CHAPTER 4 - BATTLES

Arwen's eyes glazed over as her husband walked in through the darkened door of their chamber and undressed, sliding into bed beside her without a word and she hated him for it. She hated him for never being strong enough, or confrontational enough to speak first.

"Elessar..." She whispered, summoning every inch of warmth that she had in her body, to say that one name. "Elessar, my lord." He turned to her, his old, wisened eyes resting upon her face, glowing in the palely lit room and as the tears flowed from her own eyes, he felt the growing sensation to hold her; to wipe away her tears, if not as her lover and her husband; then as her best friend. "I feel trapped here Elessar. Trapped in my own kingdom. Driven to madness as I watch you fade away from being the man I fell in love with. Driven to depression and needing so badly; my brothers and my father."

He bit his lip. She wanted him to reassure her. She wanted him to tell her that everything would be OK. "You may leave if you feel that way."

Arwen turned away from him. "And to what? Where would I go Aragorn? Mirkwood? Rivendell? Where do I have to turn if not here?"

Elessar shook his head.

"I know why you want my absence. You think I am blind and stupid King, yet I see it in your eyes. You want me gone so she can be Queen!"

"Oh, so we are back to this?"

"Of course we are! You want me out of the way so you and Eowyn can be free to want one another. Faramir left because of you Aragorn. You lost the best captain this city has ever seen, and do you know why? Because he saw the way she looked at you. He saw the seduction and the lies that glazed her pretty blue eyes, and do you know what? I saw it too. I saw the way she looked at you and I hated it."

"Why did you hate it Arwen? We feel no butterflies, we share no love. We share our bitterness and our greed but that is all."

"I hated it, because no matter how much you hurt me, and how much you try to push me away; this is my kingdom as much as it is your's. These are my people as much as they are your's. I can't help but hate it because some part of me, even if it is in the smallest, most remote part of my brain - still loves you. Will always love you. Can't you see that?"

"Do you know what I see every time I look at you? Do you know how hard it is, when everytime I touch you - I see what might have been?" Aragorn sighed and she lifted her chin up and looked into his eyes.

"What might have been never was Elessar... we drifted apart, we let things get in the way of us being together. Frodo may have saved middle earth, but he didn't save it for me, for us, did he?"

The king hung his head in the darkness and his eyes filled up with tears. "It wasn't up to Frodo to save us Arwen. It was up to me to save you, and up to you..." he leaned towards her and brushed her cheek with his fingertips, "to save me."

She flinched away from his words and his touch and sighed. "Maybe I should have gone into the west with my father, Maybe this is all my fault."

"Shh." he placed his finger on her lips and kissed her.

They lay together that night, crying, talking, making love, each hating every awkward second of it, Aragorn crying silently as he wished and prayed for butterflies, and Arwen quietly smug, content that even if this was only round one, she had the upper hand over Eowyn.

"Did you get the butterflies back?"

Aragorn lifted his head as Eowyn swept into the room, feeling and seeing her icy mood chill him to the bone. "What is this Eowyn?"

"I have sources who say you spent the night with Arwen."

"She is my wife, and your Queen Lady Eowyn...Address her, and me, by our titles."

She narrowed her eyes and flicked her fair hair from her face. "Yes. As you wish...Your Majesty."

Aragorn faced her, he knew what she was trying to do, Arwen and Faramir had been right about her, she was vindictive, she wanted the throne yet still the King of Gondor was intrigued and she saw it. She saw his hesitance and she smiled, gliding forwards to kiss his hands.

"You will come to me tonight?" She asked innocently, looking deeply into his eyes.

He nodded before he knew what he was doing, and a split second later; she was gone.