Author's Notes: Sorry about the extended vacation; I was doing my chemistry 11, and just finished it today. It was exhausting to try to jam a one year course into one month, but I managed to get the C that I needed, so I'm happy. I also just got back from a one week family vacation.

On to the good stuff, I was asked where the action was, well, here's the action! Obviously I can't post full sex here on , but I can do a bit of sexiness.

This one is from Elrond's perspective, the night of Arwen's conception.

Elven pregnancies, from what I've read, last one year, so that's what I'm using for this.

Elrond is half-elven, so one would suppose him to be a bit more receptive to the cold, though this point is argued. He sleeps with his eyes closed her, though elves typically sleep with them open. I'm figuring that when he is tired enough he uses the mortal sleep.

Also argued is whether he can fall ill or not. If anyone objects to this, or wants to read it, tell me. Let me know if you think it's one to do. I'd like to give Celebrian a rival. How does Glorfindel sound? Also, I have a story involving her as a child ready, though it'd be posted separately, I think as a stand-alone, because it's longer.

I'm not sure if this is the best of my stories. I'm really out of practice, but it helps to do something.

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Between Dawn and Dusk

V: Conceived in Thunder

by Lily Frost

Celebrian loved thunderstorms, apparently since she was a child, and each night that the winds would howl and the clouds unleash their fury, without fail, she would take me by the hand. She would say, "Come along Elrond, let us enjoy tonight's fine weather!"

I would protest, naturally. What if we were seen? What if we were struck by lightening? And eventually, what if our children caught us? For some time we had to stay with Elladan and Elrohir during storms, and reassure them, and eventually Elrohir grew to love them as his mother, but I am more inclined towards Elladan's opinion that they are noisy and often wet. Granted, so are my sons.

So tonight, as one of these early-summer storms is approaching, she is getting restless, glancing up at me as I sit at my desk. The air seems to carry an energy; perhaps it is just the storm, but I think it is more her eyes. Tonight is special, I can feel it. We have spoken of another child, and she is ready.

I can see out our window the world going dim, the sky leaden grey and Celebrian stands. She drapes her arms over my shoulders, her face next to mine, her hot breath upon my cheek as she whispers, "Come along, Elrond. Tonight. Let us enjoy the weather. Tonight, let us... create."

I lean back into her touch, for once quite inclined towards loving in a storm. It seems right, somehow, that the destructive conduct of the storm be combated with the creating of the most important thing any living thing can ever make. "Tonight would be perfect."

And, so, I let myself be led out into the pouring rain by a grinning Celebrian. But tonight, rather than her carefree grin, she wears an expression of determination, and for once, she seems to be going somewhere specific. Her determination is not grim, though, and in it is mixed excitement. Her body trembles, just a little, as she guides me to somewhere I have never been.

I glance at her, bedazzled once again by this woman. Her hair clings to her when it's wet, as does her dress, moulding itself to her face and body to become like a second skin. She seems so bright against the dark, wet woods, in a dress coloured the green of new buds. It always amazes me how elven seamstresses can always manage to make clothing that looks so wonderful, though perhaps it's her that makes the clothing look wonderful.

"Here." She at last gasps, quickly turning to catch me mid-stride in a deep kiss, grabbing the sides of my face and pulling it hers, her body folding into mine, fitting like a perfect puzzle piece. When she pulls away, smiling a cat's grin, I am able to take in my surroundings; the rain is not the only sound of water, as nearby a small stream falls into a pool. Something seems familiar, and I am taken aback several years ago, to a clearer, darker night, when two piercing cries rang out, and then to one year before then.

I wipe some of the water from my face and then tilt my head at her, eyes scanning her face. "Why here, again? Where is this pla--"

"Shush." She says, placing a finger to my lips, eyes dancing. "It's a secret. Others come here for the same purpose."

"Other elves?"

She nods once and then silences me with a kiss again, this time her eyes open, watching me. A flash of lightening illuminates us, and then thunder rolls over us. At first when she did this I was unnerved; it seemed strange, as if I were doing something wrong and so she was staring at me. But it is somehow more intimate this way. I can't describe it, but when I really kiss her... I really kiss her with our eyes open, grey on blue.

Tonight, we conceive to thunder and lightening, we create, locked in each others' arms. Her cries harmonize with the howl of the wind, the beat of the rain and the throb of thunder, slowly receding into the distance. And then we lay in a small cave at my request, for though she feels it not, it is cold with the wind and the rain, which now comes slower, softer. I lay next to her, her body warming mine. It has always been a constant source of heat. We could have been wandering in the snow for hours on end, but her body would yet be warm. And now a little bit of extra heat is there in the form of a tiny spark of life, the life we have just created. It's yet to young to be anything specific, male or female, one or two, but there it is, a little bit of life. I kiss her and nuzzle into her hair and she murmurs in her sleep, worn out. I admire her open, glazed eyes, and then close my own, and sleep the sleep of mortals.

fin