Arwen placed another damp cloth on Estel's forehead.  His temperature was still high, but the fever that had ravaged his frail body had begun to subside.  His eyelids began to flutter open.  Arwen smiled down at him.

"Arwen?" he asked.

"Go back to sleep, melamin."

Estel's eyelids began to feel heavy.  He struggled to keep them open.

"Mani marte?"

"You collapsed.  I think one of the arrows that struck you was tipped with poison.  Lle tyava quel?"

"Did you heal me?" Estel avoided her question.

"Yes."

"Then I will be fine."

Arwen felt touched by his child-like trust in her.  She only wished that she deserved it.

            A week had passed since Estel had staggered into the residence of the band members of AFI and Arwen was ready to go home.  Sure, she had had fun meeting her idols, but now all she wanted was to be home with her love.  Estel walked in to find her packing a small bag with food.

"Mani naa lle umien?" he asked.

"I'm packing food so we can go home."

"But we can't go home yet!" Estel protested.

"Why not?" Arwen asked, confused.

"Because I have not yet defeated your captors?"

"Estel, what on Illuvatar's sweet earth are you talking about?"
He softly placed a finger against her lips to silence her. 

"All will be revealed…"

He smiled and led her to a door, before disappearing down another hall.  Arwen stared after him, bewildered, before entering the room.

            She was instantly deafened by the sound of thousands of cheering, rabid fans.  A randomn man handed her a pamphlet.  She gasped and sat down, nauseous.  Estel was having a sing-off.  Against AFI.  Over her.

            This was preposterous.  Estel couldn't even sing, let alone outperform a band as amazing as AFI!  They were both doomed.  Completely and utterly doomed.

            The band walked out onto the stage and was met with hysterical howls of delight.  They began to play.

"Twenty-six years and seems like I've just begun
To understand my, my intimate is no one
When the director sold the show, who bought its last rites?
They cut the cast, the music, and the lights

This is my line, this is eternal
How did I ever end up here?
Discarnate, preternatural
My prayers to disappear
Absent of grace, marked as infernal
Ungranted in dead time left me disowned
To this nature, so unnatural
I remain alone….."

The crowd went wild.  Arwen clapped miserably.  There was no way Estel was going to win.  Grinning crazily, Davey Havok led the other band members off the stage.  Estel walked on, holding a guitar.  He smiled at Arwen and began to sing softly.

"I cannot leave here, I cannot stay
Forever haunted, more than afraid
Asphyxiate on words I would say
I'm drawn to a blackened sky as I turn blue

There are no flowers, no, not this time
There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find
I'd show a smile but I'm too weak
I'd share for you, could I only speak, just how much this hurts me

I cannot stay here, I cannot leave
Just like all I loved, I'm make believe
Imagined heart, I disappear
Seems... no one will appear here and make me real

There are no flowers, no, not this time
There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find
I'd show a smile but I'm too weak
I'd share with you, could I only speak, just how much this hurts me

I'd tell you how it haunts me
I'd tell you how it haunts me
Cuts through my day and sinks into my dreams
I'd tell you how it haunts me
Cuts through my day and sinks into my dreams
You don't care that it haunts me

There are no flowers, no, not this time
There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find
I'd show a smile but I'm too weak
I'd share with you, could I only speak, just how much this hurts me
Just how much this hurts me
Just how much you..."

A moment of awed silence followed, before the crowd went absolutely insane.  Arwen couldn't believe it.  Estel had sung one of AFI's songs better than they could.  Estel waved and walked off the stage, where he was met by a tearful Arwen.

"Estel, that was beautiful!"

Estel blushed.

"Thank you." He smiled.  "Do you want to go home now?"

"Of course!"

            Estel smiled to himself as he walked through the halls of his realm.  Everything was just how it should be.  Arwen had transformed from a coke-sniffing Goth into a tearful, love struck elf-maiden once again.  Estel had become the sweet, gorgeous future king he was born to be.  Elladan and Elrohir, seeing how many girls were attracted by Estel's new look, followed his lead and had joined the Rangers in the North.  And the silence was so thick Elrond could eat it.  Silently, he thanked Galadriel once again.  Her plan had worked.  He walked into his bedroom and pulled out a slightly dusty guitar from under his bed.  Loudly he began to sing,

"No more maybes,

Your babies got rabies

Sitting on a pole

In the middle of the Andes….."

Elrond was just able to make out the sound of the resident of Rivendell angrily awakening.  He cackled gleefully.  Elrond Eärendilion, the troublemaker, was back.  In black. 



Elvish….

Melamin-my love

Mani marte? – What happened?

Lle tyava quel? –Do you fell well?

Mani naa lle umien? – What are you doing?

A/N:  And that is the end.  The bit AFI sings is the first verse and chorus of their song, "…But home is nowhere" . Estel sings all of the song "this time imperfect" , not surprisingly also by AFI.  I couldn't bear to cut out any of the song, so that is why its all their.  And Elrond sings the first verse of Silverchair's "Freak".