Title: Never Saw Blue Like That
Author: Deanie
Rating: PG
Pairing: Willow/Legolas
Genre: BtVS/LotR Crossover.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own these characters. Willow and the Buffy crew belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Lord of the Rings belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien.
Distribution: please ask
Author's Notes: For Buffy, this takes place sometime in the future, after season seven.
This story was inspired by Shawn Colvin's song, "Never Saw Blue Like That." Lyrics are at the end of the story.
Thanks to Sin, my wonderful Beta.

****

I loved him. Really, truly loved him, in a way I've never loved anyone else. It was so amazing the way my heart could feel so much, with me only knowing him for just a few days.

After all that I'd been through, all that I'd done, I never thought I would love anyone again. I didn't know if I could. Tara's senseless death left a hole in my heart, and I didn't think anyone could ever fill it. Besides, did I really deserve to be loved after all I'd done? Or would a lifetime of loneliness be my punishment for the evil I'd welcomed into my heart in my vengeful rage?

I killed people. Tried to end the world. And, unlike most of the people I've known who have done evil things - Faith, in prison; Angel, with his curse - I wasn't punished. I deserved to be punished, locked up in some mystical dungeon, or worse, executed for my crimes. Maybe deep down, I figured that I'd punish myself, as if being happy after all the unhappiness I'd caused would be some sort of sin.

So I was alone. I had my friends, but inside, I was always alone. Always afraid of what I could become if I lost someone I loved again.

Then I met him.

Strange, how some things just feel right. He did. The moment our eyes met for the first time, I knew my life would never be the same. He was for me, and me for him. We were meant to be together.

And we were.

I never imagined I could be this happy again. When I'm with him, I don't feel the weight of guilt threatening to crush me. He makes me believe I'm worthy of forgiveness. That I'm special. That I can be loved, and love in return.

Legolas. My prince. He holds my heart in his hands and cherishes the gift. He makes me feel good about myself again.

He surprised me today, waiting after my last class with a picnic basket and a plan. We headed out to the park. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been to a park. Well, the last time I'd been to one in the daylight, instead of at night, when vamps and hell-beasties were trying to kill us. He found a nice one -- not a vamp-infested dark-and-scary one, but a sunshiny one, with beautiful tall oak trees, and warm grass with that freshly cut grass smell.

He has this way of looking at the world - making things I took for granted - like a forest full of trees - seem extraordinary again. He's lived through so much, but still finds pleasure in the littlest things. I believed in earth power, and respect for the natural world and stuff, but he fits into nature like he belongs there. I guess he does, being a Wood Elf and all.

He took me to the park and showed me all the beauty he found in the world. The birds, singing in the trees, winging their way to the stream and back again. The wildflowers, growing crazily with huge splashes of color in the middle of leafy green vines. Even the clouds...

He pulled me down to the ground, resting my head on his chest, and looked up at the clouds. We laid there for hours, laughing, talking, and just looking up at the fluffy shapes floating peacefully across the mid-afternoon sky.

There, in the fading sunlight, he kissed me. Turned his head and just brushed his lips over mine, sweetly and softly like the wings of a butterfly. Then again, deeper, stronger, filled with all the emotion we hadn't said out loud. He felt like heaven, beautiful, peaceful ... like coming home.

That was when I really knew ... we were soulmates, destined to be together. So destined that it kept him on this earth, for thousands of years when the rest of his people had long faded away.


He loved me, wholly, unconditionally. He knew I'd been evil, how I killed Warren in a blind rage and tried to annihilate the whole world - both the good and the bad. He loved me anyway.

He made me believe in love, that I could be happy again and put my past sins behind me. He was my future ... my lover ... my forever. All I wanted was to spend eternity lying in his arms.


****
Lyrics, "Never Saw Blue Like That"
By Shawn Colvin

Today we took a walk up the street
Picked a flower and climbed the hill
Above the lake

And secret thoughts were said aloud
We watched the faces in the clouds
'Til the clouds had blown away

And were we ever somewhere else
You know it's hard to say

And I never saw blue like that before
Across the sky
Around the world
You've given me all you have and more
And no one else has ever shown me how
To see the world the way I see it now
Oh, I, I never saw blue like that

I can't believe a month ago
I was alone, I didn't know you
I hadn't seen or heard your name
And even now, I'm so amazed
It's like a dream, it's like a rainbow, it's like the rain

And some things are the way they are
And words just can't explain

'Cause I never saw blue like that before
Across the sky
Around the world
You've given me all you have and more
And no one else has ever shown me how
To see the world the way I see it now
Oh, I, I never saw blue like that before

And it feels like now,
And it feels always,
And it feels like coming home

I never saw blue like that before
Across the sky
Around the world
You've given me all you have and more
And no one else has ever shown me how
To see the world the way I see it now
Oh, I, I never saw blue like that before

Oh, I, I never saw blue like that