Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Tolkien's, not mine.
Author's Note: Written for Rhysenn's Alliance of Elves and Men challenge.
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The Choice of King Elessar
Part Two: Legolas
I do not think that anyone has yet noticed that I am spending less and less time in the company of the new King. Except Aragorn himself, of course. He notes my absence and knows the reason for it, although I think he has misinterpreted exactly why I prefer to spend time on my own that I previously would have spent with him.
I have always known and accepted his destiny, better at times than he himself has. And I have always accepted that his duty is not to me. Estel has always been my hope, but I never dared hope that he might himself be mine. Even in the dark times so recently over, when we turned to each other for strength, and love, it has never been far from my mind that soon his duty will call him and he will leave me behind.
I do not think he realises this. I have seen him watching me, bleak sorrow in his grey eyes, and I know that he is agonising over having to tell me that he has chosen Arwen, not me. Yet I have always known it. From the day I met him I have loved him, and from that day too have I known that he will never truly be mine. It touches me to think that he believes that my hope could be so strong, my love so blind to the realities of life.
I think he has forgotten that I have duties of my own. I too have people who need me. I must return soon to my father's kingdom, no longer Mirkwood but Eryn Lasgalen, the Wood of Greenleaves, named, it seems, for me. There is much to do there now that the shadow of Sauron has been lifted from our fair lands.
Besides, I promised Gimli that we would travel together, when all is over. I must visit the caverns at Helm's Deep with him, just as he must accompany me to Fangorn. It will, I think, provide me with an easy escape from the crushing sorrow in Aragorn's eyes, and the almost irresistible temptation to take him in my arms and try to erase it, to give him strength and hope as I did so many times on our long and perilous journey. I am only sorry that I cannot leave before the wedding, and so make his choice easier. Though it will half kill me to see him wed Arwen, I am so happy for them both, that after their long years of waiting and hoping that their love was not in vain, they can finally take their rightful place at each other's side. And I love Arwen like the sister I never had. I would not miss her marriage for all the world.
No, I will see them wed, I will rejoice for them as their old friend and companion should, and then I will leave Minas Tirith, and never look back, never see them again.
But I will never forget. Not as long as I live will I forget the love I hold for the King of Men, or the love he came to hold for me.