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.

Chapter 27: Decode

Legolas had been practicing what he would say, practicing all morning despite that he knew all his rehearsed words would abandon him once he set eyes on her. Perhaps it was more to calm his nerves than to really know what he wanted to say. After seeing him so distressed after last night's dinner, Leila had been merciful enough to inform the prince where her sister's quiet place of solace was, so that they might have a private word away from public scrutiny. Actually the spot was rather ingenious, since very few Elves cared to venture here, which guaranteed the silence and solitude that Anita often sought out. Legolas himself, like most Elves, had little desire to surround himself with memorials of those who had passed beyond this life.

Anita, however, was the kind of person to spend her time in a graveyard.

Compared to human graveyards, though, Rivendell's was far less ominous. The incredibly low mortality rate meant that there were only a few far spread mausoleums and headstones. Just off the path which wound through the garden and passed the cemetery, there was a little stone bench. Meant as a place of quiet reflection and respect, the bench saw very little use until Anita's arrival in Rivendell… or so he had been told.

Just as Leila had said her twin would be, Ani was lounging on the bench, napping. Dressed in dark lambskin pants and a pea green shirt, Legolas would have been hard pressed to tell her apart from other Elves….except for the way she was sleeping. One leg hung over the side lazily, while the other leg was bent and propped up on the bench. Her right arm was thrown over her face, a failed attempt to block out the sunlight, and her left arm was holding an open book to her chest. Legolas had second thoughts when he saw her laying there, not wanting to disturb her. Elladan's warning about disrupting his daughter's life echoed in his brain as he considered walking away and not saying anything.

"Oh don't mind me." Ani hadn't even needed to open her eyes to know he was standing there, "I'm just soaking up some sunlight."

A small smile crossed his lips. "You always did have a love for the sun. I am surprised to see that you are not with Glorfindel training today…" He was trying his damnedest to be subtle about his question. After a seven year separation Legolas needed to test the waters before he assaulted her with a personal question about her relationship with the older elf.

Anita still didn't open her eyes to look at him as she languidly responded to his inquiry. "I don't train with Glo with every day. Part of the standing agreement is that, two days a week, I forego training with Glo and instead have lessons with Elrond. So Tuesdays and Thursdays I get stuck going to history and culture lessons."

Legolas still hadn't made any motion to draw closer to her on the bench, remaining at a semi-awkward distance for a conversation. "I was very surprised to hear that your father allowed you to join the Guard, even with Elrond's blessing for you to partake in such an activity."

"Well I needed something to occupy my time, Elrond needed leverage to get me to go to lessons in the first place and I'm sure Glorfindel is glad to have a break from me, even if it's only two days a week. It's a win- win for everyone."

Now they came to it, the perfect opportunity for him to say what he came here to say. Much as he had predicted in his walk to this spot, all the practicing he had done, all the carefully chosen words, abandoned him now that he needed them the most. The prince knew this girl well enough to know that being on her bad side was one place no one wanted to be, and asking such a personal question was a sure fire way to land himself on her bad side if she took it wrong, " Yes, well, you and Glorfindel have grown…quite close, in the time since I have been away…"

There. The accusation hung in the air now, waiting for Ani's response. Time stood still for what felt like an eternity, but really could only have been the passing of mere seconds. Waiting for her response, to confirm or deny his heart's deepest fear, was worse than trying to ask it in the first place. Sliding the arm that covered her eyes up slightly, Ani opened one brown eye to study the other elf. A strange look overtook her face, an expression that Legolas wasn't fully familiar with.

"Legolas…are you…are you asking me if I'm fucking Glorfindel?"

The tips of his ears instantly started to burn pink with embarrassment. Sheepishly, the prince turned his gaze down to the toes of his boots; safe from Ani's scrutinizing gaze. "Actually Ani, I am trying very hard not to ask you that."

The sound that tore from the girl's throat was a strange cross between a snort and a chuckle. "Ew dude, there is like a three THOUSAND year age difference between him and I!"

"True, but there is nearly six hundred between you and I."

"Well that's a fair point I guess." Fluidly, Anita adjusted her position on the bench; sitting up and placing both feet on the ground, she left room on the bench for him to come and join her. She sat so that her back faced the house and her eyes could look out over the small gathering of headstones. Patting the now empty spot on the stone bench, she invited him to come and join her. Delighted at the prospect of finally have a private moment for them to talk, Legolas did not hesitate to take up the open seat next to her.

"I'm not having sex with Glo," She finally admitted after a moment of uncomfortable silence. Legolas had to hold back the relieved sigh he had been holding in his chest. "We have a very nice platonic relationship. He's almost like an older brother in a way."

"I think perhaps I was merely caught off guard at how much your relationship with him had changed in such a short time."

Anita screwed up her face as she thought, "Yeah I won't lie it was weird. One day he was his normal abrasive self, acting like Lei and I were the scourge of society, and then the next day he volunteered to take me on as his student."

"And Elladan agreed? Even with his all convictions on how proper ladies should conduct themselves?"

"He took a little convincing." That trademark impish smile that Legolas had grown to love so much graced her lips. It was that little hint of mischief that made him wonder just what 'convincing' had been done. They fell into a comfortable silence. The chance to final speak privately took the edge off the conversation knowing they didn't have anyone watching they needed to put a show on for. No one standing there to judge what they said or how they said it. It felt natural to them, to be open and carefree with the other. Neither one really knew the toll that the constant act of polite indifference had taken on their spirit until the act was dropped; freeing their soul from the burden of living a lie.

"So did your dad totally flip his shit when you got back to Mirkwood?" Alone back here near the graves, Anita knew she could be candid with Legolas, and he would answer her honestly.

The prince responded by nodding his head twice in an exaggerated way, his lips pulled tight. "It has been many lives of Men sine he had made me feel like such a child, and been punished thusly. There was not a single moment of my day when I had free time, he made doubly sure of that. No time to get myself into trouble, he assured me it was for the best. And your father?"

Anita gave a dramatic roll of her eyes, "I swear he had someone always following me and reporting back everything that I did…once he let me start leaving the house again of course. And it took me a loooong time to earn that privilege back." They both chuckled at each other's severe punishment, what else was there to do at this point but laugh at what had happened? If they didn't laugh, that only left them to have to admit, in their own way, that their relationship had been very much worth the punishment they received. And that was a dangerous reality to accept.

Legolas instead tried to change the subject, "My father has been trying to force marriage upon me. He even went so far as to introduce me to some maidens he thought were more my 'taste', as he put it."

"And?" The question didn't come out sounding nearly as nonchalant as Ani wanted it to.

"I bore no interest in them. After all…they were not you." Legolas' words made a blush creep up the girl's cheeks and she bit her bottom lip to try and suppress the smile that broke free anyway. They stared at each other silently, letting Legolas' words fill the space between them.

A gentle wind rustled the colorful autumn leaves that had fallen to the ground, making them spin and dance across the hard packed dirt path. The breeze threaded its way through Anita's cascades of onyx hair, pulling a few tresses in its gentle grasp and blowing them into her face. She didn't have time to react herself before she felt strong masculine fingers pushing the hair back behind her ear where it belonged. It made shivers run down the length of her spine to have him touch her in such an intimate way. Pushing the hair back, he cupped her cheek for the briefest second, but it was all the encouragement Ani needed. She melted into his touch, closing her eyes as his hand caressed her skin; a little sigh escaping between her perfect pink lips.

Instinct took over both their bodies, easily shoving their flimsy restraint to the wayside. Legolas leaned forward as Ani turned her face upward to receive the kiss. They both stopped with their lips parted by the most miniscule void, so close to achieving what they both wanted so badly. The smallest movement would have closed the gap between them, would have ended the torment and misery they had endured during years apart. But neither one could be the one to close the distance, held aloft by the deeply ingrained understanding that they couldn't. It took all of his inner strength to pull away from her without feeling the touch of her lips to his.

When they finally broke away from the spell that had them transfixed on each other, when the control had been regained, they turned away from each other; fearing that the desire which had taken them a moment earlier would still be evident on their face.

"I miss the purple," Legolas broke the silence first, referring to the purple highlights that had been Ani's defining feature when she had come to live in Rivendell. His words caused the girl to heave a deep breath, weighted down by memory. The girl with the purple hair, she remembered herself being so different at that young age. Wild and excitable, she hadn't given half a damn about the rules or who she was hurting by breaking them. But she was so different now, so different from that girl with the purple hair; because now Anita had something- someone- to lose through her indiscretions.

"Me too," She replied after a pregnant moment of quiet contemplation. Standing up suddenly, the girl closed the book that had remained opened on her lap during her exchange with the prince. "I should go now, my grandfather will be expecting me and I have to come up with some good excuse why I didn't finish my reading homework."

It was then that Legolas noticed the cover on the book Anita had with her this whole time; A Concise History of the First Age. The elf had to hold back a laugh when he saw that; it was some small wonder that Ani had even cracked the cover, much less that she had actually been trying to read the dull text.

"Will I see you at dinner tonight?" Ani spoke as she walked around the bench to head back into the house.

"Of course," Legolas answered without hesitation. The girl gave a small smirk before her strides lengthened and she moved back up the path and around the house. "Ani?"

Legolas calling after her caused Anita to pause in her step before she disappeared from his sight.

"It was wonderful to speak with you again. I would very much cherish the opportunity to do it again soon." Anita's smirk turned into a full toothy grin before she nodded her head to answer him, and then she continued on to her lessons with Elrond.

Ani struggled the whole afternoon to pay attention to her grandfather's lesson. Try as she might, she just didn't have it in her to hear and care about the land of Beleriand, especially since it didn't even exist anymore. Her mind kept drifting back to Legolas. In a flash of weakness, Ani had almost given into the one thing she had been fighting so hard against. Wasn't it the thought of his kisses that had kept her going all these years though? That had made her really try to find her place in society? For the tough exterior that she put on for everyone else's benefit, she truly was weak when it came to the Prince of Mirkwood.

It was hard not to stare at him during dinner that evening. Anita had tried to position herself a few seats down from him so they didn't have to force polite conversation with fake smiles, trying to hide their moment of fragility behind social protocol. She ended up seated directly across from Boromir, who seemed perfectly content to ignore both her and Leila in favor of conversation with the men. That suited her just fine this evening.

The conversation had turned to whether land taxes were unnecessarily oppressive on farmers; a subject Ani couldn't have cared less about even if she had tried. She was more than happy to check out of the conversation and leave such a tiresome topic for the men to discuss. Heated discussions such as these, however, were Leila's forte; and Ani could see her twin out of the corner of her eye chomping at the bit to jump into the conversation. Leave it to Lei to have an interest in such a humdrum topic.

"The problem with such a taxation system," Boromir was droning on, "is that there is simply no way to know just how extensive the harm or good the tax can do to the common citizens."

"Other nations have had success setting up a type of parliament where the common man advised the king on such matters as taxation. In this sense, the everyday citizen is capable of making his complaints or successes known to those in charge." It wasn't what her sister said that caught Anita's attention, it was the deathly silence that followed Lei's statement. You could hear a pin drop, it was so quiet. And Leila was getting some strange looks from the emissaries from Gondor.

"I forget," Boromir said, more to the man sitting next to him than to Leila, "Elves are so 'enlightened' they let the women get involved in affairs of state."

Lei bristled at his comment. "My sister and I have never been excluded from a conversation at this table."

"And when the subject is mending and cooking I am sure that is the case." Leila was struck dumbfounded by such a rude comment, her mouth hung slightly ajar in shock. She tried to speak up in her own defense, but only the tiniest squeak came out. Anita shot a glare down the table at her father, who had no doubt heard the comment since his attention was fixed on Boromir. When they locked eyes, Ani made her message came through loud and clear; You do something or I will. But she knew he wouldn't, it was rude to challenge a guest of the household in such a way, and publicly to boot….but it was ruder for a guest to insult family that way. In a flash, Anita's hand snapped forward and snatched her butter knife from the table. Spinning it in her hand to wield it like a dagger, Anita reached the short distance across the table and stabbed the knife into the wooden surface, burying it up to the handle. The knife had come to rest not half an inch from Boromir's hand as he had reached forward to grab his cup, Ani had moved so fast he had no chance to react. He froze, staring at the flatware that had nearly impaled his hand.

"I don't know about where you are from, but here it is considered unforgivably rude to address a member of your host's family in such a manner. You are in our house, and I do believe you owe my sister an apology." The expression on Anita's face said she wasn't kidding, and every single person seated at the table had their eyes locked onto the scene, watching and waiting to see what the man would do. It took him nearly a full minute to come back from the shock of being attacked by a lady of the household before he could address her.

Boromir laughed nervously, "Perhaps you are right. Lady Leila, please accept my sincerest apology, I meant no disrespect to you, I spoke before I thought better of my words." Leila quietly gave a gracious response about his forgiveness, still obviously mortified at how he had insulted her and how her twin had reacted.

"Anita…" Ani could hear the warning in her father's tone and knew beyond a doubt she would pay for her actions later. May as well go for broke.

"Excuse me," The dark haired girl rose form her chair, still staring down the ambassador from Gondor, "I seem to have lost my appetite."

She couldn't resist getting that last little jab in. With confidently squared shoulders, Anita strode out of the room without a backward glance, hyper aware that every eye in the room was watching her go. It had felt so good to break free from the constraints of proper Elvish behavior, even if only for a second. In that small span of time, acting so impulsively and brashly, she had really felt like that girl with the purple hair again.

Decode- Paramore