DISCLAIMER: I don't own any characters except for the ones you don't know…


~~~
LEGOLAS
~~~

"Aliya?" I whispered through the door to The Silver Room. I knew this was the only other place she could be, for she was not in the Library or the Baths. I was listening hard with my ear and palms pressed on the door.

I heard movement inside the room and my heart soared, but it dropped as I heard the lock click into place.

"Aliya, will you please let me in?" I asked coaxingly, while moving my hand to the door.

Fine! I thought to myself and inserted a large silver key into the lock. If she was going to be like this, I would force her to talk to me.

I opened the door slowly and found nobody to be inside. I sighed and remembered the secret passage. I went through it and followed it down the stairs quietly.

I will make her talk to me. She can't avoid me forever. I don't think.

~~~
ALIYA
~~~

Locking the door won't do much, said the voice in my head, he probably has a key! It was right….Legolas probably had a master key to every room in the palace! I looked around everywhere for an escape my eyes remembering a secret corridor. I slipped in quietly behind the tapestry and walked quickly in the darkness.

Why am I running from him? I though suddenly, and brought myself to a dead stop in the dim passage. I have no reason to be... I only came here to do what's right.


"Be sure you do not intend to do something which is not within your grasp, Aliya."

Those words came back to me now. What was within my grasps? Was what I came here to do what I really want to do? I am beginning to doubt what I think is right.

"Ahhh!" I yelled suddenly as something barreled into me, knocking me down tumbling and breaking my thought.

I looked up from the ground to see who it was. It was Legolas. I crawled away from him to a wall down the hall. He just moved closer.

"Here…" he said, offering me his hand, "Let me help you…"

I took it and he pulled me up in one swift motion trying to bring me close. I brushed myself off and began to turn away. He stopped me.

"Why are you doing this, Aliya?" he said hand on my shoulder, his voice deep with despair.

I spun and looked into his glassy eyes, "Because I love you." was all I said as i backed away a step or two.

"Then why do you break my heart?" he countered moving closer again.

"Because I will not see happiness taken from you. I will not take happiness from you, for I know how it feels to be without! I want you to live the life you have now, with your wife and your son and daughter. Please don't make this any harder than it is, Legolas! Let me go!" I said biting my lip and looking to the floor as not to run to him and cry. I didn't move away this time as he came a bit closer.

I wanted so much to love him, and to be loved in return. I wanted him to hold me and tell me everything was alright, like he used to. I wanted to take back all I had said and I wanted him to love me only. But I knew I couldn't. I knew what I was doing was right. I knew that it was what I was meant to do, but did I have the strength to?

"Melamin…" he started moving his hand to my arm.

"Don't call me that!" I said, cutting off the word and pushing his arm away, "Speak that name to Miama, not to me!"

He looked down and I instantly regretted my harsh words. I was about to apologize when I heard him begin to speak. It was a poem, kind of like a song.

"Eyes of honey
Heart of gold
A lonely story
Yet to unfold

A heartache in past
A future untold
The present is only
What she beholds

Brave and daring
Quiet and bold
The love we were sharing
Is all that I hold

Where did you go?
My love, Melamin
My lost life without you
I feel I fell in

My darkness is lonely
My heart has turned cold
I live now in heartache
For the one I can't hold

My Library is abandoned
The story I've told
If I could have anyone
It's her I would hold

But alas, she is gone
To where, no one told
Life must go on
Prince that I am, I must be bold."

He finished and looked at me. He must have noticed the tears in my eyes, for he said, "It was written for you. When I lost you. And now I have you back and I can't lose you again…no…"

I didn't answer him, but instead sang my own song to him, for him.

"My prince and my savior
My love Melamin
I love you forever
It's to you that I sing.

My heart had been broken
By bumps in the path
But you were my champion
What more could I ask?

You brought me back
And held me up high
You were there when I needed
When I was going to die

But what about me?
Was I there for you?
I thought you were gone
Was I needed too?

Away in Lothlorien
I forgot about home
I told myself I was happy
Yet my mind always roamed.

I remembered a place
Without a name
Where truly happy I was
It's just not the same.

So with anticipation
I head my horse back
Hoping you'll still want me
hoping you'll fill my heart's lack

I miss you my Melamin
There was no goodbye
But you've lived in my heart
It's for you that I cry.

But it is now that I'm home
It is now that I see
Together we can never
Can never be

So goodbye I now say
Forever I mean
Knowing that you'll be
near in my dreams…"

"And that was for you, Prince Legolas…" I said, "A song written so I could convince myself that I could leave you in peace."

"And now you know you can't, Ali?" he said, using his pet name for me.

"No…Now I know that I'm not the only one who has to let go. You have to as well, My Prince…" I said, firmly, wanting him to agree and disagree at the same time.

"I love you, Ali…I will never stop loving you…You will be in my heart forever. You will be in my dreams. I hope you know that. I hope you realize." he moved closer to me and hugged me. I let him. I wanted him too, but i didn't hug back. I just let him hold be for a moment.

He pulled away, taking my hand, and said, "Come…please."

He led the way back up the stone passage to my room. I followed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!