Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own any of the character, places, names, or anything associated with the works of J.R.R Tolkien or the Lord of the Rings (books or movie, whatever). My characters are Anita, Leila, and Arlandria and that is all.
Author's Note: I was going to try and be coy about this and just tell everyone to hang tight with the questions about Tolkien's rules for elves, but I'm just going to be straight. Yes I acknowledge Tolkien's rules for Elvish society, but I took a little creative license with them for obvious reasons. They get explained within the next chapters.
Chapter 12: Rise Above This
Leila wasn't stupid. She had known her sister for eighteen years, and within that time she had gotten to know Ani's moods very, very well. So to say she noticed a change in her twin's demeanor that next morning, was an understatement. There were the subtle hints of course, firstly Anita looked well rested, which hadn't been the case since the duo had shown up here in Rivendell. There was also the return of her appetite; after weeks of barely consuming anything no one missed that Ani scarfed down two full plates of breakfast.
Those two things by themselves wouldn't have sent off any red flags if they stood alone, hell Lei might have just assumed it meant her darker twin had just finally accepted their place here. But paired with that look, that smug self-satisfied smile on her face…. Lei knew. She had seen this look too much in the past year to associate with anything else.
Anita had gotten laid.
Leila sat at the breakfast table, glowering at her other half, a mix of irritation and disgust making it nearly impossible to eat. She just sat watching her sister serve herself a third helping.
"My god these are so good, what are they?" Anita was oblivious to Leila's glares as she snapped up two rolls from the pile of bread in the middle of the table.
"Rosemary and honey rolls, you did not like them your first day here." The only other person that seemed to have noticed Ani's overnight personality change was Arwen, and suspicion was sneaking its way into her tone.
"Well I was wrong about them!" And in two chomps, the sweet sticky roll had disappeared between her lips. There wasn't really any question in Leila's mind who Anita had done the deed with, heaven sake there was only one person she had been hanging out with!
"You did it didn't you?" It was the first thing Lei had said all morning since her twin had come practically skipping down to breakfast. She didn't need to elaborate on the question, Ani knew what she had done, Lei just wanted to hear the confession.
"Like wildebeests on National Geographic," The words had been hard to distinguish around the mouth full of bread as Ani consumed the second roll in record speed. Lei could only roll her eyes and give a grunt of disgust as her sister confirmed she had no ability to make a good decision. Not that Leila's judgmental looks would do any good; Anita was immune to them at this point.
"So I was wondering," Anita turned the conversation to her father once she had swallowed, " since we are staying here awhile…indefinitely ?... I really wanted to paint my bedroom. White walls are kinda making me crazy."
Her request took Elladan momentarily by surprise. "Yes of course, you can make any adjustments to your quarters that would make it more homely. If you let me know the colors you require I can have them commissioned."
"Awesome," She started to get up when she realized it wouldn't kill her to show a little gratitude, so she followed up with a forced and more than a little awkward, "Thanks."
Elladan could only shake his head at her peculiar behavior as he watched his daughter scuttle out of the room. Once she had left though, he realized the table was far more empty than he had originally noticed. "Where is prince Legolas?"
The elf in question, sat in a bathtub whose water had been cold hours ago. After what had transpired the night before, he had been unable and uninclined to sleep. He had run a bath to try and relax himself, and that it where he had been ever since, letting thoughts of guilt and regret consume him.
Anita was a child, she was Elladan's child, and he had just deflowered her. Not in any manner, he had been rough with her, and he was never rough. He may have had a reputation for having a varied selection of lovers, be he certainly would never have been called a rough lover. The thought that hurt him the most was idea that Ani would think him a monster after the way he had, essentially, mauled her. Of course the stinging sensation from where she had dragged her nails across his skin, and the tenderness of his lip where she had bitten him, where possible indicators that she didn't mind the roughness at all.
Legolas rested his head against the smooth, cool wall that abutted the wash tub and closed his eyes. How could he face her? How could he face her father?! It was one of the reasons he hadn't left the tub to go down to breakfast; there was no way he could look either one of them in the eye knowing he had defiled her maidenhood.
His eyes snapped open as he finally grasped at something that had been bothering him since it happened. Legolas had been with plenty of virgins, enough of them to know when the woman he was with wasn't a virgin. He searched back in his memory of last night's events… no, he was certain; Anita hadn't been a virgin even before he had…well…
Virgin or not, he had to make things with right Ani.
Pulling himself from the tub and readying himself to the day, the young prince finally emerged from his bedroom after hours of solitude. Finding whom he sought turned out not to be that difficult of a task, since the moment he left his room he could hear her strong alto voice belting out a song. It was only a matter of following the sound to its origin. He found Anita in her bedroom, balancing precariously on the headboard of her bed's frame, one hand against the wall to steady herself as she drew faint lines with a pencil, all the while her head bobbing along to the beat of the music blaring from her iPod matched only in volume by her own singing.
He watched her silently for a moment, enjoying that she was oblivious both to his presence, and to how loud she was being. He took in the sight of her, no longer off put by her black hair streaked with purple, which was currently pulled back into a pony tail, or the fact that she dressed in pants. It took her a moment before she realized she was being watched, and she cast a glance over her shoulder to confirm that there was someone lurking in the doorway. She didn't bother to stop what she was doing however, but she did remove one ear bud and ceased singing to indicate she was open to conversation.
"What in the name of the Valar is that terrible noise?"
"Papa Roach," she said plainly as her head continued to bob along with the beat of the drums and the pencil slid easily along the smooth wall. It amazed Legolas that Ani was able to draw while her head was moving so much, how on earth could she see what she was doing?
"And you find pleasure in this…sound?"
"It's called music, and yes. I can find something I like in every kind of music but something about rock just speaks to me." Anita, finally tired of having a conversation over her shoulder, dropped her arms from the wall, spun gracefully on one foot before jumping from the headboard, bouncing off the mattress and landing easily on the ground.
"And pray tell what will this be?" He swept his arm in the direction of where she had just been drawing. He was stalling for time before having a very awkward conversation, and he hoped it wasn't blatantly obvious to Ani as well. But just like it always had, asking about her art would light up her eyes in the most childlike manner and all else would be forgotten.
"Oh I had such a great idea to cover up all this whiteness. This half of the room I am going to paint to look like the Sonoran Desert with the Catalina Mountains as a backdrop, and the other half of the room I am going to paint to look like Rivendell's landscape, and they are going to meet here." She gestured to the area above her headboard as if it was already painted and ready to be shown off, " This is going to look like a giant Palo Verde tree. Half Tucson, half Middle Earth…like me."
"Very clever, " Legolas replied. True to her word, he could see that Anita was truly trying to adjust today, to make this place home. In one night, she had gone from scared and lonely girl in a place she didn't understand, and was now vibrant and happy. One night, as she said, to fall to pieces and put herself back together. One forbidden night the elf had to remind himself, which brought him back to the reason he had sought Ani out in the first place. "Anita, could I speak with you privately?"
She only looked confused for a second before she grasped the hidden meaning in his words, privately as in far, far away from where anyone could overhear. Ani shut off her iPod before setting it and her pencil on the bed and followed Legolas out the door. He led her through a maze of hallways before they were let out into a large garden overrun with wildflowers and willow trees. The further they walked into the hidden corners of the garden, the more nervous Anita became. By the time they stopped, Anita was convinced that no matter how good elf ears were, if she screamed bloody murder right now no one would hear her. She would have told him as much, teasingly, if Legolas hadn't looked so ….unsettled.
"Anita. I feel I must apologize for my actions last night, those were not the behaviors of a gentleman and I never should have conducted myself in such a way."
Ani just stared at him, her brows furrowed in befuddlement, as she considered what he said, "Did you just apologize for a night of great sex?"
"Yes…no…well yes but…a gentleman should not…"
"Dude relax," She cut him off and took a seat on a very low hanging branch of a nearby willow tree, the slim pale wands covered in leaves swirling around her. "It's okay, I get it. We were drunk and we did something that we otherwise wouldn't have."
"I did not act under the influence of the drink." His confession was sheepish and demure, as if he hadn't wanted to confess that at all.
"Yeah I wasn't actually drunk either," Ani finally broke down and admitted, " I mean I was tipsy, but I wasn't like drunk. I was trying to give us an easy out."
There was a long moment of silence, the only sound was the leaves overhead rustling in a gentle breeze. Neither one of them knew what to say to make this less awkward and weird for the other. Legolas began to pace to ease his own tension and Anita began to click her teeth together just to break the overwhelming silence. She really, really, disliked moments like this and usually pulled out an inappropriate joke just to lighten the mood, somehow that didn't seem apt today.
"Look," Ani finally found the gall to speak, " I'm okay with what happened. You were great and I had fun, let's just leave it at that and forget it ever happened. I'm still confused about my place here, and hanging out with you has made this all less daunting. I don't want this weird thing floating around that makes it impossible for us to just….be. So can we just…"
The wind had been taken right out of Legolas' sails with that little speech. He had come here expecting to grovel and beg to be forgiven for violating her trust, and instead Ani was composed to the point of being completely detached. What could he say? This girl was so unlike any other woman he had ever spent time with, being with her had become the highlight of his day. Legolas certainly didn't want to throw that away over one of impulsive behavior.
"I agree, " He finally conceded. "Our baser urges controlled us briefly, but yes I do feel we can move beyond this."
"Oh thank God," Anita hopped down from her perch in the tree and started back towards the house with Legolas in step with her, " You know when you brought me out here I thought you were going to tell me that the laws of this place say because we had sex we had to get married or something."
She tried to laugh it off, and he did too, but the lump in his throat made it come out more of a choked wheeze. The sound he made trying to laugh didn't go unnoticed by her, and Ani stopped in her tracks with both eyebrows raised, waiting for him to explain. He caved.
"Elvish social rules are strange and complex. Suffice to say that, had we been caught, yes there would have been great pressure to wed or face social ostracism."
"Oh. Ooooooh! Well then…" Ani made the gesture of zipping her lips closed, " We will just have to keep this our little secret huh? I guess that means no more tequila laced nights of wanton sex?"
His ears turned red at her teasing jibe. It was a reaction Ani wasn't used to seeing out of the elf, and his discomfort only made for her amusement.
"What a shame," Ani pretended to pout, "cuz you were good!"
"Anita!" She just laughed at his embarrassment.
"Oh fine you uptight goof. I promise it won't happen again." When they had reached the house, the duo split up each going their own direction. Ani's words still hung between them , eating up whatever chance of conversation there was. 'It won't happen again' yes they could both agree that was a good idea. Neither one wanted to throw away a friendship in pursuit of a sexual relationship, and both of them could agree that such a relationship was risky and dangerous. To point, they could agree it was a flat out bad idea.
But they could both also agree that the mutual promise for the previous nights' events not to repeat, had been a lie.
Rise Above This- Seether