was that we were arranged differently around the table that night for Glorfindel left his usual seat to Legolas who slid into it warily. Under the table, I found his hand and when I squeezed it he looked at me and he appeared somewhat dazed. But he laced his fingers with mine and I smiled.

"Oh, this shall soon grow wearisome," said Glorfindel and nodded at us. "Elrond, you are grinning like a lovesick elfling. Valar help us."

But his eyes were warm and his smile even more so, and even though they made Legolas shift self-consciously in his seat, there was no sting in his words.

"My brothers have yet to learn of it, though," said Arwen.

It was true, and this should have been a troubling thought. But when I later looked to Legolas, and he appeared to finally have relaxed, I knew that would be nothing compared to telling Thranduil. And that prospect was not at all appealing.

TBC