*Disclaimer* I think we've been through this enough to get the picture. Legolas isn't mine (more's the pity), and neither is Middle Earth.
Chapter 7- So close, and yet so far...
When Rosellyn woke up the next morning, Delaney was still asleep in her mind. She decided after a few minutes to let her be. She wasn't disturbing anything. Dawn was peeking on the sky, but she never paid much attention to the time she woke up. She picked her way through the mess Delaney...Della...had made of her room and picked up the sheaves of paper she had been writing in. It was her handwriting, but she didn't write this. It was a lot better seeing it with physical eyes, and she ran her mind over the images Della had showed her when they came up in the writing, utterly fascinated. So this was where her companion came from... Della didn't wake up until the sun was well up in the sky, and gave a mental stretch. ~Good morning. How do you like the story?~
"It's excellent," she said out loud, not bothering to just think it to her. "This person, Helen, she seems so real, like you know her. Odd name, though." ~Trust me, where I come from, you'd be laughed out of town with a name like Rosellyn.~ She sniffed and didn't dignify that with a response. When she was finished, she read it again, and would have read it a third time if Linka hadn't interrupted. She walked into the room, and Narle followed her in with a tray of breakfast. It didn't surprise her that she was muttering to herself. Della was laughing insanely inside her head, so much so that she herself started to grin. She had some experience with Narle before, and the girl was the most fluff-brained Elf in existence. ~You don't say,~ giggled Della between spurts of laughter.
"Feeling better this morning?" asked Linka cheerfully as she motioned to Narle to set the tray down on the vanity. Linka applied more of the potion for her arm, and outlined her day for her. "Now, when you finish breakfast you're going to report directly to the balcony room upstairs, and we're going to do some simple excersises for your arm, to keep it nimble. Then after that you're on your own until lunch. After lunch, we'll need you and your arrowhead to do a slight, eh, demonstration, shall we say? Then..." She let Linka's voice wash over her as she ate, knowing full well that Della would be paying close attention, and she could refer to her if she forgot. Della was clamoring in her mind, wanting to taste Elf food. -As soon as you finish, I want control back,- she warned. ~Yes, yes, I know. Please?~ She was as good as her word. The second she was done eating, Rosellyn was in control again. The day flew by, and the next and the next. A truce, of sorts, had developed between herself and Della. Legolas and the twins visited when they could, which was every other minute. She outlined Linka's odd proposal to Legolas, knowing that if anyone could sneak her out, it was him. Tracie could be loose-brained at times, and the first thing Forest would have done was to tell Tracie. The less people that knew, the less chance there was of Awaren or Linka finding out. She had to admit, Della was an invaluable help. Who knew that her friend would have been such a...delinquent. She wouldn't have thought of half the things that Della pointed out. Even Legolas was impressed, and he was supposed to have known everything there was about sneaking out. Within a week, the plan was made and pronounced fool-proof by all parties. Thanks to miraculous Elven medicine, her arm was on the road to recovery, and she could even manage simple knife tricks. By the end of said week, she could also run for short spurts without aggravating her chest too much. At the beginning of the next, when she and Legolas were quietly putting their heads together in her room (this was all planned; they were positive Linka knew about the secret platform, and the excuse to get air could only work for so long), they decided that the ball would roll tomorrow night.
"Is this wise?"
"Now or never."
"Is it all ready?"
"Ready as it's gonna be."
"Good. 7:00, then." Rosellyn relaxed slightly and scrutinzed him.
"So, how'd you manage to get away from your house? I heard your mother had you on a lock-down."
"I think you'd have learned by now: when Legolas wants to get out, he's half-way into the forest."
"Won't you get in trouble, though? I don't want you in trouble."
"Maybe. I think that my dad's secretly proud of me." She laughed, hoping that he was right. Legolas's mother was a close-minded Elf if she ever met one, and didn't approve of her son being friends with an orphaned Elf. The fact that her mother had ranked pretty low in the Elven hierarchy to begin with didn't help. His father, she wasn't so worried about. He had a good sense of humor, and his wife usually listened to him.
"Okay, if you're sure." He nodded and twirled a smallish, heavy glass sphere, about the size of his two fists, around on his fingers and the back of his hand. It was a popular sport among other Elves, but it hadn't really caught on in Mirkwood. To Legolas, the heavy globe seemed weightless as he maneuvered it skillfully between his hands. He had tried to teach her and the twins, but Tracie was the only one who had even remote success with the skill. Legolas was doing so well at it now that her hands fairly itched to try it. She took another, lighter one (different colored glass balls were a favorite decoration of Awaren) from the huge window ledge and mimicked Legolas, making a kind of dish with the back of her hand and, with an awkward motion, rolled her hand quickly, effectively, if sloppily, rolling the ball into her palm. Legolas was impressed.
"Wow! I didn't know you remembered so much! You were hopeless last time."
"Neither did I," she replied honestly, but Legolas was already slipping in to the task-master mode. She sighed and resigned to it. He was a good teacher, but a lack of talent was something that just couldn't be cured.
"That was good, but you need to be more confident with the flipping motion. Also, it wouldn't hurt to try and dip your hand a little more. Like this," he took one of her hands in his, causing her pulse to sky-rocket. Luckily, he didn't go as high as her wrist, or there was no way he could have missed it. He pushed her inner fingers down, making a better pocket for the ball. "Now, try that again." She did it again, only this time the ball fell. "Ah, I see the problem. You're afraid the ball is going to fall, so you make the movement too jerky. Fluid, like you do with your knives. Slowly. Not too fast. Got it? Here, watch." He flipped it over into his palm, and she saw what he meant. Fluid. She tried it again, and got much better results.
"Look at that, I got it!" she said excitedly. Legolas was just as glad.
"See, I told you you could do it. Now, let's try another trick. You start out basically the same, only you make a shallower dip in the back of your hand. No, not that shallow! Like this, see," he gave a frustrated sigh and took her hand again. At that moment, as luck would have it, Tracie and Forest came in. For a moment there was silence, and she was all too aware of three things. One, that she was still holding Legolas's hand, and the twins were staring at it. Two, that she was blushing like the setting sun. Three, that Della was also just as, if not more, embarrassed as she was, and when Della felt an emotion strongly, it always seeped into her own emotions. Tracie was the first to break the silence.
"Are we interrupting anything?" At the same time, they yanked their hands away.
"No," said Legolas at once, at the same time as she did. She didn't need Della to tell her, even though she was, that the speaking at once didn't exactly lend credence to the 'no'. Forest looked as though he was trying his best to keep a straight face, carefully looking at every part of the room except for them.
"So, ah, Legolas, your mother sent me to look for you, and I'm not to let you out of my sight until you're in hers." Legolas cursed so vividly that for a second they all stared at him. Then, apparently composed, he stood.
"Lead the way." The second they were gone, Tracie attacked her.
"What were you doing? Why was he holding your hand? What did you do? Why-" She pushed her friend away impatiently.
"Nothing! Okay, nothing happened!"
"I'm so sure! He was holding your hand. Come on, I'm your friend, you can tell me, it's not like I'm jealous or anything, come on."
"I am coming on. I'm telling the truth! Nothing happened, I swear."
"You know Forest's gonna ask Legolas, so I'll just see how your story checks out."
"Do that. It's going to be the same." Tracie looked overwhelmingly frustrated at her friend's protests of innocence.
"Fine. Let's say for a moment that nothing was going on, which I didn't say I believed. Was something going to happen?"
"For the love of all that is good, will you just drop it? All that was going to happen was that I'd improve on my skill to play with these little glass spheres. Okay?"
"No. Come on, Rose, face it. You like him." She blew a sigh.
"I thought we established this a long time ago."
"Will you just suck it up and tell him?"
"No! What if he doesn't like me like I like him? If I tell him, and he doesn't like me back, he might become uncomfortable, and then we'd never be friends again. I don't want that to happen!" Tracie rolled her eyes.
"Must you always think negatively? It won't happen. Besides, if he doesn't like you then you certainly deserve better."
"Better? Better than the best archer in the forest, better than the cutest, sweetest, hottest Elf in existence? Do tell, Trace, how could I do better than Legolas?" Tracie had an infuriatingly smug look on her face.
"I was hoping you'd see it my way." Rosellyn cursed to herself for falling for the bait.
"Shut up."
"Oh look, she's on the run!"
"Go away." Tracie adopted a hurt look and started for the door.
"Okay. If you're sure, then. But think about what I said. Kiss him, okay?" She jumped up and slammed the door shut on her friend. When she sat down, Della started talking. ~You know what's sad?~ -Do tell.- ~It's all true.~ -Yep. Sad.- ~It sounds like good advice, but...could you do that? Just up and tell him?~ -Never in a million years-. ~Well, in a million years, if he's not taken, we'll all be happy.~ -That's right, I can. It must be horrible to be a human.- ~That's one way of putting it.~ She sat with her head in her hands. Delaney took advantage of her preoccupation to slip in to prominence. Rosellyn was being a lot nicer, but a person really missed being able to see with your own eyes, and feel things. She idly picked up the crystal sphere and flipped it onto her palm. Her eyes widened in shock. -Hey! I didn't know I kept your talents when we switched control!- ~Makes sense, doesn't it? It's still my body~. -Awesome! Can I try flipping knives?- ~Carefully, please, I'm the one that has to live without a finger if you mess up.~ -All right, calm down.- It worked. She could spin knives just as well as Rosellyn could. -This is amazing. Being an Elf is so cool-. She practiced with the crystal until she had it down smoothly, and attempted some of the tricks Legolas was trying. None of them worked, and Rose finally had to tell her to stop before she broke it. She obeyed, not in the mood to argue. She walked out to see exactly where her room was. It was on the second story, that she knew, but not where, specifically. It was above one of the less populated platforms, making it fairly quiet for the person in the room, namely, her. There was a slight projection from her window, way too small to be a balcony, but perfect to bring a pillow out and sit. This she did. It was formed like all Elven structures, decorative with lacy swirls of whatever building materials the Elves used. This was very nice if, say, she wanted to climb down to the platform. Could she? She stretched experimentally. Yes, she decided. Rosellyn's body was agile, and Delaney was a pretty good climber herself. Checking to see that no one was below, she swung down, using the profusion of jutting decorations to land and grab on to. Then, with a soft thump, she landed on the abandoned platform. She could just as easily climb up, if needed. She stored that away in her memory, because you never knew when stuff like this could come in handy. She sat on the platform, careful not to touch the water, and then lay down, staring at the sky. As she watched, soft clouds began to gather, and an even softer rain began to fall. Not a cold, hard rain, that felt like bullets when the raindrops hit you, but a light, warm rain that felt refreshing when it touched your skin. How long she lay like that, she didn't know. It was peaceful, just lying out in this glorious rain, feeling the kiss of cool raindrops on her face. Eventually, though, Rose pushed her out of her daydream and said that she wanted to get back in the room. Reluctantly, she stood up and began to scale the wall again. She was halfway up when she heard the last thing she expected: someone calling her name.
"Rose!" With a small 'eep!' of surprise, she lost her footing, found it again, then lost her grip, and found it again. When she looked down, there was Forest, of all Elves, for once without Tracie. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Okay, I did mean to scare you, but I didn't mean to make you lose your grip. Come down." She jumped the distance down and landed lightly next to him. Being an Elf rocked.
"Yes?"
"Well, I just wanted to...talk to you." She frowned. Supplemented by Rose's memories, Forest was never hesitant.
"So...talk." He shifted from foot to foot. She waited patiently. In this mood, it was easy to out-wait anybody. She was correct; about five seconds later he burst out his question as if he didn't have enough time left on the planet to get the words out.
"WhatwereyouandLegolasdoingbecausehewon'ttellmeanythingandI-"
"Whoa, slow down. Slow down and breathe. Now then, what are you trying to say?" He took a deep breath and began again, this time at a human pace. ~Don't insult him,~ said Rose tartly.
"Okay. What did you and Legolas do? He won't tell me anything." She sighed with frustration. Was she ever going to hear the end of this?
"Nothing! Okay? Not one thing!" She bit off each word.
"Come on, Rosellyn. He was-"
"Yeah, I know, I was there, remember? He was teaching me to play with those little glass spheres. That's all, okay? Have I ever lied about you to about something like this?" He shook his head despondently, as if she had truly disappointed him.
"No. No, you haven't. I believe you."
"Good, now tell that to your sister."
"You try telling Tracie anything she doesn't want to hear! And while you're doing that, I'll go sprout wings and fly."
"All right, I get it. There's no need to sound so disappointed."
"I...I know, but I just...Okay, I always thought you two would be good for each other." She glared at him.
"Keep talking Forest, and I might be forced to hurt you." He grinned like he did when he was either teasing someone or playing a joke.
"What? Don't you like him? I always-" She shoved him in the water. He hadn't touched any black steel that she knew of, so he would be fine. He gasped at the sudden coldness. "Okay," he gasped slowly, treading water rapidly to keep warm. "That was completely uncalled for." She smiled sweetly and hauled him out of the water.
"Maybe in your opinion." His grin returned, as she knew it would.
"Okay, I surrender." He stood there, looking at her for a moment, then did something completely unexpected. He ran up and grabbed her in a rough embrace. "I still think you'd be good together," he whispered, for once dead serious. Then he let her go and set off at a dead run. She stood there for a few seconds, completely poleaxed, letting the gentle rain soak her, then slowly began to climb back up to her room.
A/N: See, I'm getting better about updating, really. Thanks again for the reviews!
Chapter 7- So close, and yet so far...
When Rosellyn woke up the next morning, Delaney was still asleep in her mind. She decided after a few minutes to let her be. She wasn't disturbing anything. Dawn was peeking on the sky, but she never paid much attention to the time she woke up. She picked her way through the mess Delaney...Della...had made of her room and picked up the sheaves of paper she had been writing in. It was her handwriting, but she didn't write this. It was a lot better seeing it with physical eyes, and she ran her mind over the images Della had showed her when they came up in the writing, utterly fascinated. So this was where her companion came from... Della didn't wake up until the sun was well up in the sky, and gave a mental stretch. ~Good morning. How do you like the story?~
"It's excellent," she said out loud, not bothering to just think it to her. "This person, Helen, she seems so real, like you know her. Odd name, though." ~Trust me, where I come from, you'd be laughed out of town with a name like Rosellyn.~ She sniffed and didn't dignify that with a response. When she was finished, she read it again, and would have read it a third time if Linka hadn't interrupted. She walked into the room, and Narle followed her in with a tray of breakfast. It didn't surprise her that she was muttering to herself. Della was laughing insanely inside her head, so much so that she herself started to grin. She had some experience with Narle before, and the girl was the most fluff-brained Elf in existence. ~You don't say,~ giggled Della between spurts of laughter.
"Feeling better this morning?" asked Linka cheerfully as she motioned to Narle to set the tray down on the vanity. Linka applied more of the potion for her arm, and outlined her day for her. "Now, when you finish breakfast you're going to report directly to the balcony room upstairs, and we're going to do some simple excersises for your arm, to keep it nimble. Then after that you're on your own until lunch. After lunch, we'll need you and your arrowhead to do a slight, eh, demonstration, shall we say? Then..." She let Linka's voice wash over her as she ate, knowing full well that Della would be paying close attention, and she could refer to her if she forgot. Della was clamoring in her mind, wanting to taste Elf food. -As soon as you finish, I want control back,- she warned. ~Yes, yes, I know. Please?~ She was as good as her word. The second she was done eating, Rosellyn was in control again. The day flew by, and the next and the next. A truce, of sorts, had developed between herself and Della. Legolas and the twins visited when they could, which was every other minute. She outlined Linka's odd proposal to Legolas, knowing that if anyone could sneak her out, it was him. Tracie could be loose-brained at times, and the first thing Forest would have done was to tell Tracie. The less people that knew, the less chance there was of Awaren or Linka finding out. She had to admit, Della was an invaluable help. Who knew that her friend would have been such a...delinquent. She wouldn't have thought of half the things that Della pointed out. Even Legolas was impressed, and he was supposed to have known everything there was about sneaking out. Within a week, the plan was made and pronounced fool-proof by all parties. Thanks to miraculous Elven medicine, her arm was on the road to recovery, and she could even manage simple knife tricks. By the end of said week, she could also run for short spurts without aggravating her chest too much. At the beginning of the next, when she and Legolas were quietly putting their heads together in her room (this was all planned; they were positive Linka knew about the secret platform, and the excuse to get air could only work for so long), they decided that the ball would roll tomorrow night.
"Is this wise?"
"Now or never."
"Is it all ready?"
"Ready as it's gonna be."
"Good. 7:00, then." Rosellyn relaxed slightly and scrutinzed him.
"So, how'd you manage to get away from your house? I heard your mother had you on a lock-down."
"I think you'd have learned by now: when Legolas wants to get out, he's half-way into the forest."
"Won't you get in trouble, though? I don't want you in trouble."
"Maybe. I think that my dad's secretly proud of me." She laughed, hoping that he was right. Legolas's mother was a close-minded Elf if she ever met one, and didn't approve of her son being friends with an orphaned Elf. The fact that her mother had ranked pretty low in the Elven hierarchy to begin with didn't help. His father, she wasn't so worried about. He had a good sense of humor, and his wife usually listened to him.
"Okay, if you're sure." He nodded and twirled a smallish, heavy glass sphere, about the size of his two fists, around on his fingers and the back of his hand. It was a popular sport among other Elves, but it hadn't really caught on in Mirkwood. To Legolas, the heavy globe seemed weightless as he maneuvered it skillfully between his hands. He had tried to teach her and the twins, but Tracie was the only one who had even remote success with the skill. Legolas was doing so well at it now that her hands fairly itched to try it. She took another, lighter one (different colored glass balls were a favorite decoration of Awaren) from the huge window ledge and mimicked Legolas, making a kind of dish with the back of her hand and, with an awkward motion, rolled her hand quickly, effectively, if sloppily, rolling the ball into her palm. Legolas was impressed.
"Wow! I didn't know you remembered so much! You were hopeless last time."
"Neither did I," she replied honestly, but Legolas was already slipping in to the task-master mode. She sighed and resigned to it. He was a good teacher, but a lack of talent was something that just couldn't be cured.
"That was good, but you need to be more confident with the flipping motion. Also, it wouldn't hurt to try and dip your hand a little more. Like this," he took one of her hands in his, causing her pulse to sky-rocket. Luckily, he didn't go as high as her wrist, or there was no way he could have missed it. He pushed her inner fingers down, making a better pocket for the ball. "Now, try that again." She did it again, only this time the ball fell. "Ah, I see the problem. You're afraid the ball is going to fall, so you make the movement too jerky. Fluid, like you do with your knives. Slowly. Not too fast. Got it? Here, watch." He flipped it over into his palm, and she saw what he meant. Fluid. She tried it again, and got much better results.
"Look at that, I got it!" she said excitedly. Legolas was just as glad.
"See, I told you you could do it. Now, let's try another trick. You start out basically the same, only you make a shallower dip in the back of your hand. No, not that shallow! Like this, see," he gave a frustrated sigh and took her hand again. At that moment, as luck would have it, Tracie and Forest came in. For a moment there was silence, and she was all too aware of three things. One, that she was still holding Legolas's hand, and the twins were staring at it. Two, that she was blushing like the setting sun. Three, that Della was also just as, if not more, embarrassed as she was, and when Della felt an emotion strongly, it always seeped into her own emotions. Tracie was the first to break the silence.
"Are we interrupting anything?" At the same time, they yanked their hands away.
"No," said Legolas at once, at the same time as she did. She didn't need Della to tell her, even though she was, that the speaking at once didn't exactly lend credence to the 'no'. Forest looked as though he was trying his best to keep a straight face, carefully looking at every part of the room except for them.
"So, ah, Legolas, your mother sent me to look for you, and I'm not to let you out of my sight until you're in hers." Legolas cursed so vividly that for a second they all stared at him. Then, apparently composed, he stood.
"Lead the way." The second they were gone, Tracie attacked her.
"What were you doing? Why was he holding your hand? What did you do? Why-" She pushed her friend away impatiently.
"Nothing! Okay, nothing happened!"
"I'm so sure! He was holding your hand. Come on, I'm your friend, you can tell me, it's not like I'm jealous or anything, come on."
"I am coming on. I'm telling the truth! Nothing happened, I swear."
"You know Forest's gonna ask Legolas, so I'll just see how your story checks out."
"Do that. It's going to be the same." Tracie looked overwhelmingly frustrated at her friend's protests of innocence.
"Fine. Let's say for a moment that nothing was going on, which I didn't say I believed. Was something going to happen?"
"For the love of all that is good, will you just drop it? All that was going to happen was that I'd improve on my skill to play with these little glass spheres. Okay?"
"No. Come on, Rose, face it. You like him." She blew a sigh.
"I thought we established this a long time ago."
"Will you just suck it up and tell him?"
"No! What if he doesn't like me like I like him? If I tell him, and he doesn't like me back, he might become uncomfortable, and then we'd never be friends again. I don't want that to happen!" Tracie rolled her eyes.
"Must you always think negatively? It won't happen. Besides, if he doesn't like you then you certainly deserve better."
"Better? Better than the best archer in the forest, better than the cutest, sweetest, hottest Elf in existence? Do tell, Trace, how could I do better than Legolas?" Tracie had an infuriatingly smug look on her face.
"I was hoping you'd see it my way." Rosellyn cursed to herself for falling for the bait.
"Shut up."
"Oh look, she's on the run!"
"Go away." Tracie adopted a hurt look and started for the door.
"Okay. If you're sure, then. But think about what I said. Kiss him, okay?" She jumped up and slammed the door shut on her friend. When she sat down, Della started talking. ~You know what's sad?~ -Do tell.- ~It's all true.~ -Yep. Sad.- ~It sounds like good advice, but...could you do that? Just up and tell him?~ -Never in a million years-. ~Well, in a million years, if he's not taken, we'll all be happy.~ -That's right, I can. It must be horrible to be a human.- ~That's one way of putting it.~ She sat with her head in her hands. Delaney took advantage of her preoccupation to slip in to prominence. Rosellyn was being a lot nicer, but a person really missed being able to see with your own eyes, and feel things. She idly picked up the crystal sphere and flipped it onto her palm. Her eyes widened in shock. -Hey! I didn't know I kept your talents when we switched control!- ~Makes sense, doesn't it? It's still my body~. -Awesome! Can I try flipping knives?- ~Carefully, please, I'm the one that has to live without a finger if you mess up.~ -All right, calm down.- It worked. She could spin knives just as well as Rosellyn could. -This is amazing. Being an Elf is so cool-. She practiced with the crystal until she had it down smoothly, and attempted some of the tricks Legolas was trying. None of them worked, and Rose finally had to tell her to stop before she broke it. She obeyed, not in the mood to argue. She walked out to see exactly where her room was. It was on the second story, that she knew, but not where, specifically. It was above one of the less populated platforms, making it fairly quiet for the person in the room, namely, her. There was a slight projection from her window, way too small to be a balcony, but perfect to bring a pillow out and sit. This she did. It was formed like all Elven structures, decorative with lacy swirls of whatever building materials the Elves used. This was very nice if, say, she wanted to climb down to the platform. Could she? She stretched experimentally. Yes, she decided. Rosellyn's body was agile, and Delaney was a pretty good climber herself. Checking to see that no one was below, she swung down, using the profusion of jutting decorations to land and grab on to. Then, with a soft thump, she landed on the abandoned platform. She could just as easily climb up, if needed. She stored that away in her memory, because you never knew when stuff like this could come in handy. She sat on the platform, careful not to touch the water, and then lay down, staring at the sky. As she watched, soft clouds began to gather, and an even softer rain began to fall. Not a cold, hard rain, that felt like bullets when the raindrops hit you, but a light, warm rain that felt refreshing when it touched your skin. How long she lay like that, she didn't know. It was peaceful, just lying out in this glorious rain, feeling the kiss of cool raindrops on her face. Eventually, though, Rose pushed her out of her daydream and said that she wanted to get back in the room. Reluctantly, she stood up and began to scale the wall again. She was halfway up when she heard the last thing she expected: someone calling her name.
"Rose!" With a small 'eep!' of surprise, she lost her footing, found it again, then lost her grip, and found it again. When she looked down, there was Forest, of all Elves, for once without Tracie. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Okay, I did mean to scare you, but I didn't mean to make you lose your grip. Come down." She jumped the distance down and landed lightly next to him. Being an Elf rocked.
"Yes?"
"Well, I just wanted to...talk to you." She frowned. Supplemented by Rose's memories, Forest was never hesitant.
"So...talk." He shifted from foot to foot. She waited patiently. In this mood, it was easy to out-wait anybody. She was correct; about five seconds later he burst out his question as if he didn't have enough time left on the planet to get the words out.
"WhatwereyouandLegolasdoingbecausehewon'ttellmeanythingandI-"
"Whoa, slow down. Slow down and breathe. Now then, what are you trying to say?" He took a deep breath and began again, this time at a human pace. ~Don't insult him,~ said Rose tartly.
"Okay. What did you and Legolas do? He won't tell me anything." She sighed with frustration. Was she ever going to hear the end of this?
"Nothing! Okay? Not one thing!" She bit off each word.
"Come on, Rosellyn. He was-"
"Yeah, I know, I was there, remember? He was teaching me to play with those little glass spheres. That's all, okay? Have I ever lied about you to about something like this?" He shook his head despondently, as if she had truly disappointed him.
"No. No, you haven't. I believe you."
"Good, now tell that to your sister."
"You try telling Tracie anything she doesn't want to hear! And while you're doing that, I'll go sprout wings and fly."
"All right, I get it. There's no need to sound so disappointed."
"I...I know, but I just...Okay, I always thought you two would be good for each other." She glared at him.
"Keep talking Forest, and I might be forced to hurt you." He grinned like he did when he was either teasing someone or playing a joke.
"What? Don't you like him? I always-" She shoved him in the water. He hadn't touched any black steel that she knew of, so he would be fine. He gasped at the sudden coldness. "Okay," he gasped slowly, treading water rapidly to keep warm. "That was completely uncalled for." She smiled sweetly and hauled him out of the water.
"Maybe in your opinion." His grin returned, as she knew it would.
"Okay, I surrender." He stood there, looking at her for a moment, then did something completely unexpected. He ran up and grabbed her in a rough embrace. "I still think you'd be good together," he whispered, for once dead serious. Then he let her go and set off at a dead run. She stood there for a few seconds, completely poleaxed, letting the gentle rain soak her, then slowly began to climb back up to her room.
A/N: See, I'm getting better about updating, really. Thanks again for the reviews!