"But Arod, the horse of Rohan, refused the way, and he stood sweating and trembling in a fear that was grievous to see. Then Legolas laid his hands on his eyes and sang some words that went soft in the gloom, until he suffered himself to be led, and Legolas passed in. And there stood Gimli the Dwarf left all alone. His knees shook, and he was wroth with himself. 'Here is a thing unheard of!' he said. 'An Elf will go underground and a dwarf dare not!' With that he plunged in. But it seemed to him that he dragged his feet like lead over the threshold; and at once a blindness came upon him, even upon Gimli Gloin's son who had walked unafraid in many deep places of the world."
"Of the time that followed, one hour or many, Gimli remembered little. The others pressed on, but he was ever hindmost, pursued by a groping horror that seemed always just to seize him . . . (J.R.R. Tolkien, 'The Passing of the Grey Company').
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And then it happened. Indeed, something did seize him, something gripping his shoulder. Too petrified to make a sound, he let out a sharp gasp, his rigid body shaking uncontrollably. And as it tightened its grip over his shoulder, his legs gave way and he fell backwards. He screamed silently to himself in a panicked stupor, "Some ghastly phantom here to drag this poor paralyzed wretch to his doom! No tomb for Gimli the Dwarf. Nay! Haunted he was upon entering this cursed realm; and haunted he will remain even in death. With no other company save darkness and despair!" And after falling backwards for what seemed like an eternity, he finally landed into his phantom captor's cold and dead grip, soon to be carried away to certain doom! Only, much to his surprise, his phantom's arms seemed neither cold nor dead, quite the opposite in fact. They were warm and inviting and very much alive.
"Gimli," he heard his captor whisper comfortingly. It was the elf! Gimli's heart skipped a beat; and with it, all his fears seemed to seep out of his body. He let his tense form melt into the elf's embrace and stayed there unmoving for a long moment, very much relieved, and relatively content. He turned around gazing blindly up towards the elf. And Legolas stared down at the dwarf, studying his intense brown eyes. A bright twinkling lay upon them despite the lack of light. And suddenly the elf felt a wide smile touch his cheeks, one that no one would ever see. "Have no fear, little one," Legolas whispered. The dwarf let out the slightest rumor of a grunt in response to the 'little' comment. And at this Legolas smirked. But Gimli obviously was not amused by the remark, the elf becoming aware, despite the pitch darkness of the path, of a scowl on the dwarf's face. "Have no fear, Gimli," Legolas corrected himself, emphasizing 'Gimli' and making no mention of his height. "You are not alone. Your elf is here to tread these fearsome paths beside you. Let that be a comfort." He then knelt down so he was eye level with the dwarf. Then, lightly caressing the dwarf's cheek with the back of his soft hand, Legolas leaned forward, his face mere inches away from Gimli's. He then saw through the darkness that Gimli was blushing, but pretended not to notice. He let his hand stray to the dwarf's beard, and casually began fingering through it. Gimli's blush darkened. And Legolas smiled to himself. Then, he leaned further forward so their foreheads were touching, and began caressing the dwarf's other cheek with his own.
Then, much to Gimli's surprise, the elf plucked a single strand from his beard! But before a yelp of pain could escape from his lips, Legolas had pulled him into a deep kiss, silencing him completely for a considerably long time. Once Legolas had finally pulled away, Gimli could only stand motionlessly in shock, staring blindly up into the darkness where Legolas stood. Then, Gimli's dumbness finally left him and he ventured to ask, "Why?" Legolas reached for the dwarf's hand and folded it into his own. He began leading him through the abyss towards the rest of the company, who were, by now, very far ahead of the pair.
"Why did I kiss you?" Legolas coyly asked.
"No," Gimli responded. "In these dark and evil times I have learned not to question a good thing. But why did you pull a hair from my beard?"
"Because I wanted to," the elf stated simply. "You have so many hairs; I didn't think you'd mind."
"But why did you want to?" Gimli questioned, staring skeptically up at his companion.
"To have as a keepsake," explained Legolas with a bright smile. "Whenever I look upon it I'll remember the day when I kissed the young dwarf, Gimli, Gloin's son. Besides, Lock Bearer, Lady Galadriel gave you three of her golden hairs and you have so many others. I'm certain you can live without one of them."
Gimli stared up at the elf more than a little disturbed. "What are you going to do with it?"
"Well, once these dark times are over, I hope it to be set in that imperishable crystal you dwarves seem to fancy so much. It will be an heirloom of my people and I will display it so all elves of Mirkwood can gaze upon its beauty. But until then, I will keep it safely tucked away upon my person." Legolas pulled out a small brown wallet from his pocket, opened it, and placed the hair inside. "Peregrin Took is not the only one who keeps a few treasures near his skin." He reminisced the day when he, Gimli, and Aragorn had finally reunited with Merry and Pippin at Orthanc. They were all in need of some relaxation and decided to fill up their pipes, save Legolas, who never understood why these silly creatures insisted on wreathing their lungs with smoke. Unfortunately, Gimli had lost his pipe. But good ol' Pippin came to his rescue, offering him one of his extras, a treasure as precious as a ring to the noble hobbit.
The elf's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Gimli's voice. "Is that MY pipe?" he asked, utterly horrified to find it residing next to a half-eaten piece of lembas in Legolas's open wallet. "I thought I had lost it. What are you doing with it? You don't even smoke!"
Legolas stared down at Gimli for a long awkward silent moment. "uh . . . Well, I sort of stole it from you back when I hated you." Gimli raised an eyebrow at this comment. "We were outside the doors of Moria and you carelessly placed it atop your pack. I simply couldn't resist. So I took it.
"Well, you no longer hate me, or so it would seem. Why have you never given it back?"
"I wanted to save it as a keepsake. But you can have it back if you want." Legolas held out the little wooden pipe.
"Tell me, Master Packrat. On our journeys you have procured my pipe and my hair. Do you plan to steal and save every one of your friends' precious belongings for yourself?"
"Of course not," Legolas retorted with a smile. "Just your things!"
Gimli sighed. "Well, in that case, why don't you just hold onto my pipe for me? It will save you the labor of stealing it from me again. Besides, I still have Master Peregrin's pipe should any tobacco cross our path." The elf's smile broadened and he carefully placed the pipe back in the wallet. He then gazed in the direction from which they had come and then back down at Gimli. He tightened his grip on the dwarf's hand and whispered, "Come, dear child. We have lingered here far too long. We must catch up with the rest of the company." With that said, Legolas quickened his pace, dragging Gimli behind him.
"Why the sudden rush?" the dwarf asked.
"Oh, nothing important. It's just that . . . 'The Dead are following. I see shapes of Men and of horses, and pale banners like shreds of clouds, and spears like winter-thickets on a misty night. The Dead are following (Tolkien, The Passing of the Gray Company)," answered the elf, sweetly smiling at the dwarf. Gimli gulped in fear and began walking closer to Legolas, too afraid to look behind him.
And behind the two companions walked Elladan, surrogate kinsman of Ellesar, unnoticed. He gazed amused at the elf and the dwarf; and he thought to himself, "Some son of Thranduil he turned out to be; mingling with the dwarves! . . . Well, Legolas, you will not be the only elf having been kissed on the infamous Paths of the Dead. Two more elves will also be able to boast of such a feat. Now where in the name of goodness has Elrohir gone?" Then silently and unnoticed, Elladan ran ahead of Legolas and Gimli, in search of his twin brother!
A/N
Sorry it took so long...it took me over a year to update...how pathetic! But I finally updated and I plan to continue updating on a regular basis.
So, I attempted to portray Legolas as the overly-chipper elf that he's supposed to be. Did I succeed? I think I did a pretty good job. And if you're confused about all that stuff I wrote about Gimli losing his pipe and Pippin giving him one of his, go back and read 'Flotsam and Jetsam' in TTT. It's not a very important scene but it's one of my favorites. I really really wanted to fit it into my fic somehow. I'm glad that I decided to make Crazy Dwarf-Stalker Legolas the mastermind behind the loss of the pipe. I, at least, thought it was amusing. I hope you did too.
Gimlilogas and a smidgen of Elrohir/Elladan twincest: For these reasons this chapter is dedicated to Shellu, who is an avid Gimli, Legolas, Elrohir, and Elladan fan!! More people need to appreciate Gimli the way she does! He is the most under-appreciated member of the Fellowship! Way to go Shellu!
Becku, Glomp right back at ya, babe! And soon there will be an Aragorn chapter dedicated to you! It will be a good chapter where I'm nice to Aragorn...and you know how that goes against my principles. But I'll do it for you since you're Becku and since I love you. Ciao!
Oh, and I've gotten three requests for couplings involving Merry! It makes me so happy! He's practically my favorite character. And daLuca, there will most definitely be a Merry/Treebeard chapter. I don't know how I'm going to do it. But I'll make it happen. *devilish smirk*
Llinos, there will definitely be Merry/Eowyn coming up soon. Oh, and I need to whore out your fic now just cuz I love it so much. I hope that's okay. Everyone should go read Llinos's Recaptured II! It's my favorite fic ever! It really is good times
Albino Black Sheep, of course I'm going to write a Frodo/Sam. The Slash Appendices just wouldn't be the Slash Appendices without those two!
Artemis15, Thanks for the great review and for the grammar corrections. I really do need to work on the grammar and spelling. And I'm glad you liked chapter 1. BTW, love your pen name. Artemis is the greatest deity ever!
Lady Tsunu, There's your Legolas/Gimli. Hope you enjoyed it. They're my favorite pairing too!
Kayloo and Greetings from Mordor, thanks for the reviews. I appreciate it!