Chapter 8. New clothes
The fear in Mouse's eyes made Legolas pull back but not before he felt the coolness of metal against the back of his hand. Metal? On any other female he would have brushed aside his curiosity with an assumption that it was probably some kind of clip or comb to hold back her hair, but this wasn't in Mouse's hair it was under it, more like where her ear should be. A sudden memory of what her tiny little pointed ears had looked like, made Legolas want to see what they presently looked like. A lot. But She was moving away, as far away as she could get in the small pool. Which meant there was only one way he was going to get close enough to look.
He had one foot in the pool by the time Mouse managed to blink and speak.
"Wha... what are you doing?" Mouse looked around for somewhere else to go before Legolas managed to catch her eyes. He liked her eyes; they seemed to get darker when she was in the midst of an emotional response. He watched as her fear turned to wariness, and then she closed them. It was like a lamp going out Legolas thought absently as he waded into the water and his hand reached under her hair and lifted it.
There was no delicate point, only silver. The entire top rim of her ear was covered in some kind of cuff. Bending down to look closer Legolas had only a brief glimpse of the symbols that formed the decoration before Mouse flinched away.
"There, happy now? Curiosity soothed?"
"In a way, I suppose yes." He answered slowly, his hand still tangled loosely in her hair, which was looking more and more like those autumn leaves as the water washed away the mud. "But what do." Mouse disappeared before he could finish asking the question, what exactly did the cuffs mean?
He watched as she ducked under the water before following her under. He had a fleeting thought that the situation could easily turn into some kind of competition to see who could stay under water the longest when he found himself staring into Mouse's eyes again. She stared at him seriously through the clear water and he felt his body stir in response. She could have no idea that holding his gaze like that was considered to be a deliberate invitation where he came from. He was distracted enough that he didn't notice her sudden movement to the left and forward in time to counter it.
He grunted a swallowed a bit of water in process as Mouse used him as a soft mounting block to vault herself over the low rock shelf and through the cascade. 'Nice move.' he thought with a small smile, although he probably could have done without the heel to the back of his head, which judging by the angle of Mouse's maneuver had been at least partially deliberate. So naked Hobbits and a Dwarf weren't as scary as an Elf. Then again humans generally considered the axiom "safety in numbers" to be correct. Personally Legolas preferred a select group or just himself, by himself he was a controllable variable, add one or more it just made things a little more complicated. Realizing he was sitting by himself, close to talking to himself, he retrieved the small bar of soap and took advantage of the privacy, slowly taking the time to soap himself thoroughly, not quite ready to admit that he was more shaken by his reaction than he cared to have been. Rinsing himself off Legolas finally noticed that the soap smelled of strawberries.
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Stepping through the wall of water Legolas watched as Mouse performed one of the most amazing feats of contortionism he'd ever seen. He had no doubt every inch of skin under her dark (black, purple or green, he still couldn't tell what colour they actually were) clothes was much cleaner than it had been for at least a week. After she'd soaped under her clothes she started soaping the clothes themselves, standing as close to where the water flowed back into the mountain rock she washed and wrung herself out then dragged herself out of the water and stood wringing as much of it out of the many layers of cloth of her shirt and trousers as she could before starting the process over again.
There seemed to be one flaw in her ritual though: now that her hair was clean it fell heavily down past her shoulders and kept tangling around her arms and face and it was clearly a source of annoyance Legolas thought in a conscious effort not to notice how beautiful her hair was. Her hair, it was as if someone had modeled and put her in Middle Earth to answer all of his fantasies. Though her hair would be an unsolvable mess of tangles if it weren't brushed out soon. He started to move forwards when Gimli beat him to it. In a clean gambeson, only lightly marked with rust from his habitual chain mail Gimli approached Mouse with his brush and comb. Her bright smile and a burst of laughter was enough to have Legolas finding something (anything) interesting in his quiver, and it drew the hobbits out of the water. Legolas felt something cold against his hand, now *that* was interesting.
"Here let me." Gimli's voice was gruff as he took the brush from Mouse's hand and started to work at the back of her hair while she combed the front. The hobbits kept up a steady stream of commentary, and pipe smoke as they rustled in their packs for something dry to wear.
"Lady Eowyn made me this new waistcoat." Merry said proudly, puffing out his chest in its rich green velvet.
"That's nice Merry." Pippin said appreciatively, Legolas noticed the new shirt the smaller hobbit slipped into, the herald symbol of the Rohirrim stitched in a matching pale butter yellow on the collar. He picked up the quiet sound of water dripping and realized it was the sound of water dripping from Mouse's clothes. The only thing she seemed to be carrying was a water bottle and her horse bow. It cemented Legolas' impression that she hadn't been planning to leave Calembel at all; following them had been on the spur of the moment. And he suspected that finding the path through Fangorn had been a lucky accident as well. But apart from the fact he had no idea why she had actually followed them, she would be incredibly uncomfortable walking in damp clothes through the rest of the caves. He considered letting her do it as he fingered the spot that her foot had connected with earlier and then held out his cloak instead, wondering at the same time when he'd become so intimately acquainted with the concepts of jealousy and revenge.
Probably when Mouse had adeptly diverted Gimli's attention from her hair and ears and started plaiting the Dwarf's long red beard.
"You'd better put this on while your clothes dry." He said quietly and Mouse looked up at him in surprise, apparently she'd forgotten he was there. 'Oh and look I have an ego that can be battered by someone who's little older than a child...' Legolas didn't realize he'd grunted out loud until Gimli laughed at him. "We should get moving... and soon." He was definitely slipping Legolas thought as he finally recognized the vague unease he'd been feeling for the past few minutes wasn't all to do with Mouse. She had retreated to behind the last part of the tunnel to make use of the cloak.
"Heh, I suppose we shouldn't let on that what she just did means we're engaged." Gimli said on a low rumble of laughter. Distracted Legolas looked at Gimli slightly askance, and his friend pointed to his neatly groomed and plaited beard. "She did this in a Dwarvish betrothal pattern. Fancy eh?"
"Oh." Legolas was laughing before he could help it. Soon tears were making tracks down his face and he had to use Gimli to hold himself up.
"It not really *that* amusing Legolas." Gimli said, starting to get a bit affronted by Legolas's uncontrollable giggles. "I don't think I've ever heard you giggle without a couple of skinfulls of wine before."
"What's so funny?" the Hobbits asked almost in concert with Mouse as she reappeared with the cloak wrapped around her like a toga.
"It nothing, nothing at all." Gimli answered guiltily for Legolas, who was concentrating on breathing and not on Mouse's bare shapely legs and arms, and not on the sounds he should have been. Sudden silence followed a large cracking sound.
"Oh fuck." Mouse said succinctly as the cave wall seemed to disintegrate and the world was filled with water.
The fear in Mouse's eyes made Legolas pull back but not before he felt the coolness of metal against the back of his hand. Metal? On any other female he would have brushed aside his curiosity with an assumption that it was probably some kind of clip or comb to hold back her hair, but this wasn't in Mouse's hair it was under it, more like where her ear should be. A sudden memory of what her tiny little pointed ears had looked like, made Legolas want to see what they presently looked like. A lot. But She was moving away, as far away as she could get in the small pool. Which meant there was only one way he was going to get close enough to look.
He had one foot in the pool by the time Mouse managed to blink and speak.
"Wha... what are you doing?" Mouse looked around for somewhere else to go before Legolas managed to catch her eyes. He liked her eyes; they seemed to get darker when she was in the midst of an emotional response. He watched as her fear turned to wariness, and then she closed them. It was like a lamp going out Legolas thought absently as he waded into the water and his hand reached under her hair and lifted it.
There was no delicate point, only silver. The entire top rim of her ear was covered in some kind of cuff. Bending down to look closer Legolas had only a brief glimpse of the symbols that formed the decoration before Mouse flinched away.
"There, happy now? Curiosity soothed?"
"In a way, I suppose yes." He answered slowly, his hand still tangled loosely in her hair, which was looking more and more like those autumn leaves as the water washed away the mud. "But what do." Mouse disappeared before he could finish asking the question, what exactly did the cuffs mean?
He watched as she ducked under the water before following her under. He had a fleeting thought that the situation could easily turn into some kind of competition to see who could stay under water the longest when he found himself staring into Mouse's eyes again. She stared at him seriously through the clear water and he felt his body stir in response. She could have no idea that holding his gaze like that was considered to be a deliberate invitation where he came from. He was distracted enough that he didn't notice her sudden movement to the left and forward in time to counter it.
He grunted a swallowed a bit of water in process as Mouse used him as a soft mounting block to vault herself over the low rock shelf and through the cascade. 'Nice move.' he thought with a small smile, although he probably could have done without the heel to the back of his head, which judging by the angle of Mouse's maneuver had been at least partially deliberate. So naked Hobbits and a Dwarf weren't as scary as an Elf. Then again humans generally considered the axiom "safety in numbers" to be correct. Personally Legolas preferred a select group or just himself, by himself he was a controllable variable, add one or more it just made things a little more complicated. Realizing he was sitting by himself, close to talking to himself, he retrieved the small bar of soap and took advantage of the privacy, slowly taking the time to soap himself thoroughly, not quite ready to admit that he was more shaken by his reaction than he cared to have been. Rinsing himself off Legolas finally noticed that the soap smelled of strawberries.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stepping through the wall of water Legolas watched as Mouse performed one of the most amazing feats of contortionism he'd ever seen. He had no doubt every inch of skin under her dark (black, purple or green, he still couldn't tell what colour they actually were) clothes was much cleaner than it had been for at least a week. After she'd soaped under her clothes she started soaping the clothes themselves, standing as close to where the water flowed back into the mountain rock she washed and wrung herself out then dragged herself out of the water and stood wringing as much of it out of the many layers of cloth of her shirt and trousers as she could before starting the process over again.
There seemed to be one flaw in her ritual though: now that her hair was clean it fell heavily down past her shoulders and kept tangling around her arms and face and it was clearly a source of annoyance Legolas thought in a conscious effort not to notice how beautiful her hair was. Her hair, it was as if someone had modeled and put her in Middle Earth to answer all of his fantasies. Though her hair would be an unsolvable mess of tangles if it weren't brushed out soon. He started to move forwards when Gimli beat him to it. In a clean gambeson, only lightly marked with rust from his habitual chain mail Gimli approached Mouse with his brush and comb. Her bright smile and a burst of laughter was enough to have Legolas finding something (anything) interesting in his quiver, and it drew the hobbits out of the water. Legolas felt something cold against his hand, now *that* was interesting.
"Here let me." Gimli's voice was gruff as he took the brush from Mouse's hand and started to work at the back of her hair while she combed the front. The hobbits kept up a steady stream of commentary, and pipe smoke as they rustled in their packs for something dry to wear.
"Lady Eowyn made me this new waistcoat." Merry said proudly, puffing out his chest in its rich green velvet.
"That's nice Merry." Pippin said appreciatively, Legolas noticed the new shirt the smaller hobbit slipped into, the herald symbol of the Rohirrim stitched in a matching pale butter yellow on the collar. He picked up the quiet sound of water dripping and realized it was the sound of water dripping from Mouse's clothes. The only thing she seemed to be carrying was a water bottle and her horse bow. It cemented Legolas' impression that she hadn't been planning to leave Calembel at all; following them had been on the spur of the moment. And he suspected that finding the path through Fangorn had been a lucky accident as well. But apart from the fact he had no idea why she had actually followed them, she would be incredibly uncomfortable walking in damp clothes through the rest of the caves. He considered letting her do it as he fingered the spot that her foot had connected with earlier and then held out his cloak instead, wondering at the same time when he'd become so intimately acquainted with the concepts of jealousy and revenge.
Probably when Mouse had adeptly diverted Gimli's attention from her hair and ears and started plaiting the Dwarf's long red beard.
"You'd better put this on while your clothes dry." He said quietly and Mouse looked up at him in surprise, apparently she'd forgotten he was there. 'Oh and look I have an ego that can be battered by someone who's little older than a child...' Legolas didn't realize he'd grunted out loud until Gimli laughed at him. "We should get moving... and soon." He was definitely slipping Legolas thought as he finally recognized the vague unease he'd been feeling for the past few minutes wasn't all to do with Mouse. She had retreated to behind the last part of the tunnel to make use of the cloak.
"Heh, I suppose we shouldn't let on that what she just did means we're engaged." Gimli said on a low rumble of laughter. Distracted Legolas looked at Gimli slightly askance, and his friend pointed to his neatly groomed and plaited beard. "She did this in a Dwarvish betrothal pattern. Fancy eh?"
"Oh." Legolas was laughing before he could help it. Soon tears were making tracks down his face and he had to use Gimli to hold himself up.
"It not really *that* amusing Legolas." Gimli said, starting to get a bit affronted by Legolas's uncontrollable giggles. "I don't think I've ever heard you giggle without a couple of skinfulls of wine before."
"What's so funny?" the Hobbits asked almost in concert with Mouse as she reappeared with the cloak wrapped around her like a toga.
"It nothing, nothing at all." Gimli answered guiltily for Legolas, who was concentrating on breathing and not on Mouse's bare shapely legs and arms, and not on the sounds he should have been. Sudden silence followed a large cracking sound.
"Oh fuck." Mouse said succinctly as the cave wall seemed to disintegrate and the world was filled with water.