Hello! This is the second fic I've posted but I will introduce my OCs shortly.

This story is Lalaith's POV. She's a half-elf, lives in Minas Tirith and is in a kind of long-distance relationship with Elladan. She's related to Estel on their mothers' sides. She has an older sister, Aerina.

Navari is an elf, a foster sister to the twins and Estel, she was adopted by Elrond as well.

This story takes place a year after Lalaith's father died on an orc hunt in the Misty Mountains when her whole family came to visit Rivendell. She moves back to Gondor, learns how to live her new life and meets Ringil.

I want to say this is not a standard story where a girl has to choose between two boys who fall in love with her but… it kind of is. And I hope you enjoy it!

(English is not my first language so excuse any stupidities. Feel free to write some feedback, I would love to read it!)

I found myself a routine in Minas Tirith. Walk to school with Ringil. Meticulous, neat notes. Buy something on the market on the way home, help mom, read. Go on the evening run.

Since I took up running 5 months ago, I never missed a day. No, that's not true, I missed it once. I got too drunk to come home. Mom was furious.

Now that Mom was the head of this family, she had to take additional hours at work in the Healing Halls. She was rarely home and so was Aerina. I was hardly ever lonely, though. Ringil could have just moved to our house, it wouldn't have changed that much.

He is my neighbour. Or that's who he was to me a year ago. Now he is my best friend, someone I spend almost every second of the day with, who I share my every thought with.

When we came back to Minas Tirith after that summer when my dad passed away, I didn't know anything about Ringil, except for his very loud older siblings. He has three of them, two sisters and one brother. They aren't very close. He's five years younger than the youngest of them and they always treat him like he's still a child, who would get them caught when they're up to something.

His mother is a lovely woman. It was she who suggested that he should ask if we needed anything. I don't even know how she found out my father died. News like that spread incredibly fast. So, one day Ringil approached me and asked if he can help me with carrying food from the market and next thing I know is our families spend Yuletide together at his house (his mother's idea).

At the beginning, just after I came home, I wrote letters to Elladan almost every day. Many of them I didn't even send but I still keep them neatly folded in the upper drawer of my desk. The letters stopped where Ringil started. I think I loved him in a way. I never took it seriously, though, never thought about him romantically. I always remembered about Elladan, about our promise to wait for each other. He swore he'd visit me and even when 6 months, and then a whole year, passed and there was no sign of him, I still never for a moment doubted that he would eventually arrive.

But had I never met Elladan, I am sure I would fall in love with Ringil. It would be so, so easy to love him. It seemed like one man in my life was replaced with another. I had all the unused love for my dad which I could easily relocate in Ringil. It would be perfect. But t was impossible, due to the existence of Elladan.

I thought I was asleep when I heard a loud thump, like a bird hitting my window. I jumped up with a heart pounding in my chest. The room was dark and quiet again, everything seemed normal, so I lay back, when there was another thump. Nervous and irritated, I stood up and looked out the window where I saw Ringil standing on my lawn.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed, trying not to wake anyone up.

"I wanted to talk. Help me up!" he held out an arm.

"No way, we'll talk in the morning," I began to close the window.

"No, no, no, no, wait, please," he made that last word sound so vulnerable that I couldn't just turn my back. I sighed.

"Fine," he grinned, "but," the grin weakened, "you're staying there."

"Fine!"

"So?"

"You were right. With what you said today about me and Lianna. It was not fair of me. I can and should do better than that."

Oh right, Lianna. Ringil's new girl best friend. That day, when I waited for him at our usual morning meeting spot (which is his fence), he wasn't there. That made me come late to class, where I found him sitting next to Lianna, completely lost in a conversation. The first words he spoke to me was when we parted with her on our way home from school. I did not spare him a pointed comment on how he abandoned me.

"It will never happen again."

"What will never happen again? You two will never talk again?"

He smiled. Nothing can ever embarrass him. I never heard him stutter or hesitate.

"I will never abandon you like I did today." He looked me in the eye earnestly and paused. "Please, let me in."

I sighed again and without a word helped him up. He could have done it himself; he just needed my permission. When he was in my room, he once again looked at my for a few seconds and I frowned, confused. Finally, I decided to sit back on the bed and he sat next to me.

"I would never want to cause you any harm," Ringil whispered so low, I could have imagined it. "You deserve the best."

The only thing I could think of was 'please, keep Elladan out of this' but he only rested his head on my shoulder and didn't say anything else. His blond, almost white, short locks tickled my cheek.

"I don't know if I was so right after all," I said, also keeping my voice very low.

"What do you mean?" He kept his head on my shoulder.

"I don't want to be this kind of person who wants everyone exclusively for herself. I can't make you stop talking to other people. And I wouldn't want it. I don't have the right to do so." We are not together and you should have the right to have other friends, was what I was trying to say.

"I would if you wanted."

"I don't want it," I repeated, stressing every word.

Then we sat in silence for a very long time, his head on my shoulder and a hand on my knee. I think we fell asleep like that for a moment.

"I should go to sleep," I muttered.

"Can't I stay?"

"No!", I brushed off his hand gently and stoop up. He followed and jumped out the window deftly. Before he turned the corner, he blew me a kiss.