Ah, another chapter. NOTE: The rating for this story has been raised to pg-13 for the chapter because of a mild swear word. It probably walks the line of PG/PG-13, but I wanted to be safe.

losseniaiel: Thanks for your persistence. I wish you well on your story. I lurked for years (and I mean that) before I got hit with a good enough plot. Then a few months ago I got the idea for this story arc when reading an El/Cel fic by Nemis. It kept hounding me until I wrote it. Then a billion ideas popped into my head.

Isa: I'm really lad you like the fic. I sort of became a big Elrond/Celebrian fan when I couldn't find any good Arwen/Aragorn fics, and poor Legolas is so swarmed with admirers that its time consuming to weed out the good ones. Now I'm an incurable El/Cel fanatic and get upset when people don't know that Elrond has two sons.

For all my readers, I was listening to a sad song on the radio yesterday, and my angst bug came back full force.

SO, I need to know just how angsty you want this story. Mild, spicy or suicide?

I can't really continue past here until I know where to take it. At the moment, I need to know whether you want Celebrian to run off to Rivendell with Elrond, or If you want her to be taken off back to ole' Thrandy.

I'd also appreciate your ideas on what you want more of in this story. While I have a general direction I am going, I am open to suggestions if you have something you'd really like to see happen.

Oh, if anyone wants to archive this, feel free. Just be nice and send me an e-mail, I'd like to have bragging rights J

I don't own. Tolkein created—Tolkein's estate owns. I'm not making money on this.

    Fiery passion rose up in Elrond. His heart felt as if it was on fire an interesting contrast to the shivers his body was experiencing. With a shove, he pushed himself out of Celebrian's arms.

"I beg you, do not vex me so lady. My crime was born out of passions of love, not of hate. Let my punishment be lenient. Do not torture my soul" Elrond turned quickly from her, going to the stream to ready the horses.

 Celebrian frowned. He thought that was punishment? Did he think her so cold hearted as to give a man something only to take it away? In a sense, she supposed that was what she was going to do to Thranduil, but that was a matter out of her hands.

    Setting her jaw, she strode after him. "You may ready those horses till they die of old age, Master Elrond, but I will not be going back. Not with you. Not by myself. I want no part of fair headed elves at the moment. In truth, I find that my tastes have always been a bit darker in color."

  Elrond froze. Should he trust what he heard, what he wanted to hear? His mouth was dry, his hands, had they not been buried in his horse's mane, would have been trembling. Hope was starting to spring in his heart. Like a new shoot coming out of the ground. It may be a wondrous thing to behold, but still the earth must break and crack around it.

And crack his heart did. It had long been held together with iron bands of hurt, anger, and desolation. But for hope to spring up, he would have to let go and believe that the roots of love would hold the earth of his heart together.

 "I do not understand." Elrond spoke, opting for a safe route.

  "By the… Were you this difficult being born? I have every intention of having dark haired grey eyed children. I plan on living in a very nice elven city that is a safe harbor for all. I want my husband to be slightly broader than most elves, with a very contemplative nature. In short, I WANT YOU. If I cannot have you, I shall simply go off and live with a group of dwarves. At least then I will be left alone."

A soft smile lit his eyes. "I do not believe that will be necessary. Besides, you are a bit tall to live with dwarves."

"Well then, do you think you could manage to call me by my name?"

Elrond reached up to cup the side of her face, "Celebrian."

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

  Glorfindel was having a very, very bad feeling about this whole affair. Elrond had been very moody last night. Hell, who was he kidding, Elrond had been crabby for almost a year. Last night though, he had been very strange. Especially after the bride to be had left for the night.  Elrond had started brooding. Not his normal pensive brood, but the dark, dreary brood that had caused him to lose weight about six months ago. Then, Elrond had gotten up to "Get some air." Glorfindel hadn't seen him the rest of the night. He personally had better things to do, like wooing two very beautiful maidens.

    Apparently, he was the only one who found the fact that both Elrond and Celebrian had left the same night suspicious. Being loyal to Elrond, he would never dare point out the oddness of the situation, but he knew better than to think it mere coincidence. Elrond always did something stupid when he was drunk. That meant it was highly possible that Elrond had had something to do with the bride's disappearance.

   Personally, Glorfindel found the situation humorous from a certain perspective. No-one had even missed the bride until forty-five minutes before the wedding. Everyone had just assumed her to be someplace else. Now, they were all scrambling to find her, organizing into search parties. Somehow, she had slipped past the stable hand last night, gotten on her horse, and ridden off somewhere.

    The part that bothered Glorfindel was that the hoof prints that had been found seemed rather heavy for a horse only carrying one rider. That and why would she bring her horse over to her room and then fetch her bag to leave?

   As a good soldier, he volunteered to join a search party, but he doubted he would like what he found.

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 At the moment, Elrond was floating. Lunch had consisted of stale, leftover food from his journey to Lothlorien, sweetened with stolen kisses from his love. As if that hadn't been enough, she had taken pity on his poor, hungover head, and at the moment was massaging his temples. He knew it wouldn't last.

 "What are we going to do about my parents?"

Elrond bit back a curse, he knew he shouldn't have thought that.

"I suppose that we go and demand that they allow us to be together."

"NO." Celebrians voice trembled, "They will take you from me, as surely as they did before. I will not risk that. I shall never speak to them again."

Elrond tensed. Never was a word he used when Elros had chosen to be a man. When he had visited his brother many years later, he had felt deep regret. Too many years had been lost between them. Years that could never be replaced.

"Never is a long time, Celebrian"

"I know, but do not make me Elrond, at least not now."

Elrond acquiesced, he could deny her nothing. "Then we shall speak of more pleasant tasks for now."

With a smile, he turned to capture her lips.