First off, I'd like to dedicate this to Cassia and Siobhan, the amazing creators of the Mellon Chronicles. We should all bow down to them. Seriously.
I have gotten permission to write this from Cassia herself, so please don't yell at me for plagiarism or anything. =)
Also, this comes right after their Priceless Treasure. If you have not read that, then I suggest you do before reading this.
As usual, this story contains no slash. It may be a bit dramatic, but that seems to be my style. I tried very hard to keep Aragorn and Legolas in character with the story this is based on, but don't be upset if it's not perfect. Be ready; I dive right in so don't expect a bit of slowly moving words at the beginning like I usually have. ^_~
Disclaimer: Legolas, Aragorn, Arwen, ect. belong to Tolkien. The plot belongs to Cassia and Siobhan. I own absolutely nothing.
~*~*~*~
A cool breeze blew through the open balcony doors, alerting the man inside of the beautiful weather. With a quiet sigh, he stood from the desk where he had been writing a letter and walked out to the railing. From here, the king could see a good bit of his magnificent kingdom. Minas Tirith glinted brightly in the morning sun, giving off a calming air though not doing much to calm the troubled person currently watching.
"Estel," The quiet voice from inside caught his attention and the king turned around to face his wife. "Are you all right?" She stepped to her husband's side, looking at him with concerned eyes.
Aragorn wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to him, taking comfort in her presence. Arwen leaned into his half-embrace and joined in taking in the view. "I am fine, love," he answered after a moment. "I have just been thinking is all. How is Eldarion?"
Arwen smiled as she said, "Good as new. He woke early and went for a ride with Gimli." She glanced at her husband before voicing what she had been wishing to talk about. "You have told me what has happened to our son, and while he is quickly recovering from the ordeal, you seem to be the one who has sustained the most hurt."
"Yes," Aragorn leaned his head against the elf's. "You really do have a knack for reading my thoughts, don't you?" This elicited a light laugh from the woman before he continued, quickly becoming melancholy once more. "I never really got past what Dyryn did to me all those years ago, however much I may have repressed it." the man admitted for the first time, "When he returned, this time with Eldarion as his captive, all those memories resurfaced. I didn't know what I was doing when I ran down into that ravine to save him, and because of my lack of judgment, Legolas nearly lost his life."
"Hush," Arwen scolded quietly. "It was not your doing that Legolas tried to keep you from harm's way. Nor was it your fault that Eldarion was taken. But it was you who saved his life, as well as that of your friend. No one except for the real one at fault died that day."
Silence fell on the couple for a few minutes before the king spoke again. "The time that Dyryn took me…" He stopped, his words hanging tense in the air. "Did anyone ever tell you what happened?"
The queen thought about how to reply, knowing she was about to learn what had been bothering the man she loved. "Some of it, yes. What happened while you were held by him, what happened when my father found you."
Aragorn nodded. "Did anyone tell you who saved me, though?"
"No," Arwen shook her head, not sure where this was leading. "Not specifically."
"Legolas did," the former ranger said softly. "And nearly died, again, in the process. Since then he has laid his life on the line to save mine time and time again, and I am afraid that one day I really will lose him to a fate that should be mine."
The elf could hear the pain in her husband's voice and turned to face him. "Listen to me, Estel," When he didn't meet her eyes, she lifted his chin with her fingers. "The friendship you share with him is something that runs so deep not even I can tell anymore that you are not brothers. You were destined to have a lasting relationship, and nothing, not even death, can separate you." Her words rang true and hit the king's heart, easing his troubled mind.
For the first time in a long while, Aragorn smiled.
"Now," Arwen continued, humor in her tone, "Go spend some time with that spirited prince we have been talking about. He is leaving in a few days, and you probably won't get to be alone with him while that son of ours and Gimli are around."
"Thank you," The king kissed his wife and turned to leave.
The queen watched him walk back inside and out into the hall. She smiled to herself, glad of all the choices she had ever made that brought her to this moment.
~*~
Aragorn found Legolas in the gardens, admiring a beautiful white flower beside the pond where he was sitting. His blonde hair had been left down and the light wind blew loose strands into his face. The king smiled at the sight and some of his previous worries subsided, for the time being.
"You have some very strange plants here, my friend," the prince said, having heard the man coming. "Many I have not seen before."
Aragorn laughed and sat beside the elf. "Many have also eluded my knowledge until I saw them here,"
"Where is Eldarion?" Legolas asked, noticing the boy's absence.
"He is out riding with Gimli," the king replied, bemused by the fact that he had just been thinking of his son though his friend did not know it. "Since both are away for a while, I thought I would spend some time with you, before it was consumed by my boy's persistence at wanting to learn all he can about the way to handle a bow."
"I would enjoy that," The elf chuckled and glanced up at the ranger, quickly adding, "Spending time with you, I mean."
"How do you feel?" Aragorn reached out and put his hand over the prince's heart, gently touching the thin bandage still covering the now fading wound.
Legolas watched his friend closely. "It is healing," He placed his own hand over the king's, pulling it away from his chest. "As you should know since you were the one who tended to it this morning. Nothing has changed, seriously, Estel,"
Aragorn laughed bashfully as the elf caught him in his worrying. "Yes, but still…"
"You do not have to worry about it anymore, Strider," The elf smirked at the ranger's reaction. "I am quite fine now,"
Seeing the strange look on the man's face, Legolas redirected the previous question back at him. "How do you feel? You seem a bit…uneasy about something."
"I am not uneasy about anything," Aragorn poorly denied, his sullen face contradicting his words.
"I have known you long enough to catch you in a lie, mellon," Legolas pointed out gently. "Now, please, tell me what is bothering you. I hate seeing you so upset, and I hate not knowing what is making you upset even more."
When no answer was forthcoming, the elf sighed. "You are very stubborn, human,"
"No worse than you," Aragorn hit the prince's arm playfully. "In fact, you are worse than I am."
Legolas grinned. "Indeed," He turned to look at the reflection in the pond. The water showed a blurry picture of the two friends. Birds chirped away in the silence that fell between them.
"Legolas…" The elf glanced up, taken by surprise at the confusion in the man's voice. After a moment, Aragorn continued what he had started saying, knowing that he couldn't just leave it. "Why did you push me out of the way?"
The prince's brow furrowed as he processed what had been asked. Even though he was sure of what was meant, he replied to the question with a question. "What are you talking about?"
Aragorn's lips formed a thin line before he clarified what he had said. "I did not take heed of your warnings that morning, and walked right into a trap."
Before he could go on, Legolas said, "I have told you already, Strider, that you did what your heart told you to do. I do not blame you for -"
"Let me finish," The king held up a hand, stopping his friend mid-sentence. "You took the pain meant for my son and I with no thought for yourself. I owe you my life, Legolas, on more than one occasion. But I want to know why you pushed me out of the way of that arrow when you knew that it could only bring harm to you."
The elf stared at the ranger, his gaze softening. "Do you really not know the answer to that?"
Aragorn slowly shook his head no, dropping his eyes.
"Look at me," Legolas let the silence build as he gently put one of his hands on the king's face, raising the silver eyes back up to meet his blue ones. "The reason I was ready to sacrifice my life for yours is this," He tilted his head, his stare compassionate as he firmly instilled his words in the man's mind. "You are my friend Estel, more my brother than any sibling I might have had, and I love you as such. I could never sit aside and watch you get hurt when there may be something I could do to save you." He removed his hand. "Does that answer your question?"
Aragorn smiled timidly at the elf's sincere words. "It does,"
"Well good," Seeing that the man was trying not to laugh, the prince asked, "What, may I ask, is so funny?"
The ranger shook his head and looked around the garden. "Arwen pretty much recited to me what you just said,"
"Ah," Legolas nodded comprehendingly. "She is quite wise, is she not?"
"She is. That's why I love her,"
"But surely you see that you two are not a good match? I mean, her wisdom far surpasses yours."
Aragorn aimed a cuff to the back of the elf's head. Legolas chuckled, ducking out of the way of the blow. "But did you really need the two of us to convince you of our friendship?" The elf smirked.
The king frowned slightly at the taunt and dropped the game. "I wanted to hear it from you more than anyone else. I wanted to assure myself that you really did think of me as such a close friend, as I have thought of you all these years."
"Did you ever think otherwise?" The elf's voice was quiet as he, too, became serious once again.
"Not in a very long time, I can promise you," Aragorn met the prince's unwavering gaze.
"Strider," Legolas looked away, an almost guilty edge to his voice. "I hope I have never given you reason to doubt in our companionship. If I have, then I beg for your forgiveness."
"There is nothing to forgive, mellon-nin." The man smiled warmly. After a moment, he said hesitantly, "There is something else I would like to talk to you about…"
"Yes?" The elf gestured for him to continue.
"When you found me in the snow, after Dyryn…" Aragorn stopped, and shook his head, trying to sort through his thoughts and arrange them in a way that would be understandable and easy to say. "My father told me what you did. How you gave me your cloak and jerkin. He said that when he found us, you were nearly as frozen as I."
Legolas watched him closely, confused at what was being brought up. "What-"
The man ignored him and continued. "I asked him how that was possible, how you could have died out there with me. I knew that elves were not immune to such harsh weather, but surely that alone would not have harmed you so. In reply, Elrond told me that the reason I didn't leave was because someone had held me back, someone had given me their strength."
He fiddled with the grass beneath his legs, aware of the elf's eyes boring into him. When the fair being didn't interrupt, he spoke again. "He told me that you gave me your strength, you poured your soul into mine, unwilling to let me go. Elladan said later that if they had not found us when they did, we both would have died. But because of you, we - I - didn't."
Legolas looked away, biting his lip as the painful memory resurfaced. He had known in the back of his mind how foolish it was for him to even try to hold the human back from death, but he hadn't cared. Not once did he think about himself; his only thought was to hold onto Estel and not let go, no matter what the cost.
"I have never," Aragorn went on, "truly thanked you for what you did, and have done since then. There," He breathed an animated sigh of relief. "That is what I wanted to say. Thank you. For everything."
Without a word, Legolas pulled Aragorn into a tight hug, resting his head against the man's. The ranger was taken aback by this; of all the things he thought his friend might do, this was probably the last thing he had expected. Tentatively, he returned the embrace.
"Oh, Estel," Legolas whispered into the king's ear, "You are so very welcome,"
Aragorn squeezed his eyes shut as a barrage of emotions slammed into him. He had been so close to losing the best friend he had ever had but all of those horrible thoughts drifted away as he felt the arms wrapped around him, knowing that the elf he had come to cherish as a brother was alive and well. He breathed deeply, taking in the woodsy scent that was so uniquely the prince's.
"If anything ever happened to you I'd never forgive myself," the human said quietly.
"Nothing will happen to me," Legolas loosened his hold and pulled back so he could look Estel in the eye. "It's you I'm concerned about. You seem to have a talent at attracting trouble, haven't you noticed?"
Aragorn rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that lecture again,"
"I don't know what you are talking about," the elf said, feigning innocence.
Before the ranger could retort, Arwen approached them. She smiled widely down at her husband as she said, "Lunch is ready, if you would both like to come to join me."
Aragorn quickly stood and offered her his arm. "I would be more than happy to join you,"
They both looked at the blonde elf, who was still sitting on the ground. "Are you coming, Legolas?" the queen asked, staring down at him with her wide eyes.
The prince sighed in mock defeat. "Very well. It seems as though I have no choice in the matter." He stood, shaking his head as a small smile spread across his face.
Legolas fell into step beside the king and leaned in to whisper, "She is much too wise for you, mellon-nin,"
Aragorn chuckled and lightly whapped the back of the elf's head.
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* For those of you reading my Harry Potter fic, Little Things, you can expect an update sometime next month, I think. If you've only been reading my short stories, I should have two more with Legolas and Aragorn out sometime soon. =D
~* So many people will walk in and out of your life, but those who leave footprints are true friends. *~