Sleepless Nights

A/N: One shot fluffy mess. Enjoy.

"Would you have me go away forever?" she had asked. "To never see you again?"

"I would not ask this of you because I do not love you, Arwen," he replied. "I ask it because I do. If we do not succeed your fate will be worse than death, and that is why you must go. I could not risk you falling victim to such torture."

"But I do not fear it....I fear being away from you, and if staying here would give me even the smallest chance of seeing you again, I would stay."

"I fear for you, because you do not fear it," Aragorn replied quietly. "Take this back, Arwen. I will not let you stay here. You belong with your people, and I with mine."

Her eyes shone with unshed tears. "So are you saying you will marry another?"

Aragorn's face was clouded. "I do not wish to. They may force me to, so I may produce an heir should this quest succeed, but I could not love them. I couldn't. You are the only one in my heart."

At this point her face took on a paler tint, her eyes changed color, her hair miraculously changed to blond.....

"And you do love her still," Eowyn said. "Those words are true."

"They are not," Aragorn said bitterly. "And that is what I regret.....to have told a lie to someone I tried to protect from everything."

"You couldn't. You didn't have to. She was perfectly capable of handling herself. And yet still she remains in your mind....and your heart."

"I'm trying Eowyn," Aragorn said, his voice failing. "I'm trying...."

Aragorn woke up with a start. He rolled over to see Eowyn, sleeping soundly and peacefully. The Shieldmaiden who had taken so much grief in life....was it too much for him to give her happiness? Why did his mind keep going back to Arwen? He did not love her, not anymore. He was totally devoted to Eowyn.

But her memory lingered....how he wished to banish it forever.

Eowyn's eyes blearily opened. "Aragorn, what are you doing?"

"Thinking," he replied.

"At this hour? You should be sleeping."

"I was thinking the same," he replied. "And yet sleep does not bring me peace."

Eowyn was silent. "You see her."

He could not lie. "Yes."

"Do you still love her?"

"No. But her memory will not leave."

Eowyn kissed Aragorn softly. "Of course. She was your first love; you should not seek to banish her memory. You should think of it with happiness, for without it, you would not be where you are now."

"I am afraid though. I am afraid she did not find love and now thinks of me bitterly."

"Even if she didn't...." Eowyn said quietly. "She is happy. She is with those whom she loves, and that is enough. She knows she is supposed to be there, and that this is how things are supposed to be."

"How do you know what she thinks?"

"I do not," Eowyn confessed. "I can only hope to say I would feel the same in that situation, and I believe I am very much alike her. So I would not place so much worry in this, my dear."

Aragorn smiled. "You bring me peace, Eowyn."

"I am glad. Now if you don't mind, I'd like some peace as well, as I would like to go back to sleep." She rolled over and curled up in her blankets once more.

"Of course," he said, wrapping one arm around her from behind. "Goodnight, love."

"Goodnight, Aragorn."

You can take me for a little while, you can take me you can make me smile in the end.... Rush, In the End