Part of her wondered if it was childish of her to enjoy being held or sitting on her father's lap as he spoke with Erestor. Probably. Her shoulders sunk at that reminder before another thought occurred to her then. Technically, she was one. No matter how hard that was for her to get her head around. She didn't remember how to be a child in the first place, and she wasn't sure if she hated or was okay with that fact. They were in his rooms once more, word being passed that Frodo had awoken that very morning thanks to Lord Elrond's treatment. Sakura found herself musing on the leader or ruler of that place – whichever they called someone like him there. He hadn't stayed very long after she had said hello and went and hid her face again. Though that was because he didn't want to overwhelm her, or so her father had said as he tucked her in the night before. Her cheeks reddened at the memory, another part of her curious as to how much of a child she really was. Even though she really didn't know how to be one, least of all an elven one.

Her shoulders slumped, and Sakura sat back with a loud sigh, earning a curious, raised eyebrow from Erestor as he sat opposite her and her father. "What troubles you, Lothien?" he asked, and Sakura only grunted and slumped into her father that much more.

"That is not an answer," her father said matter-of-factly.

Sakura turned her head, huffing as she stared off to one side listlessly. Tired. She felt so very tired by that point, and it wasn't even midday. "Don't want to talk about it," she grumbled, yawning then. Grey eyes fixed on her, staring at her intently and Sakura could only squirm under that gaze for a few moments before she lifted her eyes to meet those grey ones. "What?"

Glorfindel continued to look at her for a few more moments before shaking his head. "It is nothing," he remarked, and Sakura hummed in acknowledgement and went back to mooching around listlessly on her father's lap. She didn't know what to do, her words always seeming to want to fail her. Truly, she was in over her head, and she didn't think there was a way for her to escape from it all. Not unless she decided to run away and hide, and Sakura had the distinct impression such a thing would not go down well with her father.

"Can I learn more about being an elf?" she asked, peering up at her father then, desperate to divert the topic of conversation someplace else. She didn't want to talk about herself and how she was so far removed from everything her father wanted and expected. "Please?"

"Learning about… being an elf?" her father parroted, looking exceedingly confused until Erestor cleared his throat pointedly.

"She was raised by her mother, Glorfindel," Erestor said, his voice quiet. "Her human mother who came from another world and culture."

"Oh." Her father blinked, no longer nonplussed. "I see…"

"Though we do not have much time," he continued. "The ring bearer is awake and Lord Elrond has called for the Council to begin just a little later today. You are required to attend, no matter your… new duties and responsibilities."

Sakura folded her arms, curling in on herself ever so slightly. "I can look after myself just fine," she declared.

Glorfindel looked at her for a few seconds consideringly. "You will also be in attendance, will you not?" he asked, turning back to Erestor then.

"Indeed," he replied, inclining his head.

"I see," her father said, arms coming up around her midsection and pulling her further back until her head was resting on his warm chest. "Then Lothien will attend with me. Most of the matters will be spoken of in Westron, and she does not understand such a language, so I do not see the harm. You can behave yourself, I trust?" he enquired, looking down at her then, and Sakura bit her lip.

Words of protest came to mind, arguments for simply permitting herself to roam about Imladris coming to mind, but her tongue wouldn't move the way she wanted it to. "Okay," she mumbled, playing nervously with her own fingers.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather someone mind her while she plays?" Erestor asked, looking between her and her father. "Surely that would be more preferable for Lothien rather than sitting through such a boring meeting." He turned to her, waiting for her answer, and Sakura mused on it for a few moments, wondering what she would rather do. She didn't know how to play properly, and therein lay the crux of the problem. She hardly wanted anyone else to discover how unchildlike she was.

A sigh escaped her, and she turned then, burying her face in her father's chest, hiding herself out of sight, even as a warm hand came up to muss her golden locks. "I will take her with me," Glorfindel repeated, fingers threading in the fine golden strands of hair, the touch so terribly comforting and soothing to her. "Unless you wish it otherwise, Lothien?" he spoke, and Sakura lifted her gaze to meet her father's.

"I want to come," she said, for lack of anything else she could think of to do – there was the library which she could explore, but she didn't feel much like doing that. Rather, she wanted to spend time with her father – wanted to try and figure out how to be a better daughter than the terrible one she already was proving to be. Her fingers clenched in his shirt, a familiar nervousness flooding through her at the thought of being abandoned by her father in that strange world. It wasn't like she wouldn't be able to survive… She just didn't want to be alone, or so she realised slowly. Naruto had always been there before, and she felt his absence far more keenly than ever. "Please," she added, remembering her manners at the last second.

Her father nodded. "Then accompany me you shall," he murmured, a promise, and Sakura sighed and snuggled into the last remaining family she had on that side of whatever sea her father kept mentioning. "You are very quiet today," Glorfindel observed, and Sakura could only blink languidly. "Is there something the matter?"

"Tired," she mumbled, yawning then.

"Do you need me to set you down for a nap?" her father asked, tilting his head, looking down at her with concerned grey eyes.

Sakura scowled. "No," she grumbled. "I am not a child," she hissed, hating the sorrowful, confused eyes her father gave her at that. But unlike she expected, there were no claims that she was in fact a child. There was only a tired, sorrowful air about her father, and Sakura felt guilt swirl in her belly at the realisation that she was indeed the cause of that gaze.

"Will you tell me tales of your adult years, then, perhaps?" he spoke, face shifting into something softer as he gazed down upon her, fingers still carded in her golden locks. "I wish to know more about you, dear daughter… even if you insist upon the fact that you are not a child. I am your father. Nothing will ever change such a fact."

Her fingers trembled, clenching in on themselves when she noticed, balling into little fists. "Promise?" she murmured, the word coming out barely more than a croak, fear stealing through her at the earnest gaze which locked on her own.

Hands far larger than her own curled around the small little digits. "I promise," Glorfindel said, voice soft and gentle, and Sakura believed him even as silence fell between them, thick and heavy, yet warm and comforting. Like a warm blanket in the depths of winter. "Come now. Tell me of your… adult years, and I will tell you more of elven society and that which your mother might not have known."

Sakura felt herself stiffen involuntarily at the mention of her mother.

"Do you wish for me to stay for such a conversation?" Erestor spoke up, reminding them of his near silent presence in the room. "Or would you rather I give you your privacy?" he asked, grey eyes finding her own, seemingly asking her and her alone despite addressing the question to the both of them. Her father remained silent for far too long, and Sakura supposed she had to be decisive.

Fingers tightened their grip on her father's shirt, nervousness not lending her any strength as her mind raced to come to a decision. "Privacy," she blurted out, regret curling in her belly moments later as she realised the other ellon would likely have helped calm her father down should he become riled by anything she told him. Her heart ached at the thought of such a thing. But he wanted to know, and Sakura knew she ought to tell him. He, after all, deserved to know exactly what kind of being he was letting into his heart and life.

A smile curled on Erestor's lips, wry and yet somehow pained. "Then I will see you both at the council," he declared, seeing himself out with but a touch to her father's shoulder as he left. Some sort of moral support, Sakura presumed, remembering how much time her loose lipped friend had spent about the brunette, abruptly feeling a well of dread at the thought of Erestor knowing more than he ought to. The door closed behind him with a click which sounded eerie and ominous to her ears, and her fingers shook once more, earning her yet another pained and confused glance from her father.

"If you do not wish to speak of your past, then I will not deny you knowledge of my—our society," Glorfindel said, the hand on her head nothing but a comfort to her as a fierce debate went on inside her, fingers tightening their grip on her father almost painfully, that gaping chasm of fear opening back up in her stomach at the thought of her father leaving her because of what he learnt about her bloodied past. Because she couldn't go back. She didn't belong in the world which housed the Elemental Nations. Her very soul itself had known that for a fact, and she was finally rid of that underlying sense of wrongness which had haunted her every footstep. But she didn't know how to go forwards.

"You won't leave, will you?" she whispered, hating the tears which bit at the corners of her eyes at the thought of not having any of her family with her. Of having nobody she knew and loved around her in that strange, unfamiliar world which was her birth right. "Not after I tell you about my past…" Grey met green for the barest of seconds before her gaze flickered away from that gaze she wasn't sure she had the strength to meet. "I don't… I do not want to be all alone in this place."

Arms wrapped around her, and her shaking subsided somewhat. How childish was it, she wondered, to be comforted by a hug from her father? A sniffle escaped her, earning her a terribly soothing rubbing on her back. "I will not leave – this I vow to you," he promised, and Sakura screwed her eyes shut and took the plunge.

"Even if I told you I killed a man when I was thirteen?" she asked, the words almost seeming to ring in the oddly tense silence which fell at the admission. The silence was deafening to her ears, and her mouth was moving. "You've already made it clear that I am meant to be nothing more than a child, unblooded and innocent… and I think I had some idea that I would never be what you expected or wanted," she said, staring determinedly at the pattern of the decorative stitching on the shirt he wore. "Not after I slit the throat of a bandit," she murmured, unclenching her fists, letting go of her tight hold on the fabric, wishing all the while that she could just vanish into thin air or somehow curl up into a ball to escape the highly focused gaze of her father. "Mother always told me tales of you… how you were a warrior and a force which fought for good… and I wanted to become someone you could be proud of," she mumbled, hating the sniffle which escaped her at the memory of how very grey the world of shinobi was. "But my… mother's world… good and evil were never clearly defined," she said. "I learnt that for myself when I bloodied my own hands… and there was no going back from that."

"I am not leaving," her father reminded, and Sakura blinked at that, guilt and shame welling up in her at thinking that he would. Of course he wouldn't. He was kind as summer, just like her mother had said. He wouldn't abandon anyone. He was eerily akin to Naruto in that respect, and her heart leapt and ached at the reminder of her missing friend. The same friend who had left her there for her own good. "Not now. Not ever."

Sakura bit her lip. "I am sorry for doubting you…"

A hum of amusement rumbled from her father's chest. "You are a child in a new world, abandoned by your friend who helped bring you here, with only this clueless father you have been so recently introduced to," Glorfindel said, and Sakura felt her head snap up, irritation burning through her at being called a child. "It is no wonder you are nervous, more so about being abandoned…"

"I'm not a child," she complained, folding her arms and glaring mulishly at her father, gritting her teeth at the soft chuckle which slipped from his lips. "I… do not know how to be one anymore," she admitted, voice that much softer and quieter at such an admission. "I don't even know how to be an elf!"

He patted at her back then, and Sakura came to the abrupt realisation she was crying. Then again, she had always been such a cry-baby half the time. Before she desperately tried to remind herself that crying was something for children, and she wasn't supposed to be one anymore. "Please, Lothien," her father whispered, fingers smoothing her golden locks. "Just be yourself, that is all I ask."